Don't Be Such a Massie

There comes a time in every YA librarian's life when she has to read The Clique.  I've avoided it because it seemed there was more high quality stuff out there, but really these books are so popular among the girls, I really should see what it is all about.  At lunch today I got 28 pages into the first book.  As I expected, it is the Sweet Valley High of the new era.  But this new era is richer and mean-girlier, but we'll see if there are life lessons to be learned among these pages. 

Posionwood Bible -- Read it Again, JA

I'm reading Poisonwood Bible not because so many of the teens in my library are so hot about it, or even because it is required reading for St. Mary's seniors, but instead I'm reading it because it is the pick for a book club which I've just joined.  No matter though, cause I think it fits.  PB was listed by the Nashville Public Library as an "Adult Book with Teen Appeal."  (A Prayer for Owen Meany was also listed and it is also a past favorite that I need to reread ASAP.)

It feels cosmically connected that I'm joining a reading group that chose Kingsolver, as she ranks high on my favorite authors list. (Her novel The Bean Trees was an important component of my coming of age.)  I read PB about eight years ago (I think).  I remember starting it on my bed in my little house in Wilmington and I also have fond memories of reading it on the deck of the cabin on the White River.  I loved it then and I'm enjoying it again. 

Reading it with the book club in mind, I'm wondering what I'm missing.  I've mostly been wondering about the name of the "bad guy" Eeben Axelroot.  The names in the book seem so significant, surely this name means something.  I looked around a bit, but didn't find anything that explained it for me.  Maybe my bookclubbers can help me out!