1. The new issue of Bookslut went up a few days ago with a column by me (!). This go-round I review SFF titles for MG & YA readers. Just looking at them I have to say these are some of the most appealing covers I've ever seen all in a group (not that we judge books by covers or anything). Please pay special attention to Ragtag, a MG fantasy adventure about birds doing battle in the skies over Boston. It has reluctant reader all over it and was really a fun read. I haven't heard much about it anywhere which I think is a shame as it really deserves a lot of attention.

Also, I didn't note in my review but one of the protagonists for the SF adventure (kids in space!!!) The Doom Machine is biracial. This doesn't have much to do with the story - it's addressed in passing a few times mostly due to the historical time period and the fact that Isadora has a different skin color than her mother - but it was so nice to see some diversity in a genre (SF) where it is sadly lacking. I was also thrilled to pieces by the spaceship and aliens. (Tanita - you need to read this one!)

2. I am reading a ridiculous number of books right now but most of them are collections so that makes it easier. I just started Julia Hoban's Willow however (for the June column - last book to squeeze in) and she pretty much had me with two teens bonding over an anthropology book in the stacks of a university library. I love it when teens are presented as thinking creatures rather than vapid and senseless.

3. A true gift landed in my hands a month or so ago - an ARC of the upcoming Susan Glaspell collection, Her America. I was completely unfamiliar with her work but these stories (published in magazines between 1915 & 1920) are amazing. I keep thinking of Charlotte Perkins Gilman - very understated but incredibly powerful. The best part is that they are largely not dated; you can easily identify with these characters. I'll write more about the book when I'm done and will get a formal review out there later this summer (it's scheduled for a July release date).

4. The Beastly Bride a new collection edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling for teens is delighting me. Standouts so far: "Map of Seventeen" by Christopher Barzak, "Island Lake" by E. Catherine Tobler and "The Hikikomori" by Hiromi Goto. Formal review to follow in my July column but I'm enjoying these stories of "the animal people" a lot.

5. I'm way too early into Rebecca Promitzer's The PIckle King to give you any sort of idea of how I feel about it but I can say that it is already a decidedly unique novel with some really quirky characters. I have high hopes for this as my summer "bologna sandwich & potato chips" book - the one you sink into while hanging out in the backyard during one of those long extended days where you have NOTHING to do. (Oh, how I remember those days....) So more on this soonest, but thus far I'm enjoying how things are unfolding.

6. Finally, I'm dipping into Fredrick Barton's Rowing to Sweden: Essays on Faith, Love, Politics and Movies. For essay lovers this one is quite splendid - so many different ideas on so many different subjects. I will have a lot to say on it but mostly it's just nice spending time with the words of such a witty writer.

7. Oh - and also reading about Kerouac but that is pretty much half of my life these days. And Jack London. I can't believe these are guys I've ended up with and my high school self would be entirely shocked, I'm sure.

[Post pic of Susan Glaspell - Willow sent by author, the other books by pubs.] [Except the Kerouac & London, those are mine.]