The new Harry Potter book cover has been released. What do you think? Apparently (according to an AP artcile posted on Yahoo News) the book cover that will be marketed to adults has a photograph of a locket with the serpentine "s" which is supposed to be the "horcrux" where Lord Voldemort keeps a fragment of his soul. I'll post that cover when I can find it.
A new Middle Earth book will be release soon, started by J.R.R. Tolkien, and finished by his son. See the Yahoo news
article.
I finished reading
Feed by M.T. Anderson this week for our upcoming Lunchtime Lit discussion on Thursday, March 22. I had heard so much about it from so many people that I expected to really love it. Instead, I found it thought-provoking, but I really had to push myself to finish it.
Part of the problem, I think, was that I was searching online for some background info for our book discussion and inadvertently came upon reader comments that totally gave away a major plot point (I am NOT one of those people who likes that...I NEVER read the last page of a book until I arrive there.)
Secondly, I was talking about the book with my friend Courtney, who really liked it a lot, and I said I was having trouble feeling too invested in the characters as they lacked depth. She pointed out that this was kind of a deliberate point that the author was trying to make about characters connected to the feed, versus people with more real live heart and soul kind of thing. I was kind of embarassed that I hadn't thought of that...because after she said it, I realized it was kind of obvious. Anyway, it helped me continue reading.
I do think the main narrator has a voice like a futuristic Holden Caufield in a lot of ways.
M.T. Anderson has several other books, including a recent Printz (young adult novel award) winner The Pox Party: taken from accounts by (Octavius Nothing's) own hand and other sundry sources.
Novelist (accessible from our web page with a login you can receive by calling the library 754-5738) also had some good read-alike ideas, including a brand new book by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Life As We Knew It, and a favorite of mine which is an anti-consumerism rant, The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian (and its sequel Vote for Larry.)
Last night I finished reading a preview copy of a teen book that is due to be published early April. I signed up for a new program on Harper Teen's website called
First Look where you enter to be chosen to read new books that haven't been published yet (you pick from a few different choices.) I chose
Perfect Girl by Mary Hogan, author of
The Serious Kiss, which we already have at MPL in our teen section.
I was really excited when I received a free copy (pre publication) in the mail. I have to admit I probably wouldn't have picked this book up to check out on my own, but I really liked it a lot by the time I finished. At first I thought it was going to be pretty vapid (because of the opening paragraph and the whole "Perfect Girl" thing)...however, that is a very minor part of the story. I think people who like the Princess Diaries books by Meg Cabot, or movies like 13 Going On 30 would really like it.
It is basically about Ruthie Bayer, a girl who lives in a small town in Delaware, who thinks she is in love with her longtime friend Perry, the next door neighbor boy. She feels lost until she remembers that her Aunt Marty, who she only met once when she was 11, writes this "Goddess of Love" column for a major fashion magazine. She calls on her for advice, and her aunt comes from New York for an impromptu visit, much to the distress of Ruthie's mom, who has a long-standing (mysterious) rift with her sister.
This is a really fast read...and there are some very relateable moments. There is also a sweetness--genuine, not saccharine--that really attaches you to the characters..
Anyway, this is a good testament to shaking yourself out of your regular genre...and reading something outside of "your kind of books."
