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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

is an absolutely amazing book that is going to stick with me for a long time. Thank you E. Lockhart for this treasure.

Frankie Landau-Banks' family thinks of her as Bunny Rabbit. Her old boyfriend Porter thought of her as someone he could cheat on. New boyfriend Matthew does not see her as secret worthy. Her friend Trish just doesn't really understand her. And Frankie? Well Frankie wants to be somebody. She wants power. She wants to be a force of nature. But she's trapped in the male-dominated hierarchy of Alabaster, her boarding school. The good old boy system is alive and well and smiling its well-heeled smiles in the Bassetts, the boy only secret society that Frankie decides she must infiltrate. And the results well - I won't give things away, but let us say that a happily ever after is not exactly possible for the indomitable Frankie Landau-Banks. Frankie wants to lose her distruntled state; she wants to be, as she says when she quotes from P.G. Wodehouse, "gruntled." But it just might not work out the way she hopes. If you are a smart girl, you will love this book. If you love words, you will adore this book. If you sometimes think the way the world runs sort of sucks, you will want to read this book. If you've ever been willing to lose the battle to win the war, read "The Disreputable History..." It will stay with you for a long time. As for me, well, since I was once, not too many years ago, told, "I don't care how smart you are, you just need to be nicer," Frankie is my girl.

Til next time...

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