It’s almost that time of year again, when we read six light novels during the summer and post comments about them all on a fun little website I like to call englishlightnovels dot com. During the month of June, we will read and discuss two cool books:

• Your Name — by Makoto Shinkai
• The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku — by Muya Agami (with art by Yunagi)

Yen Press will release Your Name digitally and as a hardcover on May 23rd. It is a standalone novel written by Makoto Shinkai, who directed an anime film of the same name (Your Name, to be specific). From what I understand the story is pretty much the same in both the book and the film, but the experience will probably be different since it should provide more of the characters’ thoughts from scene to scene. Let’s read and discuss Your Name on June 11th, June 18th, and June 25th (dates tentative).

Your Name (hardcover, ebook)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- RightStuf
Release Date: May 23, 2017

Synopsis: Mitsuha, a high school girl living in a small town in the mountains, has a dream that she’s a boy living in Tokyo. Taki, a high school boy in Tokyo, dreams he’s a girl living in a quaint little mountain town. Sharing bodies, relationships, and lives, the two become inextricably interwoven–but are any connections truly inseverable in the grand tapestry of fate? ~ Written by director Makoto Shinkai during the production of the film by the same title, your name. is in turns funny, heartwarming, and heart-wrenching as it follows the struggles of two young people determined to hold on to one another.

Seven Seas will release The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku as a paperback on May 30th. It is a standalone novel based on a Hatsune Miku Vocaloid song of the same name (luckily, it hasn’t disappeared). For those who don’t know, Vocaloid is a computer program for making songs with pre-recorded voices, and Hatsune Miku is the name of an anime-style character designed to be “the face” for one of those voices. Let’s read and discuss The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku on June 11th, June 18th, and June 25th (dates tentative).

The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku (paperback)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- RightStuf
Release Date: May 30, 2017

Synopsis: The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku is a new light novel based on Hatsune Miku―the singing, dancing, and gaming sensation that's taken the world by storm! This self-contained, original novel was inspired by the Hatsune Miku song series of the same name, a collection of tracks so popular that they forced down the servers that hosted them, earning the name “The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku.” Soon after, Hatsune Miku grew into a huge multimedia phenomenon, with millions of fans worldwide. ~ Asano is a young university student tasked with testing out the technology department's newest creation―the life-like android, Hatsune Miku. Although Hatsune Miku has a lot to learn, Asano comes to see her as more than merely a piece of tech and together the two learn what life and love is all about.

I will update this page and this site’s sidebar with details regarding how far to read in each book from week to week. This will be a good chance to read some new light novels and connect with others in the English-reading light novel community, so be sure to join in if either of these titles interest you! (If they don’t, there’s always July and August’s books, which I’ll announce when we get closer to those months.)