REVIEW: Little Miss P (manga) by Ken Koyama, translated by Taylor Engel

Little Miss P is a humorous manga with some educational elements. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is a collection of multiple stories about women and girls dealing with "Little Miss P" - aka, their period. She always seems to arrive at the most inconvenient times, bringing fatigue and her cramp-inducing "Period Punch." 

The first story stars a housewife who's been trying to get pregnant. The second story stars a young writer and her kinda sleazy editor (he's a married man who's slept with the writer at least once and who probably would have done so again that evening if it weren't for the arrival of Little Miss P). The third story is focused on a convenience store clerk who's convinced that she's ugly and will always be single. The fourth story stars a pair of Sailor Moon-like magical girls. The fifth story goes back in time to the Edo era, when women on their period had to stay in menstruation huts. The sixth story stars a pair of rival Drama Club script writers, a girl and a guy, who suddenly swap bodies and are forced to go through the experiences of the opposite gender (Little Miss P for the guy, and Mr. Virginity and Mr. Libido for the girl). The seventh story stars a woman who's been proposed to by a single father of an 11-year-old daughter. The eighth story stars a cafe worker with an unrequited crush on one of her coworkers. The ninth story focuses on Yoshiko Sakai, the creator of Anne napkins, disposable pads designed to fit Japanese women's bodies better than Western pads. The volume wraps up with a bonus story about dealing with Little Miss PMS.

REVIEW: Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me: A Graphic Memoir (graphic novel memoir) by Ellen Forney

Marbles is a memoir, in graphic novel format, focused primarily on the time in her life when Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and began working on treating it. I checked this out from the library.

Review:

I'd wanted to read this for some time due to my interest in graphic novels focused on mental health. It got bumped up in my queue when the academic library I work at started a nonbrowsable 18+ collection and this became one of the volumes included. Our 18+ collection was established in an effort to comply with Texas SB412, which is intended to make it easier to charge someone for the sale, distribution, or display of "harmful material" to a minor. "Harmful material" is defined as material whose dominant theme, taken as a whole, 1) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor in sex, nudity, or excretion, 2) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors, and 3) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors. All three of these criteria must be met for something to be considered "harmful material." (More info about SB412 here.)

So, let's move on to the work itself. Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. At the time, she was in a manic episode, feeling great, and unable to see why she needed treatment. She confidently told her psychiatrist that her manic self could help her depressive self out and prepare lots of ideas for comics and projects in advance. She was terrified that medication would destroy her creative side, and so she was determined to move forward without medication.

Then a depressive episode hit and made it clear that her manic self could not, in fact, help her depressive self out. Her manic self had forgotten exactly how bad a depressive episode could be. She stopped fighting her psychiatrist about meds and began a four-year-long journey to find the right type, combination, and dosage of meds to help herself find emotional balance.

It wasn't a smooth journey, and it involved coming to some realizations about herself, her creative work, and what she really wanted. There were times when she needed outside input - it can be hard to tell when one's emotions are "outside the normal range," so talking to her psychiatrist helped.

REVIEW: Liquid Rules: The Delightful & Dangerous Substances that Flow Through Our Lives (nonfiction book) by Mark Miodownik

Liquid Rules is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Miodownik discusses a wide variety of liquids - their molecular structures, properties, and ways we use them - using a flight from London to San Francisco to help guide the book's organizational structure. 

The first chapter, which deals heavily with kerosene, had me thinking "this is exactly what anxiety feels like." The pre-flight safety briefing had just begun, and all Miodownik could think about was the tens of thousands of gallons of kerosene on board. That topic inspired him to write about wicking, surface tension, and other topics, but, in the end, everything circled back to kerosene. It reminded me, keenly, of unsuccessful efforts I've made in the past to yank my thoughts away from whatever I was anxiously obsessing about.

REVIEW: Kitty Language: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Your Cat (nonfiction) by Lili Chin

Kitty Language is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Kitty Language, like Chin's Doggie Language, is a heavily illustrated guide to your pet's body language and vocalizations. It's designed to help cat owners better understand their cats. It emphasizes taking into account the cat's whole body in action, as well as the context and your cat's own individual characteristics - if your cat is a Scottish Fold, for example, its ears won't provide the same cues that other cats' would. Chin pays particular attention to body language that's often misinterpreted, like rolling over and exposing their belly.

REVIEW: Catboy (graphic novel) by Benji Nate

Catboy is a fantasy-comedy graphic novel. I got my copy via interlibrary loan.

Review:

Olive is an art school graduate who lives alone with her cat Henry, who she considers to be her best and only friend. One night, she wishes on a shooting star that Henry could hang out with her like a person. When she wakes up, Henry has become a human-sized catboy.

Henry is definitely still more cat than human, even though he can now talk, which leads to occasional weird moments. Olive is kind of put off by the fact that he seems better at socializing than she is (he immediately becomes friends with Dixie, who Olive went to school with and dislikes). Still, Olive and Henry get along fairly well, and Henry prompts Olive to make some changes in her life, like actually getting furniture. It doesn't hurt that Henry somehow makes more walking dogs than Olive does trying to sell her artwork.

REVIEW: Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy (manga) by Sanzo, translated by Alexandra McCullough-Garcia

Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy is a blend of fantasy and psychological drama. I got my copy via interlibrary loan.

Review:

Suzume is a beautiful, smart, and kind high school girl who everyone loves. She's friends with this manga's narrator, a boy called Aa-chan, and one day she confesses that she likes him and asks if she could be his girlfriend. Aa-chan, who views himself as pathetic and utterly unlikeable, turns her down, saying that she's too perfect for a guy like him. He assumes that she'll get over this rejection and find someone more worthy of her, but then she goes missing, and he starts to wonder whether his rejection of her might have contributed to her disappearance.

A month after her disappearance, Aa-chan comes across a large caterpillar who speaks with Suzume's voice. Now that she's so pitiful and nasty, she says, can she be his girlfriend? Although he still won't let Suzume be his girlfriend, she doesn't blame him for what she's become, and Aa-chan hates himself even more. He takes her home with him to keep her safe, find out what happened to her, and hopefully undo it. 

REVIEW: Animal Crossing New Horizons: Deserted Island Diary (manga, vol. 1) story and art by Kokonasu Rumba, translated by Caleb Cook

Animal Crossing New Horizons: Deserted Island Diary is a humorous manga based on the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game. I checked my copy out via interlibrary loan.

Review:

Four characters - Corouyuki, who loves fish, Benben, who's constantly reading the dictionary, Himepoyo, a spoiled young lady who's used to getting others to do everything for her, and Guchan, who's always sleeping and talks via snot bubbles - move to one of Tom Nook's deserted islands. They were expecting a proper vacation near actual civilization, but they soon adapt to their situation, learn what sorts of things they can do on the island, enjoy island life, and just generally drive Tom Nook crazy.

REVIEW: You and I Are Polar Opposites (manga, vol. 2) story and art by Kocha Agasawa, translated by Dan Luffey

You and I Are Polar Opposites is a high school romance manga. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

In this volume, we meet Nishi, a super shy girl who enjoys listening in on conversations but who can't bring herself to participate. Her efforts to hide her laughter at funny things that come up in others' conversations attracts the attention of Yamada, Suzuki and Tani's hyper friendly classmate. Meanwhile, Tani and Suzuki spend more time together, which results in Suzuki getting to see Tani's home. Then it's time for the school's cultural festival...and a teeny tiny bit of drama, as Suzuki's ex-boyfriend (sort of?) from middle school stops by.

REVIEW: You and I Are Polar Opposites (manga, vol. 1) story and art by Kocha Agasawa, translated by Dan Luffey

You and I Are Polar Opposites is a high school romance manga. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review: 

Suzuki is a bubbly girl who's loud and friendly. She secretly has a crush on Tani, a quiet but direct classmate of hers, and the only way she can think to handle it is by being hyper friendly to him, including him in conversations even when the topics (like mascara) likely don't interest him.

Something about the cover art style puts me off and is part of the reason I wasn't really originally drawn to this series. Maybe Suzuki's eyes are a tad too sharp? But then I heard it was getting an anime, read a bit more about it, and decided to give it a try.

REVIEW: Untitled Goose Game (nonfiction book) by James O'Connor

Untitled Goose Game is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book looks at the developers behind the game Untitled Goose Game, the creation of the game itself, and aspects of the Australian game development scene.

This is probably the most "feel good" game development book I've ever read. The author and basically everyone he interviewed while creating this book had nothing but good things to say about the four guys who make up House House, the developer behind Untitled Goose Game and Push Me Pull You (also covered somewhat in this book). They're a solid friend group that gets along, enjoys spending time together, and communicates with each other really effectively, with little-to-no drama or competing egos. If there was anything about this book that was a bit repetitive, it was all the mentions of how great these guys were and how well they got along together. That said, I genuinely hope it was all true. 

The book covers how the guys of House House first met and became friends, the development of their first game (Push Me Pull You), and the ideas that came together and eventually spawned Untitled Goose Game. There were a bunch of details I found interesting, like the location scouting they did using Google Maps Street View, and the process for making the game music reactive to player/goose behavior.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read about a fun little game. 

REVIEW: Rising Stars Compendium (graphic novel, vol. 1) created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, illustrated by various

Rising Stars Compendium Vol. 1 collects Rising Stars issues #0, #1/2, #1-24, Prelude, the short story Initiations, Bright issues #1-2, Voices of the Dead issues #1-6, and Untouchable issues #1-5. This is a superhero comics series. I bought my copy of this compendium new.

Review:

In the world of this series, a mysterious light called "the flash" hits near Pederson, Illinois sometime in the 1960s. Sometime later, the 113 children conceived in Pederson around the time of the flash started showing evidence of superpowers. After some panicking and scrambling, the group as a whole was sent to a special camp where they would spend most of their time until they turned 18, going to school, being tested and evaluated, and learning about their powers.

Several decades after the flash, Peter Dawson, a special whose primary power is invulnerability is found murdered, suffocated to death. Peter wasn't the first special to be killed - and whoever the murderer is is likely affiliated with the specials group somehow, because they seem to know everyone's weaknesses. 

The bulk of the main story is told by John, also known as the Poet, one of those 113 "specials." John has always kept himself apart from the other specials, believing himself to be the only one who can stop another special if they go bad, and it seems as though his abilities are now needed. Who's killing the other specials, and why?

REVIEW: Extinct & Endangered: Insects in Peril (nonfiction book) photographs by Levon Biss

Extinct & Endangered is nonfiction, primarily a photo book. I bought my copy used.

Review:

This collection features photographs of 40 extinct or endangered insect species, using specimens from the American Museum of Natural History. Some only include one full-body photograph, while others include extreme close-ups of particular features.

Each insect includes a couple paragraphs of text to provide some context - whether the insects are extinct or endangered, where they can be found, what we know about why they're extinct or endangered, etc.

I got this for the photographs, and the photographs delivered. Literally the only complaint I could think of was that it would have been nice for the specimens to have included scale rulers. It would have interrupted the lovely black backgrounds, though, so I would also have accepted an approximate size mentioned in the accompanying text. Some specimens included this, but many didn't.

I need to check out Levon Biss's other photograph collections at some point. 

REVIEW: Komi Can't Communicate: Making Friends and Not Scaring People (nonfiction book) by Natalie Schriefer, original manga by Tomohito Oda

Making Friends and Not Scaring People is nonfiction that illustrates concepts using pages and panels from the manga Komi Can't Communicate. I bought my copy new.

Review:

If you enjoy the manga Komi Can't Communicate and, like Komi, would like to make friends but aren't really sure how to go about it, then this book is for you.

I've seen the anime and read, I think, the first couple volumes of the manga. This book uses pages and panels from the manga to illustrate concepts and what to do (or not do) in particular situations. Sometimes there was enough context for the references to make sense, even though I didn't get far into the manga, and sometimes I just accepted that certain references were weird little mysteries. (When the weird little mysteries involved Yamai, I decided I was probably happier not knowing more.)

The tone of the text was very reassuring, and the advice was solid, if not particularly groundbreaking. Sometimes when you're anxious about doing something, it's helpful to have the steps you can take laid out in an easy to follow way. This book definitely did that. 

REVIEW: Everything You Need to Ace Biology in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete High School Study Guide (nonfiction book) by Matthew Brown

Everything You Need to Ace Biology in One Big Fat Notebook is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I'll start by saying that I am definitely not a high school student. I picked this up because I was curious about the format - if I enjoyed it, I figured I might try tackling one of the volumes on a subject I was shakier on. 

This is divided into 12 units ("Basics of Biology," "The Chemistry of Life," "Cell Theory," "Bacteria, Viruses, Prions, and Viroids," "Protists," "Fungi," "Plants," "Animals," "The Human Body," "Genetics," "Life on Earth," and "Ecosystems and Habitats"). The text is set up to look like notes someone took on lined paper, with occasional highlighted bits, drawings in the margins, underlined portions, etc. Each chapter ends with review questions and answers.

My overall opinion of this is: meh. My eyes glazed over at about the same points where I generally had trouble in school (I'm looking at you, Unit 2). My favorite chapters were probably the ones on algae, molds, and fungi, because they covered info I don't recall learning before. That said, there are probably better, more memorable books out there on those topics for someone like myself, who is reading for enjoyment rather than to study for a test.

Speaking of the study guide aspects: I doubt just reading this book would ever have helped me much when I was a student, even if I forced myself to do the review questions. I did best with notes I actually took myself. This book also missed a bunch of opportunities to explicitly connect concepts mentioned across multiple chapters (not even a brief "remember, [Topic] was discussed in more detail back in Chapter X" - yes, there's an index, but in-text recognition of the relatedness of subjects would have been nice). 

Assuming the other volumes are similar to this one, I don't think I'll be seeking out the rest. 

REVIEW: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Comic Book (graphic novel) stories and art by various

Dream Daddy is a graphic novel collection of stories featuring the characters from the Dream Daddy dating simulator game. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

I'll start by saying that, although I tried Dream Daddy, I never got very far into it. The idea of it was fun, but I loathed the character creation process at the start, wasn't a fan of the mini games, and eventually just sort of lost interest in the whole thing. According to my notes, I started off by trying to romance Mat, the coffee shop owner, but my memories are so fuzzy that I suspect I never even finished that one route.

All of which is to say, you don't need to have played the game much in order to enjoy this. I generally had fun while reading this. It read like the aspects of the game I enjoyed, minus the stuff I didn't.

Anyway, on to the individual stories.