I used to go into the library and start series in the middle, usually because my library was really bad about actually having the first one available for me. I always used to like the feeling of being able to understand what was going on in a story even when I didn’t have the full context. And so I feel a bit of nostalgia with this, book 7 of a series I have never read.

The story follows primarily Irene, a Librarian who has apparently been dealing with a long string of assassination attempts that have no intention of stopping. The people targeting her shift throughout the book, and we follow as she and her companions try to understand just who wants them dead of their past foes and how some of them continue to come back after they have most definitely been killed in the past. There’s also a lot to do with the relationships between the Library, the Fey and the Dragons, which I don’t think I ever fully grasped.

I am fully aware that this is the second to last book in the series, and therefore is mostly setting up the climax and conclusion in the final installment. Regardless, there’s a lot of very interesting ideas in here. I was hoping for something like the Thursday Next series and I think I was pleasantly surprised. It’s significantly more straightforward and less surreal than that series, but there are a lot of elements in it that I found hit that sweet spot of fiction about fiction that I like.

Overall, I really enjoyed it but I would suggest maybe starting at the start of the series. If this book is any indication, there are a lot of really interesting plot elements that would be a lot more fun if I had a fuller context of what was going on.

While I work in tech, I have no desire to work for one of the prestigious FAANG companies, and after this book I know for certain I do not want to work at Netflix. This is a book about how Netflix creates and maintains a culture of high-performing employees who have the autonomy to make decisions without the need for oversight. It’s an interesting look at how to create a culture that thrives on innovation and easily trims out those who are not performing as highly as the company needs.

There’s also a few uncomfortable things that happen in the book. The radical candour they talk about and the constant feedback appear to be entirely negative and involve calling people out in public settings, sometimes being placed in a room so that you and your coworkers can all do that to each other. There’s a part where a woman gets feedback from a man that she’s been talking too much. If you are a woman in tech, you know why that bothered me. There’s also the insistence that they are culturally sensitive, but then insist that other cultures bend to their way of doing things.

If you’re curious about what tech is like, the attitudes expressed by the voice of this book are not uncommon. The “We are doing everything right, if it’s not working for you then you are the problem, the people who left just couldn’t handle us or weren’t good enough for us” is what you’re walking into with the many companies.

I’m certain this book is full of embellishments and exaggerations to make Netflix sound more interesting and innovative, but there are a few interesting ideas. If you are in tech, it is an interesting read. If you think this is a book to live by, however, please lose my number.

So this book looked cute. The blurb described a young girl in Japan who was essentially a magical girl helping her stuffed animal. When she got older, she revisits those fantasies. It was a cute premise. It’s not even a little of what I got.

Let me start with all the content warnings that the blurb did not give: mental and physical child abuse, pedophilia, sexual assault, incest, cannibalism, and self-cannibalism.

A little warning would have been nice. Just saying.

The story follows Natsuki, a little girl whose immediate family neglects her and treats her like the least favourite child in an Asian family, ((If you know, you know)) and who is being targeted by the pedophilic cram school teacher, finds solace in an annual trip to see the extended family and her cousin, Yuu. When Natsuki pressures Yuu to go too far with their relationship, Natsuki’s trips to see her extended family end.

As an adult, Natsuki marries a man who has no interest in being married or in a relationship whatsoever, the pair of them living as amicable roommates as it becomes clear that not only has Natsuki’s coping mechanism of viewing the world as a baby-making factory and herself as an alien trying to assimilate to a society she doesn’t understand has spread to her husband. When an opportunity arises, they go to visit the old family home from Natsuki’s childhood, reconnect with Yuu who has been living there, and…

Well, the last bit of the book takes a hard turn into cannibalism.

On the one hand, this book has left me thinking for a while. I have not willingly tried to interpret a book since school, and I’ve been doing a lot of trying to give this the benefit of the doubt. There’s surely something I’m missing both in the translation and the cultural context, right? And if the book is a commentary on being asexual in Japanese society, the fact that all three of the asexuals seem to be that way due to childhood sexual trauma and all turned to cannibalism, so that’s probably not intentional, right? Maybe it’s just about othering and systems failing children, which leads to stunted emotional growth?

On the other hand, I did not enjoy the experience. There was a story I was expecting and it was nowhere in here. Instead, this was like something I would have read in a Uni English class, which is not ultimately what I’m looking for.

Today in trying out some new genres, something that’s a bit closer to home for me. I do love documentaries about cults and true crime, so a story about kidnapping and cults seems like it would be right up my alley.

The story follows “Esther,” a young girl who must maintain the persona of someone she has never met on a farm where her every move is monitored or she will be eliminated. The farm is the home of the Special Ones, four young people who have been kidnapped to live the lives of people they have never heard of before who are supposedly the reincarnation of older souls who are supposed to lead their followers to a better life.

It is a little slow at the start as life on the farm is established that quickly ramps up upon the need to replace one of the Special Ones and you get to see how the process actually works. The information gets revealed slowly for the first half and really well until you get the introduction of Him, the one who is controlling everything. His perspective provides a lot of context, though it’s a little jarring to get that second perspective so suddenly and without any indication. It helps to make sense of what’s happening beyond our lead, which is important because she does not ultimately find out much.

I don’t think this is a detriment because there’s a lot about it that feels unsettling because of the way the information is distributed. Things are not neatly wrapped up. I do like that not all is well at the end. The story ends, we know why, but the character relationships aren’t all brought to a satisfying conclusion and it feels uncomfortably realistic that it wouldn’t all wrap up nicely in the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed it! It’s a quick read with some interesting ideas. If you’re also interested in true crime and cults, this Is a fun read.

Did you know pet mystery was a genre? One for adults? Because I certainly didn’t and I absolutely needed to check it out. I haven’t really read any mystery since high school, so this was a little nostalgic for me.

The story follows Harry as she tries to solve the mystery of who killed her friend, Gary, in broad daylight. As Harry, along with her very opinionated cats and dog, try to uncover why a masked shooter would want to even target Gary, much less commit a crime in broad daylight, the story flashes back to the distant past to show that the roots of this go back further than expected.

As much as I loved the ideas, this ultimately wasn’t for me. I was more interested in the banter between the cats and dogs than I was in the mystery unfolding, and ended up completely skipping over the flashbacks in favour of trying to get to more of the pets. The cozy mystery part was ultimately completely dwarfed by the antics of Pewter the drama queen, which I don’t think was supposed to happen.

Ultimately, I think I’m just not a cozy mystery person. This is also the seventh book in the series, which did me no favours in getting into it. It’s still well written and the mystery does unfold in a satisfying manner, but it wasn’t for me.

Some of you may know that I’m constantly working on creative projects. While I do tend to actually get a few of them done on a relatively regular basis, I’m always interested in new strategies for how to get them all worked out and done.

Unlike a lot of the books I’ve been reading lately in this genre, this one does actually have practical advice, albeit stuff that I’ve already tried. There’s the standard of figuring out your vision and figure out how to make it happen as well as delegation advice, but it comes with actual strategies to try as well. There’s also an interesting bit about leadership in the last third, which is something I don’t personally aspire to but something that Belsky clearly feels strongly about.

There is a decent amount of promotion for Benahce woven into the book, but I’d still say this is one of the better books on how to generally get things organized and work out how to make your ideas into plans that actually happen. I’ve used a lot of the strategies and still use a few of them, so check it out if you’re looking for a place to get starts.

I’ve needed something a bit light to read.

This follows a few characters. The lead is Jack, a young boy starting at a new school who has been zoning out and seeing a small girl selling matches. He meets a classmate, Lucy, who takes an interest in him and has also seen the girl. And lastly, there’s the little match girl, a character from a Hans Christian Anderson story who may not be so fictional and who wants Jack to stay with her forever.

This was a cute idea, and full of very interesting ideas. I did like the layering of diabetes into the plot, as Jack is given a natural way of talking about it with Lucy and it doesn’t feel like it’s being forced into the narrative. It’s also very Canadian at points, mostly in that Jack moved to Ontario from Quebec and there are quite a few mentions of the cultural differences between the two places.

The story is very light and best enjoyed when you don’t think about it too hard. If you do, you will find logic and plot holes. Those points aren’t really what the story is about, so I don’t think it’s a detriment. It’s a very quick and easy read, overall fun, and worth checking out.