Jennifer Lynn Barnes wrote Golden, which is a supernatural high school story about a girl who can see auras. She's an X-men fan (check out her Fly Survey), a former cheerleader, an autism researcher and a recent Yale grad. Her new book TATTOO, can be summed up thus:

Four friends
Four tattoos
One ancient evil

Sounds fun, eh? More details here.

Jen wisely refrains from telling us all about her ex-boyfriends on the internet, and instead gives us:
AN ABUNDANCE OF LOGANS, revealing a penchant for broody dudes with superpowers.

"In honor of AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John Green, which just won a
Printz honor, I decided to do a boyfriend list on the abundance of
Logans who've won my heart. If only they weren't all fictional."

-- Jennifer Lynn Barnes

1) Logan from X-men. Oh, Wolverine. What can I say about him other
than the fact that he's played by Hugh Jackman AND has adamantium
claws? I mean, seriously! Claws! The come out of his skin! That
just doesn't get any less awesome as time goes by. Plus, like many
Logans, he has this broody bad boy thing going for him, and I love his
soft spot for Rogue.

2) Logan Huntzberger from Gilmore Girls. I'm somewhat of a fickle
Logan-lover, and I have to admit, of all of my Logans, this one is my
least favorite. In fact, I have some doubts about whether or not I
ever would have cast him as my fictional boyfriend were his name NOT
Logan, but it is, so I didn't stand a chance. He's spoiled and rich,
but he's got that essential soft spot, and if only because his name is
Logan, that's enough for me.

3) Logan Echolls on Veronica Mars. I didn't think there would ever be
another Logan who could give the Wolverine a run for his money, but
this Logan did it- and without the aid of any awesome claws. This guy
is the very definition of tortured. I hated him when I first saw him,
but I love him now. The road to redemption is rocky, and he's always
going to slip and fall, but he's got this wonderful vulnerability
about him that he hides under the snark and sarcasm that I find just
as delicious.

4) Logan Cale from Dark Angel. Of all of the Logans, this one is the
only on who has the distinction of having a last name almost as hot as
his first. Like most Logans, he's got the broody thing going on, but
unliike all of the others, he has this unfailing moral compass that he
somehow managed to make really unbelievably hot. Plus, as "Eyes
Only," he's got these great and very soulful eyes, AND he's pretty
tall for a Logan.

Can't get enough of adding "in your pants" to various book titles?
I can't. (What does that say about me? that I should write for teenagers, probably!)

Just a couple from my shelf:

Girl Sleuth in Your Pants
Forgotten Fads and Fabulous Flops in Your Pants
Pop Culture Landmarks in Your Pants
The Little BookRoom in Your Pants

So go here to John Green's video blog. See the video (the "in your pants" bit is at the end) and read the copious comments to give yourself a giggle fit.

Some books I loved this year
and yes, indeed, books I wrote this year
(Fly on the Wall, The Boy Book and the paperback of The Boyfriend List)
were not on any of the various best books lists that were made at ALA last weekend.

The lists are:
Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers
Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers
Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults
Best Books for Young Adults
Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

Now -- the books on these lists rock, and of course I know that not every book can be on such lists and that the people who make them have a hard job deciding and consider their choices carefully.

But! I do happily proclaim that the following E. Lockhart awards
(decided only by me, early this Thursday morning, just from memory of YA books I read -- and of course there's a ton of books I didn't get to)
will be given only to hardcover books I love that didn't get any kind of nod from the ALA this year.
Including one for myself! why? because I can ;)

The E. Lockhart 2006 Hardcover Undersung Book Awards

MOST GIGGLY: Frogs and French Kisses, by Sarah Mlynowski
MOST ADDICTIVELY FUN: TTFN, by Lauren Myracle
MOST SURPRISINGLY ROMANTIC: Queen of Cool, by Cecil Castelluci
MOST INNOVATIVELY WRITTEN: The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, by Jaclyn Moriarty
WORLD I'D MOST WANT TO LIVE IN: Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love by Maryrose Wood
BRAVEST: Wide Awake, by David Levithan
WILDEST ADVENTURE: Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier
MOST COMICALLY SUPSENSEFUL: Bad Kitty by Michelle Jaffe
MOST GEEKTASTIC: my own Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart

Feel free to suggest your own -- or make up your own awards!

--E

I have a mailing list! No plans, actually to mail anything right away --
but when a new book comes out
(Dramarama! The Mlynowski-Myracle Girlie project! Twenty-One Proms! Something I am finishing that doesn't have a title!!)
you will know up front.
You'll also know about:
new excerpts posted to my website,
contests
tour dates in your area
and other stuff.

You can sign up on my home page. Oh, and this person who writes picture books has a mailing list, too, if you're interested.

And now -- MUCH MORE IMPORTANT NEWS!

The other day, John Green asked me, whom do I think should win the Printz award? And I said, actually being sincere, "You, John." And he won the honor!! Woohooo! I loved An Abundance of Katherines a lot. Here is VIDEO of him winning.

The other Honor Books and the winner I have yet to read, but I have much loved books by Zuzak and Anderson so I am excited to dig in:
Octavian Nothing
Surrender
Book Thief

WINNER: American Born Chinese

Oh, and my online compatriot Cynthia Lord won a Newbery honor and the Schneider award for Rules!

What did I do yesterday? This is ALL TRUE. Entry for January 18.

Also good: The Key to the Golden Firebird in your Pants.

Okay, it's so quick I'm almost not on it, but I am! on John Green's Maureen Johnson.

Edited to add: the link was wrong before! Now is right, and here it is again for good measure.

.If you're a librarian or someone else in the YA book community, you can get on the list for a pass-along ARC of my novel Dramarama (coming out in May) here at YAARC

I built myself a boyfriend. Need I say more?

Mine had green hair.
It's a promo for Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Davia Snadowsky.

In Arkansas, a new study shows, less than 1 percent of school libraries carry books with GLBT themes. And only 21% of public libraries do. And only 5% of University libraries -- which are entirely geared for people over 18.

The researchers surveyed media specialists and checked the online catalogs of public and university libraries for 21 of the most popular gay-, bisexual-, lesbian-, and transgender-themed books published between 1999 and 2005. They included titles such as:
Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys
Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club
David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy.
Each book they searched was described as a coming-of-age story or labeled as juvenile or young adult fiction by the publisher.

This situation makes me very sad. I've read the books -- they're excellent. They're popular, and some people not only want to read them -- their lives will be changed for the better by doing so.

For more, go visit the As If! blog -- Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom.

I got an early copy of CUPCAKE by Rachel Cohn and read it like -- well, like eating a cupcake. But I waited to blog about it until you, too could buy it -- and now you can.

I think this is the best of her Cyd Charisse books. Her best book, actually. It has this wonderful, wild New York City in it -- CC works at a hole in the wall cafe and at her brother's cupcake bakery, and she makes friends with an exotic and entertaining new range of characters, all while pining after Shrimp -- who is off in New Zealand and incommunicado. (But don't worry. He shows up eventually!)

Cohn really captures the heartbreak and confusion of letting go of a first love and trying to move on with life. CC is figuring out what kind of person she wants to be, and she's wonderfully flawed and sometimes selfish and enthusiastic and always compelling. The book is vivid and wild and wonderfully verbose and huge fun to read. Yummmmmmm.