Teppy - my God, you are so right about Skulduggery being Remington Steele. I mean - he really, really, REALLY is. Notwithstanding the fact that he is an animated skeleton.

He's just such a *suave* motherfucker, you know?

Thoroughly enjoyed that book.

Go read the sequel -- it's just as good, IMO.

On the drive up to Canada, we listened to The Map That Changed the World, which is FABULOUS. And I think it works better as a book on tape because if I were reading it myself, I'd probably wind up skimming over most of the in-depth geology stuff to get to the racy gossip and science v religion bits. But I highly highly recommend it in either print or audio format - it's not something I ever would have picked up on my own (my dad gave me a DVD full of audiobooks right before we left), but I'm very glad to have read it.

Book review time again! Galveston by Sean Stewart and The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips.

I have ranted here before about how much I *hated* Twilight, and I haven't read any of the other books, even though they are hugely popular with the teens at my library. But I threw a Breaking Dawn release party at my library last Friday night, and it was super fun, and so I skimmed through the book afterwards, looking for the most wretched parts I could find. Whee! I totally agree about the last line being AWFUL, in a hilarious, ff.net kind of way. I wished I could send my teens home with Buffy DVDs instead. But it is exciting to hear them discussing the books so avidly. (Also, I'd just like to note that of the 11 teens who stayed till midnight to buy the book, 3 were boys, and I've talked to several more boys who read the series too. Surprising, but pretty cool!)

However, I have to say that many of the teens I've spoken with about the series *do* get that Bella is a sort of useless, wimpy character. I haven't talked to any girl who looks up to her so much as simply wishes she were in her place.

In the sunlight rather than burning up, they sparkle.

Is there any downside to being a vampire in this verse?

Hee! I... can't think of any, actually. Apart from Edward's whole "I can't kiss you or I will accidentally rip your throat out, oh wait, I guess I can!" I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry during the scene in Breaking Dawn after Bella and Edward have fade-to-black sex, and she wakes up the next morning COVERED IN BRUISES, and he's all "Woe is me, I am a monster!" and she's like "Whatever, that was awesome, I totally don't care that you probably ruptured something important in my body!" And then there was the revelation that he bit the pillows (!) during their tryst (she wakes up COVERED IN FEATHERS, WHAT), and I can't wait to see the thousand and one "Edward Cullen, Pillow-Biter" icons that have inevitably already been made.

I am loving all the discussion of what people were reading when they were 14! (And taking some mental notes for developing my library's collection.) 14 was the year that my friend started me reading Jeanette Winterson, so I read a fair amount of queer literature and queer history in high school, as well as all the fantasy & sci fi I could get my hands on. And I was, of course, all over Anne Rice.

I don't think I ever answered what I was reading when I was 14-- I'm pretty sure I vacillated wildly between the Harl Presents and American romances that my neighbor bought in bulk every month and historical fiction along the lines of John Jakes and Michener and Anton Myrer and Southern fic along the lines of Anne Rivers Siddons. I think that may have been the year I discovered Heartbreak Hotel.

I'm such a wuss, I couldn't handle horror-- I tried reading Jaws and the first few pages gave me such horrible nightmares that I gave up, right then and there. My subconscious, she is an active and tormenting sort of thing.

hmmm can't really remember what I was reading at 14. I was past my historical romance (Victoria Holt mostly) phase. Maybe a lot of Salinger and Tom Robbins and Vonnegut. Although that may have been later in high school.

I was past my historical romance (Victoria Holt mostly) phase.

Oh god, I read scary amounts of Victoria Holt when I was younger.

I was also reading romantic mysteries by Jane Aiken Hodge, Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, maybe some others.

Oh god, I read scary amounts of Victoria Holt when I was younger.

Me, too.

I think 14 was Clan of the Cave Bear, many other Historical Roamances, Erica Jong (I don't know..., Finishing up the entire Agatha Christie collection, Rex Stout, other assorted old mysteries, re-reading Alcott (I think I encountered the Old Fashioned Girl here), maybe Austen, and The Outsiders. I am pretty sure it was past my Piers Anthony Period and before say Salinger, Plath, and other depressing novels of my high school years.

Oh, and the adult Judy Blume books. I got WIFEY confiscated so many times...

And am I wrong in thinking that there's there's no way this book would've ever scored a USA Today feature story if it had been written by a woman?

Not that I'm bitter or anything...