Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada. Penguin Workshop, 2025. 9780593521328. 204pp. Includes notes about the story’s inspiration and sketches in the back. Kim and Estrada continue their graphic novel series about university life in South […]
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Category: book review
Graphic Novel Review: Narrow Rooms by Choi Sungmin
Narrow Rooms by Choi Sungmin. Translated by Janet Hong. Drawn & Quarterly, 2026. 9781770468528. 516pp. This massive, beautifully colored manhwa centers around Daye, a young woman studying for art school college entrance exams in Seoul. She lives in a “one […]
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Fiction Review: Queenpin by Megan Abbott
Queenpin by Megan Abbott. Simon & Schuster, 2007. 9781416534280. 180pp. I was in the Pike Place Market’s BLMF books looking at the stacks of noir on the front counter when I asked the owner who Megan Abbott was. He was […]
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Nonfiction Review: The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions by Giselle Clarkson
The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions by Giselle Clarkson. Gecko Press, 2023. 978177657190. 120pp. Includes an index, a final exam, and a certificate of completion in the back, plus a Where Is Waldo? element that you […]
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Fiction Review: Scion by James Islington
Scion by James Islington. S&S / Saga Press, 2026. 9781668239247. 240pp. Azure is a gene-boosted agent of the Keres. Mostly he’s contracted to assassinate lifers — those who can afford the drugs needed to keep them young forever. (Those on […]
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Graphic Novel Review: Murder School by Paul B. Rainey
Murder School by Paul B. Rainey. Drawn & Quarterly, 2026. 9781770468603. 216pp. Yesterday was a perfect day. I was looking for a reason to avoid work on a project, and I arrived home to find a review copy of […]
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Graphic Novel Review: Fire Power Book One by Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee
Fire Power Book One by Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee. Image, 2022. 9781534322073. 448pp. Includes Fire Power Prelude and issues #1-12. The book opens with Owen Johnson climbing through the snow to find the lost Temple of the Flaming Fist […]
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Graphic Nonfiction Review: Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn From Animal Sex by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn From Animal Sex by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland. W.W. Norton, 2026. 978132408904. 272pp. Ireland, along with cats Pudge and Ursala, takes readers on a graphic tour of the amazing sex lives of animals. She […]
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Novel Review: Backwater by James Sallis
Backwater by James Sallis. Soho, 2026. 9781641298599. 208pp. I love short crime novels, and I love those written by James Sallis. He was a poet who created characters by sharing moments from their lives, whose books often move suddenly and […]
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Picture Books!
Monkeypig by Huw Aaron. Viking, 2026. 9798217039159. Molly (a pig) lives in the jungle with a bunch of monkeys. No one notices she’s different. But then the head monkey calls a meeting, announces there’s an imposter among them, and sets […]
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