A book by two naturalists discussing the decline of some animal populations in Britain. These range from beavers (where people sneakily rewild them) to hedgehogs (so many hedgehog hospitals) to red squirrels (outcompeted by greys) and one kind of seal. They visit locations trying to spot these animals, and discuss the political issues involved with trying to save one species when balanced against others. Some good humor and trivia along the way, quite good

This is the next in this series, about some rough sleepers, and then some pretty white ladies, who go missing. Some bones are discovered in an underground location where they’re building a new chichi restaurant. Ruth the forensic anthropologist winds up working side by side with Nelson. There’s a lot of character development (and discussions of empathy for unhoused etc) and I felt like it was a strong addition to the series.

This is a series that I’ve been enjoying. This particular story is about religious pilgrims and the idea of complicated families. This is both true of the central mystery and true of the characters you get to know and the things they do to try to be good people. There are people battling various demons and you figure out some of the stories as the main story plays out. One of the better ones I’ve read in this series

This was a fun romp which can be loosely described as the goings-on of a space station janitor who happens on an extremely valuable piece of tech while he’s working. He works with some new friends to try to sell it while everyone in the universe tries to get it from him. A lot of fun ambisexual characters and settings. Some out-of-place-seeming extreme violence. Part of it takes place on the Moon. Overall a fun read and tees up a sequel pretty well.

You probably know Monteiro if you are a designer or work with designers. He is a “tell it like it is” guy who is in favor of strong unions, good jobs, unlearning some of the bad stuff from design school and making a lot of angry jokes many of which are very funny. I am not a designer, but a lot of his information is pretty applicable to anyone who freelances or has to work with clients at a thing they know more about than the client. This is an update from the original edition, some new stuff, some redacted old stuff. I appreciate cheap books. Good reading.

These Norfolk-based mysteries follow a fairly predictable formula but I’m liking them just fine. This one is about an airman from WWII who gets dug up in his plane but then it turns out he’d been shot, not crashed. A lot of “Which person from the mostly-insufferable rich family did it?” pondering while the police officer who starts out “heavily pregnant” in the beginning does, of course, have her baby at a pivotal moment. A few new characters who I suspect we’ll see again, with a bit of WWII trivia mixed in there.

A mystery that has a pub quiz at or near the center of it. You’d think this would be right up my street and it mostly was, but it’s a bit of an epistolary tale, told in two general temporal “chunks” through text messages, emails, newspaper articles and transcribed audio recordings. No straight up narrative. I did not mind this, and it was an interesting story, but there was a little too much of “Oh wait these are out of sequence WHEN did that happen?” for me but otherwise a great read.

A friend suggested this. I am a person who could probably stand to be more disliked (I am a pleaser, it’s not always in my best interests). This book is about Adlerian psychology seen through the eyes of Ichiro Kishimi, a noted Adlerian in Japan. It’s set up as a series of Socratic interactions between a young librarian (I know!) and an experienced psychologist. Parts of it are tedious but it does manage to get its major points across. I learned some things, had some critiques, not sure if it helped, but it was a fresh perspective.

What was this book even about? I did love the cover. It’s about a young wrestler on a low-end wrestling circuit who gets seriously injured and has to figure out what his life is about, washed up from the one thing he loved in his late 20s. He doesn’t know who his dad is. He copes poorly with relationships and takes the news of his girlfriend’s pregnancy and decision to have an abortion poorly. He gets along well with his mom. Each chapter is one little vignette about his life. Some are good, some are stupid. There is very little plot. Kwak is a good writer and there’s a strong voice throughout this novel, but I was hoping for more story, less character.

This book didn’t cohere quite as nicely as the one which preceded it. It was a very complex story about men who go to a hunting lodge, one of their party gets killed. There’s a “we’re all stuck here” snowstorm. Another member gets killed. The power goes out. That sort of thing, with a side story involving people who I knew and liked from the last book but which barely overlapped with this plot. I felt like the author has created a new series with two people who are at the center of it, but really only one was prominent in this book. I also felt like the author had a definite sense of the place she wanted the story to take place in more than she had a plot which would unfold. I like mysteries which take place in VT but this one was just okay.