Parenthetical.net

Musings and snark about YA lit, libraries, and geekdom, from an overly opinionated middle school librarian.

Parenthetical.net bookshelf

Sequel Summer: Attack of the Theater People, by Marc Acito

August 25th, 2008 · No Comments

How I Paid for College is one of my top 5 funniest books. (Not sure what the others are, honestly. Gordon Korman’s Son of Interflux and I Want to Go Home! are in there, for sure.) It is my standard Beach Reading Recommendation, and if I haven’t pushed it on you, consider [...]

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Tags: Reviews

Fantasy birth control

August 19th, 2008 · 6 Comments

I just finished a wonderful book called Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. I’ll wait on the review, because the book doesn’t come out until October, and I don’t want you to forget about it because you can’t read it right now. (I don’t have a lending copy, unfortunately.) But I was talking with [...]

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Tags: Book lists · Musing

Grown-Up Table: The Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs

July 29th, 2008 · 7 Comments

This one’s easy to sum up: Jacobs (who gets paid for his OCD, basically — he lets weird projects take over his life and then writes books about them; his last was about reading the entire encyclopedia cover-to-cover) spent a year living by the Bible’s rules as literally as possible. Everything from “though shalt [...]

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Tags: Reviews

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, by Barry Lyga

July 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Fanboy (we never learn his real name) is a fifteen-year-old loner. His only friend is Cal, who shares his love of superhero comics and intellectual conversation, but since Cal’s also an athlete, they move in different social universes. His mother has remarried “the step-fascist” and they’re having a baby, so Fanboy feels like [...]

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Tags: Reviews

Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra

July 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

A Grown-Up Table diversion into comics… Y is over. (Well, it’s been over for awhile, but I wait for the trade paperback compilations of the issues, and I just recently picked up the last one.) It’s one of the first series I fell in love with, and the end did not disappoint — [...]

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Tags: Grown-up table · Reviews

Sequel Summer: The Off Season, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

July 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

During the school year, I mostly read for work: how will I know what to give my kids if I don’t tear through as many YA novels as possible? Consequently, I almost never read sequels; I got enough of a taste with the first book, so I feel guilty if I linger. This summer’s reading [...]

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Tags: Food · Reviews

Sequel Summer: Out of the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst

July 15th, 2008 · No Comments

During the school year, I mostly read for work: how will I know what to give my kids if I don’t tear through as many YA novels as possible? Consequently, I almost never read sequels; I got enough of a taste with the first book, so I feel guilty if I linger. This summer’s reading [...]

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Tags: Reviews

Madapple, by Christina Meldrum

July 11th, 2008 · 2 Comments

This ARC* randomly found its way into my life, and I picked it from my “haven’t read yet” shelf to take on a recent camping trip to Acadia National Park because it takes place in Maine, and I’m a sucker for reading a book while surrounded by its setting. The plot: Aslaug was raised [...]

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Tags: Grown-up table · Reviews

Looking for Alaska, by John Green

July 10th, 2008 · 4 Comments

After finding out that John Green might be coming to speak at my school* (eee!), I grabbed his first book, Looking for Alaska. You might recall that I loved the shit out of his second book, An Abundance of Katherines. This is a very different book — weightier; more Dead Poets Society than [...]

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Tags: Reviews

Sequel Summer: People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau

July 6th, 2008 · No Comments

During the school year, I mostly read for work: how will I know what to give my kids if I don’t tear through as many YA novels as possible? Consequently, I almost never read sequels; I got enough of a taste with the first book, so I feel guilty if I linger. This [...]

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Tags: Reviews