Thank you, Libba Bray!

Here's a big GRACIAS to the incredible Libba Bray for joining us at readergirlz this month! Things we learned about Libba include:

1. She can compose a fierce Post of Awesome, complete with moisturizer tips.
2. She finds wonder in "almost everything."
3. She'd like to play guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn and drum like Dave Grohl.

Well, at least she can write like... Libba Bray! After you finish the Gemma Doyle trilogy, check out Going Bovine, her latest novel. Libba bills it as "the feel-good-mad-cow-disease/string-theory-book-of-fall." Yes!

Thank you, Libba!

October: Libba Bray on Girls & Anger in YA

Last week, I got to go see a bunch of amazing authors read. The lineup included (l to r in that crazy photo above):

Melissa Kantor (The Invisible I, Amanda Project Book 1), Natalie Standiford (How to Say Goodbye in Robot), featured author-of-the-month Libba Bray (Going Bovine), Courtney Scheinmel (Positively) , Sarah Beth Durst (Ice), Jeff Rivera (Forever My Lady) and Shani Petroff (Bedeviled: Daddy's Little Angel). David Levithan hosted.

Awesome lineup, no? It all took place at the Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library, where Marie (aka Cupcake Witch) is the book queen. Here's me with Marie and lovely Alley of Books blogger Mitali:



Anyway, at one point Libba was speaking brilliance, and I had to take my little camera and catch this moment where she talked about the emotional range of girl characters in YA literature (forgive the quality of the video, but the quality of the statement was so worth it).

Trailer: Going Bovine

Thanks to LW for pointing this out to me. I heart Libba! Can't wait to host her next month and chat about Going Bovine and Sweet Far Thing. Woot!

Rgz Salon: Libba Bray's Going Bovine, reviewed by René Kirkpatrick

René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years. She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René!

Coming soon, September 22, is Libba Bray’s next book, Going Bovine. Libba is best known for her gothic-y romantic, supernatural books about Gemma Doyle. Very much a departure from the English boarding school books, Going Bovine is a great addition to the Libba Bray shelf. 16 year-old Cameron wants to skate through life with a minimum of effort. All is going well until he finds out he is sick and going to die. And, yes, he has Mad Cow Disease. There is hope, though. A punk angel named Dulcie (really an angel? A hallucination?) tells him there is a cure but he must go on the road trip to end all road trips to find it.

Going Bovine is so great. Funny, sarcastic and heartbreaking, you will fall for lonely Cam on his trip to Disneyland (and a trip to lose his virginity before he dies) in a big way. Accompanied by a Garden Gnome who is actually a Berserker dwarf trying to get home, Cam’s story is one of the best of the year. I can’t wait to read it again – I lent my copy out to another bookseller - and can’t wait to talk to her about it! Don’t you love books that do that? Ages 14 and up. Random House.