3/5 stars The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris (2018) This is a work of historical fiction, based on interviews Morris did with Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who spent two and a half years in the WWII concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau. An educated man, Lale spoke many languages and was able to use this to his advantage in the camps, where becoming "useful" to the guards could save your life. Lale was assigned the task of tattooing the numbers on prisoners' arms, and, in...

If you live within driving distance of Buffalo, NY, and can get there before July 6 of this year, I highly recommend a visit to the Alright Knox Gallery (aka Buffalo AKG Art Museum) to see the current Yayoi Kusama exhibit. You can also see the Christine Sun Kim ASL-inspired artwork, "All Day Future / All Night Future," which takes up the entirety of a huge wall. Part of it is visible in the picture below of the black and gold pumpkin in a white room. There was also an exhibit in 2024 at...

3/5 stars Shark Heart: A Love Story, by Emily Habeck (2023) Wren and Lewis have a sweet meet-cute in a restaurant, marry, and plan to live happily ever after... only, a few months into their marriage, Lewis is diagnosed with a rare form of mutation which means he will gradually morph into a great white shark. He's not alone - transforming into other animals seems to be a fairly common occurrence (in whatever version of reality Shark Heart is set in). It's just that turning into, specifically,...