July Reading


Get cooking by Sam Stern and Susan Stern (Y, review)
Apparently you can be called world famous if you publish four cookbooks and have a column in Yorkshire Magazine. Nice recipes, but his publishers did him a disservice in the packaging and non-editing for US audiences. One star.

Crap: how to deal with annoying teachers, bosses, backstabbers, and other stuff that stinks / Erin Elisabeth Conley, Karen Macklin, Jake Miller (Y)
A very basic (for a grownup, anyway) summary of how to deal with other people’s crap. Very uplifting. Yet quite short. Three stars.

The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror, Beverly Gage
One of those wonderful history books that pulls you into the story and also manages to make the necessary background information fascinating. I loved the information on the anarchists in the US, the detective agencies, and the political movements changed by the events on Wall Street. So good. Five stars.

Yokai attack!: the Japanese monster survival guide, Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt (Y)
By translating couple who straddle American and Japanese culture, a guide to yokai– some mixture of creatures of folklore and urban legend, with a little boogieman and saint mixed in, too. It cleared up several things that had been puzzling me from Japanese movies and books. I also really liked that they included representations of the yokai in art. Four stars.

Wondermark, Vol. 2: Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death, David Malki
Still very entertaining comic strips. Four stars.

Chainsawsuit, Chainsawsuit 2
Funny! Four stars.

Why is snot green?: and other extremely important questions (and answers), Glenn Murphy (Y)
UK import, very well done. Informative without being obnoxious, accessible without being insulting. And I learned stuff, even! I’m sorry the snot questions wasn’t first, but was pleased otherwise. Three stars.

Jack Tumor, Anthony McGowan (Y, review)
I really must stop taking review books with cancer in them. Good writing, but terrible everything else (plotting, structure, characterization, and the original premise came out looking a lot like Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini, a far superior book overall). One star.

Vicious Circle, Mike Carey
The second Felix Castor mystery, and better, I think, or else I knew what to expect this time. Fun, fast moving, cool magic and supernatural stuff, and excellent detectiving. Four stars.