Creepy high school girl in the attic?

So most of my blogging time is spent on the work blog The Wild Rumpus but I came back here fully intending to post about my most recent YA reading. I just finished Madapple by Christina Meldrum and Bliss by Lauren Myracle. Of course I just spend a good chunk of time deleting spam from the comments and now this piece of crap computer I have seems to have slowed to a crawl. Argh. Anyway, since I finished Bliss I've been thinking about all the "possessed" teenage girl books I've read the past year and how in some ways possessed girls are the new "mad woman in the attic" of YA . Sort of just starting to ponder this. I don't really have any concrete thoughts as of now. If anyone has any thoughts on the topic, let me know.

Mystery Solved

I forgot to mention that I figured out what caused those strange bruises. It was climbing in and out of the window that leads to our roof. We've put some tomatoes and herbs out there and you have to climb out the window in order to water them. Sadly, I am so wimpy that this causes me to bruise. How does one toughen up one's skin?

Evidence

Last night as I was getting ready for bed I looked down and found long purple bruises streaking down the back of my leg. I guess someone must be beating me in my sleep, I joked to Josh. But this morning there's more bruises and then there's the case of my mysteriously skinned elbow. So what's going on? I think it's the yoga I've started doing. No, I'm not doing yoga on a bed of nails either. I am simply the worlds biggest klutz. Seriously, I once cut myself on a piece of chocolate. So skinning my elbow while getting into downward dog, isn't really as odd as it sounds. I am tempted to use this as an excuse not to exercise, but I guess the elliptical machine can't really hurt me. Oh wait, I once got my foot stuck between the pedals of one of those things! Hmmmmm....

Australia here I come!

It is just not my day and while my reasons for having these petty, negative emotions are pretty silly, I can't help it. I'm stuck. I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Battle of the Books Update

Well, I'm out of the running now. We Are the Ship beat out The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks and I had Frankie pegged as the winner of it all. I got too cocky. I was so sure Rachel Cohn would pick Frankie. Still I've picked all the other winners so far. I think I should get credit for that.

SLJ's Battle of the Kid's Books

The battle has finally begun. Check it out over at School Library Journal's Battle of the Books blog. At work we've all filled out our brackets and I'm happy to say that I've predicted the first four winners correctly! Go me!

For my fantasy library...

(yes I'm nerdy enough to have a fantasy library) another cool bookshelf.

First week impressions...

The new job is going really well so far. Cherry Hill has such a beautiful library. It's huge and nice and new. The whole top floor is reserved for youth services and there's a giant story and craft room. Plus, I love that I get to do collection development again. I've really missed that part of being a librarian since my last job centralized the whole process. There's just something really fun about buying books.

I'm sensing a theme here...

2009 may be the year of the dead best-friend. Dear friends of mine, please don't worry. I'm not planning on offing anyone! I love you all and want you all safe and sound. I'm merely speaking of a pattern I'm seeing in the world of YA publishing. I just finished Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and this is the third book I've read this month about a self-destructing girl with a tragically dead best-friend. First there was You Know Where to Find Me and after that, Love You Hate You Miss You.

I find this theme troublesome. I know that self-destruction has teen-appeal. I remember my friends and I passing Go Ask Alice around in middle school. I'm glad that these books are at least better written and less sensational than Go Ask Alice. Still, I'm much more at ease with Frankie Landau-Banks style narcissism than I am with these pill-popping cutters. I worry that if the plots of these three books are so similar, is the message being sent that all teen girls are ticking suicidal time bombs? This is not really a new thing though. There have always been books like this. Maybe I've just managed to coincidentally pick up three in a row. I think the rest of my ARC pile is historical fiction and fantasy though. So hopefully there will be no more dead girls for a while.

In which Alia gets a surprise anniversary present...

Yesterday was our 2 year wedding anniversary and my lovely husband surprised me with a trip to New York. He did a good job keeping it under wraps because I had no clue what was going on until we got to the stop where the Bolt bus picks up. Then I was like, wait a second you are making me take a bus (I get really bad motion sickness) to New York (a city I find overwhelming and dirty). What kind of anniversary is this?! But Josh just said to trust him, that he had it all planned out. And oh did he! First we ate chocolate breakfast. (Thank you Erin for recommending it. I had just told Josh that I was giving you a mental hug when they started playing Silent All These Years over the speakers. I guess that was you hugging me back!) Then we went to The Strand and looked at the miles of books. Then Josh surprised me again with tickets to Billy Elliot. (And we got my favorite Billy. There's three different boys who switch off days doing Billy's part because the dancing is so physically demanding. We got the Cuban by way of Montreal kid, who we saw interviewed on TV a few months ago.) The show was pretty awesome and afterward we met up with Andrew for a drink before having a very yummy dinner. Then it was off to look at the Rockefeller tree and the Christmas window displays and a rush back to the bus stop. We didn't get lost once. And I have to say, as we were walking around looking at the lights, I started to get why people love that city so much. So not only did Josh plan a wonderful day. He actually got me to change my mind about something. A near impossible feat! My husband is pretty awesome.

More Sesame Street Nerdiness

Check out Cookie Monster in the Library. I just spent way to much time this morning watching these videos.

I'm a Sesame Street Dork

Strange Dream

Last night Emerson (who once upon a time was perfectly crate trained) was being a pain and whining about being in his crate. Finally I couldn't take it anymore so I got up and slept on the couch. Apparently this makes for some messed up dreaming because once I fell back asleep things got weird.

I dreamed that I was back in high school and a fascist regime had just taken over and two high ranking officials moved next door. Who were these officials? None other than Sarah Palin and Nate Birkus (a designer who's on the Oprah show a lot). Crazy, right? But then it gets weirder because I go next door to give them a pie (Huh?! I've never brought a neighbor a pie! What is this Desperate Housewives?) and end in a giant yelling match with Sarah and Nate. Then, Nate switches sides and says he doesn't want to work for the fascist regime anymore and then Sarah kicks me out.

I think I woke up for a second here and when I fell back asleep I was pregnant and had to ask Sarah Palin for permission to have an abortion. Thank goodness Josh woke me up then to tell me he was leaving for work.

And Sarah Palin, please get the hell out of my head and stop giving me nightmares!