Review: The Bitch is Back

Older, Wiser, and (Getting) Happier
Sequel to The Bitch in the House
Edited by Cathi Hanauer
Available now from William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Review copy

THE BITCH IS BACK is a collection of twenty-six essays by women in their forties, fifties, and sixties. Many of those women first contributed essays to THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE back in 2002, although some of the contributors are new.

I have not read THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE, but was still attracted to THE BITCH IS BACK due to the promise of stories about real, older women. When there is a repeat contributor, her essay is prefaced by a short explanation of her previous essay and how the two connect. I don't feel that I was missing context, but I do want to read THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE, which is noted multiple times to be the angrier of the two anthologies.

There is no overarching theme to the essays, although they're roughly arranged into four groups (midlife crisis, sex, rocky marriages, starting over). Each one is a personal essay that tackles what the author wants to say about her life and her choices. The contributors all have strong voices, although some of them have stories we've heard before.

Part of the reason there is no overarching theme is because editor Cathi Hanauer solicited  stories from a range of women. Jennifer Finney Boylan is a transgender woman, who writes about maintaining her relationship with her wife through her transition. Kathy Thomas is poor, her life of hard blue collar work a sharp contrast to some of the more privileged contributors. Veronica Chambers is black Latina, and writes about how her relationship with religion isn't traditional but still conflicts with her husband's atheism.

What I appreciate about this anthology is that it not only shows how many ways there are to be a woman, but that life continues. Most of these women have been through terrible things, including divorce, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, but they're still living and breathing and doing.

I wouldn't read all of THE BITCH IS BACK at once, because the essays can get monotonous. But it is nice to dole out these women's stories, because they've been through interesting times.

Review: Day Zero

Companion book to the Arcana Chronicles
By Kresley Cole
Available now from Valkyrie Press
Review copy

The fourth Arcana Chronicles novel, ARCANA RISING, comes out later this month. In anticipation, Kresley Cole has released DAY ZERO. This companion novel contains profiles of each of the Arcana and Jack, including nicknames, powers, weapons, tableau, unique characteristics, and who they were before the flash. The Fool's file is heavily redacted and The Hanged Man's is completely blacked out since that character isn't known yet.

The meat of this companion book is the short stories that accompany the profile of each character who is still alive. Cole writes about what they were doing on Day Zero, when the Flash destroyed most of humanity. Evie's is the longest, which is a bit of a cheat since hers is the relevant passages from THE POISON PRINCESS (my review). Fans will be particularly interested in Aric and Jack's stories, and I did love that Jack's explains part of why he was such a jerk at first. Cole wisely begins and ends DAY ZERO with their sections.

However, they weren't the standouts for me. Many of the shorts involve romance, which isn't surprising since that is the genre where Cole got her start. (And is, of course, still active with her Immortals After Dark series.) Circe's is passionate and sad and makes me wish that her love story gets an eventual happy end (even though I know it won't happen). Sol's is likewise tragic. Calanthe's turns surprisingly sweet, and Selena's is full of deserved wrath. I thought Tess's was a strong end to the minor character stories, with a beautiful scene of parental love.

DAY ZERO contains spoilers for the three Arcana Chronicles already available, and is truly geared towards fans only. I don't think Cole is shortchanging them. Fans can happily pick up this companion book without feeling they're only getting information regurgitated from the novels. The stories do a wonderful job of bringing more personality to each of the Arcana, even the awful ones (Richter, ugh). It makes their inevitable deaths in the games more upsetting. She lets each of her antagonists be people who all have their own hope of being the hero.

Review: Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Edited by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Leigh Bardugo, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Brandy Colbert, Tim Federle, Lev Grossman, Nina LaCour, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, Jon Skovron, Jennifer E. Smith
Available now from
Review copy

Stephanie Perkins' follow-up anthology to MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME is another set of twelve strong stories by popular and up-and-coming authors, including adult author Lev Grossman.  The only repeated author is Perkins herself (who writes a sequel to her story from the first anthology).  The theme of summer is a little looser than the theme of winter holidays, and the stories range wider in tone and style as well.  There's contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, and historical stories.  The protagonists are diverse too, both in skin color and sexuality.

In fact, not all of the stories end happily.  "Sick Pleasure" by Francesca Lia Block tells of a doomed summer romance.  "Souvenirs" by Tim Federle tells of two boys who know they have to break up because one of them is going to college.  "Souvenirs" is one of my favorite stories in the collection, for how it gets lots of messy emotions into so few pages, including those little things that make you love someone even when you know they aren't the best person.

Of the speculative stories, my favorite might have been "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things" by Lev Grossman, a groundhog-day tale of a boy and a girl who are trapped in a loop and manage to find shocking beauty in a single mundane (but tragic) day.  Close behind is "Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail" by Leigh Bardugo, which taps into my love of mythological sea creatures.  The inventive ending gets my approval.  Okay, I loved "Last Stand at the Cinegore" by Libba Bray, too.  It's a trippy meta tale about a horror film coming to life and the apathetic cinema workers who are the only ones that can stop it.

The more mundane stories were a bit more uneven to me.  "The End of Love" by Nina LaCour is an adorable story about two girls finding their way to each other while one of them goes through a difficult time. "Love is the Last Resort" by Jon Skovron is a farce about multiple couples who need a few tricks to get them to take that leap of faith and ask each other out.

This made for a very fun read on my plane ride home from California.  (Can you get more summer than that?)  There was only one story I didn't think fit the anthology.  "Inertia" by Veronica Roth was a nifty sci-fi romance, but I'm not sure what it had to do with summer.  Overall, this was a strong set of stories, although not quite as strong as MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME.  I hope for fall and spring sequels!

Review: Dark Screams: Volume Three

Volume three of the Dark Screams anthologies
Edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar
Stories by Peter Straub, Jack Ketchum, Darynda Jones, Jacquelyn Frank, and Brian Hodge
Available now from Hydra (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I have to give this anthology props for size.  It fit perfectly into my thirty-minute lunch break.  Sometimes these shorter works aren't quite long enough or are just a bit too long, which can be slightly unsatisfying.  Unfortunately, everyone's reading speed differs so that aspect might not work quite as well for other people.

"The Collected Short Stories of Freddie Prothero" by Peter Straub

The biggest name in DARK SCREAMS: VOLUME THREE leads off the anthology.  I mostly skimmed this story.  I love pseudo academia, so I liked the introduction to the stories of Freddie, analyzing what certain terms might mean and such.  But the barely literate or coherent style of the stories themselves just isn't my thing.  I gave it a quick shot, but nothing drew me in so I didn't force it. 

"Group of Thirty" by Jack Ketchum

"Group of Thirty" was my favorite story in the anthology.  A local horror writer goes to speak to a writer's group, who start getting aggressive and interrogating him about the heinous acts he writes about.  The story felt timely and I enjoyed the unexpected turn the climax took.  The narrator's weariness not only set the tone but also worked well with the plot.

"Nancy" by Darynda Jones

This is the story that drew me to the anthology.  I really enjoy Jones' grim reaper novels, which are laugh-out-loud funny paranormal romance/fantasy.  I was quite curious about how she would approach horror.  "Nancy" isn't edge-of-your-seat scary, but it does explore some of the worst aspects of human nature.  It also has a refreshingly nice popular girl character, which isn't something I expect to find in a horror anthology.

"I Love You, Charlie Pearson" by Jacquelyn Frank

Frank is another author not known for horror, so it is interesting that she wrote the most typical horror story in DARK SCREAMS: VOLUME THREE.  Charlie Pearson, the narrator, is a twisted stalker, and the story contrasts human and supernatural monstrousness.  It isn't a revelatory theme, but the final paragraph is creepy enough to carry it.

"The Lone and Level Strands Stretch Far Away" by Brian Hodge

The anthology closes with the uneven "The Lone and Level Strands Stretch Far Away."  The descriptions of urban exploration, exploring abandoned buildings, are top notch, especially when the parkour group disturbs a building perhaps left best alone.  Meanwhile, narrator Aiden's boredom with his wife Tara and growing attraction to new next door neighbor Marni (of course growing because of Tara's unfounded suspicions of an affair hounding him) is so boring and predictable.  I wanted more horror and less lame-o relationship drama featuring an unsympathetic dude.

I mostly enjoyed the stories in DARK SCREAMS: VOLUME THREE, but don't go in expecting intense horror.  These stories are rather gentle and tame.  You'll be able to sleep with no problem after reading them.

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Review: Things I'll Never Say: Stories About Our Secret Selves

Edited by Ann Angel
Stories by Ann Angel, Kerry Cohen, Louise Hawes, Varian Johnson, erica l. kaufman, Ron Koertge, E. M. Kokie, Chris Lynch, Kekla Magoon, Zoë Marriott, Katy Moran, J. L. Powers, Mary Ann Rodman, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ellen Wittlinger
Available now from Candlewick
Review copy

Ann Angel's first outing editing an anthology is an impressive venture.  She's gathered a wonderful mix of authors, from established award winners like Chris Lynch and Ellen Wittlinger to talented up to a debut author.  The authors aren't just diverse in their name recognition either.  THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY: STORIES ABOUT OUR SECRET SELVES dwells in those experiences that are hard to talk about, that people like to never think about.

It's fitting that it is a very diverse anthology, not only the authors, but also the main characters, who are black and white and Asian and gay and bisexual and transgender and suffering from mental illness.  Although not all of the stories are realistic, they do strive for a realism about the teen experience, and the multiplicity of points of view represented help support that anthology-wide tone.

I'll admit that the anthology started a little slow for me.  The usually reliable Ellen Wittlinger didn't knock it out of the park with "The We-Are-Like-Everybody-Else Game," the story of a girl with a mom who hoards and a friend who might not deserve the title (but one who does).  "Cupid's Beaux" by Cynthia Leitich Smith is charming, and a definite delight to me as a fan of her Tantalize series.  Will anthology readers who haven't read that series be a little lost?

"When We Were Wild" by Louise Hawes and "Call Me!" by Ron Koertge are both delightfully loose stories, slightly naughty and shaggy with narrators who struggle with their knowledge of their own cruelty.  Of the sadder stories, I think I liked "Easter" by Mary Ann Rodman best, for the way it captured loss and teenage confusion and dashed hopes.

"Quick Change" by E.M. Kokie is a little gem about a con artist in a family of con artists, and I want an entire novel about what happens next.  (Short stories have been made into novels before!  I can hope!)  "Storm Clouds Fleeing From the Wind" by Zoë Marriott is the standout of the collection.  It's an achingly lovely story set in a kingdom that isn't, about a dancer who cannot be matched, especially when furious.  Her bio in the back of THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY says that it is related to her novel SHADOWS ON THE MOON, which is now a must-read for me.

Honestly, I could tell you good things about almost all of the stories in the collection.  There were a handful that I didn't care for, but there were also two excellent stories and more than half of the stories were good-to-great.  I think that's a good ratio for an anthology.  With THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY, Ann Angel shows great promise as an anthologist as well as an author.

Review: Get in Trouble: Stories

By Kelly Link
Available now from (Penguin) Random House
Review copy

GET IN TROUBLE: STORIES is a collection of nine stories by Kelly Link, who is perhaps best known for her short stories (beyond even her skills as an anthologist and small publisher).  I'd read two of the stories: "The New Boyfriend" in MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS and "Secret Identity" in Geektastic.  Neither were my favorite story in either anthology.

I feel like GET IN TROUBLE leans hard on the Kelly Link formula.  Her mix of the ordinary and fantastic is nearly unmatched, but much of this collection feels like she's resting on her laurels.  GET IN TROUBLE opens promisingly with "The Summer People," a sharply drawn tale that carefully breaks down both an Appalachian town and an aging estate full of fae.  It hints at danger and dark fates while also focusing on the blooming friendship between two teen girls. 

The second story, "I Can See Right Through You," killed all momentum to me.  It is set through the point of view of the demon lover, an aging movie star who once played a vampire going to see the woman who played his love again.  There's hints of good stuff in the story, but the conceit of calling him the demon lover through the whole story drove me nuts.  Although the story has a pretty juicy payoff, it's not as good as an actual incubus showing up to make the repetitive epithet worth it.

My two favorite stories after "The Summer People" were the final two in the collection.  "Two Houses" takes the classic plot of a bunch of people telling ghost stories to each other and takes it to a predictably meta but chilling place.  I love a good creepy intelligent computer.  "Light" is a story that takes place in a world where most people have a normal shadow, but some have no or two.  It focuses on the main character Lindsey, recently divorced and a recovering alcoholic, and her gay brother who has moved back in with her.  The setting of the story keeps revealing new strange details of this world (perhaps too much for one short story), but it goes down smooth and with no lingering unpleasantness.

I like Link's worth, but GET IN TROUBLE is not an essential collection.  If you're a fan, go ahead and get this one from the library.  Otherwise, stick to the first story (and maybe the last two).

Review: My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

Edited and with a story by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

For her first anthology, Stephanie Perkins did not play fair.  She gathered up a veritable who's who of YA authors to deliver a nearly perfect anthology with something to offer for everybody.  Some of the stories are speculative fiction; some are contemporary.  All have at least a touch of a romantic edge.  There's also a smattering of diversity.

For me, the weakest link was Jenny Han's "Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me," the story of a human girl adopted by Santa.  There were hints of an interesting elf world and two potential love interests, and it was all a bit much for one of the book's shorter stories.  It felt like the beginning to something longer.  My favorite was Kelly Link's "The Lady and the Fox," a sort of Christmas retelling of Tam Lin with a young girl who loves costumes and an old family with lots of stories.

David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, Matt de la Peña, and Gayle Forman and more deliver solid contemporary Christmas and New Year's stories.  I liked that Levithan's brought in some Jewish heritage to the proceedings.  Holly Black did what Holly Black does.  So did Laini Taylor to deliver a memorable closing story.  I found Kiersten White's "Welcome to Christmas, CA" took longer to charm me than the others, but by the end I was under its delicious spell.

I appreciated that MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME skewed a little older.  Almost all of the characters are in their first year of college.  It united the anthology in a way, and gave it a bit of a different vibe from similar YA holiday anthologies.

This is a charming collection and an excellent choice for anyone who likes at least one or more of the twelve authors.  It's rare to come across an anthology this solid.  And with so much winter cheer, it's hard for me to be a Grinch.

Review: Great Short Stories by Contemporary Native American Writers

By Pauline Johnson, Zitkala-Sa, John M. Oskison, D'Arcy McNickle, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joseph Bruchac III, Jack D. Forbes, Rayna Green, Mary TallMountain, Duane Niatum, Thomas King, Eli Funaro, Beth H. Piatote, Sherman Alexie
Edited by Bob Blaisdell
Available now from Dover Thrift Editions
Review copy

GREAT SHORT STORIES BY CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN WRITERS is an extremely affordable and accessible anthology from Dover Publications that delivers exactly what the title promises. The fourteen stories included range from 1893 (Pauline Johnson) to 2009 (Sherman Alexie).  I was familiar with two of the authors, Alexie and Joseph Bruchac III, but the others were all new to me.  I really appreciated the biographical notes by editor Bob Blaisdell that preceded each story.  These notes tell of the authors' tribal backgrounds and provide some context for the stories.

The stories tend toward the shorter side - "War Dances" by Sherman Alexie is the longest story included.  It is a standout story, however.  I've read quite a bit of Alexie, but I think I enjoyed one of his stories even more when it was surrounded by different authors.  It felt like I was coming into his (morbid, funny) voice fresh.

As for the other authors, I loved that both men and women were included.  I find that survey anthologies such as GREAT SHORT STORIES BY CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN WRITERS tend to lose women's voices along the way, so I was happy to see them included.  In fact, a woman kicks the anthology, which is organized chronologically, off.  "A Red Girl's Reasoning" is a terrific tale of pride and rage and a relationship destroyed by a difference in culture.

Editor Bob Blaisdell stretches the word "contemporary" to the breaking point, but I enjoyed seeing the progression through time.  D'Arcy McNickle uses a white narrator for "Train Time," imagining the regrets of someone who thinks he's doing the right thing, but can't find the words to explain himself.  Many of the stories, such as Jack D. Forbes's very brief "Only Approved Indians Can Play Made in USA," are utterly hilarious in a funny not funny way.

If you're looking for stories of the life of some modern Native Americans, this is a terrific anthology.  I'm certainly planning to pick up some more work by many of these authors in the future, and none of the stories were duds.  Nor did anything in GREAT SHORT STORIES BY CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN WRITERS feel like a lecture.  This is pure good writing, just with some extra cultural interest.

Review: Grim

Edited by Christine Johnson
By Ellen Hawkins, Julie Kagawa, Amanda Hocking, Claudia Gray, Rachel Hawkins, Kimberly Derting, Myra McEntire, Malinda Lo, Sarah Rees Brennan, Jackson Pearce, Jeri Smith-Ready, Shaun David Hutchinson, Saundra Mitchell, Sonia Gensler, Tessa Gratton, Jon Skovron, Christine Johnson
Available now from Harlequin Teen
Review copy

I've repeatedly mentioned that I love fairytales and love seeing them retold.  How could I resist the lure of an anthology gathering some of the hottest names in YA plus a bunch of my personal favorites?  There were also a few authors I haven't read, which is an advantage of anthologies - a short and sweet introduction to a new voice.

Despite the title (GRIM), not all of the stories in the collection are based on Grimm's fairytales.  Some are French tales, others are Hans Christian Anderson, some are other traditional sources.  Some of the sources are used more than once.  They are almost all retellings, though it took me embarrassingly long to figure some of them out.  For instance, opening story "The Key" by Rachel Hawkins is based on one of my favorite tales and I still didn't get it until after I finished the story.  (I don't think "Untethered" by Sonia Gensler is a retelling, which makes its inclusion odd.)

I did like this anthology overall.  There were a few stories that I thought were too brief, and Ellen Hawkin's prose debut left me underwhelmed.  I found Sarah Rees Brennan's "Beauty and the Chad" a bit too silly at first, but it's really stuck with me.  Another one of my favorite authors, Tessa Gratton, wrote a Beauty and the Beast story called "Beast/Beast," which had an intriguing take on the central relationship and its evolution.  "Figment" by Jeri Smith-Ready was a standout, one I'm sure I'll re-read to put a smile on  my face.  Julie Kagawa's "The Brothers Piggett" was another simple, silly one, but I enjoyed its gruesome twists.  Another favorite of mine was "Sharper Than a Serpent's Tongue" by editor Christine Johnson.  It's a tale of two sisters, but they aren't the straightforward bad sister and good sister of classic fairytales.

If you're a fan of fairytales or any of these authors, then GRIM is a wonderful choice for you.  I do wish the anthology had been all Grimm fairytales, with no repeats, but as it is, some of the repeats were my favorites.  The book does stand out in diversity, both in authors and characters.

Review: The Cool School: Writing from America's Hip Underground

Edited by Glenn O'Brien
Available now from Library of America
Review copy

When THE COOL SCHOOL was pitched to me, I feel in love with the concept.  A collection of writing by the original hipsters, about what it meant to be cool.  And not just the Beat poets, but jazz men and comedians and more, including people outside the movement who criticized it.  The pieces range from prose fiction to poetry to nonfiction, from excerpts to complete works.

I think Glenn O'Brien did a decent job of assembling a plurality of voices.  Names reoccur between pieces, giving a real sense of how the scene fit together and how people from different groups knew and thought of each other.  Figures like Bird, Charlie Parker, loom large as their trailblazing influence is taken in and reflected.  There are several black writers, and author there is no editorializing aside from short introductions to each piece, it is easy to see some of the tension around white men copying black slang, music, and attitudes.

There are several women included in the anthology, although not Carolyn Cassady, possible the best known female Beat generation writer.  The blurb mentions the "sexually excluded," but they were less in the anthology than I expected.  Allen Ginsberg is the most notable exception there.  (I triple checked the table of contents just to be sure I hadn't missed a piece from him.)

The writing is arranged by chronology, I believe, which works fairly well.  It allows for a clear progression of ideas.  Sometimes I wished for another arrangement, as Del Close's piece on vocabulary would've been great at the beginning.  I could read large chunks of THE COOL SCHOOL at once, but did prefer to take breaks.  While there are a great many voices on display, the anthology's raison d'être is pieces that explore the scene.  It takes awhile for any sameness to set in, but it does if one tries to devour the whole anthology at once.

I enjoyed THE COOL SCHOOL.  I am always in favor of primary sources, and I liked the range presented here, even if I did think the net could be cast even wider.  I was familiar with some of the writers, like Miles Davis, Frank O'Hara, and Lenny Bruce, but there are also several where I'll have to seek out more of their work.  THE COOL SCHOOL is a great introduction to a generation, and a nice reminder that the fifties weren't all poodle school and milkshakes.  There were people shaking things up and making their voices heard.

Review: Very Superstitious: Myths, Legends, and Tales of Superstition

Second Annual Month9Books Charity Anthology
Proceeds for first 5,000 sales go to SPCA Internation
Edited by Georgia McBride
Stories by Shannon Delany, Jackie Morse Kessler, Jennifer Knight, Stephanie Kuehnert, Mari Mancusi, Michelle E. Reed, Dianne K. Salerni, Pab Sungenis
Available now from Month9Books
Review copy

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contains an excellent lineup of authors, which is what first caught my attention.  I was particularly excited to see a story by Stephanie Kuehnert, who hasn't had a fiction release since 2009's wicked good BALLADS OF SUBURBIA.  (Bonus: I got to interview her!)  Plus, it's a charity anthology!  How could I resist spreading the word about a book that helps animals?  I have a rescue dog, and he's the best ever.  (Okay, Patton is my mom's, but I'd steal him in a heartbeat.)

I wish the theme of VERY SUPERSTITIOUS were slightly more coherent.  Some of the stories involve animals, some don't.  Some are mythology, some folklore, some the Bible, some urban legends, some children's stories, you get the idea.  With only eight stories, so many different sources means stories with very different feels.  I like that they aren't all the same of course, but I wish there was more of a thread holding them together than "superstition."  (And sometimes that thread is very light indeed.)

I also wish that more of the sources were non-Western.   "Chupacabra" by Jennifer Knight draws on the Central American legend and is set in Puerto Rico, and was one of my favorites in the anthology.  It's a tale of revenge, hard choices, and the way human emotions can create the worst monsters.  It felt like a small piece of a larger world, which I appreciated.  "Midhalla" by Michelle E. Reed draws on Egyptian mythology, so it doesn't make much sense to have a title punning on Norse mythology.  [Edit: Reed contacted me about the title and said, "Midhalla is the Arabic word for umbrella, which is why I chose it for my story."] It was probably my least favorite story in the anthology.  It's core is extremely goofy, and the end is dark and sudden, jarring completely with the setup at the beginning of the story.  It never coheres.

I think most of these stories are one offs, which is nice.  "Thirst" by Jackie Morse Kessler does tie into her Riders of the Apocalypse series, but given that it's a retelling of Noah and the flood, it's easy to follow even without knowledge of that series.  I enjoyed it, as well as the stories from Shannon Delany, Stephanie Kuehnert, and Dianne K. Salerni.  And props to Delany's kids, who convinced her to change the story's traditional ending.  VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contains many unhappy endings, but at least it contains no unhappy ending for animals. Mari Mancusi's story plays with "The Gift of the Magi," a story that's been played with so much that it would take something really clever to get me excited about it.  Not bad, but standard.  Pab Sungenis's "The Silverfoot Heretic" played with The Wizard of Oz.  I thought the story went somewhere interesting, and touching, but I almost didn't finish the story because the beginning didn't capture me at all.

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS is a fine anthology for fantasy readers looking for something slightly creepy for Halloween reading.  I didn't love all of the stories, but there are some good ones by popular authors.  If you're a fan of any of these ladies, I'd pick it up.  Plus, you're helping out animals!  It's hard to resist books and animals, isn't it?

Review: The Best American Comics 2013

Edited by Jeff Smith
Series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden
Available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review copy

I do not envy the Best American series editors.  They have a great deal of material to go through every year, as discussed in the Foreword and Introduction.  I agree with much of what they say about representing creators and showing the range of comics, but I'm just not sure about one dig at superhero comics.  I'm not sure that next year's collection (gathering Sept 2012-August 2013) will be able to prove that Hawkeye isn't one of the best comics of the year.

But let's talk about this year's collection!  Last year's practice of adding title pages is thankfully continued, with writer and artist bios in the back.  I most definitely did not love every piece, but there are a lot of winners in here.  I was a panelist for the CYBILS award in the elementary/middle grade and young adult graphic novels category last year.  I was chuffed to see the winners GIANTS, BEWARE! by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado and FRIENDS WITH BOYS by Faith Erin Hicks excerpted in THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2013.

I think my favorite contribution from someone I had never heard of is "The Good Wife" by Sophie Goldstein.  It's not long, and there are few words, but it's creepy and surreal truth has lingered in my mind.  As for familiar favorites, I'm always happy to see webcomics bigwigs Grant Snider and Kate Beaton, who each pair literacy and wit with distinctive art.  I also liked that Derf Backderf's haunting and humane MY FRIEND DAHMER got a nod, and admired how well it led into an excerpt from RACHEL RISING by Terry Moore.

I do feel that the excerpts mostly weren't as enticing as the one-shot comics, which is the risk of an anthology like THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2013.  For instance, I could barely figure out what was happening in UNTERZAKHN by Leela Corman without the context.  But that works for me, because I see this collection as a jumping off point.  If the story and art work well for me in this shortened form I'll seek more work by the creator, even if I didn't find the selection satisfying.  I know I'm definitely going to look for more by Evan Dorkin.

Most of the selections in THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2013 worked for me.  I think this is a strong entry in the series and a good resource for anyone looking for an intro to the coolest comics around.  Despite the many creators, it's a fairly coherent read.  Jeff Smith clearly has his preferences, but I think that makes the whole stronger.

Review: Fairy Tale Comics

Edited by Chris Duffy
Available now from First Second (Macmillan)
Review copy

I was a little disappointed in this comic anthology until I read the afterword.  FAIRY TALE COMICS achieves what it sets out to do: illustrate the big tales and only a few obscure ones.  FAIRY TALE COMICS is truly a collection for children, who aren't so familiar with the tales or expecting of subversion.

Editor Chris Duffy lined up a fantastic group of creators.  I fell in love with Luke Pearson's work after reading HILDA AND THE MIDNIGHT GIANT for the Cybils last year, and his "The Boy Who Drew Cats" (based on a Japanese tale) is a true standout.  It is super cute, and the little boy in it is such a little boy.  Raina Telgemeier's "Rapunzel" deviates the most from the popular tale, I believe, and the way she ends it is quite clever.

Because most of the stories in FAIRY TALE COMICS are straightforward retellings, the quality of the art is very important.  And the art is superb.  Brett Helquist's art will be familiar to fans of popular children's books like A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Other artists like Gilbert Hernandez and Craig Thompson are ones to grow on, creators young readers can seek out when they're older.  There's a wide range of colors palettes, mediums, and styles on display.  It keeps the anthology feeling fresh to the end.

I highly recommend FAIRY TALE COMICS for those seeking a fun book that will appeal to a young reader.  Adult fans of folklore might not be as enthused, although the art is quite enjoyable.

Review: Losing It

Edited by Keith Gray
Stories by A.S. King, Melvin Burgess, Keith Gray, Patrick Ness, Anne Fine, Sophie McKenzie, Bali Rai, Jenny Valentine, Mary Hooper, Andrew Smith
Available now from Carolrhoda Books (Lerner)
First published in 2010 by Anderson Press without the stories by Smith and King
Review copy

LOSING IT is a collection of ten short stories based around the concept of virginity.  It's long gone for some of the characters, and others don't lose it at all.  Some of the characters live here and now, others live long ago or far away.  To me, only a few of the stories really stood out, but it is worth buying for those stories.

A.S. King was the name that stood out the most for me, but I love her work.  I liked her raw story, about a girl who gets caught shoplifting for the total user she's dating.  While the concept of LOSING IT is mildly shocking, it's not really a shocking collection.  King's story is probably the boldest.  My biggest problem with it is that it ends far too soon.

My second favorite is Patrick Ness' story "Different for Boys."  It follows a pretty predictable path, but his teen boy voices are spot on and now that I think about it this story might be a little racy too.  I'm twenty four; I'm not sure I'm the best judge.  (Also, the Kindle galley I read had no black boxes.  Be envious, those who read the final version!)  I enjoyed the humor of the story and thought that the structure - centered around figuring out what losing it is for a gay guy - worked very well.

I was also quite fond of "Chat-Up Lines" by Melvin Burgess and "The Age of Consent" by Jenny Valentine.  Burgess' story involves a younger boy dating a popular older girl who doesn't know his age and that he's social suicide.  Valentine's involves a crazy discussion at a family dinner, where an older relative holds forth on what she knows about sex and choosing who to have it with.

My biggest disappointment was probably "The White Towel" by Bali Rai, which I've seen highly praised.  It deals with the horror of honor killings, but it's a family legend related by a relative passing it on to some friends.  The concept seems distant, just another story, instead of visceral.  I don't think the point of view worked for Anne Fine's story either, which is told by a teacher.

Keith Gray, Andrew Smith, Sophie McKenzie, and Mary Hooper's stories were all okay, although I wasn't big on Hooper's since it was historical fiction.  If you're a fan of one of these authors, it's probably worth picking up this anthology.  Only two stories were real duds for me, which is a good rate for a short story collection.  I think readers will appreciate the range of perspectives and experiences explored in LOSING IT.

Review: Break These Rules

35 YA Authors on Speaking Up, Standing Out, and Being Yourself
Edited by Luke Reynolds
Available now from Chicago Review Press
Review copy

First off, this title is slightly misleading: it's a mix of young adult and middle grade authors writing about breaking rules.  I'd name and link to all of the authors, but last time I did that I decided the effort wasn't worth it.  Second off, most of the authors are worth looking up.

Each author focuses on a different rule, which titles their essay.  Therefore, a quick scan of the table of contents is probably enough to help you decide whether this collection is for you.  I quite enjoyed it, and thought that much of the advice wasn't quite what I expected.  I liked Wendy Mass advising people to be bored sometimes.  (She's not the only one.)  I groaned when I saw the title "Follow the Money, Not Your Heart" (Lisa Schroeder) since I currently am in a position where I really wish I had followed the money, but the advice tends more towards balance.  There are times to follow your heart and times to follow the money.  (Too bad figuring out which is which is hard!)

There's a nice mix of well-known names (A.S. King, Matthew Quick, Carl Deuker) and more obscure authors (Sayantani Dasgupta, Natalie Dias Lorenzi, Anna Staniszewski).  There were enough familiar names to draw me in, and enough unfamiliar ones that sounded like they wrote cool stuff that I have plenty of new books to track down and read.

BREAK THESE RULES is unlikely to be a revelatory experience for adults, or even for the teens its aimed at.  But it's less pat that you might expect.  Some advice is pretty common - speak up or not having to look like a model.  Other advice is something a young person might not hear much, like it's okay not to go to college.  Others were unexpected, like Sara Zarr advocating talking about religion with people.

And, of course, the many authors in the anthology note that some rules are worth following.  (I don't  know about you, but I'll stick to driving the right way down the road and not touching the power line with bare hands.)  But in the end, we all break rules.  What rules have you broken lately?

Review: Extremities

Tales of Death, Murder, and Revenge
By David Lubar
Illustrated by Jim Kay
Available now from Tor Teen (Macmillan)
Review copy

David Lubar is known for his humorous books for young readers, which bear little resemblance to this collection of thirteen deliciously dark tales.  Seven of them have been published previously, but six are all new.

I have to give major props to Jim Kay.  One of his illustrations appears before each story and sets the mood.  Some of them are on par with the nightmare fuel from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series.  The "Whoodoo" illustration is particularly hard to forget.

This is one of the better short story collections I've read.  It's very cohesive - all the stories are about the same length, all are horror - and the quality is consistent.  It's hard to pick a favorite story, but mine might be "Feelings," which went right where I expected and then kept going.  The irony in both "Split Decision" and "Apparent Motive" is delicious, and I particularly like that the former revolves around a bad pun.  "Morph" is less horrific and more hopeful than most of the others, but it's got a nice bit of action.

I can see lots of kids eagerly devouring this collection.  It will likely be recommended more for teens and older readers, but the ones who will enjoy it the most are probably the elementary-school kids who will find it slightly illicit and perfect for creeping friends out at camp.

I do not recommend EXTREMITIES to fans of David Lubar who aren't into horror.  This is not an anthology that subverts the genre in anyway.  But for those who do enjoy horror, it's a great choice.  Just delightfully perverse and nasty.

Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories

By Nathan Englander
Available now from Knopf in hardcover and Vintage in paperback (Random House)
Review copy

I have a friend who is crazy about Nathan Englander's short stories.  WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK is his first collection since his debut FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES in 1999, but he's already considered a master of the form, a peer of Raymond Carver.  No wonder the eponymous story references Carver's famous "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love."

I'm not sure it was the best choice to lead the collection, no matter how wonderful the title.  It's the story of two couples, the wives best friends in school now reunited for the first time.  One lives in Israel, now converted to Hasidic Judaism with her husband.  The other is more secular and lives with her husband, the narrator, in Florida.  Yet for all the story pushes their differences, there's a sameness to the characters.  It lacks the punch of the better stories in the collection.

My two favorites are "Sister Hills" and "Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother's Side."  "Sister Hills" is a series of snapshots from 1973 to 2011 of two hills not far outside of Jerusalem and the families who live on them.  There's tension between the colonizing Israelis and the Arabs, but the biggest bitterness comes from within the community, building to a funnily nasty conclusion.  And it's all held together by the intense portrait of Rena.  The story did briefly lose me in a scene showcasing truly devilish wit on Rena's part that delved too deeply into Jewish law and tradition for me to follow.

"Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother's Side" is a brilliant, clever title and the story lives up to it.  I liked how it moved from a very broad opening to sharp focus, vignettes moving back and forth in time.  Even when broad, the understanding of human nature is keen.  "The wife faces the husband, and the point she argues is so large, it's as if the wife believes traffic will stop for it when the light changes, as if, should the cars roll on, it's worth being run down to see the point made (115, ARC)."  But it's even tighter when it moves into focus and examines family stories, and how they develop and how two cousins might tell the same family story completely differently.  It's a very personal look at the past and how much it can mean once you know it, even if it is subjective.  I was slightly bothered by the meta in the story, the narrator being a writer named Nathan.  I'm not sure the flourish added to the tale.

I quite liked "Peep Show," "The Reader," and "Camp Sundown," but they were more uneven reads.  "Peep Show" forgoes realism for a dreamlike logic that's compelling once you go with it.  "The Reader" has a couple of nice shifts in tone.  As for "Camp Sundown," I really enjoyed the beginning but the story lost me about half to three quarters of the way through.  It was darkly comic, but then the strings showed too much - I had to roll my eyes at some of the reversed symbolism.

I think Englander is an exciting writer and can see why my friend is so enamored.  He has smooth, readable prose and his stories are nicely observed with a bit of humor to alleviate their darkness.  But I found him thematically repetitive and some of the questions he asks just don't resonate with me.  There is much discussion of what it means to be Jewish, and I found some of the stories to be strangely contradictory.  For me, this is more of a borrow-from-the-library than buy book.

Review: Who Done It?

Edited by Jon Scieszka
Stories by J.R. and Kate Angelella, Mac Barnett, Jennifer Belle, Judy Blundell, Elizabeth Braswell, Libba Bray, Steven Brezenoff, Elise Broach, Peter Brown, Jen Calonita, Patrick Carman, Susane Colasanti, Elizabeth Craft, Melissa de la Cruz, Julia DeVilliers and Paige Pooler, Larry Doyle, Sarah Beth Durst, Dave Eggers, Daniel Ehrenhaft, Elizabeth Eulberg, Helen Fitzgerald, Gayle Forman, Aimee Friedman, Margaux Froley, Claudia Gabel, Michelle Gagnon, Adam Gidwitz, Anna Godbersen, John Green, Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown, Lev Grossman, Janet Gurtler, F. Bowman Hastie III and Tillamook Cheddar, Geoff Herbach, Joanna Hershon, Mandy Hubbard, Emily Jenkins, Maureen Johnson, Lindsey Kelk, Jo Knowles, Gordon Korman, David Levithan, Sarah Darer Littman, Barry Lyga, Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes, Leslie Margolis, Julia Mayer, Barnabas Miller, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Sarah Mlynowski and Courtney Sheinmel, Lauren Myracle, Greg Neri, Jen Nielsen and Lisa Sandell, Michael Northrop, Lauren Oliver, David Ostow, Micol Ostow, Ali Pace, Joy Preble, Margo Rabb, Marie Rutkoski, Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg, Kieran Scott (occasionally Kate Brian), Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Sara Shepard, Jennifer E. Smith, Lemony Snicket, Jordan Sonnenblick, Natalie Standiford, Rebecca Stead, Todd Strasser, Heather Terrell, Ned Vizzini, Adrienne Maria Vrettos, Melissa Walker, Robin Wasserman, Lynn Weingarten, Kiersten White, Mo Willems, Rita Williams-Garcia, Maryrose Wood, Jennifer Ziegler, and Michelle Zink
Available now from Soho Teen (Soho Press)
Review copy
20% of sales benefit 826NYC

WHO DONE IT? is a hilarious anthology of murder most foul.   Odious, pickle-loving editor Herman Mildew has been murdered and the suspects most offer their alibis.  And the suspects are a veritable who's who of young adult and children's literature - these people know how to write an alibi.  Some will throw others under the bus, some will protest that they liked Mildew, but one of them is guilty.

My personal favorite were the entries wherein authors outlined their plans for murdering Mildew and expressed regret that someone else got their first.  But although many of the alibis followed predictable patterns, there was a great deal of variety.  And I don't just mean the fact that many alibis were illustrated or told in comic form.  Each entry has a strong, unique voice.  I read all of the alibis in one sitting and didn't get bored.

I recommend WHO DONE IT? to fans of humorous and light mysteries.  If you like just one of the many, many authors who contributed, the anthology is worth it.  Best of all, WHO DONE IT? supports 826NYC, a nonprofit organization begun by contributor Dave Eggers that helps students develop their writing skills.  It not only supports the program monetarily, but - as readers will find out - demonstrates how the program works.

In the end, I was disappointed by Soho Teen's first title (WHAT WE SAW AT NIGHT), but WHO DONE IT? is delightful from beginning to end.  I've still got high hopes for this imprint of young adult crime/thriller/mystery fiction.

Review: Tenth of December: Stories

By George Saunders (no website)
Available now from Random House
Review copy

George Saunders is widely regarded as one of the masters of the short story and his newest collection, TENTH OF DECEMBER, has be widely praised as some of his best and most accessible work.  I found it to be like most short story collections: some of the stories are great, some are good, some are meh.

Saunders does have style, though sometimes his style comes at the cost of the story.  His style is excellent for getting inside of his characters' heads and bringing each narrator to life.  And somehow, those his style is consistent, the narrators don't all sound the same.  TENTH OF DECEMBER's longest story, "The Semplica-Girl Diaries," was not included in the ARC.  It is, however, free to read at The New Yorker.

"The Semplica-Girl Diaries" is one of the weaker stories in the collection, but a good introduction the anthology's contents.  And why is it weaker?  Well, it's centered on a brilliant image.  One that's gruesome but funny, skewering materialism in a Three Stooges manner.  But it's structured in journal entries, and the epistolary form kills much of the momentum the story could have.

In my opinion, the best story in the collection is "Escape from Spiderhead," previously  collected in The Best American Short Stories 2011.  It's a futuristic tale of a man participating in an increasingly brutal lab experiment.  It's a chilling exploration of love and human empathy, or the lack of it.  It could be totally bleak, but the ending is strangely uplifting.

Some of the other stories I really enjoyed are "Exhortation," an odd little story that mocks corporate speak perfectly and "My Chivalric Fiasco," which combines strange theme parks, ye olde English, and an ill-timed affair.  I  would probably include "Victory Lap" in this list if the ending made more sense on a character level.

TENTH OF DECEMBER didn't persuade me to join the cult of George Saunders.  But it's at least worth checking out from your library in order to read the best stories. 

Review: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman

By Philip Pullman
Available now from Viking (Penguin)
Review copy
Don't forget to enter the giveaway and read the excerpt

I am a fairytale geek.  I am crazy about them and have been since I was a wee child.  I keep various anthologies on my shelf, including the complete Grimm, some Russian tales, and Jack Zipes' fantastic French fairy tale translations.  When I heard Philip Pullman was coming out with a collection, I knew I needed it.

FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM: A New English Version lives up to my expectations.  The selected tales cover both the extremely popular ("Cinderella") and the obscure ("The Stolen Pennies").  Thus reading the anthology straight through is a mix of rediscovering old favorites and being surprised by stories you don't really remember (or have never read before).  I will admit to skipping around rather than following Pullman's order, but I think FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM works either way.  And I was definitely keeping track of which stories would be best to read aloud to the niece and nephew.

Pullman doesn't pull back from the stories' gorier moments and doesn't cut earthier references, but he doesn't play them up either.  People might be thrown in barrels full of nails and rolled into the sea, but there's no visceral descriptions of violence.  The sexual references tend to be symbolic and nothing that will cause any kiddies to ask strange questions about the birds and the bees.  Basically, I think these retellings will work for kids and adults, which is fitting for fairytales.

I loved the brief notes at the end of each story.  He includes the attribution of the stories and rightfully adds to the Grimm brothers' praise of the talented Dorothea Viehmann.  It's nice to see her contribution extensively praised in a major collection.  Pullman explains in a few paragraphs why he chose to include certain episodes, or why he thought certain phrases were the best translation for the story.  I generally feel like he accomplished the goal he laid out in the Introduction: to tell these fairy tales with a focus on story.  The only time I was thrown out of a tale was when he used the phrase "weapon of mass destruction" which felt far too modern to me.

Fans of fairytales can safely flock to FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM.  Pullman is an incredible author who I usually think of as detailed and somewhat convoluted.  But in this collection he restrains himself and tells the fairytales in a concise manner, keeping his language simple instead of overwhelming these familiar stories with his distinctive voice.  But that isn't to say the tales are plain - Pullman has a knack for a memorable turn of phrase.

Basically, FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM is everything I'd hoped it would be.  It's difficult for me to be objective about fairytales, so I'd've been very disappointed if this collection wasn't any good.  And I think it's terrific.