REVIEW: We Love to Entertain (book) by Sarah Strohmeyer

We Love to Entertain may look like a domestic thriller, but it'd probably be more accurate to call it suspense fiction. At times, it also almost feels like a cozy mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is told from a couple different POVs, with some blog posts sprinkled throughout. The blog posts are by the couple at the center of this book, while the POVs are Erika and her mother, Kim. 

Holly and Robert are contestants on a reality show competition about house flipping. While working on their competition entry, an eco-conscious home makeover in a small Vermont town, they fell in love and are planning on getting married close to the end of the competition. It's the kind of stuff publicity dreams are made of. Erika is their assistant, a local pariah who desperately wants to make up for it by doing well in this job. Erika's intense loyalty to Holly and Robert is helped along by her unrequited (?) crush on Robert. It gives her a little thrill, knowing that Robert asks her help for things he doesn't always tell Holly about.

Something's had Robert on edge for a while, but the wedding goes without a hitch. That evening, though, Robert shows up at Erika's place out of the blue, asking to temporarily trade his Tesla for her much cheaper car, so that he and Holly can take a sudden honeymoon trip. Erika isn't great at saying no to Robert, something she soon has reason to regret, as Robert and Holly become suddenly unreachable during the important last days of the competition.

Meanwhile, Kim, Erika's mother and the town clerk, is experiencing some guilt over the way Holly and Robert got the house in the first place, and she's determined to set things right, even it means she's forced to resign. 

REVIEW: Banned Book (picture book) by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Gary Kelley

Banned Book could technically be considered a dystopian fiction picture book, since the censorship group is fictional and the situation doesn't take place anywhere in particular. I bought it new.

Review:

A book about book banning, filled with censorship bars. The number of censorship bars increases until, gradually, even the reasons for censorship are censored.

As a children's book, I'm not sure how well this would work, and I expect it would be difficult to figure out how to read it aloud. Plus, there'd be the issue of explaining it if there wasn't some sort of active censorship case going on at the child's school.

However, as an art piece about censorship, I thought this was effective. I bought it new, and it arrived wrapped in plastic, with a black paper strip over the title. Combine that with the actual content of the book, and the whole thing was pretty on point.

REVIEW: Super Chill: A Year of Living Anxiously (graphic novel) by Adam Ellis

Super Chill is a collection of humorous comics. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This reminded me of Sarah Andersen's Adulthood is a Myth stuff - a lot of the same worries/anxieties. 

The laugh that took me most by surprise was the "Am I happy now?" comic in which Ellis burst into flames in the sun. 

There was one comic that was designed to be more autobiographical than funny, a bit about Ellis leaving his job at Buzzfeed.

Overall, this was enjoyable. 

REVIEW: Oops! Rabbit (picture book) by Jo Ham

Oops! Rabbit is a humorous children's picture book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Most of this book is composed of a set of "Rabbit on" pages, followed by "Oops!" pages in which the scenario goes wrong, and then a set of "Rabbit off" pages (the disaster's aftermath).

This was a very simple read, with only one surprise moment at the end. I did really like the design aspect, with the clean, sharp silhouette artwork and occasional use of pink - the art was a large part of what drew me to this.

REVIEW: Creepy Crayon! (picture book) words by Aaron Reynolds, pictures by Peter Brown

Creepy Crayon! is a children's horror comedy picture book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Jasper is bad at math and spelling, and only good at art. Then he finds a perfect and pointy purple crayon, and suddenly he's getting straight A's in everything! It's great. Until the crayon even tries to interfere with his artwork.

I loved the over-the-top ominousness of the grayscale artwork, in which the only color was the purple used for the crayon-created lines. 

This was set up a lot like a horror movie, complete with the main character having a nightmare, waking up, and discovering that the crayon has made it real somehow.

Even as an adult, I thought this was fun and amusingly dramatic. 

REVIEW: Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug (picture book) by Jonathan Stutzman, illustrated by Jay Fleck

Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug is a children's picture book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Tiny's friend Pointy feels sad, so Tiny wants to figure out how to hug his friend despite having such tiny arms. He goes to several family members for advice and even has a training montage.

I was drawn to this one by Tiny's incredibly cute design. Pointy (a stegosaurus) was also pretty cute.

I loved the dry humor in this. At one point, Tiny's mother tells him some uplifting stuff, and his response is hilariously practical: "I cannot hug with my heart."

If there was one thing that vaguely bugged me about this, it was that Tiny never once asked Pointy what was wrong. Still, the story was amusing, and Tiny's efforts were at least appreciated by his friend. 

REVIEW: Let Me In Your Window: Horror Stories (graphic novel) by Adam Ellis

Let Me In Your Window is a collection of short horror comics. I bought my volume new.

Review:

This is a collection of ten short horror comics. As I usually do with anthologies, I'll tackle each story separately.

"Little Kingdom"

There's a little island some people moved to in order to start a sort of commune, except that when they had children, something was wrong with them. The kids are gray and strange and never develop speech. The POV character makes a documentary about it, and it's an instant hit. Unable to make anything that popular again, the documentary filmmaker decides to do a sequel. Unfortunately, the situation has changed since the first documentary was made, and things rapidly go wrong.

REVIEW: Dewdrop (graphic novel) by K. O'Neill

Dewdrop is either a fantasy graphic novel or a fantasy children's picture book (or both?). I bought my copy new.

Review:

Everyone is preparing for the upcoming Sports Fair...and starting to feel a little discouraged. Dewdrop the axolotl uses his cheerleading skills to boost everyone's mood and get them to focus on relaxing and just doing the best they personally can.

Man, I'm such a cynical adult. This was maybe a bit too chirpy and simple for me. That said, I'm not the target audience. I suspect that children would probably enjoy Dewdrop's energy and positive approach to life. Cynical old me did think that the character designs were super cute. 

The volume ends with a nice environmental message and some facts about the four different animals (axolotl, yellow-bellied slider, newt, and minnow) featured throughout the story. 

REVIEW: Space Battle Lunchtime, Vol. 3: A Dish Best Served Cold (graphic novel, vol. 3) by Natalie Riess

Space Battle Lunchtime is a science fiction graphic novel. I bought this volume used.

Review:

Peony has been hired to cater a party held by a semi-deity space empress. Great news! Unfortunately, while she's handling the desserts, her former Space Battle Lunchtime rival, Melonhead, is handling the meal. But they're both professionals. Surely they can handle one party without problems?

Then the space empress falls over dead while eating one of Peony's desserts...and for some reason Neptunia is the one instantly considered a suspect by the empress's guard (who happens to be Neptunia's sister). Peony somehow has to find the true culprit in order to prove her girlfriend's innocence and save her catering business.

REVIEW: Mooncop (graphic novel) by Tom Gauld

Mooncop is a science fiction graphic novel. I bought my copy used.

Review:

This takes place on a moon base with a population in the single digits. A lunar cop goes about his day, waking up, getting a donut and coffee, driving around, and taking care of the few things that need him. His crime-solving rate is 100% because there are no crimes, and as more people leave the colony, there's even less for him to do.

This was mostly about loneliness, with a dash of dark work humor of the "useless jobs with useless metrics" sort. That said, even with things generally changing for the worse, with no actual end in sight, the story's main character somehow found things to appreciate.

Brief, kind of sad, and weirdly gentle? I'm not quite sure what to think about this graphic novel. 

REVIEW: Katamari Damacy (nonfiction book) by L.E. Hall

Katamari Damacy is nonfiction, volume 17 from Boss Fight Books. I bought my copy new.

Review:

If you look at Boss Fight Books' website in the paperback bundles section, you'll see that this book is listed as being in the "Historical Bundle" and the "Creator Access Bundle." Through research and interviews with people like Keita Takahashi (the creator of the Katamari Damacy franchise and the director of the first two games) and others, this book takes an in-depth look at how Katamari Damacy came to be created and how it was subsequently received by players and critics. 

I didn't actually bother looking at info about this book before starting to read it, so all I knew was that it was very different from my favorite Boss Fight Books entry so far, Mike Drucker's Silent Hill 2. Where that book included Drucker's personal reactions and interpretations of the game as well as info more generally about the game itself, Katamari Damacy was much less focused on the personal and, at times, came across as being somewhat drier because of this.

REVIEW: Shark: The Illustrated Biography (nonfiction book) by Daniel C. Abel & Sophie A. Maycock, illustrations by Adam Hook

Shark: The Illustrated Biography is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book looks at what sharks are, how they evolved, and what their lives are like (reproduction, juvenile vs. adult life, dietary needs, etc.), and efforts at shark conservation.

Early on, the authors said they'd focus primarily on four species - the Great White Shark, Smallspotted Catshark, Sandbar Shark, and Spiny Dogfish - although I will admit that I eventually forgot that these four species were supposed to be the focus of their specific examples, because so many examples were mentioned throughout. 

REVIEW: That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America (nonfiction book) by Amanda Jones

That Librarian is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

When I have a big new task ahead of me or a topic that's weighing heavily on my mind for whatever reason, my instinct is often to read about it. That's how I ended up coming across this book. I wanted to read more about recent efforts at book banning and challenging in US libraries. What I really wanted was something focused on academic libraries, but one thing I immediately noticed was that most of what I was finding was focused on school and public libraries. 

Anyway, in this book, Amanda Jones writes about attending a public hearing about "book content" at her local public library in 2022. As a concerned citizen and librarian, she spoke in support of library collections that meet the needs of all members of her local community and warned against the harm that censorship could cause. Her whole speech is included in the last chapter of the book.

Although Jones wasn't the only one who spoke out, Citizens for a New Louisiana used this as an opportunity to target and defame her, saying that she was fighting to keep sexually erotic and pornographic materials in the children's section of the library, despite none of that ever coming up in her speech. Jones writes about the emotional impact of having members of her small community who she'd known and previously been friendly with turn on her and believe everything that was written. Then there was the pain of those who tried not to get involved, out of fear that they themselves might become targets, and those who privately supported her but couldn't bring themselves to do so publicly.

She also writes about her efforts to sue those who harassed and defamed her, about book banning efforts in Louisiana in particular and the US in general, and the work that she's done to try to support other librarians going through similar situations.

REVIEW: Revenge of the Librarians (graphic novel) by Tom Gauld

Revenge of the Librarians is more a collection of comics than a graphic novel. I got my volume from the library.

Review: 

The comics in this collection are about reading, authorship, libraries, and books. As usual, I enjoyed some more than others. 

I had fun with the "[blank] generator" style comics, like the "eccentric family generator for novelists" and the "thriller concept generator." I also got a kick out of some of the comics that poked fun at particular series/books, as well as the ones about writing in general. I winced a bit at some of the ones about personal book collections and book buying habits (guilty as charged, for just about all of them).

All in all, this was an enjoyable collection. 

REVIEW: Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone (nonfiction book) by Rebecca L. Johnson

Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom is YA nonfiction. I bought my copy used.

Review:

This gives an overview of the Chernobyl disaster and its effect on the area and people, before getting into research on animals in the Exclusion Zone. Particular attention is paid to Robert Baker and Ronald Chesser and their study of bank voles, and Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Møller and their studies of swallows and insects.

I really wished this had been longer and more detailed. It was both a fascinating and frustrating look at animals in the Exclusion Zone. Baker and Chesser's conclusions were very different from Mousseau and Møller's (I got the impression the author agreed more with Mousseau and Møller's conclusions than Baker and Chesser's), and I was left with a lot of questions. Quite possibly there genuinely weren't any answers, but that didn't stop me from wanting a few other scientists' opinions and maybe a chapter set up like a moderated discussion between the different camps.