Lower East Side Librarian

Why must Olivia be a teenager in love with her finishing school headmistress? First published in 1949, it was a hot item. Per The Christian Science Monitor, libraries couldn't get it onto the shelves. Comparing Olivia and 1984, also recently published, Eric Forbes-Boyd writes in the CSM on July 21, 1949:

C's full-color handwritten and illustrated mini- 24-hourish perzine depicts her winter solstice day-in-the-life. She does a holiday craft project, but is unsuccessful at luring her son to participate--no Norman Rockwell memories for Emiliano! The next page is colored in saffron to match some Buddhist monks Celia saw waiting on the el train platform with her. She goes on to list and draw things she saw and heard in her travels that day and the contents of the single bag of stuff she bought at Whole Foods that set her back more than $80. There are also little anecdotes, music-inspired memories, and train haiku (morning meal is a / half gallon of Kemp's milk and / a "shut the fuck up").

High school cheerleaders as government spooks hide in plain site behind their sparkles and designer bags. Sounds juicy, right? It's a real page turner; I went through it in about 24 hours. I totally recommend it to a teen, tween, or fellow adult young adult literature aficionado, and I'm requesting the 2nd installment (Killer Spirit) from NYPL as I type.

And Then They Were Nuns is different from other lesbian separatist utopia novels because the utopia is a monastery, and the lesbians are nuns--except for the one who serves as the priest. I'm sorry; it's hard not to tease such a set-up. And Then They Were Nuns actually is more or less like other lesbian separatist utopia novels, not that that's a bad thing.

Witch Rachel learns to
embrace her inner demon
maybe even elves.

Marlys and Maybonne's little brother gets in trouble a lot, and like his sisters has a rotten home life. Who's better than Lynda Barry at depicting the misery and shame of childhood, but with enough love for her characters that you don't totally want to kill yourself while reading about them?