Something out there is trying to make me read YA (young adult) novels, specifically the fantasy kind. The zeitgeist? The fact that I work in a library? For the moment, I'll blame this post on Chauncey Mabe's blog which sent me to the library shelf for Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. And you know what? It was great, just like Chauncey said. So great I'm seriously considering asking a friend to bring me the sequel from England if she visits this summer (it won't be published here until December). Then I read this post on a great book blog I just discovered, called Citizen Reader. As luck and excellent library selection would have it, the first two books in this series by Suzanne Collins -- The Hunger Games and Catching Fire -- were also on the shelf at my place of employment. So they're next. As soon as I get through The Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore's newish novel which I've been looking forward to forever but for some reason haven't quite gotten around to. Now I have a reason, to evaluate its foodiness -- but I'm having a little trouble getting into it. Which is scaring me, because Moore -- especially her story collection, Birds of America -- is one of my all time favorites. But maybe I just need to relax and let go of the fantasy world for a little and accept a little realistic, contemporary fiction. There's plenty of Tudor crime/fantasy dystopia waiting for me on the other side ...