bookshelves of doom

Reading Kills.

Reading Kills from Beto Gomez on Vimeo.

You know you want to make these for me.

Hunger Games cupcakes:

(via Katie)

New YA: January 31.

New hardbacks:

The Edumacation of Jay Baker, by Jay Clark:

Jay's voice—internal and external—is funny, with the jokes and pop culture references coming a mile a minute. While some of the jokes fall flat, and the constant barrage gets grating, it also feels realistic—it's a part of him: he likes talking like a smart ass, but it's also a defense mechanism—and the author acknowledges the fact that it can be annoying, in that one of his teachers* tells Jay to knock it off on a regular basis.

Wings of the Wicked (Angelfire), by Courtney Allison Moulton
Amazon | Indiebound.

The Survivors, by Will Weaver
Amazon | Indiebound.

Lenobia's Vow: A House of Night Novella, by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Amazon | Indiebound.

Incarnate, by Jodi Meadows
Amazon | Indiebound.

The Dead of Winter, by Chris Priestley
Amazon | Indiebound.

Article 5, by Kristen Simmons
Amazon | Indiebound.

New paperbacks:

New Girl (Harlequin Teen), by Paige Harbison:

Because, ultimately, she did make some big changes. BIG changes. One of the most major (that I can mention without Huge Spoilers) is that the narrative follows both girls, the narrator and Becca. That’s fun on two levels. First, because mysteries that alternate between past and present views are Good Stuff, and second, because it forces the reader to think about du Maurier’s Rebecca as a real person with actual feelings, rather than purely as a sociopathic hell-beast.

Jack: Secret Vengeance (Repairman Jack), by F. Paul Wilson:

Secret Vengeance also has the same major flaw as the first two books. We know it's 1983 because we're told it's 1983 over and over again—both straight-out ("This is 1983, not . . . not colonial times." (p70)), and by overt references to news events, name brands and bands—not because anything about the prose evokes any sort of 1983 feel. Also, the introduction of libertarian ideals that Jack finds so fascinating feels somewhat didactic, and will probably feel even more so to readers who aren't already invested in him.

Destiny and Deception: A 13 to Life Novel, by Shannon Delany
Amazon | Indiebound.

Nomansland, by Lesley Hauge
Amazon | Indiebound.

Chloe Neill.

Her blog/website.

Her Twitter feed.

Titles I've written about:

Firespell (2010):

It's another addition to the Paranormal Gossip Girl genre, complete with heroine who doesn't have any magical powers (SPOILER) but oh, wait, yes she does, and they're more powerful and rare than anyone has seen in like, one zillion years (END SPOILER).

Hexbound (2011):

As so often happens, the Bad Guy Love Interest is far more interesting and attractive than the Good Guy Love Interest, who, despite being a werewolf, is shockingly boring. Then again, he has blue eyes so very, very blue that it looks like he has "precious jewels for irises", so it may be possible that I'm holding that against him.

Hexbound: Dark Elite, #2 -- Chloe Neill

A short recap:

• Our heroine is packed off to boarding school for her last two years of high school...
• ...where she promptly discovers that magic is real and that she, Lily Parker, not only has a magical power, but the rarest and possibly most powerful of all known magical powers.
• As awesome as the magic is—well, minus that whole People Always Trying To Kill Her thing—it's not something that lasts forever. Once magic users reach age 25 (or so), they have to either give it up completely, or turn into insane soulsucking fiends.
• Meanwhile, her parents are in Germany on a research sabbatical...
• ...which is possibly of a sketchy nature, and very possibly related to magic.
• To complicate matters, she's almost-dating a werewolf, yet feels strangely drawn to a Handsome Bad Guy.

In this installment, she and her Adept buddies are up against two hideous monsters: a vicious pack of slimy fanged humanoids in the tunnels, and the Mean Girls in charge of the Dance Committee.

Pluses:

• The introduction of Adepts from the local research Enclave was especially fun, as they had Many Clever Gadgets.
• While Lily's power is Super Duper Flashy Powerful, what we learn about Scout's power this time suggests that it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more powerful than Lily's, regardless of what the Adepts think. I like the idea of the best friend having the mondo power, rather than the heroine.
• I love the infighting among the JV and Varsity members of Enclave Three—at one point, Lily mentions wanting to "grab scissors" every time an emo-haired Varsity Adept shakes his bangs out of his eyes—though, sadly, there was only a little bit of that.
• Looks like one of the Mean Girls has a Secret Past! Oooooo.
• Lesley—Scout and Lily's non-magical odd-duck cello-playing roommate—takes a more active role.

Minuses:

• As so often happens, the Bad Guy Love Interest is far more interesting and attractive than the Good Guy Love Interest, who, despite being a werewolf, is shockingly boring. Then again, he has blue eyes so very, very blue that it looks like he has "precious jewels for irises", so it may be possible that I'm holding that against him.
• Towards the end, Lily totally read my mind: "Does it ever feel like we spend at least thirty percent of our Adept time just traveling around?" I wondered aloud. Except I'd have said about seventy percent. For a book about spell-slingers battling it out in downtown Chicago, at times, it was kind of... dull.

Recommended to:

• Fans of Rachel Caine, Cate Tiernan, and other light-ish urban paranormal series.

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Author page.

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Amazon | Indiebound

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

CONGRATS...

...to Gwenda Bond!

I am looking forward to reading your book so very, very much.

You had me at "Twin Peaks-like town".

A recent YA deal, according to Publishers Lunch:

McSweeney's contributor Courtney Eldridge's YA debut GHOST SIGNS, about an artistic teen's quest for the truth when her math-genius boyfriend disappears from their Twin Peaks-like town.

This week at Kirkus...

...I wrote about another of the Cybils' YA SF/F nominees: Karen Healey's The Shattering.

*sings* And I loooooooooooooved it!

Cagematch: Librarians vs. Bloggers.

I'm not going to get all worked up about this—and as a librarian AND a blogger, I'm certainly not going to take sides—but apparently there was some pretty ugly behavior at the ALA's recent Midwinter conference.

That behavior—on the part of, I assume, just a few people—led to some blame-gaming back-and-forth between librarians and book bloggers on Twitter and on blogs, and it was all just generally unpleasant.

Because, really, I think most of us genuinely want the same thing: to read, and to encourage others to do the same.

So, stay classy, everyone.

Do unto others, and all that jazz.

Challenge news.

• The Tucson situation continues, with so many sources covering it that I'm going to go ahead and link to a Google News search. If you haven't been following the story, this piece at the Huffington Post gives some background, as well as providing a few pictures of the recent student protest. Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature has the most comprehensive coverage I've seen.
• Books popular with young readers in Vietnam are making censors nervous.
• And, in case you missed it, The Satanic Verses is still so controversial (not to mention still banned) in India that a planned video uplink with Salman Rushdie was cancelled at a recent book festival.

I'd like to go to this.

A play!

Based on short stories by Raymond Chandler!

Even the title—Trouble is My Business—is all hard-boiled.

Ooooo.

Maurice Sendak = Mr. Attitude.

The Colbert Report
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New YA deals...

... from Publishers Marketplace:

Journalist Gard Skinner's GAME SLAVES, set in the world of online video games and told from the revolutionary perspective of the villains who fight gamers in the world's top-selling games, it imagines a scenario in which these virtual figures have become self-aware and make the transition to the actual world to search for their identities, to Julia Richardson at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's.

Jennifer L. Armentrout's DON'T LOOK BACK, pitched as Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars, featuring a teen girl who had it all until the night she and her friend go missing, and she loses all recollection of who she is, but must piece together a life she no longer wants and the events that led to her friend's disappearance, to Emily Meehan at Disney-Hyperion, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal.

The second one sounds like it'll be Mind Candy Unchained.

Jennifer E. Smith.

Her website.

Her Twitter feed.

Titles I've written about:

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (2012):

Maine winters require escape, preferably of the smoochy sort. So I was quite happy to find The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. And yay you, Jennifer E. Smith, because it totally worked. Escape city. It's a sweet little book, and now, just looking at the cover makes me smile.

 

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight -- Jennifer E. Smith

This time last year, I wrote about a couple of contemporary romances—Anna and the French Kiss and The Big Crunch—that weren't really at all alike other than that they were both, you know, contemporary romances, and they both made me swoon all over the place. I decided that it should become a tradition, because dammit, Maine winters require escape, preferably of the smoochy sort. So I was quite happy to find The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

And yay you, Jennifer E. Smith, because it totally worked. Escape city. It's a sweet little book, and now, just looking at the cover makes me smile.

Hadley Sullivan doesn't want to go to her father's wedding. He is, after all, marrying the woman—That British Woman, as Hadley calls her—that brought about the end of her parents' marriage. And she certainly doesn't want to be a bridesmaid. But here she is anyway, at the stupid airport with her stupid bridesmaid's dress.

She really, truly, didn't mean to miss her plane. 

But miss it she did, and good thing for us (and her) that she did, because if she hadn't, she'd have never met Oliver.

OH MY GOD. It's a quick, easy-going read, and just (as I said) so sweet. They're both lovely people without being completely perfect, and it's clear from minute one that they complement each other, and that they Belong Together. 

That isn't all it's about, of course. The romance is front and center, but Hadley's family relationships—with her father, her mother, and her father's as-yet-unknown-to-her new wife*—also figure in heavily. It was always clear how much they cared about each other, and how unhappy they were with the rifts between them. Also, even though the book takes place over only 24 hours, it still feels like the fractured relationship between Hadley and her father heals tentatively and slowly, so that was especially well done. 

It has a great sense of place, in that I always felt like I was right there with Hadley: in the airport, on the plane, in the bathroom being done over by the other bridesmaids, crossing London, at the reception. The characters aren't all super-hip like the crew in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, but the up-all-night-falling-in-love vibe is similar. If I'd been in a more jaded frame of mind, the fate-is-real storyline might not have worked for me so well, but as it was, it did.

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*Who ends up being, like, the best stepmother ever. So perfect that she might be a little bit too perfect, but whatever. I don't care. I loved her anyway.

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Author page.

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Amazon | Indiebound

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Book source: ILLed through my library.