Howling Frog Books

 Okay, I know I haven't been around much!  I'm still working on recovering my reading mojo, and much of it has been going into the year-long Diana Wynne Jones project, which has just five more titles to go.  (I just realized I forgot to incorporate them into my summer list, though I would really only count Reflections as a longer read.) But!  Anyway!  I decided I'd like to do the 20 Books of Summer event, and that event has moved!  It's now being hosted by AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace .  Check out the fun new graphics!  There's a bingo card, and a Mr. Linky, and all your favorite summer stuff.  The rules:   The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st   The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.   Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from ...

Strange Pictures , by Uketsu This is a prose novel, not a graphic novel, but it still revolves around pictures.  We have four short stories, each of which involves a mystery about one or more hand-drawn pictures -- some by children, some by adult artists.  In the end, the narratives fit together to solve a larger mystery about a very quiet serial killer -- a story that has lasted decades.  It was a good read, on the fast and easy side. We start with an abandoned blog discovered by two students who think there's a puzzle involved.  The writer starts off happy and excited that his wife is going to have a baby, and is then grief-stricken when she dies during childbirth.  Three years later, he erases most of the entries, posts a cryptic note, and the blog ends.  Who is the note addressed to?  What of this little family?  Through three more seemingly unrelated stories, the solution eventually comes out.        The Strange House, vo...