Much to the dismay of my high school best friend, I’ve never been one for horror anything. She dragged me along to bad slasher movies at the discount theater or rented Stephen King movies for sleepovers. I was always terrified even if the movie was cheesy and terrible. House of Wax starring Paris Hilton, anyone?…
YA? Y Not?! Banned Books Week
Welcome to the wonderful world of YA? Y not?! a new column about Young Adult librarianship. I am a YA librarian in a Boston suburb where I do programming, collection development, and staff a room with computers and hang out space for teens in grades 6-12. On any given day, my job can include buying…
In the In Between: Make Your Home Among Strangers
Make Your Home Among Strangers Jennine Capo Crucet St Martin’s Press August 4 2015 Amid the chaos of her home life—her parents splitting up, her nephew’s father refusing to acknowledge his baby, and her demanding boyfriend—Cuban-American Lizet applies to a super elite college. She doesn’t tell anyone but the guidance counselor at her under-performing, troubled high…
Reading Diaries: It’s Really Radical!
Angel: I seriously have no idea how it’s already September! I thought I had plenty of time to read all the books coming out this month, but it looks like I’ll just be enjoying them throughout the next 30 days. I’m currently making my way through Randy Ribay’s An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, and…
Terra Mystica: This Game is Intense
Ladies and bros, in the last column of Dice Vice, I was all, “Games are fun! It’s a nice way to challenge yourself with new skills! Here’s a game and how to play it! RAINBOWS!!!” This is not that column today. Today’s column is about how sometimes our hobbies and the fun things we like…
Books that Shaped Me: Sabriel
I have always been a voracious reader. When I was younger I’d read almost anything: the boring backs of church bulletins, cracker boxes, and classified ads for car sales when I still had years to go before getting my driver’s license. Many of the books I read helped to mold me into the person I…
The Best and Worst Boarding Schools in YA
August is coming to an end, and even though it’s been a few years since I’ve had the perversely strange pleasure of picking out new folders and pens, I’m thinking about school. I went to schools of varying degrees of quality and remoteness in a handful of Midwestern states, and while I’m appreciative in many…
Dogears: Magic, Bullies, Noir Fiction, and the Secret Lives of Wait Staff
Full Fathom Five Max Gladstone Tor Full Fathom Five is the third book in Max Gladstone’s amazing Craft Sequence which takes place in a world where magic and religion go hand in hand, though not in the way you might think. Believers sign contracts with their gods, gods can be killed and resurrected as the…
Dice Vice: Saving the World with Pandemic
Board games are having a bit of a moment right now. In geek circles, Wil Wheaton has his show “Tabletop” on Geek & Sundry where he plays tabletop games with friends; new and interesting games are coming out all of the time, and it’s even making the news. With all the focus on board gaming…
Literary Gingers: Top 5 Redheaded Heroines
Here at WWAC we like our redheads. We’ve shared our favourite ginger haired superheroes and redheaded anime characters in the past. But it’s about time we gave our literary redheads some love.
Finally! Hoopla Brings Digital Comics to Libraries
There was a bit of a flurry of excitement in the library world last month: DC announced that they were making some of their titles available to library patrons through the streaming service Hoopla. If you haven’t heard about Hoopla you should probably go call or email your public library right now to get see…
Jesuits in Space, or A Sci-Fi Sub-genre Examining Religion’s Failings
Having a faith or following a religion is important to a lot of people. To some people, faith can be an almost endless source of comfort and strength. Others see it only as a bastion for bigots, prejudice, weakness, and more. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, fiction is still a great place for many…