I mentioned in my review of Delirium, the first book in Oliver's dystopian trilogy, that I was already halfway through Pandemonium when I was writing that review. I didn't mention that in order to procure Pandemonium, I left work about 90 minutes earlier than usual (since the closest branch of NYPL that had it was closing at 7). In other words, I was hooked.
As I write this, I'm halfway finished with the second book in the trilogy that begins with Delirium. My sisterwas right that Delirium is way better than Oliver's first book, Before I Fall.
Can you believe I'd never read this book? When it comes to zines, I'm pretty heavily a primary sources kind of a girl, but prepping for a talk that required me to know a little about pre-riot grrrl zines, I wanted to do a little homework. And you know what, Zines! is really good. Vale chose a good variety of zine folk to interview.
Jenna Freedman, librarian at the Barnard Zine Library, and Josh MacPhee, founder of Interference Archive, discuss the evolution of feminist print culture. They trace its trajectory from activist poster making, offset printing, and graffiti in the late 1970s and early 80s to the rise of the feminist zine in the 90s.This program is free with Museum admission.
First of all, thank you St. Paul Public Library for owning this small-press, originally self-published mystery and sharing it with me via Interlibrary Loan.
The protagonist is the ultimate anti-heroine, a fat, middle-aged Black lady. She's smart, capable, self-deprecating but not too, and has the obligatory detective novel quirky pet, a green cat named Seamus.
It's hard to write a competent review for this minicomic perzine. I really just want to show you all of the comics so you can see for yourself how brilliant they are. But that would be obnoxious.
A Thousand Lives came highly recommended by someone whose taste I trust, so I'm sorry to report I felt "meh" about it. Jonestown is a fascinating (if horrifying) topic, and I learned some things I didn't know about the ministry (that it was 70% Black and that it was friends with San Francisco politicians Harvey Milk and George Moscone).
One of the greatest things about this punk rock lesbian bildungsroman is that it takes place on Staten Island, and also the East Village of the 1980s (?). The narrator Nina Boyd is a working class high school junior who is an athlete and aspiring member of the armed forces, in addition to being a dedicated reader of Love and Rockets and a Rocky Horror Picture Show-goer whose mecca is CBGB. Too bad she doesn't make it into CBs in high school due to curfews strictly enforced by her parents.
