Exciting News

So, thanks to this lovely lil' blog here 

I get to read and review the forthcoming novel Fade to Blue 

by Sean Beaudoin, author of Going Nowhere Fast. 

I know you will be eagerly awaiting this, 

so while I lounge poolside in California 

I will make sure to get my read on. 

In the meantime, check out his website: 

there is a really cool NAME MY NEXT BOOK CONTEST 

that I'm sure one of my clever colleagues can win!

Scholastic v. Teachers re: Catalog O' Crap

Well my dear sweet blogosphere- what do you think of this? 

Us v Them Again

Another article discussing the abundance of gruesome and depressing topics in Young Adult literature...why do adults (who publish and read J.M. Coetzee, Jodi Picoult, Chuck Palahniuk, Toni Morrison and the like) continuously seem surprised that teenagers look to literature for the same reasons they do; entertainment, education, catharsis, provocation.  Why do so many adults need there to be such a separation between adult and young adult fiction? In the 1930's Melvin B Tolson wrote, "Somebody has to black hisself/ For somebody else to stay white." Perhaps it is this same perverse logic that drives the adult need to see teenagers as distinctly different so as to make their adultness seem more precious and profound.

Book Review

Thirteen Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

4 scoops

Knowledge is Power

Books matter. If you need further proof, read this.

Two More Reviews

Falling Through the Earth

by Danielle Trussoni

3 scoops

(Great material- and some chapters were really quite moving- but on the whole I felt the moments were not connected into a gripping narrative arc)

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

bu Joyce Carol Oates

4 Scoops

 (She did a great job of following an idea all the way through; she shows all of the ways in which a person and those in his immediate circle are impacted by an event, in this case, the character of Matt having been being falsely accused of threatening to blow up the school.  She also does interesting things with syntax and perspective to show the development of identity.  I liked the character of Ugly Girl/ Ursula Rigs/u r.)

QUICK AND DIRTY

There are three books I've read recently that I keep meaning to review in depth.... Shiver, After Tupac and D Foster (Thank you Allary!), and The Vast Fields of Ordinary. But, since my time management skills have slipped into some sort of coma, you will have to settle for this:

The Vast Fields of Ordinary

by Nick Burd

5 Scoops

(Seriously, I feel like he wrote this just for me. This book is amazing. Top Ten. You'll love it. I promise. And you'll probably feel like he wrote it just for you too. But don't worry, I'll still like you if you don't. This book is gorgeous. The perfect combination of funny, sincere, and angry. It's about loneliness.  And about not being able to fully express the complexity and truth of our emotional lives while we are living them. Or being able to and choosing not to. So, buy this book. Support this guy. I want him to write some more books for me.)

Shiver

by Maggie Stiefvater

4 Scoops

(I'm not usually a fan of fantasy, but this book was a good read. It was well written, although there were too many butterfly references. I kept hoping the werewolf thing was a metaphor for something profoundly grand, but I think it's just a book about werewolves; feeling conflicted within yourself, searching for your true identity, wanting to fit in with people who genuinely understand you, of course that's all in there, but really just a love story between a girl and a werewolf. I can't say I liked the last chapter- but I wont tell you any more about that. Read it and then we'll talk.)

After Tupac and D Foster

by Jacqueline Woodson

3 scoops

(Enough with the overly lyrical inner monologue and the forced ghettronic dialogue. I do love me some Tupac though...)