What is Jessica Anya Blau reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Trouble with Lexie.

Her entry begins:

Currently I’m on page 151 of Dodgers by Bill Beverly. This is a road-story that travels from Compton to Wisconsin, but it’s not a caper and it’s not picaresque. The protagonist, 15-year-old East, has been sent out of his neighborhood for the first time on a mission to kill a man. Yes, East is in a gang and intimately knows the life of guns, drugs, murder and mayhem. But he’s got a tender soul; he’s watchful and sensitive. He worries about his mother. He wonders about his younger brother, who’s also on this mission and who knows more about how to use a gun than East wants to realize. By the time...[read on]

About The Trouble with Lexie, from the publisher:

From the beloved author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and The Wonder Bread Summer comes the jaw-dropping story of Lexie James, a counselor at an exclusive New England prep school, whose search for happiness lands her in unexpectedly wild trouble.

Lexie James escaped: after being abandoned by her alcoholic father, and kicked out of the apartment to make room for her mother’s boyfriend, Lexie made it on her own. She earned a Masters degree, conquered terrifying panic attacks, got engaged to the nicest guy she’d ever met, and landed a counseling job at the prestigious Ruxton Academy, a prep school for the moneyed children of the elite.

But as her wedding date nears, Lexie has doubts. Yes, she’s created the stable life she craved as a child, but is stability really what she wants? In her moment of indecision, Lexie strikes up a friendship with a Ruxton alumnus, the father of her favorite student. It’s a relationship that blows open Lexie’s carefully constructed life, and then dunks her into shocking situations with headline-worthy trouble.

The perfect cocktail of naughtiness, heart, adventure and humor, The Trouble with Lexie is a wild and poignant story of the choices we make to outrun our childhoods—and the choices we have to make to outrun our entangled adult lives.

Learn more about the book and author at Jessica Anya Blau's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Jessica Anya Blau and Pippa.

The Page 69 Test: The Wonder Bread Summer.

My Book, The Movie: The Wonder Bread Summer.

The Page 69 Test: The Trouble with Lexie.

My Book, The Movie: The Trouble with Lexie.

Writers Read: Jessica Anya Blau.

--Marshal Zeringue