As a librarian I try to be widely read, sampling a little from column A, a little from column B. But like many readers, I have a literary home, a place that I come back to when I need support, or rest, or inspiration. And that place has always been books about kick-ass girls. It started when I was about ten years old and discovered Alanna, Tamora Pierce's cross-dressing heroine. Alanna, the daughter of landed gentry, is relegated to learning sorcery after being told that girls cannot become knights.
I have begun to notice a disturbing trend in my media habits of late...serial killers are on my mind. And I thought, why should I have to suffer through this dark mire alone? So I'll bring you down the rabbit hole with me!
My favorite books of 2012 (in the order I read them)!
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Who has read this and not fallen in love immediately with Augustus and Hazel? An epic love story about two amazing people with cancer. This book will make you laugh, make you cry (sometimes at the same time) and change your outlook on life. Go read it now if you haven't already.
A wakes up every day in a different body. Guest for a day, A tries to do no harm, walk through that person's life changing as little as possible. Until A meets Rhiannon. Waking up as Justin seems like any other day. Justin is kind of a slob, kind of a slacker, and not all that extraordinary. A thinks it will be just like any other day, making it to class, figuring where Justin sits at lunch, if he has an after-school job. Everything changes when A meets Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon. She is beautiful and different, and A is drawn to her.
Some kids are identified by their parent's profession: the preacher's kid, the doctor's kid, the principal's kid, the mayor's kid. Jazz is defined by his father's profession: serial killer. Billy Dent is the most notorious super-serial, claiming 123 victims in his decades long spree. Worse than being the serial killer's kid was that every day was take-your-kid-to-work day for Billy. Jazz learned how to separate a hand from it's fingers, how to stalk a victim, and how to commit the perfect crime without getting caught.
Sawyer's life has been all planned out by his parents: attend their alma mater, become an insurance actuary, and ever do anything interesting...ever. And he has complacently followed their plan for years, dating Zoe because they like her, working at the ice cream store owned by a family friend, taking all honors classes...until he meets Grace. Grace is different from anyone he has ever met. She breaks the rules, and she makes him want to break them too. It starts harmlessly enough, helping her steal a model UN treaty (come on it is Model UN!) but becomes a slippery slope.
Did that title catch your eye? Elvie's dreams of becoming an engineer on a new Mars colony get complicated when she finds herself knocked up the night before her PSAT. Cole, the dreamy new transfer student from Wisconsin, and father of the child, disappears the day after she tells him. Left on her own with only her emergency-prepared father, and quirky best friend Ducky, Elvie enrolls at the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers. Aboard a renovated cruise-liner, Elvie awaits the arrival of 'the goober', and continues to dream of Mars.
One of my favorite books of all time is Unwind by Neal Shusterman. The epic story takes place after a second civil war, fought over the morality and legality of abortion leads to peace through the Unwind Accords. This agreement outlaws abortion...however, from the ages of 13 to 18 any child may be unwound by their parents.
