Dear Bitches: It is my sad duty to inform you that I cannot review Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up), a collection of humorous pieces that make brutal and glorious fun of all the stuff that we learned in high school. I want to review it, but I can’t. I can’t because I can’t breathe, and I can’t breathe because the chapter “How to Pose For Your Civil War Photograph” has … Continue reading Alexandra Petri’s US History by Alexandra Petri →
Every year around the holiday season, I see people squee about Love, Actually and I’m reminded all over again how much I hate half of it and how meh I feel about the rest of it. But then I remember Lindy West’s infamous takedown of it and I don’t feel alone. So, you can imagine how thrilled I was when I heard about Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema. Its recap-style … Continue reading Shit, Actually by Lindy West →
Vera “Nick” Nicholson is an underpaid and overworked lawyer. After nearly seven years, she’s still at the bottom of the ladder at Turner, Witherspoon, Anders, and Tyler, PA. (*slow clap* for the initialism of her employer’s name, which is the first sign that this romcom often has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.) One day, Nick is given a weird job: tracking down a missing Mercedes-Maybach S560 belonging to one of the firm’s top … Continue reading The Big Tow by Ann McMan →
If I Never Met You is a sweet, but very angsty, fake-relationship romance that is let down terribly by its advertising and blurb: If faking love is this easy… how do you know when it’s real? When her partner of over a decade suddenly ends things, Laurie is left reeling—not only because they work at the same law firm and she has to see him every day. Her once perfect life is in shambles and … Continue reading If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane →
Freaky in Fresno is a blast. It’s a YA with a lot of romance, but the focus is more on family and friendship, so we’re talking more rom-com than romance novel. In this book, two cousins who were raised like sisters but have grown apart, switch bodies Freaky-Friday style. What ensues involves romance, make-up, an angry chihuahua, wolf dogs, classic horror movies, and a very beautiful car. I loved it, although it was a little … Continue reading Freaky in Fresno by Laurie Boyle Crompton →
Well this was just…neat! Bloodlust and Bonnets is a graphic novel in which a bloodthirsty Regency ingenue named Lucy teams up with Byron the poet and Sham, a vampire hunter, to fight vampires. The fact that Byron never seems to understand what’s going on, Sham is always lost, and Lucy would actually like to BE a vampire confuses the matter immensely, leading to hijinks and an amazing amount of red ink. At the start of … Continue reading Bloodlust and Bonnets by Emily McGovern →
Ran and the Gray World is a delightful manga series about Ran, a young girl with immense magical powers and the hijinks she gets up to. She, like many her age, is enamoured with the idea of being an adult, and with being just as beautiful and amazing as her mom. The difference is, she can magically age her body, which also increases the magnitude of her magical powers. So basically, every parent’s worst nightmare. … Continue reading Ran and the Gray World by Aki Irie →
Sometimes a book comes along that is so fun, so unabashedly silly, and so clever that it makes you glad to be alive. Such is the case with My Plain Jane, which re-imagines Jane Eyre in such a bizarre and gleeful fashion that even in the grip of my regularly scheduled holiday depression I was overcome with bliss. The premise of My Plain Jane is this: Charlotte Bronte is real, and attends Lowood School. Jane Eyre … Continue reading My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows →
My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel is silly fun. If you are in the right mood for it, this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style romance is addictive. It’s an affectionate parody of historical romance with pen and ink illustrations and a tendency towards intentionally terrible similes and metaphors that are deployed during sex scenes in such a way to inspire many a spit take. In this book: You are you. The plucky, penniless, Regency-era London version. For a lass … Continue reading My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris →
Oh, you guys. I have to review this book for you because I laughed so loud and so long that my husband had to kick me out of the room. This is the third Dahlia Moss book and every one seems to get better and better. In these stressful times who doesn’t need a book that makes you laugh out loudly and often? Dahlia Moss is NOT a private detective because she doesn’t have her … Continue reading The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone →
Terminal Alliance involves the janitorial crew of the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish. “Mops” Adamopoulos and her sanitation team are some of the humans serving on a Krakau ship. When all of the other humans on the ship turn feral (like zombies) and attack the crew, the Shipboard Sanitation and Hygiene Team has to survive the attack, save the ship, solve an ancient and interplanetary mystery, and avoid being killed. With a couple of exceptions, I didn’t … Continue reading Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines →
