Infamous Insider - what's hot this week @ Sno-Isle

Welcome to Infamous Insider - the weekly feature that gives you tips about what's going on at the library - new items in the collection, indispensable online resources, or fun events you won't want to miss.


The Scar Boys : a novel: Written as a college admission essay, eighteen-year-old Harry Jones recounts a childhood defined by the hideous scars he hid behind, and how forming a band brought self-confidence, friendship, and his first kiss...

Not only does this look like a great book, there's a Spotify playlist so you can listen to the songs each chapter is named for.

Learn more about The Scar Boys at author Len Vlahos' website.


While we're on the subject of music, we have exciting news about Freegal, our music downloading service.  Not only can you continue to download three songs a week (and keep them!), you can now listen to streaming music for up to three hours a day.  You can even create playlists of your favorites.  But wait - there's more!  Freegal now offers video downloads too - one video counts as two songs toward your weekly limit.

I don't know about you, but I like free music!

EVENT ALERT - Divergent Pre-Release Party @ the Mukilteo Library

Friday, February 28th, 1:00 pm

Celebrate the upcoming movie release of Divergent, based on the book by Veronica Roth. Which faction will you join, and will you survive the initiation? Get together with other teens for book-related games, food, crafts, trivia, and more.

Teen Book Brunch with Karen Finneyfrock and Marissa Meyer

The Teen Book Brunch series is continuing at the University Bookstore in Mill Creek Towncenter in February and March. Sno-Isle Libraries and University Bookstore are partnering up to bring two more local authors in to talk about their new books and how they write.

Karen Finneyfrock, author of the newly released The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, will be at the Teen Book Brunch this Saturday, February 23rd from 11-12. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door is one of the best debut novels I've read all year. Celia Door enters her freshman year of high school with giant boots, dark eyeliner, and a thirst for revenge against Sandy Firestone, the girl who did something unspeakable to Celia last year. But then Celia meets Drake, the cool new kid from New York City who entrusts her with his deepest, darkest secret. When Celia's quest for justice threatens her relationship with Drake, she's forced to decide which is sweeter: revenge or friendship.

Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder and the follow-up Scarlet, will be at the Teen Book Brunch on Saturday, March 2nd from 11-12. Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second installment of the Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner. 

The Teen Book Brunches are held at the University Bookstore in the Mill Creek Towncenter and are open to everyone, not just teens. Top Pot donuts are provided and occasionally there are giveaways. These brunches are a great place to get to know authors and hear about new books. At the the last Teen Book Brunch, where Kristin  Halbrook had her release party for Nobody But Us, there were practically more teen authors in attendance than teens- including Daniel Marks, J. Anderson Coats, A R Kahler, and Marissa Meyer. You never know who will turn up at a Teen Book Brunch! Hope to see you at the next one!

LOTS of SECRETS!

Looks good, doesn't it? The author will be at Lynnwood Library (!!) on Tuesday, August 17 at 4pm leading a writing workshop: Keeping Secrets: Creating Characters Who Turn the Page

Official Blurb: "Join author Holly Cupala (Tell Me a Secret) as she shares her secrets about creating realistic characters who have depth, flaws and something they aren't telling."

We will be giving away TWO free signed copies (one from Ms. Cupala, one from Lynnwood Friends of the Library) of TELL ME A SECRET to workshop attendees!

If you can't make it to the workshop for a chance at one of the free books, place a hold on Tell Me a Secret!

In my humble opinion, the above book trailer is one of the best I've ever seen. Share a link, in the comments, to one of YOUR favorite book trailers and be entered into a drawing to win a copy of:

Queen of Secrets by Jenny Meyerhoff
"Fifteen-year-old Essie Green, an orphan who has been raised by her secular Jewish grandparents in Michigan, experiences conflicting loyalties and confusing emotions when her aunt, uncle, and cousin move back from New York, and her very religious cousin tries to fit in with the other football players at Essie's high school, one of whom is Essie's popular new boyfriend."

The winner will be announced on Tuesday, August 17th, so you have until midnight on the 16th to share your favorite book trailer!

(And don't forget to enter The Chronicles of Nick giveaway! Deadline is Thursday!)

Do You Believe in Past Lives?

Author Kirsten Miller (who wrote the fabulous Kiki Strike series) has a brand new series coming out, involving reincarnation and past lives:

Haven Moore has recurring visions of a romance from a past life that ended tragically, and when she sees playboy Iain Morrow on television, she goes to New York to meet him and discover if he is really the lover from her dreams.

There is great interview with the author at Publishers Weekly's website. She talks about past lives, secret societies, snake-handling, and how she will guess your past life for you on her blog :)

We've got the first book of The Eternal Ones on order, so reserve a copy today!

New Twilight Story Coming Out Soon

A bit of exciting news for Twihards:

Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' Novella 'The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner' Out In June
Story of newborn vampire from 'Eclipse' is due out on June 5.

The 192-page book follows the story of Bree, a newborn vampire who appears briefly in "Eclipse" as a member of the army Victoria raises to fight the Cullens and the werewolves.

I'll let you know as soon as we have it in our catalog!

Download the new Will Shetterly vampirish book

Will Shetterly has written some great books, including some of my favorite urban fantasy book (alas, many are now out of print). Now he has a brand new "vampirish" book called Midnight Girl you can read online for FREE!

Your dad used to be the spooky-mysteries TV show host Professor Midnight. Your grandmother lives in the basement and only comes upstairs after dark. Your mom died when you were a baby, and nobody will tell you about her. Oh, and you have two birthdays, both on Halloween. And that's the part of your life that's normal. But with this birthday, everything is going to change...

Sounds great! I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.

Win the New Sara Zarr Book!

Sara Zarr writes marvelous books about teens in tough situations. In her new book Once Was Lost you get to know a preacher's daughter who is questioning her faith after her mother has been put in a alcohol treatment facility, and a young girl from church goes missing. Anyone who has ever felt isolated and sad will love this powerful book.

Eager to read Once Was Lost, but don't want to wait? Tell us in the comments about a time you felt lost, and you will be entered in a drawing for a brand new hardback copy. (Don't you just love that cover?)

The rules: You MUST be between the ages of 12-18. You MUST be able to pick up your prize at one of the 21 Sno-Isle Libraries (or be on the bookmobile route). Find a library near you. Note that you can only enter ONCE!

You have until Wednesday October 28th to enter. We will have a random drawing and announce the winners Thursday morning - so you'll have to check back to see if you win - and then the winners will need to email us teens@sno-isle.

Here is a book trailer about this great new book:

The New Libba Bray book has Arrived

Check out this hilarious trailer:



Sno-Isle just got this book in. Only 15 people waiting right now. Get on the list today!

Going Bovine

Scott Westerfeld's new series

Scott Westerfeld's new series is coming out very soon, beginning with the exciting Leviathan. I was lucky to get to read a preview copy, and found this mash up of historical and science fiction - a genre known as steampunk, to be a wild ride, ridiculously fun and imaginative.

Publishers Weekly has a great interview with Westerfeld here. Find out where he got the idea for the new series, how he came to work with an illustrator this time around, and to what great lengths he will go to avoid winter!

Watch a book trailer for Leviathan here:

House of the Night authors interview

Do you love the House of the Night series? Did you know it is written by a mother-daughter team, P.C. and Kristin Cast? Read about how they write together in this interview in Entertainment Weekly’s new book blog Shelf Life. Mom (P. C.) will write a first draft of a novel and 22-year-old Kristin will:

go back in and fill in the parts that she hasn’t, like the descriptions, or similes and metaphors, or the the plot references. I do a lot of those. But if there’s a word that I can tell one of the teenagers wouldn’t use, I’ll change that and use the comment bubbles and put notes all throughout it, and she goes back and reads it and rewrites it…and then we send it in.

You can order Tempted, the sixth book of the series, from our online catalog, and be one of the first to read it! The publication date is 10/27/09.