Get these books on your radar now (& check out the covers!!!!)

New covers are showing up on twitter lately for upcoming books. These caught my eye & I wanted to be sure you get them on your lists. Sequel to the outstanding Shadowshaper (you really need to read that now!), here's what author Daniel José Older told Teen Vogue about his upcoming book (due in September):

Definitely one thing about all my work, one thing in particular here, is looking at the power of community. Thinking about how much we can change when we get together and fight for it. This is a book that is explicitly a protest novel in the sense that the characters hit the streets protesting against violence and the different forms that it appears in in their lives. That is very much entwined with the larger narrative of what they are doing with their lives and trying to survive and the magical fights they are in. It is all tied together, not just like, "Oh, fight the power on one hand and then simply go off and do some cool magic stuff." They are all very much connected, whether it is the actual painting coming to life and fighting bad guys for you or it's you in your most difficult moment when you're most alone finding some kind of truth in a song or a book and that becomes a thread which is a lifeline that will pull you out of wherever you are. All those are forms of art saving lives and that's what is always on my mind when I am writing Shadowshaper books.

Eve Ewing's Electric Arches (due in ) is "an imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose." The cover is flat out amazing but the description is even better. From the publisher:

Blending stark realism with the surreal and fantastic, Eve L. Ewing’s narrative takes us from the streets of 1990s Chicago to an unspecified future, deftly navigating the boundaries of space, time, and reality. Ewing imagines familiar figures in magical circumstances―blues legend Koko Taylor is a tall-tale hero; LeBron James travels through time and encounters his teenage self. She identifies everyday objects―hair moisturizer, a spiral notebook―as precious icons. 

Her visual art is spare, playful, and poignant―a cereal box decoder ring that allows the wearer to understand what Black girls are saying; a teacher’s angry, subversive message scrawled on the chalkboard. Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity, and the joy and pain of growing up.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone (due in October) is ripped from the headlines. Here's the publisher's description:

Justyce McAllister is top of his class, captain of the debate team, and set for the Ivy League next year—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. He is eventually released without charges (or an apology), but the incident has Justyce spooked. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood, he can’t seem to escape the scorn of his former peers or the attitude of his prep school classmates. The only exception: Sarah Jane, Justyce’s gorgeous—and white—debate partner he wishes he didn’t have a thing for.
 
Struggling to cope with it all, Justyce starts a journal to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But do Dr. King’s teachings hold up in the modern world? Justyce isn’t so sure.
 
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up. Way up. Much to the fury of the white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. And Justyce and Manny get caught in the crosshairs. In that media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack. The truth of what happened that night—some would kill to know. Justyce is dying to forget.

The Reading Without Walls Challenge

Image courtesy of Macmillian/First Second Books

As described by Macmillian, Reading Without Walls is a month-long, nation-wide program to promote diversity in reading, inspired by National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Gene Luen Yang and his ambassadorial platform. Thousands of schools, libraries, bookstores, and comics stores are joining in - and so can you! It's easy to take the Reading Without Walls challenge - simply find something new and different to read, and let books open up the world around you.

1) Read a book with a character who doesn't look like you or live like you
2) Read a book about a topic you don’t know much about
3) Read a book in a format you don’t normally read for fun – an audio book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, an audio book

What are you waiting for? Go find a book that fits each category, or whichever challenge you like the best - or find one nifty book that fits all three!

readergirlz news

I've been with both readergirlz and Guys Lit Wire since they began, and since we have some crossover readership, I wanted to share the rgz news with the GLW community. As posted by Lorie Ann Grover:

Dearest readergirlz,

When we began this nonprofit organization ten years ago, readers in all demographics did not have access to authors. This access was our aim, our mission. The founders of readergirlz were driven to make those connections around the world. And we did.

Some 2016 titles to get on your radar

Here are a few titles, with their brief catalog copy descriptions, that I think you should keep an eye out for next year:

Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The Brontë siblings find escape from their constrained lives via their rich imaginations. The glittering world of Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy world of Gondal literally come to life under their pens, offering the sort of romance and intrigue missing from their isolated parsonage home. But at what price? As Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as the characters they have created—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go. 

There is a legend that a Great Spotted Whale lives in the ocean; local fishermen still talk of it, although the first sighting fifty years ago was never corroborated. Now, two young whale watchers each set out to find the whale, one armed with sound recording equipment, the other a camera. Mid-ocean their boats collide, so they pool their resources and set off together to capture incontrovertible proof that the mythical Great Spotted Whale exists. The eventual sighting is a magical moment: the whale is truly phenomenal, and swimming along beside her is a small whale calf. The children return to shore, solid proof in hand. As an added twist to the story, they discover that it was their own grandparents who first sighted the Great Spotted Whale fifty years ago. The Murrow’s epic, wordless adventure is brought to life with Ethan’s stunning graphite drawings, which convey the drama and haunting beauty of the ocean, and capture the majesty of this awe-inspiring creature.

This is a wordless picture book that appears absolutely stunning. Artistic teens are going to love it - as well anyone who appreciates truly great art.

In 1934, Irène Curie, working with her husband and fellow scientist, Frederic Joliot, made a discovery that would change the world: artificial radioactivity. This breakthrough allowed scientists to modify elements and create new ones by altering the structure of atoms. Curie shared a Nobel Prize with her husband for their work. But when she was nominated to the French Academy of Sciences, the academy denied her admission and voted to disqualify all women from membership. Four years later, Curie’s breakthrough led physicist Lise Meitner to a brilliant leap of understanding that unlocked the secret of nuclear fission. Meitner’s unique insight was critical to the revolution in science that led to nuclear energy and the race to build the atom bomb, yet her achievement was left unrecognized by the Nobel committee in favor of that of her male colleague.

Radioactive! presents the story of two women breaking ground in a male-dominated field, scientists still largely unknown despite their crucial contributions to cutting-edge research, in a nonfiction narrative that reads with the suspense of a thriller. Photographs and sidebars illuminate and clarify the science in the book.

The National Book Awards for Young People's Literature: the Long List

The National Book Awards for Young People's Literature has announced its long list of candidates for this year. Next month, the panel will announce its short list, and in November, the winner will be announced from among the following candidates. We here at Guys Lit Wire are pretty chuffed at having already reviewed four of the ten candidates - you can find links to our reviews below, but do check out all the books on the list.

Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s Books
Reviewed by Trisha in May

M. T. Anderson, Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
Candlewick Press
Reviewed by Colleen in July

Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group

Rae Carson, Walk on Earth a Stranger
Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Children’s Books

Gary Paulsen, This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

Laura Ruby, Bone Gap
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children’s Books

Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon, X: A Novel
Candlewick Press
Reviewed by Kelly in February

Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep
HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books
Reviewed by William in June

Noelle Stevenson, Nimona
HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books

WILD THINGS! Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature

Wild Things! “You make my heart sing. You make everything groovy.”

And why not? This is a book full of quirky stories, little-known information, and heaps of authorial personality. What else would you expect from Betsy Bird, Jules Danielson, & Peter D. Sieruta? It covers topics such as art in books, and includes a sketch from The Paper Bag Princess in which the princess has obviously clocked the odious Ronald). It discusses LGBT authors (including Louise Fitzhugh, who wrote Harriet the Spy), characters, and issues in books and how far that topic has come over the years (or hasn’t, as some authors find themselves disinvited or marginalized, regardless of whether they themselves are gay or straight). It covers censorship and book banning (which ones and why – some of which is hilarious for how off-base it seems), along with some issues of censorship based on racism that actually sound a bit right (think of the horrifying descriptions of Native Americans in some of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books or some of the words used to describe people of color over the years).

And then there’s the chapter on celebrity books, which gets things just right in the epigraph, a quote by Jane Yolen: “I’m getting out my pointy bra and brushing up on my singing and dancing, because there’s no good pop music out there.” As the chapter points out, what “celebrity book” often means is something with almost no content, or something with a preachy message, which would have been shot down if it had been submitted by an author who was not a celebrity. Thank you, Betsy, Jules, and Peter, for articulating the exact issue.

There are more chapters, too. Such as the books that kids love but critics hate, and books as big business, and more. And all of it is well-researched and delivers the sort of story and content that will delight and surprise, as well as entertain and motivate.

We have ourselves an award winner in our midst.....

BIG congratulations to our own Sam J. Miller for winning the Shirley Jackson Award for his short story "57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" which was published in the December 2013 issues of Nightmare Magazine. You can read the whole story over at their website which we highly recommend you do now, on a sunny August day, so you don't get totally freaked out. When you're done, check out more recommended scary stories (and books and more) at the Shirley Jackson Award site and also read an interview with Sam on writing his story.

And again - WAY TO GO SAM!!!!!!!

Download some awesome audiobooks for free from SYNC

This year's edition of one of my favorite book/reading events began today. Each summer, SYNC gives readers free downloadable YA and classic audibooks--two titles every week, one a current YA title and a thematically similar classic title. Many of the YA titles are new, as in published in the last year or so. The only catch is that the audiobooks are available for free for just seven days, then a new pair of titles will be available. Oh, and you do need to enter your email address in order to download the book, but you won't get any spam or anything.

This year's SYNC program will run until August 13 and includes several books reviewed here at Guys Lit Wire, including Eoin Colfer's WARP: The Reluctant Assassin and Cristin Terrill's All Our Yesterdays. Other books you can download this summer include Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick, Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and bunch more. The full download schedule is here.

The Why Chromosome: Why Boys Do Love Books

My online acquaintance Alethea told me about the upcoming event called The Why Chromosome: Why Boys Do Love Books. It sounded like something GuysLitWire supporters would like, so I thought I'd spread the word! The details are as follows:

The Why Chromosome is an author event and book signing for readers, writers, bloggers, and educators interested in middle grade and young adult literature. Our special focus will be on boys and encouraging their love of reading.

When: Sunday, October 30, 2011 - 1:00 - 4:00 pm

Where: Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop, 1030 Bonita Avenue, La Verne, CA 91750

Grassroots organization Bridge to Books is following up their successful YA in Bloom summer party with another author extravaganza, The Why Chromosome: Why Boys Do Love Books!

The end-of-October event will feature a panel of seven young adult and middle grade book authors to discuss boys and their reading habits. Authors Jonathan Auxier, Greg van Eekhout, Mark Jeffrey, G. Neri, Andrew Smith, John Stephens and Allen Zadoff will participate in the panel. They will also be available to sign books.

Ticketed attendees will enjoy food, drinks, swag bags and will also have the opportunity to participate in a trivia contest, win raffle prizes, and have their books signed.

Readers of all ages are welcome to attend, as the goal of the event is to bring together young readers, parents, educators, librarians, authors, and publishers, in the organization’s continuing mission to unite book lovers of all kinds. The overall goal is simple: To connect kids to reading.

Tickets are available through Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop at (909) 599-4558.

Visit the event website for blog updates as the event approaches: http://bit.ly/whyboysread

To buy tickets or learn more, visit the Bridge to Books blog. Bookmark that site and check it for details on future events.

Authors, publishers, volunteers, and sponsors who would like to get involved with the Why Chromosome events should email bridgetobooks@gmail.com

KidLit Con Teams Up With RIF Because It Is The Right Thing To Do

When Jackie Parker-Robinson and I sat down to plan this year's KidLit Con in Seattle one of the things that we spent some time thinking about was how to incorporate a fundraiser into the weekend's plans. This has always been a significant and enjoyable part of the conference and everyone looks forward to it. What we decided was to shift things just a bit, both by moving away from publisher donated ARCs as raffle prizes and also toward a long term partnership with one organization. Ultimately what we came up with made sense in so many ways that in retrospect it was one of the easiest things we decided. I am delighted to announce that KidLit Con is now entering into a partnership with Reading Is Fundamental which we hope will extend for many years into the future and make a powerful difference in the lives of many.

I'm sure many of you are aware how RIF's budget was decimated by the elimination of federal funds this year. I'm not going to get all political with you because the hard truth is that there are few painless answers to our economic mess. But cutting RIF is particularly harsh as it exists solely to put books into the hands of children who otherwise can not afford them. RIF is an investment in our future in the purest and most direct terms. When you think about that way, it's hard to understand why anyone would ever put RIF on the chopping block but that is what has happened and now we just have to do what we can to make sure that future promise remains unchanged.

There are many generous groups and corporations who have stepped up to help RIF and for that we should all be grateful. KIdLit Con is seeking to make a more personal and direct contribution as the funds we raise will be coming directly from book lovers in the pursuit of creating more book lovers. Now is the time, quite frankly, where we need to put up or shut up. If you are a writer or a librarian or a bookseller or a book blogger or if you read blogs about books then this fundraiser is targeted directly at you.

So that's all of you, right?

We are living in the era of information overload and thus we don't get to say anymore that "there is nothing we can do" or "we just didn't know" or "we didn't have time to figure out how to help". This is easy. You think books matter then you need to do something to help kids get books. Period. This is your job, it's your political moment, it is your calling. And it doesn't matter what color state you live in or what little letter is next to your choice when you vote or who you think is to blame for where we are right now.

None of that matters.

The only thing you need to think about is the $1 or $5 or $10 or $20 or $50 (or more) that you can donate right this very second to RIF. You need to think about linking to this effort and you need to think about posting it to facebook and you need to think about tweeting it. You need to think about telling folks on your list serve. You need to think about how much you can give and how many other people you can spread the word to because at the end of the day the best thing about who we are is that we believe in the power of words and RIF is all about spreading that power as far and wide as possible. RIF does nothing less than change the world - that's its very mission - and if you don't think that's the most worthy thing any of us can be part of then you really are not the kind of book lover I know you to be.

Don't let us down, folks. Join KidLit Con's effort to raise money for RIF over the next thirty days as we count down to the conference. Help us show the power of booklovers; help us prove that it's not about the books we get, it's always and only about the books we can give.

Please donate now.

[Post pic from Macy's RIF event.]

A contest to win a copy of NOW PLAYING: STONER & SPAZ II

Hopefully you've already read Ron Koertge's interview. The publisher, Candlewick, has made some copies available for giveaway. Here's how to enter:

Five lucky winners will receive Ron Koertge's NOW PLAYING: STONER & SPAZ II. To enter, send an e-mail to NowPlayingGiveaway@gmail.com. In the body of the e-mail, include your name, mailing address, and e-mail address (if you're under 13, submit a parent's name and e-mail address). One entry per person; prizes will only be shipped to US or Canadian addresses. Entries must be received by midnight (PDT) on 8/25/11. Winners will be selected in a random drawing on 8/26/11 and notified via email.

LAYAPALOOZA

So this around the time of year when I would tend to do a lit news dispatch, rather than a review, telling you how all the YA events at the recent LA Times Festival of Books went.

Except that given the filing schedule here at GLW, and where those “third Tuesdays” fall, it turns out that that posting would be nearly a month away.

So what we’re going to do instead is tell you what’s coming up at the LA Times Book Fest, weekend after next (Sat., April 30, and Sun., May 1). This way, if you’re a GLW reader in the SoCal area, you can come. Or can email your cousin Geoff in Bell Gardens or your Aunt Jen in Cerritos to get over there.

First though, note that two whole days of YA events -- on a “YA Stage” no less! -- is a recent development in Times Book Fest history. The overall gathering is the largest public literary fest in the country, and of course, being L.A., there are awards -- in the form of the LA Times Book Prizes. There’s a YA category, too, and for a long time, there’d usually be one YA panel comprised of that year’s nominees. So one panel, four or five people, and that’d be it.

For YA readings, you’d often find yourself on an outdoor stage, with jugglers and costumed characters designed to capture the attention of younger readers, those perhaps still in the “board book” phase of their reading lives. (Of course, by the time they grow into the “YA” demographic, the challenge for the Times may be fomenting a “Festival of Digital Reading Devices,” so perhaps we shouldn’t be too hasty in giving up the jongleurs after all).

One of those stages has been the Target Children’s Stage, which has included MG writers (this year, for example, R.L. Stine and Lisa Yee), but again, those slots were few, and both MG and YA were generally underserved.

Banned Books Week 2010: Read These Books!

Banned Books Week started yesterday, September 25, and runs through October 2. If you're not familiar with Banned Books Week, you can read a short run-down here on the ALA website. But you may already be wondering, why should I care? Because, even in this day and age, books are still being banned. This is not some quaint, old-timey issue. Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: great book, right? Just got banned earlier this month in Stockton, MO. In this case, what that means is it's not just gone from school curriculum but removed from the school library, period. Laurie Halse Anderson's Printz-Award-winning book Speak was challenged this month, too.

Not just contemporary works but many books considered to be literary classics are still challenged or even outright banned in various parts of our country. Whether you agree with the people challenging the books or not, the truth remains that this is a form of censorship. Celebrating Banned Books Week and reading a banned book (or three, or five) is an easy way to support intellectual freedom—your own and that of others. The vast collective brain here at Guys Lit Wire has gotten together to suggest a few personal favorites for your perusal, all books which have been challenged or banned at one time or another. Read on for the first installment, and then tune in at the end of the week for Part II.

Once more into the breach...

I should not be surprised that Ellen Hopkins was disinvited from a teen youth lit festival in Texas and yet I am stunned to see a librarian was involved in this mess. Leila has a roundup of links from Ellen and several others who have since pulled out in disgust over the matter, so she is the place to start in case you aren't up on it. Tera Lynn Childs also has a longer piece up at RT Book Reviews on why she chose to pull out.

All we can do is let the world know about this mess, support the authors in their hour of need, mouth off big time about the librarian and superintendent involved (how could a librarian of all people support dumping an acclaimed author from a literary event? Who the heck is this person???) and yet again, stand up, brush ourselves off, and say we are mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.

It never gets easier does it? Being on the side of the side of the angels just never gets easier.

(And yes, I do think speaking the truth - especially the ugly brutal truth so often in Ellen's books - is the side of the angels. If you don't like her novels then simply do not buy them. That's all you have to do.)

Hot Rewrites at Midnight

Well, it’s not quite midnight -- yet. That’s when my GLW post is due, at the (theoretical) latest, so it appears, as agreed upon, on the anointed Tuesday.

I even have a book I want to review -- written by an author pal here in L.A. I’ll caveat and disclaim my familiarity with the scribe when I actually do write it up -- next month.

Right now though, in the sultry L.A. night, I’m in the midst of rewrites for one of my own books, coming up briefly for some air (well, it’s not officially a book yet -- manuscript?). My agent has been waiting for it for months. Her wager was that if I had it finished by Comic Con, she’d buy me a drink. If I didn’t, I’m picking up the tab when I see her.

Well, though I’ve made it close, I think I’ll be buying the drink. Unless the next 24 hours are somewhat miraculous. There’re a final two-four chapters to write, and about 100 pages to rewrite, (or “polish,” as we like to say when we want to make it sound less daunting).

Operation Teen Book Drop is coming soon...

So apparently the ALA has a newsletter out that reveals Guys Lit Wire will be hosting two Powells wish lists for school libraries as part of the Teen Book Drop. Unfortunately there is a little confusion over when the wish lists go active. So here's the scoop - we will not be making them public until April 7th. On that day I will run a big post here with all the details on the schools, how to access the lists and where the books need to go. Please be patient as the event unfolds on schedule and we coordinate with the librarians on the books they need for their students.

R.I.P. a Southern Rex: Barry Hannah Died

Barry Hannah, one of the great literary talents of the South, died yesterday. His death, while not necessarily a surprise (he was 67, but he'd lived a hard 67 years), still hits me like a freight train.

Operation TBD Is Back!

Guys Lit Wire has once again teamed up with the readergirlz and YALSA for Operation Teen Book Drop 2010, and we're once again aiming to get thousands of YA books into the hands of teens on April 15, 2010. The countdown has already started (see nifty sidebar widget).

This year, we're also teaming up with If I Can Read I Can Do Anything in order to drop publisher-donated YA books into the hands of teens on Native American reservations.

Nationwide, librarians, authors, and teens are invited to drop YA books in their own communities on April 15th, 2010, to raise awareness for Operation TBD 2010 and Support Teen Literature Day--and to join the readergirlz for a party that night, at the readergirlz blog.

Books to look forward to (and one I didn't like)

Wow. It feels like it's been forever since I posted on GLW. I mean, I did miss December, but that was because the book I planned to review ended up being completely *meh*.


The book, Blood Ninja by Nick Lake, just didn't live up to expectations. I mean, ninjas and vampires, what could be bad about that, right? Only, in the book, the ninjas are vampires, see. That's what makes them, um, ninja-awesome, I suppose. Again, meh. That seems to me to be a perfect formula for making ninja boring. Like Batman, they are cool because they are normal people, without special powers, except training, training, awesomeness, gadgets, and training.

Let me say this-- it may not have been the book's fault. Nick Drake does a great job with the research and he brings to life the era of Samurai and Ninja almost as good as Stan Sakai (more on him later). But I was expecting Ninja vs. Vampire. That's cool.

I mean, come on, folks, aren't we over vampires yet? Can't we find our way back to some kind of unexpected cool that doesn't involve sensing the blood pulse in the neck of a best mate/potential girlfriend?

I'm so glad, then, for 2010, when we look to the future, and a slew of great looking books chock-full of the offbeat, the new, and even some old school stories brought back to life. After the break, great books to look forward to...


So, what to look forward to? These are books I've seen bits and pieces of, or advanced copies of, or have just gotten enough of a lick to really, really want more:

I mentioned Stan Sakai earlier. He's a master cartoonist, often overlooked because he does two things that have fallen by the wayside here in the states: historical adventure and funny animal. Usagi Yojimbo is a ronin rabbit, wandering Japan, falling into one adventure after another, some big, some small. Sakai has written and drawn over twenty volumes of this noble warrior, and every time a new one comes out, I rush to pick it up (it also comes out as a comic pamphlet, but I "wait for the trades," as they say in the comic book biz). If you've never read any Usagi, there's two great ways to dive in. The first is a $14.95 hardcover, stand-alone story from Dark Horse Comics called Yokai, in which Usagi fights all kinds of demons and goblins of Japanese folklore. That came out last month. If you're more ambitious, save up your dough, because for $85, Fantagraphics, publisher of the first seven volumes of the comic, is issuing a deluxe, two-volume complete edition of everything Usagi that they ever published, including long out of print stories, interviews, and more.

Speaking of historical adventure, Crogan's March, Chris Schweizer's next book in his swashbuckling adventure series of graphic novels, comes out later this year. It's about a Legionnaire from the annals of the legendary Crogan family, and Schweizer one-ups his earlier Pirate adventure (Crogan's Vengeance) with a combination of pulpy military adventure, The Dirty Dozen, and The Odyssey.

I'm also looking forward to books without pictures as well. One of my absolute, knock-out recent reads is an advanced copy I got of Adam Rex's next book. If you know Adam Rex, from his picture books, or his chapter book The True Meaning of Smekday, then you know how hysterical he is. And that's why I picked up Fat Vampire without hesitation. Yes, I know I began this essay by bemoaning vampires. But when it's about a kid who realizes that he's going to be fifteen, fat, and unpopular for the rest of eternity? And the book opens with a scene at San Diego Comic-Con? How can you not love it?

Finally, I think what I'm looking forward to the most this coming year is David Lipsky's Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. It's the transcripts of interviews, two hundred pages worth, Lipsky did with author David Foster Wallace back when he was on tour fifteen years ago for his book Infinite Jest. As tragic as his death was (Wallace committed suicide a year and a half ago after losing a battle with depression), Wallace's mind was absolutely fierce. And as brilliant a fiction writer as he was, I think his non-fiction work will stand the test of time. This, his thoughts unfiltered? I'm hoping to dive again into the mind of someone I admired and loved so much.

What books are you looking forward to this year?

Of Road Trips, Kick Offs, and Thoughts on the Trail

Greetings, Lit-wirians! Mark London Williams here, joining the fray at Guys Lit Wire. I'll be here every third Tuesday over the next so many moons, and beyond.

I'm using my full moniker as my posting name, too, just to eliminate any confusion Lit-wise, or Wired-wise, since it's the same me who wrote the Danger Boy books (a series that straddled mid-grade and YA, as the characters grew older), and currently writes other columns and fulminations on and offline, concerning books, comics, politics, movie-making, and more.

So no sense pretending it's not also the same me in my own little corner (why am I suddenly referencing the musical version of "Cinderella!?") here on GLW, where I join a crew that is sharp, smart, far more caught up on their reading than I am (writing, it seems, slows that whole process down), and can doubtless teach me Many Things.

I'll be writing about books old and new here, including some of the ones that prompted my own journey to "authorship." Some of the "discussees" will be graphic novels, since I've been lucky enough to write the sporadic comic, and am currently a fairly regular reviewer of same, too.

So, let's have the fun begin, shall we?

We start, though, not with a straight out review but a dispatch from the road. (Not that we want to fill our GLW perch with such things -- this should be different from a regular "author's blog," yes?) Nonetheless, there I was, at the recent YAllapalooza gathering, a kind of in-store gathering/hoedown/happening pitting L.A.-based writers against their Arizona counterparts, all overseen by the wonderful Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix (well, yes, Tempe, on the outskirts of Phoenix, but in the West, cities tend to sprawl all over the place).

Four of us drove down from L.A. together -- me, keeping an eye out for available date shakes along the desert stretches of the I-10, with Carol Snow (YA tomes Switch and Snap), Cecil Castellucci (Beige, Boy Proof, and the terrific graphic novel The Plain Janes), and Blake Nelson, whose own Destroy All Cars received well-earned praise on this very blog.

We got there a day ahead of the event, and divvied up into a girls room and a boys room at our motel-- Cecil and Carol in one, Blake and me down the hall.

Would the "boy book" room be different than the "girl book" room, I wondered? I mean, in obvious ways? (Would it, in fact, be messier?) After all, we were all just writers-on-a-field-trip. But is there a sensibility that makes a guy-friendly story different from a gal-friendly one?

I mean, Hunger Games (mentioned in the post below) has a female lead, and that's a terrific read for anyone, so that's not the answer.

But I kept mulling the question as Blake and I wound up --stereotypically? -- discussing whether we'd be able to watch any of the NFL playoffs on room TV (our schedule didn't really allow it). I don't actually watch a ton of sports (I listen to baseball often, though, while writing), because it's so relentlessly commercialized, but often interesting "stories" develop as seasons wind down and post-seasons unfold, and the Jets/Bengals game, in particular, looked interesting.

But why was it interesting? Well, I thought, it's because at this point in the season, you don't really know what's going to happen next. The ending is unwritten (see the recent Jets/Chargers game) and somewhat unpredictable, and maybe, for boys, for men -- whose lives often do become predictable (in school, at jobs) -- these encounters with unscripted sporting events provided a tiny bit -- just a smidgen-- of adventure.

We all need adventures, of course -- the exhilaration (and sometimes fear)of the unknown, along with the comforts of the familiar.

So maybe the appeal of sports is that you can't say, with certainty, what's going to happen next.

Of course, we're living in a world like that, but maybe that's too overwhelming. But: do guys seem to respond to types of "uncertainty" -- manifested in thrillers and fast-paced stories , on the book side-- any more than gals do? If so, are they conditioned to, or wired to?

And why does it seem harder to get guys to stop whatever they're doing and sit down and read a book? (Hence the good works here).

There are no "set" answers to these questions, of course. Which is good -- that becomes another thing to explore.

And on the road, away from my own usual routines, I had a little more time to bask in them.

As for the explorations, I look forward to doing much more of that here, with you, in the months ahead.