I love Yoshinaga Fumi.

I love, just love, Yoshinaga Fumi. She's one of the best story tellers I've ever read and I can't help reading her books over and over, voraciously, even when she has characters do things I despise. They're that good.

Unfortunately, because of the format (manga) many of the readers I know would never even try these which is a great pity because the artwork is a key part of the effectiveness of the story. Even for those people willing to read manga (like my sister, Cheryl Beck Carvajal), I can't recommend the stuff I like best because yaoi (particularly Yoshinaga's yaoi) is not for the faint-hearted. Of the non-yaoi stuff, Garden of Dreams and Antique Bakery are great. Ooku, the Inner Chamber is also fantastic but horrible at the same time, but I can't stop reading it once I pick it up and can't sleep for two days afterwards because I can't stop thinking about it.

Sorry, I'm giddy because I haven't been able to track down the first volume for Gerard and Jacques (definitely yaoi) for ages, couldn't find any copy, even though I had the second one, until just recently and I even got it for less than a fortune. Don't mind me. Though I've written about Yoshinaga Fumi's work before:

http://stephanie-barr.blogspot.com/2012/08/its-all-about-story.html

I've written about her here  and here on this blog, too.  The more often I read her (and she's among the most rereadable authors I've ever stumbled across), the more I find myself entranced.