Listen up!

I'm not updating this blog anymore, because I am pouring all of my time and energy into our new Seattle Public Library teen blog, Push to Talk. If you like what I write here, check it out!

Upcoming Reviews

To keep me honest, here's a list of books I've recently read and plan to review next:

Pretties and Specials by Scott Westerfeld
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Who Am I Without Him? by Sharon Flake
Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew The Way by Bryan Charles
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Stay tuned!

YA Book Review: Ned Vizzini's Be More Chill

Be More Chill: A Novel
by Ned Vizzini

Jeremy Heere hates rollcall. He can't reply with "here" because that would sound stupid. He usually says "present." One day, however, a guy who rarely speaks to geeky Jeremy gives him a tip: a small pill containing a microcomputer can change geek to cool - all it costs is $500. Jeremy steals some beanie babies, scratches up the cash, and swallows the pill. Not only does he learn a new way to answer rollcall ("Yo.") but he finds life on the inside has just as many problems as life on the outside. This book is absolutely hysterical in many parts, but does contain adult situations and lots of colorful language; like any book I recommend: read at your own risk.

Off the Radar

Boy I've been busy! I've been reading tons of fantastic YA books, mostly non-fiction. I plan to get up some more reviews SOON. I'm going to be doing 3 school visits and booktalking gross and awesome disease and parasite books. Good times.

In the meantime, you can see what I'm reading here. Stay tuned!

YA Book Review: John Green's Looking For Alaska

Looking For Alaska
by John Green

Miles, an average sort of kid from Florida, enrolls in a Southern boarding school to experience what life has to offer: the new, the exciting, that which a dying poet called "the Great Perhaps." Miles is a fan of last words and reads the biographies, but not the books, of many famous men and women. At boarding school Miles comes to be known as Pudge and falls in step with a tight knit group of friends, including the lovely and off-kilter Alaska; Alaska soon eclipses everything else as Miles' first love. I hate to give away endings (or even middles), so you'll just have to read this one yourself -- trust me, you'll be glad you did.

YA Book Review: Scott Westerfeld's Uglies

Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies is the first book in the Uglies triology, and it's a fast-paced zingy trip through a post-apocalyptic world in which everyone gets drastic plastic surgery when they turn 16. This is done, they say, to keep people from discriminating against one another - if everyone is pretty, then everyone is equal, right? Turns out this isn't such a great idea, and our plucky girl-hero Tally is out to find the truth once her friend Shay leaves the city the night before her operation. All Tally has ever wanted is to turn into a Pretty, but suddenly Tally is thrown into the middle of a situation she can't control - will she turn spy against her new friends or will she turn her back on the only wish she's ever had?

The sequel to Uglies is, you guessed it, Pretties, and I'll be reviewing that one SOON!

Back from Outer Space

I've been a bit AWOL lately -- my little Mac laptop has been in the Apple hospital and work's been so hectic I haven't had a chance to post from the library. HOWEVER. I posted a link to this blog on my introduction(s) in some local newsletters so I figured it was high time I dust this little blog off and add some updates - mostly book reviews for the time being. You'd be surprised how much reading a girl can do when she's laptop-less and Netflix is being slow with their movie deliveries...