Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, 163 pages

Others on our blog have summarized this one very well, so I’ll skip that part. I had tried the audiobook of this one a while back, but found that it required more attention than I was willing to give in that moment. Inspired by the reviews of my coworkers, I gave it another shot and am glad I did. It’s hard to find something that finds the sweet spot of wholesome but not saccharine, and I think this did that very well. The pacing of revealing with the world in the story was excellent, but I’m not sure that there was a whole lot going for it after that. The approach to social issues that it touched on seemed a little on-the-nose...but overall it was a very fun quick read.