To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Imagine if everybody you ever crushed on suddenly learned about your feelings. That's what happens to Lara Jean in To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han.

Lara Jean has never had a boyfriend. Instead, she has a habit of crushing madly on a boy, suffering in silence, and then writing him a letter to get over him, hiding it away in an old hatbox. She thinks her secrets are safe, but one day, the letters somehow get sent out, and all the boys she's ever had unrequited feelings for discover them. Unfortunately, one of them is her older sister's recent ex and their next-door neighbor, Josh.

Frantic to convince him that she doesn't feel that way anymore (even though she kinda does), Lara Jean enlists the help of one of her other crushes, one she's totally over. Peter just broke up with his own girlfriend and wants to make her jealous. With the agreement that their relationship is just for show, Peter and Lara Jean make a production of holding hands, snuggling, and smooching where everyone can see them.

But then Lara Jean actually starts having feelings for Peter. What if he doesn't feel the same way?

Worse yet: what if he does?

Book Review: Yay Classics!

The amazing thing about classics is how they manage to survive decade to decade. Seriously, how many things that were popular 10 years ago are still popular? (Not like One Direction popular but still being read regularly.) Barely anything. And some classic books are decades or centuries old! How great must a book be if it can still be so great years and thousands of other books later that you read it and love it? I also have the benefit of being an old fart so some classics I was lucky enough to have read when I was young, before they became classics. So, I'm going review some classics. And because this month is LGBT History Month, I'm going to give you some great LGBT classic books.

Small Book

Here is a quick read that is both mysterious and curious and it does not resolving every problem it presents.  Anna's father wants to shelter and protect her so she lives a quiet life on an island.  Along comes problems that interrupt this quiet life.  Soon there is  treachery and deceit and the discovery of a body washed up on the beach.

Wild Song by Jane Eagland is a short book and it does not have a clear ending. You might have to imagine on your own how a couple of issues play out.  No sign of a sequel.  There is another book by Eagland titled Wildthorn and although they share the word Wild they are not related except that they are both about the adventures of a young girl.

If you or someone you know has little time, read these small books. 

Don't think or judge. Just Listen.

Annabel Greene begins her Junior year of high school ostracized by her peers and hated by her friends. She is haunted by the unthinkable events of a party that took place at the beginning of the summer, which she has kept secret from friends and family. This is one secret among many that she keeps from the world. She also suffers silently from the pressure from her mother and her fear for her oldest sister's health. In a time when she needs a friend more than ever, she meets Owen Armstrong, a music-obsessed classmate with anger management issues who is as ignored by the rest of the school as she is. In a "right place, right time" situation, he instantly goes from someone she watches from a distance to her only friend, saving her from lunch hours spent in isolation and teaching her the value of speaking up and making herself heard.

Just Listen is a story which induces both laughter and tears, and is highly recommended for anyone who has ever feared voicing their own feelings. Sarah Dessen is also the author of other popular young adult books such as The Truth About Forever, This Lullaby, and Lock & Key.

-Micheala

Magic and the Mafia

 White Cat, by Holly Black, is part mystery, part dark urban fantasy, part twisted romance, and part mob story.  I hope you like your fiction dark and bruised, because this story doesn't pull any punches.  It takes place in a world very much like our own, except everyone has to wear gloves to protect themselves from curses.  And our dubious "hero," Cassel Sharpe, knows a little more about working curses than your average Joe.

Cassel wakes up on the roof of his fancy high school dorm and nearly falls to his death. He's been sleepwalking again, and now the school is threatening to expel him as too much of a liability.  Was he really sleepwalking, or was he cursed? He dreamed of following a white cat....

Cassel is the only nonworker in a family of curse workers.  Since curse working was outlawed in the 1920s, most curse workers are employed by the mob.  At first, Cassel thinks he's only got to con his school into letting him back in.  Then he begins to think that the dream about the white cat might be related to the girl he loved when he was fourteen; the girl he killed. At least, that's what his two brothers told him after they dumped the body.  Cassel doesn't remember why he killed her, only that he was standing over her bloody body.  Now Cassel thinks his brothers are hiding something from him, something important.  To learn the horrible truth, he'll have to find the white cat from his dream. But the truth is a dangerous thing when the mob is involved, and Cassel finds himself caught between murder and treachery in the underbelly of curse worker society.

If you like White Cat, the curse workers series continues with Red Glove and Black Heart.

Happy reading.
~gothbrarian

Comics by Girls for Girls

Let's just take a moment to celebrate some of the comics written by women, shall we?  They're awesome and deserve some recognition.  (Hooray for fully-fledged characters in realistically propotioned bodies!)  Some of my favorite graphic novels are:

The Plain Janes and Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci.  When Jane moves to suburbia, she decides to not make friends with the popular girls and instead befriends the Janes.  They soon call themselves the P.L.A.I.N. Janes and set out to make guerrilla art throughout their town.  In the sequel, Janes in Love, the Janes fall in love.  But nothing ever goes smoothly in the course of true love. 

Mercury by Hope Larson.  Josey lives in Nova Scotia in 1859.  Tara lives in Nova Scotia today.  These two girls' stories are intertwined by magic, betrayal, buried treasure, and first loves.  As much as I want to tell you more, I don't want to give anything away, either. 

Token by Alisa Kwitney and Joelle Jones.  Her dad's in love with his secretary with no time for her and high school sucks, so Shira starts shoplifting.  When she gets caught by a Spanish boy, they become friends and then more.  The art here is fun - I love the facial expressions on Shira's grandma and her best friend Minerva. 

Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki.  Emi is facing the most boring summer of her teen life until she goes to the Freak Show, an underground performance art venue.  Emi falls in love with the idea of performing, but there's just one problem: she doesn't have a talent.  Wanting to be famous, she steals something she shouldn't.  And then things get weird.  Well, weirder.

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks.  Maggie's starting high school after being homeschooled.  She's nervous, but she has her big brothers to watch out for her.  And a ghost that follows her.  Not everything is spelled out in this graphic novel, so take your time, enjoy the art, and don't be afraid to reread it. 

Pick one up and check it out! 

~ Book Ninja