For Autumn 2012, Even More Books About Persephone

In 2011, I wrote THIS POST about books starring the ancient Greek goddess Persephone, goddess of the Underworld, as a character. Since then, a new crop of YA books has featured Persephone. (I haven't read any of these yet.) These include:

Abandon by Meg Cabot. Cabot, the Bloomington, IN-born author of The Princess Diaries brings us this tale of Pierce, a young woman who came back from the dead after an accident. Abandon is the first book in a trilogy; the second book is called Underworld.

Asphodel by Lauren Hammond is another first book in a trilogy; Hammond calls hers the Underworld Trilogy. This Persephone at first fears the Underworld and Hades, but then falls in love with the Underworld lord. Forcibly returned to the land of the living by Zeus, who has also destroyed the world's pomegranate trees, Persephone searches for a pomegranate seed that can reunite her with her beloved.

Persephone the Phony (Goddess Girls Series) by Joanne Holub and Susan Williams. The second book in this series (after Athena the Brain) aimed at readers aged 8-12, Persephone the Phony encourages its readers to be true to themselves. Persephone falls for "bad boy" Hades despite her friends' warnings that he's bad news and her mother's fears. Hades could be the best thing that ever happened to Persephone, though - he helps her find her voice.

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter. There are at least four books in the Goddess Test series. After the original comes The Goddess Hunt (Book 1.5), Goddess Interrupted (2), The Goddess Legacy (2.5) and The Goddess Inheritance (3, due out in February 2013). This series focuses on Kate, a teen whose mother is dying. When Kate meets Henry, she thinks he's insane - Henry claims to be Hades. Then Henry brings a girl back from the dead, and Kate questions whether he might not be crazy after all.

Have you read any of these? Were they good?

Being Midwestern Rules! Pt. 2 ~ Indiana

On Mondays I hook up with Pinning! at A Night Owl Blog/Baxtron{Life}. 

On Wednesday, it's Oh, How Pinteresting! at The Vintage Apple. 

Being from the Midwestern United States is hella cool - I think I proved that with my Nebraska post. I'm not from Nebraska; I'm from Indiana. We've got some pretty cool people, too. If you lived through the '80s, you might think of him when you think of Indiana.

http://cheers.wikia.com/wiki/Woody_Boyd

No, this is not young Haymitch; it's the character Woody Boyd from Cheers. Woody Harrelson? Not actually from Indiana. Or even Midwestern - he's a native Texan.

But these people are actually from Indiana.

Probably the coolest, most sophisticated, urbane individual to come from the Hoosier state? Cole Porter. The moment you realize you're from Indiana and so is Cole Porter is a very good moment indeed.

James Dean was from Indiana. Here he's reading The Complete Poetical Writings by James Whitcomb Riley, a 19th century poet also from Indiana.

When I say I hope to die and ascend to bisexual heaven and sit at the right hand of James Dean, amen, you may think I'm being facetious. I'm not. (Religion - it's complicated.) This is Photoshopped, but still - James Dean kissing Marlon Brandon. 

Old Hollywood screwball comedy queen - and lost love of Clark Gable's life - Carole Lombard was from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Fun Fort Wayne fact: its library system has the world's second-largest collection of genealogical records, after the Mormon collection in Salt Lake City, Utah. I visited FW's main downtown library once and had a bagel in its coffee shop.

Steve McQueen, so cool there's a Sheryl Crow song about him, was from Indianapolis. His grandson, Steven R. McQueen, plays Jeremy on The Vampire Diaries.

McQueen's hometown is also the hometown of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. If you can find a greater 20th century American writer, read him or her or them.

Other writers from Indiana include Phillip Jose Farmer (who sometimes wrote as "Kilgore Trout," a fictional writer invented by Kurt Vonnegut), Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries), and Theodore Drieser. Drieser wrote An American Tragedy, the basis for the movie A Place in the Sun.

Adam Lambert was born in Indianapolis. Probably the most well-known family to come out of Indiana, though? The Jacksons. Michael, Janet and their siblings were raised in Gary, a large city just to the east of Chicago.

See? Being Midwestern is awesome.