Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Past present future.

Hello dear unlikely but (still) potential readers. I am back from my hiatus. Life was hard there for a little while. I am now officially a librarian in a Northwest suburb of Chicago. Hooray! I also live in Chicago and so thusly have a commute. The commute, while it has its drawbacks, has one major perk: reading. I read on the el and I read on the metra and I listen to books on cd in the car and sometimes I even read or listen to story podcasts while I'm walking. I start and finish at least 5 books a week. I really enjoy my job too and I'm really excited about teen read week.

Today I'm going to mention a few things I really liked and a few disappointments. For more complete reading lists check out my goodreads or shelfari pages.

A short list of good things I've read lately:

Magnificent Pigs
Catherine Murdock-Dairy Queen and The Off Season: really well done character portrait of a girl who decides her life as a dairy farmer needs spicing up.
Mercedes Lackey-The Fairy Queen:A formula romance disguised as fantasy but well done for what it is.
John Green-An Abundance of Katherines: Intensely coming of age and coming into one's own story.
Judith Clarke-One Whole and Perfect Day: Serendipity at its finest. I almost cried.
Two books I absolutely loved:
Andrew Davidson-The Gargoyle: I was skeptical. I did not want to think this book would hold my attention but I couldn't resist the title. Instead I was propelled through love stories and the history of the book as well as modern day burn recuperation practices and a man who fights his many demons. I couldn't put it down.

Perry Moore-Hero: holy homosexual batman! I love the way this book plays with the superhero genre and at the same time is not illustrated. Instead Moore paints with words.

Finally, some disappointments:

Cohn and Levithan: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist was GREAT. However Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List left me wanting more. More defined characters, more crisply distinct voices. More plot and action. Just...more.
Barry Lyga-Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth girl. Unreliable narrators are fine, unlikeable characters all around leave me disconnected to the story. Speaking of the story, I'm not sure what was supposed to be astonishing there at all. Oh well. Maybe Boy Toy is better.