Friday, November 30, 2012

Guest Blogger!


Andrew Smith has a peculiar way of writing: he defines Young Adult as a genre in itself, not as just an audience type. He is adamant in his expression of YA as genre so that teens are treated as adults. This is apparent in his recent work, The Marbury Lens. The main characters, their friends, lovers, and rivals are all teenagers. However, the content and situations they find themselves in are most definitely not typical for modern YA. The book is edgy, gritty, raw, graphic, violent, sexual, explicit, and apologetically honest. The protagonist, Jack, must lie, cheat, steal, murder, and worse in order to survive. He often finds himself face to face with his enemies over and over again, and sometimes those enemies are his best friends. At this point you’re probably wondering why you should even pick this book up, right?

It will change you. It will get inside your head and make you feel like Jack feels. Paranoia will unexpectedly creep into the back of your mind; you’ll hear Seth’s “Tap, tap, tap” in the middle of the night. You’ll keep asking questions, the same ones Jack is asking, and when you don’t get the answers you’ll want to read the sequel. Trust me. You won’t be able to escape Marbury. Pick it up, read the first page. Get sucked into Jack’s world, into his head, and then with him into the hell that is Marbury.

If you don’t believe me, check out what some critics, experts, and such have to say about it: "The Marbury Lens"

Read more about author Andrew Smith, his books and his views on writing and publishing on his website: http://ghostmedicine.blogspot.com/

~Written by guest blogger Eden Rassette, our Young Adult Programmer at Erlanger

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Right Now I'm Reading:

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the movie Argo (which was great by the way), and there was a preview for the greatly anticipated film Lincoln which opens on November 16th. I had been intending to read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin which inspired the film for some time now and I finally picked up my copy at the library last week. Right now we're waiting to find out who will be the Republican nominee for 1860 - William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, or a fellow named Abraham Lincoln. It's a good sign to me when I know how a book is going to end up, but I enjoy the story and facts of how it will get there.

If you've read Team of Rivals and want to know even more about Lincoln, here are some great suggestions from Bill Lucy at The Huffington Post:

The Abraham Lincoln Reading List: Recommendations and Suggestions