Lower East Side Librarian

Why is historical fiction looked down upon in publishing? Because women like it? I like it. I think it’s a great way to get a taste of important events and eras. This retelling of the U.S. woman suffrage movement is told in three voices: Lucy Burns, Mary Daly, and Kate Brennan. Brennan, a recent Bryn Mawr grad who somewhat accidentally gets arrested at a White House protests and spends two weeks in prison as a result carries most of the book.

This is a book club book, so I don’t want to say much about it before I get the chance to talk about it with Celia. And that’s fine, because I don’t have a ton to say about it. A young goth punk alcoholic in recovery, whose father died a few years prior discovers Debbie Harry, falls in love, and realizes he’s a transvestite. It’s an area that’s not covered adequately in the literature, but I’m not sure it’s covered adequately here, either.

I was on the fence about the first installment of this cheerleaders undercover series, and I’m indifferent about the second one. Well, maybe a teeny bit anti.

This is a fast, enjoyable read, and gives you an idea of what life is like for women in Afghanistan. Ms. Rodriguez is a likable if not always reliable narrator. As she says herself, "Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing much good here. There are many of us Westerners who want to help Afghan women, but our efforts don't always help them in the ways that we hope they will. ... It takes a long time to understand how the complexities of these women's lives differ from the complexities of ours." (p.259)

Joey's gender transition stories are everything that you could want in a minicomic. They're honest, well-drawn, compelling, and at least once an issue, LOL funny. I don't say LOL casually, I actually mean it. The strip that got me in issue one is the 4th installment of Joey's conversation with herself, "Am I a bitch now?" about whether her now passing and openly identifying as female--and taking hormones--has, you know. If that scares you, know that this isn't an attack on assertive womanhood. Check out the first installment, and you'll understand: