The Map Shop

  #notsponsored.  I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. See link below. The Color of Heaven was written by Kim Dong Hwa and published by First Second in 2009. It was previously published in 2003. This is the beautiful conclusion to his coming-of-age manhwa trilogy, The Color of Earth. Note there is some sexual content in this volume. Compared to the first two volumes, Color of Heaven is a bit slower in story. Duksam leaves the village after burning his master's fields in revenge of the old man trying to buy Ehwa's marriage when he knew Duksam wanted to marry her. Afterwards, both Ehwa and her mother spend most of the book waiting for their men to return. There is a lot of talk about waiting and longing, and a woman's curse is "planting love in our hearts." We also see pieces of other people's relationships. Ehwa's friend, Bongsoon, is having sexual relations with one of the village boys, Dongchul, complete with euphemisms. We also see...

  #notsponsored. I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. If you're interested in reading the works of emerging writers, please see the link at the end of this post. Blissful Land volume one is written by Ichimon Izumi and published by Kodansha Comics (2018). From what I can find, Izumi is a new manga artist and author with only two title (Blissful Land volumes one and two) credits. Little is known about the author.  I was given the opportunity to read a digital copy of Blissful Land volume one (thank you Kodansha Comics! Thank you NetGalley!). The opinions below are my own. Blissful Land takes place in 18 th century Tibet when Khang Zhipa, a thirteen-year-old doctor in training, arrives home to discover the bride his parents have arranged for him to marry. While the wedding is still a few months away, his bride—Moshi Rati—begins living with him and his family. She is not from their village and has learned their language but is still learning their local...