May 1: Next On the List

April was a pretty successful reading and blogging month for me. I was able to get through a nonfiction chunkster as part of a joint reading effort with Aarti, and I still worked in a few books that served as a nice distraction. We've both finished reading Lions of the West at this point, but we haven't finished discussing it yet (oof, it did start to drag a bit), so you can read more on that later.

I've also (mostly) caught up on the blogging, which is a huge success!!

W    H    A    T        I    '    M        R    E    A    D    I    N    G

I've been reading a ton of JUV fiction lately for my Children's Lit class, and I'd like to do a reading roundup to summarize them. I actually read The Giver for the first time, and...well...I think it's a book you need to read at a particular moment in your life. It's the favorite book of one of my closest friends, but she read it as a child and loved it, while I just found it "meh". Maybe reading it as an adult loses some of the magic. Speaking of dystopian, I also read The Hunger Games for the first time. Dystopian lit isn't my thing, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

I'm currently reading Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why on my eReader. I know it was all the buzz a while back, but I've just come to the conclusion that if I want to be a YA librarian, I should probably read more young adult books. I went to a local school librarian conference for work last week, and one of the sessions I attended was about YA materials. Plus, I just got into my two classes for next semester which are YA Literature and Programs and Services for Young Adults. Hence my inspiration.

I don't have anything on my upcoming reading schedule, and I'm still working on getting through what's on my own shelves before I start acquiring a ton new things...

W    H    A    T    '    S        C    O    M    I    N    G        N    E    X    T

And I speak of acquiring new books because we all know BEA is coming up in the very near future! I'm not sure exactly when I will be attending yet (gotta work it out with the work schedule) but it's always enjoyable to attend, even if just for an afternoon. It's much more fun to be an attendee than a booth rep!

Another exciting thing to come is that Emily St. John Mandel has a new book coming out this month, The Lola Quartet, just as I finally read Last Night in Montreal and I was hoping she'd write something new! Plus, she's coming to WORD for the book's launch party later this month.

In my own personal excitement, I'm finished with school for the summer in two weeks. I'd like to say this gives me more free time to read, but that's probably not true; I read so much on my commute, that I'll probably read less once I finish and spend time doing other things. However, summer is coming which means beach time and park time, never without a book in hand.

Happy May!