Review: How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: Starter Villain

Starter Villain by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Charlie has lost almost everything: his career is gone with newspapers amidst corporate takeovers and the internet and Google taking up all the ad space. He came back to his hometown to look after his father. All he has left is his father's house, his cat, one suit, two ties, and a sense of humor.

And, oh, how I enjoyed this book. I loved the interplay between characters, the snappy conversations, and Charlie's very middle class American point of view. He keeps plugging away, with a dream to restart his life. Then his essentially unknown billionaire uncle dies and he discovers there really are supervillains. Charlie is everyone who is hanging on to the vanishing middle class as billionaire robber barons assemble monopolies and fire workers who think a union might get them a living wage.

Charlie's struggle is real, and then his life becomes chaos, which is every bit as funny and action-packed and relatable as The Kaiju Preservation Society.

Library copy because the minimum wage has been held down in spite of reason, productivity, inflation, soaring housing costs, and soaring corporate profits. Support the strikers!

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Review: The Magician's Assistant

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not a Patchett fan. The book was fine, but nothing stuck with me except the cover image.

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Review: The Golden Enclaves

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: Emergency Skin

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Obsidian Blue, Chris' Fish Place, and Char's Horror Corner!!! (That's an exclamation point for each of you.) This is so good!

Personal copy

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Review: Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID

Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID by Emily Mendenhall
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

2008 Apr 14

Some days are just like that: everything goes wrong from the beginning.

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Review: Mr. Wuffles!

Mr. Wuffles! by David Wiesner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

2014 April 24

Wiesner is astounding. Mr. Wuffles! is hyper-realistic, just amazing to look at, so vivid on the page. Wow. And also, it's an amusing little story. But that cat! We have an enormous jellicle cat that resembles Wiesner's and I am in awe of every picture. Even if you hate picture books, even if cats give you hives, you should take ten minutes out of your life to look at these pictures.


***

2021 July 15

This is part of my 365 Kids Books challenge. For an explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.

Sad bit in spoiler which you can skip if you don't like that sort of thing.

(view spoiler)[Calder Alexander Eno, our jellicle mentioned before, died in January. He was enormous and very snuggly, and he had been ill for a year which was very sad-making. Everyone adored him. Such that we had a Zoom call so family members who couldn't be present due to COVID could say good-bye. He was an amazing cat. (hide spoiler)]

Mr. Wuffles! however is not sad at all so it was lovely to read it and stay in the happy memory place.

Library copy

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Review: Anatole

Anatole by Eve Titus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My brother owned Anatole, so I didn't get to read it a dozen times. Oh, how I long to look at it again.

***

Almost worth the wait.



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