LITERARY LAS VEGAS

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Random House released Henderson resident Daria Snadowsky's "Anatomy of a Boyfriend" today.

The UNLV law school student plans to celebrate her first novel's launch with a 6:30 p.m. reading and signing at The NeverEnding Story, 9440 West Sahara Ave., Suite. 120.

Snadowsky's book explores young love, a teen girl's initial forays into sexuality and the agony of first love lost.

Excerpt from "Anatomy of a Boyfriend"

On the fifth day of no e-mail and with no recourse left, I actually call my grandma. I'm hoping confiding my troubles in her like I used to years ago will magically bring to life the feisty, problem-solving woman she used to be. Instead, all she says is, "He'd probably like you a lot more if you had better posture." Then she launches into stories of her own dating woes and complains how hard it is to find a man at her age...

When night falls on the sixth day of not hearing from Wes, I wait until my parents' door is closed and they're sound asleep. After checking my e-mail for the trillionth time that week, I curl up in the fetal position and cry my eyes out. I catch a glimpse of myself in my full-length mirror, and I really do look like a baby, what with all the tears and snot dripping down my tomato red face and onto my sheets and pajamas. I almost laugh at the ridiculously pathetic image.

I don't know how I became such a wreck in a few short weeks. I wish I'd never laid eyes on him. I wish I could kill all the cells in my brain that store my memories of him so I could return to that happy, benign place where the foremost things on my mind were grades and Science Quiz. I was perfectly content being Amy's celibate sidekick. Now I may never be content again.

To propose an item for Literary Las Vegas, local authors may contact Ginger Meurer by mail at P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125-0070; by fax to 477-3852; or by e-mail, gmeurer@viewnews.com.