The Mental Load   
by Emma (2017)

read: 21 March 2026
rating: [+]

Emma is a French graphic novelist who wrote this book in 2017, later translated into English. She is admittedly late to feminist topics and her author bio says that her comics, which run in the Guardian, “have a history of going viral.” I think this would be a better graphic novel for someone newer to feminism and activism than I am. She covers topics like female sexuality, household domestic labor divisions and racist police. All good topics, decently illustrated but some of them felt a bit obvious while some were more sophisticated looks into feminist topics. Overall a bit uneven and more like essays made into pictures most of the time.

The Postscript Murders   
by Elly Griffiths (2020)

read: 19 March 2026
rating: [+]

Unfortunately, this book had nothing to do with the programming language 😆 This was the second in the Harbinder Kaur series and it was good. Sort of had the same issues as the last one, a lot of characters, a few which are nicely built out and a lot of others with generic names who are almost NPCs. A lot of nice views of Scotland. Kaur makes progress with her more-traditional family. As a nighttime book that I wasn’t expecting too much from, it was pretty good.

It Rhymes with Takei   
by George Takei (2025)

read: 18 March 2026
rating: [+]

I had read Takei’s earlier memoir about being sent to an internment camp with his family. This one details his personal and professional journey, only coming out as a gay man in his sixties, when he had already been in a committed relationship for two decades. It’s well-told, poignant and sweet (and a little rage-inducing), showing the fear he had about someone discovering his secret, but also the ways he found to live his life and become the gay icon he is today.

The Society of Unknowable Objects   
by Gareth Brown (2025)

read: 12 March 2026
rating: [+]

From the author who brought us Book of Doors, a story about a group of people sworn to keep a small set of magical objects away from the general public lest they become dangerous. But there are secrets even within the society and messy magical conflicts result. There’s a lot of “This book would be fifteen pages long if people would only tell each other the trusth” but it’s engaging nonetheless. Taking place in, among other places, London, Alabama, and Hong Kong, this is a well-done story about being careful about what you wish for.

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England   
by Ruth Goodman (2018)

read: 5 March 2026
rating: [+]

A sort of fun look at what sorts of things were considered rude or just beyond the pale and what other things were just not as big a deal back then as they are now. Goodman goes into topics like sex, drugs (well, alcohol) and fighting and looks at old documents, primarily court records and wills but also a few books published at the time, and talks about what “behaving badly” at that time, really looked like. A lot of differentials between the genders which is not that surprising. I learned stuff.

Stranger Diaries   
by Elly Griffiths (2018)

read: 5 March 2026
rating: [+]

A different series by Elly Griffiths who I have liked. This is the Harbinder Kaur series. Kaur is a mid-thirties British Indian gay woman who lives with her parents. She is also a great detective. This book, the first, is about a spooky horror story and goings on at the high school which used to be the home of the horror writer. There are a few murders. A lot of different narrative perspectives which I enjoyed more than I expected to.

Space Trucker Jess   
by Matthew Kressel (2025)

read: 25 February 2026
rating: [-]

I got halfway through this book and noped out of it because I was just not interested in where it was going. A spacefaring teenager in a future where kids grow up fast is in search of her father who may have gone missing when the planet he was on just... vanished? She’s canny and lonely and interacts with, among other things, a planet all full of people who commune with the divine via an herb they smoke. A LOT of made-up slang made the reading a bit too slow going for me

Run Home   
by Alyssa Bermudez (2026)

read: 17 February 2026
rating: [+]

This is a graphic memoir about a woman who deals with a new school and a family tragedy and where and how she finds support, including with her running team at school. She is Puerto Rican (but also white and does not speak Spanish) living in New York. The book’s timeframe is just post-9/11, so a while ago but also not so long ago. Like the cover, the book has a great graphic style. Unlike many other memoirs, the author works through some complex emotions in a constructive and supported way so it’s not one long trauma processing exercise.

The Quiet Ear   
by Raymond Antrobus (2025)

read: 17 February 2026
rating: [+]

Antrobus is a biracial poet who grew up working class in the UK with partial deafness. His memoir talks about his life before and after getting diagnosed, getting hearing aids, finding his voice, getting therapy, having a child, using BSE and BSL, and other milestones. The narrative jumps around a lot, ultimately more like a series of vignettes than one single narrative. The end part of his life has the least information of all. He moves to the US, has a kid, is maybe separated from his child’s parent. I particularly liked learning more about D/deaf poetry and would have happily read a lot more about that part of this book.

The Last Remains   
by Elly Griffiths (2023)

read: 14 February 2026
rating: [+]

This is the final book in this series. No love to an author who writes two series and culminates each one with a book with “Last” in the title (i.e. I took the wrong one home from the library at first). This wraps up sort of like you think it will. A little pat and a little zipzip for a 15-series book, but overall for people who like murder mysteries and especially a female protagonist and complex humans, it was a great read. The mystery itself is almost secondary because you know how these things go and you’re just waiting to see what resolution Griffiths chooses for the arcs of her characters.

The Light Pirate   
by Lily Brooks-Dalton (2022)

read: 9 February 2026
rating: [+]

This was the Vermont Reads book for 2025. Many of the Vermont Reads books have been pretty heavy. Someone assured me this was not like that, even though it deals with catastrophic climate change (as in: there is no more Florida) topics. I thought this was a good book but it was also pretty grim. So many of the characters die or go missing. The main theme is that we need to start living in and preparing for the future world, not the past one we are already missing, but also managing the grief around that. Masterful but upsetting.

Out on the Porch: An Evocation in Words and Pictures   
by Clifton Dowell (1992)

read: 6 February 2026
rating: [0]

I have a big porch Someone gave this to me. I thought “Oh neat, like my porch” but this is very specifically a book about SOUTHERN porches which means it has a certain vibe to it that is at once familiar (Faulkner, Lee, Wolfe, Morrison) but not what I was looking for. It’s a nice commonplace book with lit excerpts about porches (Southern porches) alongside some nice photography of various kinds of porches. There’s also an intro by Reynolds Price who I had not heard of.

Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance   
by Ben Passmore (2025)

read: 4 February 2026
rating: [+]

Ben Passmore is a Black anarchist and graphic novelist. This book uses the framing of his mostly-absent dad coming back around and trying to school the slightly-politically apathetic Passmore about the history of Black resistance in the US, and Black armed resistance in particular. No punches pulled. The cops are drawn as pigs, a lot of it takes place in and around the carceral state, all the protagonists are complicated. I knew some of this, not all of it.

Silent No Longer: Advancing the Fight for Disability Rights   
by Robert Stack (2025)

read: 2 February 2026
rating: [+]

From the new shelf at my library, written by the CEO of a non-profit company which supports moving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities into supported living situations outside of institutions. Obviously he’s got an angle. This book explains both what his company does (and how) but also why it’s the RIGHT thing to do. Fewer stories from actual clients than I’d like, but still good overall.

The Locked Room   
by Elly Griffiths (2022)

read: 2 February 2026
rating: [+]

This is the penultimate book in this series and the plot points are coming in fast and furious. There’s not really even that much archaeology in this one. Covid is really center stage and just ramping up. Ruth gets a new neighbor and finds out some interesting facts about her. Then there’s a weird connection between a string of deaths that doesn’t even get explained that much. I liked it because I’m mostly here for the people but a bit thin on plot.