So behind on new books!!!

Well, I'm behind and I got a whole ton from a bunch of different places recently...

From the Chicago Public Library (for a quarter!):

• O Solo Homo: The New Queer Performance edited by Holly Hughes & David Roman

From some bargain book store:

• Found II by Davy Rothbart
• Sexy Witch by LaSara FireFox

From Vault!:

• Absolute Boyfriend #6 by Yuu Watase
• Angel: After the Fall #7
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #14
• Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #11
• Serenity: Better Days #3

From Borders while looking for something for someone else (which I got too):

• Gibran's Little Book of Love

Preordered from amazon.com!:

• Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong
• Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton

Paperbackswapped/bookmooched:

• We Got Issues! edited by Rha Goddess & JLove Calderon
• Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

From a mysterious source:

• Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude by Trina Robbins

From the awesome Livonia library book sale:

• Wedding Readings edited by Eleanor Munro
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Immortal by Christopher Golden & Nancy Holder
• Angel: Dark Mirror by Craig Shaw Gardner
• Angel: Redemption byMel Odom
• The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey
• Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey
• The Procession: Poems by Khalil Gibran
• Secrets of Tarot by Annie Lionnet
• Dialogues of Plato edited by Justin D. Kaplan
• Pooh's Little Book of Feng Shui
• Grace Before Meals by A. William Nyce & Hubert Bunyea
• A Child's Book of Blessings compiled by Sabrina Dearborn
• Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach
• The Lives of the Saints: For Every Day of the Year, Volumes 1, 2, 3

That's about it. :) Told you it had been awhile... All these amazing new books, YAY!

The best book title of the day

Someone had it on hold and I had to pull it b/c they didn't pick it up in time. I'm glad b/c otherwise, I probably never would have seen it!

Jesus in Your Backpack by William R. Grimbol

You know, I thought first, "Wow, I didn't know Jesus could fit in a backpack." Then I thought, "Do you feed him in there? Is he like a pet?"

Yes, I know, very wrong. But it made me laugh, which is really a good thing b/c I don't feel much like laughing these days.

And I just looked it up on amazon to get the author name and there's a Buddha in Your Backpack too (by Franz Metcalf). It's just funny. They're books about spirituality for teens. Hee hee.

The best first line of a children's book EVER!

"Did you know that animal butts are amazing? They are!"
from Look Behind! Tales of Animal Ends by Lola M. Schaefer, Heather Lynn Miller, & Jane Manning

Riding the train!

I'm officially on vacation. And tomorrow (well, in about 8 1/2 hours), I'm taking the train to Chicago! Woo hoo! I'm so excited to ride the train and have nothing to do but read for 4 1/2 hours. Doesn't that sound so cool? :) And I've got a whole train ride back TOO! And three days to explore in Chicago.

I'm bringing about six books with me. *laughs* In my defense, some of them are YA books that will only take me a couple hours to read. So it's not too outrageous! I swear.

And one of my stops in Chicago (if I can find it) will be Powell's. There's a Powell's in Chicago! I had no idea. I adore Powell's. Yay! And if I can find it too, I'll go to the Chicago Public Library. Oh...books. Didn't I tell you I adore them? I'm such a geek, but that's okay. I like me that way.

Lovely new books

More adoration for paperbackswap & bookmooch b/c I got THESE books from them:

• Sexual Lives: A Reader on the Theories and Realities of Human Sexualities by Robert Heasley & Betsy Crane
• Babymouse: Beach Babe by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
• Bumperboy and the Loud, Loud Mountain by Debbie Huey

Bumperboy and Babymouse are two of my absolute favorites. :) And I adore Robert and Betsy--I'm so glad to have their book! I've wanted it since they told me it came out. I knew them back at IUP. They were two of the people who kept me sane in that insane place.

Because I was in a book buying mood:

• Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman
• The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

And from Borders super bargains:

• Lucinda, Darkly by Sunny
• Oh My Goth by Gena Showalter

I'm not sure if I want to read Lucinda, Darkly anymore. I read one of Sunny's stories in some anthology and didn't like it much. But...it was $2 in the bargain section at Borders. If I don't like it, I can swap it! :)

Want to know what working in a library is really like?

Read Don Borchert's Free for All! This book was awesome! I could relate to MANY of the stories he told. And it was funny!

Check out my favorite quotes:

"Because there is a belief that once you begin to open books, you will become a better person. It is Pandora's box, but in a good way. You are inching toward the promised land, page by page."


"Support your local library.
Get a library card.
Pay your goddamn fines. Man up for Christ's sake. Be a little responsible."


"Love stories are scarce in the library, and this might have something to do with the fact that we tell people to knock it off and take it outside, which is not a good way for a love story to begin. There are quite a few romantics punching the clock for the library, so in the abstract we are rooting for young lovers, but only in the abstract. We don't want urget fumblings in the adult nonfiction stacks, unzipped jeans, or indiscreet wetness. The janitors will have to bring out their most powerful chemicals and an assortment of disinfectants, and the sharp zip of ammonia will give us all headaches."


And my favorite!:
"I don't understand people who will pay $10 to sit in a movie theater for two hours but hesitate to pay a 25-cent fine for a book that is overdue one day. I do not understand people who will lustily throw $40,000 at the shiny red automobile of their choice, but well up with tears and become outraged when they are asked to pay $5 for a damaged videotape. Either they are fucked up and their priorities are fucked up or I am fucked up and my priorities are fucked up.

Because I am me, I think it is them.

I think a free library is an outrageous perk. I think being able to take out fifty books at a time is an astounding luxury, especially if you've priced hardbound books anytime since the Clinton administration. Go into a public library, fill out an application, and here you go, we'll loan you $1,000 worth of materials. Collateral? Nah--just take them. You're good for it. We'd do it for anybody.

And we would."

David Levithan!

Okay, so I just adore this man's writing. :) Just finished How They Met and Other Stories. Lovely. Especially b/c I'm feeling all lovey and such. Thank you, David, for writing such wonderful books.

Realm of Possibility is still my favorite though.

You know, there's still just so few young adult authors who write fiction for queer kids. That's partly why I love David Levithan. If I was a more accomplished author, I'd write such things. You know what I'd like to see? Young adult lesbian love stories? David and a couple others have written gay boy love stories books, but I can't recall even one about a teenage lesbian couple... Hmmm...might have to research that.

Quotes from How They Met and Other Stories:

I knew I was getting perilously close to opening up my History of Stupid Things Done in the Name of Crushes, but the insidious thing about the History was that I always felt each new blank page had the potential to transform it into a different book. One successful gesture, one successful relationship would suddenly turn it into a History of Stupid Things Done in the Name of Crushes That Were All Redeemed in the End.
--from "Starbucks Boy"

I mean, why is everyone so brainwashed into believing that they have to be in a relationship with one other person? Look at us, Teddy. If anyone were to tell us that the whole girl-boy thing was natural and anything else was unnatural, we'd know they were completely wrong. But have them tell us that every person needs to be with another person in order to be happy, and we nod along like it's the most obvious thing in the world. But there's no reason for it, is theree? It's not a proven truth. It's just some thing that our culture has come to spin itself around, mostly so we'll procreate, and we're the dupes who fall for it over and over and over again.
--from "Miss Lucy Had a Steamboat"

Love weaves itself from hundreds of threads.

We'd said we'd keep in touch. But touch is not something you can keep; as soon as it's gone, it's gone. We should have said we'd keep in words, because they are all we can string between us--words on a telephone line, words appearing on a screen.
--from "Breaking and Entering"

To love--to fall--is not a question.
To touch--to kiss--to speak--those are questions.
--from "Without Saying"

It doesn't have to be on Valentine's Day. It doesn't have to be by the time you turn eighteen or thirty-three or fifty-nine. It doesn't have to conform to whatever is usual. It doesn't have to be kismet at once, or rhapsody by the third date.
It just has to be. In time. In place. In spirit.
It just has to be.
--from "Intersection"

reflections on books read in april 2008

biggest sense of accomplishment:

• finishing Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida, finally!

best books read this month:

• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• Project: Romantic
• Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley

book that created a monster:

• Derby Girl by Shauna Cross--I am not addicted to roller derby

most beautiful books of the month:

• Kabuki: Dreams by David Mack
• Love by Ferdinand Protzman

steamiest boy/boy scenes in a yaoi manga:

• Rin! #3 by Satorui Kannagi & Yukine Honami

guiltiest pleasures of the month:

• Back in Black by Zoey Dean
• Princess in the Spotlight by Meg Cabot

books i've read april 2008

4.1.08

• Menkui! #2 by Suzuki Tanaka (M)
• Penguin Revolution #2 by Sakura Tsukuba (M)
• Reconstructing Aphrodite by Terry Lorant (A-NF)
• Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley (GN)

4.2.08

• Rabbit's Gift by George Shannon & Laura Donzek (PB)
• That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton (PB)
• The Chocolate Cat by Sue Stainton & Anne Mortimer (PB)
• Phooey! by Marc Rosenthal (PB)
• Love by Ferdinand Protzman (A-NF)
• Dumped by Andi Watson (GN)

4.3.08

• Love Fights #2 by Andi Watson (GN)

4.5.08

• Song for Night by Chris Abani (A)
• Banana Fish #5 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #6 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Bobbie Dazzler by Janine Dawson (PB)

4.6.08

• Banana Fish #7 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Derby Girl by Shauna Cross (YA)
• Project: Romantic edited by Chris Pitzer (GN)
• Bow Wow Meow Meow by Douglas Florian (PB)
• Grosse Pointe Girl by Sarah Grace McCandless (YA)

4.8.08

• Ichigenme...The First Class Is Civil Law #1 by Fumi Yoshinaga (M)
• The Paradise on the Hill by Momoko Tenzen (M)

4.9.08

• Kabuki: Dreams by David Mack (GN)
• Banana Fish #8 by Akimi Yoshida (M)

4.11.08

• Banana Fish #9 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #10 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Quiet Storm: Voices of Young Black Poets edited by Lydia Omolola Okutoro (YA)
• We Goddesses: Athena, Aphrodite, Hera by Doris Orgel (Y)

4.13.08

• Banana Fish #11 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #12 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Red River #1 by Chie Shinohara (M)
• A Ring of Tricksters by Virginia Hamilton & Barry Moser (Y)
• Pssst! by Adam Rex (PB)

4.14.08

• Outside Rules: Short Stories About Nonconformist Youth edited by Clare Robson (YA)

4.15.08

• Banana Fish #13 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #14 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kiney (Y)

4.18.08

• How to Make Friends With a Giant by Gennifer Choldenko & Amy Walrod (PB)
• Gorgeous Carat #3 by You Higuri (M)
• Menkui! #3 by Suzuki Tanaka (M)
• Banana Fish #15 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #16 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #17 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #18 by Akimi Yoshida (M)
• Banana Fish #19 by Akimi Yoshida (M)

4.19.08

• Z Is for Zeus: A Greek Mythology Alphabet by Helen L. Wilbur & Victor Juhasz (Y)
• Get Backers #3 by Rando Ayamine & Yuya Aoki (M)
• Skinny by Ibi Kaslik (YA)
• Scooter Girl by Chynna Clugston-Major (GN)
• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (YA)

4.20.08

• The Nature of Dogs by Mary Cudington (A-NF)
• The Elephant-Headed God and Other Hindu Tales by Debjani Chatterjee (Y)
• Redwall: The Graphic Novel by Brian Jacques & Bret Blevins (GN)

4.21.08

• From Up Above by Sakuya Kurekoshi (M)
• Dash! by Isuku Natsume (M)

4.22.08

• Red River #2 by Chie Shinohara (M)
• Reckless by Cecily von Ziegesar (YA)
• In the Cards: Fame by Mariah Fredericks (YA)

4.24.08

• Wave by Suzy Lee (PB)

4.25.08

• Maybe a Bear Ate It! by Robie H. Harris & Michael Emberly (PB)
• Penguin Revolution #3 by Sakura Tsukuba (M)
• Rin! #3 by Satoru Kannagi & Yukine Honami (M)
• Too Much Hopeless Savages by Jen Van Meter & Christine Norrie (GN)
• Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero by Jen Van Meter & Bryan Lee O'Malley (GN)
• Gray Horses by Hope Larson (GN)

4.26.08

• Three Little Ghosties by Pippa Goodhart & AnnaLaura Cantone (PB)
• Stuck in the Mud by Jane Clarke & Garry Parsons (PB)
• Fred Stays With Me! by Nancy Coffelt & Tricia Tusa (PB)
• Louder, Lili by Gennifer Choldenko & S.D. Schindler (PB)
• The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell (PB)
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (YA)
• Kabuki: Masks of the Noh by David Mack (GN)
• Back In Black by Zoey Dean (YA)
• Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell (Y)

4.28.08

• Princess in the Spotlight by Meg Cabot (YA)
• Romance Without Tears edited by John Benson (GN)

4.29.08

• M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman (YA)

4.30.08

• Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederik Peeters (GN)
• Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street by Brubaker, Cooke, Allred, & Stewart (GN)

04.08 total: 79

28 manga; 3 adult non fiction; 14 graphic novels; 15 picture books; 1 adult fiction; 12 young adult; 6 youth fiction