Last week I started interning for two literary agencies that share office space. Everyone who works there is odd in a good way, has unique tastes and areas of expertise when it comes to books, and is really nice and fun to work with. Even the other interns (there are 6 of us total) are totally fun. Especially when we’re sitting together reading query letters, passing around the ones with the most ridiculous contents, getting second opinions on the ones that seem like they might be worthwhile projects. I wish I could share with you all some of the amazingly stupid things I’ve read over the past two weeks, but unfortunately, I cannot. Not on the interwebz anyway.

Every time I go in there I know more and more that it’s what I want to be doing with my life. Reading manuscripts, talking about books, meeting new people… I’m even “required” to go to an industry schmooze fest with a bunch of Tor/Forge employees next week. At DBA. With Laura. Seriously. How could this non-job get any better? The long and short of it is that it couldn’t (well, I guess if I was getting paid, that might be an improvement, but I’ll take resume-improvement and school credit all the same).

Title: Ballads of Suburbia
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
Publisher: MTV Books
Length: 368
Age group/reading level: Young Adult (14+)

Summary: The summer before her senior year of high school, Kara nearly died from a heroin overdose. As a freshman, when she moved away from her best friend and then her family fell apart, Kara turned to music, booze, drugs, self-injury, and bad-boy Adrian to make everything better. Between all the parties and concerts, her friends collected their heartbreaking ballads of the moments that defined them. After four years away from her friends and family, Kara returns to Oak Park to confront her past, and to finally write her own ballad.

Review: Stephanie Kuehnert knows angst. She knows how to write angst-y teens. From what I’ve read in interviews and what-have-you, she has first hand experience with cutting, and it definitely shows in how she handles the topic. The ballads, written in first-person from the perspective of Kara’s various friends, all have a different voice, and could easily have been actually written by different people. She deftly weaves them in at the most appropriate moments; they don’t break the narrative, and they give the characters far more depth than just the portrayal of them from Kara’s perspective. Kuehnert does a fine job dealing with every teenage social problem from sex to drugs to abuse to cutting to alcohol…. you name it, Kuehnert confronts, and effortlessly tackles, it.

One problem I had with the book was all the oblivious parents. I mean, they’re all conveniently explained away. And for some of the characters, it makes sense that their parents don’t really care, but the excuse given for Kara’s mom (and Maya’s dad for that matter) not noticing or caring doesn’t really fly for me. Another issue I had with the book was that it was set in 1994-1995, and then, when Kara returns, in 1999. I’m not sure why exactly, other than to make sense of the choice of music Kuehnert picked as the anthems of the characters, bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, etc. Other than that minor detail, all the events that happened could’ve easily been present day, with Kara’s return home taking place in 2009.

As for the design of the book, I’m actually quite impressed. MTV did a nice job, including resources to get help if you struggle with any of these problems, some discussion questions, and an interview with Kuehnert about her experiences with these topics. The cover is pretty good, once you realize that the teens in question hang out at a park most of the time. I have an advanced copy so I’m not quite sure if things are different or not, but the interior is pretty nice too, with the typeface of the ballads different from the rest of the story, and therefore easily distinguished.

Sci-fi and fantasy authors on cities that have a sci-fi or fantasy feel to them.

Library pron. I want to visit all of these before I die. And also, I want somebody to buy me this book.

White collar criminals sentenced to write books. What a terribly unfitting punishment. As the editorial says, they should be ordered NOT to write books.

You must can do something. Apparently.

Also, I have a blog stalker!  Huzzah!

That is all. Continue on with yr daily lives.

Joe’s visit was a blast. Did some touristy stuff, some not-so-touristy stuff, and some stuff I don’t remember (so it could be touristy or not, I have no idea).

Went to BookExpo America, which was held in NYC this year for the first time in a few years, and will be held here for the next few. Basically it’s a professional conference for the book publishing industry, where lots of publishers hand out advanced copies of yet-to-be-pubbed books; I got at least 30 free books.

Started my internship with Caren Johnson Literary Agency. Both Elana and Caren are super nice, and are probably not that much older than I am. I’ve been reading manuscripts and advanced galleys of the books/authors that they represent, or are looking to represent. I’ve read some good, some bad, and some kinda ugly stuff.  More on this to follow, in a not-already-bloated post.

Between the internship (for which most of my reading is on the computer. How I wish I had some sort of e-book reader) and the advanced books from the book expo, I’ve read 6 books in the past two and a half weeks; i’m in the middle of three more, plus trying to read the first three chapters of about 3 more books. I’ve got 5 critiques to write by Tuesday, so I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I think I’ll manage. I’ve been nothing but productive since Wednesday. It helps that I have only like 15 hours at work (wish i had at least 10 more…), and no summer courses.