Nana

Sandy's book #10: Nana (vol. 1,2,3) by Ai Yazawa

Do manga count as books? I'm counting three volumes as one book here, in case you're skeptical.

Nana Komatsu is a boy-crazy girlie girl intent on following her boyfriend to Tokyo. Nana Osaki is a rough-around-the-edges rocker trying to mend her broken heart by running away to Tokyo. On a crowded train, the two women meet by chance, sparking an unlikely friendship...

I saw the trailer for the live-action movie adaptation of Nana last summer in Tokyo, not knowing it was already an extremely popular chick-lit manga series. In case you didn't know, manga for women is a huge market in Japan, and perhaps it's finally starting to catch on here in the U.S.? Granted, sometimes I just REALLY wanna ogle pictures of doe-eyed, extremely busty cartoon girls with shaved nether regions!-- then I reach for the traditional manga!! But if I feel like an actually story, then I prefer this more realistic, dare I say "wholesome" sub-genre. Maybe you will too. The characters have awesome clothes.

I went to Powell's yesterday and bought up all the volumes in Japanese, too. I figure I can learn some new vocab by comparing the pages of my English version. It's proving to be quite time-consuming, however.