14 Nights: Volume 1

by Kristina Stipetic, 128 pages

Scarred, unfulfilled Nikita finds a kindred spirit in his timid fellow health department drone, Lucian.  But their love story encounters a relatively sizable speed bump...one Nikita wagers he can break down in a mere two weeks.

For more information on the first volume of this surprisingly sharp, funny, and sweet graphic novel romance, please see my full review at NoFlyingNoTights.com!

a + e 4EVER

by I. Merey, 209 pages

Two young people on the social fringe struggle with identity, hormones, dysfunction, and acceptance in this touching, edgy tale of awkward adolescence and the confusing emotional and physical bonds of love and friendship.

Quiet Asher Machnik is teased for being such a pretty boy that he looks like a girl.  Brash Eulalie Mason, with her partly shaved head and numerous piercings, is in no danger of being called girly.  One day in the cafeteria, the two meet, find some common ground, and gradually develop a fragile friendship.  But just as big-talking Eulalie starts to figure out that what she feels for loner Asher is more than friendship, he's figuring out that boys are definitely not outside his interests, and the two must figure out where that leaves them and what they are to each other.

Merey's art is inky and free and fits her independent yet vulnerable characters well.  This is not a safe, cute, high school romance.  Sex, drugs, and club culture mix with everyday home life and simple pleasures like sitting around sketching and sharing music.  As these troubled kids stumble through change and its challenges, the reader laughs with them, fears for them, and roots for their happiness, whatever shape it ultimately takes.

Sex With the Queen

Sex With the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics
by Eleanor Herman
322 pages

The title pretty much says it all. This is a book  that goes behind the closed doors of the queens of Europe. It talks about Anne Boleyn, Catherine the Great, and some other lesser known queens and royalty.  It discusses how some queens took a lover looking for love, and how some queens accused of adultry (mainly Anne Boleyn) were actually innocent but other factions of court wanted to get rid of them.

This was a pretty interesting read, especially since it discussed queens that I had never learned of.  I'm obsessed with royal history so I found this book fascinating.

"My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands" By Chelsea Handler

213 pages

This book is exactly what it claims to be: a collection of essays about various one-night stands. I'd heard a lot about Chelsea Handler but never read anything she'd written or seen her show...and I wish I had stayed that way. I guess I expected that there would be some kind of revelation or meaning derived from all of the encounters described here, but I didn't get a sense of that at all. I did laugh a time or two at Chelsea's antics, but mostly I just shook my head. I feel like she's trying to prove that her lifestyle is empowering, but she just came off as obnoxious to me.

The Death of Sweet Mister

By: Daniel Woodrell, 196 pp

Wow! It is very difficult for me to describe this novel...It is very dark & harsh.

Daniel Woodrell again has this novel set in the Ozarks. He has no boundaries whatsoever. Meaning, it might be a bit offensive to some.

I do not suggest letting a kid or even a teen read this; even though it is in the point of view of a thirteen year old boy named Morris (Shuggie) Akins. Shuggie is also Glenda's Sweet Mister.

Shuggie lives with his mother, Glenda, and (when he is home) his father, Red, in a house in the middle of a cemetery that they take care of in order to live there rent free.

Drugs, alcohol, and abuse is practically all Shuggie knows. He has a strange obsession for his mother that at times is described in very disgusting details.

It is hard for me to say whether or not I liked this book. However, I could not put it down for wanting to find out the ending. Yet I found myself wanting to take the book back to the library before I had completely finished it because of some of the offensive writing.

The death of Sweet Mister may be quite different than you think. I will not say in case you want to read this book for yourself. I don't want to give it away.

A Feast of Snakes

by Harry Crews
p 177

This book club selection has already been accurately and descriptively blogged by KimF. Harry Crews is an acquired taste, much in the same genre as Carl Hiassen. Characters and a story so richly bizarre and twisted that you are either going to be repulsed or enthralled. I was the latter, and found the dark humor that lies beneath such a tragically common, yet strangely uncommon tale.
I must admit though, the ending threw me for a loop, and in some ways diminished what I had been laughing about (and at) through the first 2/3 of the book. Yet, I gotta admit I loved it and would recommend his book "Body" as another great train wreck!

Giving it a Rock and Chalk, only because many readers would find it totally inappropriate!
PS Kansas is looking to be ranked #1 after this weekend.......go hawks!

tomato red

by: Daniel Woodrell 169 pp.

Sammy, an ex-con just passing through towns, does not fit in with just anyone. He does find a couple of kids who will have him. Jamalee and her brother, Jason, find Sammy drunk and doped up and asleep in a huge mansion that he broke into the night before. Tomato Red is the color of Jamalee's hair and Sammy has a liking for her. This novel is placed in the Ozarks and the kids mentioned live in what's known as Venus Holler.
The story is in first person of Sammy. It is as if he is actually telling you the story as you read it. Some words may not be suitable for some, but without the vulgar words, it would not be Sammy telling the story.
They are planning a future for themselves, but the future changes; and all because of fate - bad fate. Remember, not all stories have a good ending, but it is a journey of day to day events.