Title: An Abundance of Katherines
Author: John Green
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: I loved Paper Towns by this author, and I read some glowing reviews of this title.

Summary: Colin Singleton has just graduated from high school, only to be dumped by his girlfriend Katherine—the 19th time he’s been dumped by a girl named Katherine. To end his funk, Colin and his best friend go on a road trip. First stop: Gutshot, Tennessee.

Review: Do you like anagrams, math, random trivia, or let’s see…the kind of funny that makes you laugh out loud no matter if you happen to be reading next to your child who is finally, finally sleeping after a 2.25-hour-long struggle? Then you’ll love this book. And if your sense of humor hasn’t been supremely dulled due to parental sleep deprivation, just imagine how much MORE you will enjoy it.

At one point, I was laughing so hard I had to put the book down so as not to damage it. (The hog hunt scene, for those of you who’ve read it.)

I also loved how smart and genuine the main three characters were—Colin, his best friend Hassan, and the girl they meet in Gutshot. I was sad to have to stop listening in on their conversations.

This book will show you a good time. In fact, if one day I’m in a public restroom and I happen to glance up at the stall door to see

Call “An Abundance of Katherines” for a good time

followed by its Dewey Decimal Number, I wouldn’t be surprised, not at all.

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Audience Pick!

Title: Saving Francesca
Author: Melina Marchetta
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Francesca goes to a formerly all-boys private school where the only thing co-ed is the fact that girls get their own bathroom. But that’s not even her biggest problem—why does her usually peppy mom refuse to get out of bed?

Review: Ah, I could read Melina Marchetta’s books all day, every day. I loved Jellicoe Road more than this book, but I still adored Francesca’s story.

This woman should teach a class in writing dialogue, if she doesn’t already. The dialogue she writes is clever without being pretentious. And funny. Actually, forget being jealous of how the author writes the dialogue, I’m jealous of how these kids speak. If I could be that quick with a comeback, I would be the coolest ever.

Another thing I loved is how Francesca has guy friends who aren’t interested in her romantically. They’re just really, truly her friends.

Finally, a little taste for you. A boy named Will put the moves on Francesca, and she confronts him about it:

“I don’t want you to think I do that all the time,” he says, sounding a bit strained.

He’s very stressed. I have caused that stress. I am jubilant that I have caused that stress.

“Why would I think otherwise?”

“Because,” he says.

Because?

“Don’t you do legal studies? Aren’t you in mock trial? Does the argument ‘because’ usually work for you?”

He doesn’t even have the decency to be shifty-eyed. He just stares straight at me.

“You were drunk, Will,” I say after a moment. “I wouldn’t expect you to even remember anything.” I turn to go.

“If I was sober, you would have been impressed,” he says, repeating my words from that night.

“But you weren’t. And I’m not,” I say firmly. “And if you think that I am praying at night for you to ask me out, just dream on.”

I walk away, so proud of myself that I can hardly contain it.

***

Dear God, please please please let Will Trombal split up with his girlfriend and ask me out.

The prayer becomes my mantra all night.

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Audience Pick!

Title: A Curse Dark as Gold
Author: Elizabeth C. Bunce
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Charlotte Miller’s father has passed away, and it’s up to her to protect the woolen mill that’s been in her family for hundreds of years. But everyone says the mill is cursed. How far will Charlotte go to protect it?

Review: This retelling of Rumpelstiltskin immediately reeled me in. The details of the mill operation brought the story to life, even though I didn’t know all the milling terms used. Looking back on it now, I think a diagram or two of the milling machines could have helped me keep the terms straight as I read. Hopefully in future editions, they will devote a page or two at the front to something like that.

A lot of fairy tale retellings can be unimaginative, but this retelling is fresh and original. That’s saying a lot for a story whose bones have been around for ages.

I also loved the strong female character who doesn’t go running to the men in her life to solve all her problems. And she’s a small businesswoman, to boot!

This is an excellent first novel from Bunce, and more than deserving of this year’s Morris YA Debut Award.

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Title: Me, the Missing, and the Dead
Author: Jenny Valentine
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: 16-year-old Lucas finds an old lady in an urn, who just so happens to have some connection to his missing dad. If he can find out who the dead lady was, can he find his dad?

Review: From the brief description of this on Amazon, I wasn’t interested. It sounded like a ghost story, and I don’t do ghost stories. Or scary movies, for that matter. I’ve been known to sleep with the light on after a particularly creepy episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for Pete’s sake.

But this book was a finalist for the Morris YA Debut Award this year, so ghost or not, I decided to give it a go.

What an odd little story. I loved it.

It made me laugh, but it also made my heart ache as Lucas comes to grips with his dad’s disappearance. Here’s a taste for you:

If we ever find my dad and he’s dead, I’m going to organize the biggest funeral you’ve ever seen…We’ll play the best music, and everyone he ever knew and liked will be there and cry their eyes out and say really nice things about him. Afterwards, back at our house, we’ll have the best wake and nobody will want to leave. They’ll look after Mum and make sure she’s OK. They’ll phone her every week instead of being too embarrassed to say anything or ever call because there isn’t a body and they’re a bit busy with work and they were his friends really, not hers.

On the funny end of the spectrum, there’s this scene where Lucas interrogates his little brother like a cop, which cracks me up to think of it even now, a good 2 weeks after I finished the book.

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Title: Pretty Monsters: Stories
Author: Kelly Link
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: A collection of nine short stories covering pressing matters such as Tennessee Fainting Goats, a boy named Onion, and of course, monsters.

Review: This Indie Next pick did not disappoint. I’m not usually a short story reader—they tend to be a little too symbolic for my literal disposition—but this gorgeous cover stopped me in my tracks at the library.

When I flipped the book over, first I saw a quote from Libba Bray, whose books I absolutely adore. And then I saw this:

“…an alchemical mixture of Borges, Raymond Chandler, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” — Laura Miller, Salon

I’m a sucker for a Buffy compare, so I added it to my teetering stack of books to check out. And I am so glad I veered out of my comfort zone because this book frickin’ ROCKS.

Between these two gorgeous covers are stories to make you laugh out loud. Stories to make you wonder. Stories to make you look over your shoulder and swear to never go camping again.

This book is weird, but in a good way. A little taste for you:

But Jake didn’t try to kiss me. Instead he just gave me this really big hug. He put his face in my hair and he sighed. We stood there like that, and then finally I said, “What are you doing?”

“I just wanted to smell your hair,” he said.

“Oh,” I said. That made me feel weird, but in a good way. I put my nose up to his hair, which is brown and curly, and I smelled it. We stood there and smelled each other’s hair, and I felt so good. I felt so happy.

Jake said into my hair, “Do you know that actor John Cusack?”

I said, “Yeah. One of Zofia’s favorite movies is Better Off Dead. We watch it all the time.”

“So he likes to go up to women and smell their armpits.”

“Gross!” I said. “That’s such a lie! What are you doing now? That tickles.”

“I’m smelling your ear,” Jake said.

And then:

Jake’s hair smelled like iced tea with honey in it, after all the ice has melted.

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