I know in Australia, this was published before [b:Wildlife|22907574|Wildlife|Fiona Wood|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407833520s/22907574.jpg|18984490], where as in the USA it was the opposite. It was kind of weird reading them in this order because I spent the whole time like

Spoiler

FRED YOU GONNA DIE. (although he doesn't in this book? I guess he just does between books?

. Anyway, Wildlife was hands down one of my favorite books of last year, and this one... probably will not make my list this year? I really enjoyed it but for me it didn't quite have the depth or emotional force of Wildlife? BUT it does stand on its own as a perfectly charming coming of age novel, and I loved seeing Dan facing his problems and owning up to his faults. And of course, I loved seeing more of Lou!

I think both these books are great for teens (and adults) looking for funny, realistic, contemporary fiction full of ~feelings~. Could you put it on a John Green readalike list? Sure you could. (I know, I know, we librarians are all sick of things being compared to John Green, but that doesn't stop patrons from asking me for John Green readalikes on the daily.)

God knows I know what it's like to have ~problematic favorites~, and of course if you're interested enough to write a biography of someone, you probably like that person. But this book, I felt, walked an interesting line between acknowledging Ian Fleming's grossness and kind of wanting to excuse it? Like he talks more than I expected about the racism in the Bond novels, but then kind of argues that Fleming is LESS racist against black people than he is against Asian people, because of all the time he spent in Jamaica? Okay... like... maybe? But those books are still hella racist. (Props to Parker though for including an excerpt from a contemporary review from the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner that called Live and Let Die patronizing toward Jamaicans. Yeah! It was!)

He also talks a lot about how both Fleming and Bond were concerned with Britain's fading Empire, which, yes, they were. It comes across a little like Parker has also bought into the mythos of how things were simpler in Jamaica under colonial rule? EHHH but it is a biography of Ian Fleming and not postcolonial history? But it is a little bit of both, really.

Anyway, I did enjoy reading this, especially for finding out how much stuff from Fleming's personal life was put into the Bond novels, and also for the hot goss. (In Jamaica, Ian Fleming's neighbor was Noel Coward, and he asked Noel to play Dr No in the movie, and apparently Noel telegraphed back "No... no... no... no! Love, Noel." hahaha so good!) I also loved how much Ian's wife hated James Bond.

There's a lot of great research in here. The prose can be a little dry at times, but overall there are enough interesting stories to keep it moving along. I would really only recommend this if you are very interested in James Bond, which is like... probably what you would assume from the title.

Oh my god, this was so delightfully twee. Like... Amelie times Lemony Snicket. Bandette! You are so charming! I shall die from your charm! Alas!

I'm not super sure how to pitch this to teens/tweens? IDK like... if you would like a relentlessly positive Lemony Snicket book, try this? ...

in a word: flawless.

OK when I picked this up I didn't really realize it was zombies?? I am nottt a big zombie fan. To be honest whenever I think about these kinds of zombie apocalypse scenarios mostly all I can think of is, "I think if this ever happens, I'll just kill myself," and I spend the whole book having low-grade suicidal ideations. This was no exception, really. Kudos to all these characters for facing the zombie apocalypse in their own human ways.

Anyway, I still enjoyed it--very fast-paced and interesting, not too much gross gore stuff (I had to skip a long description of cat-eating tho), and I loved the ending.

We have this shelved in adult but I think it would definitely have appeal to teen zombie lovers, and it's nothing too scandalous to recommend to them in good conscience. Certainly less graphic than the Walking Dead, etc (which we also have shelved in adult but which teens looove).

This is a powerful book and one that is--and should be--hard to read. There are a lot of graphic, detailed descriptions of rape in this. Which isn't surprising, given the subject matter, but just, you know, heads up. I had to stop reading it before bedtime and move it to daylight hours only reading.

Anyway. Jon Krakauer is fantastic at spinning nonfiction narrative out of exhaustive research, and this is no exception. He's done a great job at connecting all the disparate threads of rape in Missoula (campus police, academic deans, local police, DOJ, victims, rapists, etc etc etc) into both a big-picture story for Missoula and also a microcosm for rape culture on college campuses and towns across the US.

Krakauer admits up front that he was shocked to hear a friend had been raped and has been embarrassed to realize how much he didn't know about rape culture. So, some of the things that are shocking to Krakauer are things that I (and let's be real, most women with internet connections) were already aware of? But his research and narrative arc here are still compelling, and honestly, I think it's great that an Important White Man has written a book like this. I hope men will read it.

Oh boy I just did not really care about this at all.

This was pretty fun, although it definitely strained my limited patience for time-travel hijinx.

Still: President Dazzler! Also, reading this retroactively made some other X-books make a little more sense to me, so, hurrah.

TBH this was probably more like a 3-star book with a negative 10-star epilogue.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-25-true-believer/

This was a really fun, light read. I read all the teen Princess Diaries books in grad school for stress relief, so it was nice to revisit Mia and all her friends. (And I think it totally does make sense for Mia to still be friends with her HS friends, since, as Mia explains, they were the ones who were friends with her before her princess status was ~revealed~). Adult Mia's personality is very similar to high school Mia, which in some ways is charming but in some ways is like... you're 26 and in line to the throne, maybe grow up a little bit??? EHHHH

I also liked how this crossed over with [b:From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess|22718809|From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess (From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess, #1)|Meg Cabot|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412881103s/22718809.jpg|41355523]. (Although I still contend that there is something weird about Genovia's rivalry with Opressive Middle Eastern Qalif that I cannot quite articulate.)

For me this was borderline between 3 and 4 stars but I ultimately rounded up because Fat Louie lives. #CatLadyReviews Ultimately if you only read ONE fictional royal wedding this summer... I'd have to recommend [b:The Royal We|22875451|The Royal We|Heather Cocks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421107274s/22875451.jpg|42439906] instead. Still! This is a lot of fun, especially if you have fond residual memories of Princess Mia. Also it was the perfect light read I needed after [b:Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town|24911006|Missoula Rape and the Justice System in a College Town|Jon Krakauer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423787030s/24911006.jpg|44518635].