About Me

Librarian. Okay, okay. Uber-librarian. Minus the MLS. That might happen. Someday.

I grew up in a small town in Maine -- so small that by the time I was twelve, I'd read most of the books in the local library. So small that up until sixth grade, my class only had twelve kids in it.

When I hit the middle school/high school, my class size expanded to a grand total of 92 kids -- and that was 4.5 towns worth of teens. So yeah. Small. I wanted out. I wanted out so bad that I thought once I hit college, I'd never go back.

Of course, less than a semester into my first year, I realized that Maine was (and is) The Place I Want To Be.

It took me eight years -- including my four years at college -- but I finally made it back.

I'm not a writer -- that should be abundantly clear -- I'm a reader. I don't review books critically and objectively, I respond to them personally and from my gut. So beware. Highbrow intellectual critiques do not live here.

A few years later: Okay, first off, I'm pretty amazed that I've had this blog for so long. My reviews continue to be mostly comprised of my personal response to the book, but I think I've started to treat them a bit more critically and objectively than in the past. Sometimes. When I'm in the right mood. There's still a distinct lack of highbrow intellectualism, though.

For the last three years, I've participated in the Cybils, I'm a member of Guys Lit Wire and I'm in the process of starting up TBR Tallboy, a small chapbook-style literary magazine for MG/YA/adult crossover short fiction. I joined the first two projects due to my love of the YA and the YA community and because I love to spread the word about books (regardless of genre or target age) that I love. Those reasons apply to the third project as well, as does this: I realized last year that I really, really enjoy having back-and-forth dialogues with authors about their work -- so this seemed to be a good way for me to get more of that for myself while creating another place to showcase YA short fiction. Win win.

Also, the Amazon ad in my sidebar should make it obvious that this blog is part of the Amazon Associates program, but in case it doesn't, I am. Which means that if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I get a (tiny) commission.