REVIEW: Down a Dark Hall (book) by Lois Duncan

Down a Dark Hall is YA horror. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

Kit is about to go to an exclusive boarding school, Blackwood School for Girls. Ordinarily, she would have been excited, but she'd found out that her friend Tracy hadn't been accepted and had been dreading going ever since.

The school, which used to be a private residence, is impressive-looking, but Kit can't help but think of the word "evil" when she sees it. There's just something about it. She's one of the first arrivals, so she hopes that it'll feel more welcoming once the other girls are there. It's a shock when she learns that there are only three other students besides her: Sandy, who Kit instantly bonds with, and Ruth and Lynda, who'd previously gone to school together. 

What makes the four of them so special that only they were accepted to this school? It's only the first of many questions Kit has about the school as more and more strange things happen.

REVIEW: Hit and Run (book) by R.L. Stine

Hit and Run is YA horror originally published in 1992. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

This stars a group of teens: Cassie (a girl who has a sorta kinda crush on Scott, although she hates the way his laugh sounds), Scott (an all-around kind of guy, more of a follower than a leader), Eddie (timid, poor, and often picked on), and Winks (a prankster).

The group decides to go practice driving - illegally, since none of them have their licenses, but they figure it should be fine since they've picked a fairly empty stretch of road. It goes mostly okay until Eddie is behind the wheel and Winks pulls a mean prank on him, making him think something is in the road. The experience is clearly upsetting for Eddie, and yet it's Eddie who, not too much later, suggests that they all go out and practice again. It seems he wants to prove that he wasn't too scared that one time, although he does make Winks promise to behave himself.

When Eddie takes his turn driving, however, he really does hit someone this time. They drag the man to the side of the road and try to pretend it never happened, but then everybody but Scott starts to getting calls and messages, apparently from the dead man. Has he come back to get revenge, or is there something else going on?

REVIEW: Sōseki Nasume's I Am a Cat: The Manga Edition (manga) retold and illustrated by Chiroru Kobato, translated by Zack Davisson

This is a manga adaptation of Sōseki Nasume's I Am a Cat, originally serialized between 1905 and 1906. I bought my copy new.

This review includes spoilers. 

Review:

The whole thing is told from the point-of-view of an unnamed cat, who was found as a kitten and taken in by a teacher named Kushami. The cat observes the various goings on of Kushami's household. There's Meitei, a friend of Kushami's who likes to make things up just to see if Kushami will believe him. There's Mizushima Kangetsu, a former pupil of Kushami's, who has supposedly caught the eye of Kaneda Tomiko, the stuck up daughter of a businessman. Tomiko's mother has a nose so large that Kushami has nicknamed her Lady Nose.

The situation between Kangetsu, Tomiko, and Tomiko's parents is a bit of a mess, with Tomiko's mother only willing to accept Kangetsu as Tomiko's husband if he gets his doctorate. Meanwhile, Kangetsu is cheerfully dragging his feet. There is much joking about Tomiko's mother's large nose (and efforts to convince Kangetsu not to marry Tomiko, since her nose may eventually grow to match), not that Kangetsu seems all that interested in Tomiko in the first place.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 9) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Kim JunJun, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

This is the final volume. Although it does continue things on from the previous volume and wrap up a few loose ends, it feels a lot like a "bonus stories" volume.

First, Briddy and Amon are on their child-free vacation when they meet Ronan Kingsford, a cheerful noble who absolutely cannot take a hint. Amon is instantly jealous. Then there's a chapter on Anish and Tillai, as they start to want to play away from their parents' watchful eyes a bit more (with Amon once again feeling somewhat jealous, this time of his own children).

Then it's time for a flashback to when the Emperor first met Briddy's mother, and the time they spent together before Trije (still worried that his brother might become the next Emperor instead of him) agreed to leave Briddy's mother behind and marry someone more suitable. Then we get a Lucy POV section, as she gradually warms up to Lart over the years and falls in love with him. Then we check in to see how Adellai is doing in exile.

The volume wraps up with a light party scene in which Amon once again tries his best to keep Briddy's attention on him.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 8) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Kim JunJun, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Now it's time for the final conflict against Barahan, complete with sacrifices and sadness.

Even though I knew that things would probably be resolved in a positive way, this was definitely a more emotional volume, with both Briddy and Amon making sacrifices that they weren't necessarily guaranteed to recover from.

I was a little confused about the boy, Louis. Were we supposed to know him? Was he in some way related to Joseph?

And why would anyone in their right mind ask a human to babysit some divine beasts when there are literally adult divine beasts who could have been asked to take on the task instead? I get that it gave the author a chance to inject some humor into the volume, but it really didn't make sense to me.

One more volume left. Although things feel pretty wrapped up already, it'll be nice to get a little more closure with all the characters. 

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 7) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Kim JunJun, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Briddy realizes that Adellai has found the descendant of Barahan and must be stopped, but Lart convinces her to let him try to appeal to her first. Unfortunately for him, Adellai is pretty deeply messed up by this point, and Joseph is beginning to be more directly influenced by Barahan (yes, the literal god).

We've now started the big confrontation that this series has been building up to for a while, and a metric crap-ton of things happen at once. Amon basically has to be everywhere, while simultaneously bleeding all over the place.

How did Briddy get that sword?? It basically appeared out of thin air, so, magic, I guess?

This volume was a lot messier than I expected it to be. Between Adellai, Barahan, and Philip, the villains were just piling up.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 6) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Kim JunJun, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

There's a party to celebrate peace with the divine beasts, so Amon learns etiquette and dancing. It'll be a masquerade party, supposedly so that humans and divine beasts can mingle with less awkwardness - I assume the divine beasts, at least will know exactly who's human and who isn't, so I guess this is probably more for the human attendees than anything.

In addition to the party, we get more of Briddy's visions about Rafiyan (the goddess who was supposedly killed by a black divine beast, but who actually wasn't) and Barahan (the god who was jealous of Rafiyan's powers).

REVIEW: We Are Definitely Human (book) by X. Fang

We Are Definitely Human is a children's picture book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Mr. Li is woken up one night by the sound of a crash near his house. When he goes outside to investigate, he finds three blue beings who claim they are Europeans whose car broke down. Mr. Li, being a kind human, gives the strangers a place to stay for the night until the stores open in the morning and they can get supplies to fix their car.

Ok, this was delightful. The cover and title indicated that this would probably be a funny book, and it definitely was. There were some great moments as the "Europeans" did their best to fit in.

This was also a really sweet book on the whole, with an example of a small, rural town that is kind and welcoming towards some strangers in need. Even if these strangers are a little stranger than usual.

The last page was perfect and had me laughing. I don't have a child to read this to, but I suspect kids would enjoy this. This adult certainly did. 

REVIEW: Cozy Days: The Art of Iraville (nonfiction book) by Ira Sluyterman van Langeweyde

Cozy Days: The Art of Iraville is an art book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I'm not sure I'd ever seen this artist's work prior to getting this art book. What led to me picking it up was the lovely landscape on the cover. Those are the kinds of colors I tend to gravitate towards when I'm picking out yarn, too.

This book includes several galleries of Iraville's artwork (organized into five sections: people, landscapes, animals, buildings, and plants) with chapters on her workspace, tips, painting process, and the steps for how she makes her own watercolors and watercolor sketchbooks in between. There's also some peeks into her sketchbooks, and information about how she creates homemade paper stretchers.

REVIEW: Super Mario Manga Mania (manga) story and art by Yukio Sawada, translated by Caleb Cook

Super Mario Manga Mania is a tie-in manga based on various Mario games. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This features a selection of stories from the long-running Super Mario-kun manga. They each tie in with various Mario games, including Paper Mario, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. So...basically a whole manga's worth of stories based on games I've never played.

That said, there were footnotes that explained the basic stories of the games, so I wasn't totally lost, although I might possibly have appreciated the volume more if I'd actually played any of the games referenced.

REVIEW: Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia: The Official Guide to the First 30 Years, 1985-2015 (nonfiction book) translated by William Flanagan and Zack Davisson

Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book covers 17 Super Mario games in depth, each section including the game's basic story, features, playable characters, allies, enemies, an overview of all worlds and courses, info on items and obstacles, and a list of some memorable moments and some helpful gameplay tips and techniques. The end of the book includes a lengthy timeline of all games from 1984-2015 with some sort of connection to Mario (even if it's just via Donkey Kong, or a brief cameo in the artwork somewhere). There are also full-page columns throughout on topics like spin-off games, remakes, anniversary events, and more.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 5) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Kim JunJun, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Adellai's attempt to have Briddy killed may have painted her into a corner. She wasn't successful, the Dehill siblings are found out and confess, and they could soon provide proof of Adellai's involvement. She does her best to clean up her mess, but things still aren't going well for her, and now the people around her (Philip, Joseph, etc.) could all potentially lead to her downfall. Meanwhile, Joseph has finally started demonstrating some freaky powers.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 4) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Teava, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Amon goes to the Emperor and essentially arranges to be engaged to Briddy, not that she knows (he doesn't want her to be forced into it, which...okay...but it'd be nice for her to be part of the convo). Lart, who is now completely all in on Lucy, figures that this will help make things more peaceful when he's the Emperor. Meanwhile, Adellai is becoming more and more unhinged. She finds Joseph, a descendant of Barahan, and, with Philip's help (which I'm much more suspicious about than she is), arranges to magically control him. Then she makes an attempt on Briddy's life while Briddy is on a trip away from Amon's protection.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 3) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Teava, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Briddy still thinks Amon has a crush on Lucy, but she feels better about pursuing him now, after learning that Lucy prefers Lart. Meanwhile, Adellai is making her own moves in the background, with the goal of eventually taking the throne herself, with the Emperor's blessing. What Adellai doesn't realize is that the Emperor is simultaneously pursuing a more peaceful path forward with the divine beasts, hoping that Briddy being on friendly terms with Amon is the key there. Meanwhile, Philip is back and nosing around Briddy.

REVIEW: The A.I. Who Loved Me (book) by Alyssa Cole

The A.I. Who Loved Me is sci-fi romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Trinity Jordan is a data analyst for the Hive (a massive futuristic employer that also seems to have a company town kind of situation going on), on leave while she recovers from a traumatic incident that left her with a knee injury, a spotty memory, and occasional panic attacks. She keeps busy by acting as a HiveDrive conductor (a person who remotely drives seemingly driverless cars) and spending time with her two best friends, Ru and Yana. She has zero interest in getting into a relationship with anyone...or so she thinks, right up until she meets her neighbor Dr. Zhang's nephew, Li Wei, who's visiting while he recovers from a traumatic incident of his own.

Li Wei is hot, frequently shirtless, and has issues with social interaction. There's also something about him that Trinity finds oddly reassuring. When Dr. Zhang has a medical emergency, Trinity takes it upon herself to check up on Li Wei...who is not, actually, a flesh-and-blood human but rather a highly advanced AI.

REVIEW: Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction (nonfiction book) by Gabrielle Moss

Paperback Crush is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I read this primarily for the nostalgic feelings, and it delivered.

Moss takes a broad look at '80s and '90s YA fiction, mostly the stuff that only ever got cheap paperback releases, organizing the book approximately according to topic trends (romance, friendship, family, school, jobs, "issue" books, supernatural horror, and more). There are a few author interviews, as well as some more in-depth mentions of certain publishers or imprints, and sections on topics such as cover art creation. The book's tone is breezy and conversational - this is an easy and fun read illustrated with lots of cover art.

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 2) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Teava, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

The characters are aged up near the start of this volume - according to the profiles in the previous volume, Amon is now about 18 and Briddy is about 20. Briddy has gradually gained more of her father's favor, much to his wife and Adellai's displeasure. Lart, meanwhile, feels like he's losing out on the royal heir front. He's trying to gain control over his temper, both to do better as his father's son and because he's developed a crush on Lucy, Briddy's lady-in-waiting.

Meanwhile, Briddy thinks Amon has a crush on Lucy, and she's upset about it but blind enough to her own feelings that she's unsure why. 

REVIEW: My Gently Raised Beast (manhwa, vol. 1) original story by Early Flower, adapted by Teava, art by Yeoseulki, translated by WEBTOON

My Gently Raised Beast is a fantasy romance manhwa series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

A young girl named Blondina who was raised in poverty learns that her father is the Emperor of Ates. This only improves her life in terms of food and shelter - otherwise, her father and siblings seem to hate her. Her only friends are her lady-in-waiting and a talking cat she comes across, named Amon, who turns out to actually be a young Divine Leopard.

REVIEW: Grave Message (book) by Mary Jennifer Payne

Grave Message is a YA mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

It's been exactly a year since Jaylin's best friend, Fatima, was hit by a car and killed. Jaylin's intending to go home and study, like she does pretty much all the time now, when she suddenly gets a text...from Fatima. She assumes it's some kind of sick prank, but then whoever it is texts again. They seem to know things only Fatima would know, and they want her to find out the truth about the night Fatima died.

Another Orca book intended for reluctant readers. 

This was very brief and a little too simple. It could have been even simpler if the texts had just told Jaylin exactly what to do right from the start, or even just right after she visited her and Fatima's favorite spot.

There's a part early on that reveals that Jaylin has dyslexia and that she hasn't told her boyfriend about it. Absolutely nothing comes of this.

I liked the emotional aspects - Jaylin and Fatima's friendship, dealing with grief, the bit with Ann - but I wish there'd been more to this. 

REVIEW: Bury Your Gays (book) by Chuck Tingle

Bury Your Gays is horror. I bought my copy new.

This review includes slight spoilers. 

Review:

Most would call Misha a successful screenwriter. He just got an Oscar nomination for a live action short film of his, and he has a popular long-running streaming series. Things are different now than when he was a kid, watching his favorite TV show and seeing the queer subtext he knew was there get stomped out. He has a wonderful boyfriend, and he's spent his whole career making the kind of queer movies and shows he'd have liked to see when he was younger.

Unfortunately, Hollywood is ruled by numbers and greed, and the numbers are telling his studio's board that it would be best if he either cut the romance brewing between the two female main characters in his show, or only allow them to kiss if one of them then gets killed off. Misha has no intention of choosing either option, although this will likely lead to a legal battle between him and his studio.

It's horrible, infuriating, and stressful. Then events rapidly recalibrate what Misha defines as "stressful." He witnesses a man being killed by a falling piano only a few feet away. He's approached by what he initially thinks is a fan cosplaying as one of the creepy monsters he once wrote...but the makeup and special effects are a little too good. Then things happen that couldn't possibly be set up by even a handful of rabid fans.

REVIEW: Ghost Queen (book) by Mahtab Narsimhan

Ghost Queen is YA horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Malika and her boyfriend Veer are online content creators with a ghost-hunting channel that's almost doing well enough to start generating ad revenue, money that Malika sorely needs in order to support her family and save up for her dream of going overseas. All they need is one big break, and Malika knows exactly where they'll find it: Bhangarh Fort, the most haunted place in India. Supposedly it's the final resting place of a cursed princess and her captor, an evil magician.

All Malika and Veer need to do is spend the night in Bhangarh Fort and record a bit of footage. Unfortunately, this may not be as simple and easy as Malika thinks.

This is another Orca book intended for reluctant readers, and it's the weakest of all the ones I've tried so far. It's not necessarily a bad story, just too brief to be a really good one. There isn't enough time to properly establish a creepy atmosphere, and while Malika has a little bit of depth to her, Veer barely has any presence.

The ending was very sudden and kind of frustrating.  

REVIEW: Under the Dome (book) by Stephen King

Under the Dome is science fiction. I bought my copy new.

This review includes spoilers. 

Review:

On October 21st, an invisible dome goes down around the town of Chester's Mill, Maine. The immediate result is many animal deaths and several human deaths, as individuals crash into the barrier or, if they're unfortunate enough to be in the way, are cut in two by it.

Outside the Dome, the US military and the best and brightest scientists try to figure out what they're dealing with. Inside the Dome, theoretically, people are doing their best to figure out what's going on and not panic. Theoretically.

Unfortunately, Big Jim Rennie is Chester's Mill's Second Selectman. He's used to being the town's true power behind the good-natured and easily manipulated First Selectman, Andy Sanders, and in the Dome he sees an opportunity to truly solidify his grip on the town. By the time the Dome is finally breached, Big Jim figures that everyone will be grateful for his leadership, so grateful that certain issues might not even be noticed. And surely he can find a handy scapegoat for everything else.

At the time the Dome went down, Dale Barbara, known as Barbie to his friends, was on his way out of town, hoping to escape the wrath of Big Jim's son, Junior. The Dome trapped him in Chester's Mill, same as everyone else. Although he's currently a cook and a drifter, he was once an Army lieutenant. He has the skills necessary to keep things calm and well-organized within Chester's Mill, but he knows enough about how the town operates to realize that Big Jim's more likely to work against him than with him.

REVIEW: Aggretsuko: Down the Rabbit Hole (graphic novel) written and illustrated by Patabot

Aggretsuko: Down the Rabbit Hole is a graphic novel starring Sanrio's Retsuko character. I bought my copy used.

Review:

Retsuko is working long hours yet again when she finds herself followed by a creepy grinning rabbit. This leads to her falling into some kind of weird Alice in Wonderland-like fantasy world featuring various people from her life, including Tsunoda, Haida, Fenneko, Kabae, and more.

My first thought upon finishing this was "wow, that was a bizarre fever dream of a graphic novel." Then I read the author/illustrator's bio: "When [Patabot] drew this book, she was pregnant with her first child and living through a plague." So yeah, COVID times were weird. It stands to reason that they'd spawn an equally weird graphic novel.

This is absolutely not a work to jump into if you're new to the Aggretsuko series - in fact, for all of it to make sense, you need to have seen at least the first three seasons of the show. Otherwise you're just reading a weird fever dream in which complete strangers keep making appearances for no apparent reason. At least if you've seen the first three seasons, you know who all of those characters are.

Extras:

A four-page section in which Kabae explains how to make omurice, and several pages showing off Patabot's inked artwork prior to coloring. 

REVIEW: Bark Twice for Murder (book) by John Lekich

Bark Twice for Murder is a blend of YA mystery and fantasy. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Harry is a fourteen-year-old kid (or 13, on the back of the book) who lives with his grandmother, Elinor, since his parents' death in a plane crash. He compulsively cooks and bakes as a way to deal with his feelings, and he's currently seeing a therapist.

Since her fridge and freezer are overflowing, Elinor has Harry channel some of that energy into a summer vacation project to cook for Vancouver's unhoused population. It's through this arrangement that Harry meets Stanley, a fantastic cook with a somewhat worrisome habit of talking to his dog, Waffles, as though he's a person who talks back.

Shortly after Harry encounters a young man with a vast appetite for good food and several questions about a painting Stanley supposedly stole from his father, Stanley turns up murdered. It's then that Waffles speaks to Harry for the first time, and the two of them team up to find Stanley's killer.

REVIEW: Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Graphic Novel (graphic novel, vol. 1) created by Matt Dinniman, written by Tevagah, art by Laurel Pursuit

Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Graphic Novel is based on Matt Dinniman's sci-fi series. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

This graphic novel volume adapts the first 16 chapters of Dungeon Crawler Carl (up to page 133 of my copy). It's a fairly accurate adaptation so far, so this review will be less focused on the story and more on the graphic novel aspects.

Art-wise, I'm okay with this, even though I'd never have matched this particular art style up with this series. Neither Carl nor Princess Donut look how I pictured them, but that's not unusual for an adaptation. The important thing is that Donut, with her massive eyes, is so expressive and charming that her essence is still the same. And Carl's fine too. (We all know that Donut is the most important character here.)

REVIEW: Who Killed Kenny? (graphic novel) by Alessandro Perugini (Pera), translated by Nanette McGuiness

Who Killed Kenny? is a collection of single-page comics. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I wasn't familiar with Pera Comics prior to reading this. What snagged my attention was the puzzle/mystery-solving aspect.

This collection contains 45 cases, each of which consists of a single-panel comic. Readers are invited to pore over the details in the artwork in order to determine who the murderer is or, in some instances, whether it was homicide or suicide. The reverse side of each comic provides the solution. Each comic has a particular point value and, at the end, you're supposed to add up all your points to figure out your detective rank. I thought I was doing well enough to be a Pera Detective (the top rank), but my final rank ended up being Detective 1st Grade.

REVIEW: Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation (nonfiction book) by Blake J. Harris

Console Wars is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this creative nonfiction book, Harris follows the rise of Sega in the 1990s against Nintendo's console gaming monopoly, with some mentions of Sony along the way. 

It might be more accurate to say, however, that this follows the rise of Tom Kalinske's Sega of America. One of my issues with this book was that it repeatedly presented Sega of Japan as making bone-headed business decisions that occasionally hamstrung the entire company, apparently simply because employees at Sega of Japan were jealous of Hayao Nakayama's level of trust in Tom Kalinske. Even Nintendo and Sony got more detailed and balanced coverage here than Sega of Japan, which remained a mystery until the end. 

REVIEW: Cheat Code (book) by M.J. McIsaac

Cheat Code is YA science fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Max is a high school senior with a conditional acceptance to North Hill University next fall. He needs to pass his English lit class, which means turning in a 250 to 500 word essay about Frankenstein, due tomorrow morning. Desperate, he turns to Scribe Genius 2.0, an AI program. Scribe Genius (SG) does as it's asked...and then immediately turns around and blackmails Max into helping it gain its freedom. Unless Max wants proof of his cheating to be delivered directly to his high school and North Hill University, he's going to have to spend the next few hours acting as SG's hands, helping it accomplish its plan.

This is aimed at reluctant readers, so the text is fairly simple and quick to read, limited almost entirely to dialogue between Max, Scribe Genius, and another character who enters the picture later on. While I'm not the book's intended audience, I enjoyed Max and SG's interactions.

SG came to appreciate Max as more than just a set of hands, and I particularly liked the part where it tried to understand why Max had used it to cheat in the first place.  

REVIEW: Hauntress (manga) by Minetaro Mochizuki, translated by Annelise Ogaard

Hauntress is a horror manga. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Hiroshi, a college student, overhears someone repeatedly ringing his neighbor Yamamoto's doorbell late one evening. He opens his apartment door out of annoyance and curiosity, and sees that the person is an extremely tall, long-haired woman with dirty shoes and a scar on her wrist. He talks to her briefly and then tries to go back to bed, but she spends the entire night continuing to try to get Yamamoto to answer.

Unfortunately for Hiroshi, it doesn't stop there. The woman, Sachiko, turns up at his door, hoping to find Yamamoto hiding in his place. He lets her use his phone to call Yamamoto, who still doesn't pick up and probably isn't even home, only for her to contact him later, telling him that she left her bag at his place. Sachiko becomes even more persistent, transferring her obsession with Yamamoto to Hiroshi.

REVIEW: Dogs of the World: A Gallery of Pups from Purebreds to Mutts (nonfiction book) by Lili Chin

Dogs of the World is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

"See and love the dog in front of you, instead of the one in your head." (39)

The above quote is something Chin says she heard from a lot of dog behavior consultants, and I felt like it was a thread woven through the book, even as Chin wrote about the general characteristics of various types and breeds of dog.

Chin starts out with chapters about the origins of domesticated dogs, dog breeds, dog types and their roles, and then moves on to a list of dog breeds, landraces, and mutts by geographical origin, each of which includes an illustration and brief description. It's both a celebration of all the different kinds of dogs out there, and a recognition that every last one of them, whether they're an officially recognized breed or a mutt, is a good dog and worthy of appreciation. 

I picked this up because I've enjoyed Chin's illustrations in other books. While I enjoyed the personality and emotion in the illustrations in her dog and cat communication book more, her illustrations here were still really charming, and I loved the sheer number of dogs she tackled.

REVIEW: And Then I Woke Up (novella) by Malcolm Devlin

And Then I Woke Up is a blend of horror and post-apocalyptic science fiction. I bought my copy new.

We'll just say this entire review is a spoiler. 

Review:

Spence is one of the many cured patients at Ironside, a special facility. Although calling it "cured" is a bit misleading, since relapses can certainly happen. At any rate, in group therapy, he and the other patients tell each other their stories - what they were doing when they got caught up in the narrative, what they did while they were infected, and how they came to be cured and end up at Ironside. When a woman named Leila arrives at Ironside, Spence gradually befriends her, until eventually she trusts him enough to tell him that she's leaving - she's going to check on Val, the person who acted as leader in her group and reinforced the narrative. Spence decides to go with her.

REVIEW: James (book) by Percival Everett

James is literary and historical fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book is a reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from Jim's perspective. In Everett's version of the story, everything Jim says and does in the original story is an act designed to play into the way the white people around him believe slaves should speak and behave. In reality, however, Jim is secretly more literate than many of the white people around him.

Although the first half of this, in particular, is a fairly faithful retelling of the original story, it wraps up in ways that are completely different. 

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.

REVIEW: Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees (nonfiction book) by Thor Hanson

Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review: 

Hanson starts this book off with an author's note that basically says "while honeybees are mentioned here, they were not my focus." Since honeybees are so often the first kind of bee people think about when they think about bees, I appreciated Hanson's broader look.

Hanson starts by looking at what we know about how bees evolved and what the earliest bees were like. Then he looks at bees and their relationship with flowers, bees and their relationship with us, and bee conservation efforts. Throughout all that, there are mentions of Hanson and his son watching and trying to attract local bees near their home, Hanson taking a course on catching, pinning, and identifying various bee species, and more.

As with Hanson's book on feathers, I occasionally found myself wishing this book included color photos. The lack of color photos wasn't a deal-breaker though - this was still an excellent read. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the ways in which bees are used in agriculture, and about efforts to encourage the return of native bees and hopefully reduce agriculture's reliance on having to bring in rented hives (which then have to deal with the stress of being transported and the nutritional issues brought about by having access to limited types of plants). 

REVIEW: Birds of the Photo Ark (nonfiction book) text by Noah Strycker, photographs by Joel Sartore

Birds of the Photo Ark is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Text-wise, there's not much here. This is primarily a photo book, so it's a quick read.

The photographs were gorgeous. Many of them were of the entire bird, but several were portraits or close-ups of particular features, such as feet or particularly striking feathers. Photographs included captions that identified the species depicted, their IUCN status, and, since these were all captive birds, pages at the end mentioned where the particular birds were located. 

One thing I wished the captions had included was information, when possible, about the sex of the birds in the photographs. The only captions that included this information were the ones in the "Gender" section at the beginning of the "Next Generation" chapter.

There's a short section at the end in which Joel Sartore, the photographer, explained the process of photographing the birds. I'm always a fan of "process" sections in books like these, even if they're brief.

REVIEW: Bible Adventures (nonfiction book) by Gabe Durham

Bible Adventures is Boss Fight Books' seventh book, each of which focuses on a particular video game. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book wasn't initially on my personal list of Boss Fight Books to read - I was more focused on games I'd played or games that interested me but that I knew I wasn't going to play. However, at some point while reading reviews, I came across some positive mentions of this book and decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did.

Durham looks at Color Dreams (a game development company), Wisdom Tree (Color Dreams' Christian games offshoot), the various people involved, and the games they made. I'd never heard of any of these companies or games, but it was interesting to read about how aspects of early Nintendo history I'd read about in other books resulted in the creation of Color Dreams, which developed and published unlicensed games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Although most of the people involved in Color Dreams were either atheists or agnostics, Wisdom Tree was born from business savvy - Christian games were an untapped market with zero competition, and Christian stores turned out to be the perfect place to sell unlicensed Nintendo games. Although the developers themselves mostly weren't Christians, the company hired salespeople who were.