the non-sci-fi post

The Paradise, series 2, with Johanna Vanderham.  If you liked series 1, you'll like series 2, which is a nice continuation of the story.  There were a couple of issues, including (1) the investor/owner character brought in for this series is unbelievably cruel (as in, his character isn't plausible, he doesn't make sense in his levels of cruelty), and (2) there were a few plot elements that got chucked into the final episode that didn't match up-- what was shown and what characters later reported to other characters were out of sync-- and generally gave the feeling of "details like this won't matter because it's all in the cause of a happy ending."

Dragons at Crumbling Castle and other tales by Terry Pratchett.  These were fun.  I'm glad someone took the time to compile them.  Some are obviously early works and didn't make a great deal of sense (the first Carpet People short story, for example, has too many characters for a short story and I wasn't always able to follow) but many have a line of dialogue or bit of description that has the same flavor as later works.

The Chemistry of Alchemy: From Dragon's Blood to Donkey Dung; How Chemistry was Forged by Cathy Cobb, Minty L. Fetterolf, and Harold Goldwhite.  This sounded interesting, but ended not being very well organized.  After each chapter were instructions for a science experiment.  The instructions (that I read) were poorly organized; they should have consulted a cookbook. 

Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick vol. 1 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky.  Like my recent-favorite sci-fi books, which are stories about people who happen to be in a sci-fi setting, this actually is a story about two people who felt alone in the universe who find each other.  

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett.  (002.075)  This was ok.  It was personally interesting, because I know people who seem to be like the Man traced here.  The story jumped around in time a bit, but in order to group similar things together, so it wasn't too distracting and did add to the story.