Across the Library

Don't worry, I'm going to try and stay away from spoilers, at least for now!  In my opinion, the hardest part of writing any book or story is writing the ending.  I imagine that it's probably incredibly more difficult when you are writing the ending of a book that has been a popular series.  The author always knows that some fans will love it and some fans will hate it.  Of course you can't please everyone. That said, how do I feel about Mockingjay?  As I book, I loved it, and I wasn't disappointed at all.  The action was just as fast-paced and captivating as the two previous books of the series.  Suzanne Collins has mastered the art of keeping the reader from getting bored.  Around half way through the book, I got a little teary, but I won't say why just yet.  Nor will I reveal what part of the ending of the series made me cry.  Maybe later I'll come back, when more people have finished the book, or when I figure out if there's a wa...

I wanted to love this game, but unfortunately, I was disappointed in it.  The Hunger Games is a great book series, and I've been anxiously awaiting the release of the third book, which is tomorrow!  I bought the game for my library and held a small program for teens to come in and play the game.  The night before, I played with the game with my husband in order to learn the rules ahead of time, so I could better assist the teens as they learned to play.  I guess I just wanted more from the game than it was able to provide.  We knew from the box that it was a strategy game, but I'd hoped that it would at least pull some trivia form the game.  In the books, before the tributes actually go into the Hunger Games, they went through a couple of days of training in various events such as knot tying, wrestling, archery, edible plants, etc.  The board game takes place during those training days.  Players choose a district tribute to play from one of the ...

Just finished reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, and I must say, I adore them.  After seeing the previews for the movie, I was vaguely interested in the graphic novels.  Then my coworker/friend, Kimberly, who is also known as the Children's and YA Acquisition Librarian, asked me if I was interested in adding them to my teen collection.  Fast forward to me checking them out immediately after they were cataloged. I loved the fast, whimsy, outlandish style of these.  Most graphic novels jump all over the place, but sometimes that can be confusing.  Scott Pilgrim uses that fast pace and makes it work for him.  I liked how it was so over the top and unbelievable that you didn't think about how most of the stuff could never happen.  That's the whole point, and why it rocks! So basically Scott sees this girl, Ramona, in his dreams, and starts to like her.  By the time he meets her in real life, he's practically in love with her already. ...

Review written on August 7, 2010 ** Mildly Spoilerish** Books 1 and 2 in the Mercy Falls series I read Shiver last year, shortly after it came out.  I did really enjoy the book and even voted to be sure it would appear on the list for the committee I'm on.  However, I always had one problem with the book -the "cure".  No one else seemed as bothered by this as me, but I just can't get past that.  I did like that there was some science involved with why they turned into the wolves when it was cold.  Despite the so-called cure, the book was good, so of course I wanted to read the second book, Linger . Only ten chapters in, I was highly annoyed by the book already.  The moment that Grace said that Isabel was cold and Isabel said it was Grace that was hot, I just knew that she was going to be sick and how she would be "cured".  At first I thought that Sam had gotten her sick somehow, but at least that wasn't the case.  At least what Cole d...

Review written on July 16, 2010  I should start by saying that I've become disillusioned by the whole Twilight series.  When I first read the books, I whizzed through them and enjoyed them.  If I think of them only as light, fun, fluff, then I can still find them enjoyable.  But as a member of a committee that selects the best teen books of the current year, I can't help but cringe when I think about the books.  They are fast reads, and if you want something that you don't really have to think about, then they can be enjoyable.  But they really aren't that well-written, and there are certain things in the books that I dislike in regards to vampire mythology.  I have seen the movies - I felt that the first movie was just okay, the second movie was better, and I liked the third movie too, but there are still things that I cringe over.  As far as characters go, I've never been a fan of Bella, or Edward for that matter.  As far as the books g...

Well, the main reason it took me forever to create the blog is that I couldn't come up with the perfect name.  Everything I wanted was taken, so I kept stalling, hoping the perfect name would come to me.  I liked a lot of suggestions, but nothing ever really clicked.  Then a friend of mine suggested I use a title of a song or the name of an episode of one of my favorite tv shows.  So today I started browsing episode titles, and finally something inspired me to try "Across the Library".  Something about it really connects with me, and so, here we are. So what will I be posting here? Read the sidebar! Book reviews. New books. Books I'm crazy about. Library craziness. Teen services at the library. Program ideas. Workshops I've been to. My favorite book of the moment. Fiction. Non-fiction. Historical Fiction. Mysteries. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Romance. Graphic novels. Anything and everything else related to books or the library. For a while...