Mid Year Roundup

I've never done one of these so I thought I'd show you my progress of what I've been reading and how much I've been reading.  Writing reviews is a whole other story!

Laura's 2011-read book montage

Laura's favorite books »

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I've been very happy with what I've read and some have been absolutely fantastic and some not so much, but that happens you know? So how is everyone doing with their 2011 goals? Are you on target, behind, ahead? I'm ahead of schedule, but hopefully I can bypass my 100 books read this year goal. Here's hoping. So tell me what has been your absolutely favorite book this year? I have so many!

Skyship Academy NEW Cover Reveal

I was incredibly lucky to meet Nick James at the Teen Author Carnival and again where I formally introduced myself to him at BEA.  Girls, this is a really cute, young author! He sent me an e-mail yesterday with the new cover of his book which, let me tell you is SO much better than what they had on there!  Well here it is (and below will be his author photo, which you'll drool over. Move over Karsten! :))  I'm excited for this book by Flux!

SUMMARY FROM PUBLISHER:

A devastated Earth’s last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from space, and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities. Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers—political dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth’s stratosphere—and the corrupt Surface government.

Jesse Fisher, a Skyship slacker, and Cassius Stevenson, a young Surface operative, cross paths when they both venture into forbidden territory in pursuit of Pearls. Their chance encounter triggers an unexpected reaction, endowing each boy with remarkable—and dangerous—abilities that their respective governments would stop at nothing to possess. Enemies thrust together with a common goal, Jesse and Cassius make their way to the ruins of Seattle to uncover the truth about their new powers, the past they didn’t know they shared, and a shocking secret about the Pearls.

“Skyship Academy is one of those books you’ll read straight through if at all possible. I absolutely devoured it from page one. And even though the story itself kept me captivated, I think the characters became the part I Ioved the most. A definite must read!”

–James Dashner, New York Times bestselling author of THE MAZE RUNNER and The 13th Reality series

And here is Nick!

Don't you hate...

When you cannot finish a book?  I feel like there is something wrong with me!  Well that book was Chime by Franny Billingsley.  I know it just won the Boston Globe/Horn Book award and what not, but I just couldn't finish it.

Is there a book that you've looked forward to and just couldn't finish it?  Or even a book that everyone loves and you just don't?  I know that happens to me quite a bit.  Maybe I'm just very picky in my stories?  Who knows?

I did just finish Stacey Kade's The Ghost and the Goth and I think Will Killian is my new favorite crushworthy guy.  I just loved him so much.  Plus, Alona Dare was a great character too!  Swoonworthy, those two.  Anyway, that review will be coming soon, too.  ARGH, just way too many reviews to write!  I'm just having fun reading, honestly.  Also, doesn't that girl look like Veronica Mars best friend (who's name I think was Alona as well?) I think so!

I did just finish a reread of The Hunger Games Trilogy.   I really enjoyed the ebb and flow of reading them all together as opposed to a year apart.  I was also able to appreciate Peeta a bit more this go round.  I'm still a Gale gal and understand the decisions that Katniss made, I think the epilogue just ties things up a bit too nicely.  Especially for a book that was as violent and timely as this was.  Sometimes tying things up neatly with a bow, aka Breaking Dawn, is not the way to go.  Grant it, Suzanne Collins killed off popular characters, would it have been better to have Katniss go the way of Haymitch? Not as a drunk, per se, but alone with her thoughts and memories?

Ah well, these are my thoughts.

Happy Summer!

Life, in a nutshell

So obviously I haven't been blogging or reviewing.  However, I have been reading!  And like Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing!".  I've just finished reading all of The Jessica Darling series.  Loved, loved, loved, loved them! I've also read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, and I did not like that one at all.  It just didn't connect with me.  It was an advance copy so there were some clunky passages.  Hey, it happens.  I'm not going to like every book I read.

I'm currently reading Chime by Franny Billingsley.  It's an interesting book, the language and tone are gorgeous, but I'm only 1/4 of the way thru and it better pick up soon!  I have also joined the gym!!!! I'm very happy with that and I've been pacing myself (I'm only in my second week) and I have good and bad days.  I find that if I get on the treadmill and plug in my earbuds and have either my nook or a book with me, I can go to town for at least 45 minutes.  I really need to lose the belly that I've had since the Lilygirl was born (almost 8 years ago!).

Hubby has been traveling like mad to Phoenix.  He's generally gone for about two weeks at a time so life can get a bit hectic with him not around.  Especially now that the school year is winding down, I'm going to be alone quite a bit with the Lilygirl.  But thankfully she is such a great reader!  We'll do some reading programs together through our local library.

I will be having a couple of giveaways soon.  I just need to get my head on straight.  I have to go to post office and I haven't and I keep kicking myself in the head for that (well not literally I'm not that flexible yet!)

I had a great time at BEA and met so many great people and had dinner with the cream of the crop too! I got to have dinner with Cindy Pon! Gretchen McNeil! Shana Silver! It was incredible.  I also went to a SoHo Press party that was hosted by Daniel Ehrenhaft.  It was an editors, agents and authors dream.  I finally got to meet the lovely, if slightly, neurotic Bennett Madison!  I love him.  And he better be writing! ;p  Of course Barry Lyga was there and I just love him too.  He was with an editor from Scholastic and she was so sweet and funny.

I got to spend time with Janet Gurtler.  I had dinner with her before the SoHo Press Party and it was so nice to just sit back and relax and talk about everything and nothing at the same time.  I took her to this quaint little Irish Pub that I love in Times Square.  She came up to my room at the Marriott Marquis and we waiting for Shana and Matt Blackstone.  (Matt has a book coming out very soon and I encourage everyone to look out for it.  It's called A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie.  Which I think is just about the coolest title in the world.  I completely enjoyed meeting Matt and I wish him all the luck in the world with his debut novel.  I have a feeling it will be a huge success!  Just look at that cover!


I do have some reviews I have to write.  I just haven't been feeling it lately.  I mean I enjoy reading the books, but reviewing them is so difficult. I don't want to sound the same over and over and over again, you know?  One of my biggest thing is that I know exactly what I want to write and how I want it to sound, but then when I start, my brain gets all jumbled and I can't think of the right word! It gets so frustrating.

I hope everyone out there is reading up a storm.  This is a great time of year to get that reading done that you've been wanting to do for ages.  Right now it is pouring out and the rain is so soothing and refreshing that a great book is the only thing missing.  So hop to it!  Tell me what you are reading? Do you love it?  Not so much? Reading it because a friend recommended it?  Is there a favorite out there that you absolutely love and you like to reread it every so often?

Darkness in Young Adult Books

There has been a lot of discussion about a Wall Street Journal article that states that young adult books are "so dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things".


The article starts with a mother looking for a book for her 13 year old child.  First of all, said mother really was in the wrong aisle.  She should've been looking in the middle grade/children's aisle.  The books that she was looking at are specifically targeted to 14+, 15+ and 16+.  When I think of young adult, I think of a teen about the age of sixteen to roughly around 22/23 years of age.  I would never consider a 12, 13, or even a 14 and some  15 year olds as young adult.  Now obviously some children are able to handle the darker books and I would never say they shouldn't read it.  However, this is also a great time for parents to be proactive and read what their children are reading.


When my daughter was 13, she came home with the book Cut by Patricia McCormick.  I read the book after she did so I had an idea as to what she was reading.  Now this wasn't a school book, but one she got from the school library and read on her own.  This story is a hard, tough story about a teen who has is so stressed they she starts cutting herself.  The main character in the book is 15.  But the book is written for older teens.  Even I could figure that out when I read it.


A parent at the library was upset that her 12 year old daughter took out The Duff.  Thankfully the librarian informed the mom that the room where she took the book was the young adult room and not intended for 12 year olds.  That it is up to the mom to see what she is requesting from library.


I'm also one that is not so fond of labels.  Shouldn't all books be available to all? But I think as parents, we need to be proactive in parenting our children and not let books, tv, videogames do the job that we took on when we had our children.  There is a plethora of great books out there for age appropriate children.  All we have to point them in the right direction.  If my 7 yo (and I'm hypothetically aging her to 12 for my purpose), brought a book home (she's 12 now), say The Hunger Games.  I would first ask myself if she's ready to read a book like this.  Would she benefit by waiting on reading it when she was 16/17?  Able to understand the world that Suzanne Collins created. 


There are thousands of kids out there that lead dark, dark lives and perhaps when they read a book about cutting or eating disorders, they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Realize that there is someone out there that feels the same way they do.  A lot of these book also have resources at the back of the book for those same teens to find the help they need.


I understand that Meghan Cox Gurdon has a right to discuss her unhappiness with the state of YA books, but she should also realize that she was opening a can of worms for people who are for and against the genre.


The young adult world came out in protest of the Wall Street Journal on twitter with the hashtag #yasaves and let me tell you, some of the stories by teens, adults and just fans of reading was amazing.

I want to marry this cover

This is probably one of the best covers ever!!  Ash has these kissable lips that are just begging, BEGGING to be samooched!  *sigh* only in fiction are men drop-dead gorgeous.  So this book has a release date of October 25, 2011... seems so far away from now.  But if you go to Harlequin Teen e-book store you can get  Summer's Crossing for free! I linked it.

I've come home from NYC pretty sick so I'm holding off on my BEA post until I feel a bit better.  So keep stopping by, you never know when I'm going to post! (Neither do I actually!)