I haven’t the foggiest idea of how to grade The She-Hulk Diaries. By page 25, I was ready to throw the book across the room. By page 50, I was eating it up like candy. This is a book based an insulting and tired premise (career woman fails at personal life, can’t find love, is sort of ditzy) and yet after a week of contemplating it I think it’s actually pretty subversive – plus it’s … Continue reading The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta
Austenland is a fun book about a woman who goes to an Austen reenactment resort. It was a Sizzling Book Club pick in May 2013. I read the book; I waited for the movie to open in Sacramento, and the movie finally got here and IT WAS HORRIBLE. It was so incredibly offensive on so many levels, I just…. Austenland (the movie and the book) is about a woman, Jane, who is obsessed with the … Continue reading Austenland, A Film Review
I'm going to do two things I rarely do. One, I'm going to write a review for a book a few hours after I finished it. Two, I'm going to post a review for a book that has been appearing in digital and paper format slowly – and I hope it is available at your preferred retailer when this review goes live. I also hope this review inspires a few libraries to add this author … Continue reading Yesterday’s News by Kajsa Ingemarsson
So much of the trade-sized books marketed towards us women deal with fellow women doing what I call “playing the FU Card.” Playing the FU card describes the moment when a woman seizes her own life with 9 fingers, lifting that all important middle finger on her dominant hand to whatever, or whomever, has been telling her she ought to do otherwise than embrace her own (dare I say it) potential. Commence sucking of marrow, … Continue reading Seeing Me Naked by Liza Palmer
If I had to label this book, I would not list “romance” first. It’s certainly one of those books that doesn’t fit neatly into one specific genre. The heroine, Milagro de los Santos, is Latina, and her character is certainly shaped by that fact, so does that make this a Chica Lit book? It’s a vampire story with a romance element that runs through it, but it’s also not just about the heroine’s development as … Continue reading Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, by Marta Acosta
This book isn’t published yet and I want to be able to review it in a manner that describes it well without giving away all the good bits, because reviewing a book that was published six years ago, like some of my earlier pieces here, is way different than reviewing a book that technically hasn’t been born to the market yet. I will tell you that the ending made me cry on the bus, and … Continue reading Ex & The Single Girl by Lani Diane Rich
Well, crap. Instead of getting another snarky, let’s discuss the sucky parts review, you get another happy, gushy, “hot damn on a cracker this was a good book” review from me. Sorry folks. I’m on a streak of reading enjoyable, well-written books. It doesn’t suck to be me, but with the decrease in snark from the Sarah department, it might suck to be you. Maybe I should go take a crapful old book I saved … Continue reading Time Off for Good Behavior, by Lani Diane Rich
