A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions

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

2026-07-13T01:46:46.591-05:00

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.

The author ended up talking about his personal philosophies about work (which, unfortunately, didn't interest me much), as well as his gradual development of fairly severe social anxiety. By the end, I felt like I had a decent grasp of what sort of person the author was, but very little idea of what his day-to-day life was like beyond work.

The book starts with a translator's note that I later found myself wishing had been more than just a couple pages. For example, the translator talked about the concept of "neighborhoods" in cities in Beijing, but I also found myself wishing that this section had contextualized Hu Anyan's work experiences more. I could and did compare the author's accounts to my own work experiences (more differences than similarities), but I had no idea how his work experiences might compare to those of others throughout China. Heck, I'd have loved to know a little more about how his experiences compared in those working similar jobs in other areas of the world.

All in all, this was an interesting enough book that occasionally got to the point of outstaying its welcome.

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

2026-07-13T01:01:09.399-05:00

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: Platform Decay (book) by Martha Wells

2026-07-13T00:41:46.479-05:00

Platform Decay is the 8th entry in the Murderbot Diaries series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this latest entry in the series, Murderbot is leading a rescue mission into corporate territory, with Three acting as a distraction. The mission isn't taking place on a planet, but considering the size of the station (a massive ring that encircles the decaying remains of a planet), it might as well be on a planet, and Murderbot isn't happy about the difficulties this causes. Honestly, Murderbot isn't happy about a lot in this particular book.

One of the things that struck me about the beginning of this book was how "off" Murderbot seemed, which I should have learned, by now, means that it's dealing with a lot of stress and emotions. Similar to previous entries in this series that have taken a little while to clue readers in on the full scope of whatever is going on, it takes a while before readers learn exactly who Murderbot is trying to rescue and how this situation came about in the first place.

I enjoyed this, although not as much as some of the previous entries in the series. Part of the issue is that I have been waiting for what feels like ages for Murderbot to finally be stationed on ART and dealing regularly with ART's crew only to, once again, get something else. Any Murderbot is better than no Murderbot, for sure, but...yeah.

This has no ART and also not much in the way of quiet, stress-free downtime in which Murderbot can just sit and watch serials. It does, however, feature Murderbot dealing with several children, including one who spends a good chunk of time clinging to Murderbot while it tries and fails to think of a way to gently remove it. There was something oddly adorable about that.

REVIEW: This Inevitable Ruin (book) by Matt Dinniman

2026-07-12T23:34:58.830-05:00

This Inevitable Ruin is the 7th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this book, it's time for the 9th floor, the Faction Wars, in which the Syndicate corporations and governments can take direct part in the game, fighting against each other and conscripting crawlers to their teams. This time around, however, both the crawlers and the NPCs have their own armies and have a chance at winning as well.

This is guaranteed to be a book of gut-wrenching and emotional developments, as Carl finally gets the opportunity to meet former Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook authors (although he still can't talk about the book, which leads to some confusing moments for his fellow crawlers), and Katia and Donut must finally deal with the consequences of those warnings on the Enchanted Crown of the Sepsis Whore.

As good as some developments in this book were, this is probably my least favorite in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series thus far. I read this series for the individual characters and their journeys, the creative floor setups, Carl's (and others') ingenuity, and the chance to one day hopefully see Carl and Donut take the entire World Crawl system down. Unfortunately, the first half (large chunk? I didn't keep track of when, exactly, things went a bit more back to "normal") of this book was more of a war novel, with lots of troop movement information and larger actions that Carl and Donut weren't necessarily directly involved in. Thankfully, the "war novel" aspects did eventually let up some, allowing the book to get back to the stuff I cared about more, but it was the closest I've come to finding anything in this series to be a true slog.

In one of the earlier books, Carl got a peek at what battles can look like on the later floors, and it was such a titanic clash of combatants that he had a hard time imagining ever getting to that point himself. I'm somewhat concerned that, as the in-game fights get bigger and the scope of everything gets broader, the series will start to lose the charm and fun of the earlier books. Plus, there's the issue of just how dark Dinniman is going to go. I don't really want to see both Carl and Donut die, but I also don't want to see them become broken shells of their former selves like several other surviving former crawlers we've seen.

Crossing my fingers for the next book.

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

2026-07-06T00:09:02.534-05:00

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.

I Know What You Did Last Summer may be Duncan's better known work, but I thought that this was a better book overall. I enjoyed the creepy atmosphere, and, while the ghost bits weren't unexpected, things did go in a different direction than I expected.

I didn't have the musical knowledge necessary to guess which composers Duncan might have been referencing, but I did have a few guesses as to authors, which added to the overall horror of the story.

One thing I should note: Kit had a crush on her piano teacher, who seemed to be developing feelings for her in turn. He was the youngest of the teachers, but still, he was an adult and her teacher, so there were a few red flags there. However, nothing ever happened between them.

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

2026-07-05T23:30:45.232-05:00

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?

Stine's efforts to hide the truth weren't very effective - I didn't guess how things were done (because who would do that, it was insane!), but it wasn't hard to tell who was likely behind it all.

Man, literally all the guys in this book were horrible human beings. Their "pranks" were all more examples of a gruesome lack of empathy than anything actually funny.

This was like I Know What You Did Last Summer, but with extra jerkishness. Also, this really did feel enough like Lois Duncan's book that I felt like R.L. Stine should have credited her as an influence.

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

2026-07-01T23:27:09.469-05:00

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

2026-06-30T23:59:14.677-05:00

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.

I never got very far on working with watercolor, and also never really had the patience to properly work in layers. It always impresses me what people who actually know what they're doing can accomplish. This artist's illustrations of people tended to look mysterious and a little haunting, but I particularly loved her landscapes and animals.

"Cozy" is definitely the right word for the bulk of Iraville's artwork. I really enjoyed looking through this. Her "how to" sections were a little daunting - they had step-by-step instructions and pictures, but I'd probably still need to watch videos before I felt at all confident trying any of it myself. Still, the sketchbook part has me tempted, if only because it'd be cool to sew together my own book and probably (?) wouldn't require me to get much in the way of supplies just to try it out.

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

2026-06-30T17:17:09.127-05:00

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.

I know for a fact that my family had a Nintendo Entertainment System when I was growing up, and I think we might have had a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, although I'm not 100% sure about that. After that, that was pretty much the end of my direct experience with Nintendo and its games until I picked up a Nintendo Switch during the pandemic.

This had a lot more detail crammed into it than I expected, and even with the large page-size, all those tiny pictures and text could be a bit overwhelming. I read the entries for the first few games that I had memories of playing more thoroughly than a lot of the later ones.

I found myself unreasonably angry on behalf of my child self while reading the "helpful hints & techniques" section for the first Super Mario Bros. game. Child Me would have really appreciated those tips, darn it, and now it's well past the time I can make use of any of them.

The Super Mario Bros. 2 (called Super Mario USA in Japan) section was a weird reading experience. The images of the vegetables, particularly the turnips, instantly gave me flashbacks of playing the game, which I'd previously completely forgotten about.

All in all, this was an interesting enough read, although it felt more like a combination of an ad and game guide than an encyclopedia. Its focus is on Japanese and US release info (the timeline is organized according to US release dates if the game was released in both US and Japan), so if you're interested in release info in other areas of the world you're out of luck.

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

2026-06-01T02:27:44.642-05:00

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.

There were more highly advanced AI and robots in this than just Li Wei - T.I.M., Dr. Zhang's cat, featured fairly prominently, and Penny, the home artificial intelligence personal assistant for Trinity's apartment complex, was delightful. There were also some intriguing (and horrifying) sci-fi world-building details here and there, although this primarily took place in an apartment complex that, apart from Penny, didn't feel all that different from what you might encounter in contemporary-set fiction.

Human-AI/robot romance can occasionally feel a bit icky with respect to consent. Without getting too spoilery, Cole managed to avoid that issue with some aspects of Li Wei's programming and origins.

For the most part, I enjoyed this, even as the last part of it gave me emotional whiplash. It read like Cole maybe intended to continue it on as a series, likely with various side characters getting starring roles and their own romances. I'd definitely be interested in reading more.

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

2026-06-01T01:45:39.098-05:00

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.

This was simultaneously a trip down memory lane and a lesson in the vast amounts of YA lit I tended to avoid when I was a teen (a lot of the realistic fiction stuff, soapy family dramas, etc.). This book probably covered more authors and specific works I'd never read than stuff I had, and yet the bulk of it somehow got me right in the nostalgia anyway. Maybe it was all that cover art? And man, the cover of the book itself certainly tries to check as many boxes as it can: the font, the frame, gymnastics and ice skating posters, a group of girls (in which "diversity" = one is blonde, one is a brunette, one maybe has red hair, and all three are white), random ballet shoes, and an even more random actual horse poking its head into the bedroom.

There's a lot of affection for '80s and '90s YA fiction here, but also criticism (issues with diverse representation, approaches to serious topics that were either sensationalized or overly sanitized, etc.), which Moss would often address by discussing some of the exceptions to the rule as well as the more blatant missteps.

I go through occasional periods of wanting to do some nostalgia-inspired reading, and this book may have brought on another bout. In addition to being reminded of some of my teen faves likes Christopher Pike and Lurlene McDaniel (gah, for shame, I know), I found out about a lot of authors and particular works that probably would have drawn Teen Me had I known about them.

REVIEW: Grave Message (book) by Mary Jennifer Payne

2026-05-26T00:02:46.388-05:00

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

2026-05-25T23:39:59.421-05:00

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.

The monsters were wonderfully creepy (I particularly loved the lamb), but the horror here turned out to be a lot more than a few eldritch horrors run amok. As Misha tried to figure out how to keep himself and his friends from being killed by monsters and curses that he himself wrote, there were flashbacks that showed the inspiration for the current-day horrors in Misha's past. The bit with Uncle Keith, while completely bloodless, was so intense I had to take a break partway through. And this is in a book that features a literal on-page torture scene. (I had to take a break during that scene too. Yeesh.)

I figured out some of what was going on with the monsters fairly early on, but that in no way ruined things for me, because my mind didn't make the full leap to the ice cold motivation behind everything, and just how far it went.

I got a kick out of the way Tingle essentially weaponized asexual invisibility - three cheers for Tara! Zeke, on the other hand, seemed a little too perfect and just...there. But that's a fairly nitpicky complaint about a book that I, on the whole, really enjoyed.

REVIEW: Ghost Queen (book) by Mahtab Narsimhan

2026-05-25T21:47:45.508-05:00

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

2026-05-25T00:44:12.908-05:00

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.

This book follows a huge cast of characters and multiple POVs (including, briefly, a woodchuck). Thankfully, King is a skilled enough writer to ensure that all of those characters are relatively distinct, and it was rare that I found myself wondering who a particular character was when they appeared on-page. I found myself emotionally invested in a bunch of them, hoping that they would somehow make it through this.

I also learned to hate Big Jim, his son Junior, and several of Junior's friends. I was very much looking forward to the moment when Big Jim and Junior finally died. Both of them had issues (Big Jim's heart, Junior's undiagnosed brain tumor) that made it obvious that their deaths were a question of when, not if. But man, King sure made me wait, and their final moments were, unfortunately, much shorter than their periods of awfulness. My one comfort was that Junior's experiences with necrophilia were never described in detail (although the same could not be said for one character's rape by several of Junior's horrible friends).

I had to keep reminding myself that this was written well before Trump's first presidency and the pandemic, because this very much felt like commentary about both.

Although King did a great job with the characters, and I enjoyed rooting for the decent ones and hoping the awful ones would die terribly, all of the characters and POVs dragged things out tremendously. The entire book takes place over the course of only a few days, but it felt like weeks at least. On the one hand, I was impressed at the way King made me feel like I was genuinely keeping tabs on an entire town's worth of people. On the other hand, surely it could've been tightened up a bit?

And ugh, the ending. It didn't surprise me in the slightest that the Dome was alien-generated. But the whole thing about everyone realizing they were alien children and getting them to lift the Dome just by begging and hoping for a shred of empathy? Surely King could have come up with something better than that.

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

2026-05-24T23:10:14.504-05:00

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.

This is intended for reluctant readers, which isn't an issue for me. The premise drew me in, though, and it turned out to be a lot of fun with a good amount of heart. Within Waffles was the soul of a grizzled private detective who turned out to be the perfect confidant for a kid who had trouble talking about his feelings and fears. (Although they weren't really that similar, I couldn't help but think of the movie Detective Pikachu.)

Some of the details of the mystery were overly convenient (Stanley, the man who never let his recipe book out of his sight, somehow knew he had to hide it that particular night), but Harry and Waffles were such an appealing pair that I didn't really mind.

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

2026-05-18T01:02:25.417-05:00

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.

While reading this, I realized that I was far more interested in stories about video games and consoles than I was in the actual business side of the video game industry. Unfortunately, the business side of things was Harris' primary focus. No matter how many times "the name of the game is the game" was repeated, to Harris, the name of the game actually seemed to be marketing. Yes, Sonic became an iconic character on par with Mario, but with the way Harris told it, it was marketing more than anything that saved Sega (of America).

Meanwhile, I wanted to hear about the games and consoles. There were a bunch of times, while reading this, when I considered DNFing, only to be drawn back by a random mention of the development of this or that game character, or even the disaster that was the live action Mario movie. That said, all of these Sega, Nintendo, and Sony employees weren't nearly as interesting as Harris seemed to think they were, and Harris' decision to write Console Wars as creative nonfiction meant that the book, on the whole, was much longer than it really needed to be.

The number of people Harris mentioned who were involved in the video game industry but were uninterested in video games as anything other than potential money makers probably shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. And kind of disgusted me, which was probably not the emotion Harris intended to evoke.

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

2026-05-04T01:19:04.650-05:00

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

2026-05-03T23:46:44.974-05:00

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: James (book) by Percival Everett

2026-05-03T22:29:35.252-05:00

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.

My book club opted to read the original Adventures of Huckleberry Finn prior to getting into this. However, I found it to be really rough reading and ended up skimming the bulk of it and relying on summaries I read online. James, thankfully, was a much smoother and easier read, despite being much more direct in its depiction of the ugliness and cruelty of slavery.

That said, this book wasn't without its problems. I wish Everett had stayed more true to the Jim he'd written, all the way through. The Jim he'd written would never have suggested that his Black companion, who could pass for white, should pretend to be his owner, sell him, wait for him to escape, and then do it all over again elsewhere. The Jim he'd written would have known this was a stupid and likely suicidal idea that could go wrong in a million ways.

The "choose one or the other" moment near the end also didn't make much sense. Was a choice even necessary? One person could theoretically have taken care of themselves for a bit, while the other was guaranteed to die without help. Everett set up a big reveal designed to explain why Jim made the choice he did and, in fact, why he'd stuck with Huck from the start, but that just introduced more questions, none of which Everett was inclined to even recognize existed, much less answer.

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

2026-04-13T01:48:00.000-05:00

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.

Thankfully, later chapters didn't feel quite so intense. Miodownik covered a lot of topics and different sorts of liquids, but somehow it always seemed like he spent just the right amount of time on everything. Because the book used one particular flight to guide its structure, it felt more focused than it might otherwise have been, because, in the end, everything led back to the various liquids Miodownik encountered or dealt with on the plane.

All in all, this was enjoyable read, even if Miodownik's repeated mentions of Susan, the woman sitting next to him on the flight, felt a bit weird (to be fair, she wasn't quite some random person, and he did encounter her again after the flight).

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

2026-04-13T01:17:00.001-05:00

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.

I love Chin's dog and cat artwork. It's wonderfully expressive and just so good.

As someone who's grown up with cats and read a lot about them over the years, there wasn't much here I didn't already know, but I still enjoyed and appreciated the way Chin presented everything. This would be an excellent guide for someone who's new to cats. Also, those who have been experiencing behavioral issues with their cats might come to the realization that they've been misinterpreting what their cats have been trying to tell them and exacerbating things.

All in all, this is a great little guide. It won't tell you everything you need to know about how to understand your cat, since they all have individual differences (it took me literal years to figure out that several of my cat's annoying behaviors, like squeaking the closet door or lightly scraping her claws on a wall, were meant to get my attention because she wanted to play or cuddle), but it'll help with the basics that apply to most cats.

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

2026-04-06T00:30:00.002-05:00

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

2026-03-30T01:58:00.000-05:00

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

2026-03-30T00:47:00.001-05:00

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.