ELLEgirl reads...What Happens Here

Fragile relationships, flawed souls, unexpected loss, and coming of age (the ever-present theme in “young adult” novels) are the centerpieces in Tara Altebrando’s gut-wrenching novel What Happens Here. It may all sound cliché, but the book is anything but. I was reminded of this the other day when I was on the train and overheard two Nicole Richie clones discussing their future: “We’ll marry architects, go to wine tastings, have cool artsy jobs, go shopping after afternoon tea, own multiple homes (villas and town houses, of course), throw intimate dinners with our closest couple friends, and have beautiful well-mannered babies that will most def be BFFs too.” I ask, shallow or innocent?

ELLEgirl reads...The Interns: Fashionistas

Are you a Gossip Girl fan? If you are (and, really, who isn't?), I suggest you go to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Interns: Fashionistas immediately. Especially with the TV series on hiatus during the summer, the book is the perfect way to get your fill of backstabbing stylish teen girls and catty remarks. The Interns: Fashionistas is all that (it even has its own version of a "GG," signing off the blog as, "Your faithful Fashionista")—and definitely much, much more.

ELLEgirl reads...The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The year is 2023. Humankind has been pushed to the limit with outbreaks of disease, crippling natural disasters, widespread economic depression and frightening advances in the field of medicine. This is seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox’s world … and she is struggling to remember it.

ELLEgirl reads...Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty

Want to read a coming-of-age book teeming with catty rivalry, boys that make us crazy, and corny-but-cute bonding? Then Jody Gehrman’s Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty is just for you. In journal-entry form, we follow Geena, a very upbeat teenager with high hopes and big dreams who works at a coffee shack obviously called Triple Shot Betty.

ELLEgirl reads...All Souls

As a private school graduate and the niece of a cancer survivor, I was drawn to Christine Schutt’s All Souls to see if she could do anything new with the genre. At the center of the story is Astra Dell, a New York prep school student hospitalized for cancer treatment. The novel chronicles her battle with the disease amid the rapid changes and learning experiences of adolescence.

Meg Cabot on How To Be Popular, Part II

Meg Cabot may be better known for her humor on paper than in person, but after just one conversation, I realized that her success is due to her spunky attitude and her own crazy life experiences. The The Princess Diaries scribe has written nearly fifty books and sold millions of copies worldwide (she’s kind of a big deal in the literary world), and yet, Meg admitted to us that she was unpopular in high school. From talking about being a feminist to getting rejected to her hilarious video reenactment of Pretty in Pink, Meg Cabot proves that authors can be funny, too. True to herself and her genre, she's all about girl power and staying young at heart – two of ELLEgirl's essential qualities.

Check out Part Two of our exclusive interview with Meg Cabot after the jump (you can read Part One here), and enter here for a chance to win a copy of her latest release, How To Be Popular.

ELLEgirl reads...Audrey, Wait!

Audrey, Wait! is like a good pop song: Short but sweet, not to mention utterly addictive. Which is no surprise, considering that the book is all about music; the way it inspires us, helps us through the hard times, and even epitomizes moments.

The gist of the book is that Audrey breaks up with her too-emo-for-his-own-good boyfriend Evan, only to have him write a song about her dumping him. The song becomes an overnight hit, Evan becomes a bona fide rockstar, and Audrey's stuck in the middle of it all. Girls want to know what it was like to be with Evan, wannabe rockers want to find out if she's some sort of song-inspiring muse, and the paparrazi just want one good shot of her. But this book has more going for it than your average issue of US Weekly.

Meg Cabot on How To Be Popular

Meg Cabot may be better known for her humor on paper than in person, but after just one conversation, I realized that her success is due to her spunky attitude and her own crazy life experiences. The The Princess Diaries scribe has written nearly fifty books and sold millions of copies worldwide (she’s kind of a big deal in the literary world), and yet, Meg admitted to us that she was unpopular in high school. From talking about being a feminist to getting rejected to her hilarious video reenactment of Pretty in Pink, Meg Cabot proves that authors can be funny, too. True to herself and her genre, she's all about girl power and staying young at heart – two of ELLEgirl's essential qualities.

Check out Part One of our exclusive interview with Meg Cabot after the jump, and enter here for a chance to win a copy of her latest release, How To Be Popular.

By Yuri Chong

Free Books You'll Want to Read

Two of my favorite things (good books and freebies) are joining forces in ELLEgirl's newest giveaway. We're offering up five lucky winners the entire batch of ELLEgirl book club picks for the months of April and May. This means that you'll have no problem keeping up with our weekly picks and joining in on the discussion right here on our blog! Enter to win the booty here, and be sure to check in Wednesday for our next Book Club pick, Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway.

 

ELLEgirl reads...I Am Scout

There are some things that are rites of passage for high schoolers—namely the SAT, prom, and To Kill A Mockingbird. This book has been one of those required rituals since its release in 1960, and I’ve noticed from Facebook stalking that it is also a favorite book for many of my friends. I feel very left out, though, because I’ve never actually read it. So after reading Charles J. Shields’s I Am Scout, a biography of To Kill A Mockingbird’s author Harper Lee, I’ve decided to give her Pulitzer Price-winning novel a go.

ELLEgirl reads...Pretty Face

Oprah better watch out—ELLEgirl’s got its own book club, where we read and review a new book every week. Think of this as your anti-homework, something you can do that isn’t a math worksheet (but also isn’t wasting hours and hours watching bad TV). We’ll let you know what books we’ll be reading in the next couple of weeks, so you can read along with us and add in your comments. And we’re giving away each and every book we review, so you’ve got no excuse not to get book smart with us! Welcome to the club…

Pretty Face by Mary Hogan

Hayley has always been known as the "girl with the pretty face" – and usually, just that. Living in Southern California, where the standard of beauty for girls is being stick thin and perfectly bronzed, Hayley deals with her insecurities by eating; she comforts herself by eating her way through the reprimands of her tofu-obsessed mother, through the jeering of her classmates, and through the pain she feels when her crush, Drew, ends up admitting to having feels for her skinny best friend Jackie. Right after school ends, her parents send her to Italy to stay with family friends, deciding that a change of scenery could possibly do some good for Hayley, in terms of weight and mood.

Better Than Homework

You're back from spring break...and already counting down the days until school's out for summer. Take your mind off of work while not feeling like a total slug with ELLEgirl's Book Club. Starting next week, we'll be reviewing new books every Wednesday, and invite you to read along with us. If you haven't already picked up a copy of Pretty Face by Mary Hogan, order it now, since that's the first book on our list!

If you're a speedy reader--or just like to plan ahead--here are the other books we'll be reading in April. Best of all, you can win them all; just enter our giveaway (which starts on Monday--don't worry, we'll get you the link as soon as it's up!).

April 2: Pretty Face by Mary Hogan

April 9: I Am Scout by Charles J. Shields

April 16: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

April 23: All Souls by Christine Schutt

April 30: Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Gehrman

Get Book Smart!

Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet...they're all great books--classics, in fact--that became totally boring once they were assigned to you in English class. Which is too bad, because there are a ton of amazing books out there.

So here's a way that we can all read the soon-to-be-classics without feeling like total dorks: the ELLEgirl Book Club. Every week, one of the ELLEgirl editors or interns will talk about a book that just came out. We'll let you know if it's worth reading afterschool, bringing along to the beach, or ditching entirely. The best part? Youll know the books that we're going to be talking about two weeks in advance, so you can pick it up, read it, and chime in the very same day we blog about it. Oh, and did I mention that we'll be giving away our book club picks to five lucky winners every month? Score!

Our first book club read is Pretty Face, a book about SoCal girl Hayley who stands out in a sea of skinny girls at her high school, by Mary Hogan. We're giving you the heads up so you can pick it up (here, or at your local indie bookstore) and check back on April 2 for our first book club chat. Get smart--book smart, that is!