Apocalypse How: Your Guide to Turning the End Times Into the Best of Times, Rob Kutner
Not just a humorous guide to the apocalypse (all kinds, from religious to environmental to extraterrestrial), but a guide to looking on the bright side of everything going sideways. Optimism! Three stars.

Storm Runners, Roland Smith
First of a trilogy (at least I’ve only heard about three installments so far) about a teen guy and his dad surviving a massive storm in Florida. They have been following storms for a few years now (dad does post-storm recovery contract work, but otherwise he seems to be a decent guy), perhaps running from a tragedy in their past? Excellent action writing, good (and believable) heroes, I was seeing it as an action movie in my head. Four stars.

We Are Become Pals, Joey Comeau and Jess Fink
A short novel about high school friends, well worth the read. Online only, AFAIK. Four stars.

Dead Mann Walking: A Hessius Mann Novel, Stefan Petrucha
A noir detective story with an zombie-style undead protagonist. If that doesn’t hook you already, it’s really well done worldbuilding and chock full of thrills, suspense, and surprises. I loved it. Five stars.

Nursery Rhyme Comics
Some comics legends, some alt-comics heroes, and some up-and-comers all take putting a nursery rhyme (including some I hadn’t heard and some I hadn’t heard all of) into comic form. Delightful illustrations and a lot of fun stuff going on for pre-readers to enjoy while listening to the rhymes. I hope this is a book that will stick with kids like the legendary illustrators of previous generations did. Four stars and a good baby gift choice.

Best American Crime Writing, 2002
Again, a really solid collection that always has pieces that change how I think about something. Four stars.

Stickman Odyssey: An Epic Doodle, Book One, Christopher Ford
Very fun stickman style graphic novel (though the backgrounds and subtlety in facial expression is a lot more that you would normally get in stick figures) of an Ancient Greek style adventure. Funny and with good fart and poop jokes means I will be talking it up with sixth graders. Four stars and I’m looking forward to the sequel.