Good Girls by Laura Ruby

Local author Laura Ruby's debut young adult novel is a winner, and it stands out among the bevy of books coming out right now about girls battling their reputations. It's the fall of senior year in suburban New Jersey, and Audrey is expecting the year to go as planned. She's fourth in her class, a straight-A student, revered by teachers and fairly popular. Things are going well, really, her only concern being the fact that she'll have to leave her best friends behind when she ventures off to her Ivy-league school in the fall. She's not the kind of girl you'd expect to be in a picture message passed around from cell-phone to cell-phone the day following a big party, found in a compromising picture with the hottest guy at school. In a moment, Audrey's reputation is up in the air, and it's up to her to decide how she wants to reshape it. Is she going to become, as some think of her now, a "slut"? What defines a "good girl" anyway? You'll have to read Good Girls to find out.

**** (four stars)

you may not all enjoy this as much as i do....

A spoof of "March of the Penguins" called... "March of the Librarians."

Story of A Girl

"This is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world..." Yeah, I can't remember who sang that sort of awful but very stick-in-your head pop song, which found its way back into my head as I read Sara Zarr's most excellent debut novel Story of A Girl. Deanna Lambert was just thirteen when her dad caught her in the back seat of a car with her older brother's friend Tommy, and though sixteen now, no one will let her forget it. Branded a "slut" though she hasn't done anything with any guys since, Deanna wants to change her image. It's summer in Pacifica, a small town just 15 minutes from San Francisco, but as Deanna explains, it's like a different planet. It's the kind of town that's filled with people who grew up there; it's that hard to leave. But Deanna's working on her escape - from a house that's made uncomfortable by a dad who still won't look her in the eye - and it involves a summer job at the pizza shop. She plans to earn enough money to put towards first month's rent or a down payment for a place with her brother, his girlfriend, and their baby. Sounds good, right? That's what Deanna thought, until her first day of work when she learns that she'll be working with... Tommy. Okay, there is no way I am telling you any more about this book. You've got to check it for yourself.
* * * * * (5 stars)

Okay, I think I am going to start rating the book reviews. One a one to five star basis.

* (1 star) - this even got published? my cat could write a better book
* * (2 stars) - might be interesting to some people, but not to most
* * * (3 stars) - pretty good good (like an okay Gilmore Girls episode)
* * * * (4 stars) - hard to put down, quite good
* * * * * (5 stars) - one of the best books of the year, impossible to put down, made me cry

More true confessions from a young adult librarian

So...
I have a new obsession, and yes, it is YouTube related and no, it is not lonelygirl15 because that was the obsession I had months ago, and this is my new one. John Green's video posts, also, those created by his brother. Yup, that's right, the author of "Looking for Alaska" and more recently "An Abundance of Katherines" is every other day creating a video blog entry, posted on his website's blog. On the days when he doesn't post, his brother Hank posts. They are going to be doing this for the entire year, as part of their project Brotherhood 2.0. The YouTube video at the top of this entry is the first video in their project.

Simply put: Is my day complete without seeing the lastest video? No. No, my friend, it is not. I am convinced his brother Hank must have attended my alma mater. He is just that weird.

Other young adult-related obsession that has persisted for months: reading Sarah Dessen's blog. Every day.

What's your obsession? (Not the creepy stalker kind, please. He he.)

No More Pants

Two nights ago, I read in its entirety the last book in the Ann Brashares' Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series: Forever in Blue. Set during the summer after Lena, Bridget "Bee," Carmen, and Tibby's first year in college, the final book is just as good as those preceding it. I'm partial to the second one -- Bridget has always been my favorite character -- but much of what happens in Forever in Blue rang true to me. Bridget spends the summer in Turkey on an archaeology trip, Lena's taking a summer figure drawing class in Providence, Tibby's staying put in New York City to take a screen-writing class, and Carmen's working on a summer theater production in Vermont. Though physically apart for most of the book, the girls stay in touch through email, letters, phone calls, and of course, by sending those magical pants to each other. After four years of no washing, they must have worked up some kind of magical stink! It wouldn't be a summer of sisterhood if there wasn't a whole lot of drama, brought on by the boys once more. Will Bridget repeat her attraction to an older man? Will Lena and Kostos get back together? Will Carmen find herself again (oh yeah - Carmen lost all her awesomeness her first year at Williams College, and spent a lot of time by herself eating ice cream) with the help of the stage? Will Tibby get pregnant?

Well, don't look at me for the answers. Check out the final installation of the sisterhood saga!

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I finally read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer over the past few days. I know it came out 2 years ago and I might seem really slow on this, but I have only been a young adult librarian for a few months so, I am not a delinquent librarian! That said, here is my review of Twilight:

Bella Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to a small town called Forks in Washington, where a sunny day is a rarity and no one questions you playing a game of baseball in the rain. Bella's a pale, clumsy seventeen-year-old who never attracted the attention of boys back in Phoenix, but for some reason, every guy at Forks seems to be checking her out. The weirdest thing is the effect she seems to have on the very attractive, model-like Edward Cullen, her biology partner. Sometimes he just looks so angry around her. Then one day, things change in a big way. He saves her life, and suddenly, she finds herself falling for him, falling hard, and developing a mental list of questions about this peculiar, hot guy. Is he maybe... a vampire? Clocking in at just under 500 pages, Twilight may look like a chunky read, but its fast pace will pull you through those 498 pages in no time. While I found myself totally interested in Bella's story, I was sometimes distracted by Meyer's lazy writing; she must've called Edward "beautiful" no less than 100 times. On a similar note, there were parts of the story that either left me confused or lead me to believe they would eventually come into play. For one, I thought the fact that Bella was so pasty might be important, but it never really came up as meaningful. Also, I wasn't sure where the author was going with the interactions between the Cullen family and Bella's father's longtime Native American friend. Perhaps these unanswered questions are intended, since there is a sequel: New Moon. As someone who's never read a book about vampires, so this was a first, I found it really interesting. Would you consider giving up life as you know it, exchanging a temporary life on earth, for an enduring life on earth where you could only be out at night?

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

The aptly named Colin Singleton has just been dumped by the nineteenth Katherine. That's right - all the girls he has dated have been named Katherine, and all of them have dumped him. Colin is also a huge nerd/former child prodigy, who just finished high school. This doesn't add up, I thought -- how does a really nerdy guy have 19 girlfriends??? Well, it turns out that he employs the word "girlfriend" pretty loosely. Distraught over the most recent dumping, Colin is dragged out on a road trip with his chubby Muslim friend Hassan who, unlike Colin, passes his time watching "Judge Judy" -- not reading several books a day. Hassan and Colin's road trip comes to a bit of a standstill when a roadside attraction in Tennessee helps them meet a pretty girl who is not a "Katherine." Since An Abundance of Katherines is written by John Green -- whose first novel Looking for Alaska won the Printz award -- you know it's going to be witty and interesting and well-written. Unlike his weightier debut, Katherines doesn't play with your emotions; it plays with your head. In addition to his other nerdy pursuits like anagramming, Colin is also dead set on writing a math formula that predicts a relationship's demise. Yup, that's right, there is real math in this book. I don't know about you, but I don't need any math in my novels! (Don't worry, it's not that much math.) In spite of the math, I still found An Abundance of Katherines compelling and laugh-out-loud funny.