The Librarian Writer

Title: Carter Finally Gets It Author: Brent Crawford Narrated by: Nick Podehl Publisher: Brilliance Audio Publication Date: April 7, 2009 I listened to this as part of Sync's audio summer promotion (yeah, it took me awhile to get to it). But it was pretty damn funny. Carter is a freshman with ADD and a stutter, especially around girls. He, like just about any other 14 year old, thinks about girls ALL THE TIME. He has his friends who live to tease each other, an older sister who is completely embarrassed by him, and really no clue about what high school will bring. The school year passes by through the sports Carter plays (or tries to play) and the girls he dates (or tries to date). There really is not much of a plot except how Carter tries to survive his freshman year. Carter is honest, raunchy, occasionally sweet, and voiced perfectly by Nick Podehl. He brings a lot of swagger to Carter and knows just when to deflate that self-importance when reality hits Carter...

Title: The Prince of Venice Beach Author: Blake Nelson Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Publication Date: June 3, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-0316230483 240 pp. ARC provided by publisher Robert "Cali" Callahan is a street kid. He ran away from a foster home in Nebraska when he was 14 and headed for sunny California. Now he's 17 and he spends his days surfing, skateboarding, and playing basketball with his friends. But he'll be turning 18 soon and that means he doesn't have to duck social services anymore with the fear that he'll be sent back to Nebraska. He's starting to think about the future because he knows he can't always live in the tree house in a hippie's backyard. Cali realizes that his one true talent is finding people. He knows everyone around Venice Beach and he knows how to get people to talk. So when a cop he knows asks him to be on the lookout for a recent runaway, and that there's some money in it for h...

Title: There Will Come a Time Author: Carrie Arcos Publisher: Simon Pulse Publication Date: April 15, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-1442495852 320 pp. ARC provided by publisher Carrie Arcos has written a quiet, sensitive novel about a quiet, sensitive protagonist. Mark is a gifted musician who lost his twin sister in a car accident. It's bad enough losing Grace, but since he was driving the car when they were hit by a distracted driver, he's lost in as much guilt as grief. Mark has withdrawn inside himself as he goes through the motions of therapy. But when Grace's best friend Hanna discovers Grace's bucket list, she convinces Mark to join her in completing the list. Mark's not sure what to do about his complicated feelings about Hanna, either. His impulse is to push everyone away. The novel is a poignant, believable story about loss and surviving. It's set in a suburb of  Los Angeles that one's not likely to see on reality television and Mark...

Title: Teen Titans: Earth One, Volume 1 Author: Jeff Lemire Illustrators: Rachael Dodson & Terry Dodson Publisher: DC Comics Publication Date: November 25, 2014 ISBN-13: 978-1401245566 144 pp. ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley I cannot begin to tell you how much I LOVED The New Teen Titans . I mean, seriously, this book saved me when I was a teenager. "A freak among freaks," Vic Stone says in the first issue and I knew this comic was for me. One of my proudest moments was getting a Letter to the Editor published. And here's me with Marv Wolfman at ComicCon a few years back: Marv Wolfman was instrumental in defining my story sense, taught me how to develop character arcs, and showed me how comics could be smart, funny, and incredibly human. Plus with George Perez's illustrations, The New Teen Titans was a thing of beauty from the cover to the last panel. Then it started to suck. George left. Stories were boring. And I was in college ...