More in the Endless Parade of New Books...

Our last straggler in the list of 2009 National Book Award Nominees (for us young'uns) has arrived! Hooray!

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor!


Looks to be romance (surprised, right?) with a smattering of paranormal--except these are three separate stories, not one big novel. Plus there's a graphic section. It looks interesting--I'll let you know.

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr,


The chronicles of a second pastor's daughter, this novel counters the chick-lit feel of Donut Days with a more grim picture of life as a PK. It, however, is also startlingly accurate. Trust me.

Beautifully written, your heart will break with Sam as she struggles with her mother's absence, her father's demanding job, the disappearance of a girl from her youth group, and Sam's own growing depression.

This is another excellent novel by Sara Zarr, author of Sweethearts and Story of a Girl.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour, which I just finished.


I loved this book. Loved, loved, loved.

Caitlin's friend Ingrid's sudden suicide leaves her reeling. She can't understand why Ingrid would kill herself. When she finds Ingrid's journal, Caitlin begins to see her friend in a way she'd never been able to before.

LaCour's writing made Caitlin's grief and loss real, heartbreakingly so. I strongly recommend this book!

The novel I'm reading right now:

Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd.

Holly Hogan ditches school, her latest foster home, England, and her name as she sets off on a road trip to find her mother in Ireland. Calling herself Solace and donning a blonde wig, she's off.

This is a fantastic road trip novel, Holly's humor offsets her often-dangerous surroundings, making her a realistic and like able character. Even if I'm reading it at Culver's and forcing myself not to shout at the book, "CALL HOME, HOLLY! DON'T GET ON THE FERRY!"

I know. Try not getting that involved.

The newest from Ellen Hopkins, Tricks...


And I finally broke down and got Identical in hardcover, because I know you were all tired of waiting. So was I. Over a year in hardcover--and counting!


Sorry guys, I'm not a poetry girl. So no reviews on these.

But, if you love them, hate them, or just plain liked them, let me know what you think in the comments!

Oh--and the new novel The Maze Runner by James Dashner.


Fantastic writing--It's next on my reading list. Thomas wakes up in a lift (elevator) with no memory (never a good sign) and is brought into the Glade by other boys his age. They all know the routine: every 30 days a new boy shows up with no memory of why he's been sent there, and nobody wants to get caught hanging around after dark...

But the next day, Thomas and the other Gladers are shocked to see a girl has arrived in the lift--and she has message for them.

The Compound by S.A. Bodeen...


A thriller of the post-apocalyptic variety, Eli and his family live in an underground bomb-shelter-y compound (and have for the last six years). Only their family: Eli, his parents, and his two sisters. Imagine the cabin fever.

Problems start to plague them, not to mention the constant struggle for...sanity?...and Eli begins to wonder if his father maybe isn't so concerned about what might get in. Now all he cares about is keeping the rest of them from getting out.

And our final offering: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron.

It looks fantastic; I'll give you more when I've read it...

Still More New Books!

Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances, contains three interlinked holiday stories by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle--all fantastic authors. I devoured it yesterday, sitting in a coffee shop and hoping, unfortunately, that it would not snow as I knew I had to drive home from Huntington on the oft-ill-plowed State Road 16.


I loved reading this book! It was light and fun, perfect for holiday vacation reading. Especially if this year involves another freak ice storm like last year, the one that left my family without electricity, heat, or running water for more days than I want to mention. By the way, thanks again to my friend Jen, who let me come over to escape having to use buckets of river water to flush the toilet. Those were sad, sad days, and the use of your running--and hot--water was much appreciated.

Aren't friends great?

I cannot stress enough how much I love both John Green and Maureen Johnson. They are fantastic. Read all their books. Repeatedly. They will make your life happy; your world brighter. They will give you reason to go on.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little--but not by much!

We also have two shiny-new Forensic Mysteries by Alane Ferguson, The Angel of Death and The Circle of Blood, both follow-ups to The Christopher Killer.



Fans of CSI or other procedural crime dramas will love these mysteries, they combine mystery with just the right amount of science.

Another new book is Gone by Michael Grant. Not really gone, though, because it's sitting next to me on the desk (sorry, couldn't help it).


The first in a series, Gone opens with the disappearance of every adult. Only the young remain, but without the use of phones, internet, television, and...well...the police, help is impossible.

Meanwhile, a new social structure dominated by the strongest and cruelest, begins to emerge even as the teens and kids deal with encroaching hunger, a strange creature, mutating animals, and their own growing, unexplained powers.

Very Lord of the Flies. Good, creepy fun. Since, you know, none of us have to live it.

I just finished reading this one: Donut Days by Lara Zielin!


What initially drew me to this novel wasn't the yummy-looking donuts on the cover, or the fact that I hadn't eaten lunch yet when I was picking which new book to read first...It was the subject matter.

Emma is a pastor's daughter, and both her mom and her dad are pastors at the same local church. My mom isn't a pastor, but my dad certainly is, and a lot of the issues Emma goes through in the book seemed pretty familiar.

A lot of Christian fiction for young adults--maybe even for adults, it's been a while since I've read any for that age group--depicts the world as a happy, perfect place. And it isn't, for the most part. This book is a refreshing departure from the norm, with a strong, vibrant narrator facing all the usual teenage dilemmas (boys, friends, family, money for college) and some unusual ones (thinking her own behavior could cost her parents their jobs).

Give this one a go!

Tim Hamilton Just Made My Day

I feel special, all of a sudden. Look at the comments for yesterday to see why...

And don't forget to check out Tim's blog, Tim Hamilton has an Art Blog--and read his new Fahrenheit 451 adaptation (to be found upstairs in our YA section) while you're at it!

A TON of New Books

There are a whole lot of these, more than I think I can handle at any given time, but I'll give it a whirl.

A new graphic novel--newer than yesterday's batch because this one came downstairs this morning--Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton.


I am usually not hugely into graphic novels, because I read too fast to concentrate on all the pictures (it's a hard life). But this one is so cool! Come and look at the art--you'll love it.

The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson is all about boarding school and Nazis, never a good combination.


But there's dancing and standing up to bad things, so that's good.

Also, we have new-new paranormal chick-lit, Bite Me by Melissa Francis


Teenage vampire, ex-boyfriend becomes new step-brother, and a former classmate she may or may not have turned into a vampire. Oops. Here's what the publisher says, "The fate of humankind lies in her little undead hands."

I like.

And Whip It, by Shauna Cross, which is now a movie.


This is what happens when your mother wants you to be in pageants, but you'd rather be elbowing people at high speed--roller derby. I want to see the film when it comes out on DVD, but I'd better read this first. It's a rule, that one should read the book prior to seeing the movie. And if such rules were enforced, some of you would be in trouble...

Everything You Want by Barbara Shoup is one of our Rosie Nominees!


Emma's eighteen and she randomly wins the lottery--50 million dollars, and she's just getting started. Those of us with college loans think this sounds rather nice. But Emma only wants to not be lonely, and that's something money can't help her with.

Ditched and punched in the face by her (ex) best friend and crush-of-a-lifetime...this could be a good one.

If you don't know it already, I am currently enjoying all of Maureen Johnson's books, and I thought you might like to do the same. We just got the two novels of hers we didn't already have--The Bermudez Triangle


In which friends Nina, Avery, and Mel face their first summer apart, right before senior year starts. Not too bad, since they'll be back together soon. Nina comes back from a summer program at Stanford to find that Mel and Avery aren't just friends anymore, and now Nina is the odd one out.

And...


Girl at Sea in which Clio Ford is drug onto a boat in the Mediterranean where she must spend the entire summer...with her father. What she'd much rather be doing is spending time at the art store with her crush. Instead she's coping with her dad's friend Martin, his partner Julia, her daughter Elsa, and Aidan, Julia's assistant.

I hope these will get me through the wait for the sequel to Suite Scarlett!

We also have book one of the Chaos Walking series: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.


The town where Todd lives is a great deal different from most--everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts for one. They call this Noise, and right before his birthday, Todd stumbles across a spot that goes quiet--no more Noise. Just like that.

Too bad that now he knows it's around, everyone's trying to kill him.

On a much lighter note, the third installment in Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Edwardian wizardry series, The Mislaid Magician, Or Ten Years After: Being the Private Correspondence Between Two Prominent Families Regarding a Scandal Touching the Highest Levels of Government and Security of the Realm.


LAURA'S WORD TO THE WISE: If you have not read Sorcery and Cecelia or The Grand Tour, check them out first. I have from several trusted sources that this book will be confusing if you don't have a little back story.

However, I refuse to give you back story, because reading it yourself will be more fun. These books will make you laugh, really laugh, and I will not give you a bland description of all that funny.

Of course, we still have more new books, but I'm done fighting this computer for a little while, that vein in my temple is doing the thing where it shoots wave after wave of pain through my cranium, something that might lead to my head popping like an egg in the microwave.

Thought you might like that image.

Some National Book Award Nominees! (And the Winner Is...)

As you can imagine, winning a National Book Award, or even being nominated for one, is a huge deal.

This means that you're guaranteed a good read, just by knowing a book has been nominated. If you live in my world, that's nice to know. I see a lot of books. Every day. Sometimes it's hard to pick one. Awards help.

You know how much I loved The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian--National Book Award. See? It's true. National Book Award = Good Book.

We know our winner for 2009, Claudette Colvin: Twice for Justice by Phillip Hoose--it's downstairs in the Children's Room if you want to read it.


It tells us all about Colvin, a young African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus and...

Wait. Sound's familiar, huh?

Except Rosa Parks did it nine months later.

Instead of being celebrated like Parks was, Colvin was shunned and dismissed by classmates and community leaders. She later took her case to court, as she continued to stand up against segregation in the south.

Oh, and she was only 15. Did I mention that?

But I'm betting you don't go downstairs much, because I hardly see you. You're like wraiths, you come in the night and check out books that I've picked out, and when I arrive in the morning, the books are gone. And sometimes checkers are on the ground.

So I suggest you take a look at the YA books that were nominated--books I'm betting you'll like.

Read about David Small's eerie childhood in his memoir, Stitches.


Small's family went about their respective lives in almost-complete silence, giving this graphic novel the look and feel of a silent movie. If silent movies had secret cancer. Let me tell you, some things shouldn't be secrets, and cancer is one of them.

Another nominee is Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia.


I've just started this one, but the prose catches you from the first paragraph, so it promises to be an engrossing read. The novel switches between three perspectives, all girls whose lives intertwine even as their stories do the same.

You can also venture into the adult section and pick up Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman.


This book is a kind of dual-biography, describing the conflict between Charles Darwin's love of science and Emma Darwin's faith in God and their shared love for each other. The call number is 576.82 Hei--ask them at the front desk if you want help finding it.

Our last nominee is still on its way...so I'll wait to show it off later. But if you want to take a peek, it's Lips Touch: Three Times by the very pink-haired Laini Taylor.