★★☆☆☆ The Monster Manual: The Ultimate Guide to Werewolves, Goblins, and Other Wicked Creatures by Sarah Glenn Marsh, illustrated by Justine Wollman (2026) Strike while the iron is hot. This, I’ve figured, is true of anything. This is also not what I’m doing for this review. I finished this book weeks ago and can barely remember what it’s about. Why it sucked: I was not the target audience. I thought judging by the cover (“Never judge a book by its cover”, sorry) that the book was for occulty adults, witchy women perhaps.

★★★★☆ The Build-A-Habit Guide: A Research-Backed Program to Make Habits Stick by “Made by Therapists” (2023) Writing in an orange book with an orange erasable pen. Never before seen levels of aura. Is this a book blog or is it a random blog where I use the current book as an excuse to jump into whatever tangent I feel like? I got this book from Indigo for $40 and now it’s on sale for $20 and I am salty about that.

Framed by Tonino Benacquista (1990, English translation 2006) ★★★☆☆ The start is slow. I suspect this book would have taken much longer to read if I wasn’t stranded at the airport with no better options. Not sure if it got better or I just got used to the unique writing style. Still, three stars! That means I liked it enough that it was not a waste of time. I got it from Value Village for $5.

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy (2026) ★★★☆☆ one sentence summary: A relationship between a high school girl and her teacher. This counts as a literary book, right? I picked it up at the library because I had a hold and thought leaving with only one book would be weird. I saw this, remembered a Youtube video the recommendations threw at me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxOA8LF6dSs ?), and figured why not. I didn’t love it, but it was literary and very readable and those are good things.

★★★☆☆ Fantasy: Best of 2002 edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber with Ursula Le Guin, Robert Sheckley, and Brian Stableford on the title too (Published in 2003, wooooo) This “book” took me an unusually long time to finish. Not because it was boring, but because I made myself take out library books and I suppose library books should always take precedence. The issue with anthologies is that either they’re boring, or they’re not boring and you have a little reading hangover at the end of each story.

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) ★★★★★ The book’s edges are sprayed a lovely shade of spice blue. My photo does it no justice. There’s spoilers, but if you are worried about spoilers on a sixty year old book, honestly that’s on you. I guess this is a five star book because why not? Perhaps I too am caught up in the mythos of the Kwisatz Haderach, Muad’Dib, Lisan al Gaib, Usul, whatever.

The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of The Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One - By George R. R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia, Jr., and Linda Antonsson ★★★★☆ I used to be an ASOIAF fan. I’ve read the main series three, maybe four times. I’ve read Dunk and Egg, Fire & Blood, The World of Ice & Fire, and the first three volumes of the A Game of Thrones graphic novel.

★★★☆☆ State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (2021) This book reminded me of The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder in both good and bad ways. Antique Hunter’s Guide was like 2.5 stars rounded up, whereas this one is 3.5 stars rounded down. It has been loosely on my to-read list for a while as “that thriller co-written by Hillary Clinton.” Why? Because I read The President Is Missing a while ago and also this post https://theconversation.

★★☆☆☆ The Art of War: Complete Texts and Commentaries by Sun Tzu, Translated by Thomas Cleary I suffered considerably while reading this 457 page book. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it more than I did. The introduction alone was forty pages. Well, no. The introduction of the first book. You can understand, then, that I was eager for the teachings of Sun Tzu Himself, and not Boring Old Translator Thomas. Nooo. I was soon wishing for more of the distinguished hexalingual scholar Mr.

Scientific American MIND The Psychology of SUCCESS: It’s not what you learn but how you learn ★☆☆☆☆ I got this from Value Village for $1.79. It was surrounded by a plethora of magazines about the British royal family. What were the circumstances that led to them being donated? Death in the family? Loss of interest? Bankruptcy..? Is there a specific magazine that covers the British royal family and only the British royal family?