D.A., Willis
A short story in its own hardcover. Nonstop story pulling you along, a young YA title (though in the adult section at my library) very much like Heinlein’s adventure stories for younger readers (Willis is a fan and has a shout out to him in the story). Fun, not ground breaking. Three stars.

Nextwave: Agents of HATE v.2: I Kick Your Face, Ellis
Like the first one, quite fun.

Our dumb world: the Onion’s atlas of the planet Earth, seventy-third edition
Funny, but it’s a whole book of geography jokes. So, pace yourself. Two stars.

Windows on nature: the great habitat dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History, Quinn
I saw many (not nearly all) of the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York– they were really interesting, and a slice of a very particular time in nature conservation and museum education (when it was ok to shoot things to learn about them, and when informative signs were not as important. The signs also don’t seem to have been updated since they were installed (not mentioned in the book) though they do mention updating the whale based on new knowledge). Pictures of the exhibits being assembled are fascinating, and knowing that the technology was somewhat limited makes them even more impressive. Also: I finally connected those amazing life-size dioramas with the tiny shoebox ones I did in elementary school. I kind of wish we had been shown pictures of what dioramas can aspire to to inspire us. Three stars.

Laika, Abadzis
It’s filed with teen graphic novels in my library, but I think it’s more an adult graphic novel with some teen crossover appeal. It’s an imagined and reconstructed story of the life of Laika, the spacefaring dog. It’s quite well done, both artistically and in story structure and character. A good book for a space anniversary. Four stars.