A Fan's Playground

A middle grade novel about Squirrel Girl, sequel to The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World. These novels act as kind of prequels to the comics about Squirrel Girl. This is another fun, charming book like the last one, which again I don't love as much as the comics but I still enjoyed.

This one is about a new mall being built in Doreen's neighbourhood which seems kinda suspiciously tied to Hydra maybe, and also about the importance of speaking up for your emotional needs in your friendships.

The main plot I could take or leave, but I am Very Invested in Doreen and Ana Sofia's friendship, and rather sad about the apparent evidence in the comics from the complete lack of mention of Ana Sofia anywhere that their friendship eventually ends!! (I mean obviously in the comics I am ALL FOR Doreen's current circle of friends and most especially Nancy whom I adore, but what happens to Ana Sofia????)

One other feature of this novel is that it's in part about Doreen's attempts to learn the skills for talking down villains instead of fighting them, which is cool since that's something she does a lot of in the comics, but it was kind of odd that after Doreen started reading books about conflict resolution she got worse at it - I think the point of this in the narrative was mostly just to make jokes but it kind of came across like this book is saying that it's not a skill that can be taught? Which is lies, it totally is!

A middle-grade novel. I don't love it as much as the Ryan North Squirrel Girl comic series but it's still pretty charming.

( Read more... )

Why hello there book obviously inspired by the French Revolution. A good book! It's a sequel to Princess Academy, which I absolutely adored, and though I didn't love this book quite as much, it is still good-hearted and generally thoughtful, which is nice.

( two quibbles )

I AM BACKKKK! Well actually I returned late sunday night but then I was exhausted and also I have work and also catching up on the real life things I wasn't doing while on vacation, so. I am still exhausted but I am at least nominally kind of here! AND I COME WITH LOTS OF BOOKS.

Look, my vacation was CANOE TRIPPING, which when you do it right (which obvs I do) leaves you lots of time to hang out in the beautiful wilderness with a book. So. I read NINE BOOKS while on vacation! Plus I had a couple I didn't post about from before the trip. Plus I read a book yesterday. So. Let's go!

( Wired Love: a Romance of Dots and Dashes, by Ella Cheever Thayer )

( Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril & Romance, by Marthe Jocelyn )

( Monks-Hood, by Ellis Peters )

( Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald )

( The Confession of Brother Haluin, by Ellis Peters )

( The Android's Dream, by John Scalzi )

( The Wisdom of Father Brown, by GK Chesterton )

( Psmith, Journalist, by PG Wodehouse )

( A Matter of Oaths, by Helen S Wright )

( Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy L Sayers )

( Strong Poison, by Dorothy L Sayers )

( Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale )

( Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L Sayers )

( Poor Yorick, by Ryan North, William Shakespeare, and YOU )