Mer L.'s blog

Relationships aren’t always easy.  Whether they’re romantic relationships, friendships, relationships we have with family members…they can be complicated.  If you prefer an edgier take on romance, prefer the bittersweet over the saccharine, prefer the doomed-to-fail over the happily-ever-after, prefer slowly-but-surely to love-at-first-sight, or would rather read about the dark, destructive or…just plain complicated parts of relationships, you might like one of these.  What would you recommend?

Each year the Alex Awards Committee honors ten books published for adults that have special appeal to teen readers, ages 12 through 18.  Whether you are a teen reader looking to expand past the teen collections or a reader who has been reading adult books for some time, the Alex Awards are a great place to look for reading recommendations.  This year’s group of ten includes some awesome titles (some of which I’ve actually read! Shock!) or you might consider looking at some of the past years’ winners.

Being back in school it always feels like there’s never enough time to read for fun!! Or, put another way, when we actually have a moment of free time, sometimes curling up with a book is not always the highest priority.  We’ve got extracurricular activities, jobs, internships, volunteering, homework and more to think about here.  Free time is often filled up with hanging out with friends, watching TV, sleeping… Enter: the short story.  Short stories are great choice when you’re busy and don’t have a lot of spare reading time.  You can pick and choose which stories you want to read, rather than feel obligated to read the whole book from cover to cover, but still get your reading fix or follow your favorite authors.