If you're into the ancient world or the Greco-Roman era like I am, this book is for you. Thermae Romae, or Roman Baths, is yet another gem in Yen's prize-winning arsenal. By female writer and illustrator Mari Yamazaki, the two-book series tells the story of a Roman bath architect, Lucius Modestus, who is magically transported from the Roman Empire in 100 AD to modern-day Japan, and back again. The book has won both the Manga Taisho Grand Prize in 2010 and the 14th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and it shows: Not a single page is extraneous to the storytelling. Each chapter is a self-contained short featuring the main character and a look at some segment of Japanese bathing culture, in honest but uplifting ways. The story progresses well and imaginatively. The art style superbly suits the aesthetic principals of ancient Rome. This book is everything you could want it to be. Originally written for adults, the humor is frank. So too are the topics covered and their depictions, whether it be in caring for the elderly, going to fertility festivals, or being mistaken as the new pet of Emperor Hadrian. But that's exactly why it shines: Yamazaki lightly ...