Yumi Sakugawa

This book is a confession of friend-love from a gray, one-eyed being to a faceless white being. It's a very quick read, more the kind of thing you might give as a gift to someone than something you'd read for its story or characters.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, yes, it's great to see something that recognizes friendship as a relationship that can be as deep and affecting as a romantic relationship. On the other hand, it gets kind of weird at a few points and ends on a show more note that doesn't entirely feel healthy. Although I said this feels like the kind of thing you might give someone as a gift, the recipient might feel more than a little creeped out after reading it.

The gray being takes great pains to explain that their love is friendship-love, and inadvertently comes across as weird in an effort to not make it weird. A few examples:

"I don't want to date you or even make out with you because that would be weird."

"And when we do hang out, I don't want to swap saliva, I just want to swap favorite books."

I think it's the specificity that makes it weird. Like, I wasn't thinking about any of those things until you brought them up, and now they're stuck in my brain as options and weirding me out.

Near the end, the gray being assures the white being (this entire text is presented as a letter the gray being wrote and delivered to the white being's house) that it wouldn't be sad if the white being were in a romantic relationship - it would, in fact, be happy for it. But right after that, the grey being witnesses the white being swap books with another being and starts crying, because this is apparently evidence that the white being sees someone else as a closer friend than the gray being.

...Your friends will have other friends. Even your best, closest friend. This doesn't necessarily mean that they no longer view you as a close friend. Not being obsessively focused on one person is a good thing, whether the relationship is friendship or romantic. But I'm not sure the book's author recognizes that.

Anyway, I appreciate what the book was trying to do, but it missed the mark. The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I get. It's a shame, because, with several pages torn out, this might have been decent, in a "Hallmark card in book form" kind of way.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I liked this book more than the 3-star rating suggests. The art is gorgeous and drives home the author’s ideas in a really beautiful way, and the “lessons” are all really wonderful opportunities to meditate on your own life and work through your problems. It occasionally fell flat for me, and sometimes felt less than genuine to me (although I’m sure that’s just a personal interpretation and not the reality!). This was a gift to me back in college and I am not sure I would have show more picked it up by myself. Definitely one I will come back to for meditation or to help me in a depressive episode. show less

I think I am in friend-love with you. I think you are super awesome and I want to be super awesome with you. This is a love letter to a friend: a close friend, someone who is more than a friend and is like family. I have those people in my life and I cherish them.

BUT this book kind of veered into the deep end of crazy a bit which weirded me out. Love, whether romantic or platonic, should not be desperate stalkerish.

Still I appreciate the sentiment, and understand the desire to be better show more friends with somebody. Just, maybe let it happen naturally instead of writing a creepy letter you slide under the other person's door, mmkay? show less

There Is No Right Way To Meditate (And Other Lessons) by Yumi Sakugawa is not only an incredibly beautiful and easy to digest book, it really urges you to take a step back and reevaluate your own views on what it means to meditate. Although I too once thought that meditation was a rigid practice that may or may not work for me, Sakugawa brings home the fact that meditation is whatever you want it to be. It’s not about HOW you choose to meditate, it’s that you do it at all. That you look show more inward in order to be your best self.

Am I a sucker for picture books? Yes. Absolutely.
But I’m also a sucker for books that are beautifully illustrated and pack an even greater message.

It’s also surprisingly relaxing to just look at – the illustrations are calming in a way that’s difficult to describe. (Trust me, you’ll understand when you flip through it yourself.)

Although a book is never going to cure those worries and woes of daily life, this book is the closest that I have found to one that puts things into a more realistic perspective. It’s funny, it’s fun, it’s cute, and it’s exactly the sort of book that I think EVERYONE – whether you’re a meditation believer or not – should have on their shelf.

Even though I was sent There Is No Right Way To Meditate in exchange for an honest review, I could never give it enough praise. I’ve read through it countless times before deciding exactly how I wanted to sing it’s praise. But the truth is, no matter how many great things I say, it will never be enough to convey how much I love this book.

I will likely be gifting this to everyone I know this year as it’s the PERFECT stocking stuffer and sends the perfect message to those you love.

*I was provided with a free copy of this book in order to conduct this review, but I cannot sing it's praises enough.*


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