He speaks to dead people and they talk back...

That is the premise of the book I finished waiting for blood work to be done. Dead Connection by Charlie Price focuses on Murray Keifer, a loner teen with an unfortunate name. His mother has gentlemen callers all hours of the day and night, so he spends most of his time in the town cemetery talking to the people who had died young. When he concentrates he can envision what they looked like when they died and hear them talk back to him. The dead get lonely with no one to talk to.

While in the cemetery one day, he can hear the voice of a girl garbled and scattered as if she were beyond upset and incomprehensible. Could this be Nikki Parker, the missing high school cheerleader? And if so, where is she in the cemetery? With the caretaker's daughter, Murray will have to search out the voice and try to convince police to listen to the dead.

The book is broken down into different viewpoints--Murray, an alcoholic cop who has it out for Murray, a sheriff investigator obsessed with Nikki's disappearance, and a schizophrenic young adult who may or may not have witnessed (was involved in?) her abduction. Each viewpoint is in individual chapters that range from one to five pages long. Short chapters have always appealed to me as I love built-in stopping points for breaks. If I have to put a book down, then I want it to be at the end of a chapter. Granted, this book I read in a waiting room and finished with no breaks.

It's a fast read. If you like crime mysteries or ghost/supernatural stories I think you'll find this one quite enjoyable.

Action packed reading

Sometimes as I watch as action movie I think that there is no way an action novel can be the same. I mean, think about an action movie--the loud explosions, the fast car chase scenes, the fight sequences--a lot of books don't always give you the same thrilling feeling of the adrenaline pumping scenes. But every so often, a novel is done and described so well that it could have been a movie. Last night I came across one of those novels. I read Sure Fire by Jack Higgins with Justin Richards. A rather well done action spy novel. Jack Higgins, known for his adult spy novels, partnered with Justin Richards (author of Death Collector and Parliament of Blood) to create a new series for teens. Rich and Jade, fifteen-year-old twins, have just lost their mother to a freak road accident (She looked the wrong way before crossing the street and got hit by a car). At the funeral, they meet their father for the first time and both agree that he's a fairly cold, standoffish prat who is packing them off to boarding school. Well at least he was until he was abducted. The police don't believe them, the people offering to help them can't be trusted, and they're in a strange new place.

After some gun shoot-outs between the adults in the novel, driving a Range Rover through a wall to save Jade, the two find themselves in the middle of an international threat to the world's oil supply. Very action-packed and fast-paced which makes this a short read. The action sequences were both amusing and adrenaline pumping. This is one novel that uses adults as devices, conveniently forgotten until they're needed to shoot someone. But even with that fault, Jade and Rich shine with energy. Best suited for action fans, this is one title that is suspenseful for younger teen readers. The sequel Death Run is also available from the library.

death manga

There are several nominated manga titles for the death and dying popular paperbacks list. including
Bleach, Death Note, Vampire Knight, Zombie Loan, Chibi Vampire, Line, Canon, and Yurara. I've been re-reading these titles to see how well they fit the list. Not all of them will end up on the list for sure. The main idea of the booklist is that death or dying has to be prevalent within the book for it to fit the list. As I've been reading them, I've been trying to figure out if killing the undead counts as death. Or does just being undead count? If so, all of these fit for me.

Death Note and Line are the most dramatic titles and they both fit the list pretty well. Bleach, Zombie Loan and Yurara deal with the undead and spirits left in the world after their human bodies have died. At least in Zombie Loan there is an actual dying moment in the first volume. Vampire Knight and Canon are the two more problematic titles. There is no death or dying, but the characters are already undead.

I guess we won't know until the middle of January. I'll let you know what we decide to vote onto the list and what doesn't make the cut then!

Oh and by the way, Line is a really well done single volume manga. You should check it out!

James Bond 007

To celebrate the new movie and to nominate a James Bond novel for the Spies & Intrigue list for Popular Paperbacks, I picked up Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. In case you are unfamiliar with James Bond for some bizarre reason or another, Bond is a spy/agent for the British Secret Service. In this particular book, he goes to France to play a high stakes baccarat game at a casino in hopes to stop a Soviet agent from gaining back the money in gambling that he lost in bad deals before the Soviet agency: SMERSH figures out what he has done.


Amazingly enough, this premise of reading about a card game is actually interesting and holds the reader's attention. I've never been one to watch Poker on TV or even when the movie of Casino Royale came out a few years back, the card game dragged for me as a viewer. Preparing myself to read about this card game that 1) I've never heard of before (Baccarat); and 2) is as passive of an action sequence as possible, I wasn't expecting it to be interesting whatsoever. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was interesting! :)


If you've seen the film version of this story, you'll find there are many similarities, but just as many differences. Over the years, Bond as the movie character has toned down his sexism a bit. And Daniel Craig definitely doesn't fit the image of Bond described in the novel. As a female viewer, I'm glad that he is Bond in the movies right now!


Anyway, if you've seen the movies and enjoyed them, you should take a step back in time and read the novels from the '50s and '60s. You won't regret it.


James Bond fans should also pick up Silverfin by Charlie Higson, the first volume in the Young Bond series. It showcases Bond's background as a teenager and you'll be able to find out how he got his start!

If I had superpowers...

I wonder what type of superpowers I would want if I had them. When watching Heroes I think that Peter Petrelli's powers are pretty cool, but then I would have to remember everyone's names and powers. And let's be honest, I don't have that great of a memory for anything but book and movie plots. Then there's Claire--never being able to die (and of course this season, feel pain). Cool, right? Being impervious to pretty much everything. Then we met Adam and let's face it immortality probably is overrated. Who would want to have to work forever! So I don't know what superpower I'd want. I'd like to think I'd use my powers for good if I had them, but who knows. More likely, I'd use them to further my laziness!

Anyway, you're probably wondering why I'm rambling on about this. I have a point really, I do. I just finished this fast-paced science fiction, action novel by Michael Carroll called The Awakening.

The first book in the Quantum Prophecy series focuses on Colin and his friend Danny. It's the tenth anniversary of Mystery Day, the day superhumans vanished from earth. For homework, Colin has to write a four page essay on what it would be like to be a superhuman. He tries to think how a super villian would rationalize their evilness, but can't make it work out. He thinks about the ability to fly so he could be a star athlete. He can't focus on his school work to well, because his best friend Danny did something odd and incredible after school. He saved a girl from being hit by a bus. The odd part of it was it happened too fast to be physically possible, unless...

And that's when Colin thinks that Danny may have superhuman abilities. The it gets really weird. The next night, Colin can hear things he should never be hearing--the water for the tea kettle being started four houses away, and Danny and his father coming to visit his family really late at night, and even worse, a helicopter pilot speaking about taking the boys alive is the number one priority--everyone else is dispensable.

Colin and Danny are kidnapped and Colin's parents are hostages. Who took them? What are they wanting to do with two teen boys who have just discovered their abilities? And where are they going?

All this and more is answered within the pages of The Awakening. It's a fast-paced read. I finished it in just a few hours. Will Colin and Danny end up good guys or villains, I don't know, but this first book is just the beginning. I'll have to pick up book 2 at the bookstore to see what will happen next!

What I've been reading lately...

Not much apparently in comparison to Karen! Geez, she writes a lot of posts! :) Just kidding Karen, we love your posts...

I have an excuse for not posting--I was out of the country. Really, I was! But while I was gone, I read some books. Some adult books for myself (Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich--not as good as her last ones, but gaming is highlighted in it!); some books for reviewing purposes (not going to mention the book--I didn't really like it); and then some for my popular paperbacks work (Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks; Angels and Demons by Dan Brown; and The Squad: the Perfect Cover by Jennifer Barnes). All of these last books were for my spies and intrigue list for PPYA.

Let’s start with Angels and Demons. I’m sure most of you have heard of the Da Vinci Code by now—if not, where have you been? Anyway, this is the first book that portrays Robert Langdon, the Harvard Professor of symbology. Robert awakens in the early morning one weekend to a phone call asking him to meet with the unknown caller. He thinks it’s a crank call and hangs up, but then his fax machine spits out a picture of a man dead with an illuminati symbol burned into him. It’s not a pretty sight and it convinces him to get on the plane to go to Geneva to the scene of the crime. Thus begins this adventure tale that puts modern science and the Catholic Church against the so-called Illuminati group threatening to blow up the Vatican City. Okay, so I could see some of the plot coming. But it still was a fast-paced read! The chase to discover the Illuminati’s secret lair takes Robert and his partner to some of the most famous churches and plazas around Rome. Of course, I was just in Rome, so I had just seen all of these monuments, statues, and places. I called Da Vinci Code a thriller for smart people. This would fit into that category. It’s steeped in history—whether it’s true or not is obviously up for debate, but you should check it out before the movie comes out next year!

Evil Genuis by Catherine Jinks took me a lot longer to like. It was like pulling teeth for me to read at first because of the writing style. The first hundred pages or so are more like briefs about Cadel's life up until he graduates high school. After that, he goes to Axis Institute, a local college created for him by his imprisoned father. The school has classes like embezzlement, misinformation, forgery--all towards a degree in World Domination. The story picked up speed for me once he went to college. He grows as a character as he starts to question his upraising and his mentor. At first, I'll admit that I didn't really enjoy the book--the narrator style bothered me, but once Cadel started realizing the world around him -- and that not all normal people are morons -- I couldn't help but want to know what happened next. And when I finished the book, I was satisfied. And if you're not, you can read the sequel Genius Squad.

The last book is the first book in the Squad series. Perfect Cover by Jennifer Barnes is James Bond meets Bring it On. Seriously, it's high school cheerleaders as secret agent spies. And if that doesn't crack you up, I don't know what will. The main character, Toby Klein, is a computer hacker--she hacked into the Pentagon and then freaked out. Toby is as anti-cheerleader as you can get and she gets invited to try out for the God Squad--oh, sorry, I mean the cheerleading squad. And when they offer her a spot on the squad, they inform her that she's now a spy and then they transform her into the spitting image of the stereotypical cheerleader. An absolute hilarious scene, I guarantee!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of these books that I read over my vacation!

Alfred stole the Sword Excalibur...

And all he got for it was the murder of his uncle and this blog post.

All sillyness aside, The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey is all about Alfred, a "normal" teen boy who has had a run of misfortunes. First his father ran out before he was even born; he's a BIG boy with a BIG head; his mom has died of cancer leaving him alone with his uncle who has big dreams that leave him susceptible to bad men. His uncle has made a deal with a man to retrieve a sword from the office building he guards as its night watchman in exchange for 1 million dollars. Alfred gets involved, even though he thinks something is fishy about the whole thing, but what can he do when his uncle threatens him with foster care?

Little does Alfred know that this one small moment of thievery will cause possibly the world's destruction. The sword is Excalibur--the legendary sword of King Arthur--and whoever uses it can control men and be unbeatable in combat. After his uncle is killed and Alfred is introduced to the descendants of the Knights of the Round Table, he realizes the consequences of his action and feels that he needs to do something to set things right--which include his death (this isn't a spoiler--he tells you in the first paragraph!); high speed chases in amazing sports cars; secret government organizations; and fights against AODs (Agents of Darkness). When I started reading the book, I asked my husband what he thought of the book and he said, that this is the most realistic book of how a normal teen is put into spy/action situations. And he was right. Alfred isn't trained in fighting techniques like Alex Rider; he doesn't have parents who are spies; or is a genius with unusual skills. He's just an ordinary boy who is big for his size and a little slow to comprehend things...

And that's what makes this a fun book to read. It's action packed and full of unbelievable scenes that make this a book that should be made into a movie. It would be a great teen action flick!

Action Adventure Thieves

So another theme for the popular paperbacks committee I'm on is Spies & Intrigue. I don't talk about those books as often because I'm REALLY behind on my reading of the nominated titles. Shame on me, I know. So I'm catching up a bit. On Friday, I read Thieves like Us by Stephen Cole.

Jonah is up at 3 am in his prison cell thinking that it sounds pretty quiet in the prison--that is until he hears someone coming up to his cell and breaking him out. He's been given a chance to leave prison that comes with a price. His price? Use his skill in hacking and deciphering codes in crimes. Sure, he's already a criminal, but he had a reason for that crime--this one is just thievery, right? But with Patch, the one-eyed lockpicker; Motti, the systems expert; Con, the mesmerizer; and Tye, the driver/pilot extraordinaire, Jonah has found something he has always wanted--a family. Their backer, Mr. Coldhardt, has a new project for them--one that has ties to Ancient Egypt and could lead to eternal life.

As I started reading this book, I immediately thought of the Mod Squad--genius teens who were criminals join forces with the good guys--except they are still criminals in this book. As they justify it, the ones they steal from don't call the police. They call in mercenaries to steal it back and then kill you for stealing! But as I continued to read it became a mixture of Mission Impossible--who's on their side?; who's going to betray them?; and who can they trust? are all questions that popped in my head while reading--and Indiana Jones--grave robbing, ancient history lessons. It was loads of fun! Jonah and Tye are the narrators for the most part and I liked how both sounded jaded but willing to trust the other teens.

If you're looking for a fun action packed story for the summer, look no further. This is the one you need to read!

Death and gore

So I'm reading death books for the popular paperbacks committee. Last night I finished reading Lord Loss by Darren Shan.

Greg posted about this book in September 2006, so go re-read his post now! Anyway, I have always felt that true horror books are sometimes missing in teen literature. The ones that seem to be coming out most are the supernatural romances instead scary stories.

I've known that Darren Shan's Demonata series was the exception to this, but I still never got around to reading them. Now I had the perfect excuse. The paperback copy has a quote from the SLJ review that says something aobut how this will gross out anyone. It was right! The perfect mixture of horror and gore. Starting with Grubbs prank on his older sister--he put rats guts on her towel while she was in the shower. He thought it was hilarious--no one else did. But the image that stayed with me is when he walked into his parents' bedroom to find them murdered by demons. His father was beheaded and blood draining from his body. His sister sawed in half and made into a puppet for the demons' amusement. Perfection.

But Shan doesn't stop there. His first person, present tense writing makes the story have more anticipation and excitement. Shan makes Grubbs into a realistic character when he breaksdown and is placed in a mental institution. His fear is tangible throughout the novel. And even at the end I still wanted to read more. So now, I think I'll be bringing them with me on my vacation this summer!

School Visits

I think we're all catching up on our blogging! Emily's posted today, I'm going to post about a few different things, and maybe Karen will sneak one in too!

I love doing school visits. Well, let me rephrase that. I love doing school visits when I'm in the mood to do them! :) I've been trekking over to schools the past week or so to talk about the Teen Summer Reading Program. While there, I talk up a handful of books. Sometimes, the teens ask about specific types of books. (ie, "I love Twilight!!!--Squeee!" and then I mention L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries as a good book to read next) But most of the time, I use books to give the teens an example of what's expected from our book review forms they can fill out this summer. I thought that our readers of this blog may also like to know what I've been using!

The first one is Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers.

I reviewed this book several months ago for a library journal. So, I wasn't going to talk about it here. But I wanted to share to the classes a realistic fiction book that boys would enjoy. A companion book to Fallen Angels, Myers' Vietnam War novel, this novel can be read without knowing a single thing about Fallen Angels. Robin Perry is fresh out of high school and has enlisted in the military. It's 2003 and the Iraq War is about to begin. Perry receives minimal weapons training because he's a Civil Affairs soldier--the soldiers who come in after the fighting to help civilians. He's told that he'll be away from the fighting and he believes it until his hummer crosses the border of Iraq and he sees the body bags lined up. Welcome to Iraq.

This is the first Iraq War novel written for teens. Myers writes subtly and leaves a lot to the imagination of his readers. Unfortunately for me, I have a vivid imagination. So when Robin has to kill at close range, I envision the blood splatter. Those images will be different for every reader which is why this is a great title to booktalk. After my first day of presenting, I had people trying to buy the book off of me. I told them to come to the library...


The next books I talked up are ones from my assignments for the popular paperbacks committee for YALSA. I've already spoken about one in a previous post: The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. So I won't discuss that one again. One of my assigned themes is Spies and Intrigue. Think Stormbreaker or The Bourne Identity and you have a good idea what the theme is all about! This book, I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter is a fun grrl power book. Cammie is a Gallagher Girl, a student at the all-girls boarding school, Gallagher Academy. To the outside world, the school looks like a very elite and private school that pampers to the wealthy girls of the uppercrust. Once inside, you would discover that it is true--it's very elite and private and the school does pamper to a certain clientele. But that clientele isn't the welathy uppercrust. It pampers to the CIA, FBI, Interpol, MI6. That's right. All the students there are daughters of current or former spies and this school is training them to follow in their parents' footsteps. On her first covert op training mission, Cammie and two of her classmates must tail a professor to a town festival to find out what he drinks with funnel cakes. Her classmates are discovered and only Cammie finds out. As she reaches into the trash to pick up the empty glass bottle of Dr. Pepper, she realizes that she's been spotted by a teen boy. And what's worse--he starts to talk to her and possibly flirts with her. Between Cammie and her friends they decide to investigate him to find out if he's a mole sent to infiltrate the Gallagher Academy or is he just a teen boy looking for a girlfriend?

Fundamentally a relationship book, but has humor, action, and spy technology that makes this a great read for the summer. Oh, and Disney has optioned this for a movie. Who knows if or when it'll come out. But there you have it!

So there's a few of the books I booktalked for the past week or so. I need to get them turned in now so the teens can read them!

Magic in the Real World Popular Paperbacks for teens

Okay, post 2 (Karen has usurped my throne as blog queen, but never fear- I will defeat this coup attempt!)

Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults created 4 themed booklists this year. The second one I want to post about is Magic in the Real World. These books take place firmly in the real world. They ask us to imagine--what if magic existed and we just don't know it? These books explore what happends when people discover the fantasy elements surrounding us. Below are two of my favorites of this booklist.

Holly Black is one of my favorite authors. She writes fabulous dark fantasy stories. Her second book, Valiant made the list. After betrayed by those she loved, Valerie runs away from her home to New York City. Rescued by her new friends, they become squatters in the subway system. This gritty runaway story is filled with the horrors of drugs, but told in a fantastical manner. The drugs they use are magical; creatures are real, and trolls really do live underneath bridges.

I can't stress how much I adore Ms. Black's writing. She's gritty, realistic and yet, completely fantastical at the same time. One can always relate to her characters, even if they're a changling, a faerie, a runaway, a troll... They're still real.

The other title I enjoyed immensely was The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. Jack always took his medicine--his heart medicine. But one day he forgot and it changed his world. Discovering his warrior powers that were hidden by his medicine, Jack is thrust into a battle between warriors and wizards--and their designated fighters decide who will rule until the next decisive battle. Most fighters are killed before the battles even occur and lucky Jack--he's a fighter.

The companion (not necessarily a sequel) to the book came out in 2007--The Wizard Heir. But beware, it has a very similar cover to this one. It just has a little more green to it!

Sex is... Popular Paperbacks for teens

So my year of reading books dealing with sex written for (or appeals to) teens is finally over. We had over 40 nominations. We podcast our 2 hour meeting where we discussed the nominated titles. It's not on YALSA's website yet, but hopefully they will put it up soon! The final list can be found on YALSA's website. I think the list is pretty diverse. We have straight and gay love, celebacy, nonfiction and fiction, novels and graphic novels, books on desire. Pretty much however you define Sex there is something for you. My particular favorites of the list are as follows!

Forever by Judy Blume

The Classic book of sex for teens. This has been passed around teen girl readers ever since it was first published in 1975. Hey, this teen book is older than me! This story is all about first loves and how forever may not really last forever. A fabulous story with a new updated cover! Highly recommended even with some corny lines thrown in every once in a while. I read this one sitting on the beach in Mexico!

Hail Caesar by Thu-Houng Ha

Caesar's really not named Caesar, it's just what everyone calls him. He's the all powerful jock, girl swooning heart throb, and king of the school. Everyone loves him--except the new girl at school. And he can't stand that she doesn't adore him like everyone else. If you've ever wondered what guys think, check this book out and also Doing It by Melvin Burgess. Another cool fact about this book is that the author is a teen girl! She's now in college, but she wrote this while in high school.

Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart

This is more about the mechanics of sex than sex itself. Gretchen finds herself transformed into a fly in the boys' locker room after making a wish. As she observes the boys in all their glory, she discovers many new found truths and confidence within herself. Chick lit fun. And let's be honest, girls are curious about boys and all their parts probably just as much as boys are interested in girls' parts! Great pink and white cover too!

Since this is a booklist all about sex, we wanted to find some great, popular (or could be popular) nonfiction books on sex ed. After reading so many books on the topic, our committee discovered that there are a lot of DRY sex ed books out there! Geez, it's kind of sad that a book could be boring on such a "racy" topic! But we found two great titles that we really liked. My favorite one was Doing it Right by Bronwen Pardes. This is a solid resource--lots of fun banter, but very honest and informative text. Heck, I even learned something from here!

The last books I want to highlight from the list are books on desire. Sex doesn't actually take place in these books but desire is pouring out of the pages. The first one is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. In order to avoid his ex-girlfriend, Nick asks the girl next to him at punk rock show to be his girlfriend for five minutes. This begins a hot and steamy night told in both Nick and Norah's voices. Great music book too!

The other one is a supernatural title, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. Vivian is trying to fit into her new suburban home but when she falls for a human, she has to figure out where her loyalties lie --with her werewolf pack or with the "meatboy" human. I first read this when I was living in Indiana. It was nominated for an Indiana award similar to our Grand Canyon Reader Award. I read all the books nominated for the teen list, but this one really stuck with me. I remember sitting in a comfy chair, reading the whole book, finishing it in one sitting, going to take a potty break and then rereading all the good parts again! This book is the first teen book that I can remember reading really talking about desire and what it feels like and what it means to "want" somebody. Oh so good. Just don't judge the book on the movie--I'm sure it was horrible in comparison!

So that's my highlights of the Sex is... list. Don't just take my opinion for the list, read the books and let me know what you think!

Brent Hartinger

Brent Hartinger is tomorrow's live chat author on the Readgirlz MySpace page. I'm in the middle of reading The Order of the Poison Oak right now for my YALSA popular paperbacks sex booklist nominations. Geez, I love being able to say that I'm on the Sex Committee. It cracks me up every time! :) Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Hartinger is a great author! I've heard him speak once before at a conference. His topic was on gay and lesbians portrayed in teen literature. Most of his books touch on this topic. I know that Readergirlz is doing this month-long celebration of teen literature and teen authors in collaboration with Teen Read Week, but I think it's worth pointing out that this particular week is Banned Books Week. I had always wondered how authors feel when one of their books are removed from a library for being deemed inappropriate. Mr. Hartinger brought it to life for me in his talk a few years back. His book Geography Club had been banned in his own community. How very sad for him AND his community. What message did that library send out to their community when they decided to remove a book about a group of gay and lesbian teens who find support in their "Geography Club" at school? I don't remember if the book had been removed from a school or a public library, but it breaks my heart to hear about these types of challenges throughout the nation.

I know that this post is quite a bit more scattered than my posts are usually, but there was a lot in this one paragraph. I hope you give his books a chance!

Sex, sex, and more sex

Let's see if that headline gets us blocked on any filters! Since Karen seems to think she has all the power of blogging, I figured it was a good time to jump in and correct her...So I'm on PPYA, right? And man I am soooooo behind in my reading. ALA conference is a week away and I still have 18 books to read. I've acknowledged that I will not finish all of the titles to discuss them at this conference. Luckily, the voting doesn't take place until January!

Anyway, I'm on the Sex is a Touchy Subject committee. This requires me to find and read books for teens about sex--both fiction and nonfiction. So far we have 20 titles nominated. I'll be honest, I reall need to nominate more books. I've been slacking off this first 6 months of the year. I'll have to work harder after summer reading ends. There's some newly published books that have been nominated that I really have enjoyed--much more than I thought I would too!

The Making of Dr. Truelove by Derrick Barnes

This novel focuses on Diego's secret efforts to win back the girl of his dreams, Roxy. After a humiliating sexual incident, Diego brushes Roxy off. When he sees the consequences of his actions, which has led Roxy to only be his friend and to give her affections to a hot-shot basketball player, he is devestated. His best friend comes up with a plan--an online love columnist complete with a secret identity, promotional posters, t-shirts, and appearances. While Diego loves writing the column and gains some valuable romantic confidence, he worries that his friend takes things with Dr. Truelove too far.

Diego is real. He has many different layers that come out in Dr. Truelove. His columns are filled with double entendres that will make the readers chuckle and think "Man, that's a line I could use!" The beginning chapters detail his embarassing incident, and Barnes keeps it genuine. There's no tip-toeing around the sex talk here! This urban title hasn't seen alot of circs at Foothills, but I think once word gets out about it, there will be plenty of readers for Dr. Truelove.

Lost It by Kristen Tracy deals with Tess and her ridiculous life. Her parents abandon her to attend a survival camp, leaving her cigarette smoking, lottery winning grandmother to stay with her; her best friend is trying to build a bomb to kill a poodle; and she thinks she wants to lose her virginity. A lot to pack into a 276 page book. One of my PPYA committee members said that this is like an episode of a beloved sitcom. I definitely agree that it's sitcom worthy, but not just one episode--maybe half a season. The other half would take care of the things left behind at the end of the book.

Tess has always had her best friend and vica versa, but when Tess gets a boyfriend, she forgets for awhile that she's supposed to be a friend too. It's hard to be a friend to a friend in need, especially when you're trying to figure out these other things on your own. How scary would it be to have your parents just leave you behind while they tried to figure out their own lives? Sure it'd be great the first bit, but what about food? the Bills? Help with your own problems?

The first chapter tells the ending of the love story and then the rest is told in a long flashback, so you know that the boy she thought would always love her and possibly give her a wedding ring one day, isn't speaking to her anymore. Even with all these bad things happening to her, the book is still absolutely hilarious and real. Try it out, girls; you won't be disappointed!

And finally, my favorite of the three books: Pop! by Aury Wallington. First of all, I love the author's first name. How cool is that? Second, check out this cover. It's bright and cheery and totally plays on the title! In this book, Marit discovers that she always breaks up with her boyfriends when it gets a little too physical. She freaks out. At first, she thinks that she'll be able to move past this on her own now that she knows about her
"fault", but then on the beach with Noah, the hot new guy in school, she totally freaks after accidentally grabbing his, you know what, when she loses her balance. Her older sister, Hannah, suggests that she should have sex with someone she feels safe with--just to get her virginity out of the way. Then, she probably wouldn't freak out with her boyfriend! great advice, right? Marit decides that her best boy friend Jamie fits that bill perfectly. And quickly learns the consequences of Friends with Benefits.

Wallington has an ear for dialogue, which makes perfect sense since she wrote for Veronica Mars and Sex in the City. While the ending may be looking through the world with rose colored lenses, it is definitely enjoyable. The realistic depictions of sex aren't as blushworthy as in Truelove, but curious readers will find enough about the emotional and physical side to romance to fulfill most of their curiousity.

So now Karen, there's proof that other people are reading. Maybe my next post will be on fantasy since that's the other committee reading I'm doing!