Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

I'm sorry, Dear Blog. It's been a month since my last update and this isn't at all what I'd promised. Somehow, I'd gotten caught up in other things. (Volunteer work, Regular work, Family stuff...) But here I am! With renewed vigor! I recently found that my new library is a nice short-cut between home and work, and even stopping in for 20 minutes shaves off a lot of time from my commute (and avoids a ton of 5pm traffic!) Now that I'm finishing a few of those borrowed books, expect to hear more from me.

Sophie Kinsella, known maybe more so for her fun and trite Chick-Lit novels (mainly The Shopaholic series) tries on a new tact with her first YA novel. Audrey, her heroine, suffers from social anxiety, something Kinsella thinks is very serious. Indeed, Audrey's particular social anxiety is far more full blown than any I've ever had (but not the case for many of my friends).
Still, I feel like Kinsella tip-toed around the subject of mental illness a little too delicately and either took it too seriously or not seriously enough. I suppose that's forgivable as it would very easy to mishandle it. Still, I think I like her adult novels better because she doesn't restrain herself at all from being a goof. I, for one, have always found a very dark, bleak humor in my depression - privately singing the Kenny Loggins track "I'm Alright" during my emotional melt-downs. All the same, I'm kind of glad I borrowed this from the library instead of buying it for myself.
So Audrey has social anxiety. She can't leave the house, and wears sunglasses at all times to avoid direct eye contact. Her family is crazy, but we can all kind of relate to that. But in the midst of her family's wackiness, her brother's friend sort of helps wedge her out of her troubles,
As usual with Sophie Kinsella novels, it was light and funny - but maybe I her gimmick was a bit dark for a first YA novel. I don't know, it didn't seem a good fit.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

UGH!! This perfect book! Why did I wait so long to read you, perfect book? Beautiful book? Hilarious book? I know why - it's because by now I've already read everything by Rainbow Rowell (until Carry On hits shelves in a few weeks) and, though we all know I love reading, I especially love Rainbow Rowell. I'm one of those people who likes to save good things for the right time. I don't eat a chocolate bar all at once - it will survive a week. I can have some self-control like that.
But back to Attachments - it may be my favorite Rowell novel since Fangirl (which I originally read as a library copy, but have since sprung for my own special edition copy and will sometimes take down to reread). It may have something to do with the time and place I am in emotionally. Or, maybe it's because it's a really good romantic comedy that is actually both romantic and comedic. Something (a douchey friend once told me) is as rare as a unicorn and some people assume don't exist. Oh, it exists. The very first page had me cackling - the relationship between Jennifer and Beth are so like me and my work friend (of course, I'm the Beth here). And Lincoln... sweet cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure... awh, Lincoln. You know? I have to give it up to Rowell. She knows how to make normal people lusciously attractive - her romances are not built upon make-believe and fantasy. Attraction isn't about what everyone else sees as sexy, but what you as an individual sees. All of her novels are about that. All of her heroines are Plus Sized (in my head, anyway) and they are all beautiful and vibrant and human-sized. Her heroes tend to be average Joes, sometimes hayseeds, sometimes a little smelly with cow-licks, but always gentlemen. Neither of them present unrealistic expectations for either gender. Except, perhaps, that they always fall for those little quirks and nuances that go unnoticed or discussed by friends, family, and acquaintances. The way, I believe, attraction really works. In other words, it's not about what other people see, but what you see in a person.

In Attachments, Lincoln takes a new job on the night-shift of a local newspaper (this in in 1999, but apart from the pop culture references, there's nothing romanticized about it). His job is to monitor e-mails by reading them - it's not a secret, it's company policy. The e-mails sent between Beth & Jennifer, however, are entertaining and Lincoln decides not to turn them in. Especially now that he finds himself falling for Beth. But how does a gentle giant, awkward turtle like Lincoln breach the subject to Beth? A woman he's never officially met?

It's reminiscent of You've Got Mail, my favorite movie of all time. I highly, hugely recommend it. I see that pitiful 3.97 rating on GoodReads and completely rebuke it. I'm stingy with my stars, but I definitely gave it 5. My other two Rainbow Rowell Reviews are here: Eleanor & Park   Landline

Remember Me? by Sophie

library

I've been a fan of Sophie Kinsella's light, witty novels since college. They're nice to turn to when you're feeling a little over-done. One of these days I'll pick up another hefty, deep novel, but lately I just haven't been in the mood for it. I needed something to read while on vacation, after-all.

Remember Me? is a rom-com, chick-lit, novel about Lexi Smart, a woman who has just woken up from amnesia. I know, Cliche City. Lexi's last clear memory occurred 3 years ago, and now that's she's awoken she's a completely different person: richer, prettier, and married. There's a lot of catching up for Lexi to do. She doesn't even know her husband, she's now a top boss at work and everyone seems to hate her, and then there's this man named Jon...
Honestly, there isn't much to this novel. It was fun and funny, but even though the main character suffers from amnesia, one of the most over-done plot devices known to man, I still think it was pretty original. I happen to enjoy trivial and trite stories like exactly like this one - like sci-fi, there's a sense of fantasy and unbelievably to it, but we can still enjoy it without taking it too seriously. I loved Lexi's character, she's flawed and totally discombobulated by the fact that she suddenly woke up in a stranger's perfect life. Except, it isn't perfect. She's slowly acclimating to it, but she knows all along that she would rather the old life she had. I suppose success does that - "the grass is always greener," as they say. She's also slowly figuring out why she ended up with the life she ended up with. What events and decisions (and mistakes) that led her to this. Yeah, this seems like a goofy book, but it's also deep in it's way.

Good Girls Don't by Victoria Dahl

Library eBook

I heard of this book (and it's series) after listening to the Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast in which they discussed "Strong Female Characters" and how there's some inherent sexism in that role - something I very much agree with, think about a great deal, and am on the constant look-out for. The author Sarah is interviewing, Jaye Wells, suggested these books as an alternative to a mass-murdering, misogynist hunting warrior woman heroine. I was very curious to see my pet theory in action, so I immediately checked it out. (I'd rather not explain on this post what I believe a "strong female" should be like, but suffice to say that I find the idea in vogue to be flat-out scary. I would instead direct you to the link above where they can explain to you much better than I can, if you have an hour to spare.)

I actually was fairly impressed with the characters in this book! No one was impossibly sweet and perfect to the point where I wanted to bludgeon them over the head! This is my #1 problem in Romancelandia*. Sure, it wasn't perfect. In fact it was pretty trite, with it's cheesy dialogue (both internal and spoken) and a pretty mundane plot. But what kept it from being truly terrible is that it was realistic. Though the dialogue wasn't impressive, it was common enough. The author obviously had human interactions, which is problem #2 I typically have with Romancelandia - the fact that the author doesn't understand when it's appropriate for heroes and heroines to be angry with each other and when it isn't okay (example: romanticizing rape).

This is the first book in a series about 3 siblings who run a family brewery in Colorado. In this book, their little sister Tessa; sweet, perky, seemingly-innocent Tessa, falls for a misunderstood bad-boy detective. Her very protective brothers do not approve. But let's bring it back to the beginning (sorry, my brother is watching Parks & Rec in the next room and it's really distracting). So the brewery gets robbed early on, which is how we're introduced to Detective Luke and his Very Pregnant Partner, Simone. (Note - I love pregnant cops, they're literally my favorite things ever.) On one hand, one of Tessa's brothers (I really can't keep any of Tessa's brother's names straight - their names are very generic) f*cked up (literally) their chances of breaking into a huge business deal. So now Tessa is hard at work trying to fix the problem without letting their other brother find out.

It was entertaining. Not what I typically like to read, but it was as promised in the podcast. There was a reliably "strong female" who does what she must to get work done. She's not all "brains and beauty" who eventually proves to just be beauty with nothing else to back up the first claim. And she's strong without being frightening, and she's flawed because that happens! Women Men People are complicated and a whole mess of good and bad things! Sometimes the good can actually be bad; it depends on the situation! So story wise, it passed the time, but I wasn't enthralled. However, it gets high marks from me because it was still really well done and refreshing. Also, because it's a Romance novel, I should say that there was some nasteh goin' on, and it gets high points from me, too.


*Romancelandia - blanket term covering all of the Romance genre, including YA romance & Chick-Lit, but focusing on cheap paper backs, the kind one might find on a great aunt's bed side table, or yellowed and dusty in used book store shelves.

Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour

Kindle

I picked up Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour because the cover is kinda pretty, though it doesn't tell you much about what to expect from the story and neither does the title. To be perfectly honest, I went in not knowing at all what to expect.
Honestly, I was kind of underwhelmed. It started off okay, but about mid-way through I had the ending figured out, but had already invested enough into it that I'd might as well see it through.

Set in LA, Emi is a very lucky teenager indeed - though she may only be an intern, she's barely out of high school and already has her dream job: designing sets for major movies. She's an incredibly talented intern, and as such (and this is that part that's pure fiction) the paid professionals actually value her in-put. She's having a little trouble navigating her feelings for her ex-girlfriend, whom she still sees regularly at work and her brother (also in the business) leaves her and her best friend Charlotte his apartment while he's out of town on the grounds that they use it to do something epic.
Charlotte and Emi visit an estate sale for a famous bachelor and discover a letter meant for his unknown daughter, but instead it leads them to a troubled girl by named Ava.

Okay, here's what I did like about this book:

1. Lesbian heroine - LGBT themes in YA has come a long way since I was a teenager (which wasn't such a long time ago) and I think that's so wonderful and healthy, but I still wish there was more of it!
2. Realistic (sort of) portrayal of what it's like to be a young professional. You can do your best, in other words, and still be stunned by how naive and inexperienced you still are. That part felt really true.

Here's what I didn't like:

1. Some of it felt flat. Like, I didn't feel the attraction to Ava - Emi seems like the sort of girl who will just about fall for anyone. Even though as a straight woman (so please take this with a grain of salt), I felt no chemistry for Ava, though it was totally predictable that they would end up together.
2. Sigh. Okay. I get it. Emi is a decorating prodigy. And while I actually thought her working was one of the more interesting parts of the book, I don't actually care about her spending a large sum of money on framed prints. More specifically, I don't like that there was so much significance placed on some framed prints (or the green couch), only for them to just vanish from the plot.

I'm in the minority, but I thought it was just 'ight. I can promise that a year from now I will have no memory of ever having read this book at all.

Rebel Belle

Kindle

How anyone before a certain age can read this book without thinking of Billy Idol first is probably a disparity to my supposed age. As we might have noticed, lately my taste in books is more about feminine and bad-ass ladies, and while I'll start off by saying this book doesn't touch anything I've been reading by Gail Carriger, I did really have fun with it. And at first I was disappointed with it, but it grew on me like a fungus.

Rebel Belle is about Harper Price, a pretty, popular, and loaded Southern Belle. She's a perfectionist, she's on literally every student committee in her private school, she has the perfect boyfriend, now she's the home-coming queen, yadda-yadda, you know the type. The kind of character, I'm kind of guilty to admit, is usually villainized and "mean girl'd." Actually, I expected to hate her. Until I realized she was a lot like Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but if Cordelia was the slayer instead. Then she kind of grew on me.
So, anyway, back to where I was. Harper is an dauntingly perfect Southern Belle, and on the night she's crowned as the school's Home-Coming Queen, she's also gifted with mysterious and unlikely powers - essentially super strength. She's now a paladin and must protect a hipster boy named David Stark. She & David have been rivals since childhood and absolutely hate each other. And now that she has to spend more time with him, those feelings are getting more complicated.

Okay, so this book is silly and more appropriate for teenagers, but I had so much fun with it. I really appreciated the honesty and authenticity of all the characterization. Even the minor characters seemed like someone I might have met. Best of, I love that a lot of the gendered cliches were shot down really elegantly - actually, a lot of the cliches were handled very nicely. I may have been a little too old for this book, but I want my teenaged cousins to get their hands on this book!

Call the Midwife

Kindle

I've been a big fan of the series Call the Midwife since around the time I was still watching Downton Abbey and I'm more or less still watching Call the Midwife, so that's what you should know about me.

I've been reading this on my somewhat inconveniently sized Kindle phone app, and now an actual Kindle, for about a year because damn that was ill-planning on my part. I really liked the book, even if it felt like a review of the TV show I'm already a big fan of. However, one of the larger issues is that you really have to be in the right mood for it. I loved this book, it's really, really good. But I understand that not everyone will be up to the emotional steamroller you'd be in for. I mean it, you really have to be in the right mood for it. Don't be fooled by those sweet looking children on the cover. Though, do let me put a finer point on it. I don't know if many men will be, ahem, man enough for this book as I know of a few fine fellows who have hidden in another part of the house when their wives had the show on.

I don't know how I should elaborate this. Well, you expect certain things to come up in a memoir about a midwife. But sometimes we might forget just how bad medical practices were in the 1950's - or at the very least, the extent of how bad they were (curious about more of that? Check out the Sawbones podcast). And that's for people who could afford it. Add to that the fact that most of the patents were extremely poor, living conditions were appalling, and hygiene was probably the 5th to last thing on everyone's minds. A good nurse can only do so much. Maybe part of the reason I found this book so icky is that I instinctively know that I could never, ever, ever, ever, ever do a nurses' job. We all have our talents and I would be so utterly ill-suited for it; I would never consider it. (I owe this to my lack of feeling for human life and less about my morbid curiosity for bodily function)
What really puts your heart through the wringer is how much poverty these people suffered. And I mean poverty of all kinds, not just financial. The people who were just poor money-wise were the happiest, as you see pretty often. She interacted with some real characters, from the patients themselves, to the nuns she lived and worked with (despite the fact that she wasn't Catholic or even religious at all), to the other nurses.
There are actually 3 volumes in this series of memoirs, which is pretty unusual in the world of memoirs. This is obviously the first, and I might eventually go on to read the other two, but I have no idea when because... Christ. Emphasis on you really have to be in the right mood. If ever you're in just too good of a mood and need to bring it down a notch, these books will probably be waiting for you.

Third Daughter: First book of the Dharian Affairs Trilogy

Kindle (free!)

I have to admit, I read a review for this book on SBTB that simply raved about it. Those girls don't put up with much bull, so when they rave about something you know it's legit. It's a steampunk trilogy set in a proto-India - Not England or America? How refreshing! If I wasn't sold yet, I was when I learned that the first book is free on the Kindle (or any e-reader device, including smart phones.) You really can't say no to something like that!
Okay, it took me a good deal longer to read this than I'd have liked. (I guess I'm still adjusting to reading on my replacement Kindle) But you guys might not have ever known that if I hadn't said anything.
Third Daughter is about Princess Anari, who is as the title implys, the Queen's 3rd daughter which means that she isn't as special as the first or second daughter. But it does mean that, unlike her sisters, after she reaches a certain age she's allowed to marry whomever she chooses. But this is only after she reaches a certain age. Before that her mother could very easily make her marry whoever she chooses. Anari's birthday is in a few weeks and she knows exactly who she'll choose - a handsome courtesan. But, it just happens that her mom wants to introduce her to the prince of a foreign province which is known for it's supposed barbarism, a prince who her mother wants her to marry. There are conditions: Anari can say no outright, and she really wants to, but she shouldn't because her mother (who has often with-held a lot of affection for her daughter) promises that she can still marry who she chooses by her birthday, provided she says yes now and acts as a spy for their country. Rumor has it the prince has a secret flying machine that could be used as a weapon. Anari is a very head strong fire-brand. Maybe she doesn't always make the smart decisions - sometimes she let's her heart lead when she should really let her (actually, very sound) head do the talking. I don't always like characters like her, but then again she didn't make me want to throw things either. I like a character that knows when to shut up and butt out, which. Head strong fire-brands do not have a concept of this at all. I'm not saying it has to be a defining trait, just that, you know, sometimes it isn't always appropriate to jump down your body guard's throat for being straight up with you, even if he is unpleasant about it. That's all. But i'm getting ahead of myself.
Clearly, this is a good sci-fi with a tough female lead, romance, espionage and daring-do. It's smart and well versed. The world building is unique and really exciting, to me anyway. Anari is a bit exasperating, but she develops by the end of the book. It's a great start to the triology, which being that you're able to read the first book for free, it does entice me to pay for the next two books. Sometimes that kind of tactic doesn't always work, but it did this time. But if you'd rather not read any further it's okay too. The book has a satisfactory ending (with a small cliff-hanger). I have been advised, however, that the series does not end with "him putting a million babies inside her," which for a romance reader could be a problem.

The Finishing School Series

Have you been wondering where I've been, dear readers? Wonder no more. This Christmas season I received from my bestie the entire (at press date) Finishing School series by Gail Carriger (of Parasol Protectorate fame) - and under peer pressure I read the entire thing (as quickly as my work schedule allowed). I debated on reviewing them each individually, but because I moved on from one to the next so quickly I didn't give myself time. Instead, I'm just going to review it as a whole - as I have the rare opportunity to.

Christmas Gifts from Jenee G.

Looking back at my reviews of the Parasol Protectorate books I'm a little horrified to see that I didn't love them as much as I remembered enjoying them. I guess the two feelings can mutually exclusive? I think of that series as a prototype for this one, however. I feel like Gail toyed around with some of the same ideas that she brought back in these books - and now honed them to perfection.

The Finishing School series is basically about a Victorian girls charm school, which sounds so quaint doesn't it? Well, they're also training to become assassins and spies. Picture it! Using handkerchiefs and sewing scissors for lethal weapons? Sounds pretty perfect to me. It has a beautifully droll sense of humor, which is more than enough to hook me, a series of badass girls and "evil genius" boys, foppish vampires, genteel werewolves, eccentric professors, cross-dressing, and a few more of my favorite things.
I absolutely don't want to give too much away, so at this point I just want to talk about my impressions. There aren't many characters in this series, which is fine (because once you read something like Game of Thrones you start to appreciate that) but one thing that I didn't like is that the minor characters didn't get a whole lot of chances to develop sooner. This series is going to be 4 books long and so far we have three, so that is something that stresses me out a bit. Naturally, the important characters do by the 3rd book, so that's what's important. Hopefully Carriger revisits some of them in later books. Failing that, this is ripe territory for fanfic writers - which I very much encourage. Part of the reason for this review is that this series has a very small fandom and that, to me, is so ridiculous. Please read this books and make lots of fanart and fanfics, everyone! Make all of the things, make it blow up. I want all the movies, video games, a TV series - I want this thing to never die, ya heard?
This series shares the same world (and sprinkling of some of the same characters) as the Parasol Protectorate books, but dated a few decades earlier. Like in Protectorate a lot of the names are nearly unpronounceable - something my friends and I have been debating back and fourth on. However, one of the beautiful things about Carriger's steam-punk world is that it isn't idealized and floofy like some proto-Victorian writers. One of the reasons I've been obsessed with the Victorians for most of my life is that they weren't always as genteel as we now seem to think. They were actually kind of horrifying sometimes. They may have been sexually repressed, but they compensated for it through other avenues - like a healthy obsession with what we today would consider outright macabre. These books don't include examples of this, at least nothing that high school librarians would picket against, but Carriger is aware of it. These books are anything but cutesy-poo.
Ah, now for the "shipping-wars." I'll reveal nothing of my own alignment on here, but you'll be tempted to pick sides and let me just say neither are bad choices. I made it very well known that I wasn't going to share my ships with my friends (because I didn't have one, really. It could go either way for me.) but the 3rd book ends in such a way, that... ugh... #1 whoever you choose, you'll be conflicted no matter what and #2 the 4th book isn't coming out until next November. All this tension and unresolved feelings has me like:

(too late)

Thankfully, Gail will be releasing a new book for a new series this March which I can't fuggin wait for. Maybe that will tide me over until then.

Girls in White Dresses

Amazon Used

Whoo! I really didn't like Jennifer Close's Girls in White Dresses.  But first allow me to some background as to why. I am a "millennial." I have a college degree, I am on the less cutesy side of "twenty-something," I do have a good job (with insurance and everything) but I still can't afford to move out of my parents', and like many other millennial women, I still love YA novels (a good majority of YA readers are actual "young adults" as well as the teens the novels are intended for) There is some debate in the literary community if this is good or not. According to some, YA is garbage and everyone should be out there reading only highbrow stuff. You'll always hear that kind of humbug whenever a readership (and "writer-ship") is predominately female. (The way pulp-romance is more garbagey than pulp-scifi.)
Though unwisely, we YA readers have been bemoaning the lack of "twenty-something" characters/situations in YA literature. It's true that there is a desperate need for more diversity in the genre: more classes, races, genders, ages - more variety. While this is true, while I would love to see  teen girls reading more books with a black or Saudi Arabian Katniss, I'd also like to point out that this variety does exist in fiction if you widen your scope past YA as a genre. In my twenties, I've been looking for more literature that features smart girls in their twenties, faces with real life crisis' - I thought YA should be where I could find that, but I've been increasingly wrong. YA is, as much as anything, a brand of a sort. The Bell Jar, Franny & Zooey, The House on Coliseum Street - these are all books that publishers have (or might have) tried to rebrand for the YA reader, but they do not quiet fall under the YA umbrella. But these are the books that we might relate to more than the glossy, dramatic, and colorfully covered books our hands thoughtlessly reach for again and again. This book, for all it's worst faults, is still a good example of that relateability you might be fruitlessly searching for in YA, even if I thought it was a stinker.

The big issue I took with this book is that it reminded me too strongly of HBO's Girls - which is also important to the millennial woman, albeit a show I very much do not like. Maybe it's because I can't watch it at this stage in my life without cringing - either at the characters or at myself. Who can tell? (It's definitely the characters, by the way. The way they never learn their lessons and refuse to develop and grow - we may all have been there at one point, but I'd like to hope we've learned from it?) To cut to the chase, that's the same conclusion I drew on why I didn't like this book. It hits too close to home, as they say. This novel follows a group of close knit friends from the point when they graduate college until they enter their 30's, all in various stages of apartment hunting, terrible boyfriend meeting and dumping, career climbing, and home-making. This is possibly why it wasn't YA (though, Judy Blume is a thing that exists - need I say more?)
It was painful to sit back and watch these women make so many regrettable decisions, and though in the end they eventually leveled out and matured, there was plenty to grit my teeth over. I remarked at some point when the end was finally in sight, that if it ended with some decree that the power of friendship was the magic that made the world go 'round, I would use the book to kill someone. Though the ending was indeed heart-warming, it looks as though I'm going to have to find a good lawyer soon.

Landline

Local bookstore

When Rainbow Rowell's newest novel came out I had to drop everything and read it, and I almost succeeded in reading it all in a whirl-wind if it weren't for my pesky job. (I've learned my lesson this time. Next time I have a really good book like this, I will definitely be using a sick day to finish it because YOLO)

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I knew there was a lot of hype, some of it my own, but I have no idea what it would actually be about. All I know is that I adored her previous novel Fangirl and I liked Eleanor & Park and I'd psyched myself up for this one.

Georgie McCool (yes, that's her name) is a sitcom writer who works along-side her best friend and long time writing partner when their dream project is finally - at long last - green-lighted. The week before Christmas. Christmas: when Georgie and her family had previous plans to visit her mother-in-law in Omaha (somewhere in middle America [which isn't on any "Landline" inspired playlists from what I've seen, but I think it should be]) with her husband and adorable young daughters.
Plans are shifted. Her family leaves the next day without her as Georgie makes plans to stay the week at work, writing new scripts. Her family leaves on less than happy terms, but Georgie decides to push through it at first. But it's not as easy as she thinks. She has so much trouble concentrating on her work and worrying over her marriage that she might as well not be there at all.
Instead of going back home, she stays with her mother - in her childhood bedroom, trying to reach her estranged husband through her old, yellow, garage sale rotary phone. And she does. But rather, not him as she knows him now, but him as he was in 1998, when they were still college sweet-hearts on the verge of breaking up. Georgie is basically given a window to save her marriage by going back into the past.

This could easily be written off as the script for a cheesy ABC or Hallmark original movie; it seems like it's pure fluff. And while certainly it isn't high-brow in concept, there is so much depth if you dig a little deeper. Who hasn't wanted to be given a chance to go back and revive something from our pasts - especially when you're in a relationship that's crumbling. Who hasn't looked up from where they stood and thought "What if I could go back to the beginning and do something different? Would it have made a difference now?" And at a certain stage in our lives, we all think fondly of the times when we were a little cuter, the music was better, and we didn't dwell on the consequences - for Georgie that was 1998.
Maybe this magic phone was real or fantasy within the narrative. You could think of it as a touch of whimsy or a nearly-middle-aged woman fantasizing about wish-fulfillment - and momentarily not knowing the difference. I wouldn't call her "crazy" - when our relationships are on the rocks, we aren't always lucid. That's all there is to it.

I'm a fan of Rom Com's, and I take them very seriously, academically. In the same sense, I really enjoyed this novel. Allow me to explain - in romantic comedy's, though the plots might be trite and stupid, though the actors and actresses are pretty, they are a fantasy. They are just as valid a form of escapism as Star Wars and Game of Thrones. I won't hear any gruff about how Game of Thrones is better than You've Got Mail because that isn't the point I'm trying to make. I mean, we want to snuggle up to those worlds like blankets on a rainy night. Only, Georgie is snuggling up to her own nostalgia.

Did I love it? It was a little "bluh" - granted, the build-up was slow but in the end it was worth it and satisfying. It was relatively quick to read, very perceptive (as usual), but Fangirl is still my favorite.

Austenland

Amazon (used)

Okay, this review is going to be tricky for me - I happened to see the movie adaptation multiple times before I read the book. I know fans of the book really didn't like the movie. That's because Jerusha Hess (yes, of Napoleon Dynamite fame) took a lot of liberties with the story and turned it into an extremely goofy and cheesy (I think "cheesy" good) romantic comedy - which, and this is strictly my own opinion, made it so much more fun.
The novel was your basic, run of the mill chick-lit. Jane was sort of a Mary-Sue. She's kind of a fill-in-the-blank character, the only concrete attributes being that she's beautiful, compares every man she's every dated to Mr Darcy (being by and large why they don't succeed), doesn't make much money, but has a steady job. A true Mary-Sue would have a dead-end job as a lawyer or running a successful antique shop, would have a PhD but still be an enormous idiot, and would have an Victoria's Secret model's figure while living off of potato chips & marshmallow fluff as the dip and bottles of white wine. So Jane isn't full Mary-Sue - but that at least was something that I think the movie version got right. Jerusha & Kerri Russel made her a lot more relatable

in the movie version.
The book was very short; there was a lot of changing inner dialogue that - while not necessarily conflicting or senseless - happened too quickly. But that's a small thing. These types of books are about escapism and discourage over-thinking.
The final word is that, while it was fun (and I did read a large chunk of it while waiting in line at the DMV - thank God for that) it's best saved as a beach read. Shannon Hale wrote one of my all time favorite YA novels (That is, Goose Girl) and I'm delighted to have a common interest in Jane Austen with her, but this wasn't the same quality of writing that Goose Girl had which bums me out. Still, there is a sequel to Austenland and I'll probably someday get around to reading it.

Women Who Run With The Wolves

Amazon Used ($4 total)

An interesting thing happened while I was reading this particular book, which has been strongly recommended to me from various sources and bought for one cent (used) on Amazon (with shipping - $4 exactly). Though some women have expressed interest in it, men have definitely given me different reactions - for the most part very condescending reactions. Hopefully, my review will explain why that is a really unnecessary and ridiculous reaction. It is worth noting that while reading this book, it got a lot of negative attention - more so than when I read basically anything else. I got less negative attention while reading smarmy Christian romance novels. At least four different people have given it a quick glance and automatic disdain. Anyway, I don't expect this to be my most popular review.

So you should check your expectations at the door. While I can understand why some people would find the title off-putting, I'm still surprised by those strong reactions. Even more so because I know that those expectations are completely unfounded. If you are expecting this book to be a furious bohemian feminist manifesto or "self-help," you are absolutely wrong. The sub-title says it all - "Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype" - as in, Jungian Archetypes in Mythologies and Folktales Explained to YOU, Dear Reader. So yes, maybe that is a form of "self-help." "Wild Woman" really just means, "every female that doesn't fall into the same category as the virgin mother," in other words, every daughter, sister, mother, friend, lover who isn't pure and perfect. And that's basically all of us, no matter what.
It's academic, wise, and non-critical. While I started off reading it alongside The Heroine's Journey, I found that this book was more informative, fair, relaxed, and pleasant as a whole than the other book was. It's a good way to discover lesser known folktales and myths, if you're interested in that (which I completely am). It's wonderful if you want the common nuances and motifs in those sorts of stories explained, though remember that that means it's focused on feminine motifs.
It's also so inspiring! If anything, it was a great reminder and coach that in my own life, I should use these stories as guides for any season I find might find myself in - be it illness, grief, motivation, romance, family, career, whatever! It's almost as good as therapy and, uh, so much cheaper. I know I'm going to continue to revisit this book over and over, and I'd like to recommend it to all of the women that I know - provided that they're receptive to it.

How to be a Woman

Kindle App

If You're one of my friends who thought that they beat me to the bookstore and tried to recommend Tina Fey's Bossypants to me 3 years after I read it (you're cute; nice try) then allow me to counter back with a recommendation of my own.
How to Be A Woman is an entertaining, easily digestible break-down of the pitfalls of being a modern woman. This is no academic, silk-handkerchief skirted, henna haired feminism. If that's your brand of feminism, then this book will not be for you. Who this book is for - and I feel like a jackass for even thinking it - any woman who strongly self-identified with Bridget Jones. In other words, if you are a woman who feels at all self-deprecating about all the little girl things - from purses and designer shoes to family in all it's fucked-uppedness - and consider themselves a feminist, you'll probably enjoy this book. Not that this is a totally original concept. How many of these essayist memoirs have I read about the trials and tribulations of being a Thoroughly Modern Millie? From Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Nora Ephron, and Lord Knows how many Sassy Southern Ladies - the field is well trodden.
So what makes this one special? While I really love this sub-genre - it does a great job of making me snicker and punch at the air - the target audience is usually women. Real Talk for Girls. Gents will only feel put out. But God Bless Caitlin Moran, for she doesn't skewer men. Patriarchy? A little. But she's not a man-hating feminist. I really think there are tons of men in my immediate and extended social circles who would enjoy this more than some of my lady friends. All I have to say is "if you liked Bossypants, you'll Love How to Be a Woman."

The Heroine's Journey: A Woman's Quest for Wholeness

So, first I have to apologize for my 2 month absence. To quote God Help the Girl: "I've got to save some dough - I'm a working girl, you know." My day job hasn't been awarding me with much extra time for reading and writing. All the same, I've been struggling to make time to work on a personal project which will involve a lot of research before I can even get started on it.
That project is why I've taken some time away from reading fiction almost entirely and plunged headlong into non-fiction. Hence, I bring you a quick and dirty review on Maureen Murdock's The Heroine's Journey. This book was published in 1990, and I feel like that's important to mention because some of it's theories are - as I feel - dated. What I thought I was picking up when I got this book was a breakdown on a strong female character archetype (which would be immensely useful for the project I have planned). While I did glean some of that from this book, it was more of an old-fashioned Feminist Psychoanalyst? If that is even enough to encapsulate it. Regardless, I was half impressed and half disgusted with what I found. There were parts - the psychology - that I considered completely dead on. Very accurate; it hit really close to home. There were other parts - the feminism - that kind of made me disgusted. Yes, I am a feminist. But I'm a millennial feminist, which means that the modern definition of feminism has had 20 years to evolve from the feminism in this book. For the better, personally. In 1990, right on the cusp of the mid-90's "Girl Power!" phase of feminism, men where still considered something to beat back with a broom handle - at all costs. Women were still divorcing their husbands on the grounds that They Were Men, And We Don't Need Men. I believe the millennial feminist has more respect for men, as many more millennial men have more respect for women - and as it turned out that was half the battle. We are focusing more of our attention on gaining respect for everyone. So it's entirely cringe-worthy to still see what I consider middle-aged, Crazy Liberal Mama Feminism is an actual thing, though it helps to remember this book as a relic.
But there was still some nice things that it made me think about and realize - it isn't all flawed. For instance, as the heroine in our own stories, we get the idea that to be "strong" we must swing strongly in the opposite direction - we must be more masculine than feminine. That's the danger, Murdock says. We aren't built to be compatible with the traditional idea of a manly "strength." This isn't saying we can't be strong women, or that we shouldn't try to be strong women - but do so in such a way that you don't lose sight of your own femininity - whatever that means for you.

Caught in a Bad Romance: Saving Mrs. Claus

Source: Andrea B. &
Kindle eBook sharing

Remember how I said I was going to devote February - the month of Valentine's - to romance novels? Like, especially Bad ones? Well, it just so happened that my dear friend Andrea recommended and shared with me a Christmas romance novella via Kindle. I guess there is no season for awfulness. She found it on Amazon.com for free - probably because it was the Christmas holidays at time. But you know what else is free? Herpes. Luckily for you guys, now that Christmas is over, you get to pay for it!
I just want to take a little moment to mention that we live in a time when it is so easy for anyone to get their stuff out there. And that's great. The only problem is that we live in a time when it is so easy for anyone to get their stuff out there. Have no fear, fellow readers - the ebook market isn't likely to kill literature as we know it - so long as there are publishers who are willing to muck through the worst to bring us the best, we have nothing to worry about.

That said, I can't believe Andrea got me to read this. It really is as bad as you'd expect - but I'm going to be really generous and say that that's part of it's charm. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the cult classic movie Troll 2 - it's as riddled with plot-holes as a minefield is with death and distruction, the writing is so bad I'd swear that English is the author's 2nd language - either that or she sat down with a thesaurus and misused every synonym she could, and it is so blissfully unaware of it's self that it is unintentionally hilarious. This novella gave me headaches - it is a prime example of what Dorthy Parker meant when she said: "This is not a [book] to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."
So you can probably gather that this is a romance novel about the origins of Mrs. Claus. The way Andrea sold it to me - it's about a girl who is so obsessed with Christmas that she is destined to marry into the Santa family line. We all know people who are obsessed with Christmas - heck, I know of a girl who walked down the aisle to Christmas carols during her fall wedding. I know people who had rooms built into their renovated homes just to keep Christmas decorations. Apparently, this girl puts all of them to shame. But this is also set in the beginning of the end of the world. And there's only one way that Kris Kringle can convince her to marry her: that they can save the world together.
When focusing on what made it terrible, I keep coming back to the blessed Engrish it seemed to be written in, but there's more. There's always more. Take for example (I'm going to go ahead and spoil the story for you, okay) There's a mysterious character known as Apocalypse Boy. Apparently we're supposed to know all about this little fucker from childhood fairy tales. I mean - come on! You can't tell me you don't remember "Apocalypse Boy and the Four Horsemen"? Hm. Well, it was dark. Probably German. Did I mention the dragons? You think I'm kidding about the dragons. There be dragons. And by the way, I don't mind telling you this, but the only way that they can save the world is by having sex together. If only that's really how sex worked. 

I would grade this book A for Atrocious - it's a shame, because the concept is really cute and if it had been worked over a little more it could have improved it so much. This is why you never sell your fist drafts, people! I probably still wouldn't have picked it for myself - I'm not the most Christmassy. But, eh.

Bonus Cover Critique! Okay, for as bad as the story is, the cover isn't actually that bad. Someone dropped some serious moolah-kaboolah on the cover art. I can see how browsing along on Amazon someone might pick this out of a dozen poorly photo-shopped jobs. But as they say, don't judge a book by it's cover.

February is "Bad Romance" Month

This is something I'm planning for February that I'm too excited to keep to myself! So I really love doing monthly-themed reading lists. February is a good time for some romance novels, right? I totally agree. But Valentine's day always brought out the worst in me, so I don't necessarily want a sweet, cutesy, swoony romance novel. Nope! Not I.
I've been saving these titles all year to do this - because this year I want to read some BAD Romances! I don't just mean trashy, or badly written. I mean "WTF were they thinking?!" I mean, the romance novels that are so horrid that I've been told they've marked some of the readers for life. Even better? Some of them are considered classics today: incest, rape, even Christmas, She's My Sister, She's My Daughter, She's My Sister AND My Daughter!!

I don't usually like Romance Novels because there's this stigma around them, right? No one with good taste should read Romances! But that's totally false - you're allowed to read whatever you want. I've been picking apart Chick-Lit and Chick-Flicks lately - in a purely academical way. (Riiiiiight.) Just what makes them so supposedly bad? They always follow a distinct formula, even when they're original. But how is that any different from Action movies? Are movies marketed for men any better? What could make a movie or novel that is marketed towards one gender still appeal to the other? And what about classic "chick-flicks" like When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, and Steel Magnolias that even men profess to love? What makes those special when certainly there are others that aren't as well known that could be even better than those examples I just gave. Those answers are tricky to find, and probably differ from person to person - but I think we can mostly agree when something is just balls to the walls crazy (sometimes crazy good, sometimes crazy bad?)
When I say these are "Bad Romances," I want everyone to understand that they're just especially out there - even if they are well liked and fan favorites. These are no Jane Austen novels. They're not even Danielle Steele. They are in a category all of their own.
Can't want to show you what I've picked out for us - until next month!

13 rue, Therese

Book Source: Ms. Laurie

This was a book lent to me by a dear friend of the family - one who loves Paris but who gets the utmost rarest delight in traveling there (which is still more often than I do). Because of this, one year her sister gave her a stack of Paris-themed books. This was one she hadn't gotten around to reading yet, but on a visit she allowed me to take it home.
I love a good historic novel, and this was an odd one. But when I say "odd," what I really mean to say is that it's a bit of a curiosity. In fact, if you like books with puzzles and artifacts to look through while reading it, this is a good choice - and unusual because they are usually more thriller-mystery-adventure stuff. And this was... really hard to peg down: not a romance, not really chick-lit, but I don't know many men who would willingly read it without a ton of convincing first. Literary fiction?
The premise of this novel is that an American scholar visits a library in Paris and is inflicted with a box of letters and personal items to sort through, and threading them together tells us the story of a Parisian woman named Louise. (Actually, a cool side note is that the author actually grew up in the same building, a floor below, the real Louise. Though this book only borrows and fictionalizes the woman's name and the mementos she left behind when she died)
Louise is in an - well, not unhappy marriage, but an unsatisfying one. Here first love was forbidden to her - her own cousin, who died during World War 1. She later settled into a marriage with a young man her father approved of, and she was content with it until a young family moves into an empty apartment in the building which she lives and she begins a secret correspondence (resulting in an inevitable love affair) with the father and husband. (Spoiler: somehow she manages to keep her marriage from unraveling afterwards)
It's a quick read - and since I read it at the same time I read A Tale For The Time Being, it's a little hard not to compare the two even if they have nothing in common - which seems really silly, now that I think about it. Both books were serious, but this one was a little weaker of the two. It's kind of like a candy truffle of a novel - decadent and rich, and if you let it melt on your tongue your knees will buckle, but you kind of feel a little guilty for enjoying it so much.

The She-Hulk Diaries

I'd forgotten altogether about this crazy, insane idea that Marvel Comics had earlier this year - to take some well liked heroines and write them into Chick-Lit. Now, I'm all about comic book publishers pulling in more female readers, or more importantly giving their existing female readers more attention. And, I think I speak for most of us when I say this isn't exactly what we had in mind.
But it isn't not what we had in mind either? I see this as a risky move on Marvel's part, but mad props all the same.
So I have in my hands a romance novel: Okay. A romance novel about She-Hulk: Ooooookaaaay... Marvel has a lot of cool heroines and personally Shulky is about the most ironic and hilarious choice you could make for a romance novel. It's no wonder so many of us were feeling a little hedgy about it.

Let me start with the Cons, as I'm sure we can't ignore their existence: This book wasn't wholly original - it was basically Bridget Jones' Diary: She-Hulk edition. That might be fine actually - I don't know many women who don't genuinely love Bridget Jones' Diary, so you could pretend it was just a coincidence and not let that bother you. I tried this, and it helped some. But not enough to make me un-wish the wish I'd made about it being more original. Besides, there's a new Bridget Jones book out that more readers will be interested in instead.
Putting that aside, this book doesn't disappoint because it's exactly what you would expect from it: cheesy, but fun! Don't expect more than that - that's exactly what comic books and romance novels have in common. (I'm personally not crazy about modern comic books that get on the dark, gritty side - I feel like those quite miss the point of what it is to be a comic book)

Fangirl

I'd seen this book pop up a few places (okay, social media - and by some friends who don't read very much, too). I ended up procuring a copy from the local library, just out of curiosity. Also, it didn't hurt at all that I recognized the art of Gingerhaze on the cover right away, which is really exciting because I love her illustrations (and it's great to see her get work like this!)
What ended up happening was that I fell hard for this YA novel. I am a fan of the genre, but I shy away from it now because I feel like even with really, really good YA, sometimes the authors try too hard - or not hard enough, and maybe that's because I'm more on the adult side and less on the young. This was absolutely not the case with Fangirl. It's always cool when authors meet their audience where they're at, and Rainbow Rowell knows her audience so well probably because she is her audience (and she's also an amazing writer - I shouldn't forget that part).
Okay - so I feel like it's safe for me to say that this is my favorite book that I've read this year. Easily, since we only have about a month left of the year. It impacted me on a personal level, Dude.

Fangirl is about a college freshman named Cath Avery who is an internet famous Yaoi Fan-fiction writer for a faux Harry Potter series, instead called "Simone Snow." But that fame doesn't cushion the blow of starting something as huge as college, and the anxiety and insecurity that entails for some people. Part of the reason this story is so provocative to me is that I had a lot of the same emotional up's and down's during my college years. Actually, it hit me so close to home that I struggled with getting through the story at times.
Cath is also one half of an identical twin named Wren, though Wren is the polar opposite of Cath. While Cath spends much of her first semester hiding out in her dorm, and only eventually, cautiously easing her way out for food and classes (which is frighteningly close to what I did my freshman year - only if I'd lived in the dorms, I'm still convinced it would have killed me, either from starvation or something), Wren wastes no time at all partying it up. There is some friction and concern here, but a lot of emotional depth too. This is typical college-aged drama, but it's actually felt out, which is done in only a way an introvert could write. Cath has a room-mate who she's somewhat terrified of - which is also a little hysterical, because said room-mate Reagan reminds me a lot of my bestie Danielle in a lot of ways. (Daleks would be afraid of Regan/Danielle - and honestly it's always kind of nice for a girl with zero back-bone to have a friend like that) ...And then, there's Raegan's "boyfriend" Levi.... Levi's really nice. Like REALLY nice. Like, Goes-Out-Of-His-Way-to-Be-Nice Nice. But there's also a handsome boy in Cath's Fiction Writing class, so maybe there's something there, right? Did I mention the part where Cath & Wren's single Dad back home is prone to mental break-downs? Fan-fiction, whatever your opinion of it, plays a very small part of the story. It's a lot more than that. And it's nice to have an author who doesn't mishandle fandom and nerdy the way that some do (who feel merely qualified because they are nerds). Rainbow has had some introspection before she wrote all this, I feel, more than other authors do (I'm looking you dead in the eye,  Ernest Cline), and I feel like it really paid off.

I have a million more great things to say about this book, but I don't want to veer too far off the topic, or spoil it for anyone. Still. It's a great book, and since Christmas is coming you should probably buy a million copies to give to your nerdy girl friends, especially if they're college aged (it helps, sometimes, knowing that you aren't the only crazed person out there struggling with personal AND creative crisis')

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