Simon and Schuster is publishing the Amelia Rules comics collections this summer. The Whole World's Crazy is due out in May and What Makes You Happy is set for August. I love this character - she and her friends are the Little Archie set for the 21st century.

The recent S&S catalog also had teaser artwork for Scott Westerfield's upcoming Leviathan (due out in the fall). Other than airships I have no idea what this book is about but I can't wait to read it. (Once you have airships, nothing else really matters....)

Frances O'Roark Dowell is a middle grade genius as far as I'm concerned. I just finished her latest The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and it has so much heart I can't stand it. Here's where she had me and it was only page 2:

The week before there had been a special on girls with guitars and watching it Kate got this flying feeling, like she had just discovered a new continent, one where you could say what you wanted or be who you wanted as long as you were holding a guitar. This was her continent, Kate decided. This was where she belonged.

I'm reviewing it ages from now...in June. (March is understanding the world, April is mysteries and thrillers, May is fantasy and then June which is looking to be "finding your personal continent"). I never used to be this organized, I swear.

I just watched the entire first season of Big Bang Theory and IT ROCKS! This is about the funniest show ever and everyone who has ever even momentarily considered themselves a geek will love it, promise. I am now watching the first season of 30 Rock and it is funny but Big Bank Theory is striking closer to home for me. (Although I do recommend everything Tina Fey also, of course, just on general principle.)

Oh and Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates is just as funny and smart as all those reviewers said. Much more on this one later.

The best book I'm reading right now that no one seems to know about is Andrew Mueller's essay collection I Wouldn't Start From Here. This is war reporting and commentary at its absolute best. Mueller is wry, witty and honest about the insanity (both good and bad) he encounters at various spots around the world. From Baghdad to Luxembourg this collection has it all. I'm madly in love with it. (review next month)

I am juggling almost ten books right now on everything from the French/Algerian War to Pilgrims, fictional art students finding themselves at boarding school, Mueller's further adventures, teen poetry and the entire collection of adult fairy tales from Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling which was recently republished. I'm also reading Datlow's new Poe collection.

Maybe I'm the one trying to find myself. I mean really - the Algerian War and Edgar Allen Poe at the same time? With Frances O'Roark Dowell in the middle? I must be losing my mind, right?