bookshelves of doom

I miss you, Community.

1.21 gigawatts.

So, Back to the Future might become a musical.

Also, have you seen that the Newsies musical is headed to Broadway? (I've already informed my sister, in the hopes that a Roy Girls road trip will occur...)

Almost Final Curtain: Vampire Princess, #2 -- Tate Hallaway

Ana(stasija) Parker, high schooler in St. Paul, Minnesota, is the daughter of the local Boss Witch. She's also the daughter of the local vampire ruler.

That puts her in a tough position, as witches and vampires are at odds, what with the whole Witches Used To Use Vampires As Slaves thing.

Also problematic? She's half-vampire, dating a vampire hunter, and last time around, got accidentally betrothed to a vampire. (Oops.)

On top of that, her vampire hunter boyfriend (who's in a Super Cool band) is doing the music for her school play, which is ALL AWKWARD because A) she'd prefer for him to not think of her as a high school girl and B) she's feeling some weird chemistry with this ginormous toolbox of a jock bigot AND ALSO a statue capable of controlling all vampires has just resurfaced.

Pluses:

• Easy peasy breezy paranormal, without any mega angst. (Just regular angst, not Bella-angst.)
• The take on vampires—that they're like "blood-drinking elves" who love nature—is fun. Because they aren't all suave and whatnot. They're more apt to run around barefoot and climb trees than wear capes or drive Volvos. So that's nice. Actually, as they're all about Nature and the witches are all about Nature, you'd think that they'd get along better. Sigh. Isn't that always the way?

Minuses:

• Ana. I only need you to explain things once. Bea (your best friend) has a thing for Nik (your boyfriend). I GET IT. 
• Speaking of Bea, I HATE HER. I think I'm supposed to like her (see: what happens at the end), but she's almost uniformly awful. But maybe she'll grow on me next time around.

Recommended to: Oh, you know. Fans of Meg Cabot, Cate Tiernan, etc.

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Amazon | Indiebound

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Author page.

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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.

New Hunger Games trailer.

In the last two seconds of the trailer:

Me: OH MY GOD, IT'S CINNA. *bursts into tears*
Josh: YOU CAN NEVER MAKE FUN OF ME ABOUT ANYTHING AGAIN, EVER. 

Jack Gantos on Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me.

From the interview:

GANTOS: And so, at any rate, so I go to court. I dress up. I look nice. And the judge, you know, asked me if I have anything to say for myself. I go, I'm guilty, Your Honor, but I'm a very nice boy.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

GANTOS: And he looks at me and he says "nice boys don't smuggle dope." And I was, like, oh, you got me there, Judge.

How'd you do on the quiz? I was 2/3. (Without guessing! I knew the answers! I don't know what that says about my brain, but there you go.)

If you haven't read Hole in My Life, you really should.

Ditto Love Curse of the Rumbaughs, though I do fully understand that it won't be to everyone's taste...

And before anyone asks, Dead End in Norvelt is near the top of my TBR pile. I SWEAR.

Oh, hello.

Maggie Stiefvater's upcoming series sounds SUPER AWESOME.

*falls over in a dead faint*

A guide to pairing comics with beer...

...from Quirk Books.

Coming soon...

...Hunger Games: the Facebook game.

Have we hit saturation point yet?

How to Steal a Car -- Pete Hautman

From How to Steal a Car:

I did not have this screwed-up home life that you would think would drive me to crime. My parents were nearly perfect. I don't mean perfect perfect, but compared to a lot of parents, like the ones who beat their kids and lock them in closets and smoke crack and stuff, my parents were practically ideal. For one thing, they were still married after twenty years, and they were completely nonviolent, and neither of them had ever been arrested as far as I know.

The summer before tenth grade, Kelleigh Monahan has to read a classic novel ("I'd never have picked Moby Dick if I'd known how long it was") and write a 500-word essay on "how to do something".

As this is the summer that she starts stealing cars—almost by accident—you can probably guess what her essay's about. (And, for that matter, the color of the last car she steals...)

Pluses:

• Perfectly captures the ennui of a mostly-sheltered teenager.
• Kelleigh's voice is totally believable: she bounces all over the place, occasionally requiring me to glance back to the previous page to be sure I hadn't missed a segue, but that just added to the verisimilitude. 
• I suspect that some readers might complain that it's a bit... slight, but I rather think that it's less slight than subtle. It reads like it's just meandering along, but there's a lot going on under the surface: in Kelleigh's own self, in her family, and within her friendships.

Minuses:

• It's Pete Hautman. I don't know if it's possible for something he writes to have a minus.

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Author page.

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Amazon | Indiebound

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

Gammell v. Helquist.

This link is from some time ago, but it's well worth a look if you haven't seen it:

A comparison of illustrations (original and newfangled) from Scary Stories to Read in the Dark at Adventures in Poor Taste. Long story short? I'm guessing that the newer edition will be challenged far less often.

For example, this:

has been replaced with this:

I love me some Brett Helquist, but I'll be sticking by my old copies with the Stephen Gammell illustrations (and the nightmares that come hand-in-hand with them), thankyouverymuch.