A quick, fun short story set in the same world as Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang's In Real Life. You can read it for free at the url in the description.

This is a very short book (barely 80 pages) aimed at young readers. Clarion and Annette are both trainees at a magical veterinarian's office. On the day they are left in charge of the place, all hell breaks loose in the form of a rabbit with hypnotic powers. Before the pair have even realized it's escaped its cage, it already has a griffin, a python and a fox under its control. With some quick thinking, luck, and an unlikely ally they are able to get things set right. It's a sweet story with very cute art but I found the length somewhat unsatisfying. I can tell it's the first of a series- I will probably wait until there are two or three more books out before I pick it up again so I can read a bigger chunk in one sitting.

Short, weird and beautiful. The back cover has a quote by Kelly Link, which was appropriate, as this comic almost feels like something she could have written. But instead it was written and drawn by Carolyn Nowak, a true talent I am glad to have finally discovered!

Ryan North is a clever and inventive writer which a knack for pushing a fictional situation to the extremes of logical absurdity. In this book he mixes science fiction and Greek myths, specifically the myth of King Midas's foolish wish that everything he touch turns to gold. In this story, the touch was so powerful that every single part of planet Earth has been converted, killing the whole planet in the time of the ancient Greeks. Meanwhile, multiple other planets with intelligent life have developed enough technology to enable space travel. One of these societies, The Federation, is on a mission to dominate the rest. Three rebels from suffering planets band together to seek a rumored super weapon, the thing that killed Earth. They are surprised to find that the weapon is a perfectly preserved body, but they cut off one finger, intending to use its deadly force against the Federation home world. However, the Federation is hot on their heels and soon it becomes a dangerous race to see who can control more of Midas' body. The book is beautifully drawn and full of action, but not emotion. The characters debate the murdering of entire worlds extremely causally, and when whole worlds are indeed killed, seem barely to mourn them. As reader who worries daily about the potential death of all life on our planet, this aspect of the story didn't sit very well with me. But the book is fast-paced, and a younger (less environmentally stressed) reader would probably really enjoy it.

I loved this book! Holy shit, it was everything I wanted and more. First of all, it's set in a brighter timeline of American history- instead of the current administration, the President elected after Obama in this book was a Democratic Senator from Texas named Ellen Claremont. Her son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, a senior in college focused on his own future political career, is the lead character. Alex is very close with his older sister June, who wants to be a journalist, and Nora, the VP's math-quiz granddaughter. These three have been given the nickname the White House Trio and do a lot of press and campaigning with their families. So it isn't a surprise that they are invited to the Royal Wedding of Philip, the oldest of the three children in this book's alternate English Royal Family. Alex is not excited to go, because he feels like he has a rivalry with the younger son, Henry. His Royal Highness said something rude to Alex at the 2016 Rio Olympics and that, in addition to his extremely good looks, makes Alex dislike him. A belligerent conversation at the reception ends with both of them tripping into the $75,000 wedding cake. They are then required to do a "pretend to be best friends" press tour weekend together to smooth things over. The weekend ends with Alex giving Henry his number. A friendship develops between them long distance as Alex grinds through finals and starts a job as a White House intern and pressure ramps up towards the 2020 election. The author is clearly a big fan of The West Wing, which is explicitly referenced more than once, and I would make an educated guess that she is also a fan of royalty AU fanfiction. The surety with which this book hit every emotional fic beat filled me with warm fuzzy feelings. But it is also quite political, and the climax of the story is a series of scandals that threaten the outcome of the election. The ending left me wistful for a more progressive America.

I listened to the audio book version read by Ramón de Ocampo, which I highly recommend.

This is my second favorite Helen Oyeyemi book so far after What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, a book that made me declare "I will read everything this author ever writes". Oyeyemi's stories are very hard to pin down. It feels deeply simplistic to call them re-workings of fairy tales, though that is one aspect of some of her books. They are generally set in the present day and generally at least one magical or impossible thing occurs, but that is what the whole plot revolves around. They also often end very abruptly, before what I would consider the end of the story, and leave me dreamy and pondering for a while afterwards. The main character of this book is Harriet, a teacher and ginderbread baker, who has a challenging mother and a challenging daughter. The bulk of the book is her telling the story of her childhood to her daughter Perdita. Harriet was born in Druhastrania, an Eastern European country which may or may not actually exist. Her and her mother escaped the country with the help of a changeling and a family of wealthy benefactors who then almost completely controlled their lives. Every relationship in this book is a complicated one, with the ties of love, duty, fear, obligation, hate, spite, affection, and blood all deeply tangled together. I'd recommend it, but be prepared for some of it's mysteries to stay mysteries.