My Reading Frenzy

This is my life...

Me: Love!

Friend: Is it another character from a book?

Me: NO! maybe... Ok, yes, but this time it is different.

Friend: Because this time he is going to come out of the book and love you back?

Me: No, because this time he is just a sweet boy I wish were my nephew (not to replace the fabulous nephew I already have, but in addition).

Friend: (sigh) Who is it?

Me: Nate Foster from Tim Federle's Better Nate Than Ever and 5,6,7, Nate.  And he is fabulous.  He runs away from home to audition for a Broadway play.  He is brave and resourceful.  He wonders if he might have feelings for other boys, but also knows he is just not really even ready to consider it seriously because he is pursuing a career and is only 13.  Federle has just done a great job presenting Nate as a great kid who is just trying to do what he loves. Nate is sweet and talented and reminds me of a few kids I directed when I was doing the HS musical.  I LOVE these books!

Me Again: The books are perfect for a middle school library where books with the question: "Am I gay or not?" are needed but at the level for kids 12-13.  As a librarian I really appreciate the way Federle has woven the excitement of the theatre in with the wondering and questioning.  Standing ovation!

A bit late to the Marissa Meyer party

I can admit it...I saw the book on the shelves...with that cover, that tantalizing cover.  You know the one, with the cyborg foot in the red shoe.  I wanted to buy it; just the cover screamed "You will love me! You will not be able to stop reading!"  But I resisted, for nearly two years.  Why did I resist?  Because I was NOT going to be sucked in by yet another series...another chance for an author to toy with me while I wait to discover the fate of characters (yes, fictional characters) I care about.  But I cracked.  With all the hype around Cress, the third book, in what will be a quartet, I simply could not take the pressure. 

Cress was released yesterday.  I finished reading Scarlet, the second in the series, moments
ago.  Even knowing the author is coming to DC next week, when I will buy the book at the signing, I am still tempted to run out to buy it NOW so I can find out what happens next. 

I have a serious problem, not because I have to wait a week for the book, but because I am addicted to books, and there are no help groups for this kind of addiction.  Instead we get together with friends and wine and call it a "book club," but really it's a group of enablers who say, "There's no such thing as 'too many books'."  or "Books are good for you."  or "I read that one, it was great!" And it's a never-ending spiral into book piles taller than even normal sized people, and the maximum number of holds at the library, and stories to fill your heart and mind with joy and sorrow and all that it means to be human. 

So yes, these books are fabulous.  Humans, after World War IV, are in conflict with the Lunars, a race living on the moon.  A race with incredible, manipulative mind powers.  In a world where it is possible to save someone's life with cyborg technology.  A world in which it is possible to save a princess until the time is right for her to emerge. 

So, I will read Cress next week, and wait patiently for 2015 and the release of Winter, the fourth book, but I won't like it and this time I am really breaking up with series books!