Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Hooray for Miss Libby!

One of Simmon's Own has a book on the presses RIGHT NOW!

Take a looky-look! I don't remember who took Publishing in the fall of '03, but Alisa Libby was a demure presence among the rather whiney new recruits. She's been working away on Blood Confessions, and when I last saw her on the T, she had the first color-cover galleys.

Just a lil cheerleading for one of our Simmons alumn! Who's next, ladies?

Monday, June 26, 2006

WHOOPS

Okay. Blogger and Blogpoll, usually happy bedfellows, are fighting right now.

I lost all the comments from that last poll when I tried to set up a new poll. Here's what we are gonna do:

Vote by comment. Makes it public, but also keeps the site from eating itself. Hopefully this will not be a problem for long.

WHICH BOOK FOR JULY?

Burning City by Ariel and Joaquin Dorfman

A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson

Wrecked by E. R. Frank

Sorry -- I couldn't make it work otherwise. I'll rescue the previous comments and add them.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Grind those gears, Shawn!

I don't know what I want to say about this book, but no one else is initiating discussion (and it's been a while since I have), so I'll just start rambling.

Wow. That's my impression of this book. I felt it extremely strongly within the first ten pages, twenty pages, thirty pages—and even at the end, I'm still thinking "wow" (although a little less strongly). This entire premise is fascinating to me. I loved Shawn—his voice, his personality, his honesty, his earnestness—and I loved being in his mind (especially since no one else ever is or could be).

It's so wonderful to think about Shawn being a secret genius, being so with it inside, being so aware and alert, but it's also so sad, to think that no one will know, no one will know him, no one can hear what he wants to say.

The debate of the book—is Shawn's life worth living—is so conflicting and confusing for me to wrap my head around. I love that Shawn likes his life, that he's happy, that he wants to live and doesn't want to die. But I also agree with the dad that Shawn is trapped inside his own body. Because I believe that when you die, it's not the end of you (wait, this isn't going to turn into a religious hedgehogs v. nonreligious hedgehogs argument, is it? KIDDING), part of me really does think that Shawn would be better off dying and being able to be free, fly and soar like he does during his seizures, all the time. He could communicate and have people know him, and he could really be the Shawn that we saw through his narrative. [Obviously we have different versions, if any, of an afterlife, and I'm just imagining mine.] Am I a horrible person for thinking that? Mind you, it's not that I think Shawn's father should kill him. I just can't help but wonder if Shawn would be better off in another world, in another time. He think he's happy now, but I think he could be happier. It's a moot point, since he isn't in another world or another time and he's living life here, but it's still really difficult for me to process, his quality of life and his happiness.

I don't think Shawn's father does or will go through with it. I think he's torn and conflicted, but I don't think he will ever resolve that enough to actually go through with it. It's like Trueman says in the author's note: "I can't say 'yes' to any of these questions. But I can't say 'no' either." And I don't think Shawn's father would go through with it if he can only answer "I don't know." I'm still trying to decide what I think of Shawn's father, though. I know he loves Shawn. But an absent father doesn't gain a whole lot in my mind, even with that.

Before I make any kind of excuses for what I've already written—controversy, controversy, controversy!—I'll stop. Thoughts?