Alphabet Challenge Round 1

I have completed the first two letters of my alphabet challenge: G & M.

G is The Great Fables Crossover. The Fables series is a comic/graphic novel where the Fables have been kicked out of the homeland by the Adversary and are living in either modern Manhattan or upstate New York. Prince Charming is a thrice married and divorced womanizer, the Big Bad Wolf is reformed and serving as Sheriff, the Billy Goats Gruff troll is building security, the Frog Prince is the janitor, Pinocchio is still a real boy and can’t mature past that, etc.

Jack of the tales has misbehaved one too many times and was finally kicked out of Fabletown only to star in his own spin-off. When the events of the Jack series threaten Fabletown and the rest of the world, the two must reunite to try and stop the world from being rewritten. It’s pretty far into the series so I can’t give away too much but it has the same humor, wit, and human drama that I’ve come to love about this series. It has the human drama of the Fables and the same wit and humor of a Jack novel.

M was Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. A woman with a Mennonite upbringing lives in the modern world only to be dumped by her bipolar husband for another man. While she convalesces through this and a major accident, she returns to her family.

While she reconnected more with her Mennonite heritage, she never totally left it. Throughout the book, we see evidence that Rhoda never totally forgets where she came from. The title made me feel like SATC came home to roost which wasn’t the case at all. I also didn’t get the Mennonite background until the very end of the book, about a couple hundred pages after I needed it. Without it, you can’t be properly impressed by Rhoda’s journey into the typical. I’m still not.

This memoir also rambled. It felt very directionless. Julie and Julia had a central theme tying the memoir together. This didn’t seem to have that unity. That feeling was exacerbated by the constant flip-flops between past and present. We would be on a road trip with Rhoda and her parents and suddenly we’re in the early years of her marriage. This memoir wasn’t sure where or when it was going. Mennonite in a LBD wasn’t bad, it was just meh.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
H
I
J
K
L
M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Current Music: Misguided Ghosts - Paramore