Uncreated Conscience

Back when I was first starting to blog, I used to make weird puns in my titles. I am bringing back my inner 17-year-old for today’s post. Anyway, where have you been, JJ? you might ask. (Or not. You probably don’t care.)

I was here. Book Expo America. And at social invents related to BEA.

BEA itself was amazing. I managed to attend the Young Adult Editor Buzz panel (featuring St. Martin’s Press’s very own Jen Weis) and steal a few galleys and ARCs, including MATCHED, which I have been anticipating for the past 6 months. (It won’t be out until the end of the year though so MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.)

However, the highlight of my day at the trade show this year was managing to fangirl Arthur A. Levine. He was also at the Young Adult Editor Buzz panel, but he happened to be leaving the Javits Center at the moment my coworkers and I were leaving and we had the amazing privilege of sweating our way to the subway with the man who essentially defined children’s literature for my generation.

(more…)

I have (perhaps stupidly) committed myself to another blog, in which my roommate and I will document our progress as we train for the 2011 marathon. Last night Psychic Roommate and I completed our first run around the Reservoir in Central Park.

New post at Running Roommates!

Read about it here! It’s a good thing we’ve started training. There are 5lbs of post-holiday pudge I need to get rid of, 10lbs altogether I’d like to lose. Tonight I will do a nice, restorative yoga practice to recover. Running is really hard on the body! Doesn’t help I have one flat foot, loose ligaments in my shoulders, and one bum knee. I’m a young and decrepit, how sad.

But you know who isn’t young and decrepit and is instead young and awesome? Astrid Llewellyn from Diana Peterfreund‘s RAMPANT. I read this novel months ago, but never got around to giving it a proper review. Hopefully White-Harp will be chiming in with her thoughts as well via vlog. (We are ambitious, White-Harp and me.) Review follows beneath the cut.

(more…)

Diana Peterfreund wrote an awesome blog post today about Bad Boys vs. Nice Guys (part I of more to come) in fiction. In addition to being an interesting examination of the appeal of the Bad Boy, it’s also a defense of the Nice Guy.

The Ultimate Nice Guy

Peterfreund brings up some really great points, including how the Nice Guy seems to be much more palatable as the protagonist rather than as the romantic lead. When seen as the Everyman, the Nice Guy suddenly becomes our proxy: the underdog, the ordinary fellow reaching for his dreams. She cites Lloyd Dobbler from Say Anything as a film example. Take your pick of John Green’s protagonists for a literary example.

However, when viewed through a romantic lens, the Nice Guy seems to fall short compared to the Bad Boy. Why? Is it because he’s considered “weak”? (Whatever that means.) Harmless? Boring?

(more…)