100 Days of Cake is a book about a girl named Molly who suffers from depression. Her boyfriend broke up with her, and she had an episode at a swim meet that she doesn’t like to talk about. Since then, she gave up swimming and refuses to think about her future, college, or even getting her drivers license. The only things that keep her going are her job at Fishtopia and spending time with her coworker/crush Alex. They watch Golden Girls and eat lo mein, […]
“That is why this universe is impossible: because all the good things are impossible to keep. The universe always takes them away…”
This Cinderella story is super cute. It’s told from two perspectives: Danielle/Elle and Darien. Elle lives with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Darien starred in a teen soap and is about to take his first major movie role as Carmindor in a remake of the sci fi show Starfield. Elle and her father used to watch Starfield together, and he even created a convention for the show, ExcelsiCon. She is less than pleased that Darien was cast in the iconic role, and writes a fairly […]
Oldies But Goodies
The Fantastic and Forgotten, edited by Judika Illes (2016) – Usually when I review anthologies, I summarize individual stories and give an overall judgement, but this anthology is such a unique concept, I must discuss the entire anthology as a whole. First of all, I’d never heard of Weiser Books who published this anthology. They publish occult, esoteric, speculative, and New Age works. This collection, however, publishes stories of forgotten authors from the 1800s, mostly English, and includes such surprising (and not forgotten) authors such […]
Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.
This is a book about luck and love and sex and history and hate and imperialism, and, most of all, about playing the hand you’ve been dealt. Pachinko is a great big family saga. The main character, if there is one, is introduced fairly early on: Sunja, a teenager living with her mother who runs a boarding house in a fishing village in (what is now South) Korea, during Japanese occupation. A suave older man seduces her, one thing leads to the next, (this actually […]