Angie Smibert was born in Blacksburg, a once sleepy college town in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. An unrepentant geek, she grew up playing with her father’s electron microscope, watching Star Trek and Doctor Who, reading the classics, and making up stories in her head about being out among the stars. In a more down-to-earth ambition, she wanted to be a veterinarian. Organic chemistry had other ideas. But she always had those stories in her head. Eventually, after a few degrees and few cool jobs—including a 10-year stint at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—she wrote some of those stories down. She’s published many short stories, for both adults and teens.Ironically, her first novel, MEMENTO NORA, has nothing to do with space, but it did put her biology degree to good use. Finally.
In the not-so-distant future, Nora, the popular girl and happy consumer, witnesses a horrific bombing on a shopping trip with her mother. In Nora’s world, terrorism is so commonplace that she can pop one little white pill to forget and go on like nothing ever happened. However, when Nora makes her first trip to a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic, she learns what her mother, a frequent forgetter, has been frequently forgetting. Nora secretly spits out the pill and holds on to her memories. The memory of the bombing as well as her mother’s secret and her budding awareness of the world outside her little clique make it increasingly difficult for Nora to cope. She turns to two new friends, each with their own reasons to remember, and together they share their experiences with their classmates through an underground comic. They soon learn, though, they can’t get away with remembering what the powers-that-be want them to forget.
Angie Smibert’s remarkable debut novel about the power of memory takes readers on a thrilling ride through a shadowy world in which corporations rule the government and consumerism is praised above all.
Memento Nora became available on April 1, 2011 so go out and get your copy! You can buy this book from Amazon for $10.59 and B&N, Borders & Indiebound for $16.99
*Author bio & book description taken from classof2k11.com
