The Future of Us

The Future of Us
by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Josh and Emma are about to discover themselves--fifteen years in the future

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long--at least, up until last November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD-ROM in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto Facebook . . . but Facebook hasn't been invented yet. Josh and Emma are looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

Their spouses, careers, homes, and status updates--it's all there. And every time they refresh their pages, their futures change. As they grapple with the ups and downs of what their lives hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right--and wrong--in the present. (description from Amazon.com)

To be totally honest, I did not really like this book. I had expected to love it, but it just never really worked for me.  In the first couple of chapters I was totally into the whole nostalgia thing...I loved flashing back to my high school self...but as the story moved on, it just never grabbed me. 

I thought the concept was really cool, but I didn't really connect to either character. The plot didn't seem to move enough for me.  I liked the ending, but knew exactly where it was going almost from the start. 

I just felt, eh, about most of this book.  :/
Did any of you love it?

2010 CLA YA Section Annual Meeting - Taking Your Tech Up a Notch

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am Co-Chair of the Young Adult section of my state's library association. So, part of my responsibilities is to set up the annual meeting for all Young Adult Librarians in Connecticut. We had our 2010 meeting this past Wednesday.

We did a full day of programming last year, so this year we decided to concentrate on how better to use technology to reach our teen patrons. "Taking Your Tech Up a Notch" was a full day meeting and I'm proud to say was wildly successful!

The day started off with a Skype session with YA author, Paul Volponi. We were able to talk about his books (including Rikers High,Response, and Hurricane Song), his experiences skyping with classes, and his own reading/writing habits. It was a lot of fun and we were able to show how simple it is to set up a skype visit with an author through the Skype An Author Network.

After our skype session, we had lots of "flash" tech presentations. Each 15 min. presentation was by a different Librarian on a different tech topic. We learned about creating a Facebook page for your Teen Department, using Twitter to alert teens, and also using an SMS email service to text teens alerts.

We also discussed switching to an online Summer Reading Program, creating award winning videos with teens, creating awesome book trailers, utilizing Overdrive to download audio books and e-books, great online (and FREE!) softwares like Wordle.

All in all, it was a great day. I got some new ideas for the future and I think everyone else did, too! I cannot wait to see what gets planned for next year...and I think I'll be happy to just be attending. I am still tired! :)

Book Blogger Hop

It's Book Blogger Hop time again! The BBH is hosted by Jen over at Crazy For Books. This is a great opportunity to check out some other book blogs and to just have fun finding out what everyone else is doing! It's a great networking tool. I hope you hop today!

This week Jen wants to know:
How do you spread the word about your blog?

When I first started blogging, my friend Jen who writes Yabooknerd, very graciously offered to interview me to help bring exposure to my blog. It was a ton of fun! Then, as I started posting more often, and very slowly gaining some followers, one of my friends said, "Ummm...do you link to your reviews on Facebook? You should." So, I started posting a link there everytime I blogged. Then I started getting big into Twitter, and started tweeting everytime I blogged, as well. Mostly, though, I find participating in this type of meme brings the most new visitors to my blog! :)