Alex Is Reading...LOIS LANE: FALLOUT

Lois Lane: Fallout is a YA novel about amazingly wonderful teenager Lois Lane moving to Metropolis, joining the Daily Planet's experimental student arm, and immediately putting it at jeopardy by threatening the big, the bad, the powerful, and their crafty weapon design program that uses zombiefied teenage virtual reality MMORPG players as guinea pigs.

It is kind of like reading the book distillation of Veronica Mars (or iZombie, maybe?)  plus Batman Beyond. There is peril, there is bravado, there is technologically questionable science, there is THIS MYSTERIOUS AND CHARMING PERSON ON THE INTERNET WHO ONLY GOES BY SMALLVILLEGUY. I really love these things, you guys. They make such a fun book together. SUCH a fun book.

Also, THERE IS GOING TO BE A SEQUEL.

But Lois is not the only mystery-solving girl in the world of kid/YA fiction. There are more, and they are so wonderful, and you should read about all of them.

ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN GIRL DETECTIVE

Cam Jansen series by David A. Adler -- Even more than Nate the Great, Cam Jansen introduced me to mystery stories. She is one cool character. Also, she has a photographic memory, which I pretended I also had for about two years after my first Cam Jansen book. You can find her BOTH in our leveled readers and in First Chapter Books.

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry -- I think I threw this at every gift-buying adult shopping for a 9-13 year old that I met in November and December. This is the completely delightful and very funny story of a Victorian girls' school after the headmistress and her brother die mysteriously one night at dinner. With these two buried in the back garden, the girls are free for the first time ever! But someone is going to find those bodies...and someone killed them to begin with.

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction et. al. -- Yessss, at last a Marvel comic gets onto one of my blog posts. Hawkeye is about two Hawkeyes: the sad Clint Barton man Hawkeye, and the exceptionally perfect, sublime, and superior Hawkeye Kate Bishop. The first two books are about both of them (and you should read them, because they completely rethink what superhero comics are allowed to do, and are beautiful), but in book three, Kate is all on her own. How does that go? We just got this series into the store, and I am so stoked about it.

Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene -- THE CLASSIC. We have the first couple books in stock in Intermediate fiction, as well as some volumes of three different spinoff series in our First Chapter Books section! You may also find some vintage books in our Used Book Cellar, in various states of expurgation.

Scarlet Undercover by Jennifer Latham -- What is this?! A black Muslim orphan girl detective? OH YES. If you like Gwenda Bond's Lois Lane, you will definitely love Scarlet, whose gradeschool client is absolutely right in thinking that her brother is up to something really, really not quite right.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin -- Okay, I've DEFINITELY written about this before, but come on! Halloween, dead millionaires, an underwhelming girl named Turtle who is secretly (not that secretly--how could you love any character more than Turtle?) the very, very best, and a delicious ending that is probably only one small part of what got this book its Newbery.

Sammy Keyes series by Wendelin Van Draanen -- I ate these up so fast in middle school. Sammy is just the coolest and best. Her adventures are always action-packed, the plots are quirky, and at least one of them involves nuns. You can sometimes find a few of the books used downstairs, sold only, I imagine, in a truly desperate moment by their former owners.

In conclusion: if you have other favorite girl detectives, please immediately tell me everything.

1,000 Drunken Bunny Rabbits

The Used Book Cellar just recently acquired the Popol Vuh - the ancient book of Mayan origins. In it, you get to learn about Centzon Totochtin, the god of wine and revelry whose physical form takes the shape of 1,000 drunken bunny rabbits! Sunday school would have been so much cooler if we got to learn about him.

And just like Centzon Totochtin, we have thousands of awesome things in the UBC this week:

• Tons and TONS and TOOONS of science and math books acquired only yesterday. Get here fast to scope 'em out but do NOT drink and derive. 

• Another person's move is your goldmine, a really nice fella sold off so many super sweet comics (including Promethea by Alan Moore one of my alltime favorites) so come get at 'em before the weekend crowds hit!

• Randomly we seem to have acquired a really good selection of drama recently. One actor was moving and sold off a bunch of how-to books, and quite a few students have brought in some really great plays in excellent condition. 

We're looking sharp and stocked these days, so beat the gross humidity and ridiculously hot weather and come see us! We're subterranean (like ninja turtles), and we have air conditioning! Also, chairs! You'll love it!

New Format

So if you're headed down into the basement straight for the coolest section (science fiction, duh) you might notice that it's not where it used to be. It didn't go to space or nothin', we just moved it down the aisle and it now faces mystery. It looks pretty cool. Also, we just had our big lighting overhaul completed in the UBC. The whole store has had its lighting re-rigged to be brighter, more efficient and eco-friendly. The UBC got some majorly bright lights that helped out the browsing in our subterranean cavern, and now there's an extra row of lighting down fiction to help you see all the books you may have missed before. Come check it out!

Additional "new formatting" came through the UBC last week in the shape of a graphic novel adaptation of the Book of Mormon. I hadn't seen anything quite like it before so it seemed noteworthy. It reads like a pretty exciting historical adventure comic, but you get the whole story of the Mormon scriptures. So if the South Park episode didn't go through enough detail for you, maybe these are a starting point. Or if you're already LDS, these might make a cool "I'm-a-Law-of-Consecrationist" gift to the 8-year-old in your life.

In other UBC news, it's been pretty busy lately. People are movin', people are cleanin', people have time off and the weather is nice so they're totin' in books by the bag-, box-, and dresser drawer-ful. So we're being pretty selective and recommend that you call ahead or e-mail what sort of books you have to save some effort. And remember, our buying hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 AM - 4 PM. We can't take books outside those times. It's against Book Ordinance #279.

kthxbai!

Adults Only

Where I grew up in Idaho, you had to show your ID and prove that you were of sound mind and body to buy dry ice. Yup. 18+ only to buy dry ice in Idaho. There are lots of great things you have to flash ID for: cigarettes, booze, "GRAPHIC" novels, and now, selling books to us in the UBC.


This is standard practice for most buyback situations but we've been renegades for a while. But now we're toeing the line. And you must, too, if you wanna swim with the big fishes. Or something. Anyway all that matters is that we're going to need photo ID when you sell us your used books starting 25 April. Thanks in advance for helping us out on this.

Other used book news: we got a lot of great Modern Library giant books: complete Henry James short stories, Thirty Famous one-act plays, that we are mylaring right now. Some great poetry, gobs of comics and lots of great contemporary fiction including this book The Line by Olga Grushin that looks really cool. And the pictured vintage paperback of Jane Eyre with a great cover. Come by and see! There's beautiful weather about! Don't be caught in the park or on the beach by a fancy member of the gender of your romantic preference WITHOUT a book to make you look like the smart AND attractive catch that you are.

Thanks for reading!

Nifty Gifties

We got some holidays coming up, folks! People are really into giving new books as gifts, but what about rare, out-of-print vintage cool things? Below I'm highlighting some of the most special things of all you won't find anywhere else in the WORLD but the Used Book Cellar. These are rad things you should totally give to those people on your list that have everything. 'Cuz they won't have these:

For the budding grand sommelier, an epic-huge hardcover book "Wines of the World" with full-color photographs, endpapers and a SLIPCASE. Nothin' says class like a slipcase. The book is huge and well-bound so it lies flat. It has a bit of the history of wine, and talks about some ideas for ones to look out for, but as this was printed in 1967, the bread and butter of this book (or cheese and crackers?) is the exhaustive guide to regions, and what kinds of wine come from where, what they taste like, why they taste the way they do. A really fascinating, beautiful book. $20 smackers.

For the funny-man, kooky-lady, anglophile or philosophy major who needs a laugh over the winter break, if I were you I would SERIOUSLY consider The Brand New Monty Python Bok [sic]. This book is rated NC-17 guys, but really there's something for everyone (over 17) here. In standard Python fashion nothing is sacred, all things are satirized and there are lots of pictures. Crude humor. Making fun of monarchs. Sex advice. Rat recipes. Fairy tales. Etiquette tips. Rene Descarte detective stories. Basically, you and anyone worth knowing deserves this book. All this can be yours for just $15 bucks. This is a HUGE savings off of the (fake) list price of £142.48½

For the history buff grampa who's always saying you wouldn't have a chance in a fight against Winston Churchill (I'm in therapy now, guys, don't worry) I present to you The New Yorker War Album. This book was printed in 1942 and is full of New Yorker cartoons lampooning the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Full of subtle humor and slices-of-life from the years of the Great War, this would make a rare, cool gift. $14

The UBC is mad-rich in fancy art books. Big ones, small ones, expensive ones, inexpensive ones. Rare, awesome, etc. We're all over the board! Art is the way to go to impress the cultured ones in your life, and why break the bank to impress someone? Everyone is impressed by the guy or gal who can get a $75 art book for $13. Which is possible here.

So show us the goods, you might be saying? Here is but a SAMPLING dear readers:

I'm obsessed with Penguin book covers, and look at this thing we got in that I DID NOT EVEN KNOW EXISTED: A whole MONOGRAPH of the full paintings used on Penguin covers. Some beautiful, strange stuff in here. Color and black and white. A cool old saddle-stitched book of paintings by Ben Shahn. In 1949 it went for three shillings and sixpence at modern art museums EXCLUSIVELY. But YOU can have it for $5.

For $20 we have a monograph of Anish Kapoor (the shiny Chicago bean guy) that is both physically a beautiful book (shiny endpapers! handwritten notes sewn into the center of the binding!) as well as a fascinating exploration into a VERY contemporary sculptor's process, inspirations and oeuvre.

And for $8 (this is a crazy deal) we have this really large trim-size (I'm talking 15" x 11") book of 16 color plates of French Primitives, beautiful paintings of French medieval life and interest beautifully reproduced (sometimes with metallic ink!). The pages are loose, making each leaf ready for framing!

Thanks for reading! If you have any books you want to turn into cash or store credit, we're here Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 AM-4PM.