Believe Me, a Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens

Believe Me, a Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard  348 pp.

This memoir by the award winning actor, comedian, and marathon runner is amusing, intriguing, occasionally rambling and confusing, and loaded with footnotes. I listened to the audiobook which is read by Izzard. He designates what is and isn't a footnote and occasionally adds extra material that isn't in the print book. Some of the extra material includes times when he pauses to Google on his phone a detail, date, or location left out of the print book. The book opens with the death of his mother when he was just a child and follows a not quite linear trajectory through his school years, his early attempts at performing, and his ultimate success. There is much discussion of what Izzard refers to as his alternative sexuality, but without sordid "tell all" details. Of course, I needed to find the print book to peruse the collection of photos that can't be seen via audiobook.

Bayou Volume I and II

Bayou Volumes I and II, Jeremy Love, 160 pages each

Jeremy Love's Bayou is an interesting exploration of Reconstruction-era Southern culture, through the lens of an Alice in Wonderland twisting of tales. Lee Wagstaff, a young girl of color, encounters a butterfly winged spirit of a boy whose body she is recovering from the bayou after a lynching, and from there watches her white playmate get eaten by a monster. She goes through the proverbial looking glass to bring her friend back and save her father, who is accused of kidnapping and killing her friend. Love examines the complexities of racial oppression and the difficulties faced by people of color through the folk lore and fairy tales of the Deep South and blending of early rock and roll and jazz music. Love's artwork is colorful and vivid, rich in tone and nearly popping from the page. Decidedly worth a read.

Delicious in Dungeon

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. I, Ryoko Kui, 192 pages

Ryoko Kui's Delicious in Dungeon is a hilarious fantasy manga that follows the (mis) adventures of Laios and his companions as they try to race against the digestive clock of a dragon who has swallowed Laios's sister. Estimating they have a month until she is completely digested, the adventurers set off without supplies, foraging monsters and materials along the way. The story examines many tropes familiar to players of role-playing games, from tabletop to online. Everything from the absurdity of dungeon ecology (what do those monsters eat, after all?), industry revolving around monster parts, and bringing adventurers back from the dead get poked fun at. Ryoko Kui clearly is familiar with the subject matter that has been brought up around many a kitchen table where a game of Dungeons and Dragons was being played. The art style is also crisp and clean, creating a wonderful presentation that is easy to follow and flows nicely from panel to panel.

Convenience store woman

Convenience store woman / Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, read by Nancy Wu, 163 pgs.

Keiko has always been a little odd but now an adult, working in a convenience store.  She is obviously "on the spectrum" but does a great job at the store after being trained.  She is very capable of copying the speech and expressions required while helping customers.  She knows she is different but is mostly happy in her job and her life.  As time goes on, the biggest problem is OTHER people wanting her to be like them.  They want her to be married, in love, have kids, etc.  She hooks up with a guy from work who is basically a bad attitude loser.  They make "an arrangement" so neither of them has to listen to others who want them to change.  I enjoyed the story and my take is that Keiko knows herself so well that she isn't the one with the problem.  The audio is expertly done by Nancy Wu.

Salt: A World History

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, 484 pages

Salt is ubiquitous. It's paired up with pepper on every kitchen table in the country; it's sprinkled on every road that may get snow; it's a major part of the water that covers three quarters of the world. But until listening to this fascinating micro-history, I had no idea the role it has played in everything from the domestication of animals to the location of cities and roads to the creation of various words (including "soldier," which described someone paid in salt) to the creation and destruction of empires. Oh yeah, and I learned about food — everything from sauerkraut to cod to ketchup to soy sauce to Tabasco sauce. All of it ties back to salt. This was so interesting, and so so good. It's no wonder so many other micro-histories have popped up after this one (though I don't know that any offer as complete a world history as Salt). An excellent book.

The Weight of a Piano

The Weight of a Piano: a Novel / Chris Cander,  323 p.

Katya, a gifted piano player, grows up in the Soviet Union of the 70s, and it seems as though her best friend is her upright ebonized Bluthner piano.  Clara is a young auto mechanic in present day Bakersfield and, while she can't play the upright Bluthner she owns, it is nevertheless an important part of her life.  Eventually, the lives of these two women intersect in an interesting if somewhat melodramatic story centered in Death Valley National Park. 

The disasters

The disasters / M. K. England, 357 pgs.

After spending their lives trying to get into the exclusive Academy, four students wash out on their first day and are getting sent away.  The timing coincides with an attack on the Academy and ends with our washouts stealing a ship and escaping.  Nax is the hot shot pilot (wanna be), Zee is almost as good as a medical officer, Rion a heartthrob military type and Case the genius girl/engineer type.  This motley crew discovers a plot to destroy Earth and all other worlds. They hook up with Asra who has been living on the criminal side for awhile. Now they are all on the run and dealing with their issues.  This very diverse group works together and fight the clock to save lives.  Fun character interactions and clever writing make this a winner.

Every Heart a Doorway

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, 173 pages

Possibly the goth-est girl at her old high school, Nancy has just arrived at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, a boarding school where she hopes to fit in a bit better — and where her parents hope she'll return to the bubbly, colorful girl she once was. Because Nancy's parents don't believe that she passed through a doorway to another world, an underworld where she served the Lord of the Dead. In fact, none of the parents who send their children to Eleanor believe that their kids traveled to another world, despite the fact that all of them did travel to an underworld, or a fairyland, or a land filled with vampires and mad scientists.

In this first book in her Wayward Children series, McGuire introduces her readers to a wealth of complex characters and their diverse worlds, despite never leaving school grounds. It provides a great starting point for this series, which is one of my favorites. I can't wait to talk to the Orcs & Aliens about this one on Monday night!

Made in Abyss 1

Made in Abyss 1 by Akihito Tsukushi, 166 pages

Riko is a young orphan living in Orth, a city at the edge of a bottomless pit referred to as The Abyss. She and the other kids at the orphanage earn their keep as Cave Raiders, following in the footsteps of many of their late parents, who either died in or never returned from their own raiding expeditions. On one of their trips into The Abyss, Riko meets a strange robot-boy, whose mere existence convinces her to search for her long-lost mother, a legendary Cave Raider who made many discoveries before traveling down past the point of no return.

I initially picked this book up to fulfill a task on a reading challenge (read a book of manga), and wow, am I glad that Amber suggested this one to me! This is a fascinating story that touches on legacy, identity, adventure, and more. Sadly, we only own this first volume — this must be rectified!

An Extraordinary Union

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole, 258 pages

In the midst of the Civil War, gifted freedwoman Elle Burns has signed on with the Pinkerton detective agency to spy for the Union. Her mission has put her back into slavery, undercover as a mute slave in the home of a Confederate senator. Elle's mission has also brought her into the orbit of Malcolm McCall, another Pinkerton spy for the Union who is undercover as a proud Rebel besotted with the senator's horrid daughter. But in real life, despite all the danger and taboo of a mixed-race relationship, Malcolm is besotted with Elle, whose common sense keeps falling in the way of her attraction to her fellow spy.

This is a romance novel, and thus it's pretty easy to figure out what's going to happen (and when it does, yup, it's steamy). But Cole gives a depth to Elle's internal fight that is lacking in lesser novels. It's obvious, as well, that Cole did her homework before taking on a novel set during this time period, and I very much enjoyed reading a romance with a bibliography of historical sources. Also, according to Cole's afterword, Elle is loosely based on a real woman(!), which made this book that much more intriguing. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Alyssa Cole, you've made a romance reader out of me. I'll be picking up the next book in this series by and by.