Case of the Terribles: Katniss and Peeta get an unfortunate celeb name

STOP.

There is a part of me that I am not so proud of that wants this t-shirt.
Evil Genius behind this t-shirt, I'd like to electronically shake your hand.  

Well played, sir or madam.

(And thanks to Jules for bringing this to my attention.)

Tidbits: I'm Hosting a 1984 workout case of the terribles.

Not too much today guys (been away from the interwebs for a week!), and frankly, I'm twiddling my thumbs for the next 24 hours until I am seated in a theatre with bagels, coffee, and Katniss.  HUNGERGAMESYOUGUYS.  Has anyone seen in yet?  THOUGHTS? Wait - don't spoil the ending!  (Kidding). 

• Still haven't read 1984.  It's party of the Dinner Train Book Club parade, but not until November.  Cut to the quick, there's a new adaptation in the works, with Shepard Fairey as part of group that purchased the rights.  As in, he of the infamous Obama Hope poster and the Obey stickers you see everywhere, amongst many other play on propaganda works of art and legal issues stemming from fair use and image copyright questions.  Curious. 
• Oh HEY, Hostess with the mostest. Or not.  The Host trailer (I think it's really more in the teaser family) is out.  It's...okay.  I wanted more, but I'm not disappointed. 
• Case of the Terribles: Normally this would get it's own post, but I'm lazy today, so there.  I've been seeing things about the Hunger Games workouts all over the interwebs for a while, but the intrepid, crack team of journalists down at MTV News (I can't believe they haven't won a Pulitzer yet) actually went.  And honestly?  That's it?  There is not nearly enough blood.  This will in no way prepare me to fight 14 year old girls for a seat in the arena theatre tomorrow (that's where the hot coffee comes in). 

Tidbits: It's Froiday, Phiday, Ender gets down with Emma T...whattt?

• It's Froiday, Froiday, gotta get down on Froiday!  Everyone on this continent (except you, Mexico, sorry) pick up your copy of the newest awesome Melina Marchetta book, Froi of the Exiles today!  
• To celebrate, you can join me in oohing and ahhhing over the Australian cover of Quintana, in which the titular Quintata imperiously mocks our Froi cliffhanger dismay.  I'd say it's a solid despite her hair not being nearly scraggly enough, but I still prefer humanless covers:
  
  

  

  Australia gets everything first, even tomorrow!

  
  
  At least there is no sword?  I am DYING to read this!
• It's also almost Phi Day, Phi Day, gotta get down on Phi Day (it pretty much already is in Australia)!  My favorite pie purveyor, Petsi Pies, is having the nerdiest yet tastiest competition to celebrate.  Tragically, I will be in Miami! I'm actually upset about this - I memorized 100 digits of phi in middle school!  As my poptart learned the hard way when he had to buy me a dog upon challenging me to go a year without tv to get a dog (in his mind, to shut me up about it) I will destroy your inane challenges!  I would totally do 300 for pie and grits! SIGH.
• The Ender's Game movie is ON! Ender Wiggin HAS A FACE (as does the rest of the cast, but whatevs.).  Was Ender the invention of Hugo Cabret? I don't care how terrible that line was because: It's HAPPENING!  Also, when did Abigail Breslin grow up? 
• Beautiful Creatures is a book I read and enjoyed immensely, but never reviewed.  But like every other YA book, it got optioned...and will be a movie.  With such unknown actors rumored to be in in it, like EMMA THOMPSON.  WHAT?!?  Oh, I was there already, but now that Nanny McPhee is making an appearance, ima bring my frey-ends!  Personally, I'm hoping she plays Mrs. Lincoln.  
• Is anyone else having trouble rectifying the news that the Hunger Games release is like...days away?  Remember when it was just a wink in Hollywood's eye? AHHH!  It premieres tonight! Is it just me or does Jennifer Lawrence look a bit like young early 80's Goldie Hawn minus a hair spray overdose/electrocution?
  
  

Divergent, by Veronica Roth: Five factions diverge in a future Chi-city, and sorry Tris could not travel all...

Divergent, by Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books: New York, 2011.
Nook copy reviewed.

In an alternative future Chicago, people live as part of five disparate social factions that highly value specific qualities.  As a 16-year-old, Beatrice must now choose her own faction.  Raised in Abnegation, she receives an inconclusive test result on the government administered aptitude test, and must choose to stay in Abnegation with her family, or break ranks, abandon her family, and join another faction.   Her surprising choice to join Dauntless spins her life in an entirely new direction; soon she is jumping off buildings, onto and off of moving trains, learning to shoot guns, making new friends and enemies, developing feelings for her distant instructor, and fighting to survive her initiation training.   But the newly nicknamed Tris’ test result is what really sets her apart, even from her new faction members, and what will awake her to the realization that her utopia is anything but.  It may be the very thing to save her…Divergent is strongly recommended to all libraries serving older teens.  It even has a bonus slow burning romance (delightfully not a love triangle!), and is an easy sell to Hunger Games fans of both genders craving more, this is an action packed, high intensity, highly addictive, and fun book to read.

YOU GUYS.  I LOVED THIS BOOK.  Not because it’s the most super books in all the lands, not because it blew my mind, not because it made me want to be a better person – in fact, it did none of these things.  No, my friends.  It was straight up FUN to read.   So, so, so much fun!  It’s firmly in the mind-crack category.  Y’all know how much I love a slow-burning romance (swoon), so Veronica Roth had me at Four.  I loved the description of messed up future Chicago (the Bean in particular), the differences in the factions, and witnessing Tris and her fellow faction switchers adjust to what really amounts to as a new culture.  Super bonus points for a kind of badass game of capture the flag!  Sure, there are minor things that if I hadn’t raced through it I might have a quibble with (largely, hey TRIS, have a thought about what is beyond that giant fence!? OR where do the factionless go?!? OR less importantly, who drives those trains? what happens in winter? - but methinks this will factor in later in these books), but I don’t care!  I couldn’t put it down, and when I did, I got that twitchy finger feeling that encouraged me to go back and pick it up.  I even stayed up past teacher o’clock to finish reading it, and then couldn’t sleep because I was so excited.  I’m so glad I finally resigned myself to get at it, after having heard tell of it for a while.  It received a strong rating of awesome from the wonderful teens on my trip to Chile this past summer, and it had been on my to do list since.  Thankfully, my procrastination paid off; I have to wait way less time for the May 1^st sequel, Insurgent.  I won’t say much more about how much I enjoyed this, because I’ll be gushing here all afternoon and you’d rather use your time to be reading this, right?  Lucky for you, there is a 100 page preview available.  Say goodbye to your afternoon plans!

Partials, by Dan Wells: You know things are bad when teen pregnancy seems like a good idea

Partials, by Dan Wells
Balzer and Bray: New York, 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-06-207104-0
(Review ARC provided by publisher)

Kira survived a civil war with the Partials (an engineered super-soldier race physically identical to humans) and a subsequent worldwide plague that ravaged most of humanity.  She lives with the other survivors on the island of Long Island, where they have created a society and even government.   However, the virus that caused the plague is so potent that no babies born have survived in the ten years since, and the government has responded by requiring all female citizens to become pregnant starting at age sixteen.   Kira, who works as a medic with the doomed babies, is not thrilled at the prospect, but when her adopted sister announces her pregnancy, Kira is determined to save the baby.  She is convinced that the DNA of the virus-immune Partials contains valuable information, if not the cure, and convinces her friends to go on an unsanctioned mission into Partial territory in the former New York City to catch one.  Though their mission goes awry, the group succeeds in bringing back a Partial with them, and Kira is assigned to study it.  A sentient being, it has information that makes Kira question her medical conclusions, her way of thinking, and eventually, her society.   A slow start ends at breakneck speed with a cliffhanger in this adventurous, high-adrenaline, post-apocalyptic, occasionally medical and political thriller. With a thoughtfully, realistically constructed world, it is recommended to sci-fi and dystopia fans, both boys and girls, grades 8-12 for some complex medical wrangling and plot-twists.  

Tidbits: Little libraries are dauntlessly fashion forward

• Little libraries may be the cutest advancement in the housing market since the birdhouse. 
• For those of us who still want to dress like Stacy, Claudia, Dawn, and Maryann in the Babysitters Club, Lucky Magazine UNDERSTANDS.  They have created a YA inspired fashion guide. +1 for including The Saddle Club, but -1 for those Boxcar Children inspired horrible overalls.  No, girl, no.  Other lovely books from my youth included are Nancy Drew,  Little House on the Prairie, and Sweet Valley High.
• I haven't stayed up past my bedtime (okay, my bedtime is like 10, but WHATEVER) to finish a YA book in a while.  But I did last night...Divergent.  I held off, but once I started, there was no stopping.  Thank the YAgawds the sequel drops in a few months!  And DOUBLE thank the YAgawds because a preview of Insurgent, the sequel, is available on the EW website.  This made my breakfast ohsodelightful. And then...OHO!  Fast forward to the next item, because this, my friends, is what we call a CLIFFHANGER in YA:
• And this, friends, is what we call the SEQUEL:  Lo, just as I was thinking to myself this morning that there would totally be a Divergent faction quiz online, what do I see?  A Divergent Faction quiz*.  Thank you internet!  Please divert your attention if you are in Abnegation, because I'm about to do what is called BRAGGING:  yes, I am a Dauntless (even if I do think that, like, sky diving and face tattoos are not for moi).  And double smug, I'm totally always a Gryffindor too.    Humbleness is one of my greatest traits.  Though, I think the real question is how does one buck the system and test as divergent?  Does having this thought make me...divergent?!?
  (*You do, however, have to offer up your info for this Facebook quiz.  Which I assume is how the Erudite will control us all!)
• Something really exciting happened to me on Valentine's Day.  No, not my student publishing a piece on the back page of the school newspaper of the eight reasons I should be his Valentine (true story, I cannot make these things up).  It may not have been romantic, but I know my favorite authorcrush was totally thinking of me on Galentine's Day when she linked to my review of her latest book on her site.  Melina Marchetta, thank YOU for being my Galentine!
• Well hey there, potential case of the terribles: the cast of the Hunger Games is touring the malls of America, in case you had any doubts about this being an Oscar nominee.   Life, imitating art.  Do you think Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will accidentally on purpose start a revolution?  And yet,...still really excited for the movie.