Hey everyone! I wanna talk about what I’m doing this Printz year!
Oh wait. I can’t. Gotta keep it professional and secret.
I can say that I’m doing a ton of reading and I wish that I could tell you about it. I can’t really so I’ll just say that I’m reading a ton of great stuff and can’t wait to read more. YA books are great everyone, go read some!
Books are arriving by the boxful to the library and it’s very overwhelming and super fun. We’re moving at the end of the month and so the fact that more and more boxes arrive everyday at a time when I’m actively trying to get rid of things is hard. I’m trying to stash some books at the library, too.
Anyway, instead of talking about YA titles, how about some other titles that I’ve read or that I’m excited to read:
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara.
I’m on a bit of a true crime kick – SSDGM everyone! – and this book is incredible. The writing is fantastic and all the investigative and detective work McNamara did is amazing. I’m so sad that she didn’t live to see her book in it’s final form and that they haven’t caught the guy yet. (Michelle died before she could complete her book.) But as Michelle says at the end of the book, I like to hope that they will.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Yeah, yeah I read this because I wanted to see the movie. I have a girl crush on Tessa Thompson, what can I say? This book is not what I expected it to be. There are less answers than I thought and not a ton of plot. I really enjoyed it and hope to read the next two books to see if some of my theories are correct. There’s a lot to discuss about the mysterious Area X and the expedition. I’ll admit that at first I was disappointed because I thought it was going to be scarier and I was in the mood for scary. But it’s not so much scary as constantly disorienting and unsettling. There’s a really interesting unease that runs throughout the entire book and leaves you with a lot of questions.
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
I love a middle grade tearjerker and this is one of the best. The story of a girl with a club foot in London during the Blitz and how she escapes to the country despite her extremely abusive mother not wanting to pay for her to leave, is incredible. Ada and her brother Jaime – and Bovril the cat! – are such great characters and all I want is for them to be happy. There’s a sequel – The War I Finally Won – that I’m hoping to read in the next few weeks.
What else have I been up to? We saw “Black Panther” and “Pacific Rim: Uprising” which basically exemplify the two kinds of sci-fi movies I want to watch:
1. Sci-fi movies with fully-realized fantastical worlds (Wakanda) with great characters (especially women) and compelling stories (Killmonger aka the best Marvel villain?!)
2. Sci-fi movies where my hot space boyfriend John Boyega eats ice cream and pilots a giant robot.
Both are great, though Black Panther might be a real masterpiece. Go see it! “Love, Simon” is also a great movie. (I guess I’ve been to the movies a lot?) Definitely check that out.
Welp, gotta go read. See you soon!
lcarslibrarian 