Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us: 05/31/23

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (2023) promotes itself as a "life-altering journey through the science of neuroasthetics" but it falls flat on that promise.

The book looks at the neuroscience of the brain and how it has been studied to understand how brains react to experiencing the arts or more broadly, sensory pleasing things, even if the person being studied isn't aware of the benefits they are experiencing.

A typical discussion will begin with an anecdote. So and so studies such and such and found these reactions to this or that. Then the section will end with sweeping generalizations about how "we" thus experience and somehow benefit from the thing just discussed. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Within the body of the text, there's nothing in the form of citations or footnotes. The end of the book does include notes as an appendix but without the citations numbered in the text, it's difficult to tell what is fact and what is conjecture.

I read this book hoping more for a discussion of art with a blending of historical and cultural exploration. Instead, I read a book that's only a few steps removed from a typical self help book.

The most disappointing thing about this book is how blatantly it ignores neural divergent people. Likewise, it pretty much ignores non European based cultures. For nearly ever broad statement made in this book on how I should be reacting to stated thing, I found myself shaking my head, thinking, "no, actually."

There is a brief section covering autism and another brief section covering ADHD. Together these two sections are four pages long. For the section on autistic brains, the only discussion was on how Google Glass could be used as a high tech ABA device. Google Glass will fix autistic people and teach them how to experience the world like the rest of humanity.

Two stars

Comments (0)

Shadows House, Volume 1: 05/30/23

Shadows House, Volume 1 by Somato (2019) starts a manga series about a mansion inhabited by sooty shadows who enslave living dolls to be their faces. Through the relationship between Kate (shadow) and Emilico (doll) the true nature and horror of the Shadow House is revealed.

This initial volume is just focused on Emilico and Kate's burgeoning relationship. From how little Emilico seems to know about her world one can surmise that she has only just taken on her role as Kate's servant and "face."

The story despite it's off putting Victorian setting begins like a slice of life manga. There's a lot of repetition of events as each day unfolds. It's not until near the end that Emilico's world expands, first with a glimpse of another living doll and later with an encounter with another shadow.

The artwork and the unsettling mundanity in a setting that is clearly well into the uncanny valley is what keeps one reading. Through the routine, one can watch the friendship (such as it is) unfold between the two main characters. Through what Emilico learns about Kate, it also becomes apparent that Kate doesn't know all that much more about the world than her living doll does.

The manga also has an anime adaptation.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Read It and Weep: 05/29/23

Read It and Weep by Jenn McKinlay and Allyson Ryan (Narrator) (2013) is the fourth book in the Library Lover's mystery series. Violet La Rue is directing A Midsummer Night's Dream and has snagged the famous but flirtatious actor, Robbie Vine, to play Puck. Unfortunately someone has it in for Robbie!

A play plagued by trouble or even marred by murder is a fairly common trope in cozy mysteries. Jenn McKinlay plays on those expectations to keep the reader guessing.

An early scene struck me as odd when I first listened to it. It wasn't wrong per se, just odd. I took it as the author rushing through a scene to get to the next step of the book, which would have been the first steps of investigation. Turns out there is the reason for the oddities that is explained quite satisfactorily by the end of the book.

This volume stands out for being genre savvy to the point of being able to use and subvert the usual tropes.

The fifth book is On Borrowed Time (2014).

Five stars

Comments (0)

The Ghost Goes to the Dogs: 05/28/23

The Ghost Goes to the Dogs by Cleo Coyle and Traci Odom (Narrator) (2023) is the ninth book in the Haunted Bookshop mystery series. During Pet Mystery Week, the dog of the event's planner shows up at Pen's bookshop. Following Sparky leads Pen and Spencer to the woman. While Spencer agrees to care for the dog, Pen decides with Jack's help, to figure out who shot her and why.

As with the previous books in this series, there's an older case from Jack's time that ties directly to the modern day one. This time, it's a dog, Toto Two, who hires Jack to find a missing treasure a la The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930).

This volume also follows a trend I've noticed in post-COVID lockdown mysteries, namely there's no murder. There's an attempted murder but the victim survives. I rather like this direction that cozies are taking. It's nice to move away from the often brutal, obvious murders, that seem like an extreme solution to the typical motivations in these books. It's also nice to see some victims surviving, especially those that haven't done anything wrong.

Five stars

Comments (0)

My Dress-Up Darling, Volume 5: 05/27/23

My Dress-Up Darling, Volume 5 by Shinichi Fukuda and Taylor Engel (Translator) (2020) continues the friendship and collaboration between Wakana and Marin. This volume is set during summer break.

Wakana makes a succubus cosplay outfit for Marin. They do a photoshoot at a love hotel. Finally they take in the fireworks at a summer festival. Marin also tries to buy some outfits for Wakana but he doesn't really do western style clothing.

As Wakana is becoming confident in his work this volume is more centered on the relationship that's growing between the two. He's finding each project easier and she's having more fun than she ever expected. They're a good match.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Big Cat, Little Cat: 05/25/23

Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper is the tale of a white cat teaching a black kitten how to cat. Through repetition and variation, the story unfolds of the white cat's life and impact on that of the black cat and their humans.

Elisa Cooper uses simple black lines that remind me of Crocket Johnson's work in Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955). In terms of content, the book is a similar read to Grannyman by Judy Schachner (1999).

There's a follow up book, Yes & No (2021).

Five stars

Comments (0)

Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind: 05/24/23

Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind by Misa Sugiura (2023) is a middle grade urban fantasy in the style of the Percy Jackson series but using Japanese mythology instead. Momo and friends go on an adventure through an American cityscape as well as a fantasy one, to save the world and her mother's ancestral home.

Momo and her mother have lived in Fremont, California, since the death of her father during a storm at sea. She's bullied at school and things have only gotten worse with her mother's failing health and the appearance of a fox in boy's clothing. Just as things don't seem like they can get any weirder, she learns her mother is a goddess who fell in love with a human. The fox is there to help Momo save her mother (and the world). Then unexpectedly, she gets an offer of help from a boy who attends her school.

Where the Olympian gods had traveled west to North America to keep up with humanity, the Japanese kami have traveled east to North America. More precisely, they've included portals to their world in American cities: San Francisco, San Diego and Chicago, for example.

The mix of urban and fantasy was fun but the different scenes felt like they were strung together with little thought to a larger narrative. For a younger reader, for a reader who is the intended age range, these high energy scenes will be page turners. I however, wanted more ebb and flow to the pacing and maybe more time for characterization. Keep in mind, though, that I am not the intended audience!

Four stars

Comments (0)

Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons: 05/23/23

Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Victoria Ying (Illustrator) (2022) is the sequel to Diana: Princess of the Amazons. This is the tale of how Nubia and Diana became sisters even though there can only be one Wonder Woman per a prophecy.

Interestingly, the book opens from Nubia's point of view. It's the day before the big Solstice celebration We go through her day and learn first hand that she's the only child on the island and she's desperate for some company. So she ends her day with a wish and a sacrifice.

The next morning, Diana is there. Of course, I know Diana is the princess of the Amazons too. I grew up on Wonder Woman. However, if I'd read the first volume I would probably feel a sense of things being put right seeing the protagonist from the previous book.

The second third of the book, though, is the fallout of Nubia's wish. The two girls, who I know as close sisters, are horrified to see each other. Each is convinced that the other is a shapeshifter or a trickster. It's a bit more melodramatic than needed but it did keep me turning pages.

I do have the first book, now, to see Diana's half of the story.

Four stars

Comments (0)

Poirot Investigates: 05/21/23

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie and David Suchet (Narrator) (1924) is a collection of short stories where Captain Hastings is presented with a problem either by a friend or by Poirot himself. He does his best to solve the problem first and then recounts how Poirot came up with the solution.

These stories are really more puzzles than full on mysteries. They remind me of an adult version of the two minute mysteries my friends and I read in elementary school. The solutions are never as obvious as they might first seem. Nor are they even the slightly more complex solutions Hastings comes up with.

Instead, these short mysteries are an exercise in lateral thinking. They are the sort of solutions that are used in the cozies I enjoy, but without all the padding. There's very little fluff added: no extraneous characters, events, or B plots.

The audiobook read by the man who played Poirot on TV back in the 1980s does a good job of bringing these familiar characters to life. The stories are all told from Hastings's point of view and Suchet does a fairly convincing impersonation of the man he acted against.

Three stars

Comments (0)

Silver Alert: 05/20/23

Silver Alert by Lee Smith and Caitlin Davies (Narrator) (2023) is a novel about an unlikely friendship between an old man and a young woman who meet because of his wife's dementia. Herb and Susan had a good life — a second marriage for both of them — in a pink house on Key West. All that has come unraveled with Susan's decline and need for constant care, and Herb's own failing health.

Enter Renee (aka Dee Dee), a young woman with a rough start to life, working odd jobs as she saves up money. She's hired to do Susan's nails and ends up having a rapport with her like no one else has managed in years. Through that connection, she begins her friendship with Herb.

In alternating chapters, we learn about both of their lives up to this friendship that spans only a few weeks.

We learn of all that Herb has sacrificed to care for Susan, unexpectedly since she was so much younger than he. We learn of how an artist has been lost in her own failing mind. We learn how Herb's health has been put on the back-burner because of her.

From Dee Dee we learn of her childhood, of abuse, drugs, sex trafficking, and her current situation. We see that despite her rough start and her abbreviated education, she has the drive to continue improving herself, and her education.

And then in the last act of the book and of their friendship, they head off on a road trip, one which inspires the title for the novel. A silver alert is like an Amber alert, but for missing elderly people.

Their trip at the end is a bittersweet coda to an emotional rollercoaster of a book. It also places the novel on the Road Narrative Spectrum.

Because neither Herb nor Dee Dee have full agency in their lives, they are marginalized travelers (66). Their destination is Orlando (specifically Disney World), but more broadly, the city (00). Their route their is the interstate (00).

Five stars

Comments (0)

Fly Me to the Moon, Volume 3: 05/19/23

Fly Me to the Moon, Volume 3 by Kenjirō Hata (2018) brings us almost to the end of season one's plot. The young couple set out to visit Nasa's parents after he lets it slip that he is recently married. Although he's from Tokyo and still lives there, his parents have moved an overnight bus and train ride away.

This volume has three distinct parts. There is the life in Tokyo where Nasa and Tsukasa consider getting a larger bed and what it would mean to move into a larger apartment. The second part is the journey down to Nasa's family: broken out into late night ramen, a hotel stop, and then the train ride. Finally there is the meeting with the parents. Nasa and they are equally embarrassed and Tsukasa finds everyone delightful.

As a side plot, there is Tsukasa's family. They have been trying to break up the marriage for reasons. Right now they're mostly here for comedic inserts and frankly annoy me more than they entertain me. I don't like them in the anime either.

My favorite part of volume three is the trip to the parents, especially the late night ramen stop. There's the excitement over a famous local dish that for the two ends up being over hyped.

Their experience reminds me of an overnight bus trip I took from Morelia to Mexico City and a stop we made a restaurant about an hour out of the city proper. It was a famous hang out for famous people and my Mexican traveling companions recognized a few telenovela stars in the place. I meanwhile was eager to get back to the city and into bed.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Deep South: 05/18/23

Deep South by Nevada Barr (2000) is the point where I'm deciding to stop reading the Anna Pigeon mysteries. This is volume 8, although I've read a few more beyond this one, just out of order.

Anna has decided it's time to take on a managerial role. So she's taken the one job that will actually have her, and that means schlepping herself and her cat and her dog to the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.

Of course she won't do anything sensibly, and choses to drive nonstop from her previous assignment to her current without verifying the directions. Her decision comes after a career of being hazed, abused, and nearly killed by a number of men, including coworkers. Of course the last piece of the instructions are wrong and she's nearly stranded.

Rather than taking a day or two to unpack and acclimatize, she jumps into the first emergency which then leads to a horrific murder. Again, not knowing the area or the strengths and weaknesses of her fellow rangers, she takes lead on the investigation. Because that now shows "leadership."

Of course she ends up afraid (and rightly so) of yet another male ranger. Of course she ends up injured and abused. But she solves another murder. So yay?

My point is, Anna hasn't grown much as a character. But she's also set up to fail in a world where she seems to be one of only a handful of female rangers.

The ninth book is Blood Lure (2001).

Two stars

Comments (0)

Finally Seen: 05/17/23

Finally Seen by Kelly Yang (2023) is about a girl reuniting with her family after five years, only to discover that the American dream she thought they were living isn't as glamorous as she imagined. Lina Gao was left behind with her grandmother while her mother, father, and baby sister went to California. Now five years later when it's clear her grandmother needs assisted living, Lina is headed to California.

Life for immigrants is hard. Lina's parents: a scientist and an engineer are now a farmer and a bath bomb maker. On top of the scarcity of good paying jobs, there is back rent to pay as the COVID rent moratorium is ending. There's also the sluggish arrival of their green cards, meaning they are stuck with Pete, the organic farmer who doesn't pay enough for the amount of work everyone is doing.

For Lina, she has a language barrier that her younger sister doesn't. Though the school is supposedly a good one, she's teased for how she pronounces things and her lack of basic English grammar.

Like Front Desk (2018), Lina as she assimilates in ways that are easier for children than their adult counterparts, she sees where things aren't as her parents believe them to be. Her fresh take on things helps her family move past their current situation in ways they otherwise wouldn't have. It's not that she swoops in and saves the day, it's more that her complete lack of understanding of how things are makes her question how things should be.

Part of what helps Lina understand her new life is a graphic novel, Flea Shop. It's a fictional book, one made up strictly for the book. But, damn, like her classmates, I'm sold on it. I really wish Kelly Yang would take a turn at writing a graphic novel and write Flea Shop.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Perfect World, Volume 1: 05/16/23

Perfect World, Volume 1 by Rie Aruga (2015) is the start of a manga series about architecture and life after a spinal injury. Tsugumi reunites with her high school crush at a company function. At first she's horrified that he's now in a wheelchair but they reconnect over a shared passion for architecture.

This first volume introduces the reader to what life is like after a spinal injury. There are the limitations created by a society that is reluctant to built ramps. There are the physical and health challenges that come from prolonged sitting and not being able to feel one's body.

There's also the hint of a future romance as Tsugumi beings to see past her initial prejudices. She and Itsuki have a lot in common. How this romance will play out though, it yet to be determined. I suspect it's a slow burn spread over the next few volumes.

Four stars

Comments (0)

The Case of the Toxic Mutants: 05/15/23

The Case of the Toxic Mutants by Ursula Vernon (2013) returns to form after the detour into Wendell's brain in Nightmare of the Iguana (2013). Danny's paternal grandfather, a right proper dragon, is making so much of a fuss about his neighbors that he might be kicked out of his retirement home and forced to live with the Dragonbreath family. Danny, Wendell and Christiana all take on the task of fixing grandpa's problems.

This volume, more than the other eight books really feels like a product of its decade of publication. Put another way, The Case of the Toxic Mutants reads like the Dragonbreath universe's version of a typical early Ben 10 episode. I'm thinking of "Permanent Retirement" (Season 1, episode 4, 2006), except that the mutants aren't the elderly. Maybe think of it more as Rats of NIMH meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meets Futurama meets Ben 10 and expertly blended into something coherent and funny by Ursula Vernon.

What I'm trying to say is that this volume is built on the plot of "out of site, out of mind." H.G. Wells did it with The Time Machine (1895) and it was done again in Metropolis (1927). But the trope of the elderly being especially clueless to societies living under them was a popular trope in the early 2000s. It seems to have fallen out of use in the last five or so years.

As with the previous volumes, The Case of the Toxic Mutants sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Except for the previous volume, all of the books have been in the same grouping with Danny, Wendell, et al. being marginalized travelers (66). This time, the book's placement is adjacent to the second book's (Attack of the Ninja Frogs (2010)). Both involves journeys to cities (00), but this time the route is through the labyrinth (99) as represented by the confusing corridors of the cave.

The tenth book is Knight-napped (2014).

Five stars

Comments (0)

Drew LeClair Crushes the Case: 05/14/23

Drew Leclair Crushes the Case by Katryn Bury and Devon Hales (Narrator) (2023) is the next book in the Drew Leclair mystery series. Drew has promised not to break any more school rules and to tell her father if she does any more investigating. So that's what she does when things start to go missing from the PE lockers.

In particular, when Zora's charm bracelet goes missing and she receives a ransom note for it, Drew feels compelled to take the case. Zora is her best friend, Shay's, crush. She decides too, to investigate the other missing items, but she'll only admit to Zora's investigation.

As with the first book, Drew bases her approaches to investigating on the work of a particular criminal profiler. This time the case is based on a famous art thief.

In the first book, I mentioned how the narrator's inability to pronounce Spanish names and words kept pulling me out of the story and resulted in me knocking a star off the review. Although the "Junipero Valley Killer" isn't mentioned much in this volume, the one time he is, his name is pronounced correctly.

On the homefront, Drew and her father are still dealing with the aftermath of her mother leaving for Hawaii on the arm of a former school p.e. teacher. Now she's back at least long enough to reconcile with Drew and to sign the divorce papers. Her reconciliation with Drew is awkward and painful but ultimately productive.

I don't know if a third book is in the works. If there is another one, I will certainly read it.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Boiled Over: 05/12/23

Boiled Over by Barbara Ross and Dara Rosenberg (Narrator) (2014) is the second book in the Maine Clambake mystery series. Julie Snowden and her crew are at the Busman's Harbor pier for the annual Founder's Day summer celebration. They've brought their clambake to the pier but before the day can even begin, a body is found in their wood fire.

Given the company's shaking financial status, I would expect a body in the fire during such a public event would be the end of the company. Obviously not as the eleventh book will be released later this year. So given the narrative logic that tragedy, even repeated events of it can't close a business if it's part of a cozy mystery series, we'll move on.

Julie's newest hire, a young man she hired on a friend's say so is seen running from the scene just as the body is discovered. Julia can't believe he has anything to do with the body but to the police and everyone else, he's now a person of interest. Her pursuit of him will take her up and down the state.

Ultimately this mystery comes down to family drama and skeletons in the closet. The clues to solve the mystery are there out in the opening for the observant reader. Even though the answer is there fairly early, it takes Julie time and effort to find the proof.

The third book is Musseled Out (2015).

Four stars

Comments (0)

Crunch: 05/11/23

Crunch by Kayla Miller (2022) is the fifth book in the Crunch graphic novel series. Olive has new hobbies to focus on: learning guitar, making a monster movie for an upcoming film festival, reporting on the dress code at school, and joining scouts. Basically it's the same old problem: she doesn't know how to say to no.

Two things save Olive this time. First, she has a larger friend group who are willing to help her. Second, the adults in her life are more clued into how she's prone to taking on more than she can handle.

I did like how things have improved for Olive. She didn't dig herself into as deep a hole before her support crew helped her realize what was happening. I liked how she and her friends were able to have a positive influence on a school policy.

Watching Olive, her brother, aunt and friends work on the movie was fun too. What they accomplish is something to be proud of but it's still within the realm of what a group of kids would be able to do given time, resources, and experience.

Four stars

Comments (0)

Royal Blood: 05/10/23

Royal Blood by Aimée Carter (2023) is set in an alternate timeline, one where Edward VIII didn't abdicate to continue his relationship with Wallis Simpson. This means, no King George VI, no Queen Elizabeth II, and no King Charles III. Instead we have King Edward IX, and Alexander II. And we have his two daughters, the Princess of Wales, Mary, and our protagonist, Evan Bright, his American lovechild.

Since she was 11, Evan Bright has shuttled from private school to private school. Her mother can't care for her because she's schizophrenic. Her father refuses to see her, because she's an embarrassing side note to his life. And then, after she accidentally sets fire to a classroom and facing arson charges, she's whisked away to Windsor Castle, where she expects to be hidden with the staff.

Turns out things aren't as cut and dry as she has been raised to believe. The longer Evan spends with the royal family the more she has to question her entire life and her father's lack of involvement.

Along with the family drama and learning to live with the rules of the "firm", there's also a murder mystery. It comes after an attempted rape. The mystery was a nice twist to the plot.

This novel also happens to sit on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Evan as a by-blow is a marginalized traveler (66). Her destination is home (66), in that Windsor offers her the first sense of home since she was eleven. Her route there is an offroad (66) one, namely via air travel.

Four stars

Comments (0)

A Galaxy Next Door, Volume 2: 05/08/23

A Galaxy Next Door, Volume 2 by Gido Amagakure (2021) deals with the aftermath of their sudden engagement. Ichiro and Shiori clearly have feelings for each other but Ichiro feels obligated first to his much younger siblings whom he's raising since the death of their parents.

With his manga doing better thanks to Shiori's help, Ichiro has the time to have some fun with his siblings. Of course, now, Shiori is invited along. Most of the chapters, then, are focused on the different trips they take. There's the zoo, a dinner, Christmas, New Years, and finally a trip to an onsen.

The relationship between Ichiro and Shiori does progress. It's rather sweet and sometimes awkward but they're good with communication and good about including the children and asking for their opinions. Ichiro's siblings also seem to like Shiori.

I like that the plot isn't being pulled along by unnecessary melodrama. Instead there are the larger items: how to break the chemically based engagement (even though it seems that they will want to continue the relationship even when they're no longer forced to), trouble back home on the island, and Ichiro and Shiori's careers in manga.

Four stars

Comments (0)

The Bear and the Nightingale: 05/07/23

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (2017) was the author's debut novel. The blurb describes how a daughter, the youngest of a family must do what she can to protect her family from the encroaching dangers from a forest where it always seems to be winter. Maybe that's there eventually but in the hundred or so pages I read, I never got that sense of wonder of dread beyond the first ten pages.

Although there are fantasy elements, it reads more like historic fiction, set in Russia. It's written in a stilted manner, one almost always pulls me out of the story. English has a ton of synonyms, many which are hold overs from previous eras. This novel given the choice between the usual word and odd sounding one, invariably goes for the odd one. If the intent is to make the text sound magical, it fails.

On top of the odd word choices, there's an over abundance of description. Things that don't need to be, are. Things where a single word would do are given a lengthy, comma filled grocery list.

The final blow for me though, beyond the frustration and boredom, was the realization things wouldn't / couldn't go well for the main character. She's sold off to a marriage to a much older cousin. The Bear and the Nightingale reads like literary agony porn, and I have other things I would rather spend my time with.

One star

Comments (0)

A Midsummer Night's Scheme: 05/06/23

A Midsummer Night's Scheme by Harper Kincaid and Renee Dorian (Narrator) (2023) is the second book in the Bookbinding mystery series. Chad Hurt is back in Vienna with plans on opening a theater but before he can even start, he's murdered in a bizarre fashion involving poisonous snakes.

Quinn feels like she needs to help investigate because one of her handmade journals is a clue. She's also distracted by Chad's kitten, Cindy Clawford, whom she has taken in. Fortunately her dog likes the the cat.

As a side plot, there is Quinn's cousin, Sister Daria, who is coming up on the day she'll take her vows. The way she straddles her past as a rebel and her current situation reminds me of Sister George from Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968).

This mystery isn't a good one for anyone who has a fear or snakes or spiders. Highly poisonous species of both feature in a number of scenes. Beyond the creepy crawlies, the mystery was a good puzzler. I knew who it wasn't, but didn't manage to figure out who the murderer was ahead of Quinn.

Four stars

Comments (0)

Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking: 05/05/23

Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking by Raquel V. Reyes and Frankie Corzo (Narrator) (2022) is the second book in the Caribbean Kitchen mystery series. Halloween is rapidly approaching and Miriam Quiñones-Smith is busy with her Youtube channel, her cooking show, and being in charge of the country club's upcoming gala. Trouble seems to be following her too; the death of club's chef is just the start.

The mystery in classic cozy fashion is tied up in Miriam's education in food anthropology and her more recent skills as a TV chef. The clues are tied up in specific foods and specific ways of preparing them. A little knowledge of tropical fruits helps to solve the mystery as a reader, but Miriam does enough explaining to fill in readers who don't have that background.

There's a side plot where Miriam discovers she's pregnant with her second child. The discomfort of the first trimester helps to punctuate the different scenes. Unfortunately, her desire to keep things private until after the club's gala is over, adds unnecessary melodrama.

One plus, though, on the personal front, it was nice seeing Miriam and her husband acting in unison. He's still clueless about reading people and doesn't always remember to fill Miriam in on things, but he's at least openly supportive, even when she is forced to stand up to her mother-in-law.

Four stars

Comments (0)

Tootle: 05/04/23

Tootle by Gertrude Crampton and Tibor Gergely (Illustrator) (1945) is another picture book that has been discussed on Mastodon. Tootle is a young train who wants to go fast and has the goal of growing up to be the New York to Chicago Flyer.

This book follows a similar conceit as Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky (1939), where vehicles have childhoods and grow up and into their professions. The difference here is that humans are explicitly shown as being the teachers.

The big conflict for Tootle are the rules he must follow. Don't go too fast to upset the butter or spill the soup and always stay on the tracks. He is drawn to the freedom and interest of the flowering meadows that run alongside the tracks.

Ultimately the book is about how the human rail workers find a way to get Tootle back on track. Although he's been told he'll fail for ignoring the rules, he's also too valuable as a future Flyer to fail.

Four stars

Comments (0)

Curds of Prey: 05/03/23

Curds of Prey by Korina Moss and Erin Moon (Narrator) (2023) is the third book in the Cheese Shop mystery series. Summer Harrington is getting married and Curds & Whey have been hired to provide a cheese bar at the wedding rehearsal. But a strange encounter between the groom and Roman leads Willa to question her relationship with him and to wonder if the wedding will even happen!

Having read about a dozen wedding themed mysteries in recent years, I knew someone was doomed. The initial question was: the groom or Roman? Then the question is, who committed the crime when the frame was too obvious to be true?

Poor Willa being in the middle of all of this. She finds herself in a tug of war between the Harringtons and the mayor. Despite being in an obviously dangerous situation, she kept pursuing the truth with her undying optimism.

An interesting side plot was the recurring theft of wallets from women's purses at various community events. The framing of the teens from the previous book, Gone for Gouda (2022), was a nice parallel to the machinations behind the wedding party murder.

Five stars

Comments (0)

Gender Queer: A Memoir: 05/02/23

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (2019) is a memoir about a childhood in the Bay Area and the early years of adulthood while trying to navigate gender and sexuality while not fitting into the cisgender heteronormative binary.

The memoir while opening with Maia saying e doesn't want to share any secrets, is very frank and sometimes bordering on TMI. Of course that reaction is an ingrained one from growing up in a Puritanical society. Maia and the average American reader, even liberal ones, will probably share some embarrassment over the body and sex and other bodily functions.

Like Outbreak Diaries by Jason Turner (2022), Gender Queer doesn't really have a thematic arc beyond being autobiographical and being about confusion and dysphoria. By this I mean, the book starts, and mostly goes chronologically, and then it stops. I realize life goes on but little bit of a wrap up would have been nice.

Four stars

Comments (0)

April 2023 Sources: 05/02/23

Although April was much drier than previous months, I'm writing this post on an unusually wet May afternoon.

In April I read 20 TBR books, the same as in March. One book was published in April. Four books were for research and there was one review copy. None were from the library. My ROOB score for April is -4.24, down slightly from -4.19. It is my second best April in 14 years of tracking this metric.

The current year's data is represented by a triangle on the graph below.

I predicted a -3.96 for April and did much better. For May, I'm predicting an even -4.

My average for April improved slightly, going from -2.65 to -2.76.

Comments  (0)

Grounds for Murder: 05/01/23

Grounds for Murder by Tara Lush and Kae Marie Denino (Narrator) (2020) is the start of the Coffee Lovers mystery series. Lana Lewis is trying to learn latte art in time for the Sunshine State Barista Championship. But her cohort is dead and she's sure it wasn't suicide.

Before Lana took over her father's cafe, Perkatory, she was a journalist. Unfortunately her newspaper laid her off. So she's home to keep the cafe running after her mother died because her father is just too heartbroken to do it by himself.

This is one of those novels where the characterization and clues are strong enough for an observant reader that I knew who the murderer was on their first introduction. Even though I knew, I was still fully invested in Lana's quest to understand Fab's death, learn latte art, and bond with Stanley the dog.

The second novel is Cold Brew Corpse (2021).

Five stars

Comments (0)

April 2023 Summary: 05/01/23

April was finally a relatively dry month. That meant I was kept busy at the Sun Gallery, especially as we prepared for the Earth Day celebration as part of the Hayward Lit Hop. When I'm not at the gallery, I'm working on my chicken paintings, though I did lose a week to a nasty cold.

Once again I read one less book in April, 25, down from 26 in the previous month. Of my read books, twelve were diverse and four were queer. I reviewed 27 books, down two from the previous month. On the reviews front, 17 were diverse and five were queer.

I have thirty books left to review of of the 108 I've read.

Comments  (0)

Previous month | Next month