bookshelves of doom

Links.

•  A Judy Blume tribute at a blog called (ahem...) The Poop:

While Blume is a genius, in my opinion everything went downhill with "Superfudge," which was Blume's version of the Ewok forest in "Return of the Jedi." The Fudge character wasn't annoying enough to ruin "Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing," but he became the literary version of "Caillou" in all the spin-offs -- promoting the idea that bratty whining kids should be indulged. Stupid Fudge.

Dude, am I the only person out there who doesn't hate the Ewoks?  I know I'm supposed to, but I just can't.  First off, I was the exact right age when they appeared.  And secondly, c'mon!  The sounds they make?  Awesome.  Yub yub.  Oh, right.  Yes, Judy Blume is cool.

•  Reviews, spoilers and ARCs.  I had no idea that Stephenie Meyer freaked out about New Moon spoilers.  Huh.

•  The One-Star Challenge.  Also at John Scalzi's site, this post about his shareware story is extremely interesting.  And cool!  (second link via Urban Fantasy Land)

•  Romanceland:  Still crazy.

•  I'd better talk to Josh about the layout of our new house.  (via ABA)

•  I've been thinking about getting into this book challenge thing.  Specifically this one, because I've had my eye on this book for quite a while now.

Fact of Life #31 -- Denise Vega

16-year-old Kat is known to her classmates as Yoga Girl because she occasionally does yoga in the school hallway.  At school, she hangs out with her best friend Christy (known as Hat Girl to most of the other students), studies the popular crowd and lusts after Manny Cruz, who she's had a crush on since seventh grade.  Outside of school, she is an artist, works part-time as a receptionist in her mother's midwifery, and is training for a women's Triathlon.

When her mother calls her in to assist at a birth (none of the regulars were available), Kat is terrified and elated -- she's wanted to witness a birth for a very long time.  After the disastrous (in her mind, and apparently in her mother's mind) episode is over, Kat decides to leave her job at Abra's Midwifery.

Not long after telling Abra that she's out, Abra gives Kat two notebooks.  The first one is Abra's old notebook from her doula and midwifery training.  The second one is blank, and is meant to be Kat's.  But, as Kat isn't planning to continue working at the Midwifery, she turns her notebook into a Book of Facts.  The facts of her life.

I really liked this one.  I admit it, I was surprised.  See, when I read the inside flap and it mentioned that Kat did yoga in the school hallway, it made me think of Stargirl*.  Which, for me, is not a good thing.  But I went ahead and read the book, because the rest of the flap copy didn't sound even remotely Stargirl-y.

The thing is, Kat does yoga in the school hallway to center herself.  She does it because it makes her feel better.  She doesn't try to convince anyone to do it with her, and she doesn't do it for attention.  If people give her a hard time, she doesn't get all hurt and tortured about it -- she says something snarky and moves on.

So, yes.  It was Kat's voice that made the book especially enjoyable for me:

If Manny was within a fifty-yard radius, he was usually in my crosshairs within ten seconds.

I sucked as a birth assistant but would make a decent sniper.  Go figure.

And I loved this line:

I hustled down the hall to cafeteria to eat with Christy and her extra appendage--I mean boyfriend--Glen.  When I got to the table, Christy was there, Glenless.

There's a TON going on:  huge stuff between Kat and her mother, three romances (between three different couples), teen pregnancy, peer pressure and pressure from parents, as well as general issues surrounding popularity, friendship and family.  Fact of Life #31 made me think a bit of Joan Bauer's books, except instead of a heroine with one huge talent/interest, Kat is a heroine with three huge talent/interests. 

It's not perfect -- there was so much going on and so many characters that some of it felt a little two-dimensional and sometimes there was a bit more Tell than Show -- but it's enjoyable, and I'll be recommending it to my avid realistic fiction readers.

*Because, while I don't remember Stargirl actually doing yoga in the school hallway, it's something that she would have done.  Annoyingly.

The best book prize ever.

From the Guardian:

Enter the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction. Sponsored jointly by the champagne house and the publishers of the hardback PG Wodehouse edition, the prize comprises not only considerable quantities of Bollinger's finest and most bubbly, but also extends to a Gloucester Old Spot pig being named after the winning book, in honour of the legendary Empress of Blandings, beloved of PG Wodehouse's fictional hero Clarence Emsworth.

Hooray!  I love it.  How had I not heard of this prize?

Two Stephenie Meyer links.

•  From Time Magazine (via Gail):

Bella never stops gasping and swooning and passing out and waking up screaming from nightmares. Her heart is always either pounding or stopping. (Bella's histrionics don't feel at all unrealistic. When you're writing about adolescents, melodrama and realism are the same thing.) Rowling labors over her intricate plots, but Meyer's stories never bend or twist or branch. They have one gear, and she guns it straight ahead till the last page. The way she manages the reader's curiosity, maintaining tension and controlling the flow of information, is simply virtuosic. She creates a compulsion in the reader that is not unvampiric.

•  Jackie reviews The Host:

Melanie is, I think, the very antithesis of Bella, if that puts any of you at ease. Hmm. No, that might not be true, now that I ponder it more. We're told she's the opposite of Bella, but due to the situation, I don't know that Bella would do anything different.

Suite Scarlett -- Maureen Johnson

Scarlett Martin's family owns the Hopewell, an Art Deco hotel on the Upper East Side of New York City.  Before you assume that that life in a hotel is all fun and games, the narrator lets you know that it is quite the contrary:

Perhaps it sounds like a wonderful thing to be born and raised in a small hotel in New York City.  Lots of things sound fun until they are subjected to closer inspection.  If you lived on a cruise ship, for example, you would have to do the Macarena every night of your life.  Think about that.

On their fifteenth birthday, the Martin kids (Spencer, 19, aspiring actor and culinary school-avoider; Lola, 18, beautiful, sedate and dating a blue blood; Scarlett, just 15, and our heroine; Marlene, 11, difficult, difficult and more difficult) are given the key to -- and the responsibility of caring for -- one of the suites in the hotel.  On Scarlett's fifteenth birthday, she is given the key to the Empire Suite.  On that very same day, Mrs. Amberson moves into the Empire Suite, and Scarlett is suddenly the gopher/maid/personal assistant to a very wealthy, very dramatic, very nosy, very energetic (and a plethora of other 'verys') woman.   

Suite Scarlett is fun times a bazillion.  While Scarlett has her doubts about the fun factor of living in a hotel, reading about people living in a hotel very definitely rates high on the scale.  (And reading a book by Maureen Johnson about people living in a hotel -- well, that rates even higher!)  It made me laugh out loud, I loved Spencer and his talent for slapstick, the characters are hugely likable, it wasn't predictable, and again, it's fun, fun, fun. 

Also:  I'm very happy that whoever designed the cover actually used details from the book (Scarlett's untamable hair, the bright red lipstick, the black dress, sitting at the front desk).

Highly recommended for fans of Maureen Johnson's other books, for those who are into theater, for those who yearn for the Big City and for those who like light, funny YA.  As I finished the book, it occurred to me that I'd like to read more about the characters -- and hooray!  I'll be able to, because it's the first in a series.  I am SO looking forward to the next installment.

Oh, and I have to admit:  I got a huge kick out of the complimentary Suite Dreams sleep mask that came with my review copy, and I've been wearing it as a headband when we watch movies.  (I'm VERY serious about my movie viewing.)  So, Maureen Johnson, you should know that Josh is holding you personally responsible for pushing me a tiny bit closer to the Crazy Librarian line.  (According to him, that's a good thing.  He's been working to turn me into a Crazy Librarian for years now.  So, from Josh: Yay, You!)

Baby got book.

Cheryl over at Brooklyn Arden came up with the lyrics.  Now we just need a video as awesome as this one:

(via Shelf Talker)

Paris Hilton to publish line of children's books.

Calm down, calm down, it's a joke.  It's scary how believable the headline is, right?

From TheSpoof.com:

LOS ANGELES, CA - Heiress Paris Hilton has more on her mind than just fashion. The hotel chain princess has decided to start her own series of children's books.

"My first one will be called Rich Girls on Top. It's about a bunch of rich girls who are also fairy princesses." remarked Hilton.

(via Big A little a)

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging challenge.

The challenge has already been dealt with -- the school board voted 6-1 to keep the book in the middle school library -- but I just had to mention it because of this wonderfully hilarious quote:

"What is fun about two children stalking another girl to see what underwear she is wearing?" he asked.

It's also an excuse to re-post the awesome picture someone took during the filming of the upcoming movie:

And here's the trailer:

Just in case I'm MIA again this week:

50 best cult books (via Gail)

and

50 Greatest Crime Writers (Which I thought I'd already linked to, but apparently not, because HBS Steve emailed it to me, which reminded me that I hadn't actually linked to it, I'd just emailed it to cc.  Whew.)

Confessions of a Serial Kisser -- Wendelin Van Draanen

From Confessions of a Serial Kisser:

My name is Evangeline Bianca Logan, and I am a serial kisser.

I haven't always been a serial kisser.  There was a time not that long ago when I had next to no kissing experience.  It's interesting how things can change so fast--how you can go from being sixteen with very few lip-locking credentials to being barely seventeen and a certified serial kisser. 

It all started one day with dirty laundry.

At least that's what I trace it back to.

While Evangeline is searching the house for dirty laundry, she discovers her mother's secret stash of romance novels.  At first, she's mostly horrified (after witnessing the implosion and fallout of her parent's marriage, she doesn't understand why anyone, especially her mother, would be remotely interested in romance) and a tiny bit intrigued -- but once she reads A Crimson Kiss, she's hooked.  After reading every single book in the secret stash (including a self-help book about taking charge of your life), she comes to a conclusion:  She wants her own Crimson Kiss.  And so she sets out to find one.

I was really excited about this book.  I love the Sammy Keyes* books, I loved Runaway, I really enjoyed Flipped** -- I'm a big Van Draanen fan.

But... I was disappointed.  Evangeline's voice never really worked for me.  She never crossed the line of being a character on the page to becoming a person in my head, and so I was never fully pulled into the story.  Because of that, the dialogue never really worked either -- and so the book ended up feeling like a 290+ page sitcom, complete with loads of exclamation points and the end-of-the-episode Big Lesson.

I think the author was going for a story that seemed really light and fluffy and silly and that, at heart, dealt with some Big Life Truths, but I just didn't feel that it was a success. 

I'll be interested to see how other people respond to this one -- maybe (hopefully) I'm just having an off day? 

*There's a new one due out in October!  Woo-hoo!

**Though I can't seem to remember any details other than that there were two narrators.

Still alive.

Just very busy with packing, moving things, ripping up carpet in various rooms as well as three (count 'em!) three layers of linoleum in the kitchen, pulling 30 bazillion staples from the floor after the linoleum was gone, etc., etc.

I'm not complaining!  It's been a lot of fun.  There have been many discoveries, from the awesome (a massive amount of rhubarb growing by one of the rock walls) to the scary (the shed skin of a snake in the basement).

I have to admit, after packing up most of the books in the apartment (the ones we don't need to get at for a while...), I'm a tiny bit horrified at how many books we own.  And we still haven't unpacked the books we hauled up from Boston.  Yikes.  My blog title is no joke, man.

Linkage.

•  Lois Lowry on The Yearling.  I don't think I can read that one.  Ever. 

•  "Ender's headed off to battle school."  Click down to The Space Out for the whole song. 

•  Books Cherie Priest wrote before getting published:

Reign of the Desert Snow. Cheesy enough title for you? Well, in my defense I was in seventh grade when I wrote this one. It was about 200 pages long, and it was about me and my cousins helping a mafia don’s daughter escape from the clutches of a drug dealer inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. Then one day the disc upon which this MASTERPIECE was saved … died. I lost the whole thing. At the time, I was inconsolable. In retrospect, I am overjoyed.

•  Oh, look.  A bunch of books I've been meaning to read but still haven't gotten around to...  yep, the Carnegie shortlist has been announced.  (Via Kelly.) 

•  New blog alert:  Fusion Stories.  (via Finding Wonderland)

•  The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire’s Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride.  "To her consternation, her nipples hardened..."

More later, maybe.

Rupert Grint...

...smart kid.

Now if he'd just get a haircut.

New Crayola colors!

Including (gag me)...

Giving Tree Green.

Links.

•  Win a copy of the fabbity-fab A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl.

•  YICK.  (via Big A little a)

•  Hee hee:

Correspondent: And yet there’s inarguably an elegant variation in this. I have to ask you about “a dancing St. Elmo’s fire of the groin.”

Sarvas: Okay, you…

•  I generally just say, "I like reading."  It covers all bases.

•  Gosh.  When was the last time Ellen was in a public library?

More later, if time permits.

The Rest Falls Away: The Gardella Vampire Chronicles, Book One -- Colleen Gleason

Just before her debut into society, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is informed that she is the latest in a long line of vampire hunters.  She is given the opportunity to refuse the calling, to have her memory wiped, and to live a much less complicated life in relative safety and ignorance -- but she declines.

She accepts her calling, but she does not accept the idea that she will be unable to live and interact in society, to be wooed, to marry.  She, unlike everyone who shares her secret, believes that it will be possible to live a double life.

Okay.  It took me a really, really long time to finish this book.  Normally, I can whip through one of these little mass markets in an afternoon -- but as this one had me stopping every couple of pages to complain to whoever would listen, it took me the better part of a week to get through it. 

I kept going partly because so many people hold it in high regard that I kept waiting for it to get better, partly because I'm stubborn, and partly because I try not to bitch about books I haven't finished.  (I don't always succeed, but I do try.)

In short:  It takes more than descriptions of ballgowns and an excessive use of the word 'betwixt'* for a novel to be evocative of the Regency era.  Lines like this do not help:

"How does one address . . . the master of the vampire executioners?  My lord?  Your grace?  Your Stakeness?"

That belongs in a poorly-written Buffy ripoff, not a Regency era vampire novel.  I had a hard time with the writing from the very first page:

She grasped the bark of the oak, pressing her body into the tree as if it could suck her into safety.

Suck?  Of all the verbs out there, that's the one they (author, editors, etc.) went with?  It just... doesn't work.  'Pull', maybe.  'Envelop'?  Almost anything would have been less jarring, I think.

I could have gotten past the writing if anything else in the book had caught me**, but it didn't.  The characters, the plot, the romance, the magic system, nothing.  At about page 300, I did get curious about how it all would turn out, but even then, if I'd forgotten the book on a bus, I wouldn't have bothered tracking down another copy to finish it.

Needless to say, I was hugely disappointed.

*Three times in the first ten pages, then about once every twenty after that.

**Heck, I adored Twilight.   

I forgot to tell this story.

But I'll let Leia, because while I took the second call -- she answered the really exciting one.

One timewaster to rule them all.

A wiki of Alice illustrations. 

If I don't post for the rest of the week, blame Fuse.

Prom Dates From Hell -- Rosemary Clement-Moore

Prom Dates From Hell begins:

As an interactive horror experience, with beasts from Hell, mayhem, gore, and dismemberment, it was an impressive event.  As a high school prom, however, the evening was marginally less successful.

I should start from the beginning, but I'm not entirely certain when that is, so I'll start with the day I realized that despite my most determined efforts, I was not going to be able to ignore the prom entirely.

The end of April, and a rabid satin and tulle frenzy had attached to every double X chromosome in the senior class.  All available wall space--hallway, cafeteria, even the bathrooms--spouted signage in the most obnoxious colors possible.  I was assaulted by flayers in the courtyard, and harassed by thrice-daily announcements.  Had I gotten my tickets yet?  Had I voted for the class song?  Had I voted for the King and Queen?  No, no, and Hell no, because voting for royalty was not just moronic, it was oxymoronic.

Really, there's no need for me to follow that up... but I will anyway.  Maggie Quinn, girl reporter, unenthusiastically sensitive to the paranormal and world-class crank, is forced to work to save the prom (and the beastly Jessicas*) from a Big Bad who stinks of sulfur.  I loved it, and I especially hope that her fantastic English teacher, Silas Blackthorne (!) has a larger role in the upcoming sequel.

Highly recommended for YA readers who are looking for something not-at-all-serious with snarky narration, a girl detective, a bit of romance and plenty of demonic activity.

*Think Heathers.

Link-a-roo.

•  JKR vs. RDR:  New York Times, Leaky Cauldron, Fandom Wank.  (Last link via Liz)

•  The LOST script style.  (Warning: much profanity.)  I loved the first season and didn't make it through the first half of the second season.  I know that everyone says it gets better, but that isn't my question.  My question is:  HAS JACK STOPPED CRYING?  Okay, then.  When he does, let me know.

•  Uh oh.

•  Darth Washington and many more (via Geekstir):

• I am a question mark.  (via ...whimsy...)

A Death in Vienna -- Frank Tallis

I ILLed this one because while my library has the sequel, Vienna Blood, it doesn't have A Death in Vienna, which is the first in the Liebermann Papers series.  Grrr.

Vienna, 1902.  A medium is murdered in a locked room.  Not only that, but:

'But,' said Mathias, 'there is no bullet.'

'I beg your pardon, Herr Professor?'

Mathias said again: 'There is no bullet.'

Rheinhardt nodded.

'It passed through her body?'

'No,' replied Mathias.  'The entire canal had a definite terminus.  Nothing came out the other side of her body.'

'Then what are you saying?' asked Rheinhardt.  'That the bullet was . . . removed?'

'No.  The bullet has not been removed.'

'You're absolutely sure?'

'Absolutely.'

Due to the strangeness of the crime, Detective Oskar Rheinhardt calls in his good friend, psychoanalyst Max Liebermann, to assist him in questioning the members of the seancé circle.

I enjoyed this one very much -- certainly enough that I'll be bring Vienna Blood home tonight, as well as requesting that the library buy the third book in the series when it becomes available.  Max Liebermann's style of detection relies on his training as a psychoanalyst as well as his Sherlock Holmes-like talent for observation.  So I loved that aspect of the book.  There's a secondary plot involving his fight to treat the multiple personality disorder of a (beautiful young) woman with psychoanalysis rather than electroshock therapy, and then there's his love life, which involves the very silly, very beautiful (somewhat immature) Clara.  There was a whole lot going on, and while I figured out whodunnit about halfway through, I didn't figure out HOWdunnit.

It IS one of those books in which it is clear that the author did loads of research about the era and seems determined to put it all in the book, regardless of whether or not it's necessary.  So there were little bits about life in turn-of-the-century Vienna that felt forced and somewhat extraneous, but A) I like learning about stuff like that and B) I enjoyed the characters and the mystery enough to give him a pass.  Hopefully the second book will feel less choppy.

Big Life Stuff.

Phew.

After the most excruciatingly long day* EVER, we are homeowners.

Posting here may be spotty over the next few weeks -- we need to clear out the house** and do some painting*** before we pack all of our stuff up and move.  There is much work to be done.

Hooray!  A house!

_____________________________________________________

*Which came after an excruciatingly long period of time that involved much running around, jumping through hoops, tracking down and getting copies of year-old money orders, etc., etc., etc.

**There were strange things left behind, including a dresser covered in Britney Spears stickers.

***The living room is fuchsia.  I am not exaggerating.

Don't forget...

...the Third Annual 48 Book Challenge is coming soon!

Ellen Ripley and others.

From Cherie Priest's blog:

So how about this? I’ve done my pop culture icon love-rambling, now it’s your turn. Who pulled the chain to light the bulb in your head when you were a kid? Go on, tell me. I won’t make fun of you for it. Ripley made me cry a little bit when she chucked the ship’s cat into the escape shuttle for safe keeping. You can’t possibly confess anything sillier than that.

Anastasia Krupnik.  She's not nearly as exciting as Ripley, but then, neither am I.  She made me realize that I wasn't alone* in a lot of things. 

*The girl brought a plaster bust of Freud home from a yard sale, for Pete's sake!  Totally the kind of thing I would have done at that age, if I'd lived somewhere where there were yard sales within walking distance.

Link-a-roni.

•  Lois Lowry profiled at the Boston Globe.

•  A follow-up to Bookgasm's 9 Most Annoying Bookstore Patrons:  The 5 People Who Make Me Hate the Public Library.  As with the original, there's an argument in the comments section about whether or not it's a humor piece.  Laugh, roll your eyes, or get mad -- it's up to you!

•  Fine Lines:  The Chocolate War.

•  JKR scheduled to testify today.

•  Ian Rankin got drunk and stupid at the British Book Awards.

•  As if I needed another online addiction.  (Thanks a lot, Gregg!)

•  Moneypenny letters sold at auction for $28,865.

Kiss Me Kill Me -- Lauren Henderson

From Kiss Me Kill Me:

I don't believe any of this is happening.  It can't be me who's bending to the bench to pick up my bag; who's managing to make eye contact with Luce and Alison, because I know the fury and betrayal I'll see if I catch their eyes.  It can't be me who's turning to Nadia, throwing a casual "See you tomorrow" over my shoulder at the girls, ignoring their deafening silence.  It can't be me crossing the road, walking side by side with Nadia Farouk, Plum's number-one sidekick, heading for the fountain.

But it is me betraying my friends, selling them out, leaving them behind the second something more glossy and shiny beckons.  Ninety-nine percent of me is fizzing with excitement when I allow myself to think that the golden doors are really happening to me, that I can at last be part of the world I've always wanted to join.

But the last one percent is saying:  Someone who would do this deserves everything she gets.

No prizes for guessing which part of me was right.

When 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield accepts an invitation to a party thrown by the popular (and yes, terrifying) girls of St. Tabby's, she has no idea that her attendance will result in both a dream come true and a unimaginable nightmare.

Now, months later, she's enrolled at Wakefield Hall Collegiate, a prep school where her grandmother is headmistress, where no one knows who she is -- or so she thinks.  An anonymous note in her desk proves otherwise, and Scarlett is forced to remember the night she'd rather forget:  The night that she kissed Dan McAndrew just before he dropped dead. 

Kiss Me Kill Me isn't an easy one to categorize.  It has elements of a mystery novel (for instance, erm, a mystery...).  The flashbacks as well as Scarlett's "I should have known better..." introduction made me think more specifically of the hard boiled detective* sub-genre.  It's also, though, a book about the power of cliques and popularity, and about the difficulty of changing schools.  I think different elements will stand out for different people:  for me, it was a crime novel.

There's a lot about body image in it as well -- Scarlett is a gymnast, so of course she's very aware of what she eats and of her body in general.  But I've been noticing it in YA books more and more -- not just in issue books, where The Issue Is The Focus, but in books like Sweethearts and Girl Overboard.  I don't find it particularly surprising, what with the importance our culture places on it -- but it's an interesting trend.  Keep an eye out.  I bet you'll start noticing it all over the place, if you haven't already.

I liked it a lot.  A lot, a lot.  The more I think about it, the more I like it.  But it's going to drive people crazy (I know, because I just barely managed to restrain myself from throwing it across the room when I finished) because it doesn't have a satisfying ending.  When I was about twenty pages from the end, I realized that the book is an introduction -- that it may take quite a few books to tell the story.  While (after my initial rage) I've made my peace with it (and am actually kind of dying for the next installment), all you have to do is read the Amazon reader reviews to see that there are readers who are not cool with the lack of resolution.  So that's definitely something to be aware of -- I'm thinking that when I booktalk it, I'm going to mention that it's the first in a series.

Colleen, I know you've been wanting more teen mysteries -- if you haven't read it, you might want to give it a try!

*There's another, more obvious bit that points to the HBD, but it's spoilery.

I have magical powers.

Sadly, they haven't worked on the lottery... yet*.  Starting small is good:

Back when I wrote about The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, I mentioned that I wanted a list of the books Jane read/thought about/mentioned.  A week later, Publishers Weekly ran a Q&A with Jeanne Birdsall, and followed it up with a list of Jane's books!  Hooray!

Therefore, I have magical powers.  See the logic there?

_____________________________________________________

*Though for them to work on the lottery, I suppose I'd have to actually buy a ticket.  But I figure magic is magic, and I shouldn't have to buy a ticket -- I should just be able to find a winning (and unsigned!) one on the ground somewhere.

Harlequin goes YA.

Over at Dear Author:

I emailed Harlequin and was told that Harlequin appears to be entering the YA market and are “seeking YA submissions, notably in the areas of paranormal, fantasy/sci-fi, relationship/romance and social issues.”

According to one of the commenters, Harlequin actually entered the YA market last year with their Kimani TRU imprint.  Check out their guidelines -- pretty specific about what they're looking for, huh?

(First link via Urban Fantasy Land)

The Fugs fug Sweet Valley High.

This is, like, the best thing about the whole re-release.

Well, that and the general mockery/misty memories it has brought forth.

Mystery YA title.

From my inbox:

"I'm pretty sure it takes place in the 80's, from the descriptions of the clothes and makeup (White lipstick, shoes with rainbows on the toes). It's about four high school seniors who are forced to work on the yearbook committee because they need an extracurricular to graduate. There's the spoiled rich girl, the pretty boy, the flaky artist's daughter and the 'bad' boy who everyone thinks is poor, but is actually rich. His name is Blaze or..Blade.  It's basically the Breakfast Club at yearbook committee instead of detention. They all decide they don't want to be mean and label people so they decide to make a record of everyone's dreams instead, "So-and-so hopes to open the first rock club on the moon."

I'm pretty sure this book is so incredibly 80's that it isn't even being published anymore.

Any ideas?"

Anyone?  I KNOW I never read this one, but I wish I had!

Wardrobe malfunction.

Are there any other authors (author-authors, I mean, not celebrity-authors) who regularly make the tabloids?

I have to give the Daily Mirror folks points for the "her figure-hugging purple satin gown suddenly started Slytherin down" line.  Well, it made me laugh, anyway.

Girl at Sea -- Maureen Johnson

Look Ma, no eyes!  What's up with that?  At least we got one eye on the Devilish cover.  Happily, Suite Scarlett features an entire face!  I hope it's a new trend.

Sorry, sorry.

After pretty much landing her Dream Job at Galaxy Art Supply (a 30% discount AND she'd be working with Ollie, an adorably-tall, tie-wearing painter), Clio discovers that she can't accept it.  Her mother has received a fellowship to do some art restoration work... in Kansas.  And Clio isn't invited.  No, instead Clio will be with her father:

People would call her lucky because she was going to Italy.  If she tried to tell them that Italy wasn't going to be so great, she would look like the ultimate spoiled brat.  "Daddy's taking me to Italy!"  Pouty lips.

No one knew what being with her father was like.  No one could see the evidence littered around her.  Not just the house, but this room was full of evidence, little pieces of the story.  Everywhere she looked, signs of her own former and now impending doom.

Seemingly minutes later, Clio is in Italy, with her father... and his GIRLFRIEND (whose existence Clio had been, up until now, unaware of) on a yacht.  Rounding out the crew we have: Elsa, Julia's daughter, who looks like a dairy goddess; Martin, her father's oldest friend; and Aidan, Julia's research assistant, who goes to Yale, is an obnoxious know-it-all, and also (it must be said) very attractive.

Adventure on the high seas, Maureen Johnson-style.  Hooray!

I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to reading this one -- maybe because my library doesn't have it?  (Ahem!)  It's about friendship and family, with some romance and a little mystery -- basically, classic Maureen Johnson.  I was a big fan of the fact that Elsa and Clio hit it off immediately -- so many other authors would have played that relationship up for constant snarking and friction.  Definitely give it to any of her fans, but especially to those who loved 13 Little Blue Envelopes.  And obviously, it should be included in any 'Summer Reads' display.

Also via the SBs...

What Should I Read Next?

Fug the READ posters.

In case you've missed this (as I had, until now), Your Neighborhood Librarian is tearing the ALA's READ posters apart.

And it's hilarious.

(via the Smart Bitches)

I'm so there.

From PW:

Thus were laid the seeds for what became Salt Water Taffy, a new all-ages series from Oni Press, the first volume of which—“The Legend of Old Salty”—will be published in May. It tells the tale of two brothers on a family trip to what appears to be a dull, sleepy little town called Chowder Bay, Maine. The boys quickly discover, however, that the town is actually filled with mystery, excitement, and the aforementioned giant lobster!.

I mean, what's not to love?  And Lauren thinks Maine is boring!

Ha!

From the Washington Post:

There is a widespread notion that "if you sell a lot of books, you've got to be peddling crap," she adds, and the problem is, it's sometimes true. There are big-name authors who "can't write and they can't plot."

"But we won't mention any names. Like James Patterson," Stephen says.

'Stephen' as in Stephen King, of course. 

(via Gwenda)

Why I Write: Reginald Hill.

I wore my I ♥ Fat Andy t-shirt to work last week and (of course) had to explain it forty-seven times. 

But it was worth it -- a patron mentioned to me early this week that he'd read two Reginald Hill books since our chat and was headed back to the stacks for more.  Hooray!

From the Guardian:

When you were growing up did you have books in your home?
We were an ordinary working-class family. There was no library or butler. But I knew about libraries and butlers because my mother was a great fan of crime fiction. The adult books that came into the house tended to be Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Ngaio Marsh, which perhaps fed a taste which I developed later.

Recent A/V.

•   Jekyll -- A six-hour miniseries that tells a modern-day version of the Jekyll & Hyde story, written by Steven Moffat and starring the fantabulous James Nesbitt ("I've been using some fruity soaps, Maggie.").  Smart, funny, scary and just plain awesome right up until the last half-hour or so, which I thought was extremely weak.

•   Wristcutters: A Love Story -- Awww.  We watched this one last night and both really, really liked it.  A boy offs himself after his girlfriend dumps him and ends up... somewhere else, where things are pretty much the same but a little bit worse.  It reminded us both a little bit of Motorama, partly because of the pacing and partly because of the road trip.

•   Blanche -- It's rare that Josh and I find bands we agree on.  Clearly Blanche is special.  We haven't stopped listening to Little Amber Bottles since I bought it a couple of weeks ago.  Go to their MySpace page and give The World I Used to Be Afraid Of a listen.

110 Best Books.

Does anyone else think it's weird that there's not a fantasy category?

Oh, look.  They just stuck 'em all in the kids' section.  I mean, sure, The Hobbit.  But since when is The Lord of the Rings considered children's literature?

Did I miss a memo?

(link via everyone, but first seen at Bookslut and Bookninja)

City of Ashes: The Mortal Instruments, Book Two -- Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes picks up not long after City of Bones left off (spoilers about the first book coming up):  Clary is still learning about and dealing with her new-found knowledge about the world and her place in it as a Shadowhunter, her mother is still in a coma, her best friend Simon is still in love with her, and she is still fighting her feelings for Jace, which are impossible and wrong now that they know they are siblings.  Jace is also fighting his feelings for Clary, and as his true parentage has been revealed, he is now under suspicion for spying for Valentine among other things.

Whew.  It should be obvious by now that if you're planning on reading these books, you need to read them in order!

Things I liked:  It's fast-paced, very readable, has likable characters (Magnus Bane is top of my list at the moment), a fun magic system (I love the tattoos), a major twist I didn't expect, and I especially appreciated the fact that Cassandra Clare didn't spend a lot of time getting new readers up to speed -- she just jumped right into the story.   

Things I liked not so much:  Sometimes the plotting made me feel like I was reading the transcript of a D&D game (albeit a very entertaining one), sometimes the prose veered a bit too far into the Romantic Fantasy Description Zone ("Jace was glaring at her, his golden eyes bright as a cat's."), the descriptions got to feel repetitive (rather like the Twilight series), and sometimes I felt that I wouldn't mind if the author made me do a little bit of work, rather than having the characters explain every little thing.  But I suspect that those are personal taste issues.

It's brain candy, with less angst and more action than the Meyer books (and, in my opinion, a more entertaining heroine -- she's still kind of brainless at times, but she seemed quite a bit brighter than in the first book and she's not a whiner like Bella).  Spoilers/theorizing in the comments.

Blarg.

Sorry I haven't posted -- I've had the plague.

It seems to have mostly run its course now, though.

I hope.

A few items on a busy morning.

•  Before Green Gables gets a mixed review at the Guardian.  I still don't think I can read it.  We'll see.  If the library gets it, maybe -- MAYBE -- I'll give it a go.  But I doubt it.

•  I finally watched the Doctor Who Season Three Finale.  First off, I was glad that we found out what the deal was with Captain Jack's immortality and the Face of Boe revelation made me happy. 

While I didn't have Brian's burning hatred (probably because I was forewarned) for the arc, I really didn't approve of the Master being Mr. Funny, and I really didn't approve of the Tinkerbell move.  ("I do believe in the Doctor, I do, I do, I do!")  I also could have done without the flying.  I don't know if I buy the "I forgive you", either -- yes, the Master is the only other Time Lord out there, but that bit didn't really jive with the avenging angel Doctor we saw earlier in the season.  Then again, he's a complicated guy.

•  Last (for now), I can't stop listening to this album.

The Luxe -- Anna Godbersen

Ah, Alloy.  They do know how to put together an attractive product.  Regardless of how I felt about the inside of the book, there's no disputing that the outside is gorgeous.  Look -- this is the full wraparound book jacket (minus the back cover blurb):

And who is the back cover blurb by, you ask?  None other than Cecily von Ziegesar, creator of the Gossip Girl series.  As The Luxe is basically Gossip Girl set in 1899, it's a perfect match.

The book, well, it is what it is.  Two-dimensional characters (some of them verge on two-and-a-half), not-particularly-interesting prose, a storyline with no surprises (and I mean NO SURPRISES) and yet, somehow, a page-turner.  I'm not at all surprised that it's been so popular.

And, humiliation of humiliations, I'll totally read the next one.  So, there you have it.  If you're looking for a book that involves absolutely no work whatsoever on your part, here it is.  Especially if you (like me) suspect that you could (and would) secretly enjoy the Gossip Girl books if they didn't sport those pesky brand-name references in every other paragraph.

Oh, also?  It would pretty much be the best thing ever (and so very, very perfect) if the movie version (which I assume will happen at some point) starred all of the kids* from Gossip Girl.  I'd totally go.

*God, I'm old.

More recycled book art.

This is the work of Will Ashford:

(via Neatorama)

I don't know whether to be secretly psyched or just plain scared.

Both, maybe?

Zzzzzzzzzzz.

To ; or not to ;?

(That was for you, Adam.)

Out of the Wild -- Sarah Beth Durst

There are spoilers about the first book below.  If you haven't read it, beware.  Um, also, if you haven't read it, WHY NOT?

It's been six weeks since the events of Into the Wild, and all is not well:

Julie's wish in the well might have restored her life to normal, but it hadn't turned back the clock or erased any consequences.  The aftereffects of the Wild continued to linger.  Glass slippers, poisoned apples, and spinning wheels littered the town.  Gingerbread houses moldered in the open air.  Spells and enchantments continued to cause otherwise ordinary people to catch flies with their tongues or dance until midnight.

At the end of her adventure in the Wild, Julie had to make a choice:  stay there with her father, or vanquish the Wild.  She chose the latter, and she fully expected to never seen him again.  But then, one day, for no reason that anyone can figure out, the Wild spits out Julie's father, and Rapunzel is suddenly reunited with her Prince.

You'd think that would be a happily-ever-after, but no.  Julie's father reappears in Chapter One.  Shortly thereafter, Rapunzel and her mother are turned into pumpkins by Bobbi, Cinderella's fairy godmother, who then kidnaps the (still sleeping) Sleeping Beauty and takes off -- with Julie's father (and Julie!) in hot pursuit.   

This one made me think about a couple of fairy tales in ways I'd never really thought about -- Red Riding Hood is a really gross story and there's a whole rebirth angle that had never occurred to me before (Am I dumb?), and Rumpelstiltskin is a much more tragic figure here than in A Curse Dark As Gold, let alone the original story.  It makes me happy that these old stories inspire so many different interpretations and re-tellings and re-imaginings.

I loved Into the Wild a whole lot, but you know what?  Out of the Wild was even better.  I was so happy that the events of the first book changed the world, that there wasn't some sort of time-blip and everyone forgot what they'd been through.  That, in itself, made the Wild much scarier and made the story more real.  I suspect this duo will turn a whole lot of kids on to old fairy tales, urban fantasy and the power of story in general.

Larklight: The Movie.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

The 2006 book, set in a Victorian-era alternate universe in which mankind has been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton, revolves around a brother and sister who team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.

"It's a $200 million project, probably the most expensive film I've made and will ever make," Kapur told the Indo-Asian News Service on the weekend.

(Via Fuse, who swears this isn't an April Fool's joke.  Also, Fusie, for some reason my Google Reader has decided that it hates your SLJ RSS feed. Any ideas?)

CC and Lauren, this is for you.

The Library of Congress has set up a Historic Baseball Resources page.

It's very cool.

Ooooo.

I am so very excited.  Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait.