I've Read Geektastic, Now What?
April was our first foray into short stories with the YA book club and for most it was a success! Maybe not all the stories were as great, but at least it got some of us interested in reading short stories while before this wasn't really a thing. So let's hear it for the art of short stories with some other recommendations and we'll also share some discussion questions at the end.
21 Proms David Levithan
Another topical YA collection, this time 21 stories about going to prom!
Sometimes the night of your dreams can be a total nightmare.
The prom. It's supposed to be one of the best nights of your life. Or, at least, you're supposed to have a good time. But what if you'd rather be going with your best friend's date than your own? What if a sinister underground society of students has spiked the punch? What if your date turns out to be more of a frog than a prince? Or what if he's (literally) an ape?
There are ways you can fight it. You can protest the silliness of the regular prom by hosting a backwards prom - also known as a morp. You can throw a prom for fat girls. You can stay at home to watch old teen movies and get your cute neighbor and his cuter brother to join you. You can dance to your own music.
Here, 21 of the funniest, most imaginative writers today create their own kind of prom stories. Some are triumphs. Some are disasters. But each one is a night you'll never forget.
The Time Traveller's Almanac Jeff vanderMeer
Sticking with geeky subject matter, The Time Traveller's Almanac is a collection of stories all based around time travel. So let's break our minds by trying to understand how it might work.
Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century's worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations.
This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu's "Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers").
In fact, this book is like a time machine of its very own, covering millions of years of Earth's history from the age of the dinosaurs through to strange and fascinating futures, spanning the ages from the beginning of time to its very end. The Time Traveler's Almanac is the ultimate anthology for the time traveler in your life.
Discussion Questions: - What kind of geek are you? Did you feel represented in the book? - Are there any author's you'd like to read more from that you didn't know before? - Discuss your geek level: Did you get all the references from the stories?
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