I thought Runaways would be my first graphic novel. The pictures are gorgeous; the storyline seemed interesting; it reminded me of a not unpleasant two weeks I spent reading comic books in my sister’s sunny corner bedroom when I was 16 years old and recovering from whooping cough. But every time I opened that hardcover [...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Graphic novels
Posted in Reviews on July 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t want to be crazy
Posted in Reviews on July 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes, we don’t get the choice.
I don’t want to be crazy is as much a memoir of a disorder as it is a memoir of the person who suffers this disorder. The story is absorbing enough that this distinction is not necessarily one the reader will make on a conscious level, but it is nonetheless [...]
Body Type: Intimate messages etched in the flesh
Posted in Reviews on July 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I thought this book was great. After poring over the pictures of tattoos and the terse stories behind the ink–I left it out on the kitchen table and watched with interest as each of my three children browsed through it over breakfast bowls of Cheerios and Honey Smacks.
My 12 year old daughter took one look [...]
Boundaries and expectations: What DID happen to Cass McBride?
Posted in Reviews on July 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
It was hard to like What Happened to Cass McBride because it was hard to like any of the characters in the book. On the other hand–because personality takes a back seat to the mechanics of the story–it is easy to rattle off a list of where Cass formed her sense of values and [...]
Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
Posted in Reviews on July 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.
I didn’t want it end. And when it did? I went straight to Barnes and Noble and bought Gaiman’s American Gods. I wanted more of the rich world this author conjures–whether it’s the world below London, or an American landscape peopled by old and abandoned gods in almost-human forms.
Neverwhere is more magical [...]
Tyrell
Posted in Reviews on July 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
After reading this book, I was so low I had to be scraped off the ground.
But I also had that “ah-ha!” feeling you get when you know you’ve read something really good. No easy answers or happy endings in this story of a homeless young black man who lands, with his 7 year old brother [...]
Lord Loss
Posted in Reviews on June 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I think my 12 year old daughter would love this book. Except for the part about Grubbs Grady chopping up those dead rats he finds in the dump. Yeah. THAT seemed sadistic, even if the rats were already dead.
I got over it though, and I think most readers would. Even those who didn’t know until [...]
Nick and Norah’s (fucking) Playlist
Posted in Reviews on June 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Six years ago I cleaned up my language act. After a long spell during which I swore enthusiastically, I heard my 15 year old daughter saying “shit” as casually as I was saying “shit”. Horrified–I told Evan I didn’t want to hear “that language” in the house. (Or outside! Or ANYWHERE!!).
She stared at me. [...]
Good Girls
Posted in Reviews on June 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Good Girls? No such thing. No such thing as Bad Girls either.
Just girls who are doing their best to get by in a world where anything you do–like giving your boyfriend a blow job–can and will be caught on film (er, cellphone) and sent to everyone in your school. Oh yeah. AND TO YOUR PARENTS. [...]
Seventeenth Summer, by Maureen Daly
Posted in Reviews on June 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I wanted to like this book. I really did. It was the first title on the reading list of a YA literature class I was SURE I would enjoy. I was doing my reading early for a change–so I wasn’t turning pages with one frantic eye on the clock. As soon as I saw the [...]
