msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

Mat Johnson, author of Incognegro , has written an uncompromising tale about the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He also manages to twist a bank heist into the plot and somehow ends what is essentially a grim story with a note of hope for the future. I also read A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld , and if you are interested in this part of the world (which is particularly relevant given the recent BP oil spill), you won't want to miss it, either. Read both books - then try to figure out what you can do to help New Orleans. Grade 8+

"All about Lulu reads like Salinger for the Freaks and Geeks-meets-Wes Anderson crowd, a whip smart Gen X Lolita (sans pedophilia)" (Gerry Donaghy, Powells.com). I can't say it much better than that. This is the best book I've read since Torsten Krol's latest. It has all the features I like in a book: a guy who is absolutely smitten with an unattainable girl, a depressed female lead, a Seattle setting, and a timeframe that I can relate to. Did I mention a charming Russian entrepreneur and a hotdog stand on Venice Beach? Click here for a full review .

Award-winning author Aurelie Sheehan (The Anxiety of Everyday Objects) has written a beautiful story about teenage friendship set in 1975. Alison Glass, 13, has spent several years in a back brace to correct scoliosis. She moves to a new town in Connecticut with her bohemian parents the summer before eighth grade and hopes to start fresh, sans back brace. Her hopes are dashed when her doctor tells her she needs to keep wearing it. Deliverance shows up in the form of Kate Hamilton, fellow horse lover and classmate. Alison and Kate's friendship is formed around horseback riding and a need to escape their self-absorbed parents. Sheehan does a stellar job of portraying the adults, who act like children, and the resulting expedited adulthood forced on Kate and Alison. Woven into the story is a piece at the beginning of each chapter from a class project the girls are writing together about 'the lone heroine' of Connecticut, whose experiences sometimes mirror that of Kate and Alis...

"Each time someone dies, a library burns." Jandy Nelson's poetic prose captures the desolation of loss, the flush of first love, and the intricate web of family in The Sky Is Everywhere. Seventeen-year-old bookworm and band Geek Lennie has just lost her sister. The heavy loneliness of grief weighs down on her; nobody gets it. She can't express it: "I'd need a new alphabet, one made of falling, of tectonic plates shifting, of deep devouring dark." The only person who understands is Toby, her dead sister's cowboy/skate punk/cute boyfriend. Their sadness brings them together: "...the cloak of being fine that I wear with everyone else slips right off my shoulders." Meanwhile, dark, handsome, and full of life Joe Fontaine moves to town, and Lennie feels herself falling in love with him, in spite of herself. This is a sadly sweet romance. Give it to fans of If I Stay and Twenty-Boy Summer . Click here for trailers . Grade 8+

CAUTION: SPOILERS BELOW "IF WE BURN YOU BURN WITH US." Mockingjay picks up where Catching Fire left off; Peeta has been kidnapped by Snow, Katniss is in the (welcoming?) hands of the rebellion, and District 12 has been completely obliterated. Peeta is rescued, but he's no longer himself...his reunion with Katniss begins with his hands wrapped around her neck. Gale shows up to defend her, in his way, and Katniss is torn between the two of them. This is certainly the bloodiest of the books, and the grimmest, with Katniss believing she'd be better off dead, and central characters dying in gruesome fashion at the hands of Snow. You'll read it in one sitting and wonder where the time went. Then you'll wait for the movie. Grade 7+

How do you describe something as bizarre and wonderful as Sweet Tooth? Just look at the cover. Look again. And then read it. Then watch this comic minute. Grade 8+