Like, wow. Walker can write her pen off. Come for the story of an eleven-year-old-girl's coming of age in a global catastrophe and stay for writing so good it can make the earth spin a little slower to give you time to enjoy it.
Although I love Alvarez's novels, I found her book of essays to be a little meh. In fact, I stopped just before the halfway point. It might be zines' fault. I've read a lot of similar themed essays (about feeling half in one world and half in another, due to immigrant status, mixed race identity or the loss of one's native language) in dozens (hundreds?) of zines.
That's my 2012 Winter Solstice Shout-Out and Reading Log.
The story begins with a witch, a pixy and a vampire in a bar...
After graduating from college, Camille determined that her history and literature education had been incomplete and set about filling in the gaps by reading books and zines exclusively by women of color.
author photo, from her website
I'd somehow missed the latest Sookie installation when it came out. After reading lots of paranormal fiction books by lesser writers, it was nice to spend some time in Harris's skillfully constructed world with her multi-dimensional characters.
I'm reviewing Bad Mexican because I loved it, but my review might make you sad because the zine is no longer available. It's instant karma, though, because I'm bummed that Daniela's first zine, Soy Secretron is not in my greedy clutches.
It's funny how even though it's only from 2010, the zine feels old and old school. Daniela signs each copy, and mine at least has a little happy face illustration and handwritten annotations. There's a table of contents and a song recommended for each section. Daniela refers to her work as a "mini zine," but clearly it's a lot more substantial than she gives it credit for being. If you know Daniela, who is driven and ridiculously accomplished, it won't surprise you that her standards for her own work are absurdly high.
About that, funny story -- my Native American ancestors were enslaved by the white missionaries there and changed my family's name, so that's why my last name is Capistrano.
Here are organizations that I donated money to this year. Some of them even got my time, as well!
Anchor Archive Zine Library/Roberts Street Social Centre
The book isn't as good as the microblog, but that would be nearly impossible. I appreciate that Hagan didn't merely reprint the celebrity children entries she posted online, but organized the book into logical, coherent and snarky sections.