It’s hard when you don’t like someone’s deeply personal memoir, but I didn’t. The front cover of this book made it seem like it was about snacks and... er... joy. The back cover makes it more clear that it’s about the author’s lifelong struggle with some sort of disordered eating, an unhelpful bad relationship with a foodie who is always pressuring her to be different from how she is, and a confusing relationship with both her parents and her body. A lot of it was told in a roundabout non-linear style so I wasn’t even sure what was going on a lot of the time. It starts off talking about her doing some form of burlesque which seems like it might be fun, but that’s not revisited until the last few pages of the book. The author thanks her therapists among other people in the acknowledgments at the end, but it’s not really clear how she’s gotten to the place where she is and therapy isn’t mentioned at all in the course of the book (despite me the reader thinking "This person should try therapy").

I knew this book wasn’t going to be great. But I got a used Apple Watch (my partner has one, he likes it, was I just reflexively disliking it?) and I wanted to learn about it without watching a video or reading AI slop websites. It’s an older watch, I figured an older book would be okay. I learned HTML from a Dummies guide, how bad could it be? Well, THEY MISSPELLED THE WORD WATCH, for one. The book had tons of typos, the kind spellchecker should fix. A lot of the text felt copied straight from Apple’s marketing materials, talking about what features would be coming soon. A lot of awful “jokes.” I learned about maybe four features and otherwise feel dumber for having read it.

A short novel about Mara, a youngish woman who doesn’t quite fit in with her family or life in general. After drifting about, she lands a job on the night shift of a reality TV show about people who buy houses and then find out they are haunted. Her cousin is the “talent” on this show but he barely gives her the time of day. You’d think it would be tough to find enough people for a haunted house reality show, but the crew gives extra haunting nudges along the way. Mara’s a bit of a loner and still figuring things out and the show gives her life a temporary focus.

A short fun graphic novel about Vern who is having a tough time coping with the earth being a mess. He’s burned out and moves back home. His mom and grandma nudge him into a job at Quasar which... does what exactly? Stuff happens on an interdimensional level and Vern has a front-row seat. This is one of those graphic novels which really feels like it was a lot of fun to draw: quirky, trippy, and colorful, with a good sense of humor and a good heart at the center of it.

A graphic novel about a shipwreck and the drama trying to figure out who was legally entitled to the treasure. It involves diplomats, lawyers, treasure hunters and US, Peruvian and Spanish jurisdiction. Based on a true story (which I did not read up on until afterwards) it’s an interesting and well-told and easy to follow story even though it was clearly a pretty convoluted situation at the time.

An exceptional book about wildlife, specifically tiger, conservation in Siberia and also to a lesser degree in China. Slaght, who also wrote a compelling book about fish owls in the same region, talks about US/Russian cooperation for the Siberian Tiger Project from the early 90s until now. A lot changes, a lot stays the same. Color photos of amazing animals and a lot of nerdy science. You really get to know the place; an excellent geopolitical conservation tale.

Another one of the forensic anthropologist mysteries where we again are working towards a thrilling conclusion of the series. This one had a convoluted mystery, a lot of rando characters with similar-sounding names and not a lot of history stuff which is usually my favorite part. And then there’s the overarching plot arc which continued in a good way. A nice familiar read but not one of my faves of the series.

I’ve liked Barry’s other books and I liked this one in a different way. It’s a straight up long-haul forever-war sort of story about a crew of four flawed people on a four-year tour of deep space with a mission to kill a seemingly endless supply of one type of alien creatures. Oh and their ship is run by an AI so sophisticated that the humans are really only there for PR purposes, and maybe to help the AI company sell more AI. Written in 2020 but still feels fresh. That said, there’s a lot going on in the past maybe 5% of the book which made me feel differently about the first 95%.

A graphic novel memoir about the author’s journey to the US starting as a Vietnamese refugee coming to Thailand on a boat under awful conditions & slowly getting to the US and eventually becoming the graphic novelist and cartoonist that he is today. It’s told in chapters each of which has a different food (some Vietnamese and some very much not) as a framing device. It’s really interesting getting to see the refugee experience through the eyes of a child. A well told story.

Another one in this series with a slightly confusing cast of whodunit characters, a bike race, and some local lore at the center of it. This particular book took a big jump in a few plot points, mainly in good ways but some in less-plausible-feeling ways. Feels a bit like the author is trying to readjust some story arcs to wrap it all up which it does a few books from now. I enjoyed getting to see the same folks again, but not my fave of the mysteries.