Graphically speaking… This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, a Review

"Awago beach is this place… my family goes every summer… Ever since… like… forever."

And if you decide to breath in the summer air there too, with Rose and Windy, you'll experience a summer you won't soon forget…

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, is wonderful. It's cool breezes off the water, cottages by the beach and summer friends. It's the summer where Windy and Rose start to notice boys, their boobs, and how growing up isn't always easy…

Rose and Windy are summer friends. Every summer their families vacation at Awago beach, and they've been BFF's each summer since Rose was 5 years old. Windy is a year and a half younger, but close enough for Rose to enjoy what summer is all about with Windy.  This One Summer is a kind of coming-of-age story, where you can tell by the dialogue that the girls are starting to grow up, especially Rose. The girls notice things… they notice the Dude at the convenience store, they notice the way the older girls act (especially towards the boys), and they start to deal with some serious issues, one of which is Rose's parents constant fighting. But it's not all horror movies at night (Rose & Windy become obsessed with them), and swimming at the beach, Rose starts to react to the tensions around her, which also causes some momentary tension between her and Windy, but it all works out in the end. It's a perfect summer read, and the artwork is beautiful! Yes, this is a graphic novel! The drawings have a beautiful soft almost charcoal quality and the muted colors of black, white, grays, and almost purples make the scenes dreamy.

This story reminded me of those summers I spent with my girlfriends as a young girl. My summer BFF's. Where you had not a care in the world, you could share your most silliest secrets and every day was a new adventure. Want to recapture a bit of that? Read this book! Never read a graphic novel before? This would be a great first read! I loved this book! Rose and Windy are wonderful characters that you'll be happy you spent a bit of summer with! Memorable! And one of my favorite reads this year!

Three Souls by Janie Chang… A Review

What an amazing book Three Souls by Janie Chang is! It's heartbreaking and joyful, and will wrap itself around you and capture your heart. It's the Lovely Bones meets Amy Tan. This book is filled with family and friendship, romance & betrayal. The setting is China 1930's, Pre-WWII, with the Nationalists fighting the Communists, and the fear of Japan invading; and a time when women were treasured for their dowries, and their ability to have sons.

The story centers around the spirit of Leiyin, stuck in-between life and the afterlife due to some unknown actions she must atone for. She needs to figure out what she did and how to correct the situation to move on, but how?! Along to help, but they have no choice either because they are stuck right along with her, are her three souls; her yin soul, her yang soul, and her hun soul. All three souls have their own distinct personalities, which we hear quite often as they chime in during the retelling of Leiyin's story. Her yin soul is her romantic side, her yang soul is her stern, practical & "scholarly" side, and her hun soul is her wise side, and they flood her with the memories of her life to help her figure out what she must atone for. We are whisked back in time to her carefree days as a student, as a number 2 daughter, as a very young, impressionable, and privileged girl surrounded by her large family and the first encounter with the man who will ultimately be the cause for much of the pain through out her short lived life...The story doesn't stop there though, because in order to atone for her actions, she's going to have to make some "afterlife" altering decisions too!

My Thoughts… I loved the main character, Leiyin. She was precocious, spontaneous, and full of life in a time where women were suppose to tow the lines of tradition. She was spunky in her past life, but I also liked Leiyin as she "matures" in the afterlife, which you see while she reflects on her past actions. I absolutely loved that the past and present were equal partners in the story, and Janie Chang did a beautiful job of seamlessly going back and forth between the two. I loved the idea of the three souls, and I enjoyed that they had their say in past events and interacted with Leiyin in some very interesting ways. (which I won't go into any detail about because I don't want to spoil it for you!). Actually I loved everything about this book...

"The moment the priest spoke the last prayer and sealed my coffin, I awoke and floated upward in a slow drift of incense smoke, until I could travel no farther. I settled in the rafters of the small temple, a sleepy wraith perched in the roof beams. I had knowledge, but no memory…"

Three Souls is historical fiction,  rich with the sights, sounds, and traditions of 1930's China. It's a coming of age novel. It's a romance. It's thought provoking. It's a novel that took hold of me and did not let me go until the last page and then I just lingered in the moment for days…

My recommendation… READ IT! You'll have to wait until Feb. 25th though, that's when William Morrow releases it. You can pre-order the paperback of Three Souls or The Kindle Edition with these links.

I won this book in a LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway! I want to thank William Morrow , a division of Harper Collins, for the opportunity to read this special book with an advance readers copy!

*P.S. This book fulfills a book for The Chunkster Challenge 2014 (it's 468 pages) and a Square (and book) for the 2014 Book Bingo Reading Challenge (one new book).

Do You Have a little Chick in your Lit? or the Strong Female Protagonists We've Loved All Along...

Do you have a little Chick in your Lit?...

or the Strong Female Protagonists We've Loved All Along

Chick Lit...

"Chick Lit" refers to books featuring hip, stylist female protagonists. We usually follow their struggles with their love life and careers. Some excellent books that come to mind are Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding and Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner (BTW, if you haven’t read either of these books put them on your reading list!) ... But before the invention of “Chick lit” there were still some powerful chicks out there worth reading about! Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables who must overcome the loss of her parents and the start of a new life away from what was once called home. Francie Nolan of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn who blossoms out of the pavement just like the tree that grows in the tenements where she lives, Cassandra Mortmain of I Captured the Castle, who struggles to grow up and learn about life & Love in a decaying English castle. These coming of age books are timeless. And have always been a popular read. I Captured the Castle was recently reissued after being out of print for many years and is enjoying popularity among reading groups too. Relive your youth and read one of these classics. P. S. speaking of strong women-don't forget those March Sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy) of Little Women.

So, here's the start of a list of some timeless classics that star a girl with guts... what books can you add to the list?

*I Captured the Castle by Dodie Smith published 1948 ( author of The Hundred and One Dalmations)

*Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery published 1908

*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith published 1943

*Little Women by Louis May Alcott published 1868

*Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene, mystery series published starting 1930

*Trixie Belden by Julie Campbell, mystery series published starting 1948

*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte published 1847

*The Millenium Series by Stieg Larsson 1st in series published 2008

*Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen published 1813

*Sharon McCone Mysteries by Marcia Muller mysteries published starting 1977

*Thursday Next of the Jasper Fforde Novels starting in 2001

Julie of Reading Without Restraint commented to add Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden to the mix! Both are teenage girls with an amazing ability to solve a good mystery! Independent & fearless, both girls are good examples of strong female characters! Nancy Drew was written by various ghost writers under the name Carolyn Keene and began publishing in 1930, and Trixie Belden was written by Julie Campbell in the beginning, starting in 1948, and then by various ghost writers under the name Kathryn Kenny after Julie Campbell decided to stop writing the books. Thanks Julie for adding these great heroines!

BookishBarney (aka Ellie!) of Musings of a Bookshop Girl adds Jane Eyre to the list! She points out that Jane is calm & proper on the surface, but strong & passionate underneath. What a wonderful example of a woman who knows her own mind! Jane Eyre is one of my favorite classics and thanks Ellie for adding her to the list!

PaulGuy adds a contemporary girl to the list(but she's all class!)... Lisbeth Salander! Talk about strong women protagonists! She's definitely not chick lit, but I'm betting that she'll be a classic someday! Lisbeth stars in Stieg Larsson's (Girl with The Dragon Tattoo) "Millenium Series" and really shows us how to stick up for ourselves. Thanks Paul for adding one of my favorite women to the list!

Fantasylover12001 of A Fangirls View reminds us that Jane Austen really opened the door for chick lit, and strong women protagonists with Pride and Prejudice! How could we not add Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice! She had spunk and a mind of her own! She endures in our hearts because of her fierce independence and is what makes Pride and Prejudice a book club favorite almost 300 years after she lay pen to paper. Thanks Fantasylover12001 for adding Jane Austen and her novel Pride and Prejudice to our list!

Kathy of Bags, Books & Bon Jovi adds Sharon McCone and her mysteries penned by Marcia Muller to the list! Kathy points out that "In mystery circles, she (Sharon McCone) is credited as being the first female protagonist, and not just a secondary character to a male PI." Thanks Kathy for mentioning her! I have never read any of Marcia Muller and now I'm going to grab one of these Sharon McCone mysteries to see where it all started!

Stpand adds another contemporary girl who really has her feet firmly planted in the classics, Thursday Next! Thursday Next lives in a parallel world and is a literary detective. With all these wonderful literary "classic" characters living in her world, Thursday Next is a girl worth remembering! Thanks Stpand for adding her to the list!