Today is the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. We at Bento Books are taking time today to reflect on everything that’s happened and everything that still needs to be done.

If you would like to see how recovery efforts are progressing, The Atlantic has a series of before-and-now pictures of some of the hardest-hit areas:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/japan-earthquake-2-years-later-before-and-after/100469/

You can also visit the Japanese Red Cross Society’s web page to learn about the ongoing difficulties people in the region are facing that photographs don’t always make clear:
http://www.jrc.or.jp/eq-japan2011/index.html

Math Girls 2 is here!

We’re very happy to announce the release of our second novel, Math Girls 2: Fermat’s Last Theorem! In the US, you can order the book directly from our printer (paperback), from Amazon (paperback, hardcover), or from Barnes and Noble (paperback, hardcover). You should also be able to order both editions directly through your local bookstore.

Outside of the US, Math Girls 2 is available on Amazon UK (hardcover, paperback), Amazon Japan (hardcover, paperback), and Amazon Canada (hardcover, paperback).

We’re working to get iPad app and iBooks versions of the book out as soon as possible, and we’ll post an update here when those formats become available.

The feedback over the past year for Math Girls has been exceptional, and we look forward to hearing what everyone thinks about the latest English addition to the series, so let us know!

We’re very happy to announce December 12, 2012 as our release date for Hiroshi Yuki’s Math Girls 2: Fermat’s Last Theorem, the sequel to Math Girls! MG2:FLT continues with the mathematical journeys of Miruka, Tetra, and our unnamed narrator, as well as a new “math girl,” Yuri! Many topics are covered, including number theory, modular arithmetic, the basics of abstract algebra (groups, rings, and fields), proof by contradiction and by infinite descent, Euler’s identity, and (of course) Fermat’s last theorem.

There will be two editions of the printed book, hardcover (ISBN 978-0-9839513-3-9, US$27.99 retail) and trade paperback (ISBN 978-0-9839513-2-2, US$16.99). For those of you who prefer digital, the book should also be available via our iPad app and for iBooks for US$9.99. (Note that prices may differ in non-US regions). We’ll be doing our best to have both digital and print versions available on 12/12.

As we did with Math Girls, we’re releasing the first two chapters as a free sample. You can download the sample here. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

Two exciting announcements today!

As you may know, in Japan Math Girls is not only a series of novels, but also of comics. The comic adaptation of the original Math Girls novel was serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Comics Flapper (published by Media Factory) between April 2008 and June 2009, and was drawn by Mika Hisaka under the supervision of Math Girls author Hiroshi Yuki. When the series had finished its run, the stories were collected into a two-volume set of books and published separately.

Today we’re happy to announce that Bento Books will be translating and publishing the comics! While we haven’t set a release date yet, we’re hoping to have the translation of the first volume available for sale by August.

One of the significant issues we’re facing regarding this release is the form in which to publish it. We will definitely be releasing a digital version (via the Math Girls iPad app, and probably in other formats). We’ll also be releasing a printed version using the same print-on-demand suppliers that we used for the Math Girls novel. We’ve stumbled across one problem, though—the original comics included several color pages in each volume that we’d love to reproduce, but that our print-on-demand solution can’t handle.

Duplicating those pages requires offset printing, which entails significant upfront cost. Add to that professional lettering, cover design work, and other costs associated with publishing a book, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Rather than give up and just publish in black and white, we’ve decided to try crowdfunding the project through Kickstarter. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, we’ll be printing a limited edition of the comic with the color pages intact. We’ve also arranged for some pretty cool pledge awards, so please take a minute to check it out!

Click here to visit the Math Girls comic Kickstarter campaign page!

Since releasing our translation of Hiroshi Yuki’s Math Girls last November, we’ve had many requests for a digital edition other than our iPad app. The app has some nice features, like super-high zoom resolutions for those hard-to-read subscripts, and support for right-to-left page directions for the upcoming comics edition, but we understand that some people prefer to read in Kindle and iBooks format. Unfortunately, those platforms couldn’t (gracefully) handle the equations and diagrams in Math Girls.

Well, it looks like digital publishing platforms are finally starting to mature with regard to displaying math—on the iPad, at least. Apple recently announced a set of extensions to the iBooks file format that allows high-res display of mathematical equations and various other features that we felt were essential to a digital release. iBooks also adds some nice features like highlighting, note-taking, and review flashcards with key terms from each chapter. You can even see pop-up definitions of math terms while reading and tap a button to get more in-depth information from a web search or Wikipedia page.

We’re therefore happy to announce that Math Girls is now available for iBooks with all of those features. If you have an iPad and live in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia, please check it out. The first two chapters are available as a free downloadable sample, which will let you try out the new features for yourself.

Click on the “Continue Reading” link to see some screenshots!

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We thought people may want to know what motivated us to start Bento Books, and what Bento Books is, for that matter. The three co-founders, Tony Gonzalez, Alexander O. Smith, and Joseph Reeder, share our views… Continue Reading »

A quick post to share a wonderful video review of Math Girls by real-life Math Girls Joanne and Amanda Manaster!

You can read more from Joanne Manaster at her blog, Joanne Loves Science. Thanks, Joanne!

We’ve been getting many inquiries asking where you can buy Math Girls, so this post is a summary of what we know right now.

Continue Reading »

A quick post to share this cute bit of art from @mmiuki (Twitter), a.k.a. Miyuki Matsuzaki, the comic artist who did the manga version of the third book in the series, commemorating the release of our English translation of Math Girls!

MG fan art from mmiuki

We’re thrilled to announce that Hiroshi Yuki’s Math Girls is now on sale!

We’re still calling this a “Fibonacci day” release, but due to huge demand from the country of the book’s birth we timed the release for the start of 11/23, Japan time.

The trade paperback edition of the book is currently available from our CreateSpace page.  The iPad app version is also available from the Apple App Store.

There’s been a slight delay with the hardcover edition, but it should be available within a week or so. Title information has been submitted to amazon.com, but it can take up to ten days to appear online. The book should also eventually be available on bn.com, amazon.co.uk, and other US and international sites. We’ll post a link to those as soon as we see them come available (and if you notice availability before we do, please feel free to leave a comment here, or drop us a line!)

This is an exciting day for all of us at Bento Books! We hope you enjoy reading Math Girls as much as we enjoyed translating, editing, and publishing it!