A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions

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.

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

2026-03-23T01:02:47.110-05:00

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

2026-03-22T23:29:54.258-05:00

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

2026-03-22T22:57:00.898-05:00

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.

It was fascinating, reading about how the companies functioned and the kinds of games they made. Although this was mostly focused on Wisdom Tree's games rather than Color Dreams', in some cases they were practically the same thing - some Wisdom Tree games were literally just Color Dreams games with a few tweaks and some bible stuff thrown in. No screenshots for any of it, unfortunately, although I was able to easily find some online (Durham's descriptions of the animal stacking in Bible Adventure's "Noah's Ark" and all the baby Moses stuff in "Baby Moses" were better than the screenshots alone would have been, anyway).

There were moments, especially later in Wisdom Tree's history, that were just wild - at one point, for example, Color Dreams got the Hellraiser movie game rights, prepared for the creation of that game by paying to use Wolfenstein 3D's engine, and then, when the Hellraiser game didn't pan out, squeezed some money out of it all by having Wisdom Tree release Super 3D Noah's Ark, which was essentially Wolfenstein 3D but with a slingshot instead of guns, angry animals instead of Nazis, and fruit instead of bullets.

In addition to the game stuff, I also appreciated Durham's examination of his feelings about faith and belief, and the way Color Dreams founder Dan Lawton's regret about convincing Dan Burke (a Color Dreams developer) to become an atheist mirrored his own feelings about trying to convert other people to Christianity.

All in all, this was a great read.

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

2026-03-10T00:45:00.002-05:00

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

Review:

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

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

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

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

This really was not the domestic thriller I expected it to be. It took ages for Holly and Robert to be declared missing, and I felt like a huge chunk of the book was hints of the overall problem/mystery (the angry former owner of the house, Holly having lots of personal details she wants to keep secret, Robert getting threatening mail, etc.) and a bunch of really boring home renovation stuff. Holly and Robert's entry sucked, by the way. Yeah, sure, it was eco-conscious and all, but not in a way that was doable without boatloads of money, which they were already spending like it'd never run out on luxuries like a kitchen table and a fancy stove they never planned to use.

I wish this had both leaned into its cozy mystery aspects more, and that it had been marketed accurately. Maybe if I'd gone into this with different expectations, I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, I just wanted it to be over.

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

2026-03-09T23:52:00.002-05:00

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

Review:

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

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

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

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

2026-03-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

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

Review:

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

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

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

2026-03-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

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

Review:

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

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

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

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

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

2026-03-09T22:09:00.000-05:00

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

Review:

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

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

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

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

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

2026-03-08T23:43:00.001-05:00

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.

Still, I appreciated learning more about Keita Takahashi and his unconventional journey towards working for Namco and designing Katamari Damacy. It surprised me to learn that he hadn't initially planned to become a game designer. Instead, his interests lay more in sculpture and design. It was fascinating to see how those interests ended up shaping the game.

Considering how many sequels the original game ended up spawning, it was also somewhat surprising to read that Takahashi was so focused on doing something fresh and original. I hadn't initially realized that he was only involved in the first couple games.

It was easier to get sidetracked while reading this than it was when I was reading the Silent Hill 2 volume, but I still enjoyed this, albeit in a different way.

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

2026-03-08T23:10:00.000-05:00

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.

There were a few moments here and there where I found my eyes glazing over a bit as I read this, but the authors were so clearly enthusiastic about their topic that they soon snapped me out of it. I can't find the bit right now, but I recall one somewhat dry section suddenly being interrupted by the authors mentioning how cute they thought a particular species of shark was.

I learned a lot while reading this, although I don't know that I'd remember exactly which species of shark the particular details belonged to if you asked me. My favorite section was probably the one on shark reproduction - I hadn't realized quite how varied it could be, although, to be fair, I suppose I didn't really think about sharks much prior to reading this.

Adam Hook's illustrations were plentiful and beautiful. I appreciated the ones that included information about scale, because there were times I'd definitely have assumed that certain sharks were much larger than they actually were.

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

2026-03-08T22:34:00.001-05:00

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.

Jones' efforts to grapple with her emotions were palpable and at times took over the book a bit. As she frequently said, she was trying to focus on the positives and those who'd supported her in whatever ways they could, but she'd grown up in this community and was enormously emotionally invested in it. Having people who'd previously praised her work with their children turn on her and coworkers she thought she could count on give her a cold shoulder shook her to her core.

One thing that this book did for me (besides remind me that hateful mobs are terrifying and that depression drains your soul) was remind me how libraries are generally supposed to deal with book challenges. It was a bit of a gut punch, honestly, a reminder of how different my own library's approach has been.

One of the reasons I went into academic librarianship rather than public or school was because I naively figured that book challenges and censorship wouldn't be as much of an issue. Seeing as how Jones herself only ever brought up public and school libraries, it's an assumption that many may hold. Things are changing, however, and another thing this book did for me was remind me that academic libraries could stand to learn a lot from the decades that public and school libraries have spent dealing with these issues and fighting these battles.

This could have been more tightly written, and it wasn't exactly an enjoyable read, but I'm still glad I read it.

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

2026-02-23T00:53:00.000-06:00

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: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (book) by Matt Dinniman

2026-02-23T00:17:00.000-06:00

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride is the sixth book in Dinniman's sci-fi LitRPG series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is the first book in the series to start with a "the story thus far" bit, which I heartily approve of. Anyway, this book takes place on the eighth floor, "The Ghosts of Earth." This particular floor is a facsimile of Earth in the weeks before the collapse and the start of Dungeon Crawler World. Regions are populated by what are basically recordings of what actually happened on Earth. Biological entities, like humans and animals, can't be interacted with. However, crawlers are able to interact with non-biological items and objects.

The floor is divided into three phases. In the first phase, crawler parties must find and plant flags on a living entity when they are at less than 5% health in order to transform them into something called a T'Ghee totem. In phase 2, the Squad Leader in each party will use a deck populated with T'Ghee totems and other cards to fight for floor exit keys. Phase 3 is a surprise.

Most of what I know about card battling games comes from Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. There was definitely some fun in seeing what kind of T'Ghee totems Donut and Carl would manage to collect, although in general the whole card battling system came across as a chaotic mess.

That didn't really matter, though, because more of my focus was on the characters, many of whom were increasingly coming apart at the seams. This, unfortunately, included Carl. Man, I worried (and will continue to worry) about Carl. The guy is so close to hitting his breaking point, and it's not like anything in this series is conducive to rest and relaxation. Donut is a blessing, both for readers and for Carl.

This floor included a lot of monsters based on Earth myths and legends, although they weren't always very accurate due to the aliens not necessarily caring enough to do the proper research. There were a few fun examples I recognized - I particularly got a kick out of the squonk. A word of warning, though: the whole "legendary/mythical beings" aspect was defined very broadly, which may be problematic for some readers. The example that most stuck out to me: Uzi Jesus.

On just about every floor, Dinniman brings things to the brink of disaster and overwhelming bleakness, only to suddenly throw readers a morsel of hope. Can he keep it up? I sure hope so, but I can't help but be really nervous about the next book. The threads of stuff that could go horribly wrong at any moment keep multiplying.

REVIEW: The Mantis (book) by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa

2026-02-22T21:49:00.002-06:00

The Mantis is the third book in Kotaro Isaka's Assassins series. I suppose you could call it a blend of crime fiction and black humor.

Review:

Kabuto is a highly skilled assassin who has wanted to retire ever since the birth of his son. Unfortunately for him, his handler, the Doctor, isn't about to let him go, nudging him towards high-risk jobs while hinting at the dire consequences should he decide not to follow through. Kabuto's wife and son, meanwhile, have no idea that he isn't just an ordinary worker at an office supply company.

Kabuto may be fearless while on the job, but around his wife it's another matter. His entire being is attuned to her mood. The one thing he wants to avoid is upsetting her, to the point that even his son has noticed how meek and submissive he is around her. At the same time, it's not that he dislikes being married to her. He does, however, find himself wishing to be properly understood, and so his few friends tend to be much like him, fathers with similar concerns and temperaments.

The book follows Kabuto as he lives his life and tries to figure out how to retire while also debating whether it would even be right/fair for someone like him to be free to live a peaceful life.

This takes place in the same world as Isaka's other Assassin books but, like the other books, could technically be read as a standalone. You'd miss out on some character and event references, but otherwise nothing too major.

I went into this expecting something with energy similar to Bullet Train, and instead I got something quieter and more reflective, similar to the Whale POV parts of Three Assassins, if the Whale had ever found someone he cared about. That's not a complaint, exactly, although it took me a while to adjust to this book's groove.

While there were indeed some assassin vs. assassin battles, the bulk of the book was focused on Kabuto's internal concerns. He worried about his wife's mood, was proud of and pleased with his son, and had increasingly complicated feelings about his work as an assassin. I went into this expecting it to be more of a thriller, but there wasn't really much of a sense of tension until much later in the book.

Honestly, this was a weirdly emotional read. Even though this wasn't at all the book I expected it would be, and even though I couldn't say I 100% understood Kabuto, this managed to win me over in the end. I did wish, however, that there had been more to the flashback at the end.

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

2026-02-09T01:30:00.000-06:00

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.

As things move forward, Shigeo finds himself having to put a team together to plan a construction materials expo. Mayumi teaches him about social styles theory, giving him ideas about how to approach various individuals at the agency. In the more text-heavy portions, the author provides tips for how best to interact with people who have different communication styles.

There's also info about project leadership, SWOT analysis, figuring out your own style of leadership (including strengths and weaknesses), and a few other specific concerns/questions one might have about facilitating meetings and conversations and leading teams.

This wasn't a bad volume at all, but it did occasionally feel more scattered than some of the others. Aspects of it felt like what you might get if you mixed the Business Problem-Solving and Strategy volume with the Resilience, Confidence, and Positive Thinking volume and The Psychology of Personal Growth and Better Relationships. Also, if you're not a fan of using whiteboards or a similar giant writing surface during meetings, you're out of luck here - the author loves them, and a lot of her advice relies heavily on using them.

REVIEW: The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design (nonfiction book) by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt

2026-02-09T00:05:00.000-06:00

The 99% Invisible City is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book looks at the design of aspects of cities that most people likely never think much about: manhole covers, traffic lights, signage, public drinking fountains, and more. The various essays often focus on specific intriguing examples from cities around the world (although heavily featuring San Francisco and Los Angeles, likely due to Roman Mars' location).

I came across this book while looking for accessible works on cities, architecture, infrastructure, and design. It was steeply discounted, so I figured "why not?" I didn't learn until later that it was based on a podcast, although I've now marked that down as something I need to listen to sometime.

The essay format of this made it easy to read a bit at a time, making it perfect for my evening reading routine. Overall, this was fascinating and enjoyable. If there was one thing I could change, it would be the illustrations. There were times when actual photographs would have been more helpful. At the very least some of the illustrations could have more clearly featured whatever it was the essays were focusing on - sometimes I couldn't tell what part I was supposed to be looking at.

REVIEW: Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary (book) by Barbara Cantini, translated by Anna Golding

2026-01-28T18:30:00.000-06:00

Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary is a children's fantasy book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Ghoulia is a lonely little zombie girl who loves the color purple, playing dress up, and spending time with her dog, Tragedy. What she really wants, however, is to play with the village kids. Her aunt has forbidden her from being seen by others, afraid that they'll be chased from their home. Then Ghoulia finds out about Halloween and comes up with the perfect plan to spend time with the village kids and maybe even make some friends, without her aunt finding out or anybody learning that she's a zombie.

I loved the artwork - great Addams family and Tim Burton vibes. Tragedy instantly made me think of The Nightmare Before Christmas' Zero, even though their designs were pretty different.

This was very much a "friendly zombie" sort of book - there was no mention of zombies eating brains, and the only difference it seemed to make was that Ghoulia looked different and could detach her body parts and then sew them back together.

I really enjoyed this, even though it felt like the ending came way too easily. It's a children's book, though, so I just accepted it.

Extras:

Instructions to help kids dress up like Ghoulia (or, more accurately, to help their parents help them), recipes for "Ghoulia's Purple Punch" and "Uncle Misfortune's Mud Mix," and four pages of "one of these pictures is different" activities.

REVIEW: The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale (book) by Jon Klassen

2026-01-28T12:36:00.000-06:00

The Skull is a children's book based on a Tyrolean folktale. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Otilla has run away (her reasons for doing so are never stated - she doesn't speak about her past) and is cold and exhausted when she comes across a big abandoned old house. A talking skull agrees to let her in if she'll carry him, since rolling around is difficult. The skull gives her a tour of the place and then, in the evening, admits to her that a headless skeleton comes every night to try to take him and will surely come tonight. Otilla promises to help him, and so she does, very thoroughly.

I love Jon Klassen's artwork. There's something haunting about his characters' eyes. That, plus the skull on the cover, made me want to read this.

This is a very moody, intriguing little story. In keeping with the folktale aspect, we never learn about Otilla's past, how the lord of the house died, and how the skull ended up in such a position (the skull, and presumably the skeleton, were originally the bones of the lord of the house).

In his author's note, Klassen talks about coming across a book with this folktale in it, and how it morphed in his memory to become this book.

REVIEW: We'll Prescribe You a Cat (book) by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda

2026-01-28T11:42:00.000-06:00

We'll Prescribe You a Cat is magical realism. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is divided into sections by cat: Bee, then Margot, then Koyuki, then Tank and Tangerine, and finally Mimita. Each cat section is focused on a particular human who is dealing with issues at work or at home and who has heard through a friend of a friend of a friend that the Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul is wonderfully helpful. Each person assumes this is a psychiatric clinic, and each is told by the doctor that the clinic isn't actually accepting new patients but that an exception will be made for them. The doctor then proceeds to prescribe them a cat that will somehow help them. The cat is handed over by a beautiful, icy, and somewhat disapproving nurse. Patients are given care instructions for the cats that resemble medication instructions and are told to come back to the clinic after a set amount of time to return their cat.

The patients featured include a salesman dealing with an abusive boss, a fifty-something year-old man annoyed by a cheerful new female colleague, a mother who has a habit of dismissing her child's troubles as unworthy of attention, a perfectionist handbag designer dealing with issues at both home and work, and a geika (Kyoto version of geisha) mourning the disappearance of her previous cat.

I didn't read much about this book prior to starting it and wasn't really sure what to expect. I was a little put off by the idea of a doctor giving people living creatures as "prescriptions" for their problems, and the start of the first story didn't reassure me much. Shuta, the salesman, was handed Bee with no warning and only the most basic care instructions. He'd never previously cared for a cat and didn't even live in a place that allowed them. Then there was the assurance that the cat would somehow help Shuta with his problems - not exactly a great reason to hand someone a pet out of the blue.

In practice, a lot of these "cat prescriptions" played out like temporarily fostering a cat prior to committing to adoption, albeit without the person initially having any intention of getting a cat. There was also a significant thread of fantasy running through the whole thing that made it somewhat easier to accept than "random doctor pushing cats on people as solutions to their problems." In the first section, Bee's presence magically led to events happening that the doctor couldn't possibly have predicted. The second section, with Margot, deepened the mystery surrounding the doctor and his clinic, the third section included something seemingly impossible, and the fourth pretty much confirmed that there was something fantastical going on.

The final section included some interesting revelations but didn't fully resolve the book's overall mysteries. I assume, for example, that the patient Dr. Nikke was waiting for was Kajiwara, but the book ended without him ever stopping by. I was also still left with questions about Nikke and Chitose and how/why they were doing what they were doing. There's apparently another book after this one, so maybe it'll answer my questions?

All in all, this was an easy and enjoyable read despite my issues with it.

REVIEW: The Poisoned House (book) by Michael Ford

2026-01-27T14:03:00.001-06:00

The Poisoned House is a YA historical horror/mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is one of the many works I've read, finished, and then failed to review in a timely manner. On the plus side, I actually took notes right after finishing this one. On the minus side, those notes don't tell me much besides a few basics and how things wrapped up.

I honestly did not recall reading this. Even my notes didn't do much to jog my memory, so take this review with a grain of salt.

This is set sometime in the 1850s. Fourteen-year-old Abigail is a servant at Greave Hall. She's treated terribly by the housekeeper, Mrs. Cotton, who also happens to be the sister-in-law of the widowed Lord Greave. Strange things start to happen that prompt Abi to think her mother is haunting Greave Hall, and she begins looking into the truth behind her mother's death.

I didn't look into this much before starting it, so it took me by surprise that this was YA (and probably the younger end of YA, at that). Overall, this was okay - it obviously didn't make much of an impression on my memory. The ghost story aspects of this barely warranted a mention in my notes, although the mystery, at least, was reasonably interesting, and I wasn't expecting how things turned out.