The Body in the Back Garden: 12/30/24

The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell and Daniel Henning (Narrator) (2023) is a mystery set in fictional Crescent Cove, about halfway between Nanaimo and Campbell River, BC, on Vancouver Island. Luke Tremblay is back after twenty years to take care of his late aunt's estate: a house and an antiques shop. On his very first full day back he discovers the body of a man who had been creepily interested in something of his aunt's.

Luke naturally finds himself as the person of interest in this murder. He had been overheard arguing with the dead man. The body is on his property. He doesn't have an alibi.

As so often happens in mysteries, the main character ends up falling for the person who investigates the murder. This time it's Jack and since Crescent Cove is too small to have it's own police force, it's up to the Royal Canadian Police to investigate. Yup, Jack is a Mountie. And he and Luke have a checkered past.

The mystery itself was pretty easy to solve because I read a lot of mysteries. But it was also fun to read. I love how Luke and Jack already have a history because so often the MC and the investigator take one look at each other and fall in lust which eventually turns into love. Here's it's friendship that has been threatened by misunderstanding that is now lust that can evolve into love once they have a chance to talk.

Jack is a nice bonus but what really pulled me into the book was how unapologetically Canadian it is. I read so many mysteries by Canadian authors for American readers (which I am) that are therefore set in the United States. It makes financial sense but I really love reading books set in Canada and would read more. That the book is set on an island I know and love is even better.

The book is listed as the first in the Crescent Cove mystery series. As of writing this review there isn't a second one. I hope it has done well enough to warrant more.

Five stars

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Lucy Undying: 12/28/24

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White (2024) is a sequel to Dracula (1897) because Lucy needed a girlfriend. That was the inspiration and I wish that had been the only focus of the novel because the attempts to make it feel like a modern day Dracula don't work.

There are three different story threads written in three different styles and four points of view. Granted, so is Dracula. It's written as a bunch of different letters.

But these aren't letters. One is a set of diary entries by Lucy and the other is a transcript of an interview / monolog from "the patient." Then in the present day there are chapters from the first person perspective of a young woman named Iris who has ties to Lucy's family.

Yes, the non-Iris chapters fill in the blanks but all these blanks between Iris and Lucy in the Victorian era are essentially noodle incidents. We don't need an Orlando decade by decade play by play of what vampires do in different decades. We get all the information we need to know through Iris and her exploration of the old house she's in and her own rumination on her life so far. She even goes so far as to summarize Lucy's diary (as always happens in books where the diary entries are their own filler).

Take all the crap out from before Dracula's arrival in England and all the crap after the end of Stoker's novel and just leave Iris's POV chapters. Then this novel would be a shorter, tighter, extremely satisfying sapphic romance. As is, it's a ponderous, bloated, boring attempt at a sequel.

Three stars

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Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake: 12/26/24

Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake by Sarah Graves and Susan Boyce (Narrator) (2018) is the start of the Death by Chocolate mystery series. But it's also the seventeenth book featuring Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree as amateur sleuth. The very first book is Dead Cat Bounce (1997) which I haven't read but will soon.

While the original series focused on Jake's move to a small island in Maine and her struggles to refurbish the old house she'd bought while raising her son, this one starts with her first big order for her new chocolate-themed bakery which she's running with BFF Ellie.

I think this is the first time I've read a spin off series from a long run series where essentially all that's changed is the location, and only by a little. I guess though this gives the author a change of theme.

One advantage to essentially starting in the middle of a much longer running series is that Jake, the family, her home, the fictional surrounds, etc, are all well established. Although Jake does introduce herself in the 1990s fashion of "Hi my name is Jacobia, Jake, etc..." which is such a cliche, the rest of the series feels modern.

The mystery involves a dead developer in the bakery and sleuthing while trying to bake a couple dozen chocolate cheesecakes with a tight deadline. All of this while a nor'easter is heading towards the island just in time for the Independence Day celebrations.

The clues were easy enough to figure out but there's lots of drama including a climax that's right in the middle of the storm. The author is skilled at dropping clues and keeping things interesting. It's the right balance between easy to solve puzzle and derring-do.

The second book (or book 18 depending on how you want to look at it) is Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake (2019).

Five stars

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What Does It Feel Like?: 12/24/24

What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella (2024) is a fictionalized account her diagnosis of a brain tumor, the surgery to remove it, and the year following. Eve is a successful novelist, happily married, and mother of five children. And then she's in hospital recovering from surgery she doesn't remember needing or having, with a slim to nil chance of living more than a year.

Despite the dire nature of Eve's situation and the equally dire truth behind the novella's inspiration, Eve maintains the upbeat, somewhat off-kilter goofy approach to life that is the hallmark of her heroines.

With Eve already in a stable relationship — a family — there's none of the usual padding where things threaten to go sideways with her relationship. Her husband is there from the get-go. He's always at her side except when one of her therapists is there. He's always willing to do what she asks no matter how many times she has already demanded it and forgotten it.

And in her case, and in the author's case, it worked. That upbeat attitude worked. Of course some of it is luck but sometimes the belief in a happy ending and the desire to make it happen works. That's what's here and it's wonderful.

Five stars

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The Graveyard Riddle: 12/22/24

The Graveyard Riddle by Lisa Thompson (2021) is a sequel of sorts to the Goldfish Boy (2017). This time the POV character is Melody Bird, the girl who likes to explore the cemetery at the end of the street. It's there that she meets Hal, a boy with an extraordinary story who needs help, even if he doesn't know it yet.

In an overgrown part of the cemetery there's an old house that has been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. Squatting in the house is a teenage boy named Hal who claims to be a spy. He tells a convincing enough story to Melody that she starts to help him, despite being wary of the stories people tell.

Despite being an adult and seeing what's most likely the real story behind Hal being in the cemetery, he's a very persuasive and charismatic person. It's easy to fall into believing his version of things just as Melody does. There are two other side plots that demand Melody's attention.

The first is the reality that her mother is selling the house. Melody's distrust of people stems directly from the circumstances with the house.

The second is a boy at school being bullied by the P.E. teacher. To make things worse, the coach lives on the same street. Again it's a situation of an adult's lies being taken over a child's truths.

As with the first book, the various threads are tied up satisfactorily. Not necessarily HEA endings, but still leaving everyone in better positions than where the were.

Five stars

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Lore Olympus: Volume Five: 12/21/24

Lore Olympus: Volume Five by Rachel Smythe (2023) covers material originally written during the COVID lockdown. It focuses on Persephone's dark past and the rumor that she slaughtered an entire village. It's not so much that she might have done it, but that if she had it was without the necessary permit.

In the present Persephone is missing. Hera has taken her place at the school to keep the truth from Hestia. Hades, meanwhile, is frantically searching for Persephone and tracks down a clue in a pawn shop of all places.

It was nice seeing the gods out doing things. It was nice seeing more of their worlds. This series has the habit of being conversation heavy with lots of similar panels. This one has a little more variety.

Five stars

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A Haunting on the Hill: 12/20/24

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (2023) is a sequel of sorts to A Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959). Set in the present, it features a playwright and her girl friend renting the house to workshop a new play that rewrites The Witch of Edmonton

Holly Sherwin has a grant to produce her play and while in country, somewhere north of New York City, she stumbles upon Hill House will out buying breakfast. Rather, she sees a dirt road leading off the main road and decides to take it. Midway up she's chased off by a woman with a knife or a rifle and then when she's looking for somewhere to turn around, she sees the gates to Hill House.

Before even being allowed in she notices weird things like time dilation. Time runs either too fast or too slow at the house. Despite that weirdness, Holly is completely enamored with the creepy house. And it seems that's how Hill House works. It's a spicy house that wins over victims with its spiciness.

In my 2019 review of The Haunting of Hill House and my essay The Three Faces of Eleanor (2018) I wondered about the evolution of Eleanor, the protagonist from the novel and the monster from the Netflix adaptation. This book offers another option, one my daughter actually takes as her reading of the novel.

Elizabeth Hand's novel weaves in witchcraft, British death/murder ballads, and pagan imagery into the Hill House lore. My daughter's reading of the original novel is that Eleanor didn't die in the car crash. She faked her death to live in the walls of Hill House like Eugene does in the film Housebound (2014).

The last sentence before Eleanor crashes her car is:

In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree, she thought clearly, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don't they stop me?

Her "death" isn't explicit in that paragraph. Elizabeth Hand provides a different out for Eleanor, though, it's only implied. Associated with the house, now are three woman, the old one in the trailer, an adult woman (the realtor), and a younger woman (the cook). Throughout the novel, Stevie, the sound designer for the play, insists that the women are witches.

What if he's right? What if my daughter is right? What if these Weird Sisters are the women the house has taken? The eldest would be Ur Eleanor. The middle one would be the mother from the 1980s (see the Netflix adaptation). The young one would be one of the more recent renters.

My point here, and I think Hand's too, is that Hill House is what you bring to it. Hill House is haunted by people, their expectations, and their fears. Hill House is liminal space, constructed to make the layers of time nearly transparent, nearly transmutable. That might be a good place to set up a coven, no? Or to scry for clues from the future?

Regardless of all the what ifs that are possible with Hill House, this version like the other two sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum.

All three versions of Hill House involve a journey to/through uhoria — an unknown time. Jackson and Hand's novels involve privileged travelers, while the Netflix version involves a family of travelers. Hand's version, though, agrees with the Netflix version, envisioning a route through the maze (being filled with traps and danger). Thus A Haunting on the Hill finds a mid-ground between the source material and the recent adaptation.

Five stars

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Dominoes, Danzón, and Death: 12/18/24

Dominoes, Danzón, and Death by Raquel V. Reyes and Frankie Corzo (Narrator) (2024) takes place three years after the previous book. Manny is now on his way to being a master chef despite his youth and Sirena has her own proud fashion sense.

While Miriam's boss in accused of killing a troublesome tour guide, she's in the middle of a cold case at the Country Club. Whose bones were found in the construction site? Are they related to the indigenous relics also in situ?

First off let me say how refreshing it is to have a mystery series give its main characters a break from finding bodies and solving murders. Second, Manny and Sirena are two of the most delightful fictional children I've read in long time. Third, I love how much Spanish is included in these books and how it's rarely ever translated. You either know it or you don't.

Another refreshing detail is how the two bodies are completely separate events. Although Miriam does come across information that helps solve the tour guide's murder her primary concern is the mystery at the Country Club.

Five stars

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The Magic of Oz: 12/16/24

The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill (Illustrator) (1919) is the second to last of the original Oz series. Ozma's birthday is coming up again and everyone is in a competition to get her / make her the best gift. Meanwhile, there's another attempt at conquering Oz.

Dorothy decides slavery and transformation magic is the best way to go after being egged on by Glinda. Instead of "four and twenty black birds baked in a pie" Dorothy says she's going to bake a cake and put thirteen miniature trained monkeys in there with the help of the Wizard.

Meanwhile Cap'n Bill and Trot the refugees from Baum's short lived series decide to bring back a magic flower spotted by the Glass Cat. Do they do any research beyond listening to the cat? No. To they walk right into a danger that will kill them despite the immortality for all in Oz that has crept into the books in the last decade? You bet.

Finally, there's a new attempt by the ex Nome king with the aid of a Hyup (Mountain Munchkin) who has learned how to transform anyone with a single difficult to pronounce word.

The inclusion of this oft repeated word in throughout the book is made all the sillier by a publisher included pronunciation footnote for a single word in the novel.

It's not for pyrzqxgl (the transformation word). Nope. It's patio. See the publisher was based in Chicago, the one place in the entire world where patio isn't pronounced anything like it is in the rest of the world. According to the 1919 footnote it's, "Pronounced pa'-shi-o" (page 73). According to Owlcation the modern day Chicago pronunciation is "Pay Show."

I wonder how pyrzqxgl is said there and is it the correct way to make the transformation work?

As with the other books in the series, this on is on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Again we have privileged travelers (Oz royalty, former royalty) (00). Their destination is the wildlands to either capture beasts or find a magic flower (99). Their route their is an off road one (66).

The final Baum Oz book is Glinda of Oz (1920).

Three stars

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Haunt Sweet Home: 12/14/24

Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker (2024) is set in the production of a kitschy ghost hunting show. Mara in need of work takes a job as a night time assistant on her cousin's haunted house make over show.

As the newbie on the crew, Mara ends up getting the worst night time tasks, namely, setting off the effects for the hauntings. This means hanging out in orchards at night, hiding behind bookcases, and all sorts of other uncomfortable positions and places.

For the most part the night time work gives Mara time to herself, something she enjoys. She also takes up carving, working on a portrait of a woman from an old piece of wood she picks up on one of her night time jobs. It's an art form she learned from her grandmother. It's a peaceful, albeit, exhausting job.

And then she get's an assistant. An over enthusiastic, sexy but annoying assistant. It's the point where Mara has to reassess everything she knows. It's fun and satisfying twist to an otherwise already fun novella.

This short piece of fiction sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Mara, playing the role of the ghost, is to the perspective of the homeowners, a minotaur (the monster of the story) (99). Her destination is home, namely the homes of all her "victims" (66). Her route there is the Blue Highway (33), the small country roads that take her out to the various assignments.

Five stars

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Assaulted Caramel: 12/13/24

Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower and Rebecca Mitchell (Narrator) (2017) is the start of the Amish Candy Shop mystery series. Bailey King, in line to be the head chocolatier at JP Chocolates in New York is summoned to Ohio because of her grandfather's failing health. Bailey's grandparents are Amish, though her father left the community to marry an Englischer.

Now Bailey is at her grandparent's sweet shop to help out while she hopes her grandfather can recover. It's clear early on that he won't. And then to make matters worse, the developer who wants to buy the entire street of Amish businesses is found murdered in the shop's kitchen.

I've been reading Amanda Flower's mysteries since she was self publishing only. She now does a mixture of self pub and traditional pub. The one series of hers I haven't tried yet, despite it being her longest running and most popular is this Amish series.

I'm a little reluctant to read Amish themed books. Not that I'm anti-Amish but I feel weird when they are used as a genre descriptor. Especially since I grew up with a Grandfather who was from a similar German speaking community (Methodist but similarly minded about outsiders) in Wisconsin. He spoke Wisconsin Dutch, a dialect of German that is now considered a dead language. My point is, I'm coming to this book hoping to see Baily's family and community as people first.

After suffering through Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth by Tamar Myers (1993) I decided to give Amanda Flower's series a try. Here's the thing, for fifteen years she has been entertaining me with well written mysteries populated by interesting and believable characters. She's proven herself and I should give this series a read.

The mystery is well plotted with enough clues to solve. Baily and her family are lovely. Through Baily's interactions with her grandparents and their neighbors we get a wide range of takes on what it means to be Amish. But we don't get long lectures on being Amish as we do from Magdalena Yoder.

I did find it endless amusing that the wife of the district leader is a Mrs. Yoder and is just as condescending as Magdalena. I don't know if it's an intentional dig at the series but I'm here for it.

The second book in the series is Lethal Licorice (2018).

Four stars

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Steal Like an Artist: 12/12/24

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon (2012) is a short how-to for any creative looking for ways to find and collect inspiration. The author is a poet who uses found art and then blacks out everything he doesn't need to create visually interesting poems.

The lessons are basic and written in a humorous tone. They start with the reminder that all art / all innovations are built on what's come before. Put another way, don't reinvent the wheel.

Then comes the where to find the inspiration. The answer is do your homework. If you learn about someone doing something you think is cool, make the effort to find out everything you can about that person's inspirations. Who taught them? Who inspired them? And then work your way backwards.

Of course if you're taking all these notes on interesting things and interesting people, you'll need to organize your thoughts. Here is where the author and I differ in opinion. He's a big fan of the analog. I'm a big fan of the digital. I'm not talking the cloud. I don't personally trust the cloud for my creative ideas and research. Instead I use my phone like a notebook and then move things off to other devices as needed.

The book wraps up with setting up one's workspace. Again the author touts the analog and digital. He starts analog, moves to digital, and then ends with analog. I typically go digital to analog and sometimes end with digital. You'll find your own workflow.

Five stars

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Ruby Lost and Found: 12/11/24

Ruby Lost and Found by Christina Li (2023) is set in San Francisco the summer after the death of Ruby's grandfather. She's grounded, forced to spend her summers with her grandmother, because she was put in detention for leaving school.

Ruby has an older sister who is getting ready for college. She's the perfect daughter. And the one who gave up on doing Ye-Ye's annual scavenger hunts across San Francisco. Ruby, who had done every single one with him is grieving. She's also worried about her Nai-Nai because she seems to be forgetting key things.

A lot of trouble in Ruby's life could have been avoided by better, calmer communication. Her parents are presented as stubborn, controlling, and unwilling to listen to their children, especially their youngest. I'd call them unrealistic but I've known parents like hers.

Ruby's summer with Nai-Nai sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Ruby and her Ye-Ye/Nai-Nai are a family of travelers (33). Their destination is the City (00) of San Francisco. Their route is a labyrinth one (99) as represented by the spiraling lines of scavenger hunts past.

Four stars

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A Sorceress Comes to Call: 12/10/24

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (2024) is a very loose retelling of Grimm's "The Goose Girl." If you take this version and Shannon Hale's 2003 novel, you'll get a full version. That said, I much prefer Kingfisher's fast and loose version.

Essentially the only two things T. Kingfisher has kept in her novella are the magical horse, Falada, and the geese. The rest of the nonsense she tossed out and filled with a critical and amusing take down of the patriarchy.

In lieu of a princess being sent to the next kingdom to marry, we have Cordelia, a teenager who has spent her life being compelled by her mother. Her mother, a sorceress, can use her magic to make Cordelia (or anyone else near her) do whatever she wants by essentially driving their bodies.

As travel and marriage are essential parts of the "Goose Girl", Cordelia's mother decides it's time for her to remarry. So Cordelia finds herself in the house of an older squire and his spinster sister, Hester.

Hester is the goose girl except she has chosen to not to marry and not to travel. But she does have a lover. Hester who can see right through the sorceress's enchantments, always just refers to her as Doom. She, her friends, and Cordelia must work together to defeat the sorceress and her familiar (the horse shaped thing).

T. Kingfisher is at her best with short fiction. This piece is tightly written with the clues to defeating the sorceress peppered throughout. How to actually do it, though, takes Hester, Cordelia, et al, hard work and research to figure out the process.

Hester as a 50ish woman is my favorite character in the book. She's going through the same troubles I am, including a knee that doesn't always cooperate and is often sore.

Like every other T. Kingfisher piece I've read, A Sorceress Comes to Call sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Everyone involved in this novel is privileged (00) and the arrival of Cordelia and her mother to a household of slightly more privileged people is the inciting event. The destination is a rural one as the squire's home is away from society (33). The route there is the maze as it's full of traps and danger (including the deaths of a few characters) (CC).

Five stars

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Absence of Mallets: 12/09/24

Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle and Angela Starling (Narrator) (2021) is the ninth book in the Fixer-Upper mystery series. Shannon and her crew are busy building tiny homes with Victorian theming for Homefront, a charity that provides homes for veterans. Meanwhile Mac is hosting a writer's retreat and seminar at the lighthouse. Unfortunately a mosaic artist is now dead and it looks like one of Mac's writers did it.

Punny titles are the norm for cozy mysteries. This title is one of those rare ones that seems like a pun but is literally true. It's not a pun because malice was definitely there and intended from before the murder.

I really hated who was killed in this volume. Usually Kate Carlisle sets up a terrible person who is then murdered by another terrible person which leads to a very nice person being accused of the crime. This time, though, the obvious very nice person who should have been framed for the murder ends up being the victim. I feel like the well established author / reader contract was violated with this murder.

My other complaint about this volume is how much it felt like a rehash of a previous book. The murderer and their accomplice, for lack of a better word, feel like repackaged characters from Shot Through the Hearth (2019).

The next book is Dressed to Drill (2023)

Three stars

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Painting Cats: 12/08/24

Painting Cats by Terry Runyan (2023) is an introduction to watercolor that uses cats as its focus. The lessons are contained in eight lighthearted chapters.

The first lesson is why cats. Here the author explains her reasons for focusing on cats are her subject. If I had been writing the book the chapter would have been "why chickens." The point is pick something fun and relatively simple to paint because you'll be painting a lot of them as you practice and hone your craft.

Next up is why watercolor. Watercolor is a weird medium. It's so often the first medium (beyond cheap wax crayons) that children are introduced to. The dry kind just takes water and a brush and away you go. Except water is weird. Watercolors act like almost no other type of paint I've used. Runyan's reasoning is that watercolor's unpredictability helps an artist learn to work with the unexpected and to ultimately loosen up.

If you're new to watercolors, or painting more generally, the third chapter walks you through what supplies you'll need. Besides paper, watercolors, and brushes, Runyan also includes pens, acrylic markers, and colored pencils. I use pens and markers in my pieces but haven't yet included colored pencil. That's on my list of things to try.

My favorite chapter was the one where Runyan describes making clothes for her cats. She does this by painting the clothing on separate paper and cutting them out. Then she collages them together with her painted cats and scenery. That's not an approach I would have considered.

Five stars

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St. Patrick's Day Murder: 12/07/24

St. Patrick's Day Murder by Leslie Meier and Karen White (Narrator) (2008) is the fourteenth book in the Lucy Stone mystery series. Old Dan Malone is missing and it looks like the headless body in the harbor is probably him.

Lucy has the scoop on the mystery because she happened to be there when Dan Malone's body is discovered. She wants to cover it and the investigation into his murder but she's distracted by her coerced involvement in the Our Lady of Hope's production of Finian's Rainbow.

More frustrating are the two in charge of the play. Dylan Malone, an Irish actor, who claims to be Old Dan's brother, and his wife, who is to star in the play, are a piece of work. Spoiled. Angry. Antisocial. And perfectly willing to take advantage of Lucy's good intentions.

This mystery starts with a prolog. I suggest skipping it. It's spoilery and doesn't need to be there. The mystery starting out at chapter one has everything you need to know to solve the mystery in a satisfying way.

The next book is Mother's Day Murder (2009)

Five stars

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Six Stunning Sirens: 12/06/24

Six Stunning Sirens by Lynn Cahoon and Angie Hickman (Narrator) (2024) is the sixth book in the Kitchen Witch mystery series. Mia's Morsels has been hired to host and cater a beauty contest that will help determine the next family to get a spot on the town coven.

Mia is struggling more and more to balance her job at the lodge with running Mia's Morsels. The demands of her time are becoming untenable, especially with the active sabotage of her boss at the lodge.

The toxic work environment at the lodge is a B plot to add tension to the mystery and to keep Mia too busy to focus. The mystery itself is set at Mia's converted school. A mother of one of the contestants is dead, killed by a spell bag left behind to thin the competition.

The down side of reading both series by the author, is I recognized the basic plot points underpinning this mystery. The setting is different and decidedly more magical, but at a nuts and bolts level, this book is similar to Hospitality and Homicide (2017)

Five stars

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Madre de los tiburones: 12/04/24

Madre de los tiburones by Melissa Cristina Márquez and Devin Elle Kurtz (Illustrator) (2023) is a Spanish language picture book about the author's journey from beach loving child in Puerto Rico to shark scientist.

The journey begins when young Melissa asks for five more minutes to swim. During that time she meets a talking hermit crab who shows her first the struggles the sea is going through because of climate change, pollution and so forth.

And then it shows her a future. Melissa sees her life unfold. She sees herself as a scientist giving presentations. She sees her work with various tiburones (sharks).

The story could have ended with Melissa as an adult but we're taken back to the original beach. All of this has happened in the span of those five minutes. It's a nice touch of magical realism.

The book is also in English as Mother of Sharks.

Five stars

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A Man and His Cat, Volume 5: 12/03/24

A Man and His Cat, Volume 5 by Umi Sakurai (2020) covers the topic of lost cats. Moja has been lost for some time and desperately needs help. Fukumaru sees a cat in need of help and races out to lead Mr. Kanda there, only to get lost in the process.

I thought perhaps Moja would end up living with Fukumaru and Mr. Kanda given the cover art. That's not the case. It's more that he's affected by the events.

Kanda has to choose to trust Fukumaru's ability to survive and hopefully find his way home while making sure that Moja gets the care he so desperately needs.

This volume also shows how Fukumaru has expanded Kanda's circle of friends. He has a community to help him find both Moja's owner as well as his own missing cat.

Fortunately this volume is an up beat one with happy endings for both cats.

Five stars

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Adulthood Is a Gift!: 12/02/24

Adulthood Is a Gift! by Sarah Andersen (2024) is the fifth Sarah Scribbles collection. This one also includes an afterword of essays on the author's growth as a comic artist.

Since I've been following Sarah Andersen's comics online from her earliest days of posting on Tumblr, her book collections are rarely surprises. More they are like visits with old friends. It's fun to see favorite comics presented in a new order or to see ones I've forgotten about.

This volume includes samples of her earliest posts on Tumblr. It was interesting to see how her art has improved and solidified over the years. I do recall the wobbly, quicker looking sketches but hadn't thought of them in years. I've gotten used to her current way of drawing her characters.

The essays also include samples of how she does her work. She still starts on paper and then moves to digital to clean things up. I find that interesting since I am often more and more doing in the other direction: starting digital and finishing traditional.

Five stars

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November 2024 Sources: 12/02/24

November I spent mostly reconnecting with my oldest daughter and with running errands with her. We also started a well needed deep clean of the house with her taking the lead. Then of course there was Thanksgiving.

In November I read 17 TBR books, up from the previous month's 16 TBR. One story was published in November. Seven books were for research. None were reviews. None were from the library. My ROOB score for November was -4.0, up slightly from the previous month's -4.15. It was in keeping with the last bunch of Novembers.

I predicted a -4.0 and was correct. For December, I'm going with -4.3.

My average for November improved from -2.91 to -2.98.

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"O City of Broken Dreams": 12/01/24

"O City of Broken Dreams" by John Cheever (1948) is a short story about a novice playwright disillusioned by the realities of Broadway. Evarts Malloy, his wife, and their daughter ride the train to New York from rural Indiana. Evarts has written the first act of a play that has been optioned by a producer.

The family has cashed out their savings to relocate to New York. They're wearing their very best which immediately sets the apart from the New Yorkers. They've opted to stay in a hotel they can afford and despite all the temptations, chose to live within their means. Fancy to them is taking their meals at the nearby automat.

Their entire time in New York is one eye opening experience after another. Evarts meets two different producers and attends a party with the Broadway elite. He sees up close how financially insecure they all are. He notes the dust, the disrepair, the ways things are worn down.

Rather than be swallowed up by the demands of Broadway, the Evarts get back on the train. Here though, Cheever pulls another one of his tricks. He leaves he ending open. They might have gone home. Or they might have gone to Los Angeles to try their hands at Hollywood. We'll never know. They will forever be on the threshold of a big decision.

Like the other Cheever stories, this one has a spot on the Road Narrative Spectrum. The Malloys are a family of travelers (33). Their destination is the city (00). Their route there is the railroad (00).

Five stars

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November 2024 Summary: 12/01/24

November was the horrible election and my first full month away from the Sun Gallery. The election left me emotionally broken and worried for my oldest daughter. We spent the month working to get her IDs updated, which we accomplished. So while I'm still worried about the future of this country, I'm at least more at ease knowing my daughter can leave.

Despite all that, I did get a commission which I've been working on. I hope to finish it this month. I also kept up with my daily watercolors and finished some digital pieces.

I read fewer books in November, 25, down from the previous month's, 26. Of my read books, 16 were diverse and five were queer. I reviewed 25 books, one less than the previous month. On the reviews front, 17 were diverse and six were queer.

I have one book from August, one from September, two from October, and eighteen books from November of of the 251 book I've read this year to review. I have also reached my reading goal of 250 books for the year.

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