What I'm Reading These Days

I've been very busy lately ordering you tons of new books. This is because I am attracted to printer's ink, shiny covers, and good writing. It's kind of like those little bugs that get zapped by those lights you put outside during the summer, only instead of being electrocuted, sometimes I get paper cuts.

I've never thought those lights actually worked. Think about it. You put out a light which attracts bugs, then kills them. But before they die, they come to the light. Which is by you, where you are sitting outside. So you really end up with more bugs, don't you?

I have a problem with tangents.

In between all of the new book stuff, I have been reading. And oh, is the reading not an amazing thing?

This came in the mail for me last week, and I loved it.


Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. I could not put this book down.

At first I found myself looking forward to the Will Grayson chapters and powering through the will grayson chapters (Will Grayson is one Will, the other will is chronically depressed--his narration is in all lowercase letters). Why? will's life hard to read about, since it's so painful for him to live. As he starts to leave his forced-solitude, this changes. By the end, you're rooting for both Wills and Tiny Cooper (who is fantastic).

I won't tell you who wrote which Will Grayson--it's more fun to figure out on your own. But I will tell you--Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a definite must-read!

After finishing Will Grayson, Will Grayson, I started talking to Polly, who used to be the guru of all things YA here at the library before I took over a year ago. I asked if she'd read any of David Levithan's books. We talked teen lit for a while, until this book came up:


It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini.

I'd picked this book up several times because I think the cover is awesome. I mean, look at that! Then I'd vow to read it after I finished [INSERT TITLE HERE] and then when I'd finished the book I was reading, I'd vow to read It's Kind of a Funny Story after the new book I just had to read first.

In other words, I kept getting distracted by shiny new books.

I knew (this would be last Thursday) that I couldn't go straight from reading about Will Graysons to reading about zombies, so instead of jumping right into The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I went upstairs and grabbed It's Kind of a Funny Story.

Wow.

Mini summary: Craig, an ambitious 15 year old, spent his entire time in junior high studying for the entrance exam for Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, easily the best high school in New York. Finally he takes the test and discovers he's made it--with a perfect score.

But once he starts his first year, he realizes that he's not the best. In fact, he's behind. Craig quickly becomes overwhelmed, depressed, and suicidal, finally calling a suicide hotline and checking himself into a nearby hospital for psychiatric treatment. Since the teen ward is packed full (and under construction) Craig is put in with the adults. While there, Craig starts to tackle his own problems and he does what he can to help his fellow patients.

Still, it isn't the plot that made me love this novel. It was the spot-on descriptions of Craig's depression--his symptoms, thought processes, reasoning--it's so accurate that, even if Vizzini hadn't mentioned his own experience with depression, I would have still been convinced that he'd based the novel on his own struggle.

Now I'm excited about this.

A film adaptation of It's Kind of a Funny Story is in the works! The scheduled release date, from what I can find, is November of 2010, so we don't have that long to wait...I hope.

Go here for more about Ned Vizzini and his books. He also has been posting movie updates.

After I finished reading that, I read The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by


I love Sherlock Holmes. I love Enola. This is a great series--definitely worth a trip downstairs.

What's up next? The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan...


Followed up with The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King.


I love Sherlock Holmes. I love Mary Russell. If you're interested in all things Holmesian, start this series with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. And don't forget Enola.

I'm reading The Language of Bees in anticipation of The God of the Hive, the newest Mary Russell mystery--due out this month. I'm having a hard time waiting.

Keep reading and be ready for the host of new books that are on the way!

YA Book Club!

I told you a week ago that I had one book I wanted to keep back, to hide from all of you because it was very special...

And here it is!

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson!


I cannot begin to tell you how amazing this book is. No one writes like Laurie Halse Anderson, she is amazingly talented and every new novel she writes blows me away. Wintergirls came out in paperback just recently, and I ordered it the second it was released so that we could have a celebratory book discussion.


I read this book in one day, it was the first book I purchased for my Kindle after Christmas, I read it on December 26, right here at the library, because no one came in on the day after Christmas.

Okay, ridiculously simplified synopsis time.

Lia wakes up Monday morning to 33 missed calls. All were from the same person. And she missed them all on purpose.

Now Cassie, Lia's best friend, is dead. Lia and Cassie had been estranged for over a year, and Lia avoided the calls because she was sure they were a prank. Now she knows they weren't.

In middle school, Lia and Cassie made a pact. Each vowed to be the thinnest girl in school, competing with each other until they both were trapped in matchstick bodies and unable to stop themselves. Now Lia must deal both with the loss of her friend and the guilt of not being able to help her, save her, when Cassie needed her the most.

As Lia spirals deeper and deeper into her illness, she must choose either to join Cassie or to finally save herself.

Told in a lyrical style reminiscent of Speak, Wintergirls is painfully beautiful and impossible to put down.

Book trailer time.



We've got two copies of the book for you to check out and read as well as a ton for sale at the circulation desk for $5.00 each. You can sign up for the book discussion there too. Don't forget to sign up when you buy your book.

As always, it doesn't matter if you've finished the book when the discussion rolls around--come anyway.

And, in order to encourage us all to eat--we will have snacks. I'm thinking waffles or maybe cupcakes. Read the novel to know why.

And while you wait, go here for more about the novel, downloads, and other great resources.

Thanks!

I wanted to thank everyone who came to our Carnegie Knits program last night, for making it so much fun!

It was great to see so many of you wanted to learn to knit. Especially because knitting is an obsession of mine, evidenced by the pair of handknitted socks (almost finished) sitting in my knitting bag in the office here at the library, waiting for me to finish them.

I hope you all had just as much fun as I did, and I hope you come by to show me how it's going!

A Few New Books

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon, set in Chicago, 1968.


Smack in the middle of the civil rights movement, and if you know your history, you'll know what happened in Chicago during 1968...(rioting, Democratic National Convention and corresponding police-enforced curfew...makes for some interesting reading).

This book follows 13 year old Sam, son of civil rights activist Roland Childs, and brother to Stick, who is becoming more and more involved with the Black Panthers. Sam's father believes in peaceful protest, his brother in violence, and now Sam must choose which path to take.

On another note entirely, we have Wings by Aprilynne Pike.


Laurel wakes up one morning to discover she has a flower blooming right smack in the middle of her back. They don't make a cream for that...

And now she has wings. Because she's part faerie, part human. As Laurel learns more about her faerie family, she discovers that her main concern isn't how she's supposed to buy a prom dress with wing slits, it's how to keep her human family safe from the faeries who want to destroy them.

Tons and Tons of New Books: Part Four

There were just some new books I had to read. I just finished The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork.


This is Stork's second young adult novel. The first, as I hope you know, was Marcelo in the Real World. It's one of my all-time favorites (the audio is great, too), so if you haven't read it, start reading now! The Last Summer of the Death Warriors doesn't disappoint--it is amazing. Stork drew from Don Quixote for this novel, but don't expect any actual, real-life windmill tilting to be going on. Instead, Stork unites Pancho, an angry young man reeling from the nearly back-to-back deaths of both his father (in a construction accident) and his sister (who he believes was murdered) with D.Q., who is dying of brain cancer.

Together, the two attempt to live life to the fullest while each tries to tackle their very different goals. D.Q. struggles to survive, while Pancho hunts for his sister's killer.

Go forth and read it! I command thee!

Fine. I don't command. I encourage gently.

And I read Rosie and Skate by Beth Ann Bauman.


This book, narrated by both Rosie and her older sister Skate, shows the sisters differing reactions to the troubles in their lives.

Rosie is dedicated to her alcoholic father. Despite his past behavior, she believes with all her heart that he will eventually come through for her. Now that he's in prison, Rosie visits him every week, writes him, and encourages her sister to do the same. Meanwhile, she attends a support group for children of alcoholics.

Skate is...the opposite. She calls her father "Old Crow" after the whiskey he prefers. She won't visit him, hates the support group, and can't sit still for two minutes in a row. She doesn't even live with her sister, choosing instead to stay with the mother of her boyfriend while he is in college.

Both narrators have distinctive voices, and thought I sometimes wanted to shake them--to get them to realize that what they were doing was Not Good--they have realistic reactions to the troubles they're going through.

Perhaps the most heartening aspect of this novel is that Bauman doesn't get stuck on trying for an after-school-special feel, there is no happy moment where each family member gathers together for hugs and swelling music. The sisters will still struggle. Their father will always be an alcoholic, regardless of how much he drinks. But the reader is left with the knowledge that the two girls have each other and that's enough. A beautiful novel.

As I Run Out the Door...

A new book!

Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti...


A touch of chick lit perfect for the end of the school year or the start of the summer. Marisa is beginning her sophomore year, hoping to change things up a little. What she'd really like is a boyfriend--a first for her. So...the gorgeous boy, the nerdy boy, or the quixotic D.J. whose identity is the biggest mystery to hit the school?

Learn to Knit!

Those of you who know me at all will understand the depth of my love for knitting. Why, the mere whiff of yarn fumes will send me rushing into the nearest yarn store to grab up materials, so I can make myself new socks, slippers, gloves, sweaters--you name it.


I have knit lots of socks. And yes, I do know you can buy them for less than five bucks at Walmart. But if I did that, then I wouldn't get to knit them.

Yesterday, I finished knitting a mouse. I made a knitted mouse. Really.

I have had enough people ask me how to knit that I've decided you all have to learn. Seriously.

So.

We are holding Knitting 101 (or our first meeting of Carnegie Knits, if you will) on Wednesday, April 14 at 6:30 p.m.


The library will provide you with the following tools of the knitting trade: needles, yarn, and an experienced teacher. Free of charge. All you need to do is register (downstairs or upstairs at the circulation desks) and then show up.

I will teach you all you need to know to make a scarf and offer help in days to come should you drop stitches, add stitches, or get confused. It happens.

What if you already know how to knit? Come anyway! And if you know how to crochet? Come teach me!


Gratuitous sock picture. Yes, I knit that.

Tons and Tons of New Books: Part Three, Realistic Fiction

And yes, you're getting a Part Four too. Sorry. It's just that I want to pay special attention to one particular book, so it gets its own entry. You'll see why...

Oh, and I'm reviewing two other ones separately too, because I'm reading them right now and I want to give them their own.

So I guess you could say there is a Part Five and a Part Six on the way, but not really.

Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian...

Emily just wants something different to happen this summer. Her best friend has a boyfriend, leaving Emily feeling left out. So she's eager to go to Philadelphia when she's offered a place in a art program, even if it's only for a few hours a day.

But the city has its own challenges, and Emily finds herself facing the same problems she would have had if she'd stayed at home. Turns out that pressure just doesn't change. Friendships can be tough, and boys are just plain confusing. And sometimes the difference between right and wrong gets blurred.

In honor of National Poetry Month: Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas!


Anke's father has a terrible temper. She has always faded in the background, never noticed, never troubled by his fits of rage. This means he doesn't hit her, like he does her brother. And he doesn't bother her the way he does her sister. Anke is invisible.

Then she joins the volleyball team.

She finds her voice, and makes herself noticed for the first time. With every serve, she grows closer to facing her family's monster and saving her family.

Fans of Ellen Hopkins will love this book. It's told in a similar style, through poetry, telling the story of a protagonist's pain. But don't worry about a depressing end--I checked!

Ellen Hopkins' fans will also enjoy Punkzilla by Adam Rapp. This unusual book is the chronicle of Jamie--"Punkzilla"--and his mission: to see his brother Peter, "P", before P dies of cancer.


The book jacket says:

Hopping on a bus while still buzzing from his last hit of meth, Jamie embarks on a days-long trip from Portland, Oregon, to Memphis, Tennessee, writing letters to his family and friends--letters so honest he may never send them. Along the way he sees a sketchier side of America the Beautiful: seedy motels, dicey bus stations, and a colorful, sometimes dangerous cast of characters. In his letters to P, he catalogs them all--the freaky but kind transsexual, the old woman with an oozing eye, the girl with the long wavy blond hair.

As his journey progresses, Jamie starts to wonder if he'll manage to make it to his brother in time.

Yes, it's gritty. But it's also a Printz Honor Book, so it must have done something right.

Me, Myself and Ike by K. L. Denman!


Kit Latimer feels alienated. He's paranoid, he's confused, and the only one who steps up as a friend is Ike.

Kit used to be happy, he had a beautiful girlfriend, friends, and a family. But now all that's gone. And Ike just might make him lose even more, if Kit lets him have his way.

This stunning chronicle of mental illness lets us see into the mind of a teen falling into psychosis.

Leaving schizophrenia behind, let's tackle depression with Black Box by Julie Schumacher.


Elena is shocked when her older sister is diagnosed with depression. When Dora enters the hospital, Elena can't make sense of anything anymore.

She spends her time with Dora's friends, the only ones who acknowledge her at school, and tries to ignore her parents' arguing, which seem to start the moment they think Elena is asleep. It only gets worse when Dora comes home. Elena would do anything to make things go back to how they used to be...and eventually all that responsibility becomes more than she can handle.

Presenting the William C. Morris Debut Award Winner, Flash Burnout by L. K. Madigan!


I'm currently reading this one on my Kindle. That's right. Laura has herself a Kindle, and it be Nice.

Yeah, my English professors from college are reading that last sentence and thinking, "Why did we let her graduate again?"

But they probably would know I'm joking...maybe.

They might just say, "Bad grammar is not a laughing matter!" or simply, "Love your dialect." I heard one professor say that a lot.

What I like the most about this novel is the narrator, Blake, who is so realistic, such an accurate portrayal of Teenage Male-ness that sometimes, you just want to throttle him. He's insensitive without meaning to be, he has a girlfriend that walks all over him, but he's so happy to have a pretty girl love him that he doesn't see it. You hate Blake and you love him. He's just that real.

And his reaction to his friend Marissa's problem is what I would imagine many of ours would be. Marissa's mom shows up in a picture Blake takes, only when he shows it to Marissa does he discover that he's taken a portrait of her missing mother. What follows is, for Marissa, heartbreaking. For Blake, it is confusing. His girlfriend loves him, Marissa needs him, and his girlfriend isn't too eager for Blake to be supportive to another girl.

I still don't know what he'll decide to do, and it's infuriating. You just want to shake Blake and tell him to drop Shannon already and go help Marissa. But life doesn't always work out that way either.

This is a wonderful novel; I very much hope you all read it!

Gosh. Is anyone else noticing the trend of heart-wrenching trauma in all of these books? I promise, they aren't all downers, they end with hope or happiness or both! Trust Laura, she would not steer you wrong!

The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer...


This novel has rave reviews. Kirkus (which is a big deal book-reviewer place) says "Mazer's latest novel would give Alfred Hitchcock a run for his money." Now, having watched many a Hitchcock film...that's saying something. Those movies freak me out, so I can only imagine what this book will be like!

Five sisters go about their daily lives, totally unaware of the man who watches them. In alternating points of view, Mazer tells a story that interweaves the lives of the girls and their predator...

That spells thriller. And it looks to be a good one! Fans of books like The Face on the Milk Carton and Z for Zachariah will love it.

Madapple, Christina Meldrum's first novel and a William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist...


Auslag's mother, Maren, raises her in strict isolation. She's taught herbology, many languages, and, most importantly, theology. But when Maren dies, Auslag is sent to live with an aunt and cousins. What follows is a narration of the next years of their lives together, leading up to Auslag's trial for murder: she's accused of killing her aunt and cousin.

The murders are no secret, but the fascinating thing is how they took place.

Tons and Tons of New Books: Part Two, Historical Fiction

Yes, we did get so many that I can make an entire post out of historical fiction as well as an entire post out of all the fantasy, and there will be a part three with all the realistic fiction--that's how many new books there are!

And yes, this is a good thing. It makes me very happy when scores of new books come downstairs all beautiful with crisp pages, still smelling of paper and ink...but this creates a problem for me. Can you guess what the problem might be?

I can't read them all fast enough. No, I must check them in and take them upstairs and leave them all alone on the New Book cart, knowing that I will have to say goodbye until such a time as I have a free moment to read them. It's hard!

Sigh. You think I'm a freak, don't you. Maybe you're right...

New books!

Finally, at long last, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson!


In the last three months I have read nearly everything she's written. I strongly recommend every book--even the picture ones. They're fantastic! She uses such beautiful imagery, her historical fiction is accurate (to the point that she walked barefoot in the snow so she could better describe how the experience would feel), and she's downright funny! I mean, a little girl with hair that takes over her classroom? Genius.

I read it to all the elementary classes. We had fun.

If you have never read Speak...READ IT. That is her can't-miss book. And if you liked it...well, I have another book of hers you'll love that I'll tell you about tomorrow with the realistic fiction.

Chains is about a slave girl, pre-Civil war. It's set during the Revolutionary war, and it follows a young girl as she seeks freedom. That's all I'm giving you right now because I'm going to read it and tell you more...

I am Apache by Tanya Landman...


Siki's little brother was murdered in front of her when she was just 14. Her hunger for revenge fuels her as she grows, leading her to turn from the traditional role of women in her tribe and instead become a warrior. But as she earns her place among the men, she starts to hear whispers about a secret from her past.

Death on the River by John Wilson, set just following the Civil War.


Jake Clay, confined to the Confederate prison camp in Andersonville in June 1864, befriends Billy Sharp, who teaches him how to survive, at any cost. Torn apart by the war, Jake goes home, but the journey is its own danger, and it may just give him a chance at redemption.

Double Crossing by Eve Tal tells the story of a Jewish family fleeing Czarist Russia for America.


Raizel and her father cross the ocean, not knowing if they will be accepted at Ellis Island or turned away. And if they get sent back, what will happen to them? It's the narration that makes this book, Raizel is fantastic.

Joe Rat by Mark Barratt is set in Victorian London...


This is the time and place I studied most in college--I was the Victorian Literature expert in my graduating class. Everyone else liked Hemingway. Ick!

I bet none of you know what a "tosher" was. A tosher was someone who would dig through the sewers looking for valuable refuse. They stank. You can imagine, since London at the time had just introduced sewer systems. They all ran right into the Thames, the big river running through London, and if you wanted something to drink and pumped some water from the well...it came from the Thames. So London was icky. Very gross. And sometimes, if you drank the water, it would give you nasty diseases like cholera and typhoid.

Joe Rat is a tosher (collectively: "EEEEEWWWW!") under the control of Mother, a Dickensian character that immediately makes me think of Oliver Twist's Fagin.

When Joe meets a runaway girl and a "madman" he starts to question his way of life, but will it change his life for better, or for worse?

Crossing Stones by Helen Frost, author of the Printz Honor Book Keesha's House...


This novel is written in structured verse, telling the story of Muriel Jorgensen, a young woman eager to win the right to vote and passionate about the war--which would be WWI, if you were curious. Frank Norman, a close friend of Muriel's since childhood, has just enlisted to fight in Europe. Muriel had just begun to think he might be more than a friend. Meanwhile, Muriel is surrounded by family and friends who want to silence her, so she must find a way to express herself in a changing world.

And the start of a series, The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding.


This book is also set in London, set in 1790. Cat Royal, our protagonist, is penniless, living in a theater in the old section of London, which is the part where I stayed when I was there (in a boy's choir school turned youth hostel with no air conditioning and 24-hour construction outside).

I am so not joking about the construction.

I bet you were about to shrug that off, too, but no. Right outside the window, all night long. Jackhammers and everything.

Here's what the back says, which I think sums the book up nicely, "Reader, you are about to embark on an ADVENTURE about one HIDDEN TREASURE, two bare-knuckle BOXERS, three ENEMIES, and four hundred and thirty-eight RIOTERS. It is told by an ignorant and prejudiced author--me."

Now I must make clear that that last part up there is a nod to Jane Austen, who during her childhood drafted a short history of England which is a laugh riot, entitled, "The History of England from the reign of Henry the 4th to the death of Charles the 1st" and the author (Jane) is listed like this: "By a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian"

Then she adds this little morsel which always cracks me up: "NB. There will be very few Dates in this History."

If only I could have added that to my history papers and gotten away with it...

The other Cat Royal Adventures are on the way! If you get tired of waiting for us to put barcodes in them once you've read this one, you can try reading the Enola Holmes mysteries and the Theodosia books, both downstairs. Quirky heroines, touch of mystery, heart of London, you get the idea. And hey, you can always read those when you've finished reading Cat's books.