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London’s Bloomsbury Group consisted of economists, historians, artists, and, of course, writers. Most modern attention focuses on brilliant Virginia Woolf, but her older sister Vanessa Bell, a painter, takes the narrator’s voice in this novel through journal entries and letters. The formation of the group was founded with the Cambridge friends of the Stephen brothers, but it was the self-educated Stephen sisters -- maternal Vanessa and witty but unstable Virginia -- that kept the lads coming back for conversation and intellectual sparring. This vibrant novel brings the group to life, including fictional letters from others such as art critic Roger Fry and romantic Lytton Strachey. Hard to put down, this novel will annoy Bloomsbury scholars, introduce new readers to a fractious yet loyal group of intellectual friends, and delight those who can’t help wishing to eavesdrop on fascinating conversations.

A thrilling 136-page novel in the recent genre of “bizarro fiction,” "I Knocked Up Satan’s Daughter" is much more than a provocative title and cute cover. It’s shorter than similar books and reads like a pitch or film treatment. You get characters, plot, scenes, and dialogue, but not a lot of fancy filler. It’s pretty basic writing, so I was thinking, “I could do this.” As I read on, I thought, “This is great!” And by the dénouement, I had to admit the genius that is Carlton Mellick III, which is like that of Jackson Pollock or Charles Bukowski. On the surface, it looks simple, but YOU CAN’T DO IT. That said, this particular novel is a satire of the romantic comedy, but it is also weirdly touching, with genuine comic pacing. I’m not a fast reader, and I prefer to sleep on a good novel, but this one had such inventiveness and breakneck speed that I read it all in an evening. Still, did the book itself live up to the cartoon cover and satirical title? Yes. Yes, it did. I’m Ellen Etc., and I approve this review.

Decent simple overview of VW's life and work. (I found only one glaring error -- the author referred to Quentin Bell, VW’s biographer, as her “brother-in-law,” when Quentin was her nephew. CLIVE Bell was her brother-in-law.) The author indulges in a bit of cleverness here and there that falls a bit flat, but overall, this was a fair and interesting introduction to the life and major works of this canonical 20th century author.

A wild child, CeAnne was brought up hard, and as the 1950s turned into the 1960s, she became reckless, promiscuous, dangerous, drug-addled, hungry for adventure and love, a compulsive liar. By turns fun, erotic, and vindictive, she became the fatal attraction for a number of men, to the detriment of seven children -- two of whom she bore in prison at the age of 18. Now imagine that you’re the best friend of this enigmatic, feral woman-child, because you’re the baby from her great love, your father, who is now dead in a foolish accident. Cori Crooks tells her story in this intense, scrapbook style memoir, reminiscent of Michele Tea’s "Rent Girl." The characters in "Sweet Charlotte’s Seventh Mistake" will continue to haunt you as you grasp how much damage one irresponsible woman can do to so many children, how much they will depend on the kindness of strangers, and how, eventually, one can make some peace with an unimaginable childhood.

Boy Novak is doomed from the start. Daughter of a capricious and brutal rat exterminator in New York City, she escapes in the late 1950s to marry Arturo Whitman, a widower with a charming little daughter, Snow. But when Boy and Arturo’s daughter Bird is born and dark family secrets come to light, Boy’s heart hardens against her step-daughter Snow. The novel illuminates the national divides in the first half of the 20th century, with resonances before and beyond, suggesting the many different Americas we may inhabit, depending on our backgrounds and the ability of previous generations to truthfully reveal our heritages. When a narrator’s “voice” becomes unrealistic for the character, read it as allegory -- the book is deliberately layered and fantastic. The novel also brings to mind the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau. "Missing mothers" and "family secrets," yes indeed, but I suggest the novel’s best benefit is like that of Jack London's working-class novel "Martin Eden," in that it shows the privileged how long the lingering effects of injustice and the corrosion of inequality continue to resonate.

I read this book when it first came out, and it has stuck with me all this time, in a "Naked Lunch" kind of way. Manic, depressing, but quite lovely writing, especially the hallucinatory scenes.

In this YA graphic novel, Kimberly Keiko Cameron, aka Skim, is an introspective 16-year-old caught up in her high school’s anti-suicide frenzy after a boy kills himself. She also has a mean best friend, Lisa, and a dangerous crush on an art teacher. The existential, unresolved ending was annoying, though; why end the story exactly there? Still, the diary format and wonderfully layered drawings combine beautifully to tell stories of high-school angst, the superficiality of popularity, and how relationships grow, change, break apart, and sometimes break our hearts.

Anais has been under state care in her home country (Scotland) for her entire life. She’s incorrigible and is charged with putting a Police Constable into a coma -- and given her bad attitude and street skills, she could have done it. Now 15, for the duration of the investigation Anais has been transferred to a state home for teenagers, the Panopticon, a facility built as a prison with open cells around a central watchtower. Who is watching these clients? Where did Anais come from, really? Reminding me of nothing so much as "The Death of Bunny Munro" by Nick Cave in its randomness, inevitability, and impact, "The Panopticon" is a novel of a wayward soul, self-medicating and resourceful, one with gritty determination to survive against hopeless odds.

Hajimi (“beginning”) is an only child born January 4, 1951. He meets (Miss) Shimamoto, a lame girl and another rare only child. They’re friends at age 12 but drift apart when Hajimi’s family moves. In high school, Hajimi has his first girlfriend, Izumi, but his betrayal of her with her cousin irrevocably breaks her heart. When Shimamoto reappears in Hajimi’s life, it threatens the quotidian happiness he has found in his marriage to Yukiko and being father to two young daughters. It is the story of a man who drifts, into trouble, into jobs, into success. He looks in the mirror and doesn’t know who he is, which makes him an enigma to those closest to him. But when caught in the throes of unconscious longing, he can again sacrifice everything and hurt those who love him in the pursuit of his own selfish passions. Shimamoto shares many characteristics with the Aomame of Murakami's 2011 novel "1Q84." I speculated that "1Q84" may reveal some of Shimamoto’s unexplained mysteries. Published in Japan in 1992 and in the US in 1999.

Cons: Poverty and wealth, hunger and feasting, cruelty, torture, revenge. How dangerous the world has been for children without the protection of a sponsor (especially girl orphans), where one can be the virtual slave of whomever feeds you … Pros: Orphans, Victorian grieving rituals, heartbroken parents, heartbroken children, witches and magicians, puppet shows and mausoleums! Sibling loyalty, companion dogs, magic and marionettes! A grand frozen enchanted estate, Tarot and The Tower, love, courage and will, evil and forgiveness, and children bound together as a fated family …

I had accepted the canard that Henry Darger drew his child warrior sisters, the Vivian Girls, with penises only because he didn’t know what girls looked like, but Jim Elledge presents a compelling (if speculative) argument of the gay/hermaphrodite figure at the turn of the century to be the inspiration for Henry’s little “fairy” and “queen” generals in his imaginary army of child liberators. Elledge incorporates the journal of another street boy living near the vice district in turn-of-the-century Chicago to reveal the extent of child abuse and assault, and the protective arrangements that could be made with generous sexual sponsors. Life on the street for an unsupervised child (think age seven) was dreadful, but Darger’s subsequent incarcerations in reform and mental institutions was much worse, with predators of all kinds, from nuns and teachers to fellow students, leaving orphans with no recourse whatsoever. What was a “lamb,” a “kid,” a “brat” to do in the dangerous world of predatory “wolves”? Some typos and usage errors mar the text, but the overall impact is significant, and this is a compelling biography for those interested in queer theory and outsider art. Rest in peace, Henry Darger -- a private artist and writer who lived in unrelieved poverty for his entire life, but whose artworks now sell for upwards of $200,000 each.

This book was a compelling, if conflicting, experience. I adored the main characters, loved the Aunties and all the school mates and the New Zealand cultural references such as the candy names and flipped seasons, but I wish there'd been a different plot arc, more than just the reveal of family secrets. I was sad that Frankie, our main character, was in some ways just a waystation friend for flamboyant Sydney, who was used to making friends and going deep incredibly fast, because she knew was likely to be leaving so incredibly soon. And I was truly appalled by Sydney's family situation. Even though the main characters were well-drawn and so likeable, I kept thinking at the end that many people should not have had children -- especially Sydney’s narcissistic mother -- partly because I could sadly imagine Sydney growing up to be someone very different than who she was at age 12.