Crush Stuff (Girl Stuff 2)

The second in the Girl Stuff series came out today and I read most of it before work. 

This one is definitely more about action and less about characterization. 

Fonda decides she hates the idea of the 7th grade overnight to a farm, so thanks to her feminist prof mom, she ends up going to the principal to try to change the trip to a better location. The problem is that popular boy Henry and popular girl Ava (I can't remember which one of the trio) are also in the office. They quickly agree with Fonda and she's thrilled...until each of them proposes a location they'd prefer. So Fonda's entire storyline is her campaigning for petition signatures and then making promises she can't keep. Her suggestion ends up winning, but the kids are disappointed when she can't follow through with what she promised. She gets lucky though, because they're so wowed with the place she chose that they forget she ever fucked up. But I can't think of a moment that was a real character-building thing for her. You already got the sense from the first book that she was a take charge type with the downside of being a bit of a social climber. She cares way too much what people think. 

Drew's plotline once again revolves around her crush on Will. Drew is a really interesting character. She doesn't give a fuck what people think of her unless she really cares about you, and she's a skateboarding female who wants to be a nurse. She's got the potential for such depth, yet she keeps getting stuck with the boy problems plot. Her problem this time is that Will suddenly has this female friend named Keelie. And Keelie is kind of an asshole. So poor Drew is left wondering if Will likes her or if Will likes Keelie. She spends most of the book dealing with this, though she also tries to help Fonda by tricking her and Henry into getting along. She thinks they'd be good friends. Henry sadly doesn't get much of a character. Hopefully Lisi works on that in future books. I'm hoping we see more growth from Drew now that she and Will are established as "in like" by the end of the book. I hated that such an individualistic character had an opening scene where she got intimidated by Keelie and then went ut a bought a hat exactly like hers. Drew needs to believe in her own awesomeness. 

Ruthie's whole story is that she wants a smartphone like all her friends have. She talks her parents into it and they agree...if she pays for it. She ends up taking a tutoring job for a rich boy that lives nearby. He helped her once before by buying her entire stock of Girl Scout cookies. Eventually she learns that he's just as smart as she is and he faked needing a tutor because he wanted to hang out with her. They've got the set-up for being crushes in later books. This boy's name is Owen and he ends up with more character depth than Henry. I think I may actually like him best of the younger boys. (My favorite male character is Drew's older brother Doug, who helps her with boy problems.) Owen has so many devices that he just gives Ruthie a phone and even adds her onto his friends and family plan. She ends up addicted to it, forgetting to experience the class trip, until the phone is knocked into the ocean on the ferry to the island where they'll spend two days. She's very upset and then Owen sets up "finding" her phone washed up on the beach, but she instantly realizes it's his own. She refuses the phone, saying it wasn't good for her. 

The book's high point for me was more development for Sage. She's Ruthie's friend from the gifted program and she's a total intellectual snob, though she's getting better at being nicer. She's blunt, no-nonsense, ruthless and somewhat cold. She agrees to help Fonda and throws herself into the project, though her methods aren't the most honest. What's best about her is that we learn her mother was a famous musician who died young in a car accident when Sage was only two. Not that that's a great incident of course, but it gives Sage's character a lot of depth. Perhaps even more than the main trio has. I loved the whole scene where she tells Fonda and Drew this. 

I enjoyed the book a lot, though I think it was weaker than the first one. I'm still definitely looking forward to the third though!

Toil & Trouble

 

I do love a good anthology. When I saw this suggested on Amazon, I had to try it and I liked it so much that midway through, I ordered 2 more anthologies by the same editor (historical fiction they both are). 

The tone of this is sort of YA and it's in the YA category on Amazon, but not all the protagonists are teens. 

Every story in here is good. I don't even think I can pick out a handful of favorites that stand out. I enjoyed them all in slightly varying degrees, but honestly only slightly. Usually I have no problem finding ones that were the best or ones I didn't like, but this anthology is definitely a winner from cover to cover. 

Witches of Brooklyn

I saw this graphic novel suggested to me a few times on Amazon and then when I was on vacation last year, an ARC copy was randomly in the little free library box in the gelato/chocolate shop I was in. I decided it was fate and took it with me. 

It's a really cute story with fun art. Effie is an 11-year-old orphan, who recently lost her mother and never knew her father. She goes to live with her (much older than her mother) aunt and her aunt's best friend. She goes to school, makes new friends, and then her powers awaken from being around so much magic and she's revealed to be a witch. 

I love all the details of being a witch in the real world. The author makes it sound completely believable and realistic. All the characters are likeable. It was just plain enjoyable from start to finish. 

So today, I received the second volume that just came out on Tuesday. 

In this one, Effie is introduced  to more New York witches and she deals with some friend drama. She has two best friends, one male, one female. Her female best friend doesn't return any of her calls over the holiday break and then turns up with a new girl on the first day back to school. I would definitely be pissed, as Effie was, though she directs it more at the new girl than at her friend. This drives most of the action of the book while the witches are also trying to solve a mystery. After things come to too big a head and Effie's friend is hurt, she and the new girl try to talk, only for them to each discover the other is a witch. This leads to them working together to solve the mystery and the new girl finding a place here in her new home. Effie and her friend finally talk things out, too, including the friend admitting she was horrible to not return Effie's phone calls. I was glad to see that finally handled, because I thought it was absolutely horrible that everyone kept telling Effie to be patient with her friend and this new girl when that friend had behaved really badly. That's not how you treat a friend! Come on. So at least they addressed that. I hate when characters get away with shit and it's never properly called out. 

This second volume is just as fun as the first, so I highly recommend both of these.

Cautionary Fables & Fairytales 4

This one was good, but I expected more of a variety. With the exception of a single story from Fiji, all the others are Hawaiian or Filipino. What about Samoa and Indonesia and all the other places? I'm thinking Australia, New Zealand, etc. will get their own volume, but still. I definitely was disappointed there weren't more locations represented. 

The two strongest stories for me were Hawaiian: one about the Night Marchers and the other about the rivalry between Poliahu (snow) and Pele (fire). 

It was enjoyable, but the Asian volume remains the strongest, followed by the African.

ESTHER FRIESNER PRINCESSES OF MYTH 2

 
I'm finalizing the book and doll arrangement for one of my historical fiction bookcases, so I'm working my way through some rereads (and a few first reads). I just finished My Story, so now I'm on to the Esther Friesner Princesses of Myth series. I tackled Helen of Troy months ago and then reread Sphinx's Princess here, but only just finished the sequel tonight. 

We know very, very little about the historical Nefertiti, so pretty much all of these two books is fiction. It was a fun read though. 

Sphinx's Princess begins with Nefertiti, who is very beautiful, leading her regular life. Her father is the brother of Pharaoh's Great Royal Wife, Tiye, and she sends for Nefertiti to become the wife to her son, Thutmose. 

Most of this series is palace intrigue. Nefertiti founds herself trapped in it. She and Thutmose don't really care for each other. Nefertiti's main friends are Henenu, the palace scribe who is a friend of her father's and became her writing instructor, and Nava, a young Hebrew (Habiru) slave. Nava's older sister saved Nefertiti from drowning but was killed for it by her master, so Nava ends up in Nefertiti's care. Eventually, Nefertiti and Sitamun, one of Amenhotep and Tiye's daughters, become friends. And then also Amenophis joins their little group. Amenophis is actually Amenhotep IV, who would become Akhenaten. 

The drama comes to a head near the end when Thutmose schemes to kill Nefertiti. She escapes with help from her friends.

Sphinx's Queen picks up with Amenophis, Nefertiti and Nava on the run. They're on their way to Thebes to get help from Amenhotep. So the first part of this book is adventure and rather fast-paced. The second half is right back into the land of palace intrigue. It drags on a bit too much. Amenophis and Nefertiti are in love, but Tiye still wants her to marry Thutmose, even though his multiple plans to kill Nefertiti have all failed. So Tiye schemes to keep everyone apart. Nefertiti eventually befriends Thutmose, though it isn't easy, and she, he and Amenophis end up as friends. Sadly, this doesn't last. Thutmose dies and it is only then that Tiye becomes human again. She wants Amenophis and Nefertiti to marry and even brings Nefertiti's family to finally see her after blocking their communication for ages. The book ends with Nefertiti and Amenophis happily married. Amenhotep is still alive, but Amenophis has plans for his eventual rule. There were hints throughout the book about the corruption of the priests and Nefertiti's constantly questioning religion. 

I enjoyed both of these and really loved the characters. Even Thutmose ends up decent, though the standouts to me are Sitamun, Amenophis, Nava, and Nefertiti herself. I do wish the plot had been a bit better in the second one though. I think they could have done more talking about Amenophis's plans and the corruption of the priests. Things that would have made it more clear that he planned major changes for Egypt. That would have been more interesting than endless palace intrigue. And it wouldn't have taken but a couple pages to make that improvement. 

Cautionary Fables & Fairytales 1-3

I learned about the Cautionary Fables & Fairytales series from a Facebook ad from Kickstarter. The current campaign is for their fifth volume, which is Native American stories. I looked up the first four books on Amazon and have ordered 3 of the 4. (I really want the 4th but it will have to wait until Friday.) 

These graphic novels are anthologies containing a series of stories written and drawn by different people. 

The first volume is tales from Africa. There are 15 stories over 203 pages, which is a good length for a $15 graphic novel. (Cheaper on Amazon.) 

My issue with this one is that I read the Asian volume first and loved how it told where each story came from. The third volume of stories from Europe does the same. But the African volume doesn't and it's disappointing. The only story that obviously has a location is the one from Egyptian myth. 

Still, the book is great. My favorites were "The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull," "Snake and Frog Never Play Together," and "The Lion's Whisker." 

I loved the art for the Egyptian myth, but they picked the one where Isis gains Ra's secret name by treachery, which has never been a favorite, because of all the gods, really only Seth is ever put in a negative light, while Isis in this story uses deceit to get what she wants and that's hardly ever talked about in a negative manner. Also, they gave Seth a snake's head and...a trident. Weird. But still, great book.

The second volume contains stories from Asia. I got this one last night so it was the one I read first and the other two pale in comparison. I think I would have felt the same had I read them in order.

This book has 21 stories in 283 pages. As I mentioned, they tell the stories' origin in the table of contents. There are 6 from Japan, 5 from China, 4 from India, and one each from Georgia, Laos, Myanmar, Turkey, Iraq, and Tibet. 

The standouts are "The Lucky Teapot," "The Demon with the Matted Hair," "Frog Skin," and "Ghost Pepper." My overall favorite was "After the Rain," which is simply beautiful and drawn well. It's the story from Myanmar and I tried tracking down it's origin to read the original and came up blank. I need to try again. 

All of the stories are wonderful in this one though. If you're interested in these, I highly suggest starting here. 

The third volume was sadly a disappointment. There are only 9 stories in 206 pages and you know most of them. Since there are only 9, I'll discuss them individually. 

"Jack and the Beanstalk" (England) was well done. The art is very cute.

"The Singing Bone" (Germany) was randomly about two rabbits and the art was not cute. 

"Puss in Boots" (Italy) I enjoyed a lot. Great art, nice twist.

"Tatterhood" (Norway) was one of my two favorites.

"Rapunzel" (Germany) was okay, but turned into more of a tragedy than I've seen it done in other retellings. 

"Kid Brother" (Russia) was pretty good. I'd never heard of it before and I liked the art. 

"The Nixie of the Mill Pond" (Germany) was also pretty good. 

"Bisclavret" (France) was my other favorite. Interesting werewolf story and I liked the art. 

"Hamelin's Piper" (Germany) was done in art only, no words. Decent but not stellar. 

This is easily the weakest of the three books and I hope the fourth and fifth volumes are more like the first two. I feel like they could have tried a lot harder to find less known tales. There are so many! 

Overall though, I highly recommend these. They're pretty affordable on Amazon. All less than their $15 cover price and even that is affordable.