Gina Linko

Gina Linko has a graduate degree in creative writing from DePaul University and lives outside Chicago with her husband and three children. Linko teaches college English part-time, but her real passion is sitting down at a blank computer screen and asking herself the question, "What if...?"

Linko's new novel is Indigo.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the author about what she was reading. Linko's reply:

Doll Bones by Holly Black

So spooky. This book totally creeped me out. The mystery at the core of this story is pitch-perfect. So well written. The reader plays this guessing game: Is it real? Is it not real? It's spectacular! There were a few moments in this book -- referencing the "blond one" -- when I literally got goose bumps. Just read it. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. This is seriously a near-perfect middle-grade book.

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Another middle-grade book, but this is realistic, contemporary fiction, about a young girl winding up in a foster home after a terrible domestic violence incident. This book easily could've been preachy and overdone. But the handling of this subject was so spot-on. Never sappy or too touchy-feely. I credit the author with taking such a difficult subject and handling it so well, so realistically, yet finding hope. That's something I always want there to be in children's lit: hope.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Literary fiction at its best. I loved the cast of characters in this novel. The switching back and forth between past and present could've been cumbersome in another author's hands, but it worked very well here. I love novels that delve deep into characters' motivations, and Wolitzer is so good at this. We can love/hate some of the characters and their actions, but no matter what, we understand them.

Visit Gina Linko's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Indigo.

--Marshal Zeringue