The Girls' Almanac

July 17, 2006
A weblike illustration mapping the relationships of 30 characters kicks off Franklin's (Liner Notes
) collection of interconnected short stories that run the gamut from half-baked to heartbreaking. The latter includes the first story, "Early Girls," about Lucy, who mourns her dead fiancé as she helps prepare for her mother's second wedding. Lucy's friends Jenna, who finds solace in baking, and Gabrielle, a doctor struggling with the idea of motherhood, have rough goes of it in other stories. Franklin has a harder time with male characters, as in "Community Service," in which a teacher who works at a school for "troubled teens" breaks down while supervising his students on a community service outing. Franklin's smart prose sees her characters through rites of passage including first sexual encounters, marriage and motherhood, as well as difficulties such as terminal illness, infidelity and widowhood. Highlights include "Kindling," a story of two roommates and their communal living situation; "A Map of the Area," set in an upscale hippie retreat; and "The Math of the Fourth Child," about two women trying to predict the future of a yet-to-be-conceived child. A handful of shorter pieces feel unfinished, but there are enough thought-provoking stories to pull readers through.

October 1, 2006
Franklins ("The Principles of Love") collection of stories centers on a group of women who are connected tangentially, with two of the characters becoming fast friends in the final story. It highlights the struggle of moving towardand the joy of findinga true best friend. The stories begin in girlhood, travel through adolescence, and progress into adulthood. Some take place in faraway locales like Iceland and Ecuador. Interesting plot lines include one woman dealing with her cheating fiancés drowning and another woman struggling to bear a child after multiple miscarriages. While each story is appealing and well written, the book as a whole is confusing. It opens with a chart delineating how each character is related to anotheran indispensable tool, as it is easy to get the characters confused. While the vignettelike, linked scenarios resemble Melissa Bankss "The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing", this book is mired in too many tangential relationships. Enjoyable moments are plenty, but confusion took away from the collection as a whole. An optional purchase for chick-lit and short story collections."Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.