A variation on Tam Lin set in the antebellum South (in the town mentioned but not visited in the first book). I loved the characters, and the replacement of fairies with hoodoo practitioners was thrilling. It took a little too long to get to the plot for my taste, but in defense of Nickerson her atmosphere-building makes it worth the wait. I love her use of time-period-appropriate words and conventions because I learn something and I feel like I'm really there. Her stories feel like magic.

This book is everything I dislike about literary fiction: it was disjointed and long-winded, its characters didn't speak like real people, huge personal growth was achieved through looking at a dead mother's letters, forgiveness was granted in seconds for no reason other than it was the final page of the story. The minor flaws dragged me out of a story: non sequiturs placed in double quotes that made no sense when attributed to any character in a room; a character waking up at 7am, having a brief conversation about flowers, and suddenly it is 10am and she has to rush to get ready for a funeral. It felt like Welty was trying too hard to give a portrayal of Southern life, which is awkward because she is Southern herself. It is, at the outside, a simple story about personal growth, but it is hard to find sympathy for a middle-forties protagonist growing up only after her husband and parents are both dead.

A marvelous, realistic (depending on your opinion of ghosts), Southern gothic retelling of Bluebeard. Can you even ask for anything more?

My moral misgivings over the publication of this book were fully and horrifyingly eclipsed by how actually terrible this book is. It is clear that Harper Lee never intended to have this published; it reads like a first draft she wrote while bored some winter evening and then decided it wasn't going anywhere and she should leave the story be. Scout is fully grown, bitchy and immature, Jem is dead (with one throwaway sentence to explain it), and half the book goes by before anything happens. The inciting incident is that Scout sees her boyfriend and her father being friends with a really racist guy, accuses them both of being racist, and then gets told why she is wrong about everything. Cannot, for the sake of Lee's good name, recommend this book to anyone.

A fascinating look into the life of a well-to-do woman growing up in Chicago and marrying at 19 and moving to New York City, and how her life revolves around fashion. It's heartfelt and insightful, if fluffy.

This goofy little book is about two boys who meet a strange, potentially alien man who helps them explore a distant planet in their homemade spaceship. It was weird to read the part where they get into space and make a note about being the first people in space -- the book was published 7 years before Yuri made it out there. Though I was saddened when the dad tells his son that it may be ten, twenty, or even fifty years before a new planet will be discovered that he can explore. It's been 64 years! We are really slacking on the planet-hopping front.

Charming.

Despite its deeply sad elements, Ichiro still feels so full of hope. It asks you to question war and peace and humanity and difference, with a backdrop of Japanese gods that feels so refreshing [I read a lot of things based on Greek myths]. Would highly recommend for teenagers.

Two kids find a magical tree in a park. I enjoyed the appearance of the Green Man.

I LOVE the premise of this. A guardian angel breaks the rules and reveals himself to save his charge's life, and thereby gets her turned into a vampire whose immortal soul is fading away? Count me in!

Unfortunately, Miranda is such a weak character and Zachary so moony-eyed that the middle of the book sags under its own weight.

I liked the ending a lot; it was predictable but done powerfully.