Holiday reading update

Nothing says the Holidays quite like doing something you don't want to. Wait. That didn't used to be true! Well, this year, like it or not, that is my reality. Yesterday was all about spending time with family (including my hyped up 3 year old nephew who was still so excited about Christmas that he was playing with his fire engine in bed at 11:30 p.m.), eating lots of delicious food, and opening presents. Today is about hunkering down in the much-anticipated blizzard and reading.

Last night I treated myself to the last book of the remaining 10 that I actually had an interest in reading: Adele Griffin's Picture the Dead. It's my second Adele Griffin book this year, having read and reviewed The Julian Game for School Library Journal. While Julian didn't really do it for me on a personal level, I quite enjoyed Picture the Dead. I can't think of too many Civil War historical fiction titles that take place in Brookline, Mass., and I enjoyed the local connection. I must admit, I also enjoyed the really short chapters, as my attention span was limited due to frequent interruptions by my nephew. The packaging on this one is absolutely gorgeous -- no wonder Bryan Selznick blurbed it -- and I will be keeping it, since I allowed my nephew to color all over the inside of it during the Christmas Eve Mass.

I'm taking a little break from Lish McBride's Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, my second book in a row about the dead (actually, I think a good percentage of my remaining to-reads are about the dead or the undead). I just read the most startling scene out of this entire year's worth of reading. Which is kind of weird because until that point, the book had been pretty funny with hints of weird stuff under the surface. Only 8 5/6 books to go!

The one's I've been putting off

I'm down to the final 15 books I have to read before BFYA. Some of these books I've been putting off reading for a long time, others just so happened to be among the last few nominations, and a few only just now came in via inter-library loan.

That said, I would be lying if I said that I was really excited about any of these books. A quick glance shows that there are no contemporary coming of age stories left. They were gobbled up nearly instantaneously. What remains are the ones I've been squeamish about, and for a wide variety of very random reasons. One of them uses a very small font; I don't care much for very small fonts. One that didn't make it into this photograph is about a pegasus. I've never been a big fan of, umm, pegasi? Needless to say, when I look at this pile and I have to choose what to read next, there's a big of cringing and trepidation. Sort of like when Buddy the Elf decides to ride the escalator. It's like, do I really have to? And yes, I do. I really have to. I'm soooooo close to having read all 191 nominations. The clock is ticking.

Let's see if there are some hidden gems here. I'll be posting my reactions over the next few weeks. In the meantime, a clip from Elf:

Back from my hiatus

I received some exciting news these past few days. One, I have the right connections (one of the perks of dating someone in the physics world) to attend a taping of The Big Bang Theory. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have an affinity for Sheldon Cooper. Well, once I can find some room in my schedule to get to Los Angeles, I can make this dream a reality. This dream: meeting SHELDON. I mean, Jim Parsons.

The other exciting news came through over the past few days and this morning. Nominations for the Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011 list has closed as of midnight last night. There were 191 nominated titles, and I only have 35 left to read. Phew! Given that we have until January 7th to read them, this is a huge load off of my back. I mean, don't get me wrong, 35 books is a lot. But with a little more than 2 months, it is actually manageable. Heck, I might even have time to read some of the adult books I've been dreaming about reading. Like:

In the meantime, I've started the book with the dreamiest author photo ever. Also known as James Franco's Palo Alto: Stories. It's my current bedside book, which means I'm getting through it veerrryyyy sloooowwllly. Also, it means my dreams will probably be filled with violence and disaffected youth. Hooray!

Tonight's book: Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson. I looooved Chains. It's one of my favorite books to booktalk. So many gorgeous passages to from for read-alouds. So moving... but also so exciting. I can't wait to settle on the couch with my kitty and start reading.

The end of the picture book? Hardly.

I heard the buzz surrounding the New York Times article "Picture Books No Longer A Staple For Children" on kidlit and library list-servs and now I've had a chance read it and think about it. And like most of my colleagues, I'm going to jump in and say, it's wrong. For one, the article seems to assume that the only place one might find a picture book for their child to read is a bookstore, a bookstore selling only brand new $16.99 picture books. Well, that was the author's first mistake.

Walk into any public library and talk to the people in the children's department or the circulation desk. Picture books circulate like crazy. After DVDs, they are usually one of the most highly circulating items. Picture books will always be purchased as gifts - I've certainly been purchasing 10+ a year for my 2 year old nephew - but when the economy goes south, I think most families of readers have looked at the price tag of picture books (and this is a case where the paperback versions do not stand the test of time and are hard to look through in any shelving unit) and decided they could go without buying them new. Also, half the time I head into a bookstore looking for a few titles that have been recommended by Horn Book or Booklist, I find they don't even have them and turn to Amazon (all the while wishing I still lived around the corner from the tremendous 57th Street Books).

I also don't buy the either/or argument, based off a few comments from individuals, that parents are en masse telling their kids not to read or look at picture books in favor of easy readers or beginner chapter books. Again, I think back to being at the library just the other day and checking out books to families with new readers. A young girl, about 5 or 6, handed me a stack of 8 books, 4 picture books, 3 easy readers. With no budget limiting them, the kids will choose as many as their little hands (or mom's tote bag) can hold.

The craziness of committee work

I spent a good chunk of this morning filling out nomination forms for Best Fiction for Young Adults. Four, in fact. It had been a while since I nominated some titles and I've had these on my mind. I was really tempted to nominate this one book (which shall not be named) because I'd been growing fonder and fonder of it in my memory. Thankfully, I went back and read my notes. In reading them, it became quiiiiite clear that I enjoyed the book, but did not at all think it was worthy of being nominated. Duly noted!

It's getting to that point in the cycle where I'm edging closer and closer to having read 300 books. It's kind of a marvelous achievement, you would think, but man, I am already thinking about the lovely break I am going to give myself when this year's term ends. I am going to not try to read a book a day. I'm not even going to try to read YA fiction. I'm going to read an adult book or two (Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, if I can stomach it!) and watch my TV shows and, oh yeah, spend time with friends and family. It's been so frantic here in the hours after work, where it's become apparent that my boyfriend and I basically never stop working. Yes, the day job ends, but it's like our day job has created a night job. I'm reading and writing notes, taking a quick break for dinner and a Colbert Report, he's rushing in and out of lab. It's kind of crazy to think how easy our lives were a year ago. When the question was not, Can we please add more hours to the day? but rather, What should we do now?

Before I started my new jobs, I was trying to find a way to fill the time, all the while hoping and wishing with every new day that it might bring the news I so want to hear: a call or email from an agent. Now, I haven't given up on that search, but it's something I approach with both excitement and trepidation. I cannot imagine adding editing or any other work to my already overflowing daily responsibilities! ::Gulp::

Where did she go?

I take a two week blogging hiatus and suddenly my blog has more hits than ever before (thanks to a certain photo of Tim Riggins, clearly, an in-demand kind of thing). I've found myself a bit overwhelmed with stuff to do after starting my new jobs. I had to run over to a delightful stationary store this morning in order to get more organized. My to-do lists scrawled in my too-small yearly organizer were too much to handle, so I've gone ahead and bought a much bigger organizer for 2011 and a supplementary, beautiful clairefontaine notebook to get me by until then.

The struggle has switched from finding a balance between writing (and everything that goes along that while trying to get published) and reading my committee work, to still trying to find time for those things now that I'm settling in at my two new jobs, which add up to 40 hours a week. A challenge indeed but one that I am up to!

Whenever I start to think about how it will be hard to find time for everything, I think about my alter-ego, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, who has managed to write many books while in college and graduate school. She makes me (and many other people) look like complete slackers.

Anyway, hoping to get some of the reading under control this weekend, taking advantage of the fact that the Red Sox are pretty much certainly out of the playoffs. Ideally, I'd like to finish 4 books this weekend, go apple picking, write at least 10 pages on my new WIP so I have SOMETHING for critique group next week, and watch Temple Grandin. Probably will need to back away from the computer to make it all happen.

Book Review - Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Talented musician Andi has not recovered from her younger brother Truman's death. More than a year later, she's still reeling, dependent on pills to get through every day. Her only solace is music, in all its varieties, from classical to the Decemberists to Radiohead to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  When her father comes to Brooklyn and sees the situation Andi and her mother (who relentlessly paints portraits of Truman) are in, he takes Andi with him to Paris and sends her mother away for intensive treatment. But a change of scenery doesn't take away Andi's pain, and all she wants to do is return to Brooklyn and rescue her mother.

At her father's friends' place in Paris, she comes upon the diary of Alex, a teenage girl living during the French Revolution. It's the one thing that offers her some kind of escape, someone else in the throes of unbelievable suffering and horror, whose relationship with a ten year old future king Louis-Charles very much mirror's Andi's relationship to her brother. The more Andi finds out about Alex, the more she is intrigued. And she's not sure if it's the pills she pops or something else, but there are these moments when she feels like Alex is calling out to her, begging for her story to be told, to be resolved, for the mystery of Louis-Charles to be solved.


Jennifer Donnelly's latest book is absolutely brilliant.  Clocking in at just under 500 pages, this story absolutely warrants the length of the book.  There's so much that happens as Andi and Alex's story become intertwined, never mind the economy of language. Donnelly has clearly done her research to make Andi's musical interests complex, compelling, and so real. The characters, from Andi and Alex, to Andi's parents, to Andi's friend Vijay, are well-developed and all interesting in their own right. This book will definitely be getting some worthy Printz consideration and I feel so lucky to have been able to read an advanced copy.

Definitely one of my favorite books of the year. Also, the first time I ever read a book at a baseball game. (I intended only to read in between innings but towards the end I was incapable of putting it down!)

Putting my eggs in a lot of baskets

Every time I let a query out loose into the world (or realistically, into an agent or assistant's mailbox) I acknowledge that I've done everything I can. Whatever happens happens. It's a kind of zen moment, not unlike the way, all through junior high, high school, and college, I took that deep breath as the exams were handed out. I had done all I could to prepare; whatever happens happens.

I've been realizing that for all the research I do, querying is still a complete crap shoot. Agents that were interested in my last book? Well, by and large, they aren't interested in this one. And the agents that rejected my last manuscript? Well, okay, some of them definitely rejected this one. But a good deal (at least 4) that rejected my last book off the query are now requesting my new manuscript. And with enthusiasm!

As a result, I've been keeping my basket pretty full of eggs. Every time a rejection comes in, I send off one to two queries. I have four fulls out with agents at the moment, a number that makes me feel really good... until a few days pass and I start anxiously checking my email.

Luckily, at least for the rest of today and tomorrow, I've got a fabulous book to keep me busy (at least until the top of every hour, when I check my email): Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution. I picked up an ARC at Annual and had been holding off starting it because I wanted to read it over a few days when I could really savor its 470-something pages. So far, so sooo good.

Massive Disappointment

I don't usually post negative reviews here, but I have to admit that I just read what very quickly and easily became my LEAST favorite read of 2010.  I was on my way up to Montreal for the weekend and to ensure that reading happened, I brought along only books that I had to read (i.e. Best Fiction for Young Adults nominations). And I started reading the one that looked the most exciting. Oh boy, did I make a mistake.

The book that massively disappointed me debuted on the New York Times bestseller list, so it's probably not in any danger. Also, one of its two co-authors is mega famous, which probably won't hurt matters. I'm looking at you, James Frey.

The book in question is I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (a pseudonym for James Frey and a co-author). I kind of wish the book had been written by an actual alien. Because maybe then it would have been written in a language that I am not able to read.  I Am Number Four has an interesting premise-- I'll give it that. Apparently Hollywood gave it that as well, because Michael Bay is producing the film version. The book supposes that when the planet Lorien was being invaded by Magadorians, nine young children escaped and made it to the United States, along with the Lorien guardians. But the children were bound together by a really stupid--if you want to know what I truly think--curse. They can only be killed in order (Two could not die before One, etc). When the book starts, Three has been killed.  Number Four, or known by the citizens of a small town called Paradise, Ohio, as John Smith.

If you're thinking John Smith isn't exactly original, well, you're onto something. The whole book suffers from "isn't exactly original." While there are some truly exciting action scenes at the end around the 400 page mark, the rest is highly predictable and extremely boring. John Smith falls for the waify blonde at school and any time they speak, I felt the need to find a spoon to gag myself with. It was that bad. John Smith (Number Four) finds out that his special skill is he is essentially fireproof. So of course his girlfriend gets stuck in the basement of a house on fire.

Let it be known that I went into this book with an open mind. I wanted to be entertained on the five and a half hour drive to Montreal. I didn't think that this entertainment would come in the form my dramatic readings of many a ridiculously cliched passage. Then again, I had a niggling doubt ever since the major typo on the first page of the first chapter ("blxew" instead of "blew") that this one may not have received the editorial attention that it needed. You know, because it really should've just been a script for the movie.

This is one of those rare books where I guarantee the movie will be better the book. It cannot possibly be worse.

On surprises

I've been hesitant to write too much about my manuscript on this blog, but I think it's finally time. Yesterday was a bit of a doozy. It seems that agents are finally coming back from their summer vacations and ready to send out all those rejections. I was getting a little far away from modesty a few weeks ago, with 7 out of 10 responding agents requesting to see more (6 full manuscript requests, one partial request).

Well, this week isn't going like that at all. Yesterday I received a very nice, personalized rejection to a full request. And I guess I forget what it feels like -- especially as more time goes on and I started to wonder how things might turn out -- to be let down. It's crushing, frankly. And while there were glimmers of promise in the rejection (as in, the agent had nice things to say about my protagonist -- another agent, responding from a partial request, couldn't stop telling me how much he did not care for my protagonist!), I read the one line I dreaded. The agent mentioned that the fact that my book deals with the Iraq War would make it difficult to place with a publisher.

I guess this is the time to say it. My book is about a teenage anti-war activist finding out that her idol, her uncle, has died protesting the Iraq War. It shatters her worldview and puts her on a quest (okay, a road trip) to find out more about this man, because she's terrified at the idea that she might one day end up in his shoes. Now, based on my query letter, it's pretty obvious that the book deals with the Iraq War. Is it going to be my albatross?

I sincerely, sincerely hope not. On the one hand, it's kind of hard to believe that possibly the precise thing that catches an agents' eye (i.e. that the book has that kind of real world relevancy) would be what sinks it. I'd have to think that most agents who request the book aren't already thinking that they have no hope in finding a market for it. Otherwise, why would they have requested it?  Meanwhile, in the same week where this full rejection came in, I've also been hammered with rejections. Nine rejections in a row! I'm almost (she writes, while checking her email every ten minutes) leery of checking my email, my inbox seeming so chocked full of disappointment.

But then last night I remembered something. I was out at the Druid participating in their weekly Wednesday trivia with some friends. I love trivia, and so I was having a great time despite the fact that our team was not doing very well after the first two rounds. We just let go of it and put it all on the line in the last bonus question, in the last round. We risked 20 points (knowing we had very little chance of winning either way), hedging our bets that the license plate with a blue background and gold (eh, yellow really) lettering is Delaware's. After a tie-breaker question, the trivia announcer starts reading off where the teams finished.  With the exception of the top three teams, he reads the team names and points out in random order. One after another, a team is named, a score is announced. Our score, which I've tabulated on the handy sheet, is higher than them, still higher.  He reads third place. We're still higher. And second place. And still our team has not been named. But the tie breaker? We shoot glances at each other across the table. No freaking way. And the winner is.... SUKI!  We scream! We won?!??!

There were so many silly things we got wrong or didn't wager smartly on (Charlottetown is in Prince Edward Island, not Nova Scotia --- clearly, despite all of my Anne of Green Gables knowledge, that was a major gaffe on my part; also, paramecium, John Grisham, etc, etc.). But we didn't give up. We stuck around, we scored 39 points in the last round. We won.  We've been to two trivia nights there now, and we won both times (albeit in very different fashions).

And so I guess this is what I come away with, thinking about rejection, about winning and losing, about sheer surprises. You do it because you love it (writing, trivia). And you keep putting yourself out there. I really believe in miraculous surprises. And I believe in my book. And I'm nowhere near done querying.

Book Review - The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Lucia has been looking forward to her first dance forever. So it's a huge relief when her mom actually lets her attend it, especially given everything that's been going on lately.  It's 1961, two years after the communist revolution in Cuba, and Lucia and her family are finally seeing the changes in their neighborhood: so many soldiers that Lucia's mom won't let her and her younger brother leave the house alone and their doctor, murdered and hung on a tree in the park as an "example." But even the dance becomes a disaster, as everyone from her crush Manuel to her best friend Ivette is so gung-ho about the revolution. When someone betrays Lucia's parents, they find they have no other choice for their children but to send them to the United States, hoping to follow soon after with exit visas of their own.

Debut author Christina Diaz Gonzalez has crafted a harrowing story, based on true events during what became known as Operation Pedro Pan, which brought over 14,000 unaccompanied minors from Cuba to the United States. Lucia's struggles are so real, from the anxieties of leaving everything she knows behind, adjusting to life in an extremely foreign place (Nebraska), and watching her closest friendship slip away. This was the perfect read for the bum mood I found myself in yesterday. It absolutely transported me to another time and place, with the vivid descriptions of Cuba and spot-on 1960's dialogue.  Gonzalez is an author to watch!

Grownups reading kids' books? No way!

It seems like everybody and their mother has tweeted or blogged their response to Pamela Paul's essay in last week's New York Times Book Review. While I can't say I'm totally surprised, and agree with Gayle Forman that the NYTimes is a little behind on realizing that adults are reading YA and children's books -- I mean, seriously, who hasn't spied many a subway reader reading Twilight or The Hunger Games -- I guess my initial reaction is that Paul needed to have her interest in YA validated by the literary establishment. Or maybe it's just what the New York Times needed? I don't know.

At the Homewood Library, we recognized this trend and started a Cross Overs book discussion group, where we discussed YA titles with all ages (well, we opened it up to ages 11 to 111). Adults from all backgrounds have been drawn to YA for precisely the reasons that are pointed out in the article, from the books' raw emotion and the "immediacy of the prose," to the fact that, frankly, there's a lot of excellent storytelling going on in YA right now. As someone who is completely absorbed in reading and trying to parcel out my time for worthy books, I've found that I can no longer get through many adult books, even the ones with stellar reviews that appeal to my taste. Compared to most YA, it takes so long for the story to get started in these literary adult books that I flat out lose interest. Despite the fact that I used to get through an adult book a week before serving on the Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee, I've found that now, I can't even check adult books out from the library. I just can't seem to read them before their due dates arrive.

While it's great to read that Lev Grossman and Caitlin Macy are discussing and enjoying YA, it's kind of amusing to think that they've only been doing this since 2008. They've got a lot of catching up to do.

Track my reading

Now that I've got my trusty new iPhone 4, I've joined GoodReads. I'm hoping that with a reliable iPhone--i.e. one that does not mysteriously run out of power whenever it feels like it--I will post lots of updates to GoodReads from their mobile app. You can find me by clicking on the widget to the right.  Now, back to updating my reading log from 2010. 

With 203 titles, this might take a little while. I guess it's something to keep me occupied during this weekend's Red Sox-Yankees series. Something tells me this series can go one of two ways. One, the Red Sox sweep despite all their injuries and become a force to be reckoned with. Or we go out there and showcase all our weaknesses and it's basically the end of the season, turning the rest of August and September into a major league tryout session for the AAA team. It wouldn't be the end of the world; I just didn't realize that when I first said this season was starting to feel like 2006, that it would actually turn into something worse than 2006.

I leave you with Youkilis, who has plenty of time to sit around reading, with his non-injured hand.

Book Review - Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

I laughed, I cried, I... wanted to go on a road trip?

If you don't have those reactions to Morgan Matson's excellent debut novel Amy and Roger's Epic Detour, I just might wonder if we actually read the same book.

Amy's life is irrevocably changed in the aftermath of her father's death in a car accident back in March.  The book begins just after the school year ends. Amy's mother is uprooting what is left of her family (17 year old Amy and her twin brother Charlie) and moving them all the way across the country from Orange County, CA, to Connecticut. She's already made the move out there and now she needs Amy to drive their car across the country. The problem is that Amy hasn't driven since the accident, so her mom has enlisted Roger, a rising college sophomore, to drive Amy out there.  Amy hasn't seen Roger since he was a kid, but once she sees him... well, let's just say things start looking the littlest bit better (read: Roger is a hottie).

Once Amy and Roger set off on the road trip, one that has been meticulously planned by Amy's mother, they decide to take one detour, and then another. Pretty soon they've taken control of the road trip, leading them to much more exciting places than Akron, Ohio and Terre Haute, Indiana (Amy's mom's projected resting points).

Matson has a way of writing these characters--not just Roger and Amy, but the supporting cast that gets fleshed out during the detours--so that they feel absolutely, breathing-life real. I couldn't help falling for Roger, with his boyish obsession with explorers and understandable fixation on his recent ex, and I wanted so badly for Amy to come to terms with her father's accidental death and reconcile with her family. And I loved Roger's playlists, as well as the receipts, snapshots, and other road trip ephemera interspersed throughout the book.  They made me feel like I went on the road trip too!

This trip is so worth the ride. Read if you like Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, Sara Zarr, etc. I think this one's going to find a LOT fans.

Book Review - A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley

I could not get enough of the Australian YA books last week, apparently, going from reading Jaclyn Moriarty's Ghosts of Ashbury High to Cath Crowley's A Little Wanting Song.

It's summer in Australia, which means Charlie is heading to her grandparents' place for Christmas. But it won't be the same, because now, in addition to Charlie's mother being gone, Gran is gone as well. And the ghosts are everywhere.  Charlie still carries on conversations with her mother and Gran, despite their physical absence from her life. She is coming off a terribly embarrassing situation--losing her bikini top at a party filled with her peers--and she feels her closest friendship slipping away from her. So she turns to music, to her guitar, to writing, playing, and singing her own songs. But not in public.

Then there's Rose, who is desperate to leave her small town, frightened to death of following in her mother's footstep, and being stuck there. She's seen Charlie, her neighbor's granddaughter, year after year, but they've never been friendly. But this year she sees Charlie in a new light. Rose sneakily applied to (and was accepted at) a private school in Melbourne, but there's no way her mother would let her head out there on her own. What if she befriended Charlie and went back with her at the summer's end?

Cath Crowley's beautiful but quiet novel is no ordinary take on one friend taking advantage of another. It's so much more than that. It's the story of a girl coming into her own, finding a way to push through her grief and get the attention of her father who's still so consumed with his own, and using music to do all of these things. This story is told in alternating perspectives from Rose and Charlie, but it also has a quiet power in its song lyrics, scattered throughout the text. Cath Crowley has accomplished a rare achievement: absolutely believable song lyrics. I could really hear these songs and the way that Charlie might sing them. They weren't cheesy or silly or cliche.  In fact, they reminded me so much of the kind of lyrics in the soundtrack to Once that I couldn't help but hear them in Marketa Irglova's voice.

This book is a must-read for any aspiring musician, or really, anyone who finds music moving and inspiring.

The Call

No, I have not received The Call yet.  Yes, there is one "The Call."  It means, the call you get when a literary agent is considering taking you on as a client.  Granted, from what I've been reading lately, it seems that very often before The Call is The Email, when an agent writes you an email saying they want to call you and when.  But anyway!  Just because I have not yet received The Email or The Call doesn't mean that I'm not thinking about it a lot.  I have.  I've researched and bookmarked lists of questions I should ask during The Call (because if you didn't prepare, you'd probably just be a blathering mess, right?).  I also daydream about The Call.  And read new authors' blog posts about The Call.  And I have to say, I do not think I will be having the reaction that some authors have had.  Which is vomiting after The Call or The Email.  Yeah, I don't see that happening.  Perhaps these authors are more prone to nerves than I am, but I am pretty sure The Call--if and when it does happen--will be followed with one of the following two: crying or screaming.  My default response to any big news (good or bad) is probably to cry.  And because this would be good news, there's a decent chance for a scream.  But a trip to the bathroom?  I don't think so.

Once I've calmed myself down enough to just get excited about it, I am going to play my "happy dance" song.  Basically, I've had this song picked out for this moment since I started querying my first novel (a project I later shelved sometime last year).  I will blast MGMT's "Kids" to as loud a volume as I can get away with, with an upstairs neighbor who is 90 and thus hard of hearing, so pretty loud.  I will also dance.

Anyone who knows me knows that I do not dance.  At least, not in seriousness.  I was known to perform a rather creepy jig after Red Sox won the World Series in 2007.  And I may or may not have performed a beard dance (this involves swaying side to side with an extra long beard, so not the most complicated of dances) a few times in the library, dressed as Dumbledore.  But in terms of real dancing or happy dancing?  I do not do these things.  Ordinarily.

Every time I listen to "Kids" though, I can see this moment, this future "happy dance" as if it already happened.  And it's one of my favorite songs ever--also, one of the happiest songs ever--so I've seen it a lot.

I guess for now it's a matter of waiting and hoping, and when that's not enough, sending out more queries.  So far, I've sent out 19 queries.  I've heard back from 7 agents, 5 of whom requested more materials.  Currently, I have 2 fulls and one partial out there.  The happy dance?  Pending.

For now, I guess I'll go back to reading the most excellent Jaclyn Moriarty's new book The Ghosts of Ashbury High and daydreaming.

How much do I love Diary of a Wimpy Kid?

Let me count the ways.

1.  I have read all the books, recommended them to everyone (regardless of age, reading ability), and own nearly all of them.

2.  I drink water from a Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 water bottle.
3.  I saw the movie based on the book in the theater and laughed harder than... possibly everyone else in the theater combined.  Especially in any scene featuring Fregley.  Oh, Fregley!
4.  I begged and pleaded with my boyfriend for us to join Blockbuster, despite the fact that we pay $14.99 a month to Netflix to watch any movie we like, because Netflix won't send us Wimpy Kid until late August but it hits other rental places on Tuesday (just 5 days from now).
5.  He refused to join but I just placed an order on Amazon because, well, I can't wait to watch it again and to share it with family and friends.  FREGLEY!
6.  Today, I saw the cover for the new book, book 5, The Ugly Truth, and am now marking my calendar for its release on November 9th.

Can't wait!

Book Review: Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler

Delilah Hannaford is a bit lost--kind of fumbling, actually.  She's falling behind in school, she's hooking up with this guy Finn who probably isn't right for her, and she's so disconnected that she accidentally swipes some makeup and gets caught stealing.  Delilah is the complete opposite of her single mother, a self-made business success, whose mode of thinking has more in common with a GPS device than an actual person.  When Delilah's grandmother dies, necessitating a trip up to her house in Vermont, her two living daughters, Delilah's mother and aunt struggle to understand what broke apart their family eight years ago.

This is one of those rare YA books that is very much about family, with other action and plot-lines coming in second.  There's plenty of intrigue here, as Delilah confronts the major mysteries of her family: her mother's sister Stephanie's mysterious death as a teenager, and what broke apart the family 8 years ago at her grandfather's funeral.  Growing up in New England, I'm quite aware of the stereotype of New England families not talking about anything, of the secrets, the tough stuff that no one wants to discuss.  It's captured so well here, as the truth gets slowly unraveled, both through Delilah's efforts and by chance.  At the end of the summer, no one will be the same, but they'll be better off for the honesty.

Readers will swoon over Patrick, Delilah's childhood friend turned crush turned something more.  The Vermont setting absolutely comes alive, so much that I could practically taste the maple-drizzled ice cream.  I'd say this is the perfect summer read, because it was, except that it doesn't actually hit bookstores until the fall.  There's so much to look forward to in this strong sophomore effort from Sarah Ockler, author of Twenty Boy Summer.

*** This review is based of the ARC, and it looks as though both the title and the cover are not finalized at this time.  The title on my copy was Fixing Delilah Hannaford but it is abbreviated on the author's website. The book should hit bookstores November 2, 2010. ***

That watched pot

It never boils. Never, ever, ever. Okay, it will eventually boil if it is actually a pot of water on a burner. But if you are using it as a metaphor for something else (as I am), well, good luck. Yeah, that's kind of how I'm finding myself since last Tuesday, when I started sending out queries to literary agents. At the very beginning, it's okay to watch the pot (or so I tell myself, checking my email once an hour, on the hour, from 9 to 5 p.m.) because those speedy agents will get back to you either way. And they did (1 rejected, one requested the full). But now we're back to the waiting game. I know it's summer and agents get behind due to holidays, conferences, etc. Or they might be on vacation.

I'm not complaining about their timeline at all. What I am annoyed with is only myself and my inability to stop watching the pot! It's summer and I don't have to work at the moment, so shouldn't I be enjoying myself and not thinking that if I go to the beach and I get a request, I won't be able to fulfill it because I don't have it saved on my phone.  Sheesh! Luckily, I will be forced to just let it go (a challenge for me, clearly) because I'm spending a long weekend in Sonoma. Here's to hoping that I can leave the pot behind, and also the obsessive pot-watching tendencies.

I swear I am not as type-A as this entry seems to suggest!

Yes! Only 9 minutes until I can check my email again!

Oh, Self....

On real teens on television

Heading into the summer, I decided to take on one trashy show. The show I started to watch was ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. I thought: based on YA books, simple premise, trashy... perfect!

Ummm no. I tried, I really did, but it is too bad to enjoy. At least for me. So I have traded it in for Huge. Still ABC Family, still based on a YA book (in this case Huge by Sasha Paley). I just could not get beyond the horrible acting and terribly unrealistic dialogue in Pretty Little Liars. Not only did the characters not remotely look like the age they were playing, but they just didn't sound like it either. And that was the deal breaker. I'll admit that the acting on Huge is a little spotting, the absolute strength of the show being Nikki Blonsky, who plays a girl named Will, and the guy characters. But these kids are awkward, so honestly awkward, that I have absolutely fallen in love with the show. I don't need to be doing something else during the show because I am that bored (yes, this started to be the case with PLL). Is it going to join the pantheon of my favorite teenage-based shows of all time, Friday Night Lights and Freaks and Geeks? Probably not.

Which is why I'm rewatching season four of FNL as it airs on NBC finally, and the occasional Freaks and Geeks to get me through the summer, with its dearth of good TV shows. I am forcing the boyfriend to watch this season of Friday Night Lights with me, and while he doesn't tear up every time Julie does, in the wake of Matt Saracen leaving town, I think he's getting a kick out of it. We watched the episode last night where Glen kisses Tami Taylor (too funny, oh Glen!) and while we both got a kick out of that, he also thought Glen was really quiet a good karaoke singer. Okay, buddy...  We both agree that the Landry-Jess relationship has provided so many great moments, particularly when she slapped him outside her locker, after he told her he wasn't sure but he might be hung up on another girl. Oh, Landry!

I leave you with a picture of Tim Riggins. Just because.

A terrible problem to have

So last night I started reading Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto, this new book by Eric Luper that's been sitting in my to-read pile for weeks (the problem of having a to-read pile with about 30-40 must reads).  And I'm reading and I'm digging it, and then I say to Colin, "What's that smell?" 

He responds, "What smell?  I don't smell anything.  Not that skunk again." 

"No, not a skunk," I tell him.  "It smells kind of sweet but kind of bad."  I think, God, I hope not, and sniff myself.  Nope!  Is it Colin?  He's sitting across the room, so that's unlikely.  (Though for other reasons too, rather unlikely.)

I take a break from reading, thinking of what the smell could be, and a breeze comes in and I get another big whiff of it.  "God, what is that smell?"

Turning to look out the window, I spot it.  The book, cover off, sitting there in all its red, brand new book glory.  I take a big whiff.  Sure enough, the book REEKS.  Not the pages, just the cover.  I have no idea why, but now I cannot bring myself to read the book.

What's a girl supposed to do when the book she wants to read smells?  I'm pretty familiar with smelly books, having weeded lots of them from the library.  Any time a coworker said, "Smell this!" while holding up a book, I always did.  And always regretted it.  But I never thought I'd have this problem with a brand new book!  I'm going to let it air out, if you will, for a few days before trying to read it again.

Has anyone else ever had this problem?  Any ideas?  I have some scented draw lining paper somewhere, but it seems rather old lady to cover a YA book in lavender printed, lavender-scented paper.  Right?

Book Review: Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford

There are a lot of iconic families in literature, and you can add the Sullivans to that list.  Almighty, otherwise known as Arden Louisa Norris Sullivan Weems Maguire Hightower Beckendorf, is the head of the illustrious Sullivans of Baltimore.  She's been married to, well, let's just say several scions of industry.  And we learn just two pages into Natalie Standiford's brilliant Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters that she is dying.  Her heirs are speechless.  But that's just the beginning.  Almighty plans to cut her rightful heirs out of her will.  One of them (no one is named) has deeply offended Almighty, and she expects that person to come forward with their confessions.  The latest generation of the Sullivan family has three teenage daughters, two slightly older sons, and one much younger son, just 6 years old.  Everyone in the family thinks it has to be one of the Sullivan sisters.  And so the story begins.

Sort of in the way that Carolyn Mackler's Tangled works, readers are privy to each daughter's confession, told in older, from oldest to youngest: Norrie, then Jane, then Sassy.  I don't want to ruin the book by uttering their deepest confessions, but let's just say that there's a love story, there's a revenge story, and there's a murder story!

Heading into this book, I was in a reading rut, but I feel totally lifted out of this.  This book is so fresh and new, but also paying homage to the stories of our (my?) youth.  I love that the Sullivans live in an old mansion in Baltimore (who sets books in Baltimore these days?) and that they are that quirky, blue blood family, eminently more interesting than anything you'd find in the Gossip Girl series (no offense!).  They are more of a cross between the Gilmores and the Glass family.

Exquisite writing, snappy dialogue, and brilliantly realized characterizations made this one of my most enjoyable reading experiences so far this year.  Brava, Natalie Standiford!  Two for two!  (I also really loved How to Say Goodbye in Robot, her debut novel from 2009, which I read this year.)

But you'll have to be patient, because the book doesn't hit bookstores and libraries near you until September 2010.

*** Observation: The cover on the ARC I read is completely different, but I hope they are going with the cover I've used in this picture.  The ARC cover shows three girls from behind, with notes in their hands, and to me it connoted a lighter, less literary read.  This cover reminds me a lot of the cover of E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and I think it more accurately markets the book's contents.  Because seriously, do we always need people on the cover of books, especially when they don't look like the characters? ***

Book Review: A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner

Librarian Emily Horner's debut novel is one of the strongest of the year, IMHO.  A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend is definitely a love story, but it's also a story about coming-of-age, about realizing your own identity, about realizing you are gay, and about a really kickass musical about ninjas that can divide by zero.  In the aftermath of her best friend Julia's death, Cass is at a loss.  She's always defined herself in relation to Julia.  Julia was her closest friend but she was also her main connection to her other friends.  They were all Julia's friends first, the theater nerds.  Does she belong with them?

This story features two plot-lines, Then and Now.  Now, Cass and her friends are turning Julia's secret project, her script for a musical about a ninjas, into reality.  Then is the past summer, when Cass decided to bike from Chicago to California, to bring Julia's ashes to the beach, to the West Coast, a place Julia never got to visit.  Both plot lines are equally compelling and would have sustained an excellent story, but what takes center stage, for this reader, is Cass coming into her own as a lesbian.  She struggles with trying to figure out if she ever loved Julia that way, and if she did, why she didn't tell her.  As her feelings change for her former enemy, Heather, she wishes Julia could have been there to sound her out.

This story is so skillfully realized by Emily Horner, with remarkable writing and keen sense of teenagers today.  This is absolutely the kind of book that so easily transcends "liked it" and becomes a favorite, the kind you clutch to your chest.  Highly recommended reading.

On keeping busy

Lately, I've been having a hard time getting really sucked into the books I've been reading.  That's sort of my excuse for not posting a lot lately.  I've liked the books I've been reading, but nothing I read had me excited the way some of the BFYA books did.  Maybe it's because I'm coming off a "reading high," as several of the BFYA feedback teens gushed, when talking about their favorite books.  But if that's the case, then I tend to have the opposite reaction.  If I read something I love love loved, it is unlikely that will make me more likely to go crazy over the following book.  The exact opposite will happen.  I will be possible hypercritical of the next book I read, making perhaps unrealistic comparisons to the first.  That said, I am super excited to read the books I've selected for today and tomorrow: Emily Horner's YA debut A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend (pretty sure I will love it because it sounded great in the NYTimes book review and it was blurbed by Steve Kluger AND Horner is librarian) and The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams (which has a completely gorgeous cover -- and the author has a short story in the Atlantic Fiction issue!).

But I have something else taking up a good chunk of my mental space.  I'm closing in on beginning querying for my new manuscript.  There's only one thing left to do, and it is time-consuming and exhausting, but it's the only thing that gets the job done.  I read the entire book out loud.  It is 240 pages.  I read a 50 page chunk this morning, amazed 1. that I could read 50 pages without needing a glass of water, and 2. that there are still some ridiculous typos.  Granted, this is the only way I've found to catch them.  This manuscript has been read by several people and myself multiple times, and I've still found a couple genuine typos (like a missing quotation mark, misspelling of a character name)!  Though most of the little notes I've made were more along the lines of "change this word," or "be consistent with how I spell anti-war."  Fifty pages down, only 140 something to go.  Sheesh!  Luckily, I've got something to break up intimate reading performance, which my cat Lilly is, I'm sure, confused by: tons of reading!

Hopefully will be back to share more thoughts on Emily Horner book.  For now: lunch!

Book Review - Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales is an eminently relatable novel.  (Perhaps I have a bit too much in common with the girls in the book, having attended an all-girls private school in Massachusetts with many similarities to the fictitious Westfield School.)  Violet and Katie have the kind of friendship that so many girls experience as teenagers.  They can finish each other's sentences, they have that quippy back and forth a la Lorelai and Rory Gilmore-- basically, they don't know where one ends and the other begins.  Which makes it all the more startling for Violet, an academic overachiever who holds very high expectations for herself, when Katie starts making decisions that are not in her best interest: dating an older guy who works at the coffee shop (who her parents would NOT approve of, who in fact Violet does not approve of!) and taking risks at school.  

This book is very much about friendship, and the way that friends can grow apart as they define themselves in relation to their world, and not just each other.  There are so many funny, laugh out loud moments.  Violet and Katie are witty and snarky, but most of all, they are pretty honest.  I appreciated the way this book deals very frankly with the competitive nature of fancy private high schools.  Unlike many other books that use these worlds as their settings (I'm talking to you, Gossip Girl), this one realistically captures what goes on in the classroom.  While Mostly Good Girls treads some familiar terrain plot-wise, it is the wit and spark of the writing, and the strong characterizations that will keep readers enthralled.

Review is based on an ARC.  Will be hitting bookstores and libraries in October 2010.

Yes, I am a sucker for verse novels

So I was pretty excited to go through all the boxes and packages that came in the mail while I was out of town for ALA and find Stephanie Hemphill's Wicked Girls.  I loved Your Own, Sylvia and I've found that having to read so many books these days (not that I'm complaining), it's such a relief to open up a book and find out that it's a verse novel.  Verse novels, for the most part, read very fast, and have that great economy of language which I've grown to appreciate.  There's so much mood and tone in the verse novels I've enjoyed, that I find myself absolutely racing through the pages.

So far out of this year's publishing cycle, I really loved Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron Koertge, Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards, and most recently Carol Lynch Williams' Glimpse, which I read as an ARC, but which just had its release last week.  Glimpse is an exquisitely crafted novel that packs an emotional punch, drawing readers in from the very first couple of pages, as our narrator, finds her sister with a gun, ready to kill herself.  Perhaps what I appreciated most about this book, was how well Williams explores the sad and unfortunate truth, which is that for too many kids, the parent is the villain. In this one, we have the mother, who lost her husband when her two daughters were quite young, and has never recovered.  She is a prostitute with very few redeemable facets, and yet, as we see with Precious' mother, so perfectly played by Mo'Nique, this character is so developed.  She is a monster with a backstory, and as much as you (as the reader) don't want to excuse your behavior, at least you can understand how she got to the point.  The moments where she is in Hope (the narrator's) face will get your heart palpitating like no other.  And the central mystery of the story, what event(s) precipitated Lizzie's depression and suicide attempt, easily sustain the 400+ pages of this quick read.  I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys the quick pacing and emotional nature of so many of the verse novels.

ALA 2010 Recap!

Whew!  Got back into Boston early last night from an amazing 5 days in Washington, D.C.  My bag was stuffed to the max with books.  My legs are totally bruised from my inability to control an 80 lb suitcase when wielding it onto buses and such.  But it was so, so worth it.  I'll share my highlights but first a cautionary tale, so you will never make the mistake I did.  When attending conference, always book ahead!  Do not wait to find bargain bed and breakfasts.  They do not exist.  I tried to go the bargain route, and ended up in a situation very reminiscent of the beginning of the Harry Potter books.  You know how each one starts with weird stuff happening, the appearance of a new strange character, who will become important to that book?  Well, that's truly how my check-in at the inn felt.  

The dude working the front desk was seriously creepy in the way that, well, the villains of Harry Potter are.  Complete with two wandering eyes, he proceeded to tell me that my room was flooded because, you know, the D.C. weather has been terrible, and it was moldy.  Riiight (it's been very hot in DC but I've heard nothing of this "flooding" he mentioned).  He then sent me trekking up the street to their sister inn, let's just say it rhymes with Shmembassy.  When I saw the room they had for me there, well, it was all over.  Literally, it was like 150 square feet, with two queen beds shoved in there.  I could barely get my suitcase in the door.  Besides the two beds, there was no other furniture outside of a coat rack and a bedside table.  No closet.  No place to put the suitcase.  Absolutely no place to set up an ironing board (sort of essential for, you know, living out of a hotel for 5 days).  Half an hour later, I was checking into a legitimate hotel, super thankful for last minute cheap rates, and trying to forget the whole episode.  Unlike in Harry Potter, double-wandering-eye-French-fellow did not reappear later.  THANK GOD!

Okay, so, the highlights!

1.  My favorite part had to be getting to know my fellow committee members and the BFYA meetings.  Talking about 93 books sounds completely exhausting and grueling, but it really wasn't.  I loved hearing their observations about the books.  It's so amazing how we can all have such different reactions to the same book.

2.  I met the author Jennifer Lynn Barnes!  She is the only other Jennifer Lynn Barnes I know... so far!  So that was kind of amazing.  We are going to start a club of Jennifer Lynns.  Now I know there are a lot more of these.  Off the top of my head, I can think of some.  My guesses are, if you were born female in the 80s and named Jennifer, you very likely have Lynn as a middle name.  True?

3.  Watching David Levithan sing!  David Levithan, along with John Green and debut author Andrea Cremer, were our awesome special guests for the BFYA Teen Pizza Party.  I've never seen David Levithan before, or Andrea Cremer, (I've seen John Green a couple times), but they were super entertaining.  The singing and a couple other moments were probably the highlights of that day.  Also, I'm fairly certain I that I'm going to be in an upcoming vlog video as John panned his camera across the front row of the crowd, where several of us BFYA-ers were sitting.  Will definitely post the link to the video if/when this turns out to be true.

4.  Seeing Toni Morrison as keynote speaker.  I have to commend the ALA for their selection of speakers.  This was the only speech I could attend because of my meetings, but it was again such a special experience.  I had to run out and buy one of her books the next day because I was so blown away by her insight and genius gift with words.  Let's just say I am currently reading 5 books right now -- and I'm not one to read multiple books at once -- because I am just that excited about all these books and authors!

5.  Meeting Jacqueline Kelly, author of Newbery Honor book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  I told her how happy I was for her when it won, since it was my personal favorite of last year, and she said I wasn't as happy as she was.  I truly think that book will be for many girls what Anne of Green Gables was for me growing up.  When I read it, I could hardly believe it was a debut novel, it was that perfect.

6.  The Michael L. Printz reception.  Every ALA I attend, and every year I am not disappointed, and beyond that, always surprised by one of the authors.  I'll admit that due to BFYA reading, I still haven't read Rick Yancey's The Monstrumologist, Adam Rapp's Punkzilla, or John Barnes' Tales from the Madmen Underground, but I'm working to remedy that.  Each speech was moving in its own way, and several had me welling up in tears a little bit, but then Libba Bray busted it all open with her speech.  For the first five or so minutes, I was seriously wondering if I was going to wet myself.  She is soooo hilarious, and I've seen her before, but this was new heights of hilarity.  And then the speech took its turn.  It was so emotional and honest, and from a very different place than usual.  It was definitely my favorite moment of the night.  Also, I'm pretty convinced that if she wanted to, Libba Bray could be the next Oprah Winfrey.  She has so much charisma, oh my god.  And yeah, it's kind of cool that we were sitting right behind M.T. Anderson.

7.  Books, books, books!  I know I get books in the mail almost every day.  And I have a huge library system at my disposal.  But I cannot help myself when it comes to ARCs.  And for the past few days, I didn't.  I won't list everything I got, but here are my top acquisitions.  Matched by Ally Condie (the first in a new dystopian series); Jane -- because when an author decides to pose the question, what if Jane Eyre dated a rock star, well, it turns out I want to know the answer; Raised by Wolves; Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 water bottle! (!!!); Scumble, the companion to Ingrid Law's Savvy;  Dirt Road Home, Watt Key's follow-up to the brilliant Alabama Moon (which evidently is being made into a movie starring John Goodman!); Prisoners in the Palace, which has maybe the coolest cover ever; The Kneebone Boy, which had a pretty amazing cover itself; Sarah Ockler's latest Fixing Delilah Hannaford and the new Jennifer Donnelly.  Gaaaahhh!

And if that's not enough, I am also reading these:

Actually, I am not reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate or my foot, but you understand, right?

Washington, D.C., here I come!

Come Friday, I'll be heading out to Washington, D.C. for the ALA Annual Conference.  And I.  Can't.  Wait!  Last time when ALA was in DC, it was my first time, and I have great memories of the city as host to thousands and thousands of librarians.  I got to meet my idol Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, had my picture taken with Markus Zusak (hadn't read The Book Thief at that point), and snagged more ARCs than my back could handle.  I'm so ready to do it all over again.

Here's what I'm most looking forward to:

1.  BFYA meetings!  No, really, I am super excited to talk about the books I've spent the last several months reading, and meeting my fellow committee members.  I'm also pretty curious about the teen pizza party with David Levithan and John Green.

2.  Michael L. Printz reception.  I'll admit that unlike in past years, I have not been able to read the honor books that I hadn't already read (due to reading tons of 2010 fiction), but I'm still looking forward to seeing all the honor and winner authors.  I've had the pleasure of hearing Libba Bray speak before, and she is a natural.  So funny and effervescent.

3.  ARC madness!  On my wish list: Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, Matched by Ally Condie, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, and if it's there (it may not be, I have no clue) Annexed by Sharon Dogar.  And of course, whatever else looks good.  Also, you will probably find me grabbing whatever else looks good.  At least this year, I know I'll read them!  Come to think of it, I'll probably end up getting through all my ARCs in a month or so.  Sheesh!

4.  Seeing Toni Morrison speak.  With the busy schedule of meetings, I won't have the same freedom I did in years past to stalk author signings and go to the keynote addresses, but I will be able to see Toni Morrison.

5.  Schmoozing!  What I love best about ALA is the way you happen upon things you never expected.  Like how I got to meet Sherman Alexie last year and have him sign a chapbook.  Totally not on my agenda for the day, but a completely mind-blowing experience as he's one of my favorite authors ever.  Also, last time at the Newbery-Caldecott dinner, Kirby Larson sat at my table.  Yeah, that would be the Newbery Honor-winning author of Hattie Big Sky.  Completely random, completely awesome.  So, I'm open to all kinds of schmoozy surprises, and ready to share them here when I return.

Until then, happy reading!

Thursday Three!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't posted anything since last week's Thursday Three.  It's been a hectic week here... oh wait, no, not really.  I've been pulling overtime duty for sports-watching.  Not only have I been following the Red Sox every day, but I've added the Celtics to my viewing schedule.  By the end of the hour, we'll know whether or not they are this year's champions, but if my track record has anything to say about it, it does not look good.

Alas, the THURSDAY THREE!

Today's theme: what I really, really want to read.  But can't right now.

1. The new Alice book, ahem, FINAL Alice book, Alice in Charge.  I wonder if Phyllis Reynolds Naylor gets the Charles in Charge theme song every time she thought about the book's title, or if that's just a malady afflicting me.  It is quite possible that the Alice books are sort of the reason I'm a librarian.  They're certainly a contributing factor.  Growing up, I devoured the books, but as I grew out of elementary school, I also temporarily grew out of reading.  If it wasn't Seventeen or Rolling Stone, I probably wasn't reading it.  And then I got a summer job at the library.  And discovered that in the time that I'd given up reading, PRN had published many more Alice books.  Which I surreptitiously devoured when I was supposed to be putting the picture books in order.  I went to college and found myself, again, too busy to keep up with Alice.  But then one summer I found myself in Wyoming with plenty of free time for reading.

Since then, I've kept up with Alice and all of her adventures.  I've met Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and I have the signed book to prove it.  I even have a friend who emails regularly with her, and has for many years.  It's hard to imagine coming to the end of the Alice series.  I'll always remember Alice (okay, now I am sounding like she's a real person, and well, to me she almost is!) getting caught trying on boy's jeans because her brother and dad didn't know better.  And I'll always fondly think of Lester as inculcating my future crushes on graduate students.  Maybe it's okay that I have to wait at least a week to read this one, because I have a feeling it's an experience I'll want to savor

2. Is it just me, or is The Atlantic Monthly the best magazine ever?  I meant to read just a little bit of one of three issues gracing our pseudo coffee table, and got totally sucked in for over an hour.  I generally think of the Atlantic Monthly as not particularly interested in all things YA and middle grade, so I squealed with delight upon seeing James Parker's piece on Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I found myself nodding in agreement with pretty much everything he said, and then remembered how much I want my boyfriend to watch the movie with me once it's out on DVD.  Oh, Fregley!  Anyway, let it be known, Atlantic Monthly, I may not have time to read you cover-to-cover anymore, but I still love you!

3. It's a tie between Donna Freitas's The Gorgeous Game -- because I love love looooved The Possibilities of Sainthood -- and Ally Carter's Heist Society.  I guess it'll come down to whether I want to read a serious book, or something very indulgent and fun.

Okay, time to catch the last minute or so of action, to find out if I've cursed the Celtics.  It looks like I have...  Sorry, Boston!

Thursday Three

1.  I now have only 13 BFYA nominations to read before we meet at the ALA Annual Conference.  This  means that as long as I knock off one a day, I might be able to read something else.  I have to say, reading only nominations for weeks in a row has been kind of odd.  It doesn't feel like required reading in college or high school - since they're all fiction and, well, reading fiction never feels like work for me - but I am really looking forward to being able to mix it up again.  Also, my to-read pile is HUGE, thanks to a bunch of ARCs from Scholastic.  And my bedside reading is Rick Riordan's new one, so... yeah, you could say I'm not lacking in reading material.

2.  Finally have an idea for my next YA project.  At least, I think so.  Let's just say it was inspired by a redsox.com article that ran in the last couple days about Victor Martinez.  Now, if I could just find some time to start writing it....

3.  This is completely unrelated to all things YA... but I just found out that someone with whom I attended junior high has married Alanis Morissette.  That's pretty crazy!

I think I've found my new guilty pleasure

The TV series based off the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard debuts tonight on ABC Family!  Now, I'll admit that I never read the books, but I replaced them so much at my last library that it almost feels like I did.  Just when I said I was looking for some trashy summer TV (but not literally trashy, Hoarders!), I find out about this show.  I've been backing off of non-vital TV-watching (i.e. Friday Night Lights, Big Bang Theory) but now that all of my shows are over for the summer, I feel like it's the perfect time to indulge in an ABC Family series.

Lest we not forget the summers spent watching (and loving!) Kyle XY.

Anyway, I'll be tuning in tonight!

48 Hour Book Challenge: Finale!

Alright, we're about ten minutes or so from the end of my 48 hour span.  Here's the breakdown:

5 books:
1.  The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin (218 pages: 3 hours, 5 minutes).
2.  The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (214 pages: 2 hours, 50 minutes)
3.  The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June by Robin Benway (282 pages: 3 hours, 25 minutes)
4.  A Small Free Kiss In The Dark by Glenda Millard (180 pages: 2 hours, 13 minutes)
5.  Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian (322 pages: 2 hours and 29 minutes).

Page count: 1,216
Hour total: 14 hours, 2 minutes

Blogging reviews + Social Networking
1 hour on Friday, June 4
1 hour on Sunday, June 6
+ 1 hour of social networking:
3 hours

GRAND TOTAL: 17 hours, 2 minutes

Whew!  I easily surpassed my goal of 12 hours, though fell short of my goal for 6 books.  I really thought I read faster, but perhaps I read faster when I take more mini breaks?  Due to the timing part of this, I worked really hard to read in larger chunks of time.  And gained much compassion for my summer readers of summers past, who dutifully logged their time spent reading.

I'll definitely want to do this again next year!  Perhaps taking a break in the middle for the horrible but fun Sex and the City 2 and dinner with friends was not the best way to get the most out of my 48 hours.  But it did wonders for my sanity!

48 Hour Book Challenge, Book 5: Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

It seems like every school has one.  That girl that seems to rise above everything, the one who's so in control of her present and future, the one who has it all together.  Or so it seems.  Natalie Sterling is that girl, at Ross Academy.  After watching her best friend Autumn lose her social standing after being humiliated by her  jock, senior boyfriend, when she was a freshman, Natalie has basically avoided all contact with the male species.  She's focused on school, her grades, saving Autumn, and becoming the ninth girl in her school's history to become Student Council President.

A last minute challenge by asshole jock Mike Domski isn't enough to derail Natalie, who narrowly defeats him.  She's in charge as much as she's ever been.  But success never comes easy, and Natalie's soon distracted by her old babysitting charge, now a spunk freshman, who has her own ideas about feminism, most of them along the line of using sexuality to get boys to like her.  As much as they don't see eye to eye, Natalie still wants to rescue Spencer, convinced she's got everything all figured out.  But she didn't count on Connor, the football QB, making a pass at her, and she certainly didn't count on her... liking him back.

Siobhan Vivian's latest looks at the double standards for guys and girls, but also puts a human spin on it. I found myself constantly reevaluating my own opinions and judgments, as much as Natalie has to, throughout the book.  It turns out it's not so easy, to be just one kind of girl, and maybe...maybe that's okay.

This book is pretty hard to put down, especially when you're in a crunch to beat the clock.  Vivian does an excellent job at getting at the nuances in the book's many relationships, whether its Natalie and Connor, Natalie and her best friend Autumn, or Natalie and her teacher-mentor, Ms. Bee.

In my opinion, a must-read for high school girls.

* This review is based off an Uncorrected Proof.  The finished book will hit bookstores in September 2010. *

48 Hour Book Challenge, Book 4: A Small Free Kiss In The Dark by Glenda Millard

Imagine if Cormac McCarthy wrote The Road and made it hopeful.  Okay, I know, that's not what Cormac McCarthy would do, but it's sort of what Glenda Millard does in A Small Free Kiss In The Dark.  Skip's a teenager who never quite found what he was looking for via the foster care system.  He's homeless, but he gets by, spending time in the library and creating chalk art.  Until something very not beautiful happens.  His dingy city world, a world he still saw the beauty in, becomes war-torn.  Buildings are blowing up, people are dead in the street, or cowered in what's left of the library, trying to figure out what to do next.  His world is a war-zone.  And nobody knows what to do.

With an older homeless man, Billy, and a kid named Max, whose mother never made it to pick him up from the library, Skip leaves the city, venturing through the underground tunnels where the trains used to run, and finds a new home, in an abandoned amusement park.  Thinking the tanks and bombs won't come for them there, Skip, Billy, Max, and a beautiful ballerina/teenage mother Tia and her baby make their home there, carving out an existence in a place that's supposed to inspire hope and doing the best they can to survive.

Millard crafts a gripping story in an unreal setting, at least for this country.  As much as this is not a story about the apocalypse, the setting nevertheless feels like it, with no one aware of what is happening, except the fact that everything has changed.  Gorgeous, evocative writing, and a hopeful, thoughtful protagonist make this story both memorable and powerful. 

48 Hour Book Challenge - Book 3 - The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June by Robin Benway

There's something powerful about sisterhood.  I know this mostly because I only have a brother, and have always felt something missing when talking to friends who have sisters.  There's something special about sisterhood: the antagonism, the rivalry, and the closeness that can only come from spending so much time in the same house, year after year, with someone related to you and also, so much like you.

April, May, and June are sisters whose parents got a little lazy when it came to picking names for their kids.  They were all born a year apart; April is the oldest (a junior), then May (a sophomore), then June (a freshman).  After their parents' surprising divorce, the girls were uprooted from the only home they knew and plunked down in Southern California, forced to start high school all over again in a place where they have no friends.  April, the brainiac of the family, has her mind set on college, while May's seriously missing her dad, and the only thing June cares about is finagling her way into the popular crowd.  But all of these plans are thrown for a serious loop when, on the way into school, their car almost hits another student.... and they realize they all have extraordinary powers.  April can see into the future, May can become invisible, and June can read minds.

If you're expecting for the girls to bond together with their secret powers to save the world, you are reading the wrong book!  These sisters use their secret powers, for good and for bad, dealing with the crises of high school that everyone -- yes, even those of us without super powers -- can relate to.  Their powers pull them apart and divide them (can you imagine being able to read your sibling's mind?!), but they also bring them together, in a powerful finale that will remind readers of the fragile bonds that tie siblings together, for better or for worse, as family.

This is a perfect beach read for the end of summer (sorry, it doesn't come out until August) or for the start of the school year.  Robin Benway is a witty writer with a deep understanding of all that goes down in high school: the good, the bad, the ugly.  Each chapter is written by a different sister, and I have to say, my favorite sections were the ones narrated by Meg.  She's the perfect moody antidote to June (who's basing her life off a little too much reality TV) and had some hilarious moments getting all snarky with her peer tutor, Henry.

  Readers of Audrey, Wait! have been waiting a little while for this one, and it won't disappoint.


*This review is based off the Advance Reader's Copy.  The book will be published in August 2010.*

48 Hour Book Challenge - Book 2: The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

From the moment I picked up Carlos Ruiz Zafon's debut YA novel The Prince of Mist (finally out in the United States) from the library this afternoon, I've been dying to read it.  The moody, mysterious cover totally sucked me in, and the blurbs from just about every reputable book review source on the back increased my enthusiasm.

And then I started the book.  And I understood the power of masterful storytelling.  That's exactly what's going on here.  The skeleton of the story sounds familiar to anyone who appreciates a good mystery or horror story.  A family packs up all their belongings, relocating to a huge house by the ocean.  Huge houses by the ocean don't come easily, or cheaply, and so it's not completely surprising to learn that the young boy who lived here died, and soon after, so did both his parents.

Max, along with his two sisters, and mother, is sort of creeped out by the place when they arrive.  It seems like it hasn't been touched in ten years, but every now and then, he gets a glimpse of what a grand place it must have been.  And then he's getting glimpses of something else.  In the expansive yard, he finds an overrun garden with statues, of circus performers, all pointed toward a clown in the center.  His dad finds some old reels of film and plays them for his family on the wall (it's the 1940s, and that's how it was done back then).  One of the reels has footage of the statues, except they aren't posed the same way.  And the weird thing is, Max's sister just had a dream about the statue the night before.

This is a tale where nothing's quite as it seems, and Max has to do a fair bit of research and unraveling to get at the bottom of everything, in a race against time before the Prince of Mist returns for what he believes belongs to him.  This one has all the atmosphere, creepiness, and cinematic flair to draw in readers of all ages who like a good, spooky, creepy tale.  This is precisely the kind of book younger me would have loved (of course, current me loved it too) because I did go through a phase in which I was fascinated by this sort of paranormal stuff.  Werewolves, vampires--not so much, but give me a good "ghost" story or something with an oracle doll or possessed doll house, and I was there.

This one will definitely appeal to Stephen King fans, but that's not to say it's straight-up horror.  Mystery and supernatural fans will find much to admire as well.

48 Hour Book Challenge, Book One: The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Disclosure: I haven't read anything by Brendan Halpin OR Emily Franklin before, but now that I've read this one, and found out that they live, basically, right in my neighborhood (okay, close: Newton and J.P.), I probably should read more!  Also, those are not the real reasons to read more, the real reason is because this book was GREAT!

Most of the time, love does not come easy.  And this is certainly the case for Liana, who has a hard time believing that she's not a "slut," as the note in her locker claims.  She's done her fair share of kissing and running.  And then there's Hank, who's never gotten close enough to a member of his opposite sex that wasn't Mother to even be thinking of love.  A chance meeting in a hospital bathroom brings these two characters from disparate places (in social standings, life, though they are from the same town) together for an unforgettable friendship that blooms into something more, a challenge for the both of them.

Franklin and Halpin clearly are a pair to watch (dare we say, the second coming of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn?!?!).  In fact, this book, for me, personally, surpassed Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.  I found this love story so much more believable, because, let's face it, how rare is it to find love in a moment, in an evening?  The best relationship stories take place over a longer period of time, say, a summer, giving both characters plenty of time to completely embarrass themselves in front of each other, because cringe-worthy moments and complete mistakes give way to the most redeeming of apologies and forgiveness.

Music buffs will appreciate the way these two have bonded over a shared love of rock classics.

It seems that I must mention that Hank has Asperger's syndrome, since it is relevant to the story, but I must also then admit that this one of the first stories I've read about someone with Asperger's where that's not their defining feature, nor is it what the story is about.  Perhaps that is where the story really succeeds in defying stereotypes.  When Liana starts hanging out with Hank, she has no idea he has Asperger's, he's just a little bit strange sometimes (umm... what teenage boy isn't?) and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of rock music (you can say that about pretty much every guy that's worked at a record store). He has to tell her that he has Asperger's, just so she'll understand how some things don't come natural to him (like reading gestures, etc.).

This is the perfect quirky summer romance for anyone that likes to read about real, flawed, kind of hilarious people, finding each other and finding love.