Although I've seen Jae's books around, this is the first one I've read... And while I could be annoyed with myself for not giving them a chance before, I can't be too upset that this was my introduction. It's the epitome of a comfort read, the sort of romance that has you smiling from the meet cute to the HEA and all along the way in between. I loved rooting for Denny and Eliza--how can you not love a shy butch who takes care of her niece and a quirky femme realizing that she's queer as an adult, getting all blushy over each other and doing crafts together? They're too cute! Jae won me over even more by including a trans secondary character and writing her with respect. I only hope that she gets her own book.

This was cute and did what I hoped it would: Deepened the backstory, answered some questions, and made me feel more invested in the characters. I'm partially frustrated with the cliffhanger ending and partially excited to get my new questions answered, which I guess is probably the best way for a cliffhanger to make you feel. Will read Vol.3 when I get a chance.

A hit-or-miss collection of slice-of-life yuri vignettes. Some of these were pretty adorable, and I think that they would be great if expanded into longer stories, especially the one about the reaper and the girl she's supposed to usher into the afterlife. I also loved the art style and the fact that there were so many stories about adult women! But some of the tropes/plotlines were not for me. I do think that the mangaka's afterword here is one of my favorite I've ever seen--I like the slightly anthropomorphized glasses that do most of the speaking!

Oh, this book. It's a gut-punch straight in the emotions of everyone who ever wanted to find a magical door, or mirror, or hole in the ground, and disappear into a place that was, finally, home.

I've been reading this series since 2016, and I imagine that I will be reading them until either I die, the series ends, or it becomes egregiously bad. They come out like clockwork and are a small enough investment of my time. That said, I found myself underwhelmed by this installment. It's continued the trend of the last few, where I want more book, not to spend more time in the world but because there's not enough book to do everything McGuire is trying to do, or to do it justice.

I turn to Terry Pratchett when I need a book that will restore some of my faith in humanity and reassure me that hope is not a luxury, but a requirement to make it through life, and none of his books do this more for me than the ones about the Death of Discworld. Like a lot of Pratchett's writing, Reaper Man contains two stories: how Death comes to face his sudden mortality, and what happens to wizard Windle Poons when Death is not around to come collect him at the end of his life... or to collect anyone, for that matter. There's a lot of community in this book, as Death works on a farm and is pulled into the rhythm of life in a small town, and as a support group of the misfit undead forms to cope with the loneliness of their peculiar situation. If you want a book with plenty to offer in the way of wordplay, escapism, and heart, look no further.

I know that the snarky tone is not for everyone, but is very much for me, a tired and frequently confused autistic person attempting to be more social and who must sometimes interact with allistic people in the process. I made a lot of notes, laughed multiple times, and wished that I'd had this book years ago for other, ill-fated attempts at building my social circle that mostly resulted in relationships that either fizzled out because I didn't know how to maintain them or that ended after a lot of toxicity. My only criticism is that there are a lot of plugs for one of the authors' other books, which makes sense because this book is too brief an overview to go into too much detail about any one topic, but after awhile it starts to feel like a ploy to sell more books.

My Pulitzer-a-month project continues with The Night Watchman, a book that I ended up appreciating more than I actually enjoyed it. It does character really well, and presents a whole ensemble that you care about individually but mostly as a collective, which is fitting; although there are two standouts to focus on, this is really the story of a community trying to survive. And I think that Erdrich was smart to preserve this story as historical fiction because in doing so she secured a wider audience for it. But there are elements of the storytelling that just did not work with my inclinations, especially the way narrative threads fizzled out without satisfying conclusion. Yes, that's how things often work in real life, but I think that in writing fiction we recognize a certain level of inherent artifice. And for me, part of the artifice that appeals is narrative structure. I'm fine with an ambiguous ending if it works, but I do actually need an ending that feels like an ending.

I also found the winking horse vulva incredibly distracting, but when I asked a coworker who loved this book if that passage also stood out to her, she didn't remember it at all. So, YHVMMV (your horse vulva mileage may vary).

This felt like a weird interlude in the series, with a different setting and a different cast of supporting characters. And while this isn’t the author’s 2017 fault, Harry Potter references certainly feel different now. Not my favorite, but I’ll continue the series.

I picked this for my February nonfiction read because of the funny title and eye-catching cover, but I was pleasantly surprised by how seriously the author treats butts as a subject. This could have been goofy pop history but is instead a well-researched, if brief, consideration of the changing perceptions of women’s butts over time. Engaging enough that I read most of it in one day, and recommended for the feminist butt-enjoyer.