Lower East Side Librarian

Yes, I'm three books in to Pretty Little Liars. I don't even like it anymore, but I'm not sure I can stop.

I was really looking forward to reading this graphic memoir of growing up in 1980s Poland. Sowa and Savoia depict lots of surprising realities--the privations of life behind the Iron Curtain, like chewing window putty for want of gum--and life-shaking historical moments, like Solidarnosc, but maybe because Sowa was so young during the time period she's telling us about, there isn't enough nuance or engagement to make her story as compelling as I wanted it to be.

You know I love the Sookie Stackhouse series, right?, but like with so many endings to television series, the finale was a bit of a disappointment. I'm okay with who Sookie ended up with, but the whole book was a set-up for it, and there were lots of loose ends unnecessarily tied up.

One thing I appreciate is that the series doesn't attempt to drag one secret out for the entire gazillion books. In the beginning of the second Pretty Little Liars book, you find out the big deal from book one.

It's the fault of my Facebook 50 Books in 2013 group and specifically my smart, feminist, zine friend Caitlin that I powered through the first and then second books in the Pretty Little Liars series in a large, rotund hurry. I mean who could resist this tantalizing write up: "Pretty Little Liars by I forget. It's been a long time since I had so thoroughly enjoyed such an objectively terrible book."?

If you've been paying any attention at all, you know that I'm a huge Celia Perez fan. In fact I reviewed last year's issue of The Shortest Day here, most glowingly.

Thanks to Alex Wrekk, I've been watching the Canadian supernatural procedural Lost Girl. The show is about a succubus, just like, you guessed it, this second installment of Mead's Georgina Kincaid series. For those you don't know, a succubus takes a partner's life force during sex.

This novel about 19-year-old corps de ballet dancer Hannah Ward reminded me a little of the nun memoir Through the Narrow Gate because it was about the protagonist's struggle with the sacrifices required to please her god, in this case the artistic director of the "Manhattan Ballet."