Yay! I went to the same college as Molly Backes (Grinnell College, in IOWA) and reading this, first of all, gave me a ton of Iowa nostalgia. Swoon. Anyway, I LOVED this look at high school popularity. It reminded me kind of [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1347331552s/6482837.jpg|6674135], that kind of behind-the-curtain humanizing look at popular girls. But it also had a lot going on (drinking & driving, ~the power of art~, institutionalized homophobia, adults with thwarted ambition, etc) all in a way that, to me, felt very natural and never felt like too much going on.

Also as an alleged grownup reading this, I loved the character of Mr. Tremont, their young new English teacher--little glimpses of him thinking high school is hilarious while still taking the kids & their work seriously, and hints of his grad school friends already nostalgic for listening to Lady Gaga in college. Hurrah!

This is another one (like [b:Matched|7735333|Matched (Matched, #1)|Ally Condie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311704885s/7735333.jpg|9631645]) that I only picked up because my library teens were raving about it. As you may know I'm not generally the biggest fan of dystopias, so keep that in mind. Like Matched, it sounds like another cookie cutter dystopia whatever, and it basically was. The premise of a small, opt-in dystopia (wealthy parents move to this town that's full of brainwashing messages to make their kids behave and make everyone lose weight) was compelling, but the execution was a little meh. The annoying overweight kid was pretty cliche (even in the face of brainwashing he's mostly motivated by M&Ms) and the way the male narrator kept referring to his girlfriend "my girl" grated on me. Really I would give this book 2 stars except that I found myself continuing to think about the ending after I finished it. For me, a 2 star book with a 3 star ending. But my dystopia-loving teen library patrons dig it.

Another YA book by a Grinnellian! Take over the teen publishing industry please Grinnell, you do it right. I probably would not have picked this book up except out of Grinnell pride, but I really enjoyed it. It's a historical (1920s) novel that's well-researched without reading like it's just regurgitating facts. And I'm so happy to see a queer historical romance! I took history of women at Grinnell, I know there were lesbians before the 1970s. And here are some in a book! It's weirdly both fast-paced (I read it all in one night) and reflective. Kind of like if Marilynne Robinson were forced to write a book where something had to happen in 150 pages. (PS I love Marilynne Robinson.)

I also loved the conservation angle. The one thing I thought was weird is that the protagonist, Garnet, likes to birdwatch and cut out bird silhouettes as her hobby. And she cuts out these silhouettes like, all the time. On the streetcar, on boats, wherever. The narrative said she had a fancy small pair of scissors for just this purpose (a gift from her mother to keep her sewing scissors from being dulled on paper... or a gift from her mother to encourage her art?) But like. What is she doing with the paper scraps? I wondered that literally every time she started cutting out bird shapes in public. I'm aware that this is probably a personal flaw and not a narrative flaw.

Library-wise it might be kind of a hard sell. The cover makes it look like it might be about bird monsters and, to me, the book jacket summary sounded kind of boring. I really do think historical fiction readers & realistic romance readers would love it though so I hope it gets picked up by them.

Like whatever, if you've read any of these "(Pop Culture) and Philosophy" volumes you probably know what this one is like. I do think the Hunger Games lends itself pretty well to this kind of academic overanalysis, if you're into that kind of thing. (Which I am. DUH.)

I guess my main issue with this is the cliffhanger it ends on! Couldn't they have waited and collected a few more comics for this volume? GUYS COME ON. This is why I don't read comics by the individual issue in the first place!! (throws table)


ps the art was pretty

Likes: Reptil + Spider-Girl flirting, the hilarious retro Spider-Man dialogue in the "classic" stories tacked on the end.
Dislikes: The premise? Whatever, Arcade. Whatever.
Overall: pretty cute but not as good as the first 2 Avengers Academy volumes. I'll keep reading though.

The art is gorgeous, duh. I loved all the details about Deaf cultural history & museum design etc--like Hugo Cabret in that it SNEAKS IN HISTORY. The story felt... a tiny bit contrived? But like who cares. Definitely worth a read.

I loved [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349673129s/954674.jpg|939584] so I picked up For the Win, even though I might not have otherwise based on its description. I had a bit of a hard time getting into the complicated gamer world and gamer economies--I suspect diehard WoW fans might appreciate this book more, though I think Doctorow does about as good of a job as humanly possible to put everything in non-gamer terms. Still, the plot was engaging and I felt like I learned about economics from reading this. And I love reading about a good union struggle as much as the next leftie.

OH WOW. E. Lockhart is so unafraid to tackle huge ideas here. I loved and admired this book so much. It sounded like kind of a fun, chicklit type book but she dug in deep here. Starting with the concept of a young high school fag hag Sarah/Sadye, and her closeted gay BFF Demi (which I forget what his other name is) off to drama camp for the summer. Once there, Sadye has to confront the fact that Demi--and pretty much everyone else at camp--is more talented than she is. And she has to deal with the fact that she kind of treats Demi like her accessory. It's just--seriously, such a perfect look into the world of drama geeks and hurt feelings and personal growth and also, it's really funny but also it will break your heart a little bit.

I guess this is fantasy, in that it's set in a land that's not on actual Earth, but there's no magic (as far as I could tell anyway)? It's not the kind of thing I normally read but I'd heard some good things, and I needed some audiobooks for travels. The beginning kind of dragged--I'm not super into ~palace intrigue~ or ~plucky orphans~, but I did like Sage's voice.

But then like halfway through the twist totally took me by surprise, and from then I was hooked! It did seem a little cheap since Sage had been narrating the whole time, so why would he keep that a secret? But, like, for the drama, I guess? Who cares, it worked.

Also I kept wondering who Imogen was and I was fully expecting some kind of late reveal, but nothing?? Is that going to be later in the trilogy? She can't just be some random servant, right?

I liked the audiobook narrator as well--perfectly snarky.