lower east side librarian

Disclosure: I'm friends or friendly with about half of the contributors to this book, for which I also wrote a chapter. I think I'd have loved it even if that weren't the case, but then again it couldn't have not been the case because the world of feminist archivists isn't as big as you might imagine--or hope!

I loved reading DeWoskin's two novels, and I also love memoirs, especially about being caught between two cultures, so I was jazzed to finally get around to Foreign Babes. Usually that's a set up for disappointment, but although I didn't find FB quite as dramatic as her fiction, I still read it with great interest.

At first I was put off by Howrey's clever self-conscious self-mockery, but I was patient (because I'm a sucker for dance stories) and rightly rewarded with a mature story of sibling love and rivalry in a chick-littish wrapper where the heroine SPOILER doesn't end up with a man.

"The one good thing about being shut in a coal-hole is that it prompts reflection." So yeah, Jeanette Winterson had a rough childhood, but somehow managed to keep her optimism and sense of humor. Why Be Happy reminds me of Are You My Mother?, but without comics and run through a Joan Didion filter.

Jim Wellington, aka "The Duke" of Waterloo and Harvard goes to the Berlin Olympics to run the 1500 meter. I used to love this book, and now I don't know why. The Duke is a dullard. Plus, written in 1939, Tunis has an inkling what German fascism is going to look like, but he's a bit of a dick about the "colored boys" and doesn't give much attention to Jesse Owens (who he refers to by another name, Washington, maybe).

After becoming enamored of Ms. McGuire's Newsflesh trilogy (written as Mira Grant), and to keep me busy until NYPL got around to acquiring the final installment, I was gaga to bury myself in her October Daye series, about a half-fae detective. As usual, my high expectations ruined things for me. Or, pretty likely, Toby just isn't half as interesting as George and Shaun.

This is an old favorite, that I ILL'd partially for Eric's benefit because it's about a runner. It's 1930s young adult sports fiction. Our protagonist, "The Duke," is an Iowa boy struggling to find himself at Harvard University, which is full of prep school snoots who won't give him the time of day until he accidentally becomes a sports hero. His best buddies, football star Mickey McGuire and the urbane Faugeres Smith, are more interesting than Duke. Even if Duke is a little hayseed, his story is compelling, and I like the way Tunis gives it to Harvard.

I was stoked to pick this up at the library after waiting several weeks for it and after having read the short story that launched the Alpha and Omega series. I bet you know where I'm going with this. Cry Wolf was a disappointment. It did a lot more telling than showing and was overly impressed with the Omega wolf magic of radiating calm. I've found Briggs to be a creative and intelligent writer, but this one felt like her apprentice wrote it based on Briggs' outline and characters.

Twenty five Muslim women, most of them pretty observant, many of them converts, share their love stories. To a heathen like me the mystery of these women's lives isn't Islam; it's their devotion to it. Maybe I was expecting some secular Muslim contributions, but that was probably dumb. Anyway, the women's tales are heartfelt and straightforward. Surprises include the two chapters written by lesbians and the matter-of-fact and reasonable sounding appeal of polygyny.

I don't usually care for novels without likable protagonists, but I found Hooked to be compelling and enjoyable even though the narrator, Thea Galehouse, is pretty apathetic and presumably depressed. Her parents are self-absorbed and helpless, and Thea's boyfriend doesn't seem to have much special about him other than his potent sperm. The characters I like best are Carmen of the yarn shop and Thea's best friend Vanessa.