I've been cleaning my offices and doing the annual sort of my bookshelves and it's pretty scary. I can't begin to tell you what a mess it is down there right now. I have made a good sized pile of books that are going out the door though, and that's always a relief. I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to books - we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 or so, and with more coming in the door everyday to be reviewed, I just can't hang on to them unless I really want to or need to. Alot of the YA review books go to a list of kids that I'm related to or are friends, and I try to mail those out once a month. But still...every year I'm stunned by what I find on those shelves. I just don't know what I am thinking sometimes when I decide to hang onto something that I know for sure I will never - ever - read again.

I'm working on an essay about Polar literature for the next issue of Eclectica. I have been in love with this small genre since my Polar Exploration & Lit class when I was in grad school. I'm writing about four fairly recent books for the essay (one is brand brand new) and also a couple of older titles that tie into the discussion. All of them are great and I'll talk about them more later, when I can relax about them and the essay is done.

I'm reading the second Lulu Dark book right now for review in a few months....if you like girl detectives you will enjoy this book. (It's due out in May.) The first one was a nice mix of very funny/definitely creepy and so far the sequel is even better. It's not just a diversion, if you know what I mean - it's an enjoyable romp. And lord, do I ever need a balance with all the frustrating politics in War in a Time of Peace.

Some good news from New Orleans - email from Ashley Nelson! She asked for my phone number and promised to call so I can do my interview. YEA!! I'm really looking forward to talking to her about her book and finding out about what happened to the people and places she wrote about.

Today was comic book day as my monthly order arrived. It all looks great but I read the anthology Sexy Chix (forgive the deplorable title) first and I'm so annoyed I almost want to throw it out the window. (Part of me just wants to ignore the whole thing as I like to just recommend books, not bash them - but I have to say something here. It's just too awful.) As an anthology of women cartoonists it seems to be stuck in the rut of women as victims. In almost all of the stories the women are tragically alone - they've been dumped, or widowed or abused, or posed to get an abortion in a post conservative Supreme Court era without even a friend to provide moral support. It's pathetic to the extreme and pisses me off like you would not believe. I foolishly expected to read a mixture of genres and styles - I bought the damn thing to support the endeavor, thinking this was a way to learn about some new writers that I might miss otherwise.

Well.

Pretty much all of you authors can consider yourselves happily passed up by me in the future if this is what you have to offer. I have a lot comics that are not super hero centric (at Bookslut alone I have championed Oni Press, G.T. Labs and Illusive Arts in the last few months). I don't need a guy in spandex in order to buy the story. But this is a really bad anthology - a weak and depressing and sad anthology. (And who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have an 8 year old comic "artist" in here? And why would you put her on the cover under the title "Sexy Chix" ?) What's good in this book doesn't even come close to outweighing what's bad. Dark Horse owes me $12.95 for this.

Seriously - somebody owes this comics fan her money back.

And on that note - I'm going to read some Batman and get this all out of my head!