msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

How will I resist staying home tomorrow and reading everything ever written by Jennifer Egan? AVFTGS is a mesmerizing collection of connected stories that uses Bennie Salazar, aging record executive, and his younger assistant, Sasha, as spider silk that keeps the story web spinning in this novel about the music industry, survival, and loneliness. One stand out chapter is written as power point; the soundtrack that accompanies said chapter is available on Ms. Egan's website . Don't miss the NY Times review or the Daily Beast interview with Ms. Egan .

Patrick Carman, author of the Skeleton Creek, Atherton, and Elyon series, has come out with a multimedia story designed for iphones, androids, and other mobile devices. Why 3:15? Students experience the story in three ways: reading, listening, and watching - and each installation takes 15 minutes to finish. A surefire way to lure in reluctant readers! The first segment is a free downloadable app .

To say my friend died is one thing. To say my friend screwed me over and then died five months later is another. -Vera Dietz A.S. King 's 2010 Printz honor book is at once a funny, smart, edgy, gripping story about frienship and a searing portrait of high school bullying. Give to fans of Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why and Tim Tharp's The Spectacular Now. If you only read one young adult novel this year, make it this one. Grade 9+

An authentic and intense portrayal of first love in this modern interpretation of Carmen set in Miami. Cuban-American Soledad lives to dance and has her eye on auditioning for dance companies in New York City after graduation. Then she meets trumpet-toting Jonathan, and agrees to play Carmen, becoming the only female member of his competitive drum and bugle corps for the summer. The story stalls a bit as Jonathan and Soledad fall in love and slowly reveal themselves, but the pace quickens when sultry Spanish soccer player Taz arrives on the scene and siphons some of Soledad's attention away from Jonathan, who hovers on the edge of scarily suffocating as the fear of losing her pushes him to unexpected action. A cast of well-developed, interesting supporting characters rounds out this unique coming-of-age romance. Recommended for fans of If I Stay , The Juliet Club, and teen romance. Grade 8+

Roger, the likable fictional narrator of this award-winning graphic biography straight out of The Wire , sums up his feelings after he attends the funeral of his 11 year-old classmate Robert "Yummy" Sandifer: "I don't know which was worse, the way Yummy lived or the way he died." Set in Chicago in the mid 90s, Yummy tells the story of a candy-loving kid (hence the nickname) who has been abused all his life and is looking for something that feels like family. The Black Disciple Nation gang meets that need, providing Yummy with what he's been missing. When he pledges his "heart, soul, love and spirit" to the BDN and is rewarded with a gun, Yummy sadly claims "nobody gave me nothin' before," and he sets up to prove himself worthy of gang membership. When he accidentally shoots sweet neighborhood girl Shavon, the local community reacts, and the net tightens as the cops and rival gangs look for Yummy. The BDN hides him for awhile, but when

National Book Award finalist Mischa Berlinski's first novel reminded me of those rare non-fiction books that read like fiction, but with a twist: his book is fiction but reads like a memoir. The central character, free-lance and sometimes employed writer Mischa Berlinski, goes along for the ride when his girlfriend, Rachel, accepts a job as a first grade teacher in northern Thailand. Mischa stumbles upon a story about an intriguing American anthropoligist, Martiya, who has just committed suicide while serving a 50-year sentence for murder in a Thai prison. Mischa becomes a bit obsédé with Martiya's story, and when he meets the victim's family, a group of missionaries from Oklahoma who have lived in the area since the 1920s, the plot only thickens. A complex, well-researched, and sometimes funny book that will leave you comparing anthropologists to missionaries and thinking of Star Wars. Click here for the Believer review . Grade 10+