#ComicsWednesday: Princeless Vol. 1 Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley & M. Goodwin

A princess, locked in a tower, guarded by a dragon, waiting for a prince to save her so she can marry him and they can live Happily Ever After. It's a familiar story, which is why it is such a delight when Princeless by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin turns the trope on its head.

Princess Adrienne is sick of waiting for a knight to come rescue her. In fact, she never wanted to be rescued in the first place. In an attempt to get their daughters married off, her father has locked up Adrienne and all of her sisters in different prisons around the land. Guarded by fearsome beasts and tricky riddles, this will make sure that they are only rescued by someone strong enough to rule.

After berating a knight who attempts to rescue her, Adrienne finds a sword hidden in her tower. She decides to make an escape, and flies off on Sparky, the dragon who guarded her tower. Adrienne sets off to rescue her sisters on her own.

Adrienne has a few misadventures before she gets to her sisters, and she picks up help along the way. When she needs armor, she runs into Bedelia Smith, a half-dwarf blacksmith. (Their
hilarious discussion about the practicality of armor for women has been distributed in geek circles for a few years now.) Once Adrienne's father finds out she is missing, and that the "knight" responsible probably killed her, he sends the most vicious bounty hunters in the kingdom after her.

Princeless is a great all-ages comic. It's perfect for parents and kids to read together. Adrienne and Bedelia are funny, and are great role models for young kids. It explores gender roles in a fun and accessible way that is sure to spark conversations about why there are "girl things" and "boy things." Most of all, you will cheer for Adrienne as she makes her way to each sister and finds out that nothing is as clear as it seems.

- Libby, Youth Services

Staff Review: My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

The publication of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels (a quartet) has been one of the biggest literary events of the century (granted, we're only sixteen years in, but still). To say Ferrante has gathered brilliant accolades, that she's garnered the wildest acclaim, would be an understatement. The publishing industry and the media have already inducted her into the literary pantheon. For this reason, and because the slim Europa paperbacks that embody her U.S. translations are so attractive, I finally took the plunge. At this point I'm two books in.

Ferrante herself is a mystery woman. No one knows who she is, what she looks like, or where she lives. This in itself, in an age of massive media attention to every big new thing, is remarkable and might reasonably be perceived as a sort of media blitz of its own (search "Elena Ferrante's identity" and you get over 100,000 results). Everyone is speculating, guessing, even claiming to have found her. If she remains elusive, it will be a marvel.

So, what do I think of the quartet halfway in? I'd have to say I like them, I dislike them, and I can't seem to put them down. Ferrante creates an exquisitely detailed world that spans decades and brings Naples to life politically and culturally. The story line follows the friendship of two Neapolitan girls born just after World War II. They're five or six as My Brilliant Friend begins and about twenty as the second novel, The Story of a New Name, concludes (they'll be going on seventy by the end of the series).

Elena and Lila were born in the same poor, violent neighborhood in Naples, where husbands beat wives, brothers beat sisters, parents beat kids, and the typical hissed threat is "Do that again and so help me God I will kill you." At that time in Italy, feminism wasn't a concept nor was divorce legal; the lives of many Italian women were bleak. Many men's lives weren't so great either.

Elena, the studious good girl, and Lila, the rebel, are both unusually bright but only Elena completes high school and even goes on to college. Over the years the girls' friendship waxes and wanes, sometimes breaking off tumultuously. Events play out within a large cast of neighborhood characters: family members, schoolmates, boyfriends, teachers, parents, shopkeepers, and the notorious Solara family, linked to the Camorra (Neapolitan organized crime), whose members control the neighborhood through loansharking, extortion, threats, beatings, and even murder.

It's not the novels' gritty setting with its violence and corruption that, at times, turns me off. It's the wildly unpredictable nature of Elena and Lila's friendship. At times Lila's a true-blue friend and at other times she behaves in unpredictable, despicable, and cruel ways. She hurts Elena again and again. Of course, it can certainly be said that she hurts herself more. Elena gets in a few licks too, at one point dumping a box of Lila's journals, painstakingly written over the years and entrusted to Elena's care, into the Arno River. Their breaches can make for tough reading. 

Reviewing this series in the Financial Times, the novelist Claire Messud wrote, "I end up thinking that the people who don't see Ferrante's genius are those who can't face her uncomfortable truths: that women's friendships are as much about hatred as love . . . ." I guess I can't -- or don't -- accept that particular "truth," but I also can't stop reading the novels; I'm just about to start book three, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. Ferrante has created a series that's powerfully compelling. And, in the end, maybe my love/hate relationship with it is fitting. After all, Lila and Elena love and hate each other for over sixty years. Maybe I'm just not Neapolitan enough to get it.

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz

A lot was riding on how I felt about How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz. Lutz is one of my favorite authors and wrote my favorite series ever, The Spellman Books, which follows a family of private investigators who investigate each other about as much as they investigate suspects. She wrote that series' final book, The Last Word, in 2013 and I was sad that it was all over. So sad, I actually wrote a sonnet.

Shall I compare thee to another series?

Thou art more beloved by me than most books.

Why this is so I have several theories

And forever in me you have your hooks.

Thou art far more witty and have more heart

Than so many books before you I've read.

You are wacky, wonderful, you are smart.

Reaching the end of you I do so dread.

Lisa Lutz, your author, is wise, 'tis true.

Relationships and family struggles,

Love, grief, regret, hilarity make you

Enthralling for some books full of Muggles.

You are dear to me, Spellman family.

Devoted to you, I will always be.

Clearly, I was broken-hearted. 

I knew Lutz hadn't retired from writing and that her new book would come out eventually, but I was so enamored with the Spellmans that I was nervous about reading it. What if the characters weren't as charming and real as the Spellmans? What if I didn't like it and all I would have left of my Lutz love were books I'd already read and no expectation of future happiness? (I can be very dramatic when it comes to my books.)

After reading the Spellman Books, I knew Lutz's voice very well and as I read the first page of How to Start a Fire, my fears disappeared. This story follows three women, Anna, Kate, and George, for twenty years, starting from their meeting in college. In the hands of another author, I might not have wanted to read this book. A tale of friendship that includes marriages, divorces, affairs, addictions, and a big secret that changes the characters' lives seems all too familiar, but Lutz's sharp, accurate, and darkly funny writing make Anna, Kate, and George stand out when they could have been boring stereotypes.

Look at these three snippets. A lesser author could have made these simple and dull, but Lutz's writing makes them crackle.

Anna understood the customs of these events: a polite question was asked, and a polite answer was provided. She also knew that honesty was often the most direct path to ending a conversation. 

"Do you have a name?" he asked."Doesn't everyone?" she said.
"I'm not asking for your phone number or even a last name. Just give me something to call you," he said.
"I'm Kate," Anna said.
She smiled at her little joke. Miles thought the smile was for him. She had done this before, given Kate's name. She did it because she was doing something Kate would never do.
"A pleasure meeting you, Kate."
"Is it?

"She's incapable of having a normal conversation. I asked if she had any brothers or sisters. She said, 'Yes.' That's all. I asked her what she did for fun. She said, 'Not work.' I asked her what she'd done before coming to Blackman and Blackman, and she said, 'Something completely different.' I even made the mistake of inquiring about the scar on her forehead. It's not like she tries to hide it or anything. Told me she got it in a prison knife fight. Sometimes her only response to a question is 'I don't plan to answer that.'"

The heart, wit, and realness of the characters in her previous books are present in her latest. I no longer have the Spellman family to follow, but because they were a part of Lutz's imagination and immense talent, I haven't really lost anything; I've gained the anticipation of anything she writes. After reading How to Start a Fire, I will no longer fear to read anything new by her.

~Aisha, Adult Services

The Spellman Books

Other books by Lisa Lutz

Heads You Lose, co-written with David Hayward

A brother and sister pot-growing team finds the headless corpse of the sister's ex-fiancé on their property and must figure out why and how to get rid of it. Repeatedly, because after they move the body, it shows up again. Lutz and Hayward agreed to write alternating chapters without discussing what they were working on and would not undo plot written by the other. At the end of each chapter are notes written from Lutz to Hayward and Hayward to Lutz. This adds even more humor and suspense to an already funny mystery.

How to Negotiate Everything written by David Spellman with Lisa Lutz and illustrated by Jamie Temairik

In Trail of the Spellmans, David Spellman writes a book for his younger sister, teaching her how to negotiate. This is the fully realized version of that book.