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Lizzie!, by Maxine Kumin (ARC)
This book was really fun and quirky - a mystery with an 11-year old word-obsessed female detective who uses a wheelchair. The language was as self-conscious and delightful as you'd expect from a poet, and the characters stuck with me.
(181, O30, A4)
Fang-Tastic Fiction, by Patricia O'Brien Mathews
This wasn't as thoughtful / analytical as some of the other reader's advisory books I read this summer, but if you are into paranormal fiction and looking for new reads, you will almost certainly want to give it a look. My list is SO MUCH LONGER now. (Bonus: ratings out of 5 for gore, sensuality, and humor, which in the case of the books I *have* read, were spot on.)
(182)
Outcasts United, by Warren St. John (ARC, kind of)
This book is about a young immigrant woman building and coaching boys' soccer teams made up of refugees. How could I resist? The only mystery is why I didn't read it sooner. Oh wait, that's not a mystery, that was grad school. Anyway, I started reading it in Las Vegas and then I dropped it in the tub. When I eventually got around to ordering a non-ARC via Prospector so I could finish it, the book seemed peppier and more upbeat than the very interesting but somewhat fact-packed book I remembered. Particularly since I'd started over from the beginning, but the language seemed different - even though I mostly remembered the story. Whatever, thought I, I must've been really tired the first go round... Only after I'd finished reading it did I realize that I'd inadvertantly ordered and read the "adapted for young people" version. Whoops!
(183, O29, A5)
The Noble Hustle, by Colson Whitehead
Every time I read something by Colson Whitehead I think, "I need to read more stuff by him!" and this was no exception. I really liked the way he could say terrible things about himself without sounding particularly unhappy or unlikable. Also the poker descriptions were interesting, and they all too often aren't.
(184)
Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary; Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher, and Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante by Monica Nolan
Hee hee hee hee. This series is a hoot. It is both a send-up of and a loving tribute to the lesbian pulp novels of the 50s and 60s. I laugh, I grin, I want to find out what happens, I get attached to the characters, I exclaim in glee when my favorites recur in the next installment. Yay!
(185, 191, 212)
The Kingdom of Little Wounds, by Susann Cokal
This is exquisitely written and quite moving. However, it is very very long, fairly slow-moving, and full of gross things. (The latter is on purpose, and it makes sense for the story, but given the former and the middler, well. It wears on one.)
(186)
The Story of Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, by E. K. Johnston
I loved this book so so much! And 16-year-old me's head would have EXPLODED at how much she loved it. Everything about it was exactly as it should be, plus it made me homesick for Canada in subtle and unexpected ways. There's not a lot of explicit emotional content, either - the telling is more focused on the plot and the setting and thinking thinky thoughts - which is kind of a refreshing change: I knew plenty of teenage girls who didn't have loud emotions growing up, and there are not so very many narrating novels...
(187)
This book was really fun and quirky - a mystery with an 11-year old word-obsessed female detective who uses a wheelchair. The language was as self-conscious and delightful as you'd expect from a poet, and the characters stuck with me.
(181, O30, A4)
Fang-Tastic Fiction, by Patricia O'Brien Mathews
This wasn't as thoughtful / analytical as some of the other reader's advisory books I read this summer, but if you are into paranormal fiction and looking for new reads, you will almost certainly want to give it a look. My list is SO MUCH LONGER now. (Bonus: ratings out of 5 for gore, sensuality, and humor, which in the case of the books I *have* read, were spot on.)
(182)
Outcasts United, by Warren St. John (ARC, kind of)
This book is about a young immigrant woman building and coaching boys' soccer teams made up of refugees. How could I resist? The only mystery is why I didn't read it sooner. Oh wait, that's not a mystery, that was grad school. Anyway, I started reading it in Las Vegas and then I dropped it in the tub. When I eventually got around to ordering a non-ARC via Prospector so I could finish it, the book seemed peppier and more upbeat than the very interesting but somewhat fact-packed book I remembered. Particularly since I'd started over from the beginning, but the language seemed different - even though I mostly remembered the story. Whatever, thought I, I must've been really tired the first go round... Only after I'd finished reading it did I realize that I'd inadvertantly ordered and read the "adapted for young people" version. Whoops!
(183, O29, A5)
The Noble Hustle, by Colson Whitehead
Every time I read something by Colson Whitehead I think, "I need to read more stuff by him!" and this was no exception. I really liked the way he could say terrible things about himself without sounding particularly unhappy or unlikable. Also the poker descriptions were interesting, and they all too often aren't.
(184)
Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary; Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher, and Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante by Monica Nolan
Hee hee hee hee. This series is a hoot. It is both a send-up of and a loving tribute to the lesbian pulp novels of the 50s and 60s. I laugh, I grin, I want to find out what happens, I get attached to the characters, I exclaim in glee when my favorites recur in the next installment. Yay!
(185, 191, 212)
The Kingdom of Little Wounds, by Susann Cokal
This is exquisitely written and quite moving. However, it is very very long, fairly slow-moving, and full of gross things. (The latter is on purpose, and it makes sense for the story, but given the former and the middler, well. It wears on one.)
(186)
The Story of Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, by E. K. Johnston
I loved this book so so much! And 16-year-old me's head would have EXPLODED at how much she loved it. Everything about it was exactly as it should be, plus it made me homesick for Canada in subtle and unexpected ways. There's not a lot of explicit emotional content, either - the telling is more focused on the plot and the setting and thinking thinky thoughts - which is kind of a refreshing change: I knew plenty of teenage girls who didn't have loud emotions growing up, and there are not so very many narrating novels...
(187)
