Deep Sky (Kitasei)

Deep Sky
by Yume Kitasei (2026)

[AUDIOBOOK]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a random audiobook that I downloaded from the library because it was science fiction and it was short. I wasn't really fair to this book, as I downloaded it three different times, with other books in between, before I finished. I won't rate it, but I think, had I listened to it continuously over three or four weeks, I still wouldn't have a really high opinion of it. Also, I finished this last month, and then forgot about it. It should've been, probably, five or six entries ago.

I listen to audio books when I'm walking. However, the month of February had few walks in it because of the terrible weather and the snow.

The book starts as a sci-fi whodunit, an explosion on a ship on a one-way mission to start a new colony, which in itself was fine. But it blends in a second timeline of the women training to get picked for the mission, which was less satisfying to me. It was a way to get some information about the characters, but the competition is fierce so characters who didn't make it are included, which adds drama, but doesn't do much to solve the explosion.

Stealing from Google AI: The story is a science fiction thriller about a mission to colonize a new planet to save humanity from Earth's environmental collapse, focusing on a crew of young women who must uncover a saboteur after a lethal explosion occurs on their ship, The Phoenix. It's told from the perspective of the last-minute recruit Asuka. It blends a "whodunit" mystery with coming-of-age themes, exploring identity, belonging, and the relationships between the crew members as they navigate high-stakes survival and their own personal histories.

Me again: So the Earth is doomed, and we need colony ships. The first ship has 80 women on board and will take 20 years to get there. They live aboard the ship for 20 years -- no hypersleep. The women will also be artificially impregnated along the way so that humanity can start quickly. I was a little confused about this at first, but some of the children will be born and start to grow up on the spaceship.

The bombing forces they to solve the mystery before they can continue. Was the explosion an accident? Was it sabotage? Was it preplanned or is the saboteur on the ship? They come to believe that the saboteur is among them and need to figure it out and fix all the damage before it's too late to get back on course, or they'll live out the rest of their lives in space until the air scrubbers eventually stop working (many years from now). The children that will be born will have no future.

And, of course, there's the possibility of returning to Earth 20 years after launch, achieving nothing.

After a while, the backstories in the year before the launch bored me. Asuka, the protagonist (and narrator), is an unlikely candiate, but as events turn, she ends up being included, not through a Hero's Journey, but more through politics and bad luck for other people. It actually undermines your faith in the character to fix the problem. The resolution to the bombing was okay.

I'm not going to rate it on Good Reads because I don't know if it deserves 4 stars, but I don't want to give it 3 stars because of the way I listened to it. Maybe the Earth stories might've interested me more. I don't know.

I have no plans to read the book after listening to it.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Watchmen (Moore)

Watchmen
Written by Alan Moore,
Artist Dave Gibbons, and Colorist John Higgins (1987)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I know this is Moore's story, but the artwork really drives it, sometimes incredibly so. Also, I added the colorist's name (above) along with the artist because the colors and shading were a major part of the atmosphere.

Alan Moore's Watchmen started publishing around the time I graduated college. I had friends who were really into it. Finally, a friend loaned me his trade paperback -- he overestimated the speed at which I read. Anyway, I have vague recollections of the story. And I remember the extra material wasn't exactly extra -- the stuff at the end was similar to online extras for movies these days. One of the problems I had back then was that the first couple of issues had fake excerpts of a biography of one of the heroes. It was several pages of small print. I don't read comic books for multiple pages of small print. If I wanted to do that, I'd just read a book -- and back then, I didn't read that many books. This was mostly because I didn't read quickly, didn't set a lot of time aside for reading, and often picked the wrong books.

Ironically, my graphic novel class is the reason I picked this up again. I would love to share this with my students but I just can't. Nothing wrong with the story, but the copy came from my brother's apartment and it's from the 80s. I can't say that it's a first printing or anything like that, but it's valuable to me sentimentally more than monetarily. And my students are just not into my class. It's "basket weaving" to them. Many of them can't even read English, and without the use of their phones, they can't translate the text. Basically, they don't care and wouldn't appreciate it. So I'm protecting this book, and I'll find others for them.

For those unaware, this was probably the first deconstruction of superheroes. (If not the first, it was the first one to make a splash this loud!) The heroes were based on the Charlton characters that DC acquired, but the concept was so out there that the characters would be forever tainted and unusable ever again. So the serial numbers were filed off and the story redone.

Reading this nearly 40 years later, it's amazing to see not only how well it holds up but to compare it with more modern graphic novels, or even comic book collections published as trade paperbacks (but not necessarily one complete story). I don't read so many regular comics any more, but, of course, I've upped the number of graphic novels. The nine-panel per page layout is a bit of a throwback just in itself. And now that I'm teaching about these comics, I'm noticing things, such as how the story manages to switch focus at the end of the page, and when it doesn't, the first pages of the following page serve as a transition. I noticed the reuse of a lot of artwork as themes and moments (and time in general) are repeated. That must've saved a bit of time.

I actually put the physical book aside for a while and waited for the ebook to be available from the library. Regardless, I still read the physical book in class on Fridays in front of my students. But the ebook had two advantages: first, zooming in on the dialogue and the backgrounds, second, screen grabs of images that I'd like to use in class next year. I was taking photos with my phone (fair use), but they are warped from bent pages and they have light reflecting. Many websites that I visit for information about graphic novels will use images from Watchmen, so I figured this would be the best way. If nothing else, I could replace the photos I took.

Moving on...

Once again, I skipped the additional material at the end of each chapter (issue) and went back to them later. Some of the stuff that I remembered was stuff people had told me from those pages. I came back to them before the book was due back at the library. The novel was probably the worst to get through. The sheer variety of the material was intriguing, even being true the subject matter, including typos or bad typesetting. I wonder how much time and effort went into making those right, as opposed to writing the regular book. If nothing else, you got the sense that the world really thought that the costumed heroes were a little nutty particularly after the villains traded in their crazy clothing for well-manicured suits. The real enemy of the 1950 (other than McCarthyism, of course) was organized crime. Even the Superman TV show went there - fighting organized crime instead of Lex Luthor or Brainiac.

If anything, I had a better feel for the older period, the past of the story, then I might've had 40 years ago when that stuff was only 40 years old. One thing that still stands out was Rorshach's origin, or at least, the origin of his mask, which was tied to Kitty Genovese, which was something that I learned about in college or somewhat afterward. I might've heard the story before that and hadn't known the name.

I didn't remember a lot of the imagery, especially involving the Comedian. Looking at it now, it's obvious. But, hey, I think I rushed to read it the first time so I could give it back.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Class Is in Session: Teaching Through the Chaos (Patt)

Class Is in Session: Teaching Through the Chaos
by Shantel N. Patt (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Ms. Patt's background is not my background, and her experiences are not my experiences. However, I recognize her struggles and her frustrations because they're basically universal for all teachers. (I teach a higher grade level, and in a different part of the country.)

I recognize the signs of burnout and the uselessness of yet another PD (professional development) day. Few of those ever prove helpful because they weren't practical, or because they espoused methods or technology that never got put into practice, or whatever.

The suggestions found in these pages (as opposed to any library of random PD binders) will be more helpful to any new teacher and maybe the experienced ones as well. You're not alone -- there are others around you for support, and they're going through the same things.

---

Nothing to add. I requested this book because it was a memoir, which is on my 2016 reading list, and because it was about teaching. And it was short. Sad to say, I'm picking a lot of shorter books that aren't in series.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Ghost of the Dawnlands: A Tale of the Skadegamutc (Waters)

Ghost of the Dawnlands: A Tale of the Skadegamutc
by Robert E. Waters, J.W. Harp (Illustrator) (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

A Skadegamutc is a "ghost-witch" from Wabanaki mythology. In 1988, a sorceror from the Penobscot tribe defied death to become a ball of light. The creature takes the form of a sort of vampire/zombie to feed, and that's how it appeared when Joe Littlecloud and Horus Ruth of the VPA (Violent Paranormal Activity) department of the FBI corenered it, and almost killed it. But it played with the men's memories long enough to injure Ruth and then escape.

Littlecloud realizes that he needs to call Chimalis Burton, a FBI-VPA agent in Colorado who has a special, cermonial knife. Burton is currently on adminstrative leave while the FBI investigates the killings of federal agents while she pursued a different cryptid in Alaska, but she's cleared to assist Littlecloud in Maine.

And then the hunt is on, taking them through Maine and New Brunswick, to hunt down and corner the ghost-witch, all the while hampered by bad information being fed to them by an agent who is under the influence of the skadegamutc.

There were a few twists that I didn't expect, along with mentions of previous cases that I assume are in earlier books that I'll have to look for, ending with a satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed this book.

---

My first impression was that Littlecloud and Ruth were characters from a previous book and that Burton was a character from a different book, and that this was an ultimate crossover. The descriptions online only mention Burton, so this is her book, even though she's the last major character to be introduced.

Spoiler-y stuff: the book is also an ending for some characters as well as the ceremonial knife, which may or may not be repaired in the future.

I did wonder how they were going to kill it when it could mess with their minds the way that it did. They had to get it at a weak moment, of course. I just didn't want for something that didn't work before to work now, because the timing was better. Also, the knife gets removed from the equation, even though it's the main reason that Burton was brought in.

One comment, which I probably should relate to eSpec, is that FBI-VPA is never defined in the book itself. I had to Google it.

Since it's only a novella, it was a pretty quick read.

I now own seven of these books -- 1 paper, 6 electronic -- but I've only read the last two. At least, the paperback is signed.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

In Utero (Gooch)

In Utero
Written by Chris Gooch (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class.

Looking at covers and looking for anything different, I saw the cover of In Utero. Looked interesting. For a moment, I thought the book was going to be in 3-D and that I would need special glasses for it, but a quick flip of the pages informed me otherwise.

In Utero is an Australian YA graphic novel. It purportedly blends coming-of-age, sci-fi, and horror.

There's a bizarre setup where a young girl, Hailey, is dropped off at a day care program which is situated inside a deserted, run-down mall. Years earlier, there had been an "incident" in Australia, and the mall has been closed for a long time. Hailey wanders off when she meets an older teen, Jen, who isn't what she seems to be. They explored the mall, down to a flooded parking level where there is a giant egg. Jen is actually the egg, or rather, a projection of what is growing inside the egg.

At the same time, other kids have explored and found some odd kind of life forms that react to the them, much like a toy or a puppy might. When these things are discovered, Hazmat teams arrive to check all the children and staff, and to gather up the specimens. They make two mistakes: first, putting all the creatures together, and second, thinking that the canisters will contain whatever happens when there's a critical mass of these creatures.

A giant monster forms and starts looking for Jen, while authorities are looking for Hailey as well. It's up to Haily to save Jen and everyone else.

The book was mildly horrific, since it's YA. It had an interesting color palette, being mostly shades of blue, except for when it was primarily red.

It wasn't the greatest thing, or even overly enjoyable, but I was happy to read it. It was definitely something else. And I think I took a few photos of pages that I might be able to use next year if they give me the same class again.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Nothing to See Here (Wilson)

Nothing to See Here
Kevin Wilson (2022)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a Pandemic Book Club selection. Or an Alternate. I listened to it before the final selection was made. I was the one picking the books this month.

I enjoyed this book and plan on reading it whenever it becomes available at the library, whether or not it is selected for the Book Club.

A little background: A while back, I posted an image I saw online showing postage-stamp sized covers for "the best books on Good Reads for the past 10 yeasr".

It was suggested that I select three of them for my picks for the book club. Ugh.

As it turns out, the image was bogus. It was nowhere to be found on Good Reads, nor was there any sort of page with this information. What I did find was the best books, by genre, voted on by the readers, and lists of the Top 200 books, by rating I believe, for each of those years.

Each year had 8 thumbnails in the image. As best as I could tell, four of these were fiction and four were historical fiction. Those were the only two categories. It wasn't the top book from eight different categories. Worse, sometimes the top book wasn't even one of the eight images. And still worse, three of the 80 books weren't even in the top ten of either genre or top 200 of the year.

Actually, it might've been four, but there were three books in particular that I was unable to identify. The images weren't clear enough to read a title and I couldn't find matching covers. It is possible that it was an alternate cover, which happened in at least one other case.

Getting back to my picks: I devised a scheme in a spreadsheet, using the Good Reads rating and the page count. After Copperhead, I was determined not to have anything over 500 pages, and anything over, say, 350 better by damn good AND interesting to me. Keep in mind, nothing here is genre fiction. Also of most, I checked availability at the three area libraries.

Most of the historical stuff fell into disfavor because the most popular books of the year are going to hit the same time periods. I'd sooner find another Cold Sassy Tree! And a lot of the general fiction hit a lot of the same themes. Now, some of them might've been interesting from their descriptions, and I'd read them IF one of the OTHER members of the club picked them. But they weren't going to be MY picks.

That's brings us to Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. It was always going to be my number one pick, even as I struggled to find numbers 2 and 3.

A woman is hired to take care of a couple of twins that have a problem that they suddenly will burst into flames. Did I need more than that? I got my genre fiction. And it wasn't a horror book. It's not Firestarter, not Stephen King.

Lillian becomes the caretaker for her estranged friend Madison's two stepchildren, who spontaneously combust when agitated. It's a sticky situation. And the two friends have a strained history of their own.

We learn that Lillian who grew up poor and with a mother who didn't care about much of anything, got a scholarship to private high school. Madison is her roommate who instantly takes to Lillian because she's real, not someone pretending to be something, not another snooty rich person (like Madison herself, although she isn't snooty about it then). Rich kids can usually get away with anything. It won't matter because they all have rich parents. However, near the end of the year, drugs are found in Madison's room, and for once, the school is going to make an example out of her for all the other rich kids to see.

Madison's father doesn't want her daughter's life opportunites (not career opportunites, mind you) to be ruined, so he offers Lillian's mother $10,000 for Lillian to take the fall. Instead of being more lenient on the poor girl, the school kicks her out. She goes back to public school as a failure with a reputation, and no one expects anything to become of her, nor do the go out of their way to make her life better. She's a screwup. And the "college fund", of course, disappeared long before she got to college.

Flash foward a bunch of years, Madison is married to a Senator and living in Atlanta. She's been pen pals with Lillian the entire time. She calls Lillian with an opportunity to look after her two stepchildren whose mother passed away. There's just one little catch -- the children catch fire. Their clothes get singed but they're otherwise fine.

It takes time for the kids to trust her and start to do breathing exercises. They move into a guest house behind the Senator's mansion in Atlanta where they all start to grow on each other, except for Carl, who is an aide to the senator and her liaison.

Lillian does a bit of growing herself and loves and protects the kids. If I had a complaint about this book is that the story is too short -- I know, I can't believe I'm saying this. What I mean is that when would should be a big twist happens, the fallout isn't quite what it should be. Keep in mind, the title of the book is "Nothing to See Here" because stuff like this gets covered up in politics if you're rich, know enough people, and can exchange favors.

And yet, you'd think that the author would've turned up the temperature a little more. But I guess it had to be kept to a manageable, "cover-uppable" level.

I enjoyed this audiobook and reccommend it.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Fox Maidens (Ha)

The Fox Maidens
Written by Robin Ha (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class.

Looking at covers and looking for anything different, I saw the cover of The Fox Maidens. Looked interesting so I borrowed it.

The book opens with a brief lesson about The Joseon Dynasty, which ruled Korea for about 500 years, ending in the early 20th century. It also introduces the main characters and their class or station.

The story follows a young woman named Kai who dreams of being a warrior and who has been trained by her father. Her father remembers when his sisters were killed as children and were unable to defend themselves, so he allows her to train. Some question this but he runs the school. Kai's father also rose in his station by killing Gumiho, the nine-tailed fox demon, but others remember his more humble beginnings (think "new money" vs "old money").

Kai's mother was taken away as a child and brought far away work in the woods by men who are afraid of the fox demon, but know that she doesn't harm children. Kai's mother get sick and is discarded, but Gumiho rescues her. Years later, she betrays Gumiho after the fox demon raids towns now that the wards have been removed. Kai's father rescues her and kills Gumiho -- or at least believes that he did.

Kai's mother is barren, but Gumiho (who still lives) tells her that she can make it so that she can have one child, a girl. That girl, Kai, would become a fox maiden when she has her first moonblood.

Kai and her mother have to deal with this, neither wanting to worry the other. The secret gets out, and her father believes that Kai must've been killed years earlier and Gumiho took her place. He sets off to kill her again.

The story gets resolved but the ending is a bit rushed with a side character returning who was also in Kai's debt since she was a child. This one had a hard life and made bad choices, but they were the only choices she had.

Here is where the "queer" portion of the description of the book comes into play. Honestly, it just feels tacked on. I didn't find Kai any more "queer" than any other female heroine that didn't want to continue with the assigned gender roles of the time. Not until the two women get together at the end, at any rate. Nothing wrong with it, but I guess I just think that it could've been worked into the story better.

At any rate, I can't think of any other Korean stories I've read other than the following two: The Fox's Fire, by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (an American writer and my sometimes editor/publisher) contains a story with Gumiho in it, and I read a story about one man's escape from North Korea, which is an entirely different kind of story (and also nonfiction).

Next graphic novel, which I picked up at the same time, will be set in Australia. And I have more Book Club and Library Thing books to start.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Secret Winners Club (2026)

The Secret Winners Club
by Donna Galanti (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

"Don't talk about Secret Winners Club" isn't the first rule of Secret Winners Club, but it's up there on the list.

Three middle-school students with autoimmune disorders (one is hairless, one has psoriasis, one had developed spots) join together for support each other, and to help each win, whatever it takes. Vee wants to beat her classmate swimming the IM 200 and break a school record. Sunny wants to build a winning junkbot and beat a rival student

The first thing they decide to do is find experts and get their advice and help. This starts off well, but then doing whatever it takes to win, or wanting to win for the wrong reasons, takes a toll in the way they act toward both their mentors and their classmates.

There are more complications when Trevor's absent father returns, and when new club member Jolie has her own health issues.

They learn that everyone has their own problems that they're dealing with even if it isn't as obvious, and winning doesn't mean you get to be the bully.

I enjoyed this book.

---

There isn't much more to add. Suspension of disbelief that these three students have these particular autoimmune diseases in the same small middle school. And then the fourth has anxiety, although she tries to claima disease to fit in.

Sunny's mom left when she was young, as did Trevor's dad. Sunny wants to win so she can be in the newspaper and maybe her mother will see it and be sorry that she left them. Not that she wants her back. Trevor hates that his father came back, which increases his anxiety levels, which can worsen his condition.

Vee is the first winner, and she becomes what she hates, and then doesn't feel good about it.

Nothing hits you over the head, not even Trev's infatuation for another boy whom he doesn't know if he's also gay or not.

The book avoids a bunch of tropes and could've gone off the rails or gotten preachy in places.

It was a quick read.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Demon Copperhead (Kingsolver)

Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver (2022)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a Pandemic Book Club selection.

I realize that this book won a Pulitzer Prize, so my opinions don't matter much, except to me.

This book was long. Too long. Longer than it needed to be.

I listened to all 21 hours of it (and I listened to the first couple of chapters twice, like I tend to do). Despite not starting the book until I was nearly done with the audio, it will still a job to plow through it. I was reading, reading, reading, and still at 4% ... more reading ... 12%.

I made the mistake of mentioning this on the group chat about how far I'd gotten, and the moderator voted to push the meeting back two weeks. I can't make the meeting on that day. After another day or two of reading, I asked myself, why am I torturing myself. I have other things to read.

A couple of things to note:

First, I've never read David Copperfield, nor have I ever seen any kind of dramaticization. Second, I didn't even realize when the book was chosen that this was a modern retelling of it (side note: getting a little sick of those -- couldn't this Pulitzer Prize winner do something original). With a title like Demon Copperhead, I expected more horror in this version -- granted, we read two books by Brom.

The main character's name is Damon, but he gets called Demon. He's born in white trash and live a white-trash life. Any time things start to get better, they get smashed down again. And this roller coaster goes on and on, until it doesn't. Then it's over. The book could've been 100-200 pages shorter and it wouldn't have hurt the narrative. It reads like the novelization of a five-year TV series -- and by that I mean the old 20-24 episode seasons, not the current 8-10 episodes.

But was the ending worth the long ride? Again, no.

Also, there were a couple of tropes that I see often, which annoy me. One, the hero has nothing, finally gets something, gets to make one purchase in one scene, and then he's robbed of everything and left with nothing again. Recent examples of this were in the TV show "1923" and in the beginning of the book, "Kings of the Wyld". Now that I think of it, it reminds me of those old AD&D computer games, where you finish one game and move to the next where you're immediately stripped of all your possessions and start off with nothing again. Hey, if you can succeed once, you can again, right? Still, Damon could've had that bankroll for a little more than a couple pages.

A second one happens later in the book when his girlfriend gets pregnant, and Damon thinks that this will change things for the better. Within a few pages, she loses the baby after barely making a blip on the story. If this was a nonfiction book, that might be something. Here, just another way to take something away from Damon -- like when his mother was pregnant when she died.

So, basically, not a fan.

Final note: if I write another story set in some plane in the underworld, I'll be sure to add a "demon copperhead" that's at least 2 to 3 times the size that it needs to be.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Cooking with Monsters: The Beginner's Guide to Culinary Combat (Alsaqa/Truong)

Cooking with Monsters (Book One):
The Beginner's Guide to Culinary Combat
Written by Jordan Alsaqa and Illustrated by Vivian Truong (2023)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class. On a recent visit, I found this book and the title and cover sold me.

Imagine My Hero Academia, but it's a Cooking school for Warrior Chefs, Gourmand Academy of Culinary Combat. It looks like it could be a cartoon, but it isn't. Also, it's not manga, but definitely inspired by them. It's read from left to right, starting with the traditional front page for this country.

The world of the book is the country of Gourmand, and it's capital Gourmand City. And there's an archipalego that's full of different cultures.

The book opens with a young Hana Ozawa and Bobby Binh hunting a monster outside their village. They are overwhelmed but saved by a Warrior Chef, who slays the monster and fries it up in a pan (not really, but does prepare a meal from the meat). I forget the characters' names already, and there isn't much to go on online.

Flash forward a few years and the two characters are at Gourmand City to attend a Hogwarts type school for Culinary Arts. Students will train with Warrior Chefs, including the one we saw earlier. And here's where the drama/melodrama starts.

A broody/annoying girl named Olivia immediately is ticked off with with Hana for nothing that Hana did. It's all Olivia's baggage, but it drives a wedge between her and her classmates/friends and none of them seems to want to do or say anything about it, and basically treat them equally at fault. High school stuff where everything is blown out of proportion.

Add in a bit of "checklist fiction" to make sure that everyone is represented but it doesn't overwhelem the story (by becoming the story). In fact, I didn't see this description (not a review, mind you, but the capsule summary) until after I'd read the book:

Cooking with Monsters is Naruto with a cast of LGBTQ+ characters. It’s Percy Jackson or Harry Potter without a straight white man in the pilot seat.

Had I seen that, I might've skipped it because books that find this to be the topmost quality to promote about the book rather than its story tend to be, in my opinion, lacking on story. (Anger is a Gift comes to mind.)

There appears to be a love triangle forming, which while tired are pretty much standard in teen dramas, but this one will be determined by whether one of the three is straight or gay, unless they become bi. Again, in books that classify themselves as "queer", this sort of thing is more "fluid" than it appears to be in any high school I've actually taught at, not that I know anyone's leaning unless they put it out there for everyone to see. (And many, again, in my limited experience, prefer to be private about their feelings.)

Getting back to the book, I liked the artwork, although I used a couple of panels in my Graphic Novel class for both good and bad examples. The monsters were silly and dangerous enough with names reminiscent of Pokemon puns. The training and the fights, while no "My Hero Academia", were entertaining. I might watch an episode or two if it were a cartoon, but I don't think I'll read another book in the series.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Fantastic Tales of Steampunk (Lyman)

Fantastic Tales of Steampunk
by Jeffrey Lyman (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

Also of note: I have been published by eSpec Books, which also published this book. Final note: I've had a copy of "The Troll King" for a couple of years, having earned it as a bonus story for some eSpec Kickstarter event. I hadn't read it yet mostly because of its size -- I've been reading all those stories in older of size in my computer folder directory.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Fantastic Tales of Steampunk has five great stories. The stories range wide from creating bridges to other places to ships locked in ice and wary of sea monsters to a photographer taking photos for a police investigation aboard a dirigible that flew through the Harrow.

My favorites were "The Troll King" and "The Ring of Hours and Seconds" . The Troll King is protected by steampunk armor and has an army of similarly suited ogres. Forty-eight young men of the kingdoms must survive three challenges against ogres taking place on land, in the air, and underwater. Few are expected to survive, but ogres can be beaten. The question becomes, can the Troll King be beaten as well?

The Ring of Hours and Seconds is owned by a necromancer and must be stolen by Toten to pay off his girl's gambling debts. The necromancer makes a counter-offer, asking Toten to take on a different challenge, which could clear the debt if successful, or possibly kill him.

A nice, varied collection of stories showing what steampunk can do. Great for readers new to steampunk.

Other notes:

The first story with the bridges was a little confusing to me at first, but it picked up. The Troll King was definitely the winner with its Hunger Games vibes -- I left that out of the LT review on purpose. The arctic story was a nice change of scenery. I can't think of two many stories set in a similar location. I didn't follow the Camera story as well, but there are ghost in the blimp remaining from the Harrow, which in itself is an interesting concept.

The necromancer story has a great setup with airships taking people to different skyscrapers.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Rom-Commers (Center)

The Rom-Commers
Katherine Center (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a Pandemic Book Club selection.

This has to be a trope in itself: a rom com about two writers writing a rom com. Not that I would know because I don't typically read the genre unless I'm forced to, such as by a book club. It had the right length because my problem with books or movies of this type is that everything has to build to that last moment, and sometimes that last moment takes an agonizing amount of time to get to, and not in a good way. Yes, there were still points where I made've said, oh cmon already, but the groundwork for the excuses and delays were there, so as long as those excusde had a payoff (that is, a reasonable explanation, and I mean reasonable in their own universe), I was good with that.

Two side notes: I recall one Harry Potter book were quite a few people I knew were saying, "why doesn't he just talk to Dumblebdore already???!!!". And more recently, I was covering the topic of "The Hero's Journey" for my graphic novel class, both the 17-point and 12-point versions. It did show me what I was missing in my own writing. Also, it's said that Lucas used this theory to plot out the original Star Wars. If I checked, I bet Raiders of the Lost Ark would fit as well ... except for the opening scene.

Continuing...

Emma Wheeler gets a call for a dream job to ghost write a screenplay for a screenwriting legend Charlie Yates. Charlie's manager, Logan, was Emma's boyfriend in high school but then went away to college and then came out as gay. This confused me at first, until I realized that he wasn't supposed to be the other half of the rom com couple. As I said, I don't read these things. The love interest hadn't been introduced yet.

Emma puts her life on hold, as does her younger sister and ill father, and flies to California only to find that there's no job. Charlie Yates isn't interested in a ghost writer. One thing leads to another and Emma ends up staying one night. While she's there, Charlie inquires why she thought his screenplay (for a updated remake of It Happened One Night) was "apolyptically" bad. (They use a worse word.) He agrees to hire her for a consulation. To her surprise, he takes a lot of notes. And then he spends the night reading her scripts.

By the morning, when she's calling an Uber, Charlie's trying to convince Emma to stay. However, Emma knows what Charlie really thinks about her and has no interest in staying, especially if it's just to make the screenplay "passable" instead of doing it right. Charlie knows that the screenplay won't get made, but he needs to write it for a big wig producer's mistress (who wants to star in it), so the big wig will produce his Mafia movie.

Charlie gives in and says he'll do it right.

Antics ensue, especially after Emma overhears Charlie telling Logan that he'll go back on the deal once he get the script passable and be done with it. Emma stays because she needs the money and because she thinks she can change Charlie's mnd about rom-coms.

Through it alll, he hear about everyone's tradegies and traumas, which left Emma yearning for more and Charlie cynical as hell.

In the end, it all comes together ... until it all falls apart ... but then there's a chance ... but, no, not gonna happen ... okay, fine! Fine! Have it your way! ... oops gotta go ... okay, I'll follow ...

And then it comes to the prescribed happy ending that we've been assured that all good rom-coms have because their viewers (and by extension their readers) have expectations that must be fulfilled or else it isn't a rom com.

I enjoyed the book and was happy that it read fast. It wasn't "spicy" or "sexy", which are buzzwords that I've seen, because everything is delayed until the end.

If there was any problem, it was the extended epilogue that even my kindle suggested skipping, but I kept with it. I skipped the preview of the next book, which is about a cruise ship wedding and being stuck onboard.

I started the book on audio until the ebook became available. About two-thirds of the way through, the ebook overtook the audio. But I kept listening to the audio in case I missed anything.

As of this writing, the book club hasn't met yet. It meets on Friday.