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Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel My rating: 5 of 5 stars I just loved this. It's been a while since I've read Bechdel's work and I was delighted to come across this in the library and that feeling did not diminish one iota upon reading. Bechdel is wrestling with the world and her position in it and the fact that everything is pretty messed up. And yet it isn't; she is part of a loving, deliciously funny, passionate, quirky, glorious space within the world and Spent tells the story of it.

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British Vogue: The Biography of an Icon by Julie Summers My rating: 4 of 5 stars A well-written, purposeful biography of a century at British Vogue (or "Brogue" as one character refers to it), this is a real pleasure to read. We trace the beginnings of the magazine at the turn of the century, throughout the wild-horrors of two world wars, and then into the tempestuous rises and falls of more recent decades, and throughout all of this Summers maintains a firm respect for her subject and what it does. I welcomed this a lot; the book does not minimise the achievements of a popular magazine and its relevance towards its readership - each copy often being read by dozens, if not more, of people - and how it sought to speak both for and to the women of Britain.

Jean of Storms by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer My rating: 3 of 5 stars I have been thinking about Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's approach to romance, for she was never the most romantic of authors to begin with. She could write romance and beautifully too; that subtle, underplayed need for each other, that quiet recognition that you are not whole without somebody else at your side, but also - she could not. She could be as subtle as a brick, as delicate as mud, and she could write the sort of engagement that might want you to throw your book across the room and though I shall not name the moment, you all know the one I mean.

ALT: elmo from sesame street is making a funny face while sitting on a table .