The book's pacing is very slow and I got more than half way through and found it hard to understand the motivations behind the characters or why they would even like each other. There might have been something lost in translation given that this was not originally written in English. It's hard to tell.

This has been one of my favorite volumes of this series of graphic novels so far. We get a story from the perspective of Hendorff, the security officer. We also get Keenster's backstory and his first meeting with Scotty as well as glimpses into his upbringing. I appreciated the exploration of the bullying he experienced on his home planet. His brilliant intellect opened up an opportunity for him to join Starfleet where he meets Scotty. Scotty immediately treats him like an equal which allowed them to quickly forge a friendship together. One of the more interesting storylines in this volume involves the Kelvin Timeline version of the mirror universe. Kirk is as unhinged as I expected him to be and there is a lot of betrayal and intrigue that made the story interesting. I'm looking forward to the next volume. This one will be hard to beat, though.

Asta has an amazing ability to bring people together to fight for a common goal as a team. I was happy to see Fanzell and Domina are married and living happily reformed lives. Mariella is living with them and provides dark humor to the story to contrast Fanzell and Domina's much more lighthearted humor. I don't remember these characters being introduced before, but the context is enough that it didn't really bother me and I didn't feel confused. It has also been a while since I picked up the manga, so that's also probably why.

The party finds themselves at the Country of Witches trying to negotiate magical help to restore Asta's arms. The nearby forest is attacked by Fanzell's former cohorts and Asta and the party end up fighting them off. The story never loses its hopeful nature and by the end we may have a new reformed villain on our hands. This was a very enjoyable volume and after a long break has reminded me why I need to continue this series.

I read this book as an adjunct after finishing Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. Despite this book originally being published in 2004, the updated edition helps it still feel very relevant. The information it provides about the opioid crisis and its connection to Purdue Pharma is still very important. It focuses on the way the DEA and American government was complicit in covering up the beginning of the opioid crisis. This of course contributed to the enormity of the crisis we have today. The book includes testimonies from families who lost their loved one to opioid addiction after taking Oxycontin and testimonies of former employees of Purdue Pharma. This book stand well as source of information about the crisis on its own, but I found it incredibly helpful to read alongside Empire of Pain which I also highly recommend.

This provides an excellent history and background to the Sackler family, the owners of the privately owned drug company Purdue Pharma. The book takes a narrative chronological approach to the events that display the Sackler's connection to the current opioid crisis in the United States. We are given a glimpse into each pertinent Sackler family member's life. We are shown how they came from humble beginnings only to eventually become notorious for their role in the opioid crisis. The author progressively shows how the Sacklers used Purdue Pharma and the aggressive marketing of Oxycontin to build their wealth on the addiction of a nation to opioids (specifically their opioid, Oxycontin). Additionally, they used the company name to gain immunity from legal prosecution. It was incredible to see how greed drove a family to knowingly push the sale of a drug that was destroying thousands of lives. It emphasizes the human susceptibility to corruption regardless of initial well-meaning intentions. It allows the narrative to take on an eerie tone as it progresses without obscuring the facts. The narrator of the audiobook is the author himself and his voice is serious but immersive. This made every important point in the book stand out and remain engaging. I learned a lot through my journey with this book and I highly recommend the audio book for this one because it is excellent. Might be one of the best non fictions of the year for me.

This was a very thoughtful collection of poetry that spans many themes including infidelity, racism against the black community, police brutality against the black community, abusive relationships, etc. The poems felt like they flowed for the most part. A few of them are more free verse and a select few read more like prose. I think there is a poem in this collection for everyone. This is my first work from these authors and I am looking forward to reading more in the future.

This was a very interesting look at Lois's character. It's a deep dive into the work that Lois puts into her profession and how she can hold her own when it comes to investigative journalism. Having Renee in the story was a lot of fun. We even get appearances from Lois's son, John, and Batman which reminds us of all the relationships Lois has within the DC Universe. The story reads like a murder mystery involving magic, intrigue, and Lois using her intelligence to outrun a murderer. Throughout the story Superman/Clark remains in the background. He checks up on her every once in a while, but you can tell that he respects her enough to back off and let her do her thing. I'd love to see more stories like this because I feel it really adds depth to characters that are usually more in the background.

This love story takes place in a span of 2-3 years, but the pacing makes it feel like it occurs faster than that. I think I would have wanted more glimpses of Rhys and Bridget's moments together in the years in between. However, I still think it was done pretty well. This book has a lot of smut with many moments of vulnerability between Rhys and Bridget. Through their relationship we get to learn a lot about both Rhys and Bridget. Both of them are lonely and are able to find friendship and companionship with each other. They don't like each other for a long time despite this attraction and it's not until they know each other that their relationship really starts to change. I liked this couple a lot more than the one from the previous book. I'm looking forward to reading more books in the series if I'll get more of this.

The book description was accurate in describing the male lead as an alphahole. I don't mind that in and of itself. What I did mind was that it does not feel like Alex redeems himself or has enough character growth to merit Ava accepting him as a partner by the end of the story. He overrides Ava's autonomy before they are an item. This often comes off as sexist and possessive rather than endearing. He even partakes in stalking at some point as a way of protecting Ava which read very 50 Shades of Grey creepy rich stalker to me. He causes Ava a lot of heartbreak at the climax of the story and I have a hard time believing that he could rebuild a sense of trust in their relationship after everything that happens. He just never won me over and I feel like he could have if his actions were not so unhealthy to me. I didn't mind his possessiveness in the sex scenes because it was consensual, but otherwise it just left a bad taste in my mouth. What I liked the most was Ava's friends and how supportive they were of her. I also liked Ava's personality and just felt she deserved a better partner. Overall, this was disappointing.

This romance takes place in the span of 6 weeks and I appreciated that the characters are self-aware about this. 

Dex is 12 years older than Winnie and is divorced with 2 kids. He moves in next door to Winnie and recognizes pretty quickly that he is attracted to her (as she is to him). He thinks about this age gap a lot when determining what to do about his attraction to her. I personally really liked that he had to really think about it because I felt like it was his way of being considerate of Winnie's future and self-aware of the baggage he would be bringing into a relationship with her. I think relationships with age gaps involving people as young as Winnie can easily become predatory. The fact that Dex was this self-conscious about it made me grateful of the care he was taking not to hurt her or take advantage of her. I'm not against age gap relationships in real life as long as both people are of consenting age. However, I have seen many situations where the older partner infantilizes the younger partner (or makes them feel like they are unable to be independent without them because they "know better"). Obviously that can happen in relationships of any age, but I feel like it tends to be easier to fall into those unhealthy patterns when there is a significant age gap with one partner in their early 20s. Dex harbored more on the cautious side in part because of this in a way that I wish more people who are the older partner in these age gap relationships would. 

Additionally, Dex and Winnie are both very likeable. Dex tries his best to be present for his daughters while also putting in an effort to keep the peace with his ex-wife. He doesn't always succeed but it's never for lack of effort. Winnie is super great with his kids and is very funny while also being hardworking. They have a nice grumpy/sunshine dynamic with Dex having a soft spot for people he really cares about. I really liked the side characters, especially the relationship between Dex and his ex-wife. You can tell that they both weren't a good match for each other and that's why they are now divorced. Despite that, they both just want the best for one another and try to be great parents to their kids. Overall, I'm hoping to read more age gap relationship books like this as well as other works by this author.