maribou | What Uglies and Legends; Havemercy Under My Shield; Great American Born Dork

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld
Never get tired of those teen dystopias. Or any dystopias, for that matter.
(159/300)

What-the-Dickens, by Gregory Maguire
Very sweet. I think this is in my top-3-favorite Maguire books.
(160/300)

Maps and Legends, by Michael Chabon
Yay! Chewy non-fiction. Very enjoyable.
(161/300)

Havemercy, by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
It's pretty much slashfic, but with original characters, mechanical dragons, honor-as-important-to-the-plot, and lots of deliciously bantery dialogue. What's not to like? OK, maybe the dearth of important female characters...still it was a lot of fun, and I didn't have the sense that women were irrelevant, just that they were irrelevant to the protagonists.

gement, this shares many of ACtW's finer qualities without, I think, the stuff that made that book so unpalatable for you. You might give it a try. If you can bring yourself to trust one of my recommendations ever again.
(162/300)

Under My Roof, by Nick Mamatas
More with the teen dystopias, this one about a near-future American kid with psychic powers whose dad declares their suburban home to be a sovereign entity. I was taken aback by how much fun this book was, especially considering its underlying grimness.
(163/300)

King's Shield, by Sherwood Smith
LOVED this one. I have yet to meet a Sherwood Smith novel I didn't adore. Now if I could just FIND the dang thing ... it's hiding somewhere.
(164/300)

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
Kung-Fu ~~Sock~~ Monkey (King) !! Yeah!!! Also a touching and beautifully drawn (and especially colored) YA story about coming to terms with one's heritage and the crappiness of one's schoolmates.
(165/300)

The Great Naturalists, edited by Thomas Huxley
There were some excellent quotes and interesting anecdotes in here, but for the most part it was stuff I already knew about, rehashed skillfully though not really exceptionally well. But! The illos! OMG, the pretty. Worth browsing through just for the pictures. And if you're less obsessively well-read in the history of natural history than I am, it's probably a good overview as well.
(166/300)

King Dork, by Frank Portman
Funny and bizarre. I really really liked the narrator's voice, which is pretty much all I want from an alienated-youth-with-deeper-problems YA novel, yeh? Like a simultaneously less- and more-plausible version of Calamity Physics. It reminded me of Freaks and Geeks in a few ways, too. Very nifty.
(167/300)