I have an odd couple of questions: has anyone read the Cirque du Freak YA series? It looks like the sort of YA vampire novel thing I enjoy, and I picked up the first book at Half Price Books … only to discover that each chapter header has a large illustration of a tarantula. And the bit of the introduction I skimmed was all about how the main character luuuurves spiders, and his happiest birthday was when his parents gave him a pet tarantula.

So, my big question is how spider-riffic is this book and/or series? I am mostly okay with short written things about spiders, but lots of description about how they move, or look, or lots of scenes with them will make me very uncomfortable. (I mean, I adore Caitlin R. Kiernan’s writing, but I don’t have any plans to re-read Silk or A Murder of Angels anytime soon, thanks to all the spider scenes.)

Anyone?

Jilli, Jake has read all of them and adores them. He's not home until dinner, but I'll ask him how spider-riffic the books are.

Oh, thank you AmyLiz! That would be a big help.

Jilli, according to Jake the spider figures kind of prominently in the first few books because the boy can communicate with it. He said the author makes the spider seem "kind of superior" but there's no "icky" stuff. (Remember, this is fifteen-year-old-speak.) He does say the spider is given a personality, but I don't know if that makes it better or worse. He does describe the spider from time to time, as well, and for whatever reason his descriptions made Jake picture it really big.

Hope that helps. I could page through the first book tonight if you want, since I seem to be up for doing anything that is not writing the book that's due very, very soon.

I could page through the first book tonight if you want, since I seem to be up for doing anything that is not writing the book that's due very, very soon.

Hee! Who am I to tell you not to procrastinate?

I suspect, from Jake's description, that I should just give this series a miss. Talking to the spider? Giving it a personality? I think that would probably involve holding the spider and whatnot, and just typing that made me break out in goosebumps.

Yeah, I'm willing to bet he holds it, too.

If he can dig it out of the pit of despair his bedroom, I'll look through it tonight. I've been half meaning to read the books anyway.

Back on high-school/YA books -- I just finished Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The plot is more or less lifted straight out of the movie "Before Sunrise" -- boy and girl meet, boy and girl click, boy and girl spend the entire evening, night, and next morning together. But it's really good. It's just a wee bit pretentious, and it tries a little too hard (though mostly at the beginning), but on the whole it's really good. It's got some sharp writing and endearing characters. Go read it.

I loved Nick & Norah too, Steph!

Currently reading: I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. It's marketed as YA (at least, we have it in the YA section at my library) but I don't quite know why. I mean, it's appropriate for YA, but there's nothing about it that obviously marks it as such, to me. It's about a 19-year-old cab driver in a suburb of Sydney who, in the opening scene, helps to foil a bank robbery. Shortly afterwards, someone starts sending him playing cards in the mail with cryptic messages, mostly people's names and addresses, and he has to figure out what he's supposed to do with those names. It took me a while to get into it, but I'm really digging it now. And I have NO idea how it's going to end.

Kate, a friend of mine has HIGHLY recommended Zusak to me recently. She also read The Book Thief, which also sounded interesting. But she was pushing these books on me in a "YOU MUST READ THIS OR YOU WILL DIE" way, which doesn't happen often, so I'm intrigued.

I mean, she said that Death in The Book Thief has supplanted Pratchett's Death as her favorite Death character. Damn, right?

I mean, she said that Death in The Book Thief has supplanted Pratchett's Death as her favorite Death character. Damn, right?

Ha! It's true, Pratchett's Death is hard to top. I haven't read The Book Thief yet, but several people at my library have, including the assistant director, who loved it so much she ordered another copy for the adult fiction collection (the first one is in YA). It's definitely on my list.