Peeps: Vampires Who Do More than Just Whine

Spike's so awesome he's even a BAMF pumpkin.

As a Buffy fan, my favorite character was Spike. Not because of my penchant for blonds and accents (though that helped-- never believe that that didn't help) but rather because he seemed to be the only character that didn't spend all of his time bemoaning his life. Everyone else was all "Oh, woe is me, my entire existence is crap!" and Spike was all "Um, okay, yeah, while you're doing that Imma have sex with your girlfriend and drink all your booze. Wanker."

I respect that in a vampire. Action, not emo. Which is why Peeps, the first part of my Karyn-Assigned-Homework (hereafter known as KAH) is awesome.

Homework. I Has It.

Because Karyn has assigned it and when you work in the same office as the teacher its bad form to fall back on my normal procedure which is to do it five minutes before class/on the bus/the lunch period before its due.

Also, this homework actually has an end goal in sight that I want to aspire to. Which is to enable me to have an awesome, intelligent conversation with teenagers about what book they should read.

Yeah. Awesome.

So, this is what I'm reading over the next week and a half:

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

Swordsport by Ellen Kushner

Tithe by Holly Black

Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox

i am the messenger by Markus Zusak 

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Expect regular updates. Because I process books by regurgitating them onto the internet interspersed with a few "dudes."

Yeah. That's how the real pros do it.

Reason Number Fifteen That Skeletons Are Awesome

BAMF!Skeleton.

Skeletons are awesome. Obviously.

Is that because you can always be a skeleton with a boner ("Get it? Get it?") for a cheapie Halloween costume? No. Does it have to do with their strong but silent "keeping-our-guts-and-skin-from-touching-and-allowing-for-movement" determination? Pshaw.

No, my friends, reason number fifteen that skeletons are awesome is because the ranks of skeletons include such wonderful characters as Skulduggery Pleasant. Who, for those of us playing the home version is at least five times more awesome than Skeletor, and three times more talkative than Yorik.

Crossdressing and Magic: Alanna of Trebold

The power of Grayskull.

So, picture this:

You're the female of a set of twins in a far off and crazy land. You're magic, you've got purple eyes, and you really want to be a BAMF knight and protect the aforementioned far off land, but you have a vagina so no dice.

Except dice. Totally dice. Because you are Alanna of Trebond, and you cut your hair, cross-dress, pretend to be a boy, and become the most BAMF knight that the land of Tortall has ever seen, all while doing awesome magic, boning the hot prince and the hotter Price of Thieves, and hanging out with a talking cat who may or may not be a) a god, b) a constellation, c) voiced by David Hyde Pierce in the inevitable movie series.

Awesome.

Why Shakespeare in the Park is Overrated

Mainly, because I can't get tickets. After showing up at 7:15 in the morning on the hottest day of the year in New York City, on a Tuesday, I got nada.

So, bitter, disillusioned, and saddened by my failure, I decided to turn this into a teachable moment and get up earlier next time, go on an even hotter day or one where rain is anticipated, and wait patiently for my chance to see Merchant of Venice.

But then I decided nuts to that.

So instead, tonight I am attending a performance of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. Where the performances are free, there's no insane ticketing line, and I don't have to get my lazy ass up at 6 AM to sit on the hard ground in Central Park for 7 hours and still probably not get tickets.

So there, Delacourte. Suck it.

Library Manifesto! It's LIVES!

Really. Well, not the blog. The blog for Library Manifesto never really got off the ground. And by never really got off the ground, I mean never really had a single post.

Yeah. That.

But, the new issue comes out on (tentatively) Sunday! With articles and goodness and Librarian-ness! And to celebrate that goodness, here's a sneak peak at one of the articles I've written for this issue!

This serves as both a cheap excuse for a post, and a place for feedback! Everyone wins!

Read me.