Just finished this book Refresh Refresh by Benjamin Percy, which I had found at Rolling Meadows High School's library. This is a collection of short stories that are incredibly well-written for older high school Teens. All the stories are about guys. Dudes. Bros. Men. Or young men. They are realistic, harsh stories that have blood in them ... and wild animals ... and uncontrollable, fierce forces of nature. There are storms that kill some of the characters. Landscapes that are unforgiving and care nothing about human life. All of the stories take place in Oregon. Many of them are weird, including the one where one young couple find out that having their house built over miles and miles of caves might not have been the best idea. The title story, Refresh, Refresh is a haunting and jarring story about young men who are in a sort of 'Fight Club' after school, which is their only way of coping with the absence of their fathers, who are off fighting in the Middle East. Brutal. These young men are lonely, desperate, raw and volatile. This story actually inspired this graphic Novel In one story, The Woods, the author actually inflicts genuine fear upon the reader. In this particular story, a young man who has grown apart from his large, gruff father, decide to go hunting in the forest with their dog. However, upon arriving to their campsite they find a dead man ... and then their dog goes into the Woods, only never to come back out. You won't forget these stories. These are unsettling, yet the richly drawn characters compel you to read on about their lives.
books
Short story turned Graphic Novel
Lots-O-Stuff
Weird Word Wednesday strikes with this gem: floccinaucinihilipilification - Here is the Dictionary.com definition: "–noun Rare. the estimation of something as valueless (encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language)." So use it in a sentence .. impress your friends ... good luck with the pronunciation!
More stuff! ... I know you want to watch a movie where a Librarian saves the day ... here's 11 of 'em!
Cathy Cassidy has been voted Queen of Teens (Well, in Britain at least) and we've got a bunch of her books. Read more here.
Finally, the New York Public Library put together an awesome list of their Favorite Back to High School Books.
The Old Gallbame
I was at U.S. Cellular Field last night gorging on ballpark food and marveling at the sport of baseball and it struck me today, in my office: "Oh yeah! Isn't there a baseball book just out recently for teens that's supposed to be really good?" There is. It's called Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron Koertge. Weird title because it's a weird book. It's written in free-verse my friends ... an odd way to read a story and one you'll fly through. Some interesting facts about the author:
1) He sees 60-70 movies (in the theater) a year! 2) He bets on horses. 3)He's a big Triple AAA baseball fan.
I found this interview of the author online and it's an interesting one!
P.S. My Grandma calls ballgames ... "gallbames". She's a funny one.
Book trailer!
Has anyone read this book? I have never heard of Technology addiction, but apparently it exists and this is a story about it! I'm not that surprised what with the Tweets, Pads, Pods, Voids, Posts, Wires, Facebooks, Blogs and technology that swamps us at every turn ... this blog included! Here's a cool trailer for the book:
HEY! Before you leave, get the book here!
This is cool ....
... well, if you like/can tolerate reading books on a computer screen, it's cool. Check this author's website out where she is posting a chapter a week of her novel ... click here! The first chapter is insanely good by the way!!!
