E. Lockhart's Blog: What to Read and Give for the Holidays (plus sartorial musings)

YA Authors on the Web

Alex Sanchez
(who wrote Rainbow Boys, etc.)
Amy Kaye
(who wrote The Real Deal)
Andrew Auseon
(who wrote Funny Little Monkey)
Bennett Madison
(who wrote Lulu Dark and The Blonde of the Joke)
Brent Hartinger
(who wrote Geography Club, The Royal Order of the Poison Oak, and The Last Chance Texaco)
Carolyn Mackler
(who wrote The Earth, My Butt, & Other Big Round Things, etc.)
Cat Bauer
(who wrote Harley, Like a Person)
Cathy Hopkins
(who wrote Mates, Dates & Inflatable Bras -- and many others)
Cecily Von Ziegesar
(who wrote Gossip Girl and all its sequels)
Cherie Bennett
(who wrote Life in the Fat Lane, A Heart Divided, etc.)
D.L Garfinkle
(who wrote Storky)
Daniel Ehrenhaft
(who wrote Ten Things to Do Before I Die, Tell it to Naomi and The After Life)
David Levithan
(who wrote Boy Meets Boy, Realm of Possibility and Are We There Yet?)
Ellen Wittlinger
(who wrote Hard Love, Heart on My Sleeve and many others)
Gordon Korman
(who wrote Son of The Mob, etc.)
Gregory Maguire
(who wrote Wicked, etc.)
Holly Black
(who wrote Tithe and Valiant)
J. Minter
(who wrote The Insiders)
Jacqueline Woodson
(who wrote From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, etc.)
Jennifer Anne Kogler
(who wrote Ruby Tuesday)
Jennifer Donnelly
(who wrote Northern Light and The Tea Rose)
John Green
(who wrote Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, etc.)
Joseph Weisberg
(who wrote Tenth Grade)
Judy Blume
(who wrote Forever, Deenie, and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret)
Julie Anne Peters
(who wrote Luna, Far from Xanadu, etc.)
Justine Larbalestier
(who wrote Magic or Madness, Liar, How to Ditch Yr Fairy)
Katherine Paterson
(who wrote Bridge to Terebithia)
Katie Maxwell
(who wrote The Year My Life Went Down the Loo and much more)
KL Going
(who wrote Fat Kid Rules the World)
Kristen Kemp
(who wrote I Will Survive and The Dating Diaries, among others)
Lara M. Zeises
(who wrote Bringing Up the Bones, Anyone But You and Contents Under Pressure)
Laurie Halse Anderson
(who wrote Speak, Prom and Catalyst, among others)
Louise Rennison
(who wrote all those funny Georgia Nicolson books)
M.E. Kerr
(who wrote 'Hello', I Lied, Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! etc.)
Mariah Fredericks
(who wrote The True Meaning of Cleavage)
Mary E. Pearson
(who wrote A Room on Lorelei Street, Adoration of Jenna Fox, etc.)
Mary Hogan
(who wrote The Serious Kiss)
Maryrose Wood
(who wrote Sex Kittens & Horn Dawgs, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, etc.)
Maureen Johnson
(who wrote The Key to the Golden Firebird and 13 Little Blue Envelopes)
Meg Cabot
(who wrote The Princess Diaries)
Meg Rosoff
(who wrote How I Live Now, etc.)
Megan McCafferty
(who wrote Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings)
Melvin Burgess
(who wrote Smack, Doing It, Lady: My Life as a Bitch, and many others)
Mitali Perkins
(who wrote Monsoon Summer and Sunita Sen)
Nancy Werlin
(who wrote Double Helix, Black Mirror, and other teen thrillers)
Naomi Nash
(who wrote Chloe, Queen of Denial, You Are So Cursed, etc.)
Natalie Standiford
(who wrote The Dating Game, How to Say Goodbye in Robot, etc.)
Ned Vizzini
(who wrote Be More Chill and Teen Angst)
Pete Hautman
(who wrote Mr. Was, Sweetblood, Stone Cold, and many others.)
Rachel Cohn
(who wrote Gingerbread, Shrimp & Pop Princess)
Rosemary Graham
(who wrote My Not-So-Terrible Time at the Hippie Hotel and Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude)
Sarah Dessen
(who wrote That Summer, Someone Like You, etc.)
Sarah Mylnowski
(who wrote Bras & Broomsticks, How to Be Bad, Gimme a Call...)
Scott Westerfeld
(who wrote Pretties and Uglies, So Yesterday and Peeps)
Sonya Sones
(who wrote What My Mother Doesn't Know, and others)
Sue Limb
(who wrote Girl, 15, Charming but Insane, etc.)
Susan Juby
(who wrote Alice, I Think and other Alice MacLeod books)
Tanya Lee Stone
(who wrote A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl)
Tracy Lynn, also known as Celia Thompson
(who wrote Snow -- and as Thompson, the Nine Lives of Chloe King series)

Things I Wish I Knew in High School

If someone tells you that you are oversensitive, that person is probably a jerk.
Always use protection. Yes, you. Yes, always.
Boys who say, “I’m kind of messed up,” probably are.
If someone asks for your phone number and that person
creeps you out, it's okay to give the wrong number.
When you don't want to talk to someone, you don't
have to pick up the telephone.

About the Amazon Links

The thumbnail images of books and albums on this site connect you to Amazon.com -- but that's because Amazon and my web service provider have a partnership, so it's extremely easy to put images on my site.
However, I don't get any kind of kickback if you buy any of these items and I don't endorse any particular bookstore over any other.

I have read some AWESOME YA books this season and failed to blog about them. What can I say? I was too busy shopping for something to wear to the National Book Awards!

I have gold shoes. I have a gold and silver dress. It is a completely outrageous outfit and I will photograph it for your entertainment. This way, even if I don't win on Wednesday, I will feel fashionable and foxy.

Meanwhile, in between shopping expeditions that is, I have been reading my fellow finalist's books.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is an incredible feat of historical research and storytelling.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt is poetic and emotionally exhausting and very brave.

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp is hilarious and truthful and unique.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell is a page-turning and insightful noir.

I am so psyched to be in their company.

There's a campaign going on to help out the flagging publishing industry by buying books for holiday gifts. I'm going to do it and you should too! Besides, as Sara Zarr pointed out in her blog post today, a scented candle never changed anyone's life.

What to give?

Any of the above would be a good start.

I've also loved

Stop Me if You've Heard this One Before by David Yoo. I loved it so much I blurbed it, and I swear I've never met the guy. I said: "Albert is one of the most unique characters I've ever encountered in fiction or in life. His absurd and deeply romantic fall into first love is funny, heartbreaking and surprising. David Yoo is a major talent."

and

The Squad by Jennifer Barnes. Cheerleaders are secretly government agents. Who knew? There is no vacation read that could possibly be as fun as this.

I will try to blog more with holiday gift recommendations in the coming weeks. Google always sends me people searching for "gifts to give my boyfriend" because of the Boyfriend List excerpt I have up on my site. And I hate to disappoint my random googling public.

Sadye's iMix

Click here for more Dramarama stuff -- including videos.
All the songs from Dramarama
are here, on an iMix. You click on the link above and iTunes will open straight to the mix. Listen before you read Dramarama to make sure you get every little musical reference. Listen afterwards to get a sense of Sadye and Demi's musical world. In any case, these are some of my favorite showtunes of all time. Songs from Rent, Wicked, Guys & Dolls, Cabaret, Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie, Oliver!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Jersey Boys, Grease, Fame, Sweet Charity, Little Shop of Horrors, and more.

True and Embarassing Things about E.

I had a frizzy perm for several years.
I was voted worst driver in my senior class.
I wore light blue eyeshadow in high school.
Like Roo, I once let a boy feel my boob in a movie theater for the duration of an entire movie.
The movie was "Tarzan: The Legend of Greystoke."
I went to two different high schools; at one I was unpopular and
friendless; at the other, just the opposite.
I have two cats and one of them is a big barfer.
Orthodonture history includes three years of braces,
headgear, rubber bands. And I've still got an overbite.
My first kiss was at the age of sixteen.
The first record I bought was a 45 of AC/DC
singing "You Shook Me All Night Long"

Teen Writers Who Blog

Alan Gratz
Gratz wrote Samurai Shortstop, The Brooklyn Nine, Something Wicked. He has a video blog!
Ally Carter
Author of the Gallagher Series. A very fun blog.
Bennett Madison
Madison wrote Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls and I promise you his blog is very very amusing.
Holly Black
Black wrote Tithe and the Spiderwick Chronicles. She updates her journal pretty regularly.
Jaclyn Moriarty
Moriarty wrote Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, The Spell Book of Listen Taylor and The Year of Secret Assignments.
Jennifer Anne Kogler
Ruby Tuesday's author, on what she ate for breakfast and writing updates.
Jody Gehrman
She wrote Confessions of a Triple-shot Betty.
John Green
Green wrote Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns etc. and blogs about his life and updates with questionable regularity and considerable humor. Also an extensive videoblog together with his brother Hank -- worth checking out.
Julie Anne Peters
The author of Luna and other books blogs every few days about current events and her life.
Justine Larbalastier
Justine wrote Magic or Madness and How to Ditch Your Fairy. Her blog's about publishing and Australia and fiction and fantasy.
Lara M. Zeises
The author of Contents Under Pressure and Bringing Up the Bones has a live journal, updated all the time, mainly about YA literature and the publishing biz.
Lauren Myracle
Myracle wrote TTYL, TTFN etc, plus Bliss, Rhymes with Witches... blog is very funny and she is one of the most banned writers in America.
Laurie Halse Anderson
She wrote Prom and Speak, among others. Her blog includes tour pictures and stuff about her personal life. Updated nearly every day.
Libba Bray
Bray wrote Rebel Angels and A Great and Terrible Beauty. She writes every now and then about her writing process and daily life.
Mary E. Pearson
Pearson wrote A Room on Lorelei Street, Scribbler of Dreams and David V. God. The blog covers teen books and publishing.
Maureen Johnson
Johnson wrote Suite Scarlett, Devilish, Girl at Sea, etc. A most hilarious blog.
Megan McCafferty
McCafferty wrote Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings etc. She has a "retroblog" of journal entries from long ago.
Mitali Perkins
Perkins, who wrote Monsoon Summer etc., talks about books and life between cultures.
Sarah Dessen
The author of That Summer, Someone Like You, Dreamland, etc. keeps a constantly updated web journal with a huge following.
Sarah Mlynowski
Bras & Broomsticks author updates every now and then with photos, publishing news and other fun stuff.
Scott Westerfeld
The man wrote Peeps, Midnighters, Pretties, and other stuff. His blog gets a million comments and it's always thought-provoking.
Suzanne Young
Author of The Naughty List and So Many Boys.
Tanya Lee Stone
Stone wrote A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl and lots of other books, too.
Tracy Lynn, also known as Celia Thompson
Lynn (author of Snow), aka Thompson (author of the Chloe King series), aka Liz Braswell, blogs about gaming, her family, the writing process, and more.
Zoe Trope
The author of Please Don't Kill The Freshman puts up pictures of her laundry and details her doctor's visits. Not for the faint of heart.