STACKED

books

This Week in Reading: Volume VII

|

I haven’t updated in a couple of weeks, and I’ve gotten a pile of books. This isn’t even all of them — I haven’t included the library books, which I try to return as soon as I finish, nor the titles I picked up on my ereader. Or the signed copy of Complicit I bought at Kid Lit Con.

What I’ve purchased or received lately:

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero (purchased) — I’m reviewing it this week. This book is one of my 2014 favorites, if not easily one of my favorite YA titles in a long, long, LONG time.

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller (June 2) — I’ve read pieces of this and can’t wait to dive into the whole thing.

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre (April 7)

Audacity by Melanie Crowder (January 8) — a verse novel about the historical Uprising of 20,000 in New York City. I am so, so sold.

Infandous by Elana K. Arnold (March 1) — I just got a big recommendation for this one.

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall (January 13)


The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood — I’ve never read this and I want to. I’m heading up to a big book festival in Toronto next month (more about that soon) and I feel ashamed never having read Atwood.


The Secrets We Keep by Trisha Leaver (April 28) — I heard Leaver’s writing is kind of like Lois Duncan’s, so I’m super intrigued.


Stranger by Rachel Brown and Sherwood Smith (November 14)


I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios (February 3)


The Secret Place by Tana French

Boy Heaven by Laura Kasische — I bought an ebook of this one on recommendation and can’t wait to read it.

The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley and Kat Howard — I read this novella on a flight last week and it’s a fun, creepy little horror story about madness and ghosts.

Read This Week


I’ve read so much this month. I’ve been trying to knock out a pile of horror novels I bought last month, and I’m down to two being left.

This week, I read Fade by Robert Cormier, Bleed Like Me by Christa Desir, and I’m going to finish A. S. King’s Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future this weekend. I’ve got Lena Dunham’s book here, from the library (the nice thing about being in a small town is sometimes these books are just sitting on shelf for you and you don’t have to wait for them) but it hasn’t grabbed me yet.

Around the Web


Here’s a pile of links and worthwhile reading from around the web the last few weeks:

This Week in Reading: Volume VI

|

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. 

This Week in Reading: Volume 5

|

Do you ever feel like another person is really influencing your reading? Maybe you had a conversation or two and they told you that you had to read this book and that book and then this one, too? I like when that happens, especially when it’s a person whose tastes I trust. I think it kind of influenced a bit of this week and last week’s books but in a good way.

Here’s what I got:

Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz (purchased) — I’m reading this one right now, and it’s fascinating. It’s a memoir of a girl who had a very physical relationship with her high school teacher and how she’s gone to understand the experience now that she’s an adult. A totally unique perspective on the teacher/student relationship story (and it’s not a story, since it actually happened).

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (purchased) — Cannot wait to read this. I’m going to intersperse this one with my novel and the reading I’m doing out of the Dorothy Parker anthology.

Compulsion by Martina Boone (review copy) — Not sure this one is for me, but I’m definitely intrigued by that cover.

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta (library) — I’ve never read it, and I think it might be tackling something I need for a project I’m working on.

Tomboy by Liz Prince (review copy) — This graphic memoir is fantastic. I’ll review it soon, but it tackles gender expression and gender identity and does so in a really great way.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey (purchased) — I don’t think it’s spoiler anymore to say this is a zombie novel. And while I liked it, I didn’t love it as much as some did. Though Melanie and her teacher’s relationship was a huge highlight. Definitely has great teen appeal for those who are looking for more zombie fiction (..as opposed to zombie non-fiction? I’m not sure why I included the word “fiction” there).

Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee (review copy) — Diverse historical fiction set on the Oregon Trail, featuring girls who have to dress as boys. I can’t express how excited I am by the premise, even though it’s not my usual fare.

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (purchased) — I bought this novel about a teacher-student affair at the same time as the Ortiz memoir. One of my fellow Book Riot writers raved about this title, and I had to have it.

Horrorstore by Grady Hendrix (review copy) — A horror novel set inside an IKEA-like store, and the format is in IKEA-catalog style. I’m in 500%.

Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson (review copy) — I love realistic YA about mental health, and this one is about a girl with OCD.

The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond (review copy) — Alternate history about what would have happened if Hitler won World War II.

I Work At A Public Library by Gina Sheridan (review copy) — I’m looking forward to this, since I really like Gina’s Tumblr of the same name.

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles (library) — The newest Gail Giles looks interesting. It’s set after high school and it features two special ed teens.

The Saskiad by Brian Hall (library) — A teen girl in the wilderness with adventure and a best friendship with another girl. Sold.

I think I covered everything I read in this run-down, too.

Worthwhile reading from around the web. There’s some book stuff and some non-book stuff:

  • Sarah Hollowell talks about a topic I’m passionate about: Write Fat Kids.
  • Carrie Brownstein is one of my favorite celebrities. She’s bookish, she’s funny, and she’s super down-to-Earth in every interview I read of her. This piece in Bust is particularly good, as she gets into how she’s managed to have two very different career paths and she talks about how she sees and reads the feminism in Portlandia. Also, I want her memoir right now. 

And here’s something exciting that happened this month: I’ve got an article in VOYA. This piece is about girls and girls reading, and it talks about 10 YA novels published in the last year that feature dynamic, complex female characters. This is one of my favorite things I’ve written for a professional journal. It’s not online (though if it goes online in the future, I’ll share that), but if you get the print edition, it’s in the August issue. 

This Week in Reading: Volume II

|

I tried out “This Week in Reading” last week as a way to talk about both the books and the links I’ve come across in the past week, and I’m bringing it back again this week. It’s a snapshot into the books that showed up, the things I read, and the things I’ve been thinking about. 
Lauren Oliver’s Rooms — her first adult novel — is the only book that came to me this week I didn’t buy. I’m interested to see how her adult novel holds up, especially since her last couple of YA titles haven’t impressed me a whole lot. Maybe this one will do the job.
I bought two books this week: Carrie Harris’s Demon Derby and the ebook edition of Crissa-Jean Chappell’s Total Constant Order (tracking down this backlist title in print that isn’t a used copy was not very easy). I started in on the Chappell title last night and I’m really looking forward to getting into Demon Derby soon since I know it’ll be the kind of fun reading I appreciate from Harris. 
I think sometimes we forget how great those fun books can be. 
It’s been a rough week here, and in the midst of it, I put in a huge book order for myself that should arrive next week. In addition to that, though, I find when things get rough, the only way I can get myself through is by reading. So I managed to read quite a bit:

Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky: This was a great book about a first love and exceptionally positive of female sexuality. I’ll talk more about this one soon, but I’m planning on picking up the sequel very soon. I loved the voice.

Blind by Rachel DeWoskin: I quit this one after 100 pages. While I appreciated what DeWoskin did with her main character’s need to describe the world around her as she approaches it (she’s blind), the writing itself left a lot to be desired. The story didn’t begin in the right place and moved at a glacial pace. At over 400 pages, I couldn’t do it when, at page 100, nothing had happened and I had no attachment to the characters at all.

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison: I’ve been picking at this one for a few months and finally just sat down to finish it. I’m glad I did. I loved this series of essays — some which connected in terms of recurring characters — about what empathy looks like and what human emotions connect us and the hows and whys of those connections. My favorite essay in the entire book is available in full online and I encourage it to get a sense of what the book looks like. I’ll definitely be reading more essay collections following this. It’s an underappreciated medium (and one I found myself loving after reading Eula Biss’s Notes From No Man’s Land last year).

Sway by Kat Spears (September 16): There was some stuff I liked — Jesse’s voice is good and there are some good relationships — but as much as I love edgy, dark, boundary-pushing stuff, this one may have gone too far for me to really enjoy. There’s a joke about a time during a party that turns into date rape time and it was then I just….even if it was Jesse’s character to be so crass, I don’t think it’s an okay joke. And there’s some depictions of fat people in here that rubbed me really wrong. I have a feeling people are going to dislike a lot of other things in this book when more have read it. The cover is terribly misleading; this is no sweet romance.

A few things worth reading from around the internet this week, some book-related and some not:

  • Kathleen Hale wrote a really thoughtful essay about the Slender Man stabbing that took place not far from where I live. It’s about how Slender Man makes for a great scapegoat for the real issues at hand in being a middle school girl. Not easy reading, but really worthwhile for anyone who cares about pre-teen and teenagers, especially girls. 

  • This piece, “Cultivating Curiosity,” is about a love of stories and storytelling, over a pure love for words and language. I especially love the part about how a book is two things merging: what you bring to the book and what the book brings to you. 

  • I didn’t think an essay about friendship would stick with me as much as one did this week titled “Grown Women Don’t Need A ‘Best Friend’.” It stems from Emily Gould’s recently released book about adult/millennial friendships but delves into why it’s okay not to have a “best friend” if you’re an adult woman. I related a lot, and I appreciated — and believe — in the idea of different levels of closeless when it comes to my friendships. 

  • Zadie Smith wrote an essay for Oprah about the notion of summer reading and, at heart of the piece, is the notion that there’s such a thing as being addicted to books and reading. It’s a beautiful piece. 

Last week I mentioned the “get organized” series kicking off on tumblr, and a few people have chimed in to talk about the ways they organize their lives, as well as their to-read piles:

If you want to join in, I know I’d be interested. Just write about how you organize, then send it along via the tag “#get organized” on tumblr or send it my way and I’ll share it. 

This Week in Reading: Volume I

|

Since I’ve been bad about keeping Links of Note updated every other weekend — mostly because I am doing link roundups at Book Riot on weekends now — I thought it would be worth trying something a little different here. Who knows if this will be a regular feature or something I do when I think to do it at this point.

“This Week in Reading” will be a roundup of links, of course, as well as a look at the books read and picked up in the past week or books that have shown up in the mail. A number of these books might be reviewed in depth later, some of them might not be.

From the picture above, what’s showed up in my mailbox the last week to week and a half include A. S. King’s Glory O’Brien and the History of the Future (October), Breaking Butterflies by M. Anjelais (August), Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally (July), and Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics edited by Chris Duffy (September). Beneath those are a copy of my college’s alumni magazine and a copy of the latest issue of Public Libraries magazine.

Books read or in the process of being read this week:

Perfectly Good White Boy by Carrie Mesrobian (September) — great male voice with humor and an honest look at teen sexuality.

Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling by Lucy Frank (August) — verse novel about two girls living with Crohns disease, one who has suffered a long time and one who is newly diagnosed.

Both of those books I read egalleys of and I read them both really quickly. I think I tend to read a lot faster on my ereader than in print. I’m not sure why that is.

I talked about having Daria Snadowsky’s Anatomy of a Boyfriend on my to-read pile, and I dove in this morning. So far, I really am enjoying the voice.
Great reading around the internet from the last couple of weeks, of both the book/reading related kind and beyond:
  • The call for proposals to present at the 8th annual Kid Lit Con in Sacramento is out. Go! 
  • I was really honored to see my book in this piece from Parnassus Books about realistic fiction. It’s a nice post about how reality has always been a part of YA fiction and how it’s not about being a trend. This was the first time I saw my book pop up somewhere and seeing it here was really neat, especially since the post gets at some of what I get at. 
  • Kathleen Hale wrote an incredible essay for Random House Canada about sexual assault. This is not an easy read, but it is really, really worthwhile. 
Two new blog/blog series for your radar:
  • Get Ebony’s The Dark Fantastic on your feed readers. Her goals are to look at race and imagination in children’s and young adult books. This is a fantastic resource and one that I am paying close attention to. 
Upcoming:
  • This week, a bunch of us organization nerds will be talking about how we get and stay organized with our lives on Tumblr and around the blogosphere. If you want to follow along, the tumblr tag will be #get organized, and I’m going to try to round up the posts throughout the week on my tumblr. Anyone who would love to weigh in on how you keep it all together — pen and paper? bullet journal? Google calendar? a mixture of them all? — is more than welcome to take part. We want to see and talk about getting things done and how we get it done. If you want to contribute but don’t have tumblr/check the tag, you can email me the link to wherever you wrote (or if you want to simply Instagram or do some kind of photo visual of your tools) at stacked.books at gmail.com. Here’s the intro post.