Cold Days is a good addition to the Dresden files series, especially in terms of character development. Molly's fate is especially interesting when compared to the variety of fates she could have that Harry saw in their soul gaze when she first became his apprentice. She gets close to having them all. The characterization of Karin Murphy seems wrong. I'm not sure if it's foreshadowing that she

could be infected and is acting out of character, or because she's lost without her job and purpose of protecting people to define her life

. Having Ace be one of the people Harry squares up against, and then having Fix be put in a similar emotional position as what led Ace to becoming a villain is an interesting set up that I hope will have a good pay off and set Fix further on the path towards becoming a main character. I really enjoyed the use of a variety of side characters, especially Mac, and I look forward to seeing how they will be further expanded on as dynamic characters. This wasn't my favorite novel in the series, but it definitely wasn't filler.

The first time I read this book, I was eight, and I have loved it ever since. I was cross-eyed and wore thick glasses and an eye patch to fix my vision till I was ten, and this was the first and only book I've ever read that had a cross-eyed main character.
This book lives in the vibrancy of childhood where the world is beautiful, magic is possible, and there's endless possibility in everything. Ruth White masterfully writes about issues like grief, suicide, poverty, and bullying, wrapped up in a transfixing story that pulls readers into Woodrow and Gypsy's lives, joys, and troubles in a way that feels like they're the reader's own.

I searched for this book for years. For some reason my rural American high school had a copy of the English translation of this novel in 2015, and it's stuck with me ever since. I finally got it through interlibrary loan, and while my memories don't line up with the actual plot, I enjoyed it exponentially more than I've enjoyed the other books I've sought out from my high school days of voracious reading.
The story shifts narrators as it shifts between chapters, as denoted by a name and title beneath the chapter number. The main force of the novel is the deep and tender friendship between Alissa and Evelin and what Evelin is willing to do to protect her dearest friend. It begins with Alissa's yearly Christmas visit to her father's grave. As with the previous few years, Evelin comes for moral support.

This year, their flashlight dies and Alissa falls through a weak spot in the ground into a crypt where the unrealized potential of a dead little boy has taken the form of a plant that draws Alissa to take and eat it so it may have the chance to grow inside of a person. As the story progresses, the genre slides from a coming of age story towards fantasy/supernatural. Simon starts the novel as an abusive stalker of an ex boyfriend whose only goal is to have Alissa as his girlfriend while still sleeping with other women and girls, and he turns into a depraved madman, hellbent on being Alissa's and owning her. He is physically and mentally drawn to her. Similarly Alissa's attachment to the real world weakens when she starts seeing the guardians that saves those who ask for help from the edge of death. After forcing a kiss on Alissa, Simon can see them too. Evelin's unwavering love for Alissa, despite not always being able to trust what her best friend sees is one of my favorite parts of the book. To love to the point of such monumental self sacrifice and to be trusted deeply enough for Alissa to trust Evelin to take the gift and know that she will be near without the ability to see her shows

a heart wrenchingly close bond that makes this book special.

I love the multi-generational love and sense of community throughout the story. The idea of small town charm and close knit rural community represented as something available and attainable for queer folks hit a note of longing that I'd buried a long time ago. To have that openness and to not have the fear of rejection from the community or one's own family in small town America plainly written in a book geared towards children is quietly and profoundly revolutionary. Violet standing up to the condescending bookstore employee and supporting her daughter's interest in STEM also brought me immense joy.

 It was really nice to see

gender non-conforming and transgender children be not only accepted, but loved and supported by their families and community. Lulu's role as the catalyst for Snap's magic manifesting because of their close bond and Snap's desire to see her friend get the hair of her dreams

shows that love and kindness are at the root of the novel's magic system. It's a really refreshing concept.
Overall, Snapdragon was an entertaining and quick read that's heartwarming and cozy for readers of all ages. It's full of an interesting plot line, cast of dynamic characters, and expressive illustrations. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

Ghost Radio tells the story of the intertwined lives of two boys who

met in the recovery ward of a Houston hospital after a car crash that killed both of their parents. The story is told out of order and begins by focusing on the horror radio career of Joaquin, the only one of the pair to survive into adulthood, and continues through a series of flashbacks, fever dreams, semi-religious experiences, and excerpts from Joaquin's radio show to push the bounds of reality for Joaquin and show the thinning of the wall between life and death.

I enjoyed the rambling nature of the story telling, the shift between perspectives, and the out of order narrative. By the end of the book it became slightly too surreal and disjointed, and the storytelling was less impactful. A few threads were left unexplained and it felt incomplete.
The episodic horror elements were interesting and I like how the author played with conveying the nuance of a radio show in a written work. I think some of the horror elements were lost on me in the disjointed nature of the narrative, but I would definitely recommend it to friends who like horror and suspense.

Knowing the book was published in 2007, and with Asperger's in the title, I expected some outdated terminology, which was the case. There was also an unexpected amount of internalized ableism in terms of how he considered himself when compared to other Autistic people, racism in terms of how he described Asian port workers, and possibly kink/fetish in terms of how he describes his wife "petting" him and calls her hands "paws" and his hair "fur". Despite having a close relationship with his gay brother, he at one point calls his mother's relationships with other women after her separation from his father "unnatural".
I chose to read this because I enjoyed his brother's (Augusten Burroughs) memoirs, and overall, I enjoyed this far less.
The first half is fast paced, about his early life and how he got into the engineering field using his fascination with sound and autism-related ability to hyper focus. The second half is full of false stops where it seemed like the memoir could have ended and been tied up neatly. I had to push myself to finish the last 50 pages.

The graphic novel didn't trivialize the terrible things Jeffrey Dahmer did, and it did give insight into the circumstances through which he was created, or at least not stopped. It felt weird to read about him in a positive light. The author specified that Dahmer's actions were unforgivable and that his sympathy for Dahmer ended at his first murder, but the narrative can be disconcerting at times.