I am on the final crunch to get the book to the agent this week - I really must because I simply can't bear to have it just hanging around here lingering much longer. So posting will be of the short and linkish sort for the week. I shall try to make it interesting nonetheless.

I received Mayra Lazara Dole's Down to the Bone a couple of days ago and have already read half the book. How come I haven't been hearing more about this book? It is the story of a Cuban teen who is having an affair with a close friend. When an explicit love letter is read out loud in her class (at a Catholic high school by a nun of course!) she is branded all sorts of awful names by classmates, subsequently thrown out of the house by her mother and must confront the difficult reality that she is a lesbian - something she has dodged in the past ala Ann Heche (I just love her - it doesn't matter if she's a girl or not). Anyway, all sorts of interesting cultural discussion of what it means to be gay in the Miami/Cuban society plus some heartfelt angst on the part of a good kid who is having a really rough time. So far it is fabulous - one heck of a coming-of-age drama. Long review to follow - in August, maybe? (I've turned August into good reads for summer - Sept will be my eco-column.)

I have also heard beans about Tony Abbott's mystery, The Postcard which is also set in Florida (St Petersburg this go-round) and is really really good. It's aimed at MG but I think it would work well for teens as so much of the drama takes place in the past (WWII era) and involves some intense adult drama. Jason's grandmother dies and he goes to FL to help his Dad out as he deals with the house, etc. His parents are in a rocky marriage and his father is drinking so Jason is along to keep an eye out on Dad. He uncovers a big mystery concerning grandma who Jason never knew. The mystery involves a short story in an old thriller magazine, some clues in old postcards and field trips to both Sunken Gardens and the Ringling Mansion (real places - I went to Sunken Gardens back in the late 70s and it was very classic Florida). The story is believable, very edge of the seat and just pretty neat to read. Jason and his new friend Dia connect in all the right ways and there is the right dose of funny, weird and tense in the plot. Highly recommended - should also be in the August column.

Richard Deakin's Waterlog is making me wonder when we stopped swimming in lakes and rivers. Nowadays it seems like all swimming must be in pools full of screaming people and a crazy amount of chemicals. When did it become a bad thing to hit "wild" water? The book is really good btw - but I knew it would be as Jenny D. enjoyed it.

The connection between Rudyard Kipling and the Cub Scouts is revealed in the WSJ. The whole article is well done but what I really intrigued me was the discussion of Kipling as a naturalist writer.

In no way does the rationalist-nationalist genius more closely resemble Darwin than in the scientific accuracy of his observations of wildlife. The best-known story in "The Jungle Book" is "Rikki-tikki-tavi," one of the many non-Mowgli tales, about the doughty mongoose who does battle with Nag the cobra. Here, the snake makes his terrifying entrance:

Kipling not only conveys a vivid sense of danger and wickedness but also describes the appearance and defensive behavior of Naja naja, the Indian cobra, with as precise an eye as any herpetologist.

The article's author is Jamie James, who has written a biography of herpetologist Joe Slowinski. Sounds like a good book to review - now I just need to track down someone at Hyperion.