The Rabbi’s Cat by Joann Sfar The rabbi, his daughter and their cat live in Algeria. In the first story, the cat, previously able to communicate only in the usual way of cats, eats the rabbi’s parrot and is magically able to talk. Now he wants his own bar mitzvah, and argues strongly in his own defense both to the rabbi and the rabbi’s rabbi. Doesn’t being a rabbi’s cat mean he’s Jewish? Doesn’t he know the Torah well from helping the rabbi study? Indeed he does. He offers sarcastic but pithy comments on Judaism and humans in general. The sharpness of his critique is offset by his absolute adoration of the rabbi’s beautiful daughter. The saturated, squiggly drawings are perfect for this story of cats, people, and religion that is both funny and slyly serious. And while the thinky-thoughts are there, the characters and exotic setting are also worth paying attention to. This is one that I’d been meaning to read since it first came out, and I am so glad I finally did.
The Republic of Pirates by Colin WoodardThe pirates of legend live free from the laws of kingdoms of the world. Theirs is a life of adventure as they travel where they will, taking what they need and making their victims walk the plank. 
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya This is the most popular series of shojo or girls manga so far. Tohru Honda is a Japanese high school girl. Recently orphaned, she finds herself unofficially adopted by an isolated household of the large and wealthy Sohma clan. While everyone knows of the Sohmas, only a very few know of their curse: every generation, one person will represent each of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, plus the cat, who was tricked out of attending the banquet. When they are hugged by a person of the opposite sex, these cursed people transform into their animal selves for a while. Tohru, despite the many misfortunes that have befallen her, is relentlessly optimistic and always believes the best of everyone. (How does she sound too good to be true and yet remain absolutely appealing? Her struggles to pass class must be part of it.) Now she’s living with the older Shigure, the dog, as well fellow high school students Yuki the rat and Kyo the cat. Naturally this situation gives ample opportunity for suggestive but chaste humorous interludes as people bump into Tohru and transform. But the character drama is what makes this really addictive. The otherwise quiet and polite Yuki and the rude but soft-hearted Kyo are constantly getting into fights – but find themselves spending more time together to spend it with their adored Tohru. Tohru just wants to get to know them better, and meet the other members of the Zodiac. The fan letters published in the book are always asking if Tohru will choose Yuki or Kyo. It’s not going to happen. The beauty is in the attraction, where a slight and otherwise innocent gesture carries more tension than your average explicit scene. Somewhere in the volumes I haven’t read yet – I think it’s up to 20 or so now – they might try to break the curse. For right now, it’s mostly personal drama, with the occasional drops of information about the curse slowly accumulating in the background. I could say more, but I have two more books to read tonight.
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones Fantasy plays different roles even in fantasy books set in our world. In this one, the real world predominates, the magical elements slipping in so subtly that they are easy to miss until the very end. Polly, now about 19, is visiting her Granny and looking at a picture on her wall. It brings back memories of the man she met when she was there nine years before, when she accidentally gate-crashed a will reading at the big house up the hill. She realizes that she has two complete sets of memories. In one of them, she and Mr. Lynn had an ongoing correspondence and occasional visits. In the other, he never existed. Now, even the other people in her life who met him can’t remember him. The book is largely made up of her newly-found memories of him, and the stories they made up together about Mr. Lynn being a hero named Tan Coul and Polly his apprentice, Hero. But the stories had a strange way of coming true, not quite the way they told them and usually in a way that put them in more danger than the original. Only near the end does Polly realize Thomas Lynn in danger and needs her help. 
Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore Love, friendship and the mob mix in surprising and fascinating ways in this classic graphic novel. Katchoo and Francine are roommates. Francine is broken-hearted when her boyfriend leaves her after she refuses to sleep with him. Katchoo exacts a fearsome revenge on him, but refuses to tell Francine she’s in love with her. Meanwhile, Katchoo meets a persistent young man, David, at an art gallery. Even though she refuses the romantic relationship he wants, they develop a strong friendship. One might even go so far as to call it a love triangle. And then it turns out that Katchoo has old connections with the mob, and the mob is no longer willing to let them stay in the past. (I have to give a shout-out to my old library school friend Erica of 
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham. Illustrated by Charles Vess et al This is the just-published prequel to the long-standing Fables series. In the Fables world, the Adversary has been taking over all the fantasy worlds one by one. The characters have been fleeing to our New York City, where they have established an underground community led by Snow White and King Cole. In this book, Snow White is visiting the as-yet-unconquered Arabian Fables world, trying to convince the sultan – yes, that sultan – that he should ally himself with the New York Fables community. Naturally, he refuses to meet formally with an unattended woman, so she is sent to him as a concubine. Instead of sleeping with him, she entertains him with tales of escaping Fables to win him over. Each tale is beautifully illustrated by a different comic book artist, with the incomparable Charles Vess providing the illustrations for the frame story. These are most definitely fairy tales for adults, with familiar fairy tale characters in often horrific situations. But the stories are compelling and the illustrations lush, making this a beautiful introduction to the world of Fables while standing firmly on – or between – its own covers.
Everything Nice by Ellen Shanman Prickly Mike loses her job, too, when her lecherous boss Brian is fired from a prestigious ad agency. Suddenly she discovers that everyone wants team players with people skills and already knows she has neither. Soon she’s in a downward spiral, drinking too much, sneaking in to her ex’s comedy club performances to hear him rail against her, and pushing away Gunther, her only friend. Just when she’s being evicted, her father, widowed when Mike was four, announces that he’s engaged and his fiancée is moving in. The fiancée suggests that Mike ask about a job at her former place of employment, an all-girls charter school. Now she’s stuck teaching Life Skills to a terrifying group of giggling and whispering thirteen-year-olds. Mike as a character was hard to like at first, but things turned around so nicely that I couldn’t be offended at the unsurprising redemptive ending. Because sometimes a little redemption is a beautiful thing.-
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Unraveling Family Secrets in The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye PenelopeSeptember 16, 2026Katy K.-
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