My quest of the moment is to find a young (say, under 28 years) protagonist who is effective without having to act like a man, i.e. kick someone’s ass. I’d like to read about a skill at something gentle, like lip reading. I know — how banal! And for today’s young readers, not sexy enough? I like what Ransom Riggs is doing with this motif. His Peculiars gain their strength by just being invisible or floating into the air. Even his England, though, winds up with guts flying. Is this an inevitable, though? Or can the not so badass mousy girls get in on the action, flat chests and all, because they’re smart and capable. Full stop.
I’m hoping my next read, this collection by Silvina Ocamp0, will cast its hero in a subtler light. I have read some descriptions that her tales tend to the ghost story as opposed to the ultra violent, and I’m crossing fingers that I won’t have to do a body count in the last chapter. But we’ll see. I miss Encyclopedia Brown!
Mariella Mehr — Poet, Memoirist, Acivisit, Survivor Not many Roma divulge their experience of the Holocaust. Unlike the many Jewish organizations which provide documentary evidence, . . .