It's gaining sentience.

I remember being really excited to watch an Anaheim Ducks game because I thought they were going to do the Flying V and the knuckle-puck and the quacking.

I loved that feature!

Cat's Eye is great, along with The Edible Woman. The Robber Bride, too. And I've already mentioned, but the Blind Assassin is amazing and probably in my Top 5 books.
I'm completely jealous that you get to take an Atwood course!

The Blind Assassin is definitely my favorite Atwood book. So many things to love about it.

I'll have to look into that - I've always wondered why they went that direction. I know her books have a certain same-ness to them, but I'm a Sarah Dessen fan. I think she explores a lot of interesting familial relationships and always does an excellent job portraying teenage girl friendships. I wonder if one of her…

This is true and I hope that the publishing industry for young adults evens out eventually (even though I am entirely for stories for young girls/teens!). Right now, there are a lot of great series for boys in the 9-13 range, but it thins out after that.

How disappointing! I admit I haven't read the series, I'm just going by popularity and that I met the author at a YA author night our library hosted a few years back.

To be honest, the ghettoization of women's fiction occurs because of attitudes like yours. You seem to be under the impression that all novels featuring a romantic plot are ultimately useless and only of interest to women/girls.

Have you tried the Maze Runner series?

There was one some years ago that starred Mandy Moore called How to Deal. It adapted two of her novels, which was an odd choice. I don't think it did very well.

As a library cataloger, no. Not only is it a pain in the ass to assess a large collection in that way, it diminishes the chance of shelf discovery, which can broaden a young readers perspective and taste.

Young Adult is an all-encompassing catch-all for literature aimed at the 12-18 age range. It includes teen fantasy, teen science fiction, books about teenaged evil geniuses, historical fiction focused on teen life, books about ordinary teens and things they deal with in their ordinary lives, and yes, teen romance.

He's got a great face for the character, but I pictured Van Houten as a larger guy, too.

Yeah, it's totally gross that something teenage girls like exists. It shouldn't be allowed; at the very least, it shouldn't be spoken of or recognized.

There's a whole genre called contemporary YA devoted to non-magic, non-apocalyptic teen lives - Maureen Johnson, Morgan Matson, Sarah Dessen, and Deb Caletti all write great stuff in this genre. Almost none of these books get made into movies, though.

It's Mac Tonight!

Secret success?

I despise I Am Sam. Everything about it just makes me angry. I watched it with a friend who loves it ("It has a great soundtrack!") and I tried, but couldn't understand why I was supposed to root for Sean Penn to keep his daughter. Ebert's review was perfect when he said that the villain of the movie (the prosecutor)…

It is truly anger-inducing. I literally think about it every day because there's a scene where Giovanni Ribisi's character meets Juliette Lewis' dentist father and says "I always brush my teeth, up and down, not side-to-side." For some reason, that wedged itself into my brain and now I think about it every time I…