Bibliophile Brouhaha

REVIEW: Jellicoe Road (or, I feel like I've cheated on Melina Marchetta)

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Jellicoe Road
by Melina Marchetta (website | twitter)
Released: 03.09.2010 (U.S.)
Publishers: HarperCollins, 492 pages (U.S.paperback)
Awards & Honors: Australian Book Industry Award Nominee for Book of the Year for Older Children (2007), Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2008), Printz Award (2009), Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2007), W.A. Young Readers Book Award (WAYRA) for Older Readers (2008), W.A. Young Readers Book Award (WAYRA) for Older Readers (2008), ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2009)

Source: Giveaway I won through the Aussie YA Reading Challenge 2011

In this lyrical, absorbing, award-winning novel, nothing is as it seems, and every clue leads to more questions.

At age eleven, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother. At fourteen, she ran away from boarding school, only to be tracked down and brought back by a mysterious stranger. Now seventeen, Taylor's the reluctant leader of her school's underground community, whose annual territory war with the Townies and visiting Cadets has just begun. This year, though, the Cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, and Taylor can't avoid his intense gaze for long. To make matters worse, Hannah, the one adult Taylor trusts, has disappeared. But if Taylor can piece together the clues Hannah left behind, the truth she uncovers might not just settle her past, but also change her future (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: Confession time: I have an Author Crush on Melina Marchetta. Oh, it's amazing. You ever feel like you know an author just by reading the books she writes? That's me and Melina. We could be sitting across from each other in a cafe, look up and see each other. She'd wave, and I'd wave back, because you know, we know each other, the author and her reader. And then she'd look at me like I was crazy, and then I'd realize that she was waving at the person behind me. And I'd feel like an idiot.

And I do. Feel like an idiot that is. Because me and Jellicoe Road? We didn't work out. And now I feel like I've book cheated on Melina, the author who brought me true love with Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son.

How? How did this happen? This book is almost universally praised. And here's the odd thing: it still made me bawl like a little baby. This book haunted my thoughts after I closed the back cover. I thought about it all night. I was deeply emotionally invested in Taylor's welfare. And I hated it, hated that, except for Jonah, Taylor didn't get a break once in the book. I wanted to wring this book's neck like a chicken and stick it in the oven, but not to eat it. I just wanted to make sure the book was really dead so it would stop pecking at my mind. Because it's still haunting me. I've got a ghost book chicken standing behind me, and it keeps following. Which is why I am writing this review. I'd originally planned on rereading Jellicoe Road later in the year, thinking that a second go would be just the thing. I think I still will, but I have to put this one to rest for the time being by writing it out.

The prologue? Heartbreaking and beautiful. It sold me, and convinced me to read the entire story in one sitting. And then the confusion started. The story is told primarily from Taylor's point-of-view, but mixed in at a steady pace are these italicized stories that don't seem to have anything to do with the present. Since they didn't seem to have anything to do with Taylor, I found myself in a 'what-the-hell' state because of them. When the connection was made, I was too far into the book to really care about the characters much except for backstory. Which is a shame since the backstory is majorly connected to Taylor and who she is. I would've never guessed it from the first half of the book, which centers on a territory war between Taylor's school, the townie kids, and the cadets from a military school who camp nearby for part of the year. The territory war had a serious tone to it, like Richard Cormier's The Chocolate War. It felt very dark and ominous to me, and it was over something that I would have loved had it been more 'capture-the-flag', but instead, it was a serious issue where people got hurt. Mixed in were Taylor's reoccurring dreams about a mysterious boy, and I was at loss as to where the plot was going. All I knew was that Taylor was adrift in a large state of confusion and emotional turmoil, and the one adult she could depend on (her house leader, Hannah) had disappeared without a way to contact her.

While some of the humor that Machetta so masterfully can mix into realistic and difficult situations started appearing in the second half of the book, by that time I was. . . reading just to finish it, because I did want to find out where this was going and what would happed to Taylor. She's a hell of a character - tough, anti-social, practical, and has aching well under her heart so well-covered that she doesn't even know it's there until Hannah splits. And I really, truly loved her. I realize that love-interest Jonah gets a lot of praise from readers, but the real hero here is Taylor. No person should face everything she had thrown at her, and while, yes, this does happen, taking it all in one book is what kept me up after finishing it. I would write you a list of all the horrifying things that she had to deal with, but it would be spoils galore. By the time I got to one of the final things, I just threw up my hands and said, "Really! Really?!" It was punch, after punch, after punch. And I know it's a bit bizarre to talk about characters like they're real people, but there could be a real Taylor. I'm sure there is. I just kept thinking about how she is going to have to deal with theses losses again and again throughout her life, and my heart just kept breaking for her more and more. And that's why I was angry. Because no matter how good she can get her life to be, it's never going to come close to the life she deserves.

I vow to read this book again, I keep feeling like there must be something I missed, some redemptive quality that would tell me that Taylor's future would bring the love and heartbreak of Hannah, her parents and their friends' full circle, that I could bet that her future would be better supported and nurtured than her past. Based on past precedent, I couldn't, and more than anything else, that's the thing that's kept this book haunting me: doubt that Hannah will get some measure of happiness in her life.

Quotes:

"It becomes one of those defining moments in your life, when your mother does that. It's not as if I don't forgive her, because I do. It's like those horror films where the hero gets attacked by the zombie and he has to convince the heroine to shoot him, because in ten seconds' time he won't be who he was anymore. He'll have the same face but no soul. I don't know who my mother was before the drugs and all the rest, but once in a while during our splintered time together I saw flashes of a passion beyond anything I'll ever experience."

-page 20

***

"It's like she never really managed to grab hold of me with a firmness that spoke of never letting go."

-page 190

***

"'Don't listen to Santangelo. Once he was convinced that a girl he was going out with looked eactly like Cameron Diaz and, I swear to God, my father looks more like Cameron Diaz.'"

-page 221

***

"I remember love. It's what I have to keep on reminding myself. It's funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that's why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It's not the pain they're getting over, it's the love"

-pages 261-62

REVIEW: Crossed by Ally Condie

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Crossed
Matched #2
by Ally Condie (website | twitter)

Released: 11.01.2011

367 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Source: library

In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever. (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: This middle book unfortunately turned out to be middle of the road for me. I truly enjoyed its predecessor, Matched, and I eagerly looked forward to seeing how Cassia would develop further in book two. Sadly, I think she went stagnant. I know middle books often act as bridges, but wow, characters can hop off the bridge at some point, right? With a limited number of major players, very few twists, and little character development, Crossed turned out to be a prettily written, but ultimately, superfluous book in the trilogy. And trust me, I am very disappointed that it was as I thought Cassia was turning into someone more kick-ass in the first book.

Don't get me wrong. I don't need all my female leads to be full of charisma and feel they are **different**. I like the quiet girls with invisible steel. In book one, it seemed like Cassia was gaining a growing awareness of her world, its origins and limitations. While her confusion and attractions to both Ky and Xander were very significant parts of the story, I thought that storyline paralleled Cassia's growth as a character and her burgeoning dissatisfaction with the Society. The bulk of Crossed was made predominately of her quest to find Ky. The other part of the book focuses on her and the other characters' ponderings about the rebellion against the Society, called the Rising, and its fabled leader, the Pilot.

The 'yea' things about the book are the alternating first-person points-of-view from Ky and Cassia. Loved hearing Ky's thoughts directly from him and learning a bit more about his background and secrets. However, the lack of action mixed with Condie's lovely and lyrical prose made most of the book feel anti-climatic and seem like a serious study on constant introspection. Almost EVERY LITTLE THING said was thought upon by either Ky or Cassia. So, if Ky said paragraph A in Cassia's chapter, then Cassia in turn thought about it, and often, it was simply a reinterpretation of what Ky already said, as if she was retelling herself so she could really soak it in. And vice versa when it was Ky's chapters. A little of this is lovely, particularly with Condie's soft and impressionistic writing style. A book full of this understated narrative with a steady and quiet plot made for dull reading at times.

I will still read book three. I've read the first two, and I want to know what happens. I realize that three books is a nice number for a series, but like Lauren DeStefano's Wither, I think the plot of the entire series would have been better served if it was limited to two books. At the very least, I think Crossed could have been shortened, thus creating a more urgent and exciting plot while keeping Condie's lyrical writing in tact.

Quotes:

"It's been so long since I've let myself feel anger that I don't just feel it. It covers my mouth and I swallow it down, the taste sharp and metal as tough I'm gnawing through foilware."

-Ky, page 4

***

“In the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.”
-Ky, page 21

***

"'If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well take their words out of the dirt or try to snatch them from the wind."

-Cassia, page 60

***

"Love has different shades. Like the way I loved Cassia when I thought she'd never love me. The way I loved her on the Hill. The way I love her now that she came into the canyon for me. It's different. Deeper. I thought I loved her and wanted her before, but as we walk through the canyon together I realize this could be more than a new shade. A whole new color."
-Ky, page 234

***

"The he shifts a little and points to a page in the open book before us. "There," he says. "River. That's one of the words we need," and the way he says it, the way his mouth looks an his voice sounds, makes me want to leave these papers alone and spend my days in this cave or in one of the little houses or down by the water, trying only to solve the mystery of him."
-Cassia, page 264

REVIEW: You Against Me by Jenny Downham

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:09:00 +0000

You Against Me
by Jenny Downham

Released on 12.02.2010 (U.K.)/09.13.2011 (U.S.)

413 pages
Publisher: David Fickling Books (website)
Source: gift from family

If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? If your brother's been accused of a terrible crime and you're the main witness, then you banish all doubt and defend him. Isn't that what families do? When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her at a party, his world of work and girls begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the crime, but says he didn't do it, her world of revision, exams and fitting in at a new school begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. Brave and unflinching, this is a novel of extraordinary skillfulness and almost unbearable tension. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love - for one's family and for another. (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: There's a lot to really like in this one, and even some moments to really, truly love. You Against Me is a well-written and poignant book about the people who stand behind, beside and against both the victim and the accused of a heinous crime. It's rare for me to appreciate what I view primarily as a plot-driven book. I was surprised myself, but Jenny Downham has crafted a sensitive and realistic story about what happens when two people, two families and an entire school face each off and take sides over an accusation of rape. Bear with me. I feel the need to use bullet points on this one:

The Good Stuff

every character is realistic, and not a single one is angel or a demon. They are fully rounded characters regardless of their importance in the story. Downham nails the notion that there are no easy decisions and everyone is susceptible to bad decisions and good actions
going with that same theme, Downham really shows through character interaction that slippery slope question of what is good-matured teasing/flirting and what is harassment, and it seems like each individual has their own definition of what is going 'too far'. She truly shows through her characters how society views the treatment of women in many, many shades of grey. And quite a bit is really ugly.
Mikey and Ellie are fabulous foibles to each other. Their families' circumstances are incorporated into their characters with such good planning that this also turns into a story beyond rape and into one that also draws distinctions about social and class differences
I love the growth of Mikey in particular! The beautiful, touching scenes between him and Ellie were absolutely some of the best parts of the book. And the ones with him and another girl really show his none too savory characteristics.
Ellie is amazing. I want her for a daughter and a friend. It's not that she doesn't screw up, it's that she comes full circle and eventually gets to where she needs to go

The Eh Stuff

Part of the reason that I am using bullet points for this review is because I failed to become fully emotionally involved in this story. I read it one sitting. As much as I appreciate the book and the plot, there lacked an essential hook for me. The 'it' glow that takes it from being a book that I like to one that I love wasn't there.
I really appreciated that this book showed the 'other' people affected by rape, but I think it would have been a fuller, more emotional story if both Mikey's sister and Ellie's brother had bits told from their points-of-view. Perhaps then it would've have been too much, but I struggled with finding an emotional center that tied me to the book the whole way through, but not including the people directly accused and primarily affected made the story feel like it had something missing.
Didn't buy the ending. After everything, I just don't see how. . .

Do I still think you should read this one despite me 'eh' points? You bet. Although I didn't love it, given that I STILL liked this one even though it's carried by the plot means it's made of WIN for you good plot lovers. You Against Me has clear, meaningful writing that will make you think, question, be angry and give thanks.

Weekly News Roundup ~ 01.12.2012

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Awards

From the Examiner, "Moira Young Wins U.K.’s Costa Book Award for Children"
And here is an opinion piece from The Guardian, "Moira Young's Costa win is a victory for dystopias"
The Morning News announced its shortlist for the 2012 Tournament of Books

Post To Note

Bloggers should pay attention to the news surrounding this bit of proposed legislation. From Copyblogger, "The Problem with SOPA (And How to Stop It)"
I REALLY loved reading this! From The Bygone Bureau, "In the Land of the Non-Reader:
Jonathan Gourlay stops reading books. This is what happens to him"

Movies & TV

From Entertainment Weekly's The Shelf Life, "'Harry Potter' director Chris Columbus to write forthcoming fantasy-adventure series -- EXCLUSIVE" and from Variety, "Chris Columbus has 'Secrets'"
From HuffPost Entertainment, "Movie On-Screen Couples: Rupert Grint, Emma Watson The Biggest Earners"
From HuffPost Entertainment, "Charlize Theron In 'Snow White & The Huntsman': New Still Shows Evil (PHOTO)"
From Digital Media Wire, "Alloy Digital Extends Young Adult Reach by Acquiring Generate" and BetaBeat, "Alloy, to Further Dominate Young Adult Market with ‘Next Generation Media’ Factory"

General News

Really liked this New York Times article on the modern relationship between authors and readers, "Why Authors Tweet"
From NPR (includes audio), who spoke to Walter Dean Myers, the nation's latest ambassador for young people's literature, about his appointment and what he wants to accomplish, "To Do Well In Life, You Have To 'Read Well'"
I just really loved this interview from The Economist with the president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, "Why does art have to be mainstream to be significant?"
From Entertainment Weekly's The Shelf Life, "See the trailer for 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green -- EXCLUSIVE"
From The Independent, "As celebrities choose Amazon, is this the end for publishers?"
From FoxBusiness, "Barnes & Noble Considering Sale of Nook Business"
From The New York Times, "Barnes & Noble to Offer Nook Discount to Subscribers of 2 Publications"
From The Millions, "The Soundtrack of Our Books"
From Salon, "What Occupy can learn from the Hunger Games"
From Reuters, "Amazon, Indiana strike state sales tax deal"
Interesting. The happy bookgirl in me dances, but the cynic asks, "What's the catch?" Sorry, I've read Fast Food Nation too many times. From GalleyCat, "McDonald’s to Put 9 Million Books in UK Happy Meals"
MTV revealed the cover to Rebel Heart, the sequel to Blood Red Road by Moira Young, "Peep The EXCLUSIVE Cover For 'Blood Red Road' Sequel 'Rebel Heart'" Is this our Jack?

From YouTube
THE TRAILER FOR THE NEW KIRSTY EAGAR BOOK RELEASED!!!! AHHHHHH!!

Author Jessica Martinez offers a grand synopsis of her novel, VIRTUOSITY, a story of love and addiction woven into the lives of musically gifted teenagers.

and the trailer for There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff was released - the book is out on 01.24.2012

Tempting Tuesday ~ Chapters 5-8

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Woot! Here we are for week two of our Some Girls Bite read-along! Hope you enjoyed last week's answers. Tina from Tina's Book Reviews is hosting this week with the questions for Chapters 5-8.

1. In what is a make you blush, steamy scene in the book- Chapter 5 has Ethan and Merit sharing a few hot moments after Merit's hunger strikes...that is until Ethan becomes a total cad! What do you think of him so far? Strong, masterful vampire, conceited playboy.....lover boy in disguise?

MUHAHAHAHA, oh Ethan, you friggin' dumbass. If vamps are going to go public, perhaps they ought to familiarize themselves with modern attitudes, no? Poor Merit, being asked to stand in as an official mistress? I'd be gobsmacked, too! I generally like Ethan, but this is not one of his better moments. I mean, c'mon, ewwwwwww! Nothing says love like putting you on the sexual satisfaction payroll. How romantic! I guess 'relationship' is not in a Master Vampire's lexicon. I'm sure he didn't think of it as an insult, but man, mistress? That's cold.

Maybe he should've started with coffee?

2. Merit and Mallory begin some major training in these next few chapters, resulting in cool Katana Sword facts and Ninja moves. What is the most physically challenging or adrenaline fueled event/activity you have participated in?

Don't laugh, but I for real hurt myself doing Pilates. I was lying on my back doing some sort of leg stretches where you keep your leg straight and gently pull it towards your face as much as you can, and I heard and felt a pop! I immediately felt pain behind my knee (and nausea - I don't deal well with this stuff), and I couldn't straighten my leg. It swelled up and I had to have an MRI. Turned out that I pulled my meniscus in my knee and tore some tissue. It's okay know but acts up when my knee is in one position for too long.

Haha, that wasn't the most mentally challenging, though! That one just had the worst outcome! I actually used to rock climb - the shoes, the chalk and the harness, and that kicked my ass, big time. It used my entire body AND helped me deal a little with my fear of heights. I had to zip line off the top of a tower, too, and THAT was the most challenging. I was scared to death. I was bawling my eyes out at the top, and a group of five-year olds shamed me into going through with it with their chanting: "Go, Lindsay, Go!" Color me humbled.

Speaking of katana swords, here's a lil snippet of a Merit inspired conversation with my hubs from last week. Enjoy:

Me: So I think I want to take a self-defense or beginner's martial arts class
Le Hubs: like Roseanne? Poke eyes and knee some guy in the groin? But seriously, why?
Me: because I've wanted always to (kick ass, that is). And you won't let me have a katana so this is the next best thing.
Le Hubs: fine with me
Me: If I'm good at it, can I get a sword?
Le Hubs: no swords
Me: you have a gun, and we have a boning knife. I should have a sword to smite mine enemies with
Le Hubs: I don't have a gun...I have a Kentucky rifle that takes about 20 minutes to load and is 50 pounds...and it's not even in the house
Me: So what's your dysfunctional gun have to do with my kick-ass sword? If I am going to be a proper samurai, I need a sword. You can't argue with logic, babe. It just is.

I rest my case.

3. Mallory and Catcher have sparks so intense they almost fly off the page.....what do you think of this cozy couple? Did you like the insta-love between them? Do they add to the story?

That wasn't love, that was totally lust! And Cather, wow! At least Mallory uses her lust judiciously, hehe. I think it became love, though. It was a convenient storyline, but it was a hilarious one, so I didn't mind. Like Mallory, I get the allure of a guy who won't put up with bullshit (hence, my husband). Plus, um, Cather. . . yeah, boyfriend needs his own series, don't you think?

4. Lets talk Bff's....Mallory is hands down a terrific friend to Merit, the girls relationship is real, down to earth and fun....not to mention hysterical. What is your favorite memory or favorite thing to do with your bff? Feel free to share pics!

HAHAHA, I wouldn't tell some stories publicly in a million years! BUT, I had a grand adventure with her when we were on a school trip to Quebec City in Canada during high school. We were seniors, and we snuck away to this beautiful, picture perfect little cafe where we had wine and desert. Neither of really had much alcohol before, so we felt like we were being so bad, especially since we would've been suspended if caught. And, as we were in a little French cafe, we felt like we were so sophisticated, as well. Ahhhh, I miss those days! Still one of my fondest memories, and anytime we are together and we see a print of Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace At Night, we just look at each other and smile. Over ten years later, and she's still my bestie.

5. Things are starting to heat up in the mystery department...the set up at Red, Morgan's flirty appearance.... Catchers vague answers......as correlation day gets closer for Merit do you think someone is out to get her...or maybe recruit her to another house? Or PS- feed her some more food...because goodnight this girl likes to eat!!!

Honestly, I had no idea as I read, and I actually thought the connections between it all turned out to be one of the weaker points of the plot. Did I think someone was out to get Merit? Seemed that way to me. I really have never bought that her being attacked was a random act of violence, so we shall see!

That's it for the questions on chapters 5-8! Join us next Tuesday for more Chicagoland Vampires goodness! Also, be sure to also check out Tina's request for help and support of her best friend's family as they care for their beautiful, but terminally ill daughter. Please keep them in your thoughts.

GIVEAWAY + Q&A with Alex Givarry, Author of "From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant"

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Alex Gilvarry might not be the typical author you read if your normal fare is YA. He's debut novelist and his new book, From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, hits the shelves today . However, his work is creating major buzz with its 'coming to America' story infused with politics, satire and a heady dose of fashion. I'm a third of the way into the book, and twenty-something Filipino implant Boyet Hernandez is charming me with his humor, naievete, and his devotion to succes and all things beautiful. I'm happy to host Mr. Gilvarry on Bibliophile Brouhaha today. Be sure to read to the end for a chance to win a copy of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant and to view the book's trailer! For more, check out this nice piece from The New York Times, "The Tale of a ‘Fashion Terrorist’". My full review is coming soon!

Q: How did you come up with the idea of having a fashion designer get caught up in a terrorist plot?

A: When I thought of the book I was working for a children’s publisher in SoHo where I was surrounded by fashionable people—models, designers, boutiques—and my girlfriend was a model, therefore I spent a lot of time at fashion shows and parties. I was an observer, really. This was during 2004-2007, which, in my mind, were some of the most violent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every morning there was a report on the radio of the war against terror. Guantanamo was also ever-present, specifically the stories of innocent men mistakenly locked up or sold for bounties. Men imprisoned without due process. This really struck a cord with me, to the point of obsession. So when I started writing the novel, the two worlds met in my mind and somehow they made sense to me as a storyteller. The plot grew out of the convergence of these two worlds.

Q: This story was, by turns, funny and frightening. How did you balance these two extremes without losing the impact of either?

A: That's the line you walk in satire. A comedy needs to know when to be serious for it to have any lasting impact, emotionally or politically. Lenny Bruce, Joseph Heller, Gary Shteyngart. Along with laughs, they're hitting a nerve that’s wired into some kind of truth. Now while there's nothing funny about what happens at Guantanamo Bay, the situation is absurd, it almost sounds made up… It feels like fiction, but it is real. I just needed to know when to hold back on the funny and simply describe the place and the state of the men who are there. The prisoners as well as the guards. One of the characters, a guard named Cunningham, has several funny exchanges with the narrator, Boy, his prisoner. It's the situation which remains frightening. In my novel it was important for me to have fear and comedy side by side.

Q: Why did you decided to make Boy an immigrant? What do you feel his experience as someone new to America added to his story?

A: A lot of my favorite novels are about immigrants, people on the periphery, trying to get in. This is what Boy, the narrator, is trying to do in the fashion world, and through a turn of circumstances winds up a suspected terrorist. I also wanted to write about the Philippines, where my mother is from, and where some of this book takes place. Because the Philippines has a lot to do with America. When I go there everyone speaks English, what I described in the book as an “American English.” I wanted to touch on America's hand in that country, and more broadly what America means to a Filipino man like Boy. I wanted to imagine America today through an immigrant's eyes in the aftermath of September 11, not just for the purpose of the novel, but for myself too.

Q: What sort of research did you do while writing this novel, both with regard to the fashion industry and the life of Gitmo detainees?

A: Well I didn't go to Guantanamo. It’s not a place where they let novelists in. So I read anything I could. Books by lawyers who represent detainees—Clive Stafford Smith, Joseph Marguiles. Also memoirs by former detainees such as “Enemy Combatant” by Moazzam Begg and “Five Years of My Life” by Murat Kurnaz. These are some of the most important books about America written in the last decade in my opinion. On the fashion side I simply read about women's fashion. Boy is a designer of women's wear, and so I read what I thought he would read. Fashion magazines and biographies. All of this helped make everything more real and suspend disbelief.

Q: Boy makes sure to tell everyone that, though he is a fashion designer, he isn’t gay. How did you go about confronting other stereotypes that might creep into characters like those in this book?

A: I love narrators that lie to you much more than the ones that tell you the truth. It was important to me that Boy be in a sort of denial with the reader, and himself, yet to project a machismo attitude that we find in many American Bildungsroman tales. Boy’s story is not so much a manual of how to be a man, but how to be a man if you're a designer of women's wear. He's not your stereotypical fashion designer. Really, I don’t see him as straight or gay. In the end of the book he ends up falling in love with a transvestite. I saw Boy as a different kind of man. A more modern man. Like David Bowie in the 1970s.

A: I share a childhood with the hero of my novel, even though he’s a fashion designer from Manila and I’m a novelist from Staten Island. Like my hero, I wasn’t a big reader when I was a kid—YA fiction wasn’t as tremendously diverse as it is now—but when I finally fell in love with books as a teenager, the age of the protagonist didn’t matter to me. Good stories transcend any genre and tend to stick around. Here are some of the books that shaped my head and prepared me to write novels.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster & Jules Feiffer

Initially, it was the art of Jules Feiffer that drew me in. Illustrations were a break for a kid like me who couldn’t sit still for very long, but Feiffer’s art reacts so well with Norton Juster’s text. If I ever write a YA or fantasy novel, this will be my guide. Eventually I watched Feiffer’s Carnal Knowledge, which had a huge impact on me, dramatically. The film was a lesson in good dialogue.

Getting Even by Woody Allen

One of the first story collections I ever owned. This is how I learned the power of comedic timing, at least on paper. There are plenty of classic Woody one-liners, but the way he litters them throughout the narrative is just masterful. Especially good are “A Look at Organized Crime” and “A Twenties Memory.”

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

This is a novel of class and immigrants in 1940s Montreal, following the young entrepreneur and social climber, Duddy Kravitz. Like the hero of my novel, Duddy is driven, and sometimes blinded, by the need to succeed. He’s the classic underdog, perhaps Richler’s alter-ego, and he makes an appearance in several other Richler novels.

The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart

I was twenty-one when this novel came out, and I thought to myself, finally, here is a man writing the kind of books I want to read. The rise and fall of Valdimir Girshkin, from New York to Prague, from lowly clerk to feared gangster, is a classic for our time. Shteyngart is a master of tempo, comedic timing, and language of Nabokovian scale. I later got to work for him as a research assistant, where he taught me much about the writer’s life. Work, drink, therapy—it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Well, Alex just put that last one on my list! As promised, please find the book trailer below in which the author pokes fun at himself and the book a bit (disclosure: language - I wouldn't play this one at work (like I did - whoops)).

From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant
by Alex Gilvarry

High fashion and homeland security clash in a masterful debut.

Boyet Hernandez is a small man with a big American dream when he arrives in New York in 2002, fresh out of design school in Manila. With dubious financing and visions of Fashion Week runways, he sets up shop in a Brooklyn toothpick factory, pursuing his goals with monkish devotion (distractions of a voluptuous undergrad not withstanding). But mere weeks after a high-end retail order promises to catapult his (B)oy label to the big time, there's a knock on the door in the middle of the night: the flamboyant ex-Catholic Boyet is brought to Gitmo, handed a Koran, and locked away indefinitely on suspicion of being linked to a terrorist plot. Now, from his 6' x 8' cell, Boy prepares for the trial of his life with this intimate confession, even as his belief in American justice begins to erode.

With a nod to Junot Diaz and a wink to Gary Shteyngart, Alex Gilvarry's first novel explores some of the most serious issues of our time with dark, eviscerating wit.

A native of Staten Island, New York. His novel has been selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, and an Indiebound Next pick. He's been a Norman Mailer Fellow, and his writing has appeared in The Paris Review and on NPR. He lives in Brooklyn and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

****GIVEAWAY TIME****

This contest is open to all U.S. and Canadian addresses.

To win a brand-spanking new copy of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant courtesy of Penguin, leave a comment below with some reaction to what you read in the Q&A session above. Be sure to leave your name and email address, as well.

For an extra entry, tweet this post and leave a direct link.

Giveaway will be open until Wednesday. January 18th at noon EST.

IF YOU have trouble posting a comment, please email me ASAP at bibliophile.brouhaha@gmail.com OR tweet me @bibliobrouhaha.

GOOD LUCK!

Weekly News Roundup ~ 01.05.2012

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

In Memoriam

From the New York Times, "Simms Taback, Author of Wry Children’s Books, Dies at 79"

Awards

The 2011 Cybils Finalists have been announced! Here's the list for the Young Adult category:

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Frost by Marianna Baer
Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen
Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

and for the Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult) category:

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1) by Susan Ee
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Misfit by Jon Skovron
Red Glove (Curse Workers, Book 2) by Holly Black
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
The Shattering by Karen Healey

Blog Post to Note

An excellent and well-balanced reaction piece from the The Compulsive Reader, "Reading Rants: Balancing Amazon and the Local Indie"

TV & Movie News

From The Daily Blam, "Ender’s Game Signs Abigail Breslin as Valentine, AramisKnight as Bean & Five Other Young Actors"
From Entertainment Weekly, "Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin set to play 'Ender's Game'"
From FirstShowing.net, "Listen: Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars Sing for 'The Hunger Games'
From Salon, "And the next “Tintin” is … Gregory Maguire, R.L. Stine, Sherman Alexie and other authors predict the next post-"War Horse" teen blockbuster"
From CinemaBlend, "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Director May Go To Heck For MGM"
From MovieWeb, "Six The Hunger Games Photos with Lenny Kravitz and Woody Harrelson"
From Moviefone, "Hunger Games' Crash Course: Everything You Need To Know About Katniss Everdeen and More"

General News

Since he stepped in it the other week, columnist Farhad Manjoo is back on Slate with this, "Independent Bookstores Are Not Doomed"
From Engadget, "Amazon stops blocking rival e-reading apps on Kindle Fire"
From World Literature Today, "8 Featured Author Picks: Favorite Children's Literature"
From the New York Times, "Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War"
From MTV's Hollywood Crush, "12 YA Novels We Can't Wait To Read In 2012"
From LATimes, "25 literary resolutions for 2012. What's yours?"
Really enjoyed reading this - from the LA Times Jacket Copy, "Not just for kids: Andrea Cremer discusses 'Bloodrose'"
From Publisher's Weekly, "Harper Charges Open Road with Infringement in E-Release of 'Julie of the Wolves'"
Guest post by author Cassandra Clare from the Speakeasy blog at the Wall Street Journal, "The Secret Worlds Teens Hide From Adults"
From USAToday, "Paranormal romance writer Amanda Hocking scored with e-books"
From i09, "If Famous Writers Had Written Twilight…"
Great article from the New York Times on the recently named national ambassador for young people’s literature , "Children’s Book Envoy Defines His Mission"
From USAToday, "Cover reveal of Cassandra Clare's 'City of Lost Souls'". Article also has the prologue!

My Book Boyfriend ~ Roarke

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

My Book Boyfriend is a Wednesday meme hosted by The Unread Reader, in which we drool over fictional male characters who make us swoon. Please, come join our SqueeGirl infatuations and show us your favorite men of lit!

My boyfriend this week is so hot he only needs one name. I've been dishing into J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts's In Death series on and off since the late Summer, and I can't get enough or keep my metaphorical hands off the enigmatic, the sophisticated, and just possibly, the reformed ROARKE.

Official Statistics

Date of Birth: October 6, 2024
Residence: 222 Central Park West
Roarke Industries Headquarters: 500 Fifth Avenue
Established Roarke Industries in 2042

Physical characteristics

Eve looks up his statistics in Naked in Death. They are as follows:
Height: 6 feet, 2 inches
Age: approximately 34 years old
Weight: 173 pounds
Eye color: blue
Hair color: black

Roarke is from the back allies of Dublin. He's a former thief and murderer and is a successful businessman. Fiercely loyal to a select few, he loves Lt. Eve Dallas with everything he's got and helps humanize her to readers. In a future world where everything is fake and manufactured, he prefers the old school finer things in life that have stood the test of time.

“I want to see you again." He stopped, took her face in his hands. "I need to see you again."

Her pulse jumped, as if it had nothing to do with the rest of her. "Roarke, what's going on here?"

"Lieutenant." He leaned forward, touched his lips to hers. "indications are we're having a romance.”

-Naked In Death

My pick for Roarke is English model David Gandy. Do a google image search for him - there are AMAZING pictures of him. He's a naughty boy. . .

Tempting Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Boy howdy, this is why I like to blog. I would have never found found out about the Chicagoland Vampires series if it weren't for the lovely quartet of Jenny (Supernatural Snark), Missie (Unread Reader), Rummanah (Books in the Spotlight) and Tina (Tina's Book Reviews). They organized a fabulous read-along of this the first book in the series, Some Girls Bite (my review). If you'd like to join in for next week, go over to Jenny's blog and sign up! Here's my answers to this week's questions. . . enjoy!

1. Let’s say tomorrow a “vampire manifesto” as Merit calls it runs in newspapers across the country announcing their existence. How do you think you would react? If you were hesitant to believe initially, what would it take to convince you they were real?

If you don't want this, we need to get you some hormones.

Um, vamps are hot. I'd be stalking the night wanting to meet one. I'd immediately sign up for Fang Weekly, and if such a publication didn't exist, I'd start one. Yes, of course, they might be dangerous, can't trust them blahblahblah. Whatever. If they've been around all this time and haven't hurt me, then I figure they're fine. Naive? Possibly. Hopeful? You betcha. Alexander Skarsgård, helloooo? I rest my case.

2. Since being turned into a vampire means complete removal from your former life and a new job serving your House in some capacity, what do you think you would miss most about the life you live now?

My husband! Which means he'd have to turn, too. He could be the house accountant. Then we could have hawt vampy fun together. I'd also pine for the sun. I don't sun bathe or anything, but I love watching the seasons change, so it'd way sad to never watch the leaves change and Spring growing in the sunlight. You just can't beat watching the sun dance on water, breaking behind a cloud, or leaves and branches filter its light.

3. What are your first impressions of Merit and how she’s handling all the changes in her life?

Eh. Loved Mer, but she was hit or miss with how she reacted. I'm not knocking a complete meltdown or anything, but I think she sometimes acted beneath her age, particularly with how she behaved out of anger towards Ethan. I might have behaved the same way at 19 or even 22, but at 27 or 28, I think I would have stepped back and considered all of the circumstances a bit more than she did.

4. When you first read the description of Ethan, what actor/model/person you know pops into your head as the perfect embodiment of him? Feel free to include pictures ;-)

Prince Andrea of Monaco, baby, but with green eyes. What do you think? Wow, I seriously just drooled finding these pics. . . I'm totes classy.

5. Do you think Merit’s anger at Ethan himself, not the situation, is justified?

See my answer for #3, but no, I don't. Ethan did the best he could do for her. He saved her from an untimely death. Merit may have lost some things in becoming a vamp, but she didn't lose her life. She didn't lose the people who love her. She had an income within a week with gainful employment and a built-in support system. That's a lot to be thankful for and more than most people have. Girlfriend needs to count her blessings, and if she really wanted the alternative, I'm sure she could find someone to give it to her. I understand her being angry and needing to take it out on someone, but the way she dealt with Ethan was wrong. I'd expect someone younger than she is with less life experiences to behave like that, but not at her age.

That's it for the questions on chapters 1-4! Join us next Tuesday for more Chicagoland Vampires numminess!

REVIEW: Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Some Girls Bite
by Chloe Neill (website)
Book One of the Chicagoland Vampire series

Released: 05.07.2009

341 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade - Penguin Group
Source: library

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn't exactly glamorous, but it was Merit's. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker-and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she's traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan "Lord o' the Manor" Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries' worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude- and servitude. But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan's attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone's still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago's nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war-and there will be blood (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: Okay, bear with me. I find it difficult to review urban fantasy and paranormal romance with as much detail as I do YA fiction, but here's trying. Some Girls Bite was gratuitous escapism. SEXY, FUN and FUNNY gratuitous escapism. Upon finishing book one, I immediately sought out books two and three. Hey, I like me a good dose of escapist fun.

I mean, c'mon. Let's be honest. If you read fang lit, then it's highly likely that you daydream (okay, fantasize) about one of two things:

You want to become a vampire (or other supe) -OR-
You wouldn't mind being seduced by one

Our heroine, Merit (aka that lucky bitch), just got BOTH options fulfilled, and does she appreciate them? Um, hell no! Master Vamp Ethan (hummina-hummina) finds Mer bleeding from a bad-vamp inflicted neck wound. Rather than let the 27-year old die, he changes her. She whineswhineswhines about how her 'life' as a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago specializing in medieval lit is over since fanged ones are not allowed to study at universities. She feels her unjustified changing at Ethan's hands most grievously. Mer, sweetheart, I'd like to quote a line here from Good Will Hunting:

". . . you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don't do that. And two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fuckin education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late chahges at the public library."

Seriously, Merit. You have the rest of your immortal life to study medieval lit - you don't need to go to university to do that. And the market for professors in that area blows. AND you just got permanent vamp protection and employment FOR-EH-VER! Suck it up. Things could be worse. You could be dead.

Mer's little tirades on this matter aside, she's a fun quirky character who moans and makes the best of her initiation into the supernatural world in equal parts. Her reluctant acceptance is both amusing and exasperating, but with the addition of other fun characters, Some Girls Bite makes for an enjoyable read. Neill shines with her dialogue, and the banter between Merit and her BFF, Mallory, is very funny and fast-paced. Catcher and Ethan are MAN CANDY, and I'm not talking supermarket aisle candy - this is the good stuff. We're talking Godiva. Particularly Catcher (nom nom nom). Between the quirk and sexy, this a a read that I think fans of Gilmore Girls will enjoy.

This is definitely UF-light, and by that, I mean the book simply doesn't read as seriously as a book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Fever or Midnight Breeders series. There are nods here and there to other series through references and characters with the same names or backgrounds. It's decent, fun writing, although I occasionally found myself rewriting sentences so they read better. Merit lacks the maturity I'd expect from someone her age, but the mix of fun characters, funny exchanges and the building romantic tension between Merit and Ethan (and Morgan - teeheehee) means I started on book two fairly soon after finishing this one (I'm a sucker for UF series). While this book isn't gourmet, it is a good, sexy break from my ordinary fare. Kind of like a pan of Chicago deep dish.

Quotes:

“That was a mistake," I said. "It shouldn’t have happened."
He wet his lips, then ran a hand across his jaw. "No?"

"No."
Silence, then, "I could offer you more.”
I blinked, looked up, met his eyes. "What?”
"Power. Access. Rewards. You’d need be available only to me.”
My lips parted, words momentarily failing me, the shock of it was so overwhelming. "Are you asking me to be your mistress?”
He paused, and I had the sense that he was deciding if that was, in fact, what he was offering me. Likely weighing the costs and benefits, deciding if easing his erection was worth the trouble I'd cause. A flush crossed his sculpted cheekbones. "Yes.”
"Oh, my God.” I dropped my gaze put a hand at my abdomen, wondering how this night had suddenly become so bizarre. "Oh, my God."
"Is that a yes?”
I looked up at him again, saw the flash of panic on his face. "No, Ethan, Jesus. Definitely not.”

-page 113

"But he's young! What is he, twenty-eight?"

"He's twenty-nine. And what did you think he was going to look like?"

She shrugged. "You know - old. Grizzled. Long white beard. Scruffy robes. Lovable. Smart, but a little absentminded professorish."

I bit back a grin. "I said 'sorcerer,' not 'Dumbledore.' So he's hot."

-Merit and Mallory on Catcher, page 134

REVIEW: Fury by Shirley Marr

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Fury
by Shirley Marr (website)

Released: 05.01.2010

277 pages
Publisher: Black Dog Books (website)
Source: received on loan from Go Aussie Book Tours/The Unread Reader and Irresistible Reads
Note: This is an Australian title not released yet in the U.S. Please don't confuse it with the Elizabeth Miles book with the same title. Both covers have a similar color scheme.

Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way.

Strap yourself in...

Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.

So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

Gripping, funny, dark and shocking. Welcome to the mind of a modern Furious girl (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: Oh, how I love me a good YA that's not afraid to 'go there'. The Land of YA Go There is a brilliant place made of intelligence, intrigue, and things lost, protected and avenged. It's the place where the stories are self-contained but also relate to societal issues at large. It's the fabled destination that provokes reaction and conversation. Written with sarcastic wit and caustic observation, Shirley Marr's darkly humored and timely Fury is one of the most memorable and sophisticated YA offerings I've read in 2011.

Welcome to the Real Housewives of the O.C., Adolescent Aussie Edition. Eliza Boans is a rich, snobby, high school alpha female, and she makes no bones about it. She lives in a uber wealthy, uber exclusive, gated enclave. She has the best of the best of everything and knows it. And she positively oozes with sarcastic observations about her world and herself. Consider:

"I'm the last person that anyone would have suspected. I'm just Lizzie, typical teenager. I'm all about angst, attitude, designer labels and cupcakes. I want to grow up and do something cool with my life, such as build an orphanage in a third world country like all those saintly Hollywood celebrities. That or, like, cause a scandal and become megafamous. Everyone knows that's how you get noticed these days."
-page 2

Her detached but spot-on observations about things are really what made me like her. While not a likable character in the 'girl-next-door' sense, her intelligence, brutal honesty and fierce loyalty for her friends will coax your admiration for her. Her brattiness, arrogance and territorial tendencies will leave you exasperated. As you read more, you may even feel some degree of compassion for her, but the worst of her actions might leave you shocked. Straight up, she's a killer. And she doesn't regret it.

The plot is gourmet. Eliza's voice hooks you from the beginning and takes you through a series of present conflicts and past reflections that reveal a complex story of family history, grudges and regrets, fierce loyalties and bitter rivalries that teenage female friendship uniquely produces, and the highs and pitfalls of wealth and influence. You could read this book a number of different ways but you would be doing it an injustice if didn't acknowledge its satirical observations on status and celebrity. Whereas Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games offers commentary on our modern world through dystopian violence, Marr does it with moody humor and vengeance. Marr has a real knack for playing characters off one another, effectively using flashback, and incorporating both minor and major twists. There is a great quid pro quo competition between Eliza and the shrink assigned to handling the murder case that will have you think, "Who the hell is in charge here?" And you know what? The events leading up to the murder. . . I never saw it coming. And I completely get where Eliza is coming from.

A delicious and heartbreaking mix of loyal friendship, vengeance, gossip, entitlement, and the surrealism of status and wealth. Fury incorporates all these into a fast-moving, intrigue-laden stew that will have you saying, "I want more."

TO PURCHASE: Fury is an Australian copy not available outside of Australia. Please go to www.fishpondworld.com to purchase a copy with FREE SHIPPING!

***In mythology, furies were goddesses of vengeance.

"I remembered the first time I heard my parents arguing. As a five-year-old. standing right where I was right now. That's when my mother started drinking. That's when my dad starting coming home less, until one day he never came back at all."
page 103

GIVEAWAY: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:20:00 +0000

Hey Everyone! Today is the paperback release of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It's book one of the All Souls Trilogy (book two, Shadow of Night, is set to publish in the summer). This book got huge buzz when it first released in hardback back in February and debuted at # 2 on the New York Times bestseller list (Warner Brothers has also acquired the screen rites).

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism (from GoodReads).

I have not read this book just yet (but I will be!), but here are links to Ms. Harkness's website (love that name) and to the reviews on GoodReads. Also, check out this fabulous video of Ms. Harkness giving a walking tour of Oxford and talking about her inspiration for the book:

The fine folks at Penguin have offered a brand spanking new paperback copy of the book to one lucky reader.

So, if you'd like the chance to enter the GIVEAWAY, here's whatchuhavetodo:

Leave a comment with your email address
If you'd like to tweet for an extra entry, please leave a direct link.

That's it! No follow necessary! The contest will close on Wednesday, January 4th at Noon EST.

Good luck everyone!

Weekly News Roundup ~ 12.22.2011

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

In Memoriam

From The Washington Post: "Russell Hoban, author of ‘Riddley Walker,’ dies at 86"
From The School Library Journal, "VOYA Cofounder Dorothy Broderick Dies at 82"

Blog Posts To Note

From Romancing the Naked Hero via YA Bookshelf Daily (twitter @YABookShelf): "The Bastard Needs To Go: Or The One Hero Type I Refuse to Review" - BRAVO!

TV & Movie News

From Variety: "Pic partners wowed by 'Wither'; Prospect Park, Violet House land feature rights to dystopian tale". I'm pretty excited about this. Even though I had some issues with Wither, I think a movie adaptation has major cinematic and creep potential!
From Screen Rant, "'Ender's Game' Adds Another Young Actor"
From Entertainment Weekly's The Shelf Life, "See the book trailer for 'Cinder' Marissa Meyer's YA debut -- EXCLUSIVE"
From Rope of Silicon, "Interview: Jeremy Irvine Discusses His Feature Film Debut inSpielberg's 'War Horse'"

E-reader News

From The Bookseller, "Nook coming to the UK in 'not too distant future'"

Response to the Amazon Price Check Issue

From Bloomberg, "EBay Plays ‘Anti-Amazon’ Offering $10 In-Store Discount"
From The Wall Street Journal, "Groupon Launches Anti-Amazon Promotion of Sorts"

Other News

From NPR, "The Teens Are All Right: 2011's Top 5 YA Novels"
From The Reporter Herald in Loveland, CO: "Teens talk writing process with author Brenna Yovanoff"
From Flavorwire via Shelf Awareness: "The 25 Most Beautiful College Libraries in the World"
From The Guardian: "HM Castor's top 10 dark and haunted heroes and heroines"
From NPR (with audio): "7 Books With Personality: Nancy Pearl's 2011 Picks"
Hadn't heard of this book. You? A review from the LA Times, "Not Just for Kids: 'Planesrunner' by Ian McDonald"
From The Christian Science Monitor, "More books, more choices: why America needs its indies"
From Scholastic via The Huffington Post, "'Hunger Games': Top 10 Awesome Young Adult Dystopian Novels".
From the New York Times via Heidi from YA Bibliophile (via her twitter: @hmz1505), "A Children’s Story Series: Will a Game Help Books?"
From The Guardian, "Fifty things I've learned about the literary life"
From Flavorwire: "Books, Booze, and Beds: 10 Legendary Haunts of Artists and Writers"
Epic fail of unspeakable proportions - from the Associated Press via Hindustan Times, "Thousands of rare books burned in Egypt"

And a special thanks to Shelf Awareness for finding and sharing this little jem:

The Elements of Style from Jake Heller on Vimeo

Teaser Tuesday: On A Dark Wing by Jordan Dane

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm finishing up reading an e-galley of On A Dark Wing by Jordan Dane, which releases on 12.27.2011. I cheated a bit and included four sentences, but. . . you'll see why.

"She looks ten years younger, don't you think?
I swear, I don't know why people say that. When someone is seventy-five, does ten years really make a difference?
"Yeah, she looks. . . better." I lied.
How could someone look better dead than alive?

REVIEW: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Graffiti Moon
by Cath Crowley (blog | website | twitter)
Released: 08.21.2010 (Australia) /will be released: 02.14.2012 (U.S.)
244 pages (AU)/224 (U.S.)
Publishers: Pan Macmillan Australia/Knopf Books for Young Readers
Awards & Recognition: Winner, NSW Premier’s Literary Award (Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature); Winner, Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Young Adult Fiction)

Source: Go Aussie Book Tours @ The Unread Reader

Pre-order it on Kindle | Hardback

"Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: Every once in a while a book walks in with magic dancing in almost every sentence:

"'Where's the fire, Lucy Dervish?'

In me. Under my skin."

Oh damn, Lucy. You just made go and miss high school. I remember that feeling, that one of anticipation, the one you have on a night when anything is possible.

Right from go, Cath Crowley's language in Graffiti Moon is nothing short of hypnotic. I haven't seen original descriptions like this in. . . well, let's just put it this way: I don't think that I have. You can find quotes you want to write on slips of paper and keep in your pocket for when you need them in almost every chapter. The language is written in bright colors and secret corners, just like Shadow's art. The prose is absolutely lyrical and delightful to read. Do you ever feel like you can reach out and touch a story, like its a painting? That's Crowley's gift. You can feel every brush stroke, every painted layer, every single draft as Lucy and Ed breath deep and try to make it through their night together.

The story centers on these two, but it's a six pack as both bring along two sidekicks: Jazz and Daisy for Lucy, Leo and Dylan for Ed. And, of course, Shadow - we can't forget him - the holy grail of crushes that holds Lucy's heart, and her quest for him is what slides the story along its track, until it Ed forces her off the trail (or did he just help her find another path?). Early in the night, the two groups inadvertently meet up - Daisy and Dylan are an item, and Jazz has a thing for Leo. You'd think they'd all be friends, but no, Ed and Lucy are anything but, and Daisy has doubts about Dylan.

Sounds easy, right? Sounds high school. Friends, I don't exaggerate when I write that it's so much better than that. What I particularly like about Crowley's writing is that she incorporates a lot of different versions of love and relationships, of how it changes forms and develops as two people move and grow with each other. Of how it can become a poison if it's not nurtured and protected, or if it was never really love in the first place. While primarily a story of two young, talented and wonderful people finding their way through one night with each other, this also is a story that incorporates how families, friends and other loved ones affect us. The weaving in and out of Ed, Lucy and Leo's narratives is packed with hopeful longing and wistful regret, of certain things viewed in the shadow and then again in the light.

This almost is a perfect book for me. There is a 'big deal' situation involving Leo, which brings Ed into the fold. The events leading up to it are well-written, but 'the event' itself felt slightly off to me. I also was amazed that all six, including the two that came off the least sharp (Daisy and Dylan), seemed so witty. I kept thinking, "I would have killed to have conversations this good all the time in high school." As enjoyable as it was, I kept thinking that the perfection and timing of the conversations seemed too perfect at times. I actually feel a little guilty for even pointing these things out, because Crowley's prose is so incredible that it far outweighs any minor things I noticed.

Three girls, three guys, one night. That's the story. But in one night, you get such a full richness of who they are that you'll be racing back through the pages once you're done, picking out your favorite passages. . . just to catch one more breath of that magical feeling and holding it. Read this one - it's a true delight.

Quotes:

". . . and I took off across the night. Took off under a sky bleeding out and turning black. Left Dad sitting outside his shed yelling, "I thought you weren't meeting Jazz till later. Where's the fire, Lucy Dervish?"

In me. Under my skin."
-Lucy, page 1 (I knew I would fall for the this book after reading that on the first page)

"It isn't the smallness of this place that bothers me. It's the grey that's worked its way into the walls. It's the stains on the carpet from some other life that came and left before ours. Bert always said he'd give me a good deal on paint but some places take burning down and rebuilding to make them shiny."
-Ed, page 10

"Every time he looked at me I felt like I'd touched my tongue to the tip of a battery. In Art class I'd watch him lean back and listen and I was nothing but zing and tingle. After a while the tingle turned to electricity, and when he asked me out my whole body amped to a level where technically I should have been dead. I had nothing in common with a sheddy like him, but a girl doesn't think straight when she's that close to electrocution."
-Lucy, pages 26-27

"First piece I ever did was for her. A girl with roads and rivers and deserts running across her skin. Highways on her neck that went all the way cross-country. Off to the side of her was a guy with the hood of his car up and smoke pouring out of the engine."
-Ed, page 38

"Remember
Love doesn't make the world go round
Sex makes it spin for a second or two
If you're lucky
So do chips, sausage rolls and girls in short
skirts
Remember
Love
Lays its fingers on your heart
And holds it
Under water
Remember that
When the next girl smiles"
-Leo, pages 97-98

"I close my eyes and let the movement take me somewhere else, let walls drop into my head the way they do when I feel space around me. Maybe later I'll go somewhere and paint the dark that's sitting behind my eyes. A dark filled with the sounds of the city and her breathing."
-Ed, page 120

Follow Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:20:00 +0000

Question of the Week: When you've read a book, what do you do with it? (Keep it, give it away, donate it, sell it, swap it..?)

I actually haven't done a 'Follow Friday' in a while, but I thought this question was a really important one! Despite my blog's name, I am not a book hoarder. I don't like 'stuff' hanging around my house that isn't being used. I think it's wasteful. The books I keep are the ones which are precious to me. Otherwise, I am a clutter-free kind of girl. I believe in borrowing and giving to my local library. It's only 10 minutes away from me, and that way, everyone can enjoy the book, me included! Like, Alison, I also am reluctant to spend money on a book unless I am certain that I'll like it (I married an accountant - we are big on financial literacy and responsibility at my house). In fact, most of the books I buy are ones that I've borrowed from my library and fell in love with (ex: Saving Francesca, If I Stay, Revolution, The Piper's Son)! I just ordered a slew of books from Australia because I loved the copies I borrowed off a dear friend (thanks, Missie)! Otherwise, all the books I buy are for my giveaway pile.

Happy Friday, and thanks to Alison and PJ for the great meme!

Weekly News Roundup ~ 12.15.2011

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

A Good Cause

Help support the endeavor 'Reading is Fundamental' by buying this 'YA Saves' t-shirt designed by author Maureen Johnson. Johnson is contributing 100% of her profits to the program whose mission is 'to motivate young children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8."

Kindle Fire Issues

From The New York Times: "As Kindle Fire Faces Critics, Remedies Are Promised"
And this, too, about a very disgruntled mother of an 11-year old. from The TG Daily: "Kindle Fire draws fire from users"

Amazon Price Checking Issue

From The Washington Post - ArtsPost: "Could Amazon do this for us? (No.)"
From The San Jose Mercury News: "Amazon unnerves local merchants with its killer app"
From paidContent.org: "Stop Freaking Out About Amazon’s Price Check App"
From Shelf Awareness: "Amazon Price Check Saturday Discussion Heats Up" *most recent article*

Movie & TV News

From Entertainment Weekly: "Film rights for 'Daughter of Smoke & Bone' acquired by Universal Pictures -- EXCLUSIVE"
From Salon: "TV and the novel: A match made in heaven"
Well, thank God! - from Cinema Blend: "The Hunger Games Nail Polish Is Happening After All". Marketing ploys in direct contradiction to the theme of the books make me sick. What the hell.
From Jezebel: "Woman’s Bestselling Self-Published Book Will Now Become A Movie"
From Film School Rejects: "Kat Coiro to Direct Adaptation of ‘Here Lies Bridget’"

General News

From Publisher's Weekly: "Author Jill Marshall Launches New Zealand Publishing House"
From The Huffington Post: "Announcing The HuffPost Book Club"
From LA Times - Jacket Copy: "Poets drop out of T.S. Eliot Prize competition over politics"
From LA Times - Jacket Copy: "Book recommendations from poets and rock stars at The Millions"
From The Huffington Post: "David Levithan And Other YA Authors Take Q's From Teens About Writing"
From TheFABLife: "Young Adult Authors Shouldn’t TakeYoung Adult Personally, Says Diablo Cody"
From Shelf Awareness: "Bookstore Sales Fall 7.1% in October"
From Penguin/PR Newswire: " Penguin Group (USA) Introduces Holiday eSampler"
From the Irish Independent: "Christmas treats for young adults"
From The Chicago Tribune Books section: "Teen reads: Winter"

In My Mailbox (25) + Survey Request!

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:43:00 +0000

Hello All! I know I've been out lately, but please know that I will be retuning to regularly scheduled posts starting the last week of December. Had a lot of things going on this Fall, and I decided to take a hiatus in order to give priority to them. Stay tuned - I have reviews coming your way on some awesome Aussie titles, Jenny Downham and more!

Please also consider taking a moment to take my SUPER quick survey at the bottom of this post - it'll help me run a better blog for you!

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren with inspiration from Pop Culture Junkie.

This is a great event where we share all the great books we've picked up to read for the week! Please join us in getting to know one another and sharing great reads! Here's what I got this week . . .

For Review

From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant
by Alex Gilvarry
(thank you, Penguin/Vikng)

One of the things I realized during my hiatus is that I miss reading a variety of different genres and groups of books. While my blog will still focus on young adult fiction, I will also be sharing my reactions to different genres of adult fiction, nonfiction and whatever else catches my interest. To that end, I am looking forward to reading this work by a debut author. Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

"High fashion and homeland security clash in a masterful debut.

Boyet Hernandez is a small man with a big American dream when he arrives in New York in 2002, fresh out of design school in Manila. With dubious financing and visions of Fashion Week runways, he sets up shop in a Brooklyn toothpick factory, pursuing his goals with monkish devotion (distractions of a voluptuous undergrad not withstanding). But mere weeks after a high-end retail order promises to catapult his (B)oy label to the big time, there's a knock on the door in the middle of the night: the flamboyant ex-Catholic Boyet is brought to Gitmo, handed a Koran, and locked away indefinitely on suspicion of being linked to a terrorist plot. Now, from his 6' x 8' cell, Boy prepares for the trial of his life with this intimate confession, even as his belief in American justice begins to erode.

With a nod to Junot Diaz and a wink to Gary Shteyngart, Alex Gilvarry's first novel explores some of the most serious issues of our time with dark, eviscerating wit."

Please take the time to fill out my survey on how to make a better blog for you:

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Loading...&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>
ZQ3UKNCA9D28

Guest Post at Reclusive Bibliophile

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

Ever thought, "If I'd only known then what I know now?"

I got the opportunity to to just that when the wonderful Melanie at Reclusive Bibliophile asked us, ahem, older YA bloggers to participate in her 'Dear Twenty Something Me' series over at her blog. I just turned 31, and the letter I wrote to my younger self posted today - go over and check it if you get the chance, along with all the other lovely letters.

A warm thanks to Melanie for letting me participate! And for putting up with my horrible, last minute edits!

Thanks,
Lindsay

In My Mailbox (24)

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren with inspiration from Pop Culture Junkie.

Thumped by Megan McCafferty (thank you, Megan)

Thumped is the sequel to Bumped, which was released in April. Can't wait to see what happens to Melody and Harmony!

On a Dark Wing by Jordan Dane (thank you, Harlequin Teen & NetGalley)

Purchased

Signed copy of If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I also was lucky enough to see Gayle Forman in person when she came to speak at the Carnegie Library here in Pittsburgh. I already own my beloved copies of If I Stay and Where She Went, but I purchased another copy for a future giveaway!

P.S. Her talk? Informative, beautiful and poignant. I highly recommend that you go and listen to her speak if you ever get the chance!

Into the Past with "Frost" Author Marianna Baer

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Hey Everyone! I am always happy to host an author, and today we have Marianna Baer, author of Frost, joining us to talk a bit about what she' read throughout the years! Due to a USPS glitch, I wasn't able to read Frost, but the synopsis makes it sound fabulous, doesn't it?

Frost
by Marianna Baer (website)

Released on 09.13.2011

400 pages
Publisher: Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins (website)

Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school begins with a shock: Frost House, her cozy dorm of close friends, has been assigned an unexpected roommate: confrontational, eccentric Celeste Lazar. But while Leena’s anxiety about a threat to her sanctuary proves valid, it becomes less and less clear whether the threat lies with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind, or within the very nature of Frost House itself. Mysterious happenings in the dorm, an intense triangle between Leena, Celeste, and Celeste’s brother, and the reawakening of childhood fears, all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. Frost is the story of a haunting. As to whether the demons are supernatural or psychological . . . well, which answer would let you sleep at night? (from GoodReads)

And here we go into the past with Marianna!

Respect thy elders.

Age 5:
My mother read to me and my sister every night when we were little, and the books I remember loving the most from that time are the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I hate to admit that my favorite book in the series was the one where Mary went blind from scarlet fever. A sucker for tragedy even then, I guess!

Age 11:
So many to choose from! One that stands out -- considering the type of book I’m writing now -- is Jane Emily by Patricia Clapp. It’s the most terrifying ghost story, but also has extremely appealing characters, romance, and dark family secrets. I highly recommend it. And I can’t not mention Judy Blume! I loved everything by Blume, especially Then Again Maybe I Won’t, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and Deenie. I practically memorized those books. (I’ll forever be on the lookout for a nightgown like the one Deenie’s friends gave her, that could sort of change color from pink to purple.)

Age 16:
Hmm… if we’re talking about pure reading enjoyment, I’d probably choose Jane Eyre. (Or, to be honest, Scruples by Judith Krantz.) But reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov blew my mind. I’d never read a book that was so stylistically complex; it completely expanded my idea of what a novel could be. And I loved how subversive it felt to be reading it for English class. I remember reading this one particular passage and thinking, “Wait a minute. Is he really saying what I think he’s saying??”

Age 20:

I’m going to cheat a little bit here and skip forward a couple of years to when I was out of college and pick The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This book had it all for me – murder, relationship drama, twisted characters, secrets. I’d love to read it again for the first time and am jealous of readers who still have it ahead of them!

Okay, so Marianna just added about three or four books to my TBR list! I want to thank her for joining us today, and I look forward to reading Frost! To check out other stops in the {Teen} Book Scene tour, go here!

WINNERS ANNOUNCED for Kirsty Eagar's "Raw Blue" & "Saltwater Vampires"

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Hey all! A huge thanks to those of you who entered my giveaways for both Raw Blue and Saltwater Vampires! First, up. there was a grand total of 181 entries for Raw Blue. Number 16 was pulled by random.org, which means the lucky winner of a signed copy of Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar is:

DONNA, from the wonderful blog, The Happy Booker!

Congrats! I will be contacting your shortly!

Now, onto Saltwater Vampires, which had a total of 118 entries. The winning number was 71, which means the winner is:

RUMMANAH, the fabulous blogger behind Books in the Spotlight!

Congrats! I also will be contacting you shortly!

If you didn't win a copy, fear not! Even though the publishers here in the States haven't picked up Kirsty Eagar's brand of awesome, that doesn't mean you can't read them! You can by an e-reader version of Raw Blue here and Saltwater Vampires here. You can also buy from fishpond.com.au - looks like free shipping!

"To those who haven't read Raw Blue yet: Find a copy immediately. I know it's tough, being an Australian release and all. But don't let that get in the way. Spend your savings on a plane ticket and buy it from one of our nice Aussie bookshops. Alternatively, you could order it online or coerce an Aussie buddy to mail it to you. The moral of the story - read. this. book."

Emily Reads (A Lot)

Need more convincing? Check out Carla's recent review of Raw Blue at her blog, The Crooked Bookshelf. She went ahead and purchased the e-book and read the whole thing in one sitting. And I quote, "I can tell you guys right now this is probably one of the most intensely beautifully written books i've ever had the pleasure of reading. I'm going to hit it while it's hot and say it's without a doubt, one of the best books I have EVER read. EVER. " Happy to see this book has an advocate in the U.K.! And she's not alone!

If you live in the U.K. and want to read Raw Blue, please check out Lesley's blog, My Keeper Shelf. She has a copy that she's willing loan out to those interested in reading Carly's story (and her review is fabulous)! If you live in the U.S., the Book Harbinger has some spots left on her tour for Raw Blue (and Six Impossible Things - another only-published-in-Australia book).

For more Raw Blue review goodness, check out the others bloggers' reviews below. If you like what you read, and you want to advocate for Raw Blue being published in the U.S. (or EVERYWHERE), please grab 'The Case for Carly' code and display the badge on your sidebar:

Thanks, everyone, and happy reading!
Raw Blue Reviews
"Remember how I said contemporary fiction wasn't my thing? After reading Raw Blue, I can honestly say that this is the epitome of what the genre should be. I've read a lot of books, but Raw Blue is in a league of its own. Raw and real, Kirsty Eagar bottled heartache and let it spill over into the pages of her book, letting the words spin a story that's mesmerizing, heartbreaking and wholeheartedly touching. . . I give it a firm 5 out of 5, hands down, and I have to say it's probably the best contemporary fiction I've ever read." i swim for oceans " Kirsty Eagar does such a fine job of pacing the story and allowing the reader to really take the time to get to know Carly, her past, and what makes her tick, before introducing new characters and new elements. The result was that I was thoroughly on her side for the long haul. . . Definitely one of the best reads of my year so far." Angieville  "It. Was. Fantastic. The writing, characters, plot, setting, imagery… everything was pure gold and why this isn’t published in North America yet is beyond me. If you ever get a chance, don’t miss out on this one, it is gourmet."holes in My brain "I was only a fifth in when I was startled to discover that Carly had gotten under my skin in a way that a literary character hasn't for a very long time. I was crazily invested in her and felt all ripped up and torn inside-out as the novel progressed. I so wanted her to be okay." inkcrush  "When Eagar’s talent for stunning prose meets a protagonist whom we love despite her best attempts to dissuade us, the result is a beautiful and lingering story that reinfuses life into us. I finished RAW BLUE with an optimistic sense of the immensity of the world, of all the little things that we don’t stop to think about that can impact our lives forever."Steph Su Reads  ". . . I'm astounded by the phrasing and poetry of words that this author can write. We all speak English, at least the books I read, and yet the way Kirsty Eagar puts words together is like hearing them for the first time or painting a picture with new colors you've never seen before. It amazes me to find an author like that. And Kirsty Eagar is one of those authors. But it isn't just about the way she has with words. It's the story and the characters and the surfing and the ocean. It's the whole damn book. It's everything. I can't pick one thing out of it that I like the best." Buried in Books "And let me tell you now, you will read this book holding your breath – just hoping – to see a glimpse of the actual Carly. I really feel like she is one of the best written characters I’ve come across." The Allure of Books "With its clear, evocative prose, distinctive characterization, and unforgettable imagery, Raw Blue hooked me from its portentous beginning to it’s chillingly perfect and poignant ending. Highly, highly recommended. Now if I could only buy a hard copy." Book Harbringer
"I don’t know why but I find it so hard to write reviews for books I love. I have been struggling with this review for days now and I don‘t think I will do it the justice it deserves. . . It was intense, honest and beautiful. It is still lingering in my thoughts."Irresistible Reads " Raw Blue can be described in one sole word - powerful. It's a book that examines the tough elements and people in life with a roaring crash tackle. . . It's a truly impressive debut work - dark, full of turmoil with the occasional cloud break - just like the ocean."Persnickety Snark
"It was easy to develop a crush on this book, what with the hotness and the surfing, but as it slowly allowed me into its world, my feelings turned to full-blown love. This book is real and honest with me, and that’s how I know that this isn’t just a summer fling, it’s the real deal. I had to earn this book’s trust, and now that I have, I think we’re ready to spend our lives together under the Australian sun."Forever Young Adult  "On page 212 I read the most romantic and sweet thing E.V.E.R.! It is so sweet and simple and real…I wish I could share it with you, but if you haven’t read it I’m hoping this is a push to get you to do so! I literally stopped reading, updated Goodreads, and sat there staring at the page for a few minutes while crying."The Reading Housewives of Indiana
"Raw Blue is a story that contains a torrent of emotional conflict between its pages, one that handles personal anguish in a delicate and unassuming way so we don't even realize the strength of the connection we've developed with Carly and Ryan until we find ourselves unable to let them go. . . "Supernatural Snark "There isn’t a rating to really convey how much this book destroyed me. In the best possible way. My muscles physically ache because of how still and tense I was reading the last half of this book.
There aren’t many books that I can say make me feel like that."Wear the Old Coat (one of the most unique reviews I've read)
"Raw Blue is full of emotion but I was never overwhelmed because it’s not all pointless teenage angst. You can feel Carly trying to hold everything together and how hard it is for her when things fall apart." Chachic's Book Nook  ". . . a part of Carly had seeped into me. She became the type of character I know I will always carry with me. Her bravery, when revealed, was silent, but it was hers and it was full of heart and hope." The Unread Reader
"Eagar sensitively explores Carly’s pain without exploiting it and as Carly begins to move forward, the author never forces the recovery. It is this visceral realism that engages the reader."Book'd Out  "A novel I’m going to recommend to anybody and everybody, Raw Blue will leave readers with a lasting impression and the indelible gift of hope."Musings of a YA Reader  ". . . it's one that I don't think is going to leave me for a long time. It makes you think, makes you wonder, makes your insides bleed, and then, somehow helps you up, washes your face and makes you stronger and better able to face the world."Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing "The characters were all well-developed. Ryan wasn't the unrealistically perfect love interest you see in a lot of other YAs nowadays, but a real guy, complete with necessary character flaws."In The Good Books
"There are a number of vividly painted characters throughout the book, especially some that I personally wouldn't want handling my food in a cafe, ever. Hannah and Danny are definite faves of mine though. There were parts in the book where I just cracked up laughing at the dialogue of these pair. It helps to ease up the darker quality the book slips into."Spellbound By Books
"So awesome that I can not find the right words to describe this book. This book had so many emotions and so many good characters that I fell in love with it quickly. It also hurt to read the book. Raw Blue is raw. It cuts into your very soul so deep that you can not get out."Books with Bite  "Sometimes the descriptions were painfully beautiful, the characters were delightfully flawed, and the dialogue was almost always spot-on." The Readventurer

REVIEW: Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:50:00 +0000

Blood Wounds
by Susan Beth Pfeffer (website)

Releases on 09.12.2011

256 pages
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (website)
Source: received on loan from Banned Book Tours
Read the first two chapters here.

Willa is lucky: She has a loving blended family that gets along. Not all families are so fortunate. But when a bloody crime takes place hundreds of miles away, it has an explosive effect on Willa’s peaceful life. The estranged father she hardly remembers has murdered his new wife and children, and is headed east toward Willa and her mother.

Under police protection, Willa discovers that her mother has harbored secrets that are threatening to boil over. Has everything Willa believed about herself been a lie? As Willa sets out to untangle the mysteries of her past, she keeps her own secret—one that has the potential to tear her family apart (from GoodReads).

REVIEW: Willa's life in the beginning is awesome. A freaking holy grail of a blended family. Particularly with her stepfather, Jack, and his ex-wife, there seemed to be a real sense of 'do what's best for the girls', the 'girls' being Willa's two stepsisters. I was actually really happy to see that kind of compatibility for a blended family happen in a book. Made me think it could be real.

Too bad it was a setup.

Blood Wounds, in case you can't tell by the mugshot cover, is not a happy times book. In fact, I'm surprised that Willa is Miss Mugshot on the cover, because frankly, she's one of two, maybe three, characters who acted with any decency, and the other two were minor characters. Unless the mugshot is supposed to represent how she consistently gets trapped and bullied by the horrible selfishness of her family. And for the record, her family is a great big ball of 'you people suck', and that goes for both her blended family and the one she never knew on her biological dad's (and mom's) hometown of SmallTown, Texas. There is a lot going on in this book, but most of it is undercurrent until about halfway and then it steadily reveals itself all the way through to the end. You will not get what this book is really about from the synopsis - I thought I'd be reading a book about a girl and her mom on the run from her crazy father for the entire book, with Willa learning family secrets from her mom and facing hard truths along the way. While they do go into hiding for a short section and while Willa does do the latter in a sense, it's not in the way you think it'll happen. It's much more about Willa making her peace with a family she never knew, finding her own voice within the family she grew up in, and trying to figure things out by confronting the her mother's past and the facade of perfection that her blended family exudes.

The plot is steady the whole way through. There is a moment of anxiety when the cops show up at Willa's house and no one seems to know where her mom is; but otherwise, the plot is pretty even keel and flows on a diet of Willa coming to terms with who her parents are/were, and how she fits into the many family dynamics she has to contend with. You may have noticed my temper flare a wee little bit in the paragraph above. That's because I really do not like her blended family. I get family loyalty, but there was this sneaky sense of, "If you really love me, you'll do things my way" that was always present in conversations and influencing actions. For the record, such emotional manipulations are not 'love'; they are bulls%$#. In particular, I really don't like Willa's mother. To be fair, I didn't really dislike her until the end, and she's an extremely complex person. Actually, I wouldn't mind reading an 'adult' fiction novel with her as the protagonist. As much as I didn't like her, she's seemed to have had a difficult life caused both by her own crappy decisions, as well as consequences beyond her control. I feel like her story and own 'coming-of-age' could be just as significant as Willa's, I didn't really see her come full circle. Truthfully? I'm predicting splitsville for her and Jack. I feel like their entire family was based on a pyramid scheme of emotional usury.

I read the entire book pretty quickly, it flowed at a steady pace, and Willia has a decent voice. I really admired who she became at the end of the book. She really handled herself, and if she were real, she'd grow up to be someone you'd be proud to know. However, Blood Wounds wasn't a stellar read for me. This is a tough review for a book with tough issues, but there was something 'off' for me. Typically, I L-O-V-E a good 'issues' book. Blood Wounds has decent writing, but there was a little too much crazy in the plot for me to handle. I really wish it had either been about just Willa coming to terms with what her father had done and the family she never knew -OR- had been about her blended family situation (and her unhealthy way of dealing with it). There was certainly enough dysfunction to support the latter. I think in the end, Willa had so much dysfunction in her life that it made be feel like there was no support for her or the book itself. I need a little hope or some redemption with my stories, and in the end, I just don't feel like I had enough give me that.

This one didn't work for me, but here are two bloggers who did like it - be sure to check out Jen's review at I Read Banned Books and Melissa's at i swim for oceans.

Quotes

"And then there was Jack with his college degree, a career he loved, two remarkable daughters, and an ex-wife rapidly rising up the corporate ladder.

Mom had a high-school diploma, a brother in a cult, a violent ex-husband named Budge, and parents who died from drunk driving.

For the first time in days, I felt something there than resentment and anger. I felt sorry for Mom, sorry for where she'd come from and what she didn't have."
-page 118

"'I never saw anyone cry like you did today, ' Faye said. 'It was like you were crying for the whole world."
page 160

"Faye snorted. 'Families my ass,' she said. 'Families fight. Wives fight. They don't just say 'Yes, Jack. Whatever you think, Jack.'"
page 162

Talking Art, the Writing Process & 'Night Beach' with Author Kirsty Eagar!

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

I am absolutely thrilled to have Kirsty Eagar, awesome Aussie author of Raw Blue and Saltwater Vampires, here on the blog today! She's been good enough to share her thoughts and inspiration behind her upcoming third book, Night Beach (to be released in February 2012). Here's Kirsty with more on the writing process:

Night Beach is partly about the creative subconscious and the dark places that feed it, so it’s kind of weird then to try and articulate what writing it has been like. In short, it’s been intense. I wrote the initial drafts of my first two books, Raw Blue and Saltwater Vampires, before getting published, so although this will be my third book, in many ways it felt a lot like ‘the difficult second album’!

The story has a lot of influences, most of them stemming from the art world. Sometimes it was an artwork, for example, Thebes Revenge by Brett Whiteley.

Or sometimes it was a principle, like Magritte’s assertion that mystery lives under visible reality, or De Chirico’s belief that the world is an ‘immense museum of strangeness’. If I had to pick a driving philosophy, it would again come from Whiteley, who said:

If you take something, and distort it, and distort it, and distort it again, then eventually you’ll see something, some truth, that you’ve never seen before. And that is the difficult pleasure.

That idea of distortion is why I’ve fictionalised the places in the story. I’ve used what I know, but I’ve gone for a heightened reality and warped things so much it doesn’t truly reflect the people and place that were the original inspiration.

I knew a few things about the story from the beginning. Firstly, that the main character, Abbie, wants someone who is bad for her – Kane. But the fact of him being bad was never going to be the story itself. Abbie already understands that he’s bad, and she also understands that whether or not he turns out to be a candidate for redemption might not even be the point. She has a brain, but she also has a sense of her own sexuality, and the two things are in conflict. She’s vulnerable, but in some ways she’s quite calculating. I’ve read too many stories where the girls are neutered and only the boys are allowed to have urges, and that particular little brand of misogyny doesn’t at all respect the balancing act most girls are attempting.

I knew, too, that I wanted the story to have gothic overtones. It was a good fit, and it meant I’d get to use a house that I lived in once, which had no hallways, just lots of rooms connected by other rooms, and lots of chandeliers that were never in the centre of the ceiling where they were supposed to be, but rather in the corners, and a mysterious locked door in the storeroom … It also had a lovely view of the ocean, particularly at night.

And the last thing I knew was that Abbie’s parents would be divorced. I got asked about this the other day, specifically, why I wanted to look at a ‘dysfunctional’ family. And my best answer (the one I’ve had time to think about) is that I’ve yet to meet a functional family, and also kids who’ve grown up with divorced parents are hardly a tiny minority. I grew up like that, and I’ve noticed that my friends from broken homes have similarities of experience that people whose parents are still together seem to have absolutely no concept of. The differences are fundamental, and they are good as well as bad. In Kelly Slater’s biography there’s a part where he talks about how being a kid with divorced parents has shaped him, and I cried reading it, because I knew exactly what he meant. Likewise, I have always loved fiction that examines belonging in the context of the migrant experience. I think because when you’re parents are divorced, belonging is difficult (but obviously in a different way). You are a migrant within your own family, and sometimes you never find your place.

Releases in February 2012

Anyway, the point is there were a lot of ideas going into this story. For me, the hard thing is always how to thread them together in a way that makes sense – the part also known as the first draft!

I found things harder this time around than previous first drafts. I now had two young daughters, so writing was definitely a lot more interrupted and noisy. I had a deadline – again a new experience. And about a month out from that, I injured my back and spent the next three weeks trying to type standing up. Probably the biggest thing was it meant I couldn’t surf every day, which is a routine I’ve had for years, and for some reason not being able to surf really affected my writing.

Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that I exhibited absolutely no grace at all in dealing with those issues. I grew increasingly bleak, irritable and tired. And I was starting to panic, because I had no idea whether the story was working or not. Then two things happened:

I realised that there will always be things which make it hard to write, and that some people probably had much worse things to deal with than me.
I got some feedback on the unfinished manuscript courtesy of my agent. I will never forget that. I was heading up to write at 10pm after what had been a rough night trying to get my girls to sleep, and I knew I would be up until 2am or 3am, and it was the latest in a long line of nights just like that, and I felt absolutely beaten. And then I saw her email. Confidence is such a game changer. After that I had all the energy in the world.

I don’t think you ever know if what you’ve done is any good, or if it’s worked, or if people will connect with it. But sometimes there is a lovely moment when you realise that it’s become what it’s meant to be. For me that happened in the structural edit, which was a whole other saga of re-writing. It was in large part thanks to excellent feedback from my editor (and I know it was good feedback, because when I read it, I thought, She’s got to be kidding – there’s no way I can do all of that!).

I wanted to finish by saying that if you’re reading this because you write, especially if you’re not yet published and would like to be, I hope that you’ve reached that moment. And if you haven’t yet, don’t worry, keep going. You’ll know when you get there because just for that little while you’ll feel absolutely humbled and grateful, and you’ll know that you’ve tapped into something that’s never going to dry up, if you just keep turning up. So turn up.

I cannot tell you how flipping exciting I am for Night Beach after reading that! I love all the thought that's gone into it, and in particular, I am really looking forward to meeting Abbie! Thank you, thank you, Kirsty, for stopping by. That was a generous and wonderful insight into your creative process.

If you want to read the rest of the posts in honor of Kirsty Eagar Week, please go Nic's blog, Irresistible Reads for more! There are four signed copies of Raw Blue up for grabs, as well as three copies of Saltwater Vampires (two signed, one unsigned).

About the Author
Kirsty Eagar grew up on a central Queensland cattle property and spent her school holidays at the beach. After studying economics, she worked on trading desks in Sydney and London before changing careers, wanting a life where she could surf every day. She travelled around Australia for a couple of years, living out of a car, worked a variety of jobs and began writing fiction. Her debut novel, Raw Blue, was published by Penguin in 2009, and won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult fiction. Her second novel, Saltwater Vampires, was shortlisted for the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Kirsty lives with her husband and two daughters on Sydney’s northern beaches. (taken from author's website)

REVIEW: Saltwater Vampires by Kirsty Eagar + GIVEAWAY

noreply@blogger.com (bibliophile brouhaha) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Saltwater Vampires
by Kirsty Eagar (website)
Released on 08.30.2010
372 pages
Penguin Books Australia
Nominations: Shortlisted for the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards - Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
Source: author, who did not require a review, but I liked it so I gave it one anyway :)

He looked to the sky, praying for rain, a downpour, some sign from the heavens that he should refuse the abomination contained in that flask. But all he saw was the bloated white face of the moon smiling down on him …

And the sky around it was cold and clear and black …

They made their circle of blood. And only the moon witnessed the slaughter that followed.

For Jamie Mackie, summer holidays in the coastal town of Rocky Head mean surfing, making money, and good times at the local music festival. But this year, vampires are on the festival’s line-up … fulfilling a pact made on the wreck of the Batavia, four hundred years ago. If their plans succeed, nobody in Rocky Head will survive to see out the new year.

Page-turning and suspenseful, Saltwater Vampires is a distinctly Australian vampire thriller.

REVIEW: If you look for your vamp lit with accessible supes, the kind who can be redeemed with luuurve and are actually misunderstood creatures, you got the wrong book here. Kirsty Eagar's vamps are made of equal parts evil ambition and diabolical craftiness.

That's not to say there isn't redemption. But it's not where you think it would be in a paranormal tale, nor is it received with everything folded up neat and even. No, this is a tale of choice and consequence, of truth and action, with an actual historical incident as its foundation and group of friends as its heart. There are three plots to the story that are woven together:

four rouge vampires who made a pact 400 years ago are planning a new, evil event
a vampire apprentice from a society in Holland races against time to find the four, but for what reasons?
a once-upon-a-time group of friends, still connected but splintered and strained, comes together to save two of their own

The first two are marvelously intertwined - I had the same feeling reading it as I did The DaVinci Code with its historical emphasis blooming into modern mystery. The supernatural factor, the demand for secrecy, and the very nerve-wracking feeling that every person is most sincerely out for only personal gain added a true level of creepy suspense - when the synopsis says thriller, it means it. That's not to say that we don't see evil portrayed in other YA; it's simply that in this book there is a level of detached sophistication in certain characters which makes their actions entirely believable and extremely cold-blooded. I more than once thought that this is a book that adults, particularly ones who enjoy thrillers, would find intriguing, as well.

Which is why I was delighted to find the story of 15-year old Jamie and his friends to be not only seamlessly ingrained around the vampiric past and present, but also provided an emotional core not always present in thrillers. Usually, we find the suspense in thrillers to mimic the emotion we would otherwise miss, but here we have a former group of friends whose ties have been skewered through various means, but must make their way around their own past to be a united front in the present. And they are a wonderful, entirely believable group of friends - their affection for each other is authentic, as are the hurt feelings that keep them apart. They each are wonderfully written characters, and we get to know them, their flaws, desires, bravery and fears in great detail. The interaction between them is natural and tangible, whether it's filled with anger or affection. They have a lot to deal with, particularly as a tragedy that really tour them from each other is recent and very much present. And here is something I particularly love about Eagar's writing: she really lets her characters feel the full weight of actions rendered and choices made. There is no easy peace here, no neatly tied up resolution; what's given are the decisions one can live with, and the consequences a person has to live through. This just as easily could have been a book without the supernatural element and been about friends falling apart and coming together again. The tying in of historical fact and mythical evil does not diminish this aspect of the book, but makes Saltwater Vampires a unique, noteworthy and very welcome addition to YA paranormal.

For more on the historical facts behind the wreck of the Batavia, go here.

Also be sure to check out Missie at The Unread Reader's review of Saltwater Vampires, also posted today! She is also giving away a SIGNED copy (my giveaway is for an unsigned copy :) Kirsty Eagar's books are only available for purchase in Australia, so don't miss your chance to enter any of the great giveaways this week!

Quotes:

"He broke into a slow smile, then laughed, thinking it was crazy and that's exactly why they should do it. Don't die wondering, right?"

-page 187

"It was something they'd done a thousand times before. If Jamie went surfing with a mate and paddled in first, he always took time for that final wave. And there was something so familiar in the ritual that for a moment he felt like everything was right.

He felt forgiven."

-page 188

"Vampire Die Hard. Yippee-ki-yay, bloodsucker!"

-page 215

"They stared at each other for a long time. The rest of the world had gone somewhere else and everything that needed to be said was being said without talking. And Jamie knew how much he'd lost."

-page 298

GIVEAWAY:

This is for an unsigned copy of Saltwater Vampires by Kirsty Eagar. Open to U.S. & Canadian mailing addresses.

To enter fill out this form.

Points are as follows:

1 point for entering
2 points for leaving a comment
3 points for tweeting (must leave direct link)
4 points for posting a Kirsty Eagar Appreciation Week button (see below) -OR- placing 'The Case for Carly' button on your blog (see right side bar).

The deadline for entering is Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 at Noon, E.S.T. Winner will be picked via random.org and announced on Thursday, September 8th, 2011. Good luck!

For more reviews on Saltwater Vampires, please visit its GoodReads page.