REVIEW: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing (nonfiction book) by Hu Anyan, translated by Jack Hargreaves

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is basically a work-related memoir. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This starts off with an in-depth look at a couple of the author's work experiences, first working the night shift at a vast logistics warehouse, and then working as a courier delivering parcels in Beijing. After that, the author went backwards in time in order to cover basically every one of his work experiences from his school days onward, including working at restaurants, working at a bike shop, and owning his own clothing store, before finally catching up with the experiences that started the volume off.

I didn't know anything about this book before going into it. This is one of those cases where I was hooked by the title and cover. The first part of the book was more what I expected I might get, based on the title. I definitely did not expect the author to cover his entire life's work experiences, so I floundered a bit there, not sure where the author was ultimately planning to go with the book.

REVIEW: Gamer Girls: 25 Women Who Built the Video Game Industry (nonfiction book) written by Mary Kenney, illustrated by Salini Perera

Gamer Girls is nonfiction. I bought my copy used.

Review:

In addition to the 25 women that this book covered in more depth, there were also short "side quest" sections that mentioned additional women. This covered several women I already knew something about (Robert Williams, Jane Jensen, and, in a "side quest" section, Christine Love), but also many, many that I'd never heard of before.

This was an engaging read, but also a little depressing, since it seemed like most of the women mentioned ended up leaving the video game industry for one reason or another, some more quickly than others. 

I was delighted at the mention of otome game history and the Nancy Drew games. I think I've seen mentions of the Nancy Drew games in other video game history books I've read, but this is the first time I've encountered anything that talked about otome game history.

I didn't count how many women were actually mentioned in this, but, if you counted the "side quests" it was definitely more than 25. That said, some of the women mentioned in those "side quests" weren't actually involved in video game development but rather more broadly game development - the precursor to Monopoly, and Jenga, for example.

All in all, a good read that touched on aspects of video game history I haven't seen mentioned in some of the other video game history books I've read. 

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 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.

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: 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. 

REVIEW: Manga for Success: Leading Meeting and Teams (nonfiction book) by Masumi Tani, artwork by Enmo Takenawa

Leading Meetings and Teams is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

As is the case with all the "Manga for Success" volumes, this alternates textual sections with manga sections depicting the concepts in the text in action. In this volume, the manga scenario is that Shigeo is a young employee who's been sent from a construction materials manufacturer to one of the local agencies of the manufacturer. He's supposed to get opinions from them about developing new building materials. Unfortunately, no one has much to say - they're focused on their own current projects and concerns.

While on a train, Shigeo meets Mayumi, a facilitation instructor. She gives him advice on how to run more effective meetings. She recommends he use a whiteboard and put the desired topics and outputs down on it. The board allows him to record what people in the meeting are saying, checking his understanding of their comments, and overall help people feel heard. She gives him several general tips on conversation/meeting facilitation, and he starts to make actual progress in his work.