I don't know how to talk about this novel. Plot points and themes include gang rape, weight and body image, mental health and life in a traveling circus. I appreciate the protagonist's emotional progression throughout, but I'm not sure the conceit of her imaginary "fat girl" companion really works. It's still a good book. Read it and tell me what you think.
Attempting to fill the void left by her Newsflesh Trilogy, Mira Grant gives us another near-future made dystopic by a health cure gone wrong. This first entry in the Parasitology series brings us likeable characters, a quasi-believable medical threat (though to be honest far less plausible than how she envisioned zombies), corrupt business practices, mad egomaniacal scientists, strained family relationships and two sweet dogs.
Vanessa Davis is only about ten years younger than me, but reading her memoir comics and sketches I felt like a youth culture voyeur, sort of like I did when I watched the Girls pilot, featuring characters closer to twenty years my junior. Davis was 26-32 when she drew the comics collected here, so maybe my reaction isn't too far-fetched. Anyway, that's not to say that I didn't like her work, not at all! I just felt a little distant from it. Some of the issues, feelings and experiences rang true for me, but as in "I get it," rather than "I feel that."
Ramsey, whose zine List I've long been a fan of, moves from Chicago to Philadelphia and documents her first year there in one-week chunks. I've read a fair amount of daily comics, which I also like, but I appreciate how an artist giving herself a week allows her more space and the opportunity to be more selective about what she chooses to illustrate and share.
Cover image from author's website.
Kim says this will be the final issue of her zine, which makes me sad. I've been exchanging zines and letters with her for a while now--a year or a little bit longer? I wasn't sure how I felt about her and her defensively titled zine, at first, but she came to be one of my favorite pen pals, and her ultimate zine is also one of my favorites.
Cover image from One Minute Zine Reviews.
Sort of like the movie 2 Days in New York that I watched last week, I am not sure if I admired or hated this book. The writing is good, I guess. It's sophisticated, but not showy, but the characters might be a little hard to love.
It's weird when a book takes place in a neighborhood you know incredibly well, but is in a universe you've heard about but don't recognize, populated by alcoholic, bigoted police officers. Buried on Avenue B has a second location, Sarasota, Florida, which is not far from Tampa, where I went to grad school. The people in the Publix grocery stores in Sarasota are depicted as nicer than the ones I encountered in Tampa, but there was one commonality--old men bagging groceries. De Jonge assumes they're doing it for the minimum wage. In my naivete, I want to believe it is for something to do.
I like this Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge idea some friend posted to Facebook. (Sorry I can't remember who!) I like this list because it's quirky and somewhat less dude-centric than a lot of you-should-have-read-these-100-books-to-be-worthy types of lists. It is pretty white, though. The person I snagged the list from, snagged it from The Book Club Forum. I fixed a few obvious typos. I wish whoever compiled the list included only things that were actually read, preferably by Rory, not stuff like random movies titles or characters Lorelei blurts out.
The ones I haven't read are in bold, and I've added commentary to a few.
Amish teen Katie is looking forward to going on Rumspringa with her boyfriend Elijah. Instead she finds herself fighting evil, as well Elijah and the community elders. If the premise sounds ridiculous, unfortunately its execution kind of is. Unless it's meant to be silly, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and books of that ilk?
I've now read the material in this book three times, once as a series of blog posts, the second time in manuscript and now as a gen-u-ine book. Three times, and each time I was dazzled by Laura's honesty, insight, generosity, kindness, love, snark and beautiful writing.
The title pretty much tells you what it's about, the non-LC subject headings give you a few more clues:
Crossett, Laura--Confessions.
Pregnant women--Mental Health.
Christian biography--United States.
Pregnancy, Unplanned--United States. [Extra fun: search your favorite library catalog for "unplanned pregnanc*" and see what subject headings your results yield.]
Wayward spinsters--Iowa--Iowa City.
Intrauterine contraceptives--FAIL.
(Disclaimer: I am friends with Laura, and I helped with the subject headings.)
