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books

This Week at Book Riot (and Around The Web!)

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We’ve been busy around different places this last week! First up, Kimberly and I shared our 2015 favorites in books, movies, television, and more as part of this year’s Smugglivus event at The Book Smugglers.

 

book riot

 

Over on Book Riot this week…

 

  • A round-up of memoirs by women of color. I’ve been trying to read more of them over the last couple of years, so I thought it’d be worth highlighting some that I’ve read and some I’m hoping to get to soon.

 

 

  • This week’s “3 on a YA Theme” continues with the #ReadWomen suggestions, offering up three more books by women written in 2015 that flew a little under the radar.

 

I’m also honored to be this week’s featured “Badass Lady You Should Know” as part of Kate Hart’s amazing project that spotlights great women. I’m sharing some personal victories and challenges. And there are some great pictures from back in the day.

Links of Note: June 14, 2015

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It’s been a long time since I’ve done a “This Week in Reading” post or a “Links of Note” post. Since I have been keeping so many of these links in Pocket for weeks (maybe months!), I thought it’d be worth a giant dump of them into a post. Most of these are book or reading related, but many aren’t. They’re things that have caught my eye or been interesting reads in their own right.

If you’ve read something interesting lately you think would be up my alley, which is pretty obvious from this collection, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

  • First: here’s a teaser for the upcoming YA Quarterly Box I am curating for Book Riot. I LOVE this box so much. I managed to get three books inside it, along with two bookish items, and there will be exclusive content from the authors, as well. This will be well worth your $50. 
  • Did you know I’m working on a new project with librarians Faythe Arredondo, Hannah Gomez, and Angie Manfredi called Size Acceptance in YA? It’s exactly what it sounds like.  
  • John Scalzi’s post on what he is and isn’t obliged to comment or write about has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve made significant changes in my social media lately, and I continue to think about these decisions. Scalzi hit on some of the things I’ve been mulling over here.
  • The role of black dolls in American culture left me thinking about Addy from American Girl in ways I never had before. I have a complicated relationship with American Girl dolls in general, since I was a kid who could never have one because they were too expensive, but I remember Addy being my favorite when she was introduced. 
  • Speaking of writers without agents or contracts, I’m a judge for this year’s Elephant Rock Books Sheehan Prize. If you have a completed YA manuscript, you might want to enter this. The last winner of this prize was Jessie Ann Foley, who went on to earn a Printz and Morris honor. 
  • I love this round-up of 84 films by and about women of color. “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” is one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve watched in a long time and features this scene which will never, EVER not be the best. This is a skateboarding vampire: 

 

  • This post talking about the evolution of the cover of Me and Earl and The Dying Girl ticks all of my boxes: cover design, image evolution, and the feelings artists hope to create in a book cover. So, so good. 
  • This is a very, very tough read about mental illness, social media, and about how we can present one image to the world while struggling with something miserable inside. I think, though, this is important reading, especially for anyone who knows or struggles with mental illness themselves. 
  • Finally, this piece about how horror movies are the one place where women are told their fears are real is SO good. I saw “It Follows” earlier this year, and this article sort of hit on why that movie really stuck with me and why it is I keep thinking about it. It’s about fear, about the things that follow and haunt us, and about how society doesn’t want to give credence to those very things that torment us. 

This Week in Reading: Volume 12

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It’s been more than one or two weeks since I did a round-up of recently-received books and links I’ve been reading and thinking about around the web.

This is only part of what I could remember showing up since the last round-up, and I know I’m missing a few things. Links go to Goodreads.

I Love, I Hate, I Miss My Sister by Amelie Sarn: This had been on my radar but I kind of forgot about it. Someone on Goodreads recommended it to me based on my tastes, and I’m excited to read it. It’s surprisingly short. 

From Where I Watch You by Shannon Grognan (August 4): Shannon and I are part of a critique group and I read this book as a manuscript in a few different forms. Now it’s in ARC form and I can’t wait to see where it is. It’s a mystery and there’s loads of baking involved (the sweets it’ll make you crave!).

Whippoorwill by Joseph Monninger (November): A dog story for YA readers! 

Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger (April 28): This is a companion to The DUFF. 

NEED by Joelle Charbonneau (November 3)

Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (June 2)

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb (May 26)

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin (April 21)

Everybody Knows Your Name by Andrea Seigel and Brent Bradshaw (March 10)

I Am Her Revenge by Meredith Moore (April 7)

The Tenderness of Thieves by Donna Frietas (May 26): I’m really excited about a new Donna Frietas book! 

Kalahari by Jessica Khoury (February 24)

Immaculate by Katelyn Detweiler (May 26) & The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes (June 9): Both of these I’d picked up at ALA just days before. Both of which I’m really excited to read.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been tearing through books. I’ve read This Side of Home by Renee Watson, Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman, El Deafo by Cece Bell, Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier, and Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles, among others. All of these were good reads, so they’re all worth putting on your radars. I’ll be reviewing many — but probably not all — of them in the next few weeks. 

Links Around the Web:

  • Leila talked about book reviews and criticism in a really great blog post this week. I’m going to talk more about this in the future, but her thoughts are outstanding and thoughtful. Once you read that post, go read part one and part two of Malinda Lo’s analysis of book reviews for diverse titles in professional trade journals. There is a lot of great food for thought among these three blog posts. 
  • I love everything about this interview between Faythe and Morris Award Winner Isabel Quintero. My favorite thing Isabel says comes near the end of the interview, about how she and Gabi are similar and different: “I wish that I had been less afraid to question the expectations that had been placed on me. That I had been brave enough to question the double standards and act on them-to not be afraid of boys. I was totally boy crazy in high school. I had a crush on so many boys but as soon as one showed interest I’d be scared shitless. I couldn’t believe that a boy would like Isabel, the fat girl. Why would he? It wasn’t until college that I realized it was okay to think about sex (I was normal!) or to like so many boys or that I was pretty awesome and guys were interested-for reals. So, to me it made sense to have a character who embodied this idea earlier on.”
  • This was announced a while ago, but if you missed it, here are the Edgar Award Finalists, which includes a nice selection of YA titles. 
  • Though this isn’t book or reading related, this essay spoke to me so powerfully that I can’t not include it. Sarah Hollowell wrote about being fat and getting laid. It’s outstanding. 

This Week in Reading: Volume VI

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It’s been a couple of weeks since I did a “This Week in Books.” So let’s call it an irregular regular feature here. Rather than try to round up all of the books I’ve received over those weeks, I’m keeping it to just the titles that showed up this week. Here’s an interesting trend: this was the first time my review copies were weighed more heavily in non-fiction. Pictured above:

  • Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill: A memoir about Katie’s choice to undergo gender reassignment surgery. I’ve been excited about this one for a while. Katie was born a boy and is now a girl. 
  • Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrew: This is a companion to Hill’s memoir in that it’s Arin’s story of gender reassignment and choosing to become a boy, after being born a girl. 
  • The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks: Apparently, this one has caused a stir in the UK, and it’s been described as Room meets Lord of the Flies. So, pretty up my alley. 
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve not read as much as I’ve hoped to. 
I finished:
  • Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang, which I’ll review this week. This was really great, and one of the best debut YAs I’ve read this year. 
  • Press Play by Eric Devine, a good book for readers looking for an intense look at sports, bullying, and peer pressure through the eyes of a boy 
  • I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, which didn’t work for me. The language was lovely, but it overshadowed the story and I never once bought the male main character as a 13-year-old boy.  
  • Six Feet Over It by Jennifer Longo, which tackled the heavy topic of grief, but did so in a way that makes this a really great read for younger YA readers (the main character is younger than most, too). 
I’m about half-way through Stephanie Perkins’s Isla and the Happily Ever After and I’m a bit underwhelmed with it. It’s not bad, and I’m not going to quit it, but it’s not blowing me away in the same way that Anna and the French Kiss did. I think there’s a big problem with the book, and it’s one I’ve been thinking a lot about recently in YA: this book would be so much more believable and enjoyable if it were not set in high school. Were Isla and Josh college students, even freshmen, rather than high school seniors at a posh American boarding school abroad, I’d be so much more charmed by the story because I would be questioning their privilege and character development far less than I am. Perhaps this is something I’ll write about. 
Links and News
I keep an eye on book announcements, and I don’t tend to blog about them (it’s easier to put them on Twitter or Tumblr). But last week, I was talking about Joshua Cohen’s Leverage and wishing for a second book from him, since I’d heard nothing at all since that book came out. Low and behold, he’s publishing a second novel next year. It’s a middle grade novel out of Egmont and it looks good. 
Here are a few posts and resources that caught my eye in the last couple of weeks:
  • Looking to dig into comics and want to find comics who are people of color to read? MariNaomi developed a great cartoonists of color database. This could get you started. 
  • This one is for those who are writers or work with writers (and readers, too): check out this Tumblr dedicated to “writing and resources centered on cultural and ethnic diversity.” Speaking of diverse books, you know about the We Read Too app you can get for free, which allows you to search for books by and about people of color? Check it out. It was created by a college student. 
  • In keeping with the diversity theme, if you’re a blogger (or a reader!), you should consider taking part in the #Diversiverse Challenge. It kicks off tomorrow and runs through the 27th, and all it asks is you read and talk up a book by a person of color. Easy! 
  • Going to Kid Lit Con or considering it? Here’s the lineup of panels and speakers. I’ll be talking twice: on Friday I’m talking about social media and on Saturday, I’m part of a really exciting panel talking about how to speak up for and about diversity in kid lit. 

Ferguson, Race, Civil Rights, Social Activism, and YA Fiction: A Round-Up of Reading

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Rather than write a “This Week in Reading” post this week, I thought it would be more worthwhile to instead round-up and share some of the great book lists and discussions I’ve seen centering around good reading for those interested in discussing and thinking about the situation in Ferguson. The bulk of these resources are geared toward children’s and young adult lit, though some posts go a bit beyond than, as well as a bit beyond books. Topics include race, civil rights, social activism, and privilege.

There are countless angles working here, but they are all important and worth thinking and talking about.

I can’t add anything new or thoughtful to this discussion, but what I can do is give space to those who are generating much-needed and valuable resources and elements of conversation. If you know of additional book lists or topical guides worth mentioning, please drop them into the comments. I’m happy to continue revisiting this.

  • Lyn Miller-Lachmann talks about two YA titles — one out now and one coming out this fall — and the ways that writers and artists respond to social justice. I’m including this post specifically because I cannot get Kekla Magoon’s forthcoming How it Went Down out of my head these last couple of weeks and hope it shows up on your to-read lists. 

  • At Book Riot, Brenna Clarke Gray suggests 5 good books about race in America. These are all adult titles, but teen readers who are interested should be able to read and think about them. 

Both images are from the Ferguson library. 
The left, from the director, and the right, from their Instagram account.