The new issue of Bookslut is up with my column that focuses on coming-of-age titles. I know that's about the most tried and true YA genre out there but it's a classic for good reason - because teens love it! I've got some great books for boys and for girls and I loved them all. My Cool Read this month is Max Frei's The Stranger which is pretty much the top selling book in Russia and one fabulous fantasy. It's an adult book but would crossover easily to teen readers (do you hear me Kelly? :). I was pretty bowled over by this one (it blends fantasy, horror, a heavy dose of mystery - it's a total interstitial mashup in the best way possible) and I'm so glad I could bring it to the attention of my readers.

I'm working on a great new project that will be formally announced shortly but involves a dozen authors all of whom have agreed to chime in here every couple of weeks on a variety of questions concerning teen girls and reading. This is another one of those things that grew out of my frustration with the current state of YA publishing (in this case plenty of books for girls but only if you like certain "girl books"). We shall see if we can successfully solve all the problems of this little corner of the world (ha!) or not.

And I will keep everyone updated on the status of the GLW Book Fair for Boys as we hear more from Eve on her end.

Things I've read lately that are cool: Rick Brag's article on Alabama in the current Smithsonian along with Benjamin Patton's article about his father and grandfather - both George Pattons and how keeping track of family stories gave him his life's work.

Scott Wiedensaul's Of a Feather is more than a history of birding in America - it's an excellent piece of American history, a gossipy (in tone but not in fact) look at ornithology and includes so many bits of society and culture that my head was spinning with glee as I read it. This will be front and center in the that feature on birding lit this summer at Bookslut.

Lisa Hamilton writes about being a traveler and witness in her essay for Powells. I just finished her book on three original farmers, Deeply Rooted and will be submitting a review for it for July. Every book on farming I read just makes me shake my head over how distance we have gotten from food and real life. It's so odd to me how we watch Jon and Kate (and please - everyone has at least once) and that seems real to us. A staged show about a family is reality tv for families to watch. Why real farming and real food and real questions about both of those subjects (plus life and general) matter is what Deeply Rooted is all about. It's very good stuff.

And let's see, Frida Kahlo's archive, T.S. Spivet's thoughts (I am enjoying a slow read of this one a great deal), the first around the world road race, (for my August column) running and Jenny Davidson's organizational system. The mind reels at all those multi-colored notes.

Plus a real into the wild story that I will be writing a lot about in the future. (I picked it up via Powells for less than $5!)