msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

Written entirely in verse, Toby Barlow 's novel centers around several packs of werewolves living in LA. I read some intriguing reviews of the book when it came out, but forgot about the novel in verse thing until I opened it Friday night and started reading. I was skeptical of the format but after a few pages Barlow's rhythm and lyrical language just pulled me right in. This isn't a romanticized or traditional werewolf book; the writing is more like David Foster Wallace than Stephenie Meyer: Peabody's desk phone rings. Picking it up he thinks there's a point in your life when the youthful promise of every phone call devolves to a point where each phone ringing only inspires an "uh-oh" or "oh shit" or "what now." Barlow's novel nails the loneliness of life outside and inside the pack and I fell in love with his wounded protagonists. Each page is full of gorgeous prose; I finally stopped dog earing the pages about halfwa...

K.L. Going 's Fat Kid Rules the World is one of my favorite YA books. King of the Screwups is almost as good; it's a story about a guy who has a cold and thoughtless father and idealizes his mother (sound kind of familiar?). Liam Geller is Mr. Popularity - he's handsome, has fantastic fashion sense, and knows how to talk to people. These character traits fail to impress dad, who lets Liam know he's worthless on a regular basis, and remind mom of her more glamorous modeling days when she traveled the world with little Liam at her feet. Liam gets caught drunk with a girl in dad's office and this event is the catalyst for the rest of the story. Liam is kicked out of the house, instead of sending him to Nevada to live with his militant grandparents, his mom arranges for him to live with his Aunt Pete, his dad's gay brother who has been estranged from the family for years. Going could have written a stereotypical token gay character as Aunt Pete, instead she create...

I was hesitant to read another so-called spooky story after being let down by The Little Stranger , and, to be honest, Her Fearful Symmetry isn't scary in the slightest. It is disturbing, macabre, and well-written, but not remotely frightening. Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife , tells the story of two sets of twins, Elspeth and Edie and Julia and Valentina. This is a story about sisterhood, sibling rivalry, aging, wanting what belongs to someone else, and, ultimately, regret. A wonderful cozy read well-suited to damp fall evenings. Don't miss Niffenegger's website or the video posted there for fun extras. Fans of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones will enjoy this one. Grade 10+

Booklist, June 1, 2007 In this structurally complicated memoir, Hornschemeier portrays the last evening of a visit with his parents in Ohio that, casual in itself, carries the tensions of his ambitions and of meeting, when he returns to Chicago, longtime correspondent-fan Juliane. “Paul and the Magic Pencil,” a comics story resembling Jay Ward’s Peabody and Sherman cartoons, which Hornschemeier is drafting seemingly as an exercise in self-encouragement, frames the main action, a nighttime walk with his father. The walk in turn encompasses Paul’s mental flashbacks to “Paul and the Magic Pencil,” a confrontation with a bigger boy when he was about sixth-grade age, the story behind the scar on the neck of a convenience-store clerk, and a comic-book account of the paradoxes of Zeno. The visit is the most realistically rendered narrative element, and each flashback is differently styled in figuration and coloration. If there is an educible point to this calm slice of common life, it is that...

David Small 's critically acclaimed graphic memoir tells his story in spare harsh prose that brusquely reveals his parents' neglect and abuse and makes his self-preservation all the more astounding. When a possibly cancerous cyst appears on eleven year-old David's neck, Mom shouts "... in case you don't know it, let me teach you something! DOCTORS COST MONEY AND MONEY IS SOMETHING THAT IS IN SHORT SUPPLY IN THIS HOUSE!" Shortly afterwards, Mom and Dad buy a new Cadillac and go on a shopping spree. You get the idea. Small tells his story without self pity or promotion. Grade 8+

Sarah Waters ' Booker-prize-nominated latest is a commentary on the British class system and life in rural post-war England, but more than anything else, it's a story about Hundreds Hall, a mansion falling into disrepair. Widowed Mrs. Ayres, injured RAF pilot Roderick (her son), and her mannish daughter Caroline are living together at Hundreds when Dr. Faraday is called out for a visit. He witnesses the rapid decline of both family and farm and becomes a friend and confidante to the Ayres. Something is afoot at Hundreds; rooms are catching on fire, an otherwise friendly dog bites a child, scribbles appear on walls, and footsteps can be heard in the hallways without justification. This book has been billed as suspenseful and spooky but, with the exception of one scene, I found it to be neither. Just as the suspense builds, the characters get into another long and drawn out conversation, and the use of Faraday as a narrator contributes to the sense that nothing was edited out of ...