Teen Read Night

Last night I went to the monthly Teen Read Night at the Jefferson Market NYPL in the Village. (Great library, btw. It's like a freaking castle.) These nights, hosted by the amazing David Leviathan of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist fame (as well as Executive Editor (or some similiar such title) at Scholastic). David was the BEST moderator. He was funny and interesting and, most importantly, kept it all on track and on time.

The authors reading were also great. All funny, contemporary stories, which was refreshing, seeing the current overload of dark paranormal. (Author Melissa Walker, who was also there, said these nights are often full of contemp authors and suggested perhaps the dark fantasy authors live somewhere else? An interesting theory, to say the least...) Not that there's anything wrong with dark paranormal, mind you. There's just a lot of it.

My favorite read of the night was for my Dutton sister author, Sarah Cross, and her book DULL BOY(just released today!) I've been hearing a lot of buzz on this book, but had no idea how awesome would actually be. So funny! I totally need to pick up a copy this afternoon.

Also there were Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus - authors of "The Nanny Diaries" who evidently are writing YA now. Their first book, The Real Real, is about a reality show. Or behind the scenes of one, I guess. The authors were fun and down to earth, esp considering their high profile status. And the excerpt was funny.

Other authors included Nick Burd, The Vast Fields of Ordinary - a gay coming of age story. Susane Colasanti, Waiting for You. (I liked that Susane told us (when someone asked how did she know how to speak YA) "My internal age is 16." I'm going to have to use that from now.) Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty and Kieran Scott, Geek Magnet.

There wasn't one bad book in the bunch!! I recommend you guys check them out if you're looking for something fun to read.

MARIANNE