Book Reviews #6-2022

My son just finished 5th grade and despite it being the first year of middle school for him and having to learn how to switch classes, adapt to classes in person, and the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s actually managed to do really well this year and I’m pretty proud of him! He got on the Principal’s Roll for getting straight A’s!! And Phoenix Fan Fusion (our version of a comic convention) is finally here and I’m excited to go to that, as I have been waiting 3 yrs to go to one due to the pandemic! I will probably post on that soon.

Nour’s Secret Library written by Wafa’ Tarnowska, illustrated by Vali Mintzi

This book was based on a true story that happened during the Syrian civil war in 2011, as well as the author’s personal experiences during the civil war in Lebanon in the 1970s. In this book, Nour and her best friend and cousin Amir live in the Syrian capital city of Damascus, and dream of having their own secret society. When the Syrian Civil War comes closer and closer to their city, they must hide in a neighbor’s basement, along with the rest of the neighborhood, to escape the bombing. Everything is really dire for a long time. They have no electricity, resorting to reading by candlelight what books they could bring themselves, and people are starving. The kids are eventually sent on food runs to scavenge what they can find, and Amir and his friends start bringing back books to Amir’s house. Soon Nour and Amir decide to start a secret library, first cleaning the books and organizing them, and later finding a secret location to hide them. They name the library Al-Fajr, which means “dawn” in Arabic, because they hope for a brighter future. Soon the collection has 1000 of books in dozens of languages and everyone is able to enjoy them.

I adored the bright colors of the illustrations, with all the reds, blues, and oranges. It made the illustrations appear so lush and exotic, but also did a good job highlighting the action. I also loved the imagery of the words and hope of the text, like this part at the end: “Their secret library had become a safe port in a sea of war. The hope it brought carried them from the darkness of destruction into a bright new dawn.” The back of the book was jam-packed with information about Syria, a glossary of terms used in the book, 8 Famous Libraries of the Middle East, the story of the real secret library, culture and war in Syria, as well as an author and illustrator’s note. This is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended for ages 8+, 5 stars.

Erik vs. Everything written by Christina Uss

This had been on my to-read list for awhile, so decided to give it a try once I’d finished the Wondla series by Tony DiTerlizzi, with my son. I had seen a really good review of the book on Publisher’s Weekly and wanted to give a try because the concept seemed hilarious. I mean how could you not love the story of a young Viking boy who is literally afraid of everything! My son was not keen on it when I picked it but by the time we finished it, he loved. Not only did he say it was “the funniest book you’ve read to me all year” but also that he really enjoyed it. Erik is a very shy nervous elementary school boy who is afraid of everything. He is scared of the dark, talking to people, telephones, being outdoors, but is especially is afraid of squirrels. What makes his existence even worse is that his family has all descended from Vikings and are super scary, not afraid of anything and expect him to act the same way too! He is sent to Minnesota to help his Aunt Hilda and Uncle Bjorn and his rowdy male cousins with the triplets, the youngest in the family. Brunhilde, his older sister goes with him, and decides to help him conquer all of his fears while there. But will it help or hinder him? To find out, read this hilarious look into phobias, The Art of War, and dealing with your crazy family. Recommended for ages 8-11, 4-1/2 stars (my son gave it 5 and I gave it four).

The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo #3) by Rick Riordan

Originally read Dec 2019: A brief summary to help people follow along – Apollo has been cast down to Earth by his dad Zeus and turned into a chonky acne-ridden mortal teenager named Lester Papadopoulos and he must rescue five Oracles in order to be let back in to Olympus and become immortal once more. All the while he is serving the plant-loving daughter of Demeter, Meg McCaffrey, and must do everything she says, in addition to fulfilling the prophecies proclaimed by the rescued oracles which mostly involve him avoiding certain death and the destruction of the world as we know it! But he is also fighting an evil triumvirate of former Roman Emperors who vow to stop him at every turn. In this book, Leo has been sent on to Camp Jupiter to warn them of the impending attack by the triumvirate. Lester/Apollo is seeking to find the Erythraean Sibyl in this volume and we also learn the identity of the third emperor and let me say he is my least favorite (definitely the craziest one out of the three). With the help of Piper and Jason, they must get the emperor’s sandals in order to brave the Burning Maze, underneath the city of Los Angeles. Will they be able to achieve this? If so, at what cost? Recommended for ages 12+, 4 stars.

I freaking love the Arrow of Dodona, he and Lester/Apollo are the funniest things in these books! Which is actually great as this one in particular got pretty dark, so you definitely needed that to break up all the seriousness. I am ready for this series to be at its completion, so I hope book 4 is it.

Re-listening to audiobook with my son (March 23-May 19, 2022): The Arrow of Dodona is still my favorite part, though it annoys my son a bit. Huzzah for Shakespearean English! This one was just as I remembered it, really dark, it dragged on forever, and my son thought so too. Here’s hoping the next one is less so! 4 stars (as rated by the kiddo).

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Vol 1 originally created by Natsuya Semikawa, rewritten by Virginia Nitouhei, illustrated by Kururi

I have never read it, but apparently this is very similar to the manga Restaurant to Another World by Junpei Inuzuka. So if you like that one, you will mostly likely like this book as well! Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu is about a Japanese style pub that pops up in a medieval German town named Eiteriach and brighten the lives of its citizens by serving Japanese pub fair like sashimi, grilled octopus, kaisendon, etc. I ended up finding a tutorial for one of the first dishes on YouTube because it sounded so good! The other side of the pub opens out onto a busy Tokyo street. I’m guessing because of the whole “portal to another world” motif everyone can magically understand each other, despite the characters being from medieval Germany and modern-day Japan, and would probably having no idea how to speak each other’s languages normally.

The first people to explore the new restaurant are two soldiers on guard duty, and then a tax collector who is so enraptured with the food that he gives away all his money, stops being a tax collector, and is obviously a regular in the pub after this. He is my favorite because of his reaction to the food (which for him is a Japanese version of spaghetti with bell pepper, onion, and bacon with a tomato or ketchup sauce and a dash of hot sauce), and he literally is going into paroxysms of ecstasy over the taste. He goes so far as to say “This is…Life. The Universe. The Answer to Everything…This is nothing less than a miracle…A manifestation of Agape upon this earth.” The flashback to his childhood definitely reminded me of the restaurant critic in Ratatouille.  There is a young rich girl with a very precise list of thing she does not want to eat and no one is able to accomplish these foods for her until she is served food from the izakaya by Shinobu, the waitress who instinctively knows what to serve her. There is a young man and his soon-to-be brother-in-law who find the place and challenge each other to eat new things, an older soldier who meets up with one of the earlier soldiers and falls in love with the Pork and Miso stew. At the end of the book, there is a glossary of German and Japanese food vocabulary terms used in the book, as well as early drawings of the characters used in the book. The glossary and sketches are in every volume afterwards as well. Highly recommended for ages 14+, 5 stars.

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Vol 2 originally created by Natsuya Semikawa, rewritten by Virginia Nitouhei, illustrated by Kururi

Volume 2 was more of the same of the first volume there, but just introduced more townspeople of Eiteraich and the surrounding areas. Hans, the soldier from two of the scenes in the first volume, is back for more in the second and pretty sure he has crush on the pretty Japanese waitress, Shinobu. She introduces him to the joys of Kisu, a small tempura fish. There is an almost break-in by a local girl after she discovers their “magic” water faucets, and she accidentally goes out the Tokyo back door, but things end up positive for all involved. There is a snooty nobleman who tries to reserve the whole restaurant, but thanks to Shinobu’s quick thinking, she manages to get him to leave peacefully. I also discovered omusoba, which is omelet eggs over noodles, which sounds way weirder than omurice (in my opinion). My favorite parts were the ones with Deacon Edwin, the assistant priest at the local church and the soldiers trying to not let him know about the pub, only to find out later that he’s a regular already! And the commander of the soldiers who was marrying a girl whose father caught squid and thought he hated it all his life, only to find out he actually loved it! Highly recommended for ages 14+, 5 stars!

Witchlight written and illustrated by Jessi Zabarsky

Sanja is a quiet mousy kind of girl that does what her father tells her to do. She notices Lelek, a witch who is identifiable by the candle hovering over her head, at her local marketplace but thinks nothing of it until she is abducted by the same witch. Lelek asks for sword lessons from Sanja and in exchange they will honestly get food/shelter through Lelek’s work as a witch. Lelek is pretty secretive and eventually her background story comes out. She is so powerful that her teacher took half of her magic away, but with it she took part of her soul, so she is searching for the missing half. She is alone in the world and is not very trusting but she gradually opens herself up to friendship and then falls in love. Sanja nearly loses her due to an action by her idiot brother, but Lelek eventually recovers and you can just imagine them growing old together.

The story was pretty disjointed in the beginning and as another Goodreads reviewer has commented on, it’s got a dash of Stockholm syndrome in there too. Aside from that, I rather liked the book. The artwork style is very different looking, but I loved the bright colors Zabarsky used.  I liked that it was a body positive book about two girls trying to find their place in the world, and they were able to find it with each other, and gain some found family while they were at it. Recommended for ages 14+, 4 stars.

Dune (Dune #1) by Frank Herbert

Originally read the book sometime in my twenties (c. 2002) and loved it, and the original cult-classic movie too (though Paul as played by Kyle MacLachlan was a bit stiff). Originally gave it 5 stars.

Listening to the full-cast audiobook (March 31- May 13, 2022): Took me six weeks to finish with 6 months wait in-between each time I got the audiobook. After watching the 2021 “Dune” movie, decided to relive it again. Euan Morton is cast as Paul Atreides, and he is an amazing narrator, so should be an good production. Unfortunately he is not the main narrator. Simon Vance is and he does a good job but I would call this false advertising as sometimes the characters have other voices but it is very sporadic and therefore cannot be really called a true “full cast” production. I apparently forgot the last couple of chapters of the book as I was super surprised with everything from Paul as Muad’dib taking over the tribe (I mean obviously he was going to do it but just the way he went about it was pretty freaking ballsy, surprised these people didn’t just kill him to be honest), through to him moving the emperor to the Prison planet. Now I’m sure curious to see what happens next and have already put the second book on hold though will probably be a few months before I can get a copy. Recommended for ages 16+, and because this book dragged so much in the middle/end, I would probably give it 4 stars this time around. So it evens out 4-1/2 stars in all.

Book Reviews #5-2022

Summer is almost here and I’m still not ready, and already hating the heat. Trying to get all the things together so I can register my kid for summer camp and sign him for the good camps and fun activities here at the library. I’m doing a storytime for older kids at the end of April and so all the picture books I am reviewing this month are from that. 

I’ll Build You A Bookcase = Te Hare Tu Propio Librero written by Jean Ciborowski Fahey, illustrated by Simone Shin

I love this book! I love that it is bright and colorful, with a diverse cast of characters, and is short but to the point. The book has the text in English on one page and in Spanish on the next. It celebrates reading, and especially reading between parents and kids. The book starts out talking about creating a bookcase library for a not-yet born baby  and reading to babies, and toddlers, all the way up to age 3. It’s got mentions of nonfiction books, grandparents reading to grandchildren, going on adventures while reading, and then constructing little free libraries so everyone else can enjoy books too! It even has tips for How to Read to Your Child in the back. Highly recommended for ages 3-6, 5 stars. 

Lola at the Library written by Anna McQuinn, Rosalind Beardshaw

Originally used for a books/reading toddler storytime in Oct 2015, and will be using again for a books/reading for older kids storytime at the end of April 2022. It is a simple story about an African-American preschool child named Lola who goes to the libraries once a week on Tuesdays with her mom – good way to introduce kids to the concept of going to the library and storytime. And the best part is she gets books for bedtime! Recommended for ages 3-7, 4 stars.

Quiet! There’s a Canary in the Library written and illustrated by Don Freeman

Originally read Dec 2014: Whenever I think of Don Freeman, I always think of Corduroy the bear (which I’ve somehow never read), although I did enjoy his book Fly High, Fly Low. This book was adorable. Although a little long, I think it would be great for a toddler storytime on reading or the library. Cary is a young girl who loves going to the library and picking out books to read, recommended by Mrs. Curtis the librarian. One day, as she is reading a book about the zoo, she imagines that she is a librarian. The first thing she does is have a day that all the animals and birds can visit the zoo. My son loved naming all the different animals in this book and liked that they all liked to read too. Pandemonium almost breaks out when some mice come in the library, but the day is saved by a canary. After accidently shouting, Cary realizes that she is still in the library and picks out a book to read at home. Recommended for ages 2-6, 4 stars.

Re-read April 21, 2022: I’m doing an older kids storytime on books and reading and thought this would be a great addition as most people haven’t heard of it. I would actually recommend it for slightly older kids due to the length, maybe 3-7, 4 stars.

A Book for Escargot written by Dashka Slater, illustrated by Sydney Hanson

Originally read June 2020: Even more adorable than the original book! Escargot is going to the library to get a book on cooking, but wants your help creating cool new snail stories as snails are never the heroes. And totally did it in a French accent! Highly recommended for ages 4-8, 5 stars.

Re-read April 22, 2022 to my son and hopefully other kiddos at a Books/Reading storytime to be done April 30th at one of the branches: You just have to do this book in a French accent, though it is a little wordy so it might turn into generic European or Spanish after a while. I love little Escargot, he is tres adorable! Got to re-read it to my kiddo as he had forgotten about it. 5 stars.

The Little Library written by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by G. Brian Karas

Everyone in Mr. Tiffin’s class is excited to go to the library, except for Jake, who has a hard time when he’s there because he’s a careful reader and has problems with comprehension. I think it’s possible he could have dyslexia, though they never come out and say that. While all the other kids hurry to get a book, he hangs back. The Librarian, Beck (a non binary individual), notices and looks for the perfect book for Jake. He finds an older worn out crafting book called Woodworking for Young Hands and gives it to Jake, who spends many hours doing hands on projects with his grandfather on the weekends. This is the perfect book for him and Jake checks it out over and over again until the end of the school when he learns he must give it back for the summer. Jake decides to help out the librarian by creating and building (with a little help from grandpa) a Little Free Library for his classmates and the librarian, so they can have books to read over the summer. Librarian Beck gifts him with the woodworking book, which he had decided to withdraw from the collection. Recommended for ages 5-9, 4 stars.

El Deafo written and illustrated by CeCe Bell

Originally read April 29-30, 2015: I’ve been wanting to read this one for awhile, especially after it won one of the two 2015 Newbery Honors. This book is the memoir of the author/illustrator CeCe Bell, who lost her hearing after getting meningitis at age four very suddenly. She has to adjust to not hearing and using a giant hearing aid called the Phonic Ear that straps to her chest, under her clothes. She is able to hear everything her teacher says with it and everywhere she goes with it and Cece believes she may have a superpower, and so makes up her alter ego superhero, El Deafo. Really the book is all about acceptance, which is so hard with young kids, especially girls and especially if someone is different. Will Cece be accepted and find a true friend? To find out, read this fascinating biography. Recommended for ages 8+, 4 stars.

Re-reading for Tween Graphic Novel Club (April 17-22, 2022): I picked this for my Tween Graphic Novel Club in April and they also picked it as one of the new additions to our Great Chapter Book Collection at the library. Been a bit distracted this go around so it took me longer to read. Also I found the book really unnecessarily long. I understand that it takes awhile to explain Cece (aka El Deafo) and her predicament, but the story just goes on and on. I feel like it could’ve probably been half the length and still been okay. 3-1/2 stars.

Blood Water Paint written by Joy McCullough

I picked this book for my book club pick for Poetry Month. I have been wanting to read this book since it came out in 2018, as I only knew a little about the artist, mostly just the Judith painting in my Baroque class in undergraduate.  This book is a Young Adult historical fiction verse novel about 17th century Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi who started painting in her father’s painting workshop, where he trained her as his apprentice, in a time when there were next to zero female painters.  She later painted on her own after she was married, and followed Caravaggio’s school of painting with Baroque technique of chiaroscuro (light and shadow). The novel talks about two paintings of hers, Susanna and the Elders, c. 1610 and Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1625, especially as they relate to Artemesia and how she changes throughout the verse novel. The sections with stories of these two Biblical women are the only prose sections in the book and the cool part is they are feminist reinterpretations of Susanna and Judith, but taught by her mother before she passed away.

Artemisia was raped by Augustino (Tino) Tassi, another painter her father originally hired to teach her perspective and to get juicier commissions for himself (even though by that point his daughter was doing most of his work for him). Artemisia fought a long hard-wrought trial against Tino Tassi saying he raped her, and won it surprisingly, despite being tortured herself. She had to re-teach herself to paint and she still managed to kick ass with paintings like Judith Beheading Holofernes, and actually put herself and Tassi in the painting as characters. I very much enjoyed this book, despite Tino’s seriously sketchy behavior not only to his wife and sister in law, but also to Artemisia. Highly recommended for ages 15+, 5 stars.

Dial A for Aunties (Aunties #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto 

There is an author’s note at the beginning of the audiobook that explains the author’s nationality, Chinese-Indonesian and why she chose to speak the way she did (or more specifically the way the aunties spoke) in the book. As Peter (on semi-hiatus) wrote in his August 21, 2021 Goodreads review, “The shifts in language between Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, English, and even the use of emojis, provide the perfect opportunity for comic dialogue, with misinterpretations, insensitivity, and regular point-scoring. Elements of slapstick comedy are vividly drawn with laugh out loud scenes and antics.”

First things first, this murder mystery rom-com book was freaking hilarious! Everything that could’ve gone wrong did and then some. Risa Mei did a great job as narrator about getting the right about of panic for a young twenty-something who just wants to impress her demanding family, and her aunties were my favorite part! The story is a little disjointed in the way it kept jumping back and forth between Meddelin’s college days and the present day story, but the past definitely has an impact on the present. It’s a bit like Crazy Rich Asians but way funnier and more relatable. Plus I heard Netflix is planning on adapting it into a movie, so very excited for that! I also can’t wait to listen to book two!

Meddelin, Meddy for short, Chan studied photography in college where she met Nathan, the most perfect boyfriend ever. No seriously, I kind of want to date him. Only she can never take him home to her demanding aunties and mom, because she feels so much pressure to be perfect ever since all her male cousins and relations have left home. She does the only thing she can think of and breaks it off with him.  Meddy instantly regrets it at that moment and every day during the nearly four years since she’s done it. She’s now the photographer for her family’s wedding business. There’s also First Aunt, the eldest and usually the most authoritative, and she is their master baker. Second Auntie is the hair and makeup lady who is always practicing weird poses of Tai Chi and hates everything her older sister does, her mom is the florist, and Fourth Aunt is a semi-professional singer. All of them fight and try to one-up each other, which makes for some interesting conversations.

Her mother and aunties try to set her up with a guy her mother met online (pretending to be Meddy of course) and she thinks, “What the hell, why not?”. Turns out the guy is hella skeevy and she accidentally kills him and then brings the body home, having no idea what to do with it and her mother and aunties step up because they’re all family. They all have a billionaire’s Chinese-Indonesian wedding to help with the next day on a nearby island (they live in California) so the body goes in a cooler and they’re gonna sort out where the dig a grave later. Only things don’t happen the way you would think and start getting more and more outrageous the more you dive into the story. Will they be able to get rid of the body? To find out, check out this uproarious book! Recommended for ages 16+, 4 stars. 

Book Reviews #4-2022

Well I’ve made it through Spring Break with my kiddo, and we’re down to the last month and a half of school. Not looking forward to summer as I hate the weather, but I am super looking forward to Phoenix Fan Fusion this year as we’ve not had it in two years (that’s Phoenix’s version of ComiCon) and of course Summer Reading! I seem to be reading a lot more fascinating books that I want to talk about lately, hence why this post is so long!

In a Village by the Sea written by Muon Van, illustrated by April Chu

Originally read this book around Sept 2017 when I was doing Preschool Prep at a branch library, and then rediscovered it this week while looking for multicultural books for an interview. I love the calm illustrations in the beginning and the end (which appropriately remind me of the swells of ocean waves) and the cricket part reminds me a bit of David Wiesner’s books. Bit too complicated for 2 year olds, but preschoolers would probably love it. Highly recommended for ages 3-6, 5 stars!

Mr. Watson’s Chickens written by Jarrett Dapier, illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi

I picked this book up based off a Publisher’s Weekly review and it may be my favorite book, at least picture book I’ve read this year! I like that the author has a gay couple in the book as the protagonist but it is not the main focus, the hilarious chickens are, so I could definitely use this book as family storytime book. It was great as a read aloud to both my bf and my son. Mr. Watson and his partner Mr. Nelson start with three chicks and then that quickly multiplies out of control until they have 456 chickens and they are everywhere! There’s even a singing chicken called Aunt Agnes, and her song features prominently throughout the book. Mr. Nelson loves Mr. Watson but something needs to be done with all these chickens and so they take them to be sold, but then they all escape! Will they be able to find them all? Find out what happens next in this hilarious take on urban farming and pet ownership. Highly recommended for ages 5+, 5 stars!

Love, Violet written by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, illustrated by Charlene Chua

I cannot express how much I loved finding out about this book. There’s not a lot of books that touch on this subject so it was nice to find a picture book that did and did it in a kind, not overt way. Who doesn’t want to find someone they consider “magnificent” and special? Violet goes out of her way to make a special Valentine for Mira, the prettiest and most fun girl in her class. She’s the girl Violet would pick to go on adventures with, anything and everything. But what if Mira thinks Violet isn’t that great? Violet must overcome her fears to tell Mira how she really feels and give her the Valentine. It’s so adorable how each of the girls are looking out for each other and yet keep missing one another, and then when they finally do, it’s so freaking cute. Highly recommended for ages 4-7, 5 stars.

The Battle for Wondla (Wondla #3) written and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi

Originally read this book June 2014: I gave this book five stars as I was blown away by the series and thought the ending was fitting given all the hardships Eva Nine had to go through to get her Wondla.

Re-read to my son between Jan-March 2022: OMG this book was long and freaking dragged. To be fair, we stopped reading it shortly after starting, to read a book that was due soon from the library, as I now own the series. But even when we started up reading it again, I was just ready for it to be over and I think it’s one of the longer books of the series. Plus it’s a whole book about war, which kind of reminded me of the end of the Gregor the Overlander series, which also dragged.

Eva Nine is hiding in the Wandering Forest to protect her friends from Loroc, the alien who turns out is the mastermind behind Cadmus Pryde’s attacks on Solas. She is convinced by Hailey that she’s hiding and needs to step up, and she does. She ends up growing up a lot in this book, as she has to deal with so many political factions and dishonesty from others.  She makes an unusual ally in Queen Ojo and one of her minions and it was honestly not something I was expecting, but I think it worked out for her in the end when everyone banded together to save their world.

I missed Rovee, Otto, and Huxley not being in the story more than they were, as they are my favorite characters. I did love seeing how Eva’s gift of communicating with the plants and animals of Orbona was so crucial in this book. The epilogue(s) went on forever…though it was interesting to see in the hundreds of years that followed what happened to the planet and its inhabitants. Overall, I would give it 4 stars this time around. Recommended for ages 10-14.

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos

This was another starred Publisher’s Weekly review, and I must’ve forgotten but it was almost entirely wordless minus a few Spanish/English words. The book is about Marisol, a young girl who was grew up in Havana during the early 1950s, and participated in what was called “Operation Peter Pan”. As things grew more dire for people in Cuba around the time Fidel Castro took over, parents sent their children to the US to protect them. Marisol is sent to NYC, which is nothing like her colorful hometown. She goes by herself and she has never felt so alone. Marisol is forced into a different climate in the middle of winter, she must learn how to speak English at home and at school, and adapt all without her parents and living with strangers. In time, once she settles in a bit more, gets a letter from home in Spanish, and starts to learn English, her world becomes a little brighter. Literally though, because the book starts off in color in tropical Cuba, then goes to gray, black and white in NYC, and then she gradually gains her color back the more settled she gets with her foster parents. I was impressed by how much the book could express with colors and emotions. Recommended for 10-14, 4 stars.

Just Roll With It written by Lee Durfey-Lavoie and illustrated by Veronica Agarwal

 Just Roll With It is a coming of age story about a Indian sixth grader named Maggie who literally makes all the decisions in her life by rolling a twenty-sided die. She loves to play a Dungeons & Dragons type game with her family. She won’t make a move in the game, interact with fellow students at school, eat lunch, or study without first using the die. Her constant OCD and anxiety, manifesting as a large dragon only she can see, are holding her back from really enjoying life and making friends. Maggie won’t admit she has a problem until things sort of spiral out of control.  To top everything else off, there’s a monster lurking around her middle school but no one can figure out what it is and rumors abound. Will she be able to get her life back on track and stop the dragon from taking over her life? Will she be able to figure out what the monster is at school? To find out, read this slice-of-life graphic novel. Highly recommended for ages 10-14, 5 stars.

I loved this graphic novel! I liked that both the writer and illustrator’s stories were incorporated to create this story. I also really liked that they managed to talk about mental health, especially the anxiety with the scribbly images, bullying, and LGBTQ+ issues, in a realistic and sensitive way without making it a big deal. In that way, this book was very much like Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels Guts. I also enjoyed the RPG elements, how everyone was cool with nerds being nerds, and how supportive her family was for her.

Fruits Basket Another Vol 1. written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket (the original) is one of my favorite manga and anime series. So I was curious to learn that she had written a second series. It’s weird because it’s like the original and then again it’s not. It’s like Ouran High School Host Club and Fruits Basket original series had a baby, and this comic was the result (mostly because Yuki’s son reminds me a lot of Tamaki from OHSHC in personality, though not quite as outrageous). The Sohma’s are there but the curse was cured in the previous generation and these kids are all new Sohmas. Sawa Mitoma is the new Tohru Honda, though her family life is even worse than Tohru’s. Whereas Tohru’s mom was dead, Sawa’s is MIA most of the time and then verbally and possibly physically abusive when she is home. Sawa, as a result, is shy, skittish and because of past childhood trauma (which we find out in subsequent volumes is because of her mom), she is worried that she is burdening people by taking up too much of their time. Mutsuki, Yuki’s son, invites her to join the student council, which first brings her into the fold and introduces her to Hajime, Tohru and Kyo’s eldest son. She is able to find a loving “found family” eventually with the Sohma clan, mostly at Shigure’s old place, now taken care of by Kinu (daughter of the doc Hatori and Mayuko), though Mutsuki and Hajime also live there.

Nostalgia factors aside, Goodreads reviewer laurooou makes a really good point about Sawa in her review from March 26, 2018: “Reading about a depressed/anxious female character could be interesting if a more in-depth analysis of her personality was done, which is not the case here [in this first volume]. We can clearly see that she suffers from severe social anxiety, but we don’t know why she is this way and we don’t understand her actions. Hence, we can’t relate and she just becomes an annoying character.” That’s how I felt about Sawa and her character, though they do explain a bit more the further in the series you go. Recommended for ages 14+, 3 stars.

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson

Wow, Cassandra Peterson led a completely insane life! And she’s still going strong at 70! I picked up this book for two reasons. First it was recommended by at least one fellow staff member at the library and two, which I completely just realized a little bit after starting this book, because I had a giant crush on Elvira back in the nineties. Her and Jessica Rabbit definitely shaped my childhood in more ways than one.

Cassandra was burned over 35% of her body with 3rd degree burns when she was eighteen months old after she accidentally pulled a pot of boiling hot water over herself. I had a similar experience when I was five, though not nearly that bad but it did burn the inside of my left thigh and I had a scar for many years. So I was already hooked when I heard her tell that story and it just got more interesting from there. She was very open about her upbringing and relationships with her abusive mother. She played with Dracula and Frankenstein models when she was little and was obsessed with horror movies and Vincent Price (and therefore super excited when he much later joined her on the Elvira, Mistress of the Dark show and her movie). She was a go-go dancer at age 14, made out with tons of famous musicians like Jimmy Page, Tom Jones, and Jimi Hendrix, and worked as a showgirl at the Dunes Hotel when she was 18. After a chance encounter with the King, Elvis Presley when she was in Vegas, she became a singer for an Italian band for a year. She eventually got into acting and joined the improvisational comedy troupe, the Groundlings, which produced SNL stars Phil Hartman and 80s movie star Pee-Wee Herman! It was with the improvisational comedy skills that she was able to snag the headline role as Elvira, host of B Horror Movie classics, and her tenure as the Mistress of the Dark and eventually Queen of Halloween, has lasted 40 years! I was disappointed by her lack of detail where her last relationship was concerned (the bisexual one that I had been super curious about), but hey I guess sometimes you just fall for someone and it’s hard to explain why it happens. Overall a great book to listen to, and I would definitely recommend it – 4-1/2 stars.

Book Reviews #3-2022

I’ve been on a roll so far with keeping up with my 30 min of reading per day (minus a day here or there), and am rather proud of that fact. As of 3/17/22, I’ve read 37 books so far. My kid says I do nothing but read, but no I just make time for it and a priority in my life. 

Good Knight, Mustache Baby written by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Joy Ang

These Mustache Baby books are just so fun and this one is a great example of that. Javier and Billy are playing at being valiant knights, of the House of Beard and Mustache respectively. They like to ride horses, slay giants and joust of course, as all good knights do. But their fun must end at the stroke of seven, and Knights Billy and Javier will not tolerate this bedtime injustice! They go to a fair the next day and listen to a tale full of adventure and whimsy, but when the time comes to strike fear in the heart of man, all the other knights have fallen asleep, and it is up to Knight Billy to save the day! Will he be able to get past the guardians of Castle Mustache and be the hero he knows he is? To find out read, this adorable picture book. Recommended for ages 4-8, 4 stars.

A Dinosaur Named Ruth: How Ruth Mason Discovered Fossils In Her Own Backyard written by Julia Lyon, illustrated by Alexandra Bye

Ruth Mason lived in the South Dakota Badlands at the turn of the 20th Century and found dinosaur bones in her backyard but no one (think all the big paleontologists of her day and museums) would listen to her because she was a woman. But she is persistent, and curious about the bones, and keeps collecting them.  Finally when she is elderly, a young paleontologist in the 1970s comes to her property and with the help of other interns, they discover ninety-nine different species of dinosaurs! Her dinosaurs are shipped to museums around the world and one, which was shipped to a museum in Wales, is named after their original finder! Overall I liked the message of perseverance, determination, and maintaining your knowledge and curiosity, but I hated how she was blown off by so many scientists because they didn’t both to check to see if her claims were true (and just assumed she was lying or didn’t know what she was talking about because she was female). Now of course, her property and surrounding properties is a giant quarry for dinosaurs. Recommended for ages 7-11, 4 stars.

Kodi written and illustrated by Jared Cullum

Originally read Dec 11-18, 2020: Loved the watercolor illustrations and the relationship between Katya (a shy comics-obsessed girl who is spending the summer with her grandmother in Alaska) and Kodi, an enormous but cuddly-looking bear she finds when stuck outside during a summer storm. They become fast friends but then after her great aunt becomes ill, she and her grandmother have to go back to Seattle where she lives, and she leaves a picture she drew and one real photograph with Kodi so he remembers her. He is like a poor lost puppy whose owners left and waits for her every day until he decides to finally go to Seattle and look for her there. It’s such a sweet story, and I can’t wait to read more! Highly recommended for ages 8-12, 5 stars!

Re-reading the book again for my Tween Graphic Novel Club (read Feb 23, 2022): It was just as adorable the first time as the second time and I love the watercolor illustrations. Definitely one to buy in the near future!

My Fine Fellow: A Delicious Entanglement by Jennieke Cohen

This was a very fascinating interpretation of the musical My Fair Lady (whose story was originally taken from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion), but set in an alternate universe where King George IV dies and Charlotte, his daughter becomes Queen instead of William IV (the predecessor of Queen Victoria). Charlotte decides to allow women to actually have a profession in the 1810s, namely they can be professional chefs. It is a genderbent version of My Fair Lady where the main characters are Helena Higgins, an set-in-her-ways snobby aristocratic female chef who is the best at everything and Penelope Pickering, a half Filipino/half white English young lady chef (always #2 to Helena’s #1) whose parents travel all the time so she is not compromised socially. They find Elijah Little, a poor but talented amateur baker who agrees to Helena’s proposal of turning him into a gentleman chef. He just wants to own a shop of his own, where he can sell his South American empanadas in peace.

This goal becomes trickier after Penelope realizes that Elijah is hiding the fact that he’s Jewish from Helena, who would undoubtedly look down on him as the early 1800s was still a time of prejudice against Jewish people in England. They didn’t have a lot of rights in the UK, for example they couldn’t vote or own businesses as Jewish person, which is why so many converted or just hid the fact that they were Jewish. Penelope knows a little bit about being on the outskirts of society, though it is slightly easier for her as she can pass for completely white, she is upper middle class, and almost nobody knows her secret. The longer Elijah is trained by Helena and Penelope, the more proficient he gets with his cooking skills, so much so that he earns the right to compete for royalty. I loved all the attention to detail the author had in this book in relation to different cuisines, spices and ingredients available at the time, and how amateur nobleman chefs would have acted at the time. Will Elijah be able to achieve his goals despite Helena’s interfering and objections to him being Jewish? To find out, read this delightful take on a classic story! Highly recommended for ages 14+, 5 stars!

The Boy in the Red Dress by Kristin Lambert

This one had been on my to-read list for forever and I finally started reading it a little before my birthday this year. The book starts out on New Years Eve 1929 in New Orleans in an underground hidden LGTBQ+ speakeasy named the Cloak & Dagger. Marion is the star performer and he is best friends with the club owner’s niece Millie, who happens to be running the club for her aunt that night. The liquor is free-flowing and the music is hot, especially when Marion slithers up to the upright piano in his red dress. A young socialite nicknamed Minty starts snooping around Marion and then all of a sudden she ends up dead and the coppers want Marion to be their murderer. It’s up to Millie to solve the crime with waitress Olive, who she may or may not have a crush on, and get her best friend the justice he deserves.

The first part of the book was really good and kept me on my toes, but then it really started dragging in the middle and I was starting to wonder if the book would ever get to the point. I did not guess the murderer till the very end, so the mystery at least was a good point about the book. Olive was my favorite character, though I got a bit frustrated with Millie as her abandonment issues (courtesy of her mother), led to her not completely being able to trust anyone, even Olive who she really likes, and was way more patient than any one person should be. I also liked that the author didn’t make the romances between the different characters as much of a focal point, but stayed focused on the mystery. As Goodreads reviewer theresa said in her Oct 13, 2020 review, “My main complaint of this book was the lack of depth and development, which unfortunately covers a few key areas – setting, characters and plot (excluding the mystery itself)…I felt that the setting, especially, was underutilised which really disappointed me as it was this book’s main selling point for me…The lack of depth to the characters resulted in a lack of investment in the book or the stakes which undermined the mystery itself. Additionally, although I know that this is not the main focus of the book, I would have appreciated a little more discussion on the realities of being queer at this time, especially since the speakeasy and many of our main characters were queer.” I agree wholeheartedly with her assessment. To talk about another historical fiction book with a queer focus Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, she was very good about telling exactly what it was like for not only queer girls, but especially those of different ethnicities, in the 1950s. It would’ve been fascinating to know more about 1920s-30s queer life in New Orleans. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others. Recommended for ages 15+, 3-1/2 stars.

Himawari House written and illustrated by Harmony Becker

I asked my library to get copies of this one because it had such excellent reviews on Publisher’s Weekly as a slice of life/coming of age story about college age kids in their late teens/early 20s. The graphic novel was written/illustrated by the illustrator of George Takei’s Eisner Award winning graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, which I had enjoyed in 2020. Nao was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and American white father, and she barely remembers the country or language. She decides to go back to Japan during her gap year, the year between high school and university, but she’s coming in completely alone and barely able to string sentences together in Japanese. All of the characters are dealing with language barriers that cause problems in their daily lives, as evidenced by what Goodreads reviewer s.penkevich said in his Dec 14, 2021 review: “The dialogue is written in both Japanese and English to show they are speaking in Japanese, with words occasionally blurred out when a character does not understand them.” The author also used accents to add depth to her characters. Nao wants to reconnect to her Japanese heritage though everything is completely foreign at first. She ends up living at Himawari House in Tokyo with two other girls named Hyejung and Tina, and they all attend the same Japanese language school. Hyejung is a young Korean girl who decided to forge her own path and moved to Japan against her parent’s wishes. Tina is from Singapore and came to learn the language and find her place. They also live with two guys, one is gregarious and hangs out with the girls right away and the other is quiet because he is embarrassed for not knowing how to properly speak English.

This book reminded me a lot of my first grad school study abroad year in Scotland and living with a bunch of strangers, both male and female. Granted I was in an English speaking country, but getting used to living with people from different countries and speaking different languages took awhile. I was luckily also able to share my experiences, and cooking with them was really important way this worked. A similar thing happens with Hyejung, who makes sense of her surroundings and troubles by cooking traditional Korean food for her roommates as well as Japanese food. I agree with s.penkevich’s assessment of the author/illustrator’s art style as well: “Based in manga art, Becker deftly moves between realism and more loose, cartoon caricature styles to best capture the emotions of the characters and keeps things fresh, fun, and often funny…It also expands upon the theme of finding the most effective way to communicate across language or emotional barriers, something most directly touched upon in an interview with a pop singer that Tina is smitten with when he discusses how he can be best understood through his music more than he could put in words.” Overall, I really enjoyed this glimpse into Nao’s life and I hope she can come back to Japan again in the future. Highly recommended for ages 16+, 5 stars.

Queer As All Get Out: 10 People Who’ve Inspired Me written and illustrated by Shelby Criswell

The author/illustrator is from San Antonio, Texas and at the beginning of the graphic novel explains a bit about what it has been like to grow up queer and transgender, especially coming from a family of Southern Baptists. The majority of the novel is the author explaining their personal queer heroes, people like Pakistani poet Ifti Nasim, a Native American Two Spirit individual named We-Wha, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld who did gender affirmation surgery for Christine Jorgensen (who the film The Danish Girl is all about) and other transgender individuals. I liked learning about inspirational people in the author’s life like Nancy Cardenas, who came out publicly on TV as a lesbian when she was 39 and was an activist for LGBTQ+ rights and injustices. She had an archive of lesbian history named after her, in Mexico City, following her death because of her previous passionate work helping the community. I also enjoyed learning about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a queer gospel singer and rock guitarist who inspired Elvis Presley and Little Richard’s music. Dr. Pauli Murray was by far the most fascinating and nonbinary in a time where there weren’t a lot of queer people like that. They were friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, became the valedictorian of their undergraduate class at Howard University before pursuing a law degree at the same school. They wrote a book called States Laws on Race and Color, which was frequently used “as the Bible for civil rights litigators” by the man who later became the first black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. They got a doctorate from Yale Law School and later became the first black person to become an ordained Episcopal priest. I thought the novel was an intriguing glimpse into personal histories of individuals that I had never heard of, but ones that have made a difference in the lives of so many people, especially in the way they shaped the author’s personal development as a queer transgendered individual. 4 stars.

Book Reviews #2-2022

We are finally in my birth month! It’s been pretty nice here weather-wise unlike the rest of the country, which has been buried in snow storms, and I did see some snow going up to Northern Utah/Colorado this past weekend. I recently took a training for work which was called What’s New in YA Lit and introduced to a slew of new books, some of which I had been looking at but all were highly recommended by the lady teaching the webinar. Yay for new book recommendations! One of these book reviews get a little personal for me, so I hope you’ll bear with me. One of my reading goals for this year has been to read more diverse queer books and it has turned into a rather eye-opening experience for me.

Yours in Books written by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo

I found this one on one of my book review newsletters, and it sounded adorable. The entire book is told in letters sent between the introverted Owl T. Fencepost and Bessie the Squirrel, owner of the local bookshop. Owl wants to get rid of his noisy neighbors (mostly children) and build a fence around his property to keep them out, but they keep finding ways to come in and “annoy” him, by making him do things like read to them. Bessie the Squirrel will not fill his book requests, and keeps suggesting books that will help him interact with the kids instead. In the end, the kids plan a surprise tea party and invite both of the shy adults to finally meet each other. I thought this book would make a great family storytime book about Tea Time (might have to skip a couple letters just so it isn’t so long) and would pair great with Tea Rex by Molly Idle. I liked that the farther into the book we got the less formal the letters became as Owl and Bessie became friends. Highly recommended for ages 4-8, 5 stars.

A Hero for Wondla (Wondla #2) written and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi

Originally read the book June 2012: I loved the last book, The Search for Wondla and honestly thought he couldn’t do any better. The author proved me wrong by creating an even more spectacular book in which I saw the main character, Eva Nine, grow in ways I didn’t think possible. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

This book starts off where the last left off. Eva Nine and Rovender (Rovee for short) are going with Hailey to New Attica, the current home of humans on Orbona/Earth. She is excited at the prospect of meeting others like her. Once Eva Nine enters the city, she is greeting enthusiastically by Cadmus Pryde, who founded New Attica and is the reason for her creation (babies raised by robots in separate facilities called Sanctuaries). At first things seem great, she meets some girls her age and they show her around the town. But as the day wears on, she starts to feel uneasy. The humans seem in the dark about everything outside of the city, thinking they are the only inhabitants. Eva Nine meets another “reboot” named Eva Eight and finds out they are from the same Sanctuary. Eight tries to escape with Eva Nine, but they get caught by Cadmus’s henchmen. It is during her captivity that she finds out the truth behind what Cadmus has been doing and also manages to rescue some friends, new and old. Hailey, Rovee, Eva Eight and Nine and some others manage to escape back into the Wandering Forest. Will they find the Vitae Virus generator before Cadmus? Will Rovee ever be united with his clan? To find this and what really lurks at the Heart of the Wandering Forest, read this fantastic book. I know this review may not do this book justice, but it is a great read and has fabulous illustrations. Recommended for ages 10 and up, 5 stars.

Re-read to my son (Dec 21, 2021- Jan 29, 2022): He was excited to start the next book. However he liked this a little bit less because of the scary parts in it. So he gives it 4 stars instead of 5.

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) written by Rick Riordan

I originally listened to the audiobook for this back in December 2016 but never wrote a review for it, and then re-listened to it with my son Dec 27, 2021 – Jan 29, 2022: Because of the events that happened at the end of the Heroes of Olympus series, Apollo is being blamed for the fallout of Octavian’s actions and is made mortal, or more accurately he is now a chubby acne-ridden teenager called Lester Papadopoulos (the name always cracks me up!) with no medical or archery skills whatsoever. The last two things are pretty embarrassing to him as he is the god of medicine and archery! He meets a sassy young girl named Meg McCaffrey who saves him from some hooligans in NYC, and then with the help of Percy Jackson they make it to Camp Half Blood, only to find out Chiron has plenty of things to deal with there already. There are missing campers and the communications between the gods and demigods are non-existent. Lester/Apollo and Meg go into the forest to investigate after the “3-legged Death Race”, as Apollo’s kids are missing too and discover giant murderous ants (to whom Apollo bewitches the queen ant with a stirring rendition of “Hey Mama” by the rapper Nas) and the ancient Grove of Dodona, which gives him a prophecy. We also figure out that the baddies in this series are the Triumvirate, 3 “dead” Roman emperors, which include Nero who turns out to be Meg’s stepdad. It is interesting to note that Riordan has openly made Apollo’s character bisexual and talks in detail about the boys and girls he has fallen in love with. My favorite part is definitely the Arrow of Dodona! Recommended for ages 12+, 4 stars.

Dear Justyce (Dear Martin #2) written by Nic Stone

I read Dear Martin in August of 2021 and I really enjoyed it, though I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but had heard that it was a really well done book. I reviewed the book later in the month on this blog, and really loved the character of Justyce. This book focuses in on Vernell LaQuan Banks Jr, aka Quan, who in the previous book, was a minor character and cousin of Manny, Justyce’s friend. He is currently incarcerated for the murder of Tommy Castillo, a young cop. I have only ever read one other book about a kid in prison, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, back when I was in graduate school. I had heard that this book was good enough to act as a stand-alone book, so I suggested it for our Teen Council and they picked it for February’s Teen Book Club.

The letter writing element is also in this book, only here Quan is writing to a very much alive person, Justyce the main character from Dear Martin. These letters are very therapeutic for Quan and help to explain his story, plus gives him a connection with a young black man who has beaten the school-to-prison-pipeline and managed to get into a good school and excel. This is something I think Quan yearns for but has never really been given the opportunity because no one has believed in him. In between the letters from the juvenile detention center, we get Quan’s background story. He has had a tough journey so far. We learn about his drug dealer dad and the super traumatic arrest and jailing of him when Quan was ten years old, which was the first chapters and very intense. His mom subsequently takes up with Dwight, an abusive drunk, with whom she has two kids. Dwight kept Quan’s letters from his dad in prison a secret from him for years, to the point where he believed that his dad had abandoned him as well. Quan is always looking out for his young step brother and sister, even to the detriment of his own health and safety. Justyce and Quan meet one night when he is trying to get away from Dwight and Justyce is hiding from his dad who is a veteran with PTSD.  Eventually Quan meets Martel, the leader of the Black Jihad, a local gang that specializes in guns. He joins the gang, which starts his going in and out of the Juvenile Justice system. Eventually the book comes to the night of “the Incident” and we find out that Quan didn’t do it, but is unwilling to rat on who actually did. With the help of Justyce and a lot of other people, they manage to get him freed from prison, and hopefully now he can have a chance at life.

I think it is fascinating for an author who didn’t really want to write this second book in the Dear Martin series, that she not only did, but also wrote a really well-done book on an issue that is unfortunately all too common for many African-American males. This book made me think a lot about the benefits of restorative justice vs straight up penalizing people for what they may or may not have done. My heart broke a little at reading about how one of the ways Dwight abused Quan, his mom, and his two kids was by starving them, how frustrated Quan was when he tried his best and only seem to have bad things happen like being accused of cheating at math and getting in-school suspension, and the way his mom just completely gave up on him (and taking care of him properly) after his dad ended up in jail and she was with Dwight. I loved that Nic Stone included Jason Reynolds and his poetry in her book. Highly recommended for ages 14+, 5 stars.

The Mighty Valkyries: All Hel Let Loose (The Mighty Valkyries #1-5) written by Jason Aaron and Torunn Gronbekk, illustrated by Mattia de Iulis, Erica D’Urso, and Marcio Menyz

I picked this one up because it had LGBTQ characters, plus involved Loki. It is kind of complicated to explain, but I will try my best. First off, Queen Hela is gay and is married to Karnilla, who is kind of the reason why things get so f-ed up in this series. Queen Karnilla decides she wants children, and so literally steals triplets from an African-American mother’s stomach in utero and is secretly raising them to be a new pantheon of gods. Meanwhile Jane Foster is a hospital doctor who works for the morgue, and oh by the way, is the only surviving Valkyrie. There is no back story as to why this is really.

Loki appears one day and is being chased by his grandchildren, offspring of Fenris Wolf, two souls inside one massive wolf and they are called Managarmr, the Moon Hounds (aka Hati and Skoll). He thinks they want to kill him, but they “just want to maim him a bit”. He has a chain that will bind them and gives it to Jane for her to handle them. Loki then disappears, because of course. Managarmr shapeshift into a woman and want to be called More, so Jane begrudgingly obliges. After talking to them for awhile, she is sympathetic to their cause because she can see herself reflected in them, but still doesn’t really trust them.

“Meanwhile, in a distant corner of a the galaxy,” a woman has come upon a planet with a famous seer. She is hoping she can find out who she really is, as her memory was wiped centuries ago. Turns out she is Runa, one of the first Valkyrie ever created, one of the original nine. The seer turns out to be Kvasir, an ancient Norse god. She frees him and returns him to his home, and he warns her of the things to come. Hela hires a bounty hunter to capture Managarmr/More but it takes two attempts to do so.

Karnila used to be the queen of the Norn (the Fates), so she weaves Jane’s hair (procured by Loki during their last encounter) into that of the triplets so Jane is forced to protect them, but Loki also sneaks in his own as well. You know he likes having his fingers in all of the pies. All of this is a wise precaution because when Hela finds out about the garden of life growing in what is supposed to be a desert wasteland and then finds out about the children, she flips her damn lid. She is incandescently angry and basically supersizes herself to go on a rampage, only to be stopped by Fafnir, former dwarf and now undead dragon who is powerful and ready to take Hela out and bleed everyone dry.

Sensing that the kids are in danger, Jane rushes to Hel with her talking winged horse and there meets Runa and they work together to help defeat the dragon. Then More arrives chained by Loki, who rescued her from the bounty hunter, only More escapes and eats everyone but the Valkyries and the children, then promptly spits them back up after they are asked to by Jane. There seems to be a bit of a romance brewing between the two of them, but they end the story before it can get interesting. The triplet girls (now toddlers) are returned to their birth mother. I guess she must be taking this new development in stride. The artwork overall was gorgeous, but I loved the contrast between the real-time story and the part of the story from Asgard, with Thor and the other gods meeting up with Runa. Despite the confusing storyline, I really enjoyed this set of comics. Recommended for ages 15+, 4 stars.

The Times I Knew I was Gay written and illustrated by Eleanor Crewes

Have you ever read a book and were just like “I can totally with identify with that!”. While I didn’t discover that I was bisexual till I was in my late 30s, though I have probably been most of my teenage and adult life, there were definitely parts of the comic that I saw myself in. Everyone can identify with trying to figure out who they are and how they fit in the world. Eleanor, or Ellie as a teenager, was a goth girl who was obsessed with Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and dated boys but did not understand them. She confessed to her friends that she might be gay in her early 20s and then proceeded to continue to date boys, eventually having sex with one and becoming even more confused. Eventually she decided to start dating women and everything started to make sense for her. Eleanor was talking about being “so conditioned to be in hetero relationships that she never even considered being in a not male-female relationships.” Then that made me wonder if it was the same case for me? Reading this was like having an epiphany, and I was like “Crap, what if this is what I’ve been through? Do I know what this means? Is it possible I am gay too? Or just really like girls right now and will probably like boys more later?” I honestly don’t know. As the summary on Amazon said “the comic reminds us that people sometimes come out not just once but again and again; that identity is not necessarily about falling in love with others, but about coming to terms with oneself.” I will definitely take some time to consider all of this and figure things out on my own. Highly recommended for ages 15+, 5 stars.

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto by George M. Johnson

I love this cover so much! I had been waiting to get a copy of this book for forever, so when we picked Social Justice for January with my personal book club, I knew it was a good time to grab this book. Now my library filed this in the adult section, as they tend to do with any book that may cause controversy in the Teen area (though they interfile Teen and Adult nonfiction, so really not that big of a deal. This book has been called controversial for some of the contents (which caused it to be banned from school libraries in at least eight states). The author had this to say about people who had banned or were protesting the book’s topics: “Books with heavy topics are not going to harm children. Children still have to exist in a world full of these heavy topics, and are going to be affected by them whether they read the book or not. Having [this] book though, gives them the tools, the language, the resources and the education so that when they are having to deal with a heavy topic, they have a roadmap for how to handle it.” I haven’t read a lot of BIPOC descriptions of being gay, aside from I’m a Wild Seed, so I was curious to learn about his personal experience. While some of the topics were hard to read about, I think it is an important book for teens and adults to read, both queer and straight alike.

The book’s jacket summary is the best description of this text: “In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy.”

The things the author said in the book really made you think about his experiences and how difficult he had things as a Black queer boy growing up. The first chapter the author had a very crazy experience where he and his cousins were jumped by another group of boys on the way to school and he literally had his front teeth knocked out, when he was just five years old. And he questions his experience on pg 28, “I wish I knew what motivated the attack. Could it have been because I was effeminate? Could it have been a race thing, since the main assaulter was a white boy from a different part of the neighborhood? Could it simply have been the toxic behaviors we teach boys about fighting and earning manhood?”. A little later on in the book he is chastised for using the term “Honeychild” by his teacher. He talks about being different and it was a bit heartbreaking to read, because it makes me think of myself as a kid. I was always a quiet shy smart kid with glasses, and later got chubby, so there was always something for bullies to pick on. Johnson says on pg 60-61, “When you are a child that is different, there always seems to be a ‘something’. You can’t switch, you can’t say that, you can’t act this way. There is always a something that must be erased–and with it, a piece of you. The fear of being that vulnerable again outweighs the happiness that comes with being who you are, and so you agree to erase that something.” This is continued later when he talks about jumping rope Double Dutch style and being allowed to be “sassy”.

The one thing that really struck home for me was when he was talking about learning about Black History and learning about slavery, and having his teachers “talk about it being a ‘thing of its time'”, and then he comments on pg 100-101 that “when discussing racism, homophobia, and anything else in our history they are trying to absolve themselves of, they like to use the excuse ‘it was the norm at the time’. Saying this is a way of not having to deal with its ripple effects in the present…Folks used this excuse because they are often unwilling to accept how full of phobias and -isms they are themselves–or at least how they benefit from social structures that privilege them.” I have never thought of it that way and it really opened my eyes, and I don’t want to make excuses for people who had slaves or were racist/homophobic/sexist etc in the past. I sometimes wish I was given a less whitewashed version of history and got a better idea of what people went through in the past. I’m learning as much as I can now so I can educate myself, and fill the gaps in my education. This honestly made me think about my grandfather. I love him but he was and still is racist/homophobic, and he has had plenty of time to get get educated and change his mind about people and chooses not to. It makes me sad. Anyways, I would highly recommend this book for ages 16+, 5 stars.

Book Reviews #1-2022

I hope everyone had a good New Years celebration! Mine was low-key, but honestly I don’t really go out and party. It’s mostly a miracle if I make it to midnight. My goal this year is to read at least 30 minutes a day. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but some days I somehow manage not to read at all. So far so good as far as my goal goes, especially when my son is here with me.

Osnat and her Dove: The True Story of the World’s First Female Rabbi written by Sigal Samuel, illustrated by Vali Mintzi

I picked this one up off a recommendation from School Library Journal, who had voted it one of the best children’s books of the year. I decided to read it because of I loved the colors and techniques used by Israeli-Romanian illustrator Vali Mintzi (who uses a mix of gouache and pen and ink, with added block print techniques). I love learning about fascinating women, and Osnat was definitely an anomaly in her Kurdish Jewish community in Iraq during the 16th century and into the 17th. She was taught to read and write, which was not done for any females, but she was the only daughter of a rabbi who loved learning and sharing that learning. Her father taught at the yeshiva, a school which teaches the traditional Jewish texts of the Torah and the Talmud for the men of their village. She later taught there and when her father passed away, she was chosen by the men to lead it. She was beloved by all. It is said she performed miracles at a neighboring village by saving it from burning. She has the distinction of being the world’s first female rabbi, but also being the first Kurdish Jewish rabbi as well. Highly recommended for ages 8+, 5 stars.

Monster Mayhem written and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

This is the first selection this year for my Tween Graphic Novel Club because I was hoping to find a strong African-American character, bonuses if it is female. It was a really fun book. Zoey has a brilliant mind for robotics, but unfortunately after a traumatic childhood experience, she tends to hang out by herself or with her created robot friend B-4. It doesn’t help that shortly after she started going to the robotics school, her parents had triplets and so they very rarely have time to interact with her. Aside from building a gigantic robot to help build cities for school, her favorite thing to do on the weekends is go to the cinema and watch old Kaiju (Godzilla) movies.

One day on the way home from school she finds a mysterious ring that summons a giant monster who wants to be her friend. She quickly steps into action and creates a speaking device for to communicate, and the monster begins eating everything in sight. And not only that, but the ring has called some of his monster friends to come eat her city’s buildings. Will she be able to get the help she needs to save the city and its inhabitants? To find out read, this adorable tale of friendship, quick thinking, and learning to work together. Recommended for ages 8-12, 4 stars.

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Originally read May 2016: Cinder is a cyborg (half machine/half 16 yr old teenage girl) living in New Beijing, in a futuristic post-World-War-IV world. She’s a droid mechanic and is visited by Kai, the handsome young prince of the Eastern province, so she can repair his android as it is “of the highest importance.” There seems to be a back story there, but Cinder is not able to determine it at the time, as she is overwhelmed by the fact the prince came to her stall. This is especially true after the plague, called letumosis, breaks out in the bakery across the street and Cinder must flee the area. After her step-sister Peony catches the plague, Cinder is racked with guilt and her truly evil stepmother volunteers her as a test subject to find a cure for the virus. There is the threat of war from the mind-controlling glamour-using Lunar Queen Lavana which has all the world leaders, Prince Kai included, worried. Will Cinder survive the plague and find out the truth about her past? To find out, read the awesome start of The Lunar Chronicles. Highly recommended for ages 14+, 5 stars.

This book has been on my to-read list forever, so I finally took the plunge and got a copy. I am glad I did because I really enjoyed this sci-fi dystopian fairy-tale interpretation of the classic Cinderella. The narrator, Rebecca Soler, was quite good at differentiating between all the different characters and personalities (great performance). I love that the premise of the book is accepting people who are different and even loving them for it or perhaps despite the difference. The world-building was fantastic and the author really sucks your into the book from the beginning. The story is kind of hard to summarize especially when you start with “Imagine a retelling of the Cinderella where the heroine is a cyborg,” and most people don’t quite know what to think about it. But it was really easy to root for Cinder as her life did suck and meeting Prince Kai and everything that happens after really does change her life, for good or ill. Plus Prince Kai…sigh, sounds so dreamy. I kind of picture him like the sweet popular guy Kazahaya in the From Me to You anime.

I mean it’s obvious early on that Prince Kai digs Cinder, but she is so convinced that he is mistaken because she is a cyborg (probably because she’s always been treated like crap by her adopted mother and the older step-sister), though of course he doesn’t know that until much later. The scene in the elevator when he asks her for the second time to go to the ball with him was adorable as was her reaction. And I thought I was gonna scream (in a good way) when he brings her the present on his Coronation Day. In fact, this book made me very emotional (mostly joy though a little bit of spite for the severely evil characters, in the form or Audri and Queen Levana). Aside from Cinder, my favorite characters were Iko and Dr. Erland (even though he was a bit off in the beginning of the book, he more than made up for it in the end). I look forward to reading the next one very soon!

Re-reading the ebook version of the book (Dec 30,2021 – Jan 18, 2022): I am re-reading the book for Teen Book Club in January 2022. Ok technically I started it back in November but only did it for about a week and then started reading other things, so we’ll say it was December. I really enjoyed it again, though it took me awhile to get into it. Had an interesting discussion with the teens about it which included “the greater good”, gov’t propaganda, leutomosis vs Covid, Kai and Cinder’s predictable romance, and the endurance of fairy tales. I’d probably give it 4 stars this time around, with an extra 1/2 star given because of the excellent discussion it made during Teen Book Club.

    –>I can identify with this illustration from the book.

I’m a Wild Seed written and illustrated by Sharon Lee De La Cruz

This has been on my to-read list for awhile, so I was glad to finally get a hold of it while I was looking for another nonfiction graphic novel. Sharon is a black queer female and while I will never go through what she has experienced in her life in regards to struggles with racism, gender identity and the pressures of white-centered feminism on non-white individuals, there are some basic things that she went through that everyone can identify with. Lately I’ve been having moments where when I think back on growing up, specifically in high school and college, I wonder how long I have been queer because some instances like her experiences growing up watching “Xena, Warrior Princess” stand out to me too. She talks about historical queer safe spaces like the Stonewall bar, how she used decolonization to “come into her queerness” (dressing more butch, not assuming gender pronouns, and coming to terms with her sexual pleasure), how racism has affected her personally being a Spanish speaking Afro-Latinx and the shame and trauma she endured because of it, but also how she uses her experiences/identities as armor to protect herself instead of letting them weigh her down. At the end of her memoir, she gives helpful books, videos, and LGBTQIA+ Organizations that can be contacted online. Recommended for ages 16+, 4 stars.

Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow #3) by Rainbow Rowell, narrated by Euan Morton

I freaking love this series! The story was originally created as part of Rowell’s book Fangirl, which was great as it was about a girl obsessed with writing fanfics about Simon Snow (who is a Harry Potteresque/Chosen One knockoff), only Rowell decided to do a whole series of books about the story within the story and this is the third book of the spinoff series! Apparently I forgot to write reviews for the other books, so I will do a brief summary of all the books here. The whole trilogy is narrated by the wonderful Euan Morton, who also does the hilarious Christopher Moore and occasionally Star Wars audiobooks.

The first book, Carry On, is about Simon Snow, who is the worst magical Chosen One ever – I mean he can sorta do magic but not very well. It is also about his “arch-nemesis” Tyrranus Basilton Grimm-Pitch, or Baz for short, a vampire magician from one of the most respected magical families out there, and their adventures while still in school. Simon gets dumped by his the hottest girl in school Agatha Wellbelove, and his best friend Penelope Bunce is the sassy wicked smart half-Indian/half English Hermione you wish was in Harry Potter. There’s also a magic-eating monster looking like a younger version of Simon called the Humdrum. Baz and Simon are supposed to hate each other, but it turns out they don’t and they’re both super awkward/adorable about actually liking each other. – Ex. this quote from the book “What you are is a fucking tragedy, Simon Snow. You literally couldn’t be a bigger mess.” He tries to kiss me, but I hold back—“And you like that?” “I love it,” he says. “Why?” “Because we match.” They become close by trying to figure out who killed Baz’s mother, the former headmistress of Watford, and who exactly turned Baz into a vampire. I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars for ages 15+.

In Book #2 titled Wayward Son, Simon defeats the Mage (kind of like Voldemort/Salazar Slytherin) but then feels kind of lost as to what to do next with his life, so the kids from Watford are headed to America. There they meet were-skunks, Penny dumps her no good American wizard boyfriend, and there are some crazy ass vampires who want to take over the world (with a weird love triangle that seemed kinda contrived, especially as Baz hates other vampires). The story is not as good as the previous book. But you do get Shepard, who in my opinion kind of makes up for the rest of the book. Shepard may be the dumbest human alive, but the situations he gets himself into are hilarious. He’s a black guy from Nebraska who likes hanging out with dark creatures like fairies, pixies, trolls, etc and accidentally got himself engaged to a demon and the contract is written all over his body, literally. He is fascinated with the world of magic and eventually joins the Watford kids on their adventures. I rated this book 4 stars.

Book #3 is Any Way the Wind Blows and it is amusing to know the titles aren’t just song titles but also spells in UK world of magic. Shepard has come back to England with Penelope and she is determined to get help from her mother or some other magical source to get Shepard out of his demon marriage contract. She wasn’t planning on falling for him, or visa versa, but it happened nonetheless. My favorite part of the book is her summoning the demon and outmaneuvering them out of the contract, which impresses the demon so much they propose. Simon and Baz’s relationship is on the skids, but it does eventually get back on track. Agatha doesn’t have much of a point in this book except to be a bridge between Simon and the rest of the magical community, especially that of Niamh (pronounced Neev) Brody, a brusque thrown together magical creatures intern love interest of Agatha, who tried to help Simon remove his tail and wings. Highly recommended, 5 stars.

Patience & Esther: An Edwardian Romance by S.W. Searle

I found this one completely by accident. The author was rather nonchalant about the racism and sexism in the story (especially towards Esther who is biracial), though I know some of it is taken from the time period the book is set in. Makes me wonder if Downton Abbey was really like this, or any of the Upstairs Downstairs-esque shows I’ve ever seen. Naive Patience, a poor girl from a large Scottish family, finds a job as a parlor maid at the Honeycutt’s country manor. She must get used to having her own bed and adapting to living with the initially detached and bookish lady’s maid, Esther. I loved hearing the poetry from Esther’s book! Eventually Esther warms up to Patience, they become friends, and then that develops into a romance as they explore their possibilities both inside and outside the bedroom. This is a time of great change in England. The suffragettes are demanding equality and voting rights, there is the rise of the working class, and buying power of the shilling. The South African Boer Wars were going on and the light of the Empire was dying just a bit. The bicycle and the internal combustion engine for cars were created, which allowed greater freedom of movement for women. Sadly hardly anything but suffrage (mostly for white women), a little bit on the rise of the working class, and the Partition of Bengal is mentioned in the comic.  Granted I may be a little biased as I love Bertie (who eventually became King Edward VII) and his story, and kind of wanted to hear more about this time period.

Eventually Patience and Esther are chosen from the manor house to go with the Honeycutt’s niece, who is into some pretty racy sexual things (at least for that time period), and leave the country to head to London to set up her own townhouse there. Initially the niece encourages Patience and Esther’s freedom and appreciates their discretion with her comings and goings. By the end of the book, Esther wants to open her own shop to sell her fashion, which does not please the niece at all, and she is helped along by a charitable Indian friend and a white non-binary acquaintance of the niece. All in all I enjoyed Patience and Esther’s tender love story, and I loved the artwork (though it could be a wee bit graphic at times, so keep that in mind if you’re around children). 3-1/2 stars.

Book Reviews #17-2021

Well it seems like this one will be the last one of the year. I’ve been trying to read what I want to read the last month or so since I am mostly done with required reading for book clubs at the moment. That being said I read a really random assortment of books, but that seems to be par for the course for me. I did at least pass my book challenge for the year, which was 150 books (I’ve read 158 so far). Happy Holidays to everyone!

Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor written by Patricia Valdez, illustrated by Felicita Sala

I grabbed this book after my son and I got super interested in snakes/reptiles, as he got one for Christmas, and I have been wanting to know more about reptiles in general to help him. Plus the book seemed pretty cool. I mean what’s not to love about a lady scientist that studies reptiles for a living? Turns out Joan Procter was a bit of an oddball, and I mean in the most affectionate sense, because she “would rather play with snakes and lizards instead of dolls” (and I’m a little jealous that she got to, but honestly though I hate that that was pretty much the exact phrase they used in the book, like girls can’t want to study reptiles and have to conform to gender norms – ugh). Anyways, she got to hang with the curator for reptiles at London’s Natural History Museum (one of my favorites in the city) and eventually got a job there during WWI. She also collaborated with the London Zoo to redesign their Reptile House and became famous for working with them, and especially the newly discovered Komodo dragons that were brought back from Indonesia. After helping out one called Sumbawa, he followed her around the zoo for the rest of her life while she worked there. She was unfortunately always a sick child and continued to be throughout her life. She died in her early thirties. I thought the book was a nice introduction to a fascinating woman I had never heard of before, but I honestly wished the book went more in depth. There is a nice author’s note in the back, and an extensive bibliography. Recommended for ages 7-11, 3-1/2 stars.

The Search for Wondla (Wondla #1) written and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi

Originally reviewed Jan 2011:

I knew next to nothing about this book when it came out, other than it was the new DiTerlizzi book, and since I’ve liked his other books, I figured I would eventually give this one a shot. The story is basically this: a 12 year old girl named Eva Nine lives underground but is never allowed to go to the surface until her robot, named Muthr, allows her to. Someone attacks the compound and Eva is forced to the surface, but nothing could have prepared her for what she discovers on top. She can identify none of the plant or animal species in her Omnipod (handheld computer) and then she is captured by a mysterious animal who seems to be looking for her. She escapes with another creature called Rovender, who she nicknames Rovee, and they eventually rescue Muthr. They decide to journey to the capital city to see if they can find more humans and figure out why this creature is pursuing them. Wondla is something Eva found as a child but can’t figure out what it is. You must read to discover its secret and what happens next.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book once I got into it, which pretty much coincided with Eva reaching the surface. Once she begins her travels, her time in the compound begins to make more sense than it does when you are initially reading it. The illustrations were amazing and really helped to place the story as the author creates an entirely new world and culture, even going so far as to include an alphabet and commonly used phrases in the back of the book. My favorite character was Otto and I hope we are seeing more of him. The ending was a little frustrating, but I loved it when the reader found out what Wondla is. Recommended for ages 8-12, 4 1/2 stars.

Re-reading to my son (Nov 21-Dec 19, 2021): I have been wanting to read this one to him for awhile because of how much he loved the Kenny books, though this one goes in a completely different direction. Had to put it on hold for a bit to read Rick Riordan’s Daughter of the Deep before it needed to be returned, but he is still into it so we’ll continue reading it. He really enjoyed the book and the characters and can’t wait for me to read more! 5 stars.

Mothstorm (Larklight #3) written by Philip Reeve

Originally read May 2010: Loved this book and it was so much better than the last book in the series, Starcross. This had the non-stop adventure of Larklight and yet there was more because of David Wyatt’s brilliant illustrations. He really helped make the characters come alive. This time the Mumby family is interrupted during their Christmas preparations by an SOS message from an old school chum of Mr. Mumby’s. It is coming from Uranus, whose proper name is Georgium Sidus (but of course). When the Mumby’s and later the Sophronia’s crew goes to investigate, they find a world overrun by giant moths led by another Shaper, whose intentions are pretty nefarious to say the least. So they must save the universe and the British Empire again, this time directly rescuing Queen Victoria and the royal family. Highly recommended for ages 9-12, 5 stars.

Listened to the audiobook version with my son (Nov 23 – Dec 24, 2021): My son wanted to get started on this right away, so I know he likes the series as a whole. I was probably getting more laughs from the book versus my son, but he enjoyed it as well. Plus I got to yell “Huzzah!” a lot as that was their major declaration for most of the audiobook.

Resistance Reborn (Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) by Rebecca Roanhorse, narrated by Mark Thompson

Was this needed after the end of The Last Jedi? No, but it was still a fun read, especially if you have listened to your fair share of Star Wars books and watched all the movies/shows. The Resistance is devastated, both in size and mentally, after the standoff at Crait. Poe has got to live with his decision that he tried to mutiny against Admiral Holdo, and try to do better. Leia is feeling weak after the loss of Luke but also because things are pretty grim right now, but she still has hope. Rey is pretty quiet this book, and I actually would’ve liked to get more in her head after everything that happened with Kylo Ren. I was psyched to hear from Norra Wexley, her son Snap, and her husband, the Wedge Antilles! I loved those characters during Chuck Wendig’s the Aftermath trilogy, and it was fun to revisit them. They end up regrouping on Ryloth of all places, the Twi’leki homeworld, and I really thought their secret ally would be Hera from Star Wars Rebels (sadly it’s someone else I’ve never heard of but apparently Leia knows). One thing this book did do was help keep me pleasantly distracted while I went through several stressful things, and also helped me remember how much I adore Maz Kanata. Seriously, why have we not written a story on her? I may try my hand at some fan fiction, especially if she gets to school Hondo! Recommended for ages 15+, 4 stars.

Tea at Five written by Matthew Lombardo, performed by Kate Mulgrew

I originally was looking for audiobooks narrated by Kate Mulgrew, as I love her voice and when I found this one, I got excited because Katherine Hepburn is one of my favorite actresses! The audiobook is only about 1-1/2 hrs and is broken into two parts. The first part is featuring Kate when in 1938, when she is waiting to hear if she got the part of Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With the Wind or not (interesting as I didn’t even know she was up for the part) and right before she made my favorite movie of hers, The Philadelphia Story. I must have forgotten that Howard Hughes was courting her and asked to marry her, but she turned him down. I kept picturing Howard Stark (from Captain America: The First Avenger and the show Agent Carter in place of him. The second half of the book was Kate when she was in her late 70s in the 1980s. Still as irascible as ever and taking no prisoners. I wanna be her when I am old. The very distinctive accent of Hepburn is pretty well done for most of the play, but it does drop a bit in places. Overall it was a delightful interlude between two weightier books. Highly recommended if you like classic films or just want a quick fun audiobook, 5 stars.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? written by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell, illustrated by Eric Powell

Ok confession time: I love true crime stuff. Not like I’m obsessed with murders, more just why people do/act the way they do and love solving a puzzle. My dad has been telling me forever to listen to the Harold Schechter’s book on Eddie Gein (the original murderer that Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho is based off of), in his 1989 book Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original “Psycho”. I had never gotten around to it, but then I learned about the graphic novel and I thought I could probably handle that better. The subject matter is very well-researched and the book itself is pretty wordy at times (sometimes too much), but it will give you an accurate picture of Eddie Gein, what led to his numerous crimes, and what the fallout was afterwards. I’m gonna quote a bit from the Nov 26, 2021 Goodreads reviewer Sam Quixote who talks about how Schechter created the book: “I like that Schechter stuck to the facts of the case. There was a lot of sensationalism around the story at the time that Schechter points out and instead highlights only the proven facts.” And if you don’t get a measure of the man from the text, the amazing but downright creepy/morbid illustrations will assist. That being said, do not read this before bed, you will have nightmares. This guy was seriously mentally ill (he was diagnosed with schizophrenia during the trial), and his relationship with his mother, and to a lesser degree his father, is the majority of the reason for his later behavior and actions. Gein for sure murdered two women, maybe his brother (and possibly more based off the bodies found on his property), along with grave-robbing many other female bodies for sick purposes. Sam Quixote also comments on Gein’s influence on modern movies and books: “Initially there was Robert Bloch’s bestselling novel Psycho followed by Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic movie adaptation which introduced the world to Norman Bates, and then later emerged other incarnations like Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Carrie’s mother in Stephen King’s debut novel was also probably inspired by Augusta Gein. It’s quite a legacy.” Overall, I enjoyed the graphic novel even if it was kind of hard to read sometimes. 4 stars.

Book Review #16-2021

Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was low key but fun. Honestly I’m not looking forward to Christmas, but I am looking forward to cooler weather and the food. I’ve been reading a lot of good books lately so am a bit behind on my book reviews. 

Clovis Keeps His Cool written by Katelyn Aronson, illustrated by Eve Farb

This may be my favorite picture book that I’ve found this year, and definitely has the cutest cover. The look Clovis has whilst holding that dainty teacup is hilarious! Clovis has had anger management problems for years, but now that he’s inherited his grandmother’s china and tea shop and adopted her mantra “Grace, grace, nothing broken to replace,” to keep calm, things are starting to get better for him. Soon enough though, his patience is tested when a group of hecklers from his high school football days come to harass him outside the shop. Twice he is able to calm himself down by repeating the mantra, but three times is one time too many and he gets angry. He starts acting like “the bull in a china shop”, breaking the china, and following the bullies outside to yell at them. It is only when he sees a tea bag, which got caught in his horns during his rampage, that he remember his grandmother’s mantra. He takes a deep breath and decides to stop acting in anger and try to give them a second chance. The bullies take his flag of truce, and decide to help him instead of hurt him, and they become friends instead of enemies. It was an ingenious way to introduce the concept of mindfulness, second chances, and thinking before we act. Highly recommended for ages 5+, 5 stars!

Watercress written by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin

I discovered this one by accident on a Best Books of 2021 list and the concept was fascinating. Basically it’s about a young Chinese girl in the 1970s who is on a road trip with her parents and brother, when suddenly her parents pull the car over on the side of the road next to a muddy ditch, and make the kids roll up their pants to go pick wild watercress. At first, the girl is embarrassed, then resentful and wonders “Why do we want to eating weeds picked on the side of the road when we are trying to be proper Americans and buy things from the grocery store like everybody else? What if someone saw them pulling up the watercress?” As the story progresses, we learn the reasoning behind the parent’s decision to stop. The girl is a child of Chinese immigrant parents, who never share anything about their past until her mother pulls out an old photograph and explains the reason for the watercress. Both of her parents lived through some very lean times in China and there wasn’t always food to eat, but a highlight was being able to pick fresh watercress to supplement their diet. The girl eventually learns to appreciate the watercress and what it meant to her parents. The artwork was gorgeous, and the story is autobiographical courtesy of the author, and she explains the story further in the author’s note in the back of the book. Recommended for ages 5-9, 4 stars. 

Ham Helsing: Vampire Hunter (Ham Helsing #1) written and illustrated by Rich Moyer

This book was another random find but I think it will end up being one of my favorite books read in 2021. The concept is so silly and hilarious, you can’t help but laugh and devour the story quickly. Ham Helsing is the last pig in a long line of distinguished, but let’s face it, stupid vampire hunters. His brother Chad was way more adventurous and into hunting, but Ham does it very reluctantly and would rather write poetry. He mostly does it just because he’s the last one and feels obligated. With the help of a two local rats (who immediately try to swindle him out of the reward money), he heads to Mud Canyon to kill a vampire though he has no idea how to do so. Along the way, they meet a werewolf boy, an armored bear, and a female ninja Robin Hood, who join him on his quest. But things are not as they appear and it turns out the vampire is actually not the baddie in this book. My favorite character is the vampire’s evil chicken minion and how the vampire can control the “undead”, and of course because all the main characters are pigs is actually living bacon strips. I can’t wait to read the second book in the summer! Highly recommended for ages 7+, 5 stars. 

The Pet to Get: Snake by Rob Colson

I have been looking for a how-to-take-care of a snake book for a few weeks as my son and I are planning on buying a snake for Christmas, and have not been having very much luck, in children’s or adult books. I have wanted a book that both of us could read and understand. This is the first book I’ve found that accurately describes what it is like to actually own a snake. It explains simply, but clearly, what exactly a snake tank (vivarium) is and what sort of things you should put inside it, how to clean your tank and keep your snake clean and healthy, how to feed a snake, how to handle them and for how long, whether or not the snake is healthy, and five kinds of snakes and what you should expect with them. It’s basic but helpful, and hopefully I can supplement it with a reptile care book from the adult section of the library. Highly recommended for ages 7-11, 5 stars.

Child of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jimenez, Daughter of the Nahua written by Gloria Amescua, illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh

I love Duncan Tonatiuh’s work so whenever he has a new book coming out, I try to get my hands on it. His artwork is very distinctive so I recognized it immediately and the book sounded intriguing too. Luz Jimenez, a Nahua (Aztec) girl who grew up hearing the tales of her ancestors and the mythology of her people, as well as how the Nahua lost their land to the Spanish. She grew up learning traditional cooking, weaving, clothes making, and harvesting from her mother. Similar to how the Native Americans were treated in America, Native Mexicans like Luz were forced to go to Indian schools which “made them modern Spanish-speaking students” and forbade them from speaking in their Native languages or celebrating their culture at all. She, her mother, and sister were forced to flee to Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution after the rebels burned and pillaged their hometown, and killed her father. Luz became a model for painters, photographers, and sculptors like Diego Rivera, Tina Modotti, and Jean Charlot. She spent the rest of her life preserving Nahuan culture and storytelling.  She helped an anthropologist create a Nahuatl dictionary, as well as assisting him to teach the language at the College of Mexico City. She was a fascinating lady, and I was glad to have learned a little bit about her. The back of the book includes an author’s note on Luz, artist’s note, timeline, glossary of terms, and a select bibliography. Highly recommended for ages 8-12, 5 stars. 

Starcross (Larklight #2) by Philip Reeve

As another reviewer has said, I looked very much forward to this book after listening to Larklight and loving it and wanted this book to be just as awesome. But it wasn’t quite as good, due mainly to the diminished parts of Art, Myrtle and Jack, although I did like hearing more from Mrs. Mumby. I thought the storyline wasn’t as good and ended too suddenly. The premise was interesting though. Creatures from “futurity” as Mr. Reeve puts it, come into the present (1851) to feed on people’s thoughts and dreams and take over the world. At the same time, a rogue French secret service agent is trying to take over the world also, but in order to crush the British empire. The Cockney nightingale character totally cracked me up, and as usual Jack and Myrtle’s romance made the story more interesting as well as Myrtle’s realization that she likes performing the alchemical wedding. Despite all of this, I do still want to read Mothstorm, the final book in the series. Recommended for ages 9-12, 3-1/2 stars.

Re-listened to book with my son (Oct 27 – Nov 24, 2021): My son was very anxious to start this book after how much enjoyed the first one. We both thought it was funny, esp the part with the Moobs.

Daughter of the Deep written by Rick Riordan

This is another one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I read this to my son as a bedtime story and it kept our attention and didn’t let go until we had finished it. The book is an awesome re-telling of Jules Verne’s classic story Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but with a teenage Indian female main character named Ana Dakar who is thrown into the craziest situation and still manages to come out on top. She is a freshman at the prestigious Harding-Pencroft Academy, which produces the best “marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world.” Her parents died two years earlier under shady circumstances and she’s still not over the loss. Then suddenly her school is blown up while the freshman class is on a field trip to do the freshman trial (which determines if they continue at the school or not), and everything is thrown into disarray. Now her classmates have lost all of their older friends and siblings, and she’s lost her older brother Dev, her only surviving family member.  To top it all off, her teacher has just informed the class that everything told in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island are actually based on real-life accounts by the founders of Harding-Pencroft and the founders of their school rivals, The Land Institute. And all the technology talked about in the books is actually real and was created by Prince Dakar, aka Captain Nemo. As the only living Dakar, Ana is now in charge of everyone. What is a girl to do in this situation? Ana solves it by being tremendously amazing under pressure and being totally bad-ass despite being completely out of her league. The twists definitely kept us on the edge of our seat, and I liked having the Nautilus as a living character. My favorite part was definitely the parts with Romeo (don’t want to give too much away but he does make the story way more interesting). I highly recommend this book for Riordan fans, as well as anyone who loves an action-packed story. I have never read the original story, but it definitely got my son’s attention and he asked me for a copy to read in the future. Highly recommended for ages 10+, 5 stars. 

Manly Appetites: Minegishi Loves Otsu Vol 1 written and illustrated by Mito

Somewhere between a 3-1/2 and a 4 star for me, this manga is adorable! It was a little offensive, which is better explained by Goodreads review Sascha from April 23, 2021, “Otsu, the fat character, has a lot of internalized fatphobia. I don’t think this is a bad thing, and is realistic, especially for Japan. We see how he’s treated poorly for his weight, and how he developed the feelings about his body he has.” He also gets made fun of by coworkers and his boss because of his size. Minegishi, the proverbial hot guy in this scenario, does seem to adore Otsu though is incapable of actually vocalizing it out loud. All the attention Otsu gets from Minegishi boy frustrates him and seems to make him happy as well. They are mostly just clueless guys, but it is fun to watch Otsu’s friend think that they’re dating because of the way they act around each other but no one else seems to notice or at least not say anything. The double entendre with the title cracked me up, and is honestly about half the reason I picked it up. I’m hoping our library can get the next volume as it appears to be unavailable at the moment. Recommended for ages 15+. 

Book Reviews #15-2021

I’ve been trying to keep these reviews not crazy long so you’re not scrolling forever, but I know I can be pretty wordy at times. Ah well. There are worst things to be in the world than really descriptive. I’ve also decided I probably won’t write a review for every book I read in the future as it is taking forever to get through them. Maybe just the ones that particularly leap out at me and/or scream for a review.

Pangolina written by Jane Goodall, illustrated by Daishu Ma

Suffice it to say, Jane Goodall should not write children’s picture books about pangolins. She does it with such a clinical/academic eye. I was a little traumatized after reading this and I knew why they are endangered before reading the story. I would not share this with children. It was a fictionalized account but she should’ve just gone for a factual book only. The factual information in the back is way better than the story part. Recommended for ages 6-10, 2 stars.

The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess written and illustrated by Tom Gauld

This story was a play off fairy tales about a King and Queen who can’t have any children and so the Queen ask for a child from the local witch and this time around gets an enchanted Log Princess, and the King asks his inventor for a child and gets the Little Wooden Robot. The two “children” are the best of friends, as well as being brother and sister. The only catch is that every night the little Log Princess turns into a log of wood, and must be awoken by the phrase “Awaken, little log, awake”, and of course one times the Little Wooden Robot fails to perform his one job. The log is discovered by her maid, who mistakenly tosses it out the window and this act begins their adventures. They do eventually make it back home safe and sound. The illustrations were so detailed, and I enjoyed scouring the pictures to see what all I could find. I liked the adventures of the tiny beetles who lived inside the chest of the Little Wooden Robot, who helped save the day, and the panels that briefly discussed their untold adventures. Highly recommended for ages 4-8, 5 stars.

Larklight (Larklight #1) by Philip Reeve (original book design, the audiobook version is boring)

Originally read May 2010: I loved this book! It was a bit pretentious in parts, but overall, the story was witty and well-done. The book tells the tale of Art and Myrtle Mumby, children of a scientist who live at Larklight, a house past the moon. It’s steampunk in space, and so is filled with fantastical creatures, spaceships, and danger at every turn. The Mumby’s are attacked for seemingly no reason, and end up on the moon where their adventures begin. Once the book finally got going, the story was way more interesting. I agree that Jack’s story was definitely the most interesting and well-developed, and that Art/Myrtle were a bit one-dimensional, however the emergence of their mother made up for that. Some may find the British accents boring, but I thought the upper crust British accents made the story all the more hilarious with all its fainting dead away and prim/properness of the Victorian society. I am looking forward to reading the next book! Recommended for ages 9-12, 4 stars.

Re-listening to with my son (Aug 27 – Oct 27,2021): Thought we needed a change of pace from all the mythology-retelling, so I started this series. My son rather enjoyed this one but insisted it was a 4 star not a 5, so I lowered the scored. Honestly after hearing it again, it did rather drag so deserving of 4.

The Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Dave McKean

Originally read March 2009: Granted, I am partial to Neil Gaiman, but I really enjoyed the book. Read it in two days. I thought it was interesting that the boy, Nobody Owens, Bod for short was raised in a cemetery by ghosts and learned to do all the things that the dead can do. Some of those skills would come in handy. I wish he would’ve elaborated more on Jack Frost and all the Jack of all Trades/Knaves, as that story sounded interesting and also on the Honor Guard and who besides Silas and Miss Lupescu was on it. The whole Sleer in the barrow tomb was creepy and fascinating, though again, I wish there were more details about it. I’m sure he could have done books on those three stories alone. Recommended for ages 10+, 4 stars.

Re-read for Teen Book Club (Oct 10-19, 2021): Honestly it took me awhile to get into the book this time around. Once it got about halfway through it started getting good and I whizzed through it in a couple of hours. It should make an intriguing discussion for my Teen Book Club Oct 30th.

Kaleidoscope written and illustrated by Brian Selznick

I cannot say enough about this book and how brilliant I think it is! It is a collection of very short stories,usually 2-5 pages, that all run off the themes of grief, love, and loss. They feature elements like apples, butterflies, and gardens. They are all about a young boy and his friend James who has died, and the stories are about the other boy’s time spent with James in many different kinds of adventures. While I adored the text and the stories, I’m not sure a child would randomly pick up this book unless it was assigned for class. I honestly think this would be a great read-aloud book for a fifth or 6th grade class, and would definitely make for some good discussions. I will, however, say that if you are expecting this book to be like his other books, you will be sadly mistaken. Yes there are illustrations, but they mostly provide a visual clue leading from one story to the next versus really helping to tell the story like in his books The Marvels or Wonderstruck. Highly recommended for ages 10+, 5 stars.

Originally read April 2009: Awesome book! Can’t believe it’s the last book in the series though. I know I could read another five in this vein, like what happens to Gregor now that the he’s back home in NYC and feeling lost.

Re-read to my son (Aug 29 – Oct , 2021): My favorite character of the series was Ripred as he was the most fun do voice-overs for, as I made him sarcastic as hell throughout the series, and he had the best lines. I thought I should do a proper review this time around, as you probably have no idea what I’m talking about in the above review. The entire Gregor the Overlander series, the other four books, has led to this final battle in the fifth book. The last showdowns between the human or “killers” as they are known to all other Underland creatures and their allies the bats, mice, and cockroaches, and their bitter rivals the rats aka “gnawers” and the moles or “diggers”. Gregor learns the truth about the Prophecy of Time, Sandwich’s last prophecy about the fate of the Underland and his role in it, and he is devastated. He knows he must help the Underlanders out as the Warrior and to protect his mother and sister. He fights the Bane twice and eventually defeats him but at what cost? I thought it was stupid that Gregor had to leave the Underland as the story pretty much died after that. The book dragged way more this time than the first time I read it, and even though my son liked the series as a whole, I think he was ready for it to be over too. Recommended for ages 10-14, 4 stars.

Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics written and illustrated by Tom Scioli

When I was a kid, I occasionally read comics like “Archie” or Berkeley Breathed’s books of Outland/Bloom County/Opus. But I didn’t really get into comics/graphic novels until I started working at the library in Phoenix a bit over seven years ago. They had so many to choose from and I could read all the adult, kid, or teen comics I wanted to read. I have read a lot over the years and love finding new series for myself or my son, who is also graphic novel fan. When I randomly found this Jack Kirby biography comic on the adult fiction/graphic novel cart at work, I had to borrow it. I knew a little bit about the history of comics and Jack Kirby, but this book was very comprehensive and I learned a lot. Kirby was born a German Jew named Jakob Kurtzburg in NYC and grew up rough on the streets during the Great Depression, joined a street gang and fought in WWII. Scioli draws Kirby like a wide-eyed manga character, I’m guessing to differentiate him from all the other characters, but it is kind of distracting. The rest of the book is meant to look like classic comics from Kirby’s heyday. He tells the story of Jack Kirby as if the man himself is narrating, and got most of his material from interviews Kirby did at the end of his life. The basic gist I got out of it was he loved sci fi and mythology and used them in his work. Pretty much every major character you can think of from Captain America to Iron Man, Black Panther, the Hulk, Nick Fury, Thor, the Silver Surfer, the Fantastic Four, the Eternals and many more were created by Kirby and people he worked with, so don’t believe all the hype. Both DC and Marvel screwed him over for many years, and Stan Lee was the worst of them all, continually stealing credit for work that Kirby did. Compensation and credit for work done did eventually get better for comic book artists/writers, but it took till nearly Kirby’s death for it to start happening. 3-1/2 stars.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo

This was an intriguing novella. I had originally discovered it Summer 2020 as it was one of the 1000 point books at the end of Summer Reading that adults could pick, but I chose a different book, so it’s been on my to-read list since then. Chih is a nonbinary cleric who travels with a talking hoopoe bird with perfect memory. She is from Singing Hills Monastery and it’s her job to record the history at Scarlet Lake, the banishment site of the former Empress In-yo, through the items left behind that she is cataloguing. But the real bit of interesting information comes from the stories told by Rabbit, by now an elderly woman, who used to be a very close servant of the Empress. The title comes from two different stories that Rabbit elucidates. I liked that I read the story in three days and probably could’ve done it in a couple of hours if I had enough time. I really enjoyed the feminist Asian story of the Empress from the North and her time at court and it reminded me a lot of the nonfiction book we had read previously for book club “Empress Cixi”, about the last dowager empress of China. I am very excited to read her next novella “When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain”. Highly recommended, 5 stars.

Book Reviews #14-2021

I’m trying to make an effort to read at least 20-30 minutes a day from now till the end of the year, something I got out of the habit of after Summer Reading ended. It is harder to get alone time to read while my son is here as he tends to monopolize most of my time and then when I do have it, I am too distracted. Typical mom stuff basically. I’ve been leaning towards shorter books, not sure if it has anything with the seasons possibly changing in our near future or what, but a lot of good picture books have come out recently, and there are always good mangas and graphic novels to read. 

Barnaby written by Andrea Curtis, illustrated by Kass Reich

I had found this book on one of my Publisher’s Weekly newsletters and it looked cute, so I thought I would give it a try. It was adorable! Barnaby is a haughty blue budgie who is pampered by his owner until the day a second bird arrives and Barnaby shows his displeasure immediately. He escapes out a window and flies for a long time before finally stopping to rest and discovers a group of small birds, who adopt him and show him how to live in the wild. He decides to return home, using the techniques the other birds taught him, and manages to find the house. He discovers there no place like home, and decides to play nice with the little yellow bird. The gouache paint and colored pencil drawings were so lovely and made this whole book come out very soft and quiet. Recommended for ages 4-8, 4 stars.

Ode to an Onion: Pablo Neruda & his muse written by Alexandria Giardino, illustrated by Felicita Sala

I discovered this book completely by accident while I was cleaning up the children’s area during work, and I am so glad that I did. I completely loved it! The end pages are made to look like sheer onion skins, which is such a cool detail. I have been a Neruda fan since my undergraduate days when I first discovered him so anytime I can celebrate him or his poetry is a good thing. In this book, Neruda is sad because he is writing a poem about the suffering of Chilean miners, and so his muse and good friend Matilde invites him to her house for lunch. They must first pick the ingredients, so they go out to her garden and she tells him all about her onions, fennel, tomatoes, garlic, and peaches. He is inspired and decides to also write about the humble onion. His actual “Ode to an Onion” is printed in the back of the book in English and Spanish, along with a brief history of Pablo and Matilde. The artwork was stunning and whimsical. Highly recommended for ages 5-10, 5 stars. 

Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello written by Monica Brown, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri

I discovered this bilingual biography on Publisher’s Weekly and it looked fascinating, so I asked my library to get a copy and thankfully they did. Sharuko, which means brave in Quechua (the native language of Peru), is a nickname earned by Julio C. Tello, because he was an adventurous young indigenous boy who liked to explore the burial grounds in the Andes with his brothers. The name stuck with him. He was able to continue his education past the age of twelve in Lima, first with the help of his aunt, and then with his own hard work and determination, he put himself through medical school. He studied the skulls he had found with his brothers as kids and decided he wanted to become an archaeologist, so he could share Peruvian history with everyone. He did his graduate work at Harvard University and in Europe, and then came back home to Peru. He eventually made many important discoveries about Peruvian indigenous culture and how it originated in the country vs being brought in from Central America like originally thought. He was eventually made the head of the Peru’s Archaeological Museum in Lima. I discovered this bilingual biography on Publisher’s Weekly and it looked fascinating, so I asked my library to get a copy and thankfully they did. Sharuko, which means brave in Quechua (the native language of Peru), is a nickname earned by Julio C. Tello, because he was an adventurous young indigenous boy who liked to explore the burial grounds in the Andes with his brothers. The name stuck with him. He was able to continue his education past the age of twelve in Lima, first with the help of his aunt, and then with his own hard work and determination, he put himself through medical school. He studied the skulls he had found with his brothers as kids and decided he wanted to become an archaeologist, so he could share Peruvian history with everyone. He did his graduate work at Harvard University and in Europe, and then came back home to Peru. He eventually made many important discoveries about Peruvian indigenous culture and how it originated in the country vs being brought in from Central America like originally thought. He was eventually made the head of the Peru’s Archaeological Museum in Lima. I did like that both the author and illustrator were from Peru, and had a personal connection to the story. Recommended for ages 8-11, 4 stars. 

Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne

I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since I saw a webinar about the author and she was talking about her new book last year. This is a perspective we have not seen much of before and honestly I am very glad that it came out because it highlights a lot of inequalities that historians writing texts about the women’s right to vote do not cover. I’m sure a lot of that is white historians erasing black history, which is reprehensible, but unfortunately not that uncommon. I grew up in the Southeastern US and I had never heard of most of the major points they made in the book, and honestly a lot of the stuff she talks about makes me sad to be not only an American but a Southern gal as well. Like the fact that after the Civil the white women’s right to vote advocates (mostly from the North) were pissed that Black men got the vote before them and thought it would “endanger white politicians’ stronghold on politics”, so they convinced racist Southerners (still pissed about the end of slavery) to help them prevent any black folks from voting, essentially leading the South into later enacting Jim Crow laws. I was like “WTF ladies?!?”. And it wasn’t just preventing maybe a hundred Black men from voting, but hundreds of thousands. And even people in charge of state government in the Southeast (and elsewhere in the US), in 2021, are still trying to restrict the rights of people (they don’t specifically saying African-Americans but that is who they are targeting) to vote. And as former member of the Georgia House of Representatives Stacey Abrams has said “Voter suppression isn’t only about blocking the vote. It is also about creating an atmosphere of fear, making sure their votes won’t count…Voter suppression happens in ever election, in every state. We need to talk about voter suppression the way we talk about the Kardashians, with such insistence that people have to respond (pg 147-8).” 

The following five women are ones that I would like to read individual biographies on, but I will sum up a bit about them for you as I found them fascinating. I had heard of a few of them before, mostly in the last year with all the Women’s Voting Act activities that we celebrated in 2020 (even though that was just for white women but the library at least is trying to be more inclusive and include all of those involved in the movement). I enjoyed learning about Harriet Jacobs, who ended up working for The North Star, a newspaper published by abolitionist Frederick Douglass (an early supporter of women’s right to vote). Sojourner Truth was a complete badass and I loved how she reacted to a man who didn’t think she was female because she was 6′ tall (she literally flashed her breasts at him – and we’re talking the mid-19th century when women, especially Black women, didn’t do that sort of thing). Ida B. Wells-Barnett was also a fascinating woman. She was an early fighter against segregation, wrote for several newspapers including the first Black newspaper in Chicago (owned by the man who would become her husband) and was a big proponent in the fight against lynching with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Mary Church Terrell was also a major player not only in the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC) whose motto was “Lifting as we climb” aka the book’s title. She was later involved in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (aka the NAACP) , and she believed in “racial uplift”. It is a term I was not familiar with, but it basically means she believed in “the idea that if African Americans educated themselves, and got really prominent jobs, and carried themselves with respect and dignity, they could avoid racism (pg 66).” When Black people were enslaved, they were forbidden to learn how to read and write, and by 1860, “only twenty-eight African Americans had finished college (pg 67).” So this was a pretty revolutionary idea for the time. Another woman who helped with educating Black children was Mary McLeod Bethune, who attended the first college created for Black women after the Civil War, and later opened the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Florida,  as well as co-founding the United Negro College Fund (which is still helping students today). Highly recommended for ages 10+, 5 stars. 

 

Bloom into You Vol 1 written and illustrated by Nakatani Nio

I had this book on hold for forever before it finally came in! This manga reminds me of a web comic I’ve been reading called “Not your Shoujo Love Story” which has a similar premise. They are both about a girl with little to no friends in high school who befriends a much more popular girl who turns out to like them and wants to pursue a relationship. “Bloom into You” is different in that both the girls end up on the student council together and the younger one Yuu is determined not to like the other girl but somehow still find herself slowly becoming interested in her older senpai, Nanami. This development is interesting in that originally Yuu is impressed by how Nanami handles rejecting a male suitor who has confessed to her, and wants to ask her advice on how to do the same for herself. Yuu came off as demisexual and asexual to me, so I’m surprised that she lets Nanami be so affectionate with her and tell her how much she’s in love with her etc if she doesn’t feel the same way. I’m curious to see where this one goes next. Recommended for ages 13+, 3-1/2 stars. 

The Viscount Who Loved Me (The Bridgertons #2) by Julia Quinn, narrated by Rosalyn Landor

I honestly wasn’t as much a fan of this book as the first Bridgerton book because Anthony already seemed like an ass, and it only got worse as this book progressed. That being said, he does eventually get better and have more depth than an empty trash bin. Kate, thankfully, is an fascinating character. Quinn has very much made this into a “The Taming of the Shrew” as Kate is seen as a “spinster” at 21 yrs old. I enjoyed the conversation she had with Anthony during the thunderstorm at Aubrey Hall in the library in the dark, when they talked about their dead parents and how the trauma from it has affected them (Kate in particular, as is explained later). The bee scene in the garden was hilarious, though a little bit sad that Anthony would get so panicked after what happened to his dad. Mary’s viewpoints on sex and how much a woman enjoys it were spot on, though it is definitely not a conversation I would want to be having only the night before I get married (of course views on sex and marriage are very different now than they were in Regency England). Anthony as a character grew on me, but took about half the book before he became someone I wanted to get to know and not just a conceited entitled man-child. My favorite parts of the book were definitely the Pall Mall game sections in the middle and epilogue, because of how ruthless everyone got, which is pretty hilarious considering we’re talking about British nobility in the early 19th century who never showed any emotion in public. 3-1/2 stars. 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This book was our Sept book selection for my adult book club (to clarify I also run a tween and teen book club at work, so get your mind out of the gutter). It has been on my to-read list for awhile, so I was glad to finally be able to get a copy of it. The first part of the book was so weird and creepy. It was like the main characters literally transplanted a sprawling Gothic English mansion straight out of Victorian times and plonked it down in the middle of the empty Mexican countryside. Noemi is your typical 50s rich brat who does nothing but look good in dresses and going to parties with guys she never plans on marrying. She is asked by her father to go to High Place, the home of her suddenly ill cousin Catalina Doyle and figure out if she needs to be rescued or placed in an asylum.  Noemi journeys there and is basically trapped in the house as soon as she arrives, somewhat by the house’s remoteness and then by other factors. The only exceptions are the few times a nice cousin of Virgil’s (Catalina’s husband) named Francis will drive her to town so she can get the gossip from the local medicine woman, which is how she finds out about the Doyle family history in the area. This part of the story was honestly pretty boring and I kept waiting for the story to actually progress and get more interesting. Then it went completely gory and horror-y and I was grossed out, which continued pretty much through the end of the book. I don’t want to ruin the plot too much but suffice it to say I’m glad the book is over. The romance between Noemi and Francis felt a little forced and unnecessary, and Catalina is completely one-dimensional. Virgil, Catalina’s husband was creepy as hell and Florence, Francis’ mother was bat-shit crazy. And then there’s Howard…*shudders in remembrance of that character*. I’m giving this one 2-1/2 stars. 

Asian Greens: Everyday plant-based recipes inspired by the East by Ching-He Huang

I am always on the lookout for plant-based recipes, so when I randomly found this while browsing the new cookbooks section at the library, I grabbed it. It turned out to be vegan instead of vegetarian Asian recipes, but there were still a lot of recipes I would love to try out like the Courgetti Noodles in a Seaweed Mushroom broth, Blueberry & Lychee Buckwheat Pancakes, Red Bean & Lady Grey Tea Muffins, Mama Huang’s Onion, Tomato & Enoki Soup, Miso-roasted Cauliflower with Chickpea, Carrot & Noodles Salad, and the Caramelized Onion, Shiitake & Sweet Potato Congee.