Marcus Zusak

Just polished off Zusak's I am the Messenger. I really have no clue why this is considered a YA book. Surely it has appeal to teens, but -- much like his previous title, The Book Thief -- its appeal is clearly universal. The story of Ed Kennedy, a young man who becomes an unlikely delivery man of various forms of happiness, is engaging and magical. Ed, the book's narrator, has an intangible appeal that makes him strangely loveable and I was routing for him and his goofy friends immediately. Zusak manages to consider some pretty hefty subjects in a book that moves along at a nice clip and is a light read. Inspite of this, it's just as hypnotic as The Book Thief, which really swallowed me whole for the duration. While very different, both are excellent books for any age.

Libba Bray's "Going Bovine"

Just finished listening to Libba Bray's Going Bovine and just need to know what all the fuss is about? Bovine won lots of recognition, but I must be missing something. Seemed disconnected and predictable and confusing all at the same time. Loved much of the dialogue and Bray's clearly a talented YA author, but I was left wishing for much more.

For some reason this book makes me think either I -- or Bray -- or the critics -- have missed the teenage mark on our assessment of a good Young Adult title. I know there are books I think are just not terribly great that really speak to teens (Sacher's Holes comes to mind) and vice versa. And there are plenty of books I love that fall completely flat with teens.

As a reader and reviewer of YA titles, I'm always conscious of this. How much of my adult brain do I need to temporarily excuse to get a good fix on the value of a book written for teens? Or do good books transcend age parameters?

One of my favorite teen readers and students came in the library looking for a recommendation the other day. Actually we share many of the same favorites but couldn't have been farther apart on our recent assessment of Anna Jarzab's All UnquietThings. She loved it; I couldn't wait to finish it off. Anyway, as we started perusing the shelves she said, "Pick out something you really hated, Mrs. Vaughan." We laughed and I gave her Justine Larbalestier's Liar which I told I half liked and half didn't like.

I wonder what she'll think of Going Bovine?

My latest reads and listens...

It's been longer than I'd like so, probably a good time to review some of the things I've read or heard lately. Let's see...

I partook a bit of Raymond Chandler for the first time ever -- heard Elliot Gould read The Big Sleep. While the entire style seems dated, it's quite clear Chandler was a master. I understand now why Chandler fans are so faithful. Clearly he launched an entire genre and style. I don't always like having the image of an actor in my mind while I hear a character voice -- as I think it can take over the imaginative nature of a storyline too much. But Gould made an excellent Marlowe!

Just finished reading Grann's Lost City of Z in which he recounts Fawcett's fateful search for El Dorado in the Amazon in 1925 -- and parallels the journey with one of his own. Usually I eat books like this alive -- and did with this one after a slow start. It called to mind a book I read recently about the Gardner museum theft (The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser) in the 1990s. Much like the Fawcett mystery, the unsolved theft of several very valuable paintings has taken on almost mythic status and fostered the creation of dozens of obsessive amateur detectives. The Gardner phenomenon has taken a modern-day version of the Fawcett trail with, I understand online networks of information sharers exchanging ideas and clues.

Might be interesting to read about how an incident seems to pass over into the kind of viral sleuthing behavior that each of these seemed to have spawned. Surely there are lots of unsolved mysteries and crimes that might capture the public's attention? Why have these done so and the the amazing extent that they have? Is there something about the perceived attainability of answers?

Either way, Z was a great read and it makes me want to go back and revisit Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure. Grann mentions Fleming's book and his attempt to track down Fawcett in the 20s, although I seem to recall Fleming -- that would brother of Ian -- using the rescue idea as little more than pretense for a great adventure.

Best Teen Books for Adults.

My friend Andrew passed on this wonderful link from Flavorwire. Since I became a young adult librarian, I'm convinced that YA lit is the most under recognized genre out there. So much for everyone to enjoy in spite of -- or because of -- its intended audience. I was so charged to see the Vizzini title on the list. Can you hear me hollering, "Yes!" I have to say, I think King Dork should be here too, though. Still -- a great place to start if you'd like to tap into Young Adult Literature.

Harry Potter for grown ups

Just finished listening to Lev Grossman's The Magicians and can't help but take a sec to reflect on it here. To say Magicians is fantasy is so not enough. More like meta-fantasy. More like socio-meta-fantasy with a tinge of horror. Is that a genre?

Clearly Grossman did some thinking about what the world would be like if it really had a magical element. Okay -- that sounds a little like saying Brooks' World War Z is grounded in scientific fact except for the zombie part. But hang in there a minute.

What if a brilliant young man -- someone smart enough to  spend a life frustrated by not being able to acknowledge that there really is something more to his fancy card tricks than hours of practice -- suddenly discovered magic existed after all? That alone, really, would have to put even the most grounded of us a little on edge. I'd like to think we'd all handle it as well as Harry did, but really -- wouldn't closeted magicians need a bit of therapy?

Unfortunately Quentin Coldwater barely readjusts before he's plunged into five years of grueling training that make Hogwarts look like an all-inclusive island vacation. Grossman's magical world is imaginative and creative and loaded with lots of fantastic bits, but it never feels safe. It's edgy and downright terrifying at times -- and really, wouldn't a world where physics and the like no longer applied feel a little out there? Especially in the hands of  outwardly cocky but inwardly unsure 19 year olds? 

And so what do full trained and graduated magicians actually do? And once they've done it, then what? What do they do with all of it? Like in their heads? Really, if you really had to face down He Who Must Not Be Named one day, wouldn't that just wreck your plans to go to hang out at Starbucks the next day? Life just doesn't march cheerily on, really?

I love that Grossman tackles these questions and tells a great, heart-pounding story too. The novel is loaded with lots of nods to Lewis, Rowling, Tolkien, White, Baum and the rest, but Grossman takes things to a whole new level. Adults who loved those classics might think themselves ready to handle magic without the safety net -- but expect to be chilled to the bone!