!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa McMann. Cassandra Clare. I'm so there.

*Friday, April 3, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
(Signing with Cassandra Clare!)
JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS- CINCINNATI
Rockwood Pavilion
2692 Madison Rd.
Cincinnati, OH

Only four hours from where I reside! I'm meeting a couple other reviewers up there, too. If any other reviewers/blog-readers are planning on going (which you SO should), tell me! I'd love to meet you. :)

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

The first "official" publication of my writing was an article about Laurie Halse Anderson. It was in a printed issue of Teen Ink Magazine, and I was possibly the most excited I'd ever been - I even got an awesome engraved pen as memorabilia. You can read the article here (and comment, if you'd like!)

Basically, to say the least, I absolutely adore LHA. So when I got an ARC of Wintergirls from an amazingly generous (and talented!) publicist at Penguin, I might have had a minor heart attack. I was eagerly excited, but also worried. I didn't want my adoration streak to end.

Thank God it didn't.

Wintergirls is about a teen named Lia struggling from anorexia. When she gets the news that her best friend is dead, she tries to ignore it like she "ignores" food. But, of course, both are always nagging at her mind the more she tries to mask them.

But it's about so much more than that. I can't even begin to describe the full effect of this book. But everything about it - from the writing to the characters to the physical display of the text - was incredibly powerful. Laurie used strikeout font, and barely-there asterisks to make a point. And she succeeded. This is one I'd love to reread in a couple years, because there are so many different ways to interpret Lia's actions and emotions. For me, they really hit home. I don't know what anyone else will take from this novel; I imagine Lia's character will leave several different reactions. But there's no denying the raw power and emotion in Laurie's haunting words.

I have no idea how LHA can spin such a realistic character. Lia jumps out of the page and grabs you, even when she's trying her hardest to disappear. She's incomparable to any character ever fictionally created. Sure, anorexia's been done before. As has rape, disease, death. But Anderson does them in a style that no other author can even begin to touch.

Laurie Halse Anderson is truly a Goddess among mortals.

MondayMondayMonday!

The winner of my extra copy of Good Enough is...Epic Rat! Congrats! Email me with your address and I'll get your book out to you as soon as I can. Also, Melissa Walker was the one who won my ARC of Eyes Like Stars (Which was a semi-secret contest the brilliant Lisa Mantchev put together. And a whole lot of people entered.)

I've been extremely busy with everything lately. But I managed to watch the entire Academy Awards show last night (which I did a play-by-play of here, on my tv/movie blog). And I've been able to schedule another author chat! Which I'm hoping you all will come to. It's tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8 PM Eastern with Wendy Toliver (The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren, Miss Match) - the link is here. I've also been working on my new book idea a lot, and I'm loving it. But we'll start the new contest already. Greedy people.

This week, I'm giving away Owning It: Stories about Teens with Disabilities. It's a fictional anthology, although the title doesn't make it seem that way. Tons of YA authors have contributed, such as Chris Crutcher, Alex Flinn, Gail Giles, Julie Anne Peters, and more. I really liked reading it, and each of the stories had an impact.

To get your first entry, comment.

And then you can get extra entries:
+1 for Following my blog (AND commenting a seperate comment to tell me you are.)
+1 for linking to this contest in a sidebar or post. (AND sending the link in a seperate comment)
+1 for commenting again and giving me more ideas for extra comment entries!

I know I'm extremely lame for making you do seperate comments for each entry, but it's muchmuch easier to keep track that way. Anyway, this contest will run until next Monday, and it's open to U.S. residents only.

Good luck! :)

Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Note to Google Reader Subscribers, etc: I posted an idea I had in the entry below this. But afterward, I decided to do something completely different with that idea. After deleting it, I noticed it still pops up on feeds. So just ignore it. It was about advice columns & stuff.

Anyway, on to the book chattin'. Deadly Little Secret is a story about Camelia, a teenager who spends her time sculpting clay and hanging out with friends. She starts getting photos of herself stuck in her mailbox, along with threatening notes and creepy phone calls. She has no idea who's behind these (or if they're just pranks), but most of the students have pegged new kid Ben as the local Stalker/Creep after a rumor spreads about him murdering his ex-girlfriend. Even after he saved Camelia's life. Ouch.

The problems I have aren't about the book, they're about the genre: see, I used to love Adult murder mysteries. I'd read them day after day, relishing in the "whodunit" factor. But after a while, I realized mysteries usually have the same outline: Clues. Tons of possible suspects. Mystery. The big revelation. And then the rest of the book describes the "clues" that weren't really clues, they were just crazy coincidences. And then the book ends.

I have absolutely no problem with this. They're fun to read. But I got extremely bored of them after taking in so many of their similar plotlines. Of course, there are always exceptions. And mysteries have been popping up more in the YA genre: I read (and really enjoyed) the Death By series by Linda Gerber, and I definitely consider that an exception in the "mystery" genre.

And I enjoyed this one. I liked wondering who the culprit was. I liked trying to piece together the clues. But I don't think I'd ever reread it. There didn't seem to be enough oomph in the plot, and I was expecting much more than what I got. I had really high hopes for this one, after the success of the Blue is for Nightmares series by the same author. Those, to me, are another exception. But Deadly Little Secret's plot line followed similar suit to your average mystery novel. The positive is that the characters really stood out - the dialogue was witty in areas, and definitely gave me some laughs.

My bitter boringness with the average mystery outline prevents me from full-out raving, but for those who enjoy mysteries, you'll will definitely love this one.

Ooh, Sparkly New Contest/Scavenger Hunt!

When I posted my In My Mailbox video a couple weeks ago, showing off my ARC of Eyes Like Stars, I was attacked with emails of envy. But now you can get one too! There's a huge Scavenger Hunt/contest starting today, according to Lisa's Blog, offering up several ARCs of her book. Here's the info:

The Rules:
1) Contest limited to those in the USA. Apologies to our friends abroad, but these ARCs are being mailed out by the generous souls on the blogroll, and there will be other contests which will be eligible to readers overseas.

2) All entrants must be the age of 13 or older. Entrants 12 and under (if any) can be entered by their parents.

3) No family members of anyone connected with the Scavenger Hunt, please.

How To Play:
1) Players should start at Lisa's Blog (lisamantchev.livejournal.com) to get the Official Blogroll and List of Clues

2) Players then need to visit the blogs, collect the quotes, AND leave a comment (like a trail of bread crumbs... we want to know you actually did the leg work!)

3) E-mail Lisa with your list of quotes: lisa@lisamantchev.com

4) Prizes will be awarded thusly: to those who collect the most quotes. Should more people remit the complete quote list than we have ARCs to give away, Lisa shall award the prizes by lottery/random drawing. She shall also retain the right to add extra ARCs to the prize pool at her discretion.

So head over to Lisa's blog to get more deets!

Haaaa. Ha. Ha.

This is hilarious.

Only click it if you've:
-Read/seen Pride and Prejudice.
-If you've ever used Facebook.

But for those that have? Funny, right?

Also - I got a lot of comments about people wanting to watch Dollhouse on my latest contest. Did any of you? If you missed it, the first episode is up on Hulu. I thought it fell short of what I expected, but it was still good. I'll definitely keep watching - it had a unique plot line, and I doubt it'll get boring (with the whole personality-switching aspect). Anyway, let me know what you thought.

I'm in the middle of Deadly Little Secret right now, and I'm all whodunit?

Anyway, I haven't talked to some of my blog readers in a while, so I thought I'd bring up some discussion topics. I miss you guys! Comment, and I'll reply. Eventually. I might just pass out for half of the day. We'll see. I'm pretty much living off of coffee right now, and my brain is 99% fog.

Aggggh!

The winner of The Knife of Never Letting Go issss...Angie! Send me an email, and I'll get the book out to you as soon as I can.

I'm really (like, really) behind on shipping books - I've decided to stick to a monthly trip to the P.O. So if I owe you contest books, know that you'll get them eventually! They might just be a tad late.

This week, I'm offering up a copy of Good Enough by Paula Yoo. Summary, five-fingered from Amazon:

How to make your Korean parents happy:

1. Get a perfect score on the SATs.
2. Get into HarvardYalePrinceton.
3. Don't talk to boys.*

Patti's parents expect nothing less than the best from their Korean-American daughter. Everything she does affects her chances of getting into an Ivy League school. So winning assistant concertmaster in her All-State violin competition and earning less than 2300 on her SATs is simply not good enough.

But Patti's discovering that there's more to life than the Ivy League. To start with, there's Cute Trumpet Guy. He's funny, he's talented, and he looks exactly like the lead singer of Patti's favorite band. Then, of course, there's her love of the violin. Not to mention cool rock concerts. And anyway, what if Patti doesn't want to go to HarvardYalePrinceton after all?

Paula Yoo scores big in her hilarious debut novel about an overachiever who longs to fit in and strives to stand out. The pressure is on!

*Boys will distract you from your studies.

To enter, just comment below! Sorry, but U.S. residents only. I love you, foreign lovelies, but it's just too costly to ship overseas. I would if I could. But I'm working my little (or big, in my chair's opinion) ass off to save up every penny I can before I move out. So I won't be completely broke.

Anyway, enough blabber about me. Comment, comment, comment! I'm also going to give extra entries this time (I'll be doing this from now on.)

+1 entry if you link to this in a post.
+1 entry if you link to this in your sidebar.
+1 entry if you are/become a follower.

Total possible # of entries = 4.

But you have to leave a seperate comment for each entry. So, a regular comment for your first. A seperate one if you link, a seperate one letting me know you're a follower, etc. If you tell me all of your extra entries in one comment, I'm nixing them. So pay attention to the rules, dude. Fricken' rebels.

TONS of updates/reviews/news to come this week! I'm done slacking!

Purge by Sarah Littman

First off, I've got to apologize for my lack of reviews, etc. I've been sick/tired/busy/blahblahblah. I'm (very slowly) catching up, though.

Anyway, I wanted to post today to talk about a book I read recently - Purge by Sarah Darer Littman. The main character, Janie, is suffering from bulimia and stuck in a treatment center called Golden Slopes. The nurses and shrinks at GS are working hard at figuring out just why dear Janie has the urge to purge. Although reluctant and rebellious at first, Janie makes some great friendships during her stay and slowly begins her recovery process.

After finishing Purge, I read some of the acknowledgments and other information in the back of the ARC, (because I'm a major dork) and found out that Sarah Littman had an eating disorder herself. It's got to take serious guts to relive and make public her experience. Even though it was through a fictional character, believe me - that girl's strong. So I give her major props for that. I'm sure that's one of the reasons why the book seemed so frighteningly realistic.

The other characters were real enough to stand out, but never took center stage over Janie. I felt truly connected to her character. The only problem (that quickly pops into mind) is that Purge seemed like too short of a novel for Janie - she can't work everything out in such a slim volume. What evened out this aspect was that the author didn't neatly tie up loose ends. Normally, I dislike when a stand-alone doesn't end with everything answered, but for Purge it worked. It's one of those books whose characters stay with you after the cover is shut; it gives the reader hope and then lets you come to your own conclusions.

Author Chat

Hi everybody! There's an author chat with Tina Ferraro at 8 PM Eastern (7 Central, 6 Mountain, 5 Pacific).

Tina is the author of several YA fiction books, such as Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress, How to Hook a Hottie, and her most recent release The ABC's of Kissing Boys. We'll be talking about her books, asking questions, and just chatchatchatting. Bring sugary snacks and lots of caffeine - everyone's invited! I'm going to go brew some coffee AND set up a Mountain Dew storage facility in my room. So you don't want to miss it.

Click here to join. I hope to see you there! :)

EDIT: Alas, the chat has ended. It was a ton of fun, so if you missed it, you missed out. It was great getting to know Tina.

BUT - there'll be more author chats. So keep checking back, so you don't miss your chance! If you'd like to request I contact an author for a chat, let me know in the comments or email. I'll do my best to bribe them in.

Richard Lewis Guest Blog

Richard Lewis, author of the YA novel Monster's Proof (a July release from Simon and Schuster), is visiting today to provide you with a very amusing, well-written guest blog. Hope you enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------

BOOKS THAT INFLUENCED ME AS A BOY IN BALI

The small public transport bemo was packed. Scrunched on the lengthwise benches were a couple dozen Balinese, an American hippy, and me, the thirteen-year-old son of missionaries. In the aisle were baskets of coconuts, chickens tied by their legs, a piglet in its bamboo cage, and the hippy's backpack. It was 1969. Hippies had just discovered Bali, an island where I'd been born and raised. Hippies were as exotic to me as they were to my Balinese friends. We gawked at them as if they were sequined-spangled ostriches.

This hippy was reading a novel. I was a sun-blasted, salty-haired boy on his way home from Kuta Beach, where I'd spent a morning surfing the empty waves. I was seated across from the guy. I stared over the travel-stained backpack at the novel in his hands. As the bemo bumped along, a horrible terrible desire filled me. I'd been a voracious reader as long as I could remember. When I was born, my mom said, the first thing I did was reach for a book.

And I'd read my last book weeks ago. I badly needed a new story. I needed books the way some people needed drugs. And here was a brand new, fresh, unadulterated story right across from me, practically under my nose, but whose printed pages were unfortunately facing the other direction and were under the wrong nose. My desire grew. How I craved that book! I was bitter with the unfairness of it. The hippy came from a land of libraries and bookstores. Bali had nothing of the kind. When it came to books, I had to have a scavenger's instinct—I scoured hotel lobbies, homestays, the bookshelves of the few expatriates living there at the time, suitcases of friends who came to visit.

The hippy was only half-way through. At the rate he turned the pages, it would take him days to finish. Unfair! Unfair! I needed that book way more than he did.

The bemo pulled into the Denpasar terminal, where we would change to buses. The hippy closed his novel and tucked it into his the side pocket of his backpack. In the jostle of villagers trying to cram their way out the door with their chickens and coconuts, with the backpacker pushing just as ardently, nobody noticed my moment of extreme temptation.

It is said that God does not tempt us beyond what we are able to endure, but whoever said that didn't have a reading habit like mine.

Dear Reader, I became a book thief long before Marcus Zusak was born.

I was punished for my sins, though. To this day, I can't recall the title or story of that novel I stole.

But I do remember other books, all kinds of books. I was a book devourer. There was no such thing as "young adult" literature back then, at least not as we have now, but even if there had been, I don't think it would have made a difference.

Georgette Heyer's Regency romances. Frank Yerby's historical novels. The Westerns of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. The lusty, bloody thumpers of Drum and Mandingo, exemplars of that curious genre, the slave story. Alaistair Maclean's spy thrillers, and John Le Carré's as well. Lord of the Flies and Lord of the Rings. Saki. Shirley Jackson. High-brow, low-brow, sophisticated, simple. The Hardy Boys entranced me as much as Holden Caulfield. Heck, even Reader's Digest Condensed Books. I didn't care. I never met a story I didn't like.

So if you ask me, what books had the most influence on me as a kid, I would have say, every single one of them. One thing that all this reading gave me was solid, intuitive understanding of what a story meant. Long before I studied the craft of writing, I pretty much had story buried in my bone marrow.

Now I am a middle-aged man, still in Bali, still surfing, still reading, but also writing novels for young adults.

What is the difference between a writer who happens to write young adult fiction and a reader who happens to be a young adult?

The writer, by convention and often times by contract, must have a young adult the same age or slightly older than the target as her main character. Let's call this main character, oh, Livey. Because the target audience of young adults should be able to identify with Livey, she has to face the same sort of problems and deal with the same sort of issues that they do.

But what about the young adult reader?

Why, if you're a young adult, you can read whatever book you want. Sure, the Young Adult bookshelves are crammed with all kinds of great stuff. With its emphasis on storytelling, and some terrific original voices, YA literature provides some of the most compelling reading around. This is why parents will sneak a read of their son's novel and enjoy it more than their book club choice.

Still, I think back to my young self. The whole world of fiction, not just a part of it, was mine for the ransacking.

Although I only stole a book that one time. I swear.

Richard Lewis
Website: www.richardlewisauthor.com

New Contest

Hi everybody! Contests - don't you love 'em?

The winner for The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine is...Alycia! Please email me (contact info is in the sidebar) with your address, and I'll get the book right out to you. Thanks for entering, everyone. As a side note - I'm a bit behind on shipping books, but I'll be going to the P.O. very soon! So if I owe you any books, expect them in the next week or so.

This week, I'm giving away a copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Summary provided by the always-reliable Amazon:

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

All you have to do to enter is comment, as always. Doesn't matter what about, but I'm interested - is anyone going to watch that new show Dollhouse? I think it looks good. And, with news about the CW (my favorite station) picking up The Vampire Diaries (!) for a TV show, I'm probably going to be sitting on the couch for the rest of my life.

Anyway, commentcommentcomment. You have until Monday 2/16 to get your entries in. I'll announce the winner sometime around then and put up a new contest.

*Sorry, but again, this contest is only open to residents of the U.S! But maybe when I have some extra moolah I can open them up to an international level.

In My Mailbox Vlog - Numero Dos

Hey again, everybody! I'm going to start doing my In My Mailbox videos on Fridays, because it's the most convenient for me. So, to check out what books I got this week, just watch the video! :) Hope you like it! Oh, and you'll have to turn your volume way up again. Whoopsy.



And for those who couldn't fully decipher my mumbling...

Books included in this video:
-Paper Towns by John Green
-Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott
-Torched by April Henry
-Impossible by Nancy Werlin
-Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee
-Picture Perfect by Catherine Clark
-Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
-Savvy by Ingrid Law
-The Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee
-Silver Phoneix by Cindy Pon

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I'd been putting off reading this for a while, even though I'd heard it was a great series. The summary sounded just like something I'd love (which is what prompted me to buy it in the first place), and it seemed like a top-of-the-pile read. But it got shoved haphazardly to the bottom for one reason: it was spoiled.

Someone told me a key point to the plot, and I figured over time I'd forget. So I kept saving it for a later date. But, uh, I didn't. I still remembered. After several months. So I decided to stop sulking and open the book already.

And, boy, am I glad I did. Clary, the main character, witnesses a "murder" at a local club - but she happened to be the only one who could see the killers. Or "demon slayers", as they referred to themselves. After they kill a blue-haired demon, and Clary sees him disappear into thin air, she's less reluctant to believe their tale. Then, her mother disappears, and she allows herself to open her eyes to the Shadow World and find out the truth.

I haven't gotten this sucked into a novel in a long time. There was something really unique about this book, and I doubt I'll be able to find one similar to it. The writing was fluent, and the dialogue beyond excellent. The humor, mixed with the action and romance, made for a book a very wide variety of readers would enjoy. The characters stood out - Clary, with her strong heart and silent bravery. Jace, with his sarcastic bite and guarded demeanor. Simon, Alec, Isabelle. Just...everyone had their own characteristics. Even though I got it "spoiled", it didn't spoil the reading experience in the slightest. I really, truly enjoyed reading every word of this.

There were several times, while reading, where I stopped and said to myself "This book just...works." (Well, maybe I wasn't that articulate. More like "LOVELOVELOVE.") Regardless*, Cassandra Clare is a genius writer and storyteller.

*I totally typed "irregardless" until I remembered C. Leigh Purtill's latest post. In fact, she's a total grammar Nazi, but I haven't said "anyways" since she yelled at me. So, thanks, Leigh! :) You improve me.

Celebrating Bloggers

Awww! Lauren from Shooting Stars Mag put together a sort of Blogger Celebration. You can read her first post, describing the basics, here, where she took nominations. Then everyone voted for the nominations. The two blog winners were announced here. And I'm one of them! Next to Kristi, The Story Siren! To say I'm ecstatic is an understatement. Basically, two bloggers are picked a month, and other bloggers/readers/authors can send things to them as a type of celebration. Kristi SO deserves this, and I'm honored to be picked alongside her. I'm trying to think of something exciting to send her as I type this.

Anyway, I'm not expecting much from anyone. Just being chosen is a huge privilege. But if you'd like to send me a nice email, or a letter (I love letters! And will reply, if you leave your return address.), you'd make my day. (Even though Lauren and my voters already have!) Lauren has both mine and Kristi's addresses, so if you'd like to send anything, you can contact her. A big, huge, thank you to everyone involved!

Childhood

There's a certain type of magic about being a child. I'm 17 at the moment, so some would still consider that "a child". But I don't. It's smack dab in the middle. From about 13+ - the teen years (and even a bit before then) - you start learning and dealing with tougher issues. You lose some of that believe-anything fantastical kiddish factor, even though you haven't completely loosened your grip. You gain some things, too - it's the age where you start learning who you really are. And "growing up" is a tough process we all go through.

I remember, when I was about seven or eight years old, I was obsessed with butterflies. I wanted my own, as a pet; I wanted one to fly around my head all day, and perch on my hands when it needed a rest. It amazed me to learn that butterflies got their food from the flowers - nectar, I was told. I just thought the two liked each others company. But, as a curious child, I wanted to know what was IN nectar. What was so scrumptious about it, that the butterflies kept coming back for more? When I asked my mom this, she described it as "sugar water". So I got out a cup. I added the water. I poured in the sugar. And I took it outside, set it on a tree stump, and waited. I would sit outside for minutes upon minutes (and that's a lot, considering a child's attention span!) for days on end. Waiting for the butterflies. And for the special one that I knew would become my new pet.

Of course, when they didn't come, I'd drink the yummy sugar water for myself. But that's not the point. I kept believing that those butterflies would come, and I'd be the lucky gal to befriend them.

That youthful belief is why I think I'll always like children's books. And Young Adult. Sure, I know now that I won't be able to have a pet butterfly. But at what point does that change? When do you go from butterfly-loving, sugar-water-drinking child, to a teenager, figuring out your identity? I think this change is one of the hardest things to go through, and it's something you do unconsciously. Being a teen is a ton of guesswork; full of ups and downs and highs and lows. But I think, no matter what age you are, you don't forget your butterfly moments. Or the tough process of slowly letting go and growing up.

So, if you're still reading Children's/Young Adult at an age beyond when you're "supposed" to, and you're ever questioned on that (as a lot of articles have been bringing up lately), you should feel pity for the scoffers, instead of anger. Because, poor them - they've forgotten their butterflies.

Contest

Before I announce this week's prize, I have two winners to announce:

Paradox (I'm not kidding - did you rig the Random Number Generator?) - Looking for Alaska
Mandy - Invisible Touch

Email me with your addresses, please! :)

This week I'm giving away The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie, which is one I really liked. Here's the summary:

A mother who split for another man. A father who works 24/7. An older brother who excels at everything - and smokes a lot of weed. A best friend, of the feminine persuasion, who only wants to be a friend, and who's shooting a film set in cool Greenwich Village, New York.

Dylan Fontaine's life seems to be full of drama he can't control. But when he stars in his best frie3nd's movie, Dylan discovers that sometimes life's big shake-ups force you to take risks - and to step into the spotlight.

Believe me, this one's good. To enter, just comment below. This contest will end Monday, when I'll announce the winner and put up a new bookish prize.

*Sorry, but this one's only open to residents of the U.S.