MAKE YOUR OWN BEAUTY MASKS from Odd Dot | review

Note: a review copy of this book was provided to me for review purposes; all opinions are honest and my own. Affiliate links used in this post.

I was a concoctions kid. I was perpetually mixing something up, making conditioner cocktails* in the shower and checking out books from the library about how various herbs were used in medicine and beauty throughout history.
You think I'm joking, but no, I was precisely that much of a nerd.

And for a long, long time, I've been meaning to test out more homemade beauty treatments and find some really good ones to work into my rotation. I love a good pampering sesh, and there's something about measuring and mixing and selecting and seeing every stage that makes the whole thing more soothing.

But, of course, meaning to doesn't mean actually doing. I've got a list a mile long of "meaning to." MAKE YOUR OWN BEAUTY MASKS from Macmillan's new DIY imprint, Odd Dot, features more than 3 dozen diy skincare masks, made from things you likely have very easy access to, if they aren't in your pantry or fridge already. The accessibility of the ingredients as well as the ease of the recipes and simplicity of the book's presentation make DIY seemed totally doable. The recipes generally only have three steps (mix, paste on your face, wait and wash), and just as often, only 3 ingredients (some more, some less, but all manageable). There are also sections on how to prep your skin for masking, and what each ingredient does for you, so you can target specific things.

It also comes with 10 cutesy printed sheet masks, which you can use in combo with many of the masks to help keep everything in place while you go about your important business of watching The Office on Netflix for the seventh time. (No judgment here.) (You can also apply straight to your face, no sheet mask needed.)

MAKE YOUR OWN BEAUTY MASKS is exactly the reminder to myself that I need to mask more consistently and satisfy my inner Concoction Kid. The recipes include some of my favorite ingredients for skincare (honey, pumpkin, yogurt, oats) and more I want to try (papaya, turmeric, blueberries, seaweed), and the mask designs are super cute (and could easily be used with serums and other face masks/creams). I've tried a few of the recipes, including this "Let's Go Avo-Coco-Nuts" mask, which tbh, I should have used a sheet mask with, because coconut oil melts on skin contact, DUH MISTY, and it was slip-sliding all over my face and shirt and bathroom floor.

But the recipes are easy to whip together (this took, like, 45 seconds) and adapt (I made a 1/2 batch because I wanted guacamole, so win win), and the overall design of the set is appealing to seasoned maskers and skincare beginners alike. The book itself is removable from the solidly-designed book-box it comes in, so once you're finished with the sheet masks, or if you just need shelf space, you can pop the slim volume right out and recycle the rest!

I know we're heading into Super Commercialized Buy All The Things time of year, and you're probably already seeing gift guides pop up, but if not, consider this us dipping our toes in: This set would be a GREAT gift for the teenaged Concoction Kid in your own life, or for a fun Girls Night In get-together. Definitely one to consider picking up as a gift or a Treat Yo'Self moment to de-stress this holiday season.


*for my hair, not to drink, DO NOT DRINK CONDITIONER, silly internet

Preview here!

MAKE YOUR OWN BEAUTY MASKS:
38 Simple, All-Natural Recipes for Healthy Skin
Odd Dot; illustrated by Emma Trithart

Make Your Own Beauty Masks: 38 Simple, All-Natural Recipes for Healthy Skin is a glam and gifty book of more than thirty all-natural beauty mask recipes.

Luxuriating! Refreshing! Renewing!

This book has simple and fun recipes that feature wholesome ingredients you can find in your fridge or pantry. Whether you are dry-skinned, oily, or just want refreshing "me-time," find a recipe that best suits your needs. Mix the ingredients together in a blender or a bowl and apply the mask for ten to twenty minutes. You'll finish with gorgeous, fresh skin!

Includes ten sheet masks!

The Bride of Northanger by Diana Birchall | Blog Tour

Note: a review copy of this book was provided to me for review purposes; all opinions are honest and my own. Affiliate links used in this post.

The Bride of Northanger by Diana Birchall
Publisher: White Soup Press (September 19, 2019)
Length: 230 pages
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-0981654300

A happier heroine than Catherine Morland does not exist in England, for she is about to marry her beloved, the handsome, witty Henry Tilney. The night before the wedding, Henry reluctantly tells Catherine and her horrified parents a secret he has dreaded to share - that there is a terrible curse on his family and their home, Northanger Abbey. Henry is a clergyman, educated and rational, and after her year’s engagement Catherine is no longer the silly young girl who delighted in reading “horrid novels”; she has improved in both reading and rationality. This sensible young couple cannot believe curses are real...until a murder at the Abbey triggers events as horrid and Gothic as Jane Austen ever parodied - events that shake the young Tilneys’ certainties, but never their love for each other ...

It is a truth universally disregarded, unfortunately, that Northanger Abbey is a criminally underrated book. It was truly a shock to me to discover, upon finding the Janeite community, that many (if not most) readers rank NA so low as to not rank it at all. They dismiss it entirely as silly fluff. But ever the contrarian, Northanger Abbey was my favorite of Austen's novels for some years, and still ranks in my top 3. I won't launch into a full defense of it here, but suffice it to say, I've been very disappointed with the lack of retellings and continuations Northanger gets in the JAFF community.

I'm also always a little trepidatious of the few retellings that do make it to market, because they have a lot to live up to, both to my Northanger-loving heart, and in convincing all of the many P & P-exclusive readers to branch out and give little Catherine and Henry a chance.

Added to the fact that do many readers just don't show the enthusiasm for Northanger as they do for Pride & Prejudice, Northanger is just a very different book than the rest of Austen work. In it, more of her satirical, playful side comes to the fore than in any of her works other than her juvenalia. The tone and style are so different that an additional layer of challenge is added for authors who want to mimic Austen's style; yet another is added in the need to be familiar and comfortable with the gothic literature it both embraces and satirizes. For a "light, frothy, silly" book, it's not the easiest story to take on.

I was very curious to see what direction Diana Birchall would take, and how much she'd lean into the Gothic Romance of it all. . . And boy, did she ever lean in.

This book is bananas. Truly, it is bonkers. Northanger Abbey itself is a bit on the bonkers-side, and I read The Bride of Northanger in one marathon sitting, so calling it bananas-bonkers (bonkernanas?) is not the insult you may think it is. It's just that, at literally no point* in this book did I know what crazy thing was going to happen next. In this — and in the body count — it is very, very much a gothic romance. The Bride of Northanger is the type of book Catherine Morland would give herself giddy shivers with at night. It's dramatic, shocking, abrupt, and oddly, utterly enthralling. It takes Catherine's many imagined horrors and uses the actual bad behaviors Austen laid out in her text, and uses them to vindicate Catherine's "flights of fancy," turning the conceit of Northanger Abbey on its head. Catherine — now married and doing her best to be rational and mature — does her best to keep her head while all of her wildest imaginings are realized, and then some. All the worst of man and monastery are thrown her way in quick succession, and the level-headed way she handles things feels surprisingly realistic; Catherine's growth feels realistic, making her a dynamic and engaging character, whose roots still feel firmly planted in Austen.

Other characters, however, feel less realistic offshoots of Austen. Where Catherine has become rational, the rest have gone much in the opposite direction, becoming more extreme, over the top, dramatic, reactionary... In an odd way, it works, subverting the reader's expectations and bolstering Catherine and her capabilities. There is occasional effort made to capture Henry Tilney's sarcasm and wit (one of the highlights of NA for me), but I could have done with a great deal more of Tilney's humor, as well as a bit more complexity of feeling for him. He suffers loss, scandal, and terror in this continuation, but his reactions remain somewhat callous and unrealistic.

It's an interesting book to try to discuss, because while I think there are some major flaws in it, none of them really made me like it less. Though she may not have always captured Henry's voice, Birchall (mostly) nailed Austen's mechanics, and very often, her tone. It's funny on a few levels, it's surprising almost continuously, and so fully embracing the gothicness of it all feels like a fulfillment of Catherine's character, in such an unexpected way. I don't know that it'll be the book to convince JAFF readers to embrace more Northanger Abbey retellings, necessarily, but it certainly was a fun one, and unlike any other Austen retelling I've read.


*except for one crucial one, which I saw coming a mile away, and which left a really bad taste in my mouth.

There's Something About Darcy by Gabrielle Malcolm | blog tour

Today I'm hopping into the There's Something About Darcy blog tour with a quick, poorly-shot video of my thoughts on this non-fic examination of everyone's favorite rude, socially awkward, condescending, rich, gorgeous, dynamic romantic lead: Fitzwilliam M.* Darcy.

I'd love to hear in the comments which fictional character you'd like to see get the book-length analytical treatment! But for now, There's Something About Darcy is available today!

*Motherfluffing.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
There's Something About Darcy
by Gabrielle Malcolm

For some, Colin Firth emerging from a lake in that clinging wet shirt is one of the most iconic moments in television. But what is it about the two-hundred-year-old hero that we so ardently admire and love?

Dr Gabrielle Malcolm examines Jane Austen’s influences in creating Darcy’s potent mix of brooding Gothic hero, aristocratic elitist and romantic Regency man of action. She investigates how he paved the way for later characters like Heathcliff, Rochester and even Dracula, and what his impact has been on popular culture over the past two centuries. For twenty-first century readers the world over have their idea of the ‘perfect’ Darcy in mind when they read the novel, and will defend their choice passionately.

In this insightful and entertaining study, every variety of Darcy jostles for attention: vampire Darcy, digital Darcy, Mormon Darcy and gay Darcy. Who does it best and how did a clergyman’s daughter from Hampshire create such an enduring character?

A must-read for every Darcy and Jane Austen fan.

---

Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm lectures and writes about Jane Austen in popular culture and the global fan phenomena surrounding Austen’s work. She is the author of Fan Phenomena: Jane Austen and is a regular speaker at the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath, and the Jane Austen Regency Week in Chawton. She lives in Bath.

Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot | Blog Tour

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Affiliate links used in this post.

I want to start by saying, I'm really loving the trend of popular YA authors taking on well-known and -loved comic book characters for reboots, prequels and the like. I think they bring a freshness to the series', along with a honed talent (generally) for piecing a story together and layering it with richness and subtext, without a lot of the serious, self-congratulatory heavy-handedness that we sometimes see with reboots and "reexaminations."

I -- never having been a gatekeeper of media that I love, but rather someone who actively wants to pull people in -- also think that having these authors (Kami Garcia, Danielle Paige, Lauren Myracle, et all) is a great way to attract a new young audience, who are discovering these masked heroes and vigilantes sometimes for the first time. And none (so far) is as likely to pull them in as Meg Cabot.

Black Canary: Ignite, with its relatable storyline (even in the midst of superpowers) and bright, vibrant art & coloring — from Cara McGee and Caitlin Quirk, respectively — is very likely to win over that young audience. It has an ease and youthful appeal that is almost certain to hit the mark with its target audience.

That said, I think it is a highly targeted audience. I may be in the minority on this (goodreads ratings for the book are remarkably high), but I think the story is likely to lose a bit of its shine the further a reader gets from the targeted demographic. Where younger readers will find it relatable and inviting, I think older readers may find it cloying and overly simplistic. It was a little too light on story (and impact), and a little too heavy on... handedness for my tastes, and while it was cute, it was equal-measures cheesy. It would have benefited from a slower buildup into Black Canary status, Big Bad Villain reveal, and the all-around getting-to-know-you phase of the characters and their motivations/interactions. A little too much was crammed in and rushed through to get us to the origin of this origin story.

But the messaging is strong and the tone welcoming, and as I said, I think it will most certainly find its target audience.
I just may be a bit too far off the bullseye for this one.

Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot (Author), Cara McGee (Illustrator, Artist)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Princess Diariescomes Black Canary: Ignite, Meg Cabot's first graphic novel! With expressive and energetic art by Cara McGee to match the trademark attitude and spunk of Meg Cabot's characters and dialogue, this mother-daughter story embraces the highs and lows of growing up without growing out of what makes us unique.

Thirteen-year-old Dinah Lance knows exactly what she wants, who she is, and where she's going. First, she'll win the battle of the bands with her two best friends, then she'll join the Gotham City Junior Police Academy so she can solve crimes just like her dad. Who knows, her rock star group of friends may even save the world, but first they'll need to agree on a band name.

When a mysterious figure keeps getting in the way of Dinah's goals and threatens her friends and family, she'll learn more about herself, her mother's secret past, and navigating the various power chords of life.

Black Canary: Ignite is an inspirational song that encourages readers to find their own special voices to sing along with Black Canary!