Shattered Moon
Psychic vs. tarot serial killer. This 1984 novel couldn't be more early 1980s Southern California.
reviewdate:
Jan 12 2012
isn:
0-440-17593-3
Tagged with recommended
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the
This is one of those popular books that is so popular you don't want to read it, and then it turns out to be as good as the hype. It's a sort of biography/history/science story about the cancer cells of a poor, black mother-of-five who got cancer in a time when medical ethics were more highly evolved for animals than for humans.
reviewdate:
Jan 5 2012
isn:
978-1-4000-5218-9
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City of Ashes
Pretty much the same review as for City of Bones.
reviewdate:
Dec 25 2011
isn:
978-1-4169-7224-2
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City of Bones
For the most part I found City of Bones absorbing, yet predictable. There's one surprise I didn't see coming but should have, though. The protagonist, Clary, turns 16 during the course of the novel. I hope she catches onto things quicker as the series progresses and she gets older.
reviewdate:
Dec 17 2011
isn:
978-1-4169-5507-8
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Mountain of Crumbs, a
Gorokhova writes about growing up in 1960s and 70s Leningrad. I'd been curious about life in the USSR, and this memoir was exactly what I was looking for. She's a good writer, especially in her non-native but just as good English.
reviewdate:
Dec 11 2011
isn:
978-1-4391-3558-7
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Silver Borne
Our coyote shapeshifter is out of the love triangle business and head over heels over her alpha mate. Unfortunately his pack isn't quite as gaga over her. As usual some fae are gunning for her. I know my description makes the book sound silly, but it is actually one of my favorite installments the Mercy Thompson series.
reviewdate:
Nov 22 2011
isn:
978-0-441-01819-2
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Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women
Albert, in medical school while she was doing her ethnographic research with licensed prostitutes in Nevada, presents a good balance of nonfictiony background, history and data and the more interesting stuff--the women’s work and how they came to it.
Quotations:
Instead of lacking family values, as moralists contended, most of the women I came to know there possessed a profound sense of personal responsibility and an unwavering commitment to their families that ultimately drove them to do this “immoral” work.
After a little more inquiry, though, I found that sexual arousal occurred more frequently than not. In fact, over three-quarters of the women confessed to me in private that they had experienced sexual excitement with clients, and a full 70 percent admitted to having had an orgasm with a customer. Ten percent of the women confided that they orgasmed more often with clients than they did with lovers, and 8 percent said they did just as frequently.
Male owners were supposed to stay behind the scenes, leaving day-to-day operations to the female staff. Today, men are permitted to work more visibly--as cooks, bartenders, cashiers, and maintenance people--but wome still hold all the managerial and floor maid positions.
reviewdate:
Nov 8 2011
isn:
0-375-50331-5
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Girls’ Guide to Guys’ Stuff: an Anthology of Comics by Women, the
Alisa Harris was kind enough to donate an extra copy of this book to Barnard. I couldn’t keep my mitts off of the delectable book long enough for it to get cataloged, so I read through it before turning it over to technical services. It’s a juicy compendium of comics by women, many of whom will look familiar to zine and minicomics fans: Liz Baillie, Alisa, Missy Kulik, Cathy Leamy, Danica Novgorodoff, and MK Reed.
reviewdate:
Oct 15 2011
isn:
978-0-9740960-2-5
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Kiss & Tell: a Romantic Resume, Ages 0-22
MariNaomi’s graphic memoir tells the story of each of her romantic and sexual partners up to the age of 22. It’s 330 pages long, which may give you some idea of what kind of kid she was. And I mean “kid.” Ages 12-14 take up more than 100 pages and reference 15 boys and 1 girl, though she didn’t have intercourse until the 11th or so boy. There are also drugs. Though I am a bit of a prude, I’m not judging. I love Mari’s clean drawing style. Many of the cels are white on black, without a lot of extraneous detail. Even when they are occasionally more intricate, you don’t feel unsettled looking at them.
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reviewdate:
Oct 13 2011
isn:
978-0-06-200923-4
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Late Great Me, the
When Ms. Scoppettone reached out to me to say that she liked seeing Ms. Beane on this here blog, I was excited enough to brag about it on Facebook. One of the responses I got referred not to to Suzuki Beane, but to a teen novel, The Late Great Me that had been made into an After School Special. I wrote back to Sandra that I’d requested it from interlibrary loan, and she seemed a little horrified because as she said the book is “so out of date.” I might say the book is a little dated, but not out-of-date.
Quotations:
I have discovered many things. I am a young woman, an artist, both considerate and inconsiderate, generous and selfish, funny and sulky, rigid and open, arrogant and humble, and absolutely, definitely, without any doubt a drunk. My name is Geri Peters and I’m an alcoholic and I think you should know about it. p.11
reviewdate:
Oct 10 2011
isn:
0-46399-11620-6