New Library Cards and May/June Suggestions

I was just dropping by to discuss May/June suggestions. I just renewed my Minuteman Library network card* and it's like a whole new world of book lending! Like, I requested A Curse Dark As Gold from the BPL in... oh... early March? Well- *mid* March. And it *still* hasn't been full processed- although at least it has been purchased, it seems. BUT I just ordered it in Minuteman, and I will probably have it before the week is out. Such is the power of well-funded Suburban libraries.

This, of course, makes it possible for me to borrow much more recently published books at a reasonable speed. Hence, I have a couple new, delicious looking books I can get my hands on that I would love (maybe) to read with the group- if you all are interested. They are girlie as all get out- but then, that seems appropriate for May and June somehow, doesn't it?

First, although I read it in galley form a couple of months ago, I would lovelovelove to re-read Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, which was just recently officially released in bookstores. It's very fun and satisfying and has more weight and substance to it than most YA chick-litty books do- like, if Meg Cabot's oeuvre could be described as marshmallows, then Suite Scarlett would be like... a really good slice of New York Cheesecake. They're both bad for you, and you couldn't eat either all the time, but the cheesecake definitely has Character and when you finish it you feel like you cherished every bite and eaten something real, while with marshmallows you eat a whole bag without noticing and then feel ill afterwards. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that Scarlett is the first in a series- she and her family and their ramshackle Art Deco hotel are right up my alley. In this particular book, Scarlett's family's hotel is faltering until a wealthy and eccentric widow descends upon the hotel, books their best suite for the whole summer, hires Scarlett as her personal secretary and begins meddling in all their lives, 1/2 Auntie Mame, 1/2 Margot Channing. It's deliriously good, and a blindingly quick read. I think it might be a better pick for June than May, because it only just came out, and I don't know how many of you would be able to get it through the library.

In a similar vein, but arguably with even more depth**, I'd love to read any of the following: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (which just came out, and I haven't read), Dramarama (which has been out for awhile but I haven't read) or The Boyfriend List (which I just read and adored) by E. Lockhart. The Boyfriend List and its sequel The Boy Book were both fun, smart reads that, nicely, don't tie things up too neatly or easily. They were, together, a messy and psychologically relatable portrait of a smart but emotionally confused 15 year old girl dealing with the fall out of her first serious relationship ending while the rest of her world comes apart around her ears-- on a normal 15 year old scale. By which I mean, she loses all her best friends and starts being the object of nasty rumors at school, not her mom dies and she develops a coke addiction and also is raped. These are white-upper-middle-class-girls-from-good-families "problems", not Problem Novel problems- which I think is refreshing, actually. It's nice to find a book that deals with issues I myself have dealt with, and doesn't either over-simplify them or make them unduly depressing.

Anyways, there are a couple suggestions- posted on the main page because;

a) I am hopelessly verbose
b) I wanted to give Amanda some main page company.


*which had been dormant so long they'd erased my fines! Yay!!
** but don't worry, I won't try for another tied-in desert simile here.