STACKED

books

It’s our anniversary — come celebrate with us!

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Three ice cream cones to celebrate our three year anniversary (that’s one for each of us). It’s hard to believe what started out in as a little idea has turned into such a huge thing. I think I speak for Kimberly and Jen when I say that blogging has changed our lives in a very, very good way. We’ve not only been able to talk about the books we’re reading, but we’ve also met incredible people, made great friends, learned about the book world, and maybe most importantly, we’ve had fun. I know I look forward to doing this.

To celebrate three years we’re going to share our tips, tricks, and lessons learned from three years doing this. But maybe more fun, since we DO blog so much about YA fiction and the teen world, we’re going to give you a glimpse into our high school selves. You’ll not only get to see what we were into and what we looked like, but we’ll share what we were reading back in the day.

And of course, no anniversary would be complete without a giveaway as a way to thank everyone who takes the time to read what we write, but those who comment, who share, and who continue to motivate us in doing this. You help make this fun.

Naturally, we picked a pair of our favorite reads so far this year. Two books we’re more than thrilled to talk up and down as stand outs. We’re giving away a pre-order of Courtney Summers’s This is Not a Test (teaser-reviewed here) and Pete Hautman’s The Obsidian Blade (reviewed here). Two books, two potential winners, but you’re welcome to enter for both. The books will be purchased and sent via The Book Depository, so it’s open to anyone who can receive books from there. Winners will be picked May 8.

We hope you enjoy what we have to share the next few days and thank you so much for making this little blogging thing so much more than just a little blogging thing.

Who are we and what do we do?

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Bloggers have tons of tools at their disposal for promoting content, for engaging in conversation, for working through some of the tricky issues that emerge. There is a great community for seeking feedback from, for getting knowledge from, and for connecting, period. The collective knowledge and experience and the willingness for people to share and talk with one another is precisely what makes this a community.

But repeatedly — repeatedly — people talk about how the YA blogging community has a not-so-good reputation. That because of the drama surrounding any number of different things, this community is somehow poorly seen, poorly valued. That because issues come up and rather than talk about them, the community reacts, rather than reflects.

I don’t necessarily think that there’s a poor reputation about bloggers, specifically YA bloggers, but I do think some who do blog in this corner of the internet like to think there is. They enjoy being part of the drama and they enjoy driving it forward, rather than talking about it. There are certainly people in the blogging world who love talking about issues, who love pulling them apart and thinking about them critically before reacting. But for some, the thrill is in acting, rather than in digesting. That, in my mind, is where the problem lies.

There’s a lengthy and thoughtful post over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books about a recent discovery of potential plagiarism in the YA blogging world, along with relevant links. But this isn’t really about that. This is much more about the reaction following that blog post. I’ve been watching both the comments and my Twitter stream with fascination this morning, as people have begun sharing their personal feelings about the blogger very openly. They’ve accused this person of everything under the sun, whether fairly or not, and the person has yet had a chance to defend herself. In psychology and communication, this behavior of bringing everything up at once is called kitchen sinking — rather than stick to discussing the issue at hand in a problematic situation, every other concern is pulled out and thrown down. It’s a pretty destructive communication method because it breaks away from the original problem at hand. The issue here is plagiarism.

The other problem — the one I think is worth talking about once the person in question gets a chance to respond as she needs to — is that some have taken this as an opportunity to be happy. To celebrate someone’s potential fault, their potential crash. Not everyone has. But what could and should be a legitimate discussion of plagiarism has turned into a way for some other people to share their feelings about a person and their work in a way that is unconstructive. That’s just straight mean and childish, even. Rather than discussing the real consequences and problems of plagiarism and using this as a jumping off point, some have instead turned to celebration.

If you’ve wondered why YA blogging can sometimes get the reputation it does, why people believe there is even a reputation, this may be all you need to know. When a valid and important topic worth having a dialog about emerges, so often it devolves, turning into mud-slinging, rather than discussion. Drama, rather than discourse. Having all of these tools at our disposal to have these conversations turn into means for guessing, assuming, devaluing.

I hate watching it so, so much.

Twitter and blog commenting may seem like they’re private forums, wherein we can have these conversations because we’re communicating among friends, but remember: they’re public. They’re not a private discussion with a person. These things are open and accessible. Remember what happened earlier this year when discussion about a book review on Goodreads was believed to be a private conversation between an agent and an author? What was intended to be private and an opportunity to vent turned into a public reviewer discussion which hurt everyone involved — author, agent, reviewer, friends of all parties — either directly or indirectly.  The same thing happens when it’s a member of our own community. Your messages are still public. These comments reflect not only on you, but on the community as a whole.

I do not for any reason believe we should hide things when they’re found to be true. If the plagiarism accusation is accurate, I absolutely believe it needs to be addressed, and I believe the blogger in question needs to address it publicly on her blog. I believe bloggers have a responsibility to own their actions and their words. I believe being honest about this situation is necessary and proves point and for all that plagiarism is a big thing. But what I don’t believe is that this is an opportunity — that any big issue like this is an opportunity — to trash talk someone so openly. To celebrate their making a mistake.

When we do that, all we do is continue perpetuating a reputation, whether we want to or not. And for a community that wants to be taken as legitimate, as professional, as a real tool in the book world, we have a responsibility to speak only when we have something thoughtful to add to conversation.

So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post from Susan Adrian

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This week’s guest post for our “So You Want to Read YA?” series comes from writer Susan Adrian. 

Susan Adrian is an author of young adult books of all shapes and sizes. In the past she worked in the fields of exotic pet-sitting, clothes-schlepping, and bookstore management, and has settled in, mostly, as a scientific editor. She currently lives in the wilds of Montana with her family, and keeps busy by learning Russian, eating chocolate, and writing more books. You can visit her website at http://susanadrian.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @susan_adrian. Susan is represented by Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary. 

So you’re an adult—even a thirty- or forty-something credit card-carrying adult—and you’ve heard about this Hunger Games thing. Maybe you even tried those books, and you thought they were pretty (darn) impressive. More real, vivid, and intense than the books you’ve been reading. Different. You wander into the crowded young adult section, ready to sample something else.

And then you hide your face and walk quickly the other way, because (a) there are so many choices, and so many of them have vampires or headless teens or dead girls in dresses, and (b) there are actual teens there, and that’s just all kinds of scary. Yikes.

Relax. It may seem overwhelming at first, but that’s only because there is so much awesome to be had in the YA section. Once you get started, you’ll see goodness on every shelf—and you may even be able to strike up a conversation with those teens. Or (gasp) your own kids.

I’ve chosen a few sock-knockers, of different genres within YA, to get your feet wet. Awesomeness on these titles is guaranteed.

Classics:

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Like The Hunger Games, Uglies takes place in a future society quite different from our own, but Westerfeld has taken a different direction. In this world, everyone has a compulsory operation on their sixteenth birthday to make them ideally beautiful. Fifteen-year-old Tally, currently an Ugly, is biding her time until she can be a Pretty too. But her best friend refuses her surgery and runs away, and Tally’s decision is suddenly not so clear. The language, worldbuilding, and characterization are top-notch, and this is a book I think all ages can relate to.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

John Green has gotten some good “adult” press lately (Time Magazine!) for his recent book The Fault in our Stars. Looking for Alaska, his first novel, is equally deserving of a crossover audience. Told from the point of view of Miles Halter, a junior in his first year at a southern boarding school, it is literary, but also accessible. This book won the Printz as well as all sorts of other awards, deservingly. The writing and characterization are phenomenal.

Paranormal (ish):

White Cat by Holly Black

No vampires here—just an incredibly creative, well-imagined world of magic and compelling, complex characters. I’d never read Holly Black before this, and I absolutely devoured this book whole. (And its sequel, Red Glove. I’m anxiously waiting for Black Heart to come out in April.) I won’t even spoil the plot for you, but there are con artists, assassins, and crime bosses, all twisted together with magic.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Everyone loves ghosts, right? How about a teenage ghost-killer, who never allows himself to connect to the living, running up against the one ghost he can’t get rid of? Add forbidden love and lots of delicious nastiness. This book has a mystery vibe, and anybody who loves mysteries or dark ghost stories should snap it up.

Dystopian:

I admit, I’ve gotten a little tired of the dystopian genre lately—but these two knock it out of the park, with original and richly imagined societies. I actually have recommended both to fellow grown-ups within the past couple weeks.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Ana is born into a world where everyone else has been reincarnated, over and over, with their memories intact, for thousands of years—except her. Someone has died so she could be born, a “new soul,” and the rest of this society can’t forgive her and has no idea how to treat her. Enter secrets, sylphs, and dragons. I was fascinated with the world and with Ana’s unique voice. Incarnate also has one of the best romances I’ve seen in a long time.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

When Divergent came out last year, it was hyped as the next Hunger Games—and I think it’s the only one to live up to that hype. The world has devolved into five factions: Candor (honesty), Abnegation (selflessness), Dauntless (bravery), Amity (kindness), and Erudite (intelligence)…and sixteen year-olds must choose where they belong. Beatrice, the main character, goes through a dramatic transformation in this story, and I believed every step of it. Like many others, I’m ready and waiting for the sequel (Insurgent), which comes out in May.

These should be enough to get you all tangled up in the emotional honesty and power of YA books.

See, once you’ve been in the YA section for a while, you won’t be able to get away…

Er. I mean, welcome.

The Great YA Blogger Meetup @ ALA Annual in Anaheim

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After successful YA Blogger meet ups the last few ALA conferences, we’re going to continue the tradition and do it again. Like last year’s meet up New Orleans, I’m joining forces with the ladies of YA Highway to make it happen. If you’re a YA blogger/YA author/YA enthusiast, you are more than welcome to join us.

We’ll be meeting at the Degrees Wine & Patio Bar in the Marriott at 8 pm on Saturday, June 23. As usual, it’s a pay your own way kinda thing, and we keep it laid back. We’d love to see you there, and we’ll have more details as they come together and as the day gets closer.

Links of note

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What a couple of weeks! There’s been a lot of good and not-so-good stuff floating around. Here’s a roundup of the things worth spending a little time reading/thinking about:

  • The Guys Lit Wire are back with their spring book fair to help Ballou High School stock its library shelves. This school’s story is heartbreaking, and they deserve all of the help they can get. So if you can spare a few bucks, please purchase one of the books from their wish list and send it along to them. All of the pertinent details are right here. I’ve purchased a copy of Joshua Cohen’s Leverage for the cause.

  • Book covers seem to be on everyone’s mind lately. There’s a GREAT piece from Tor’s blog about a certain shot of women that hits on a lot of the things I talked about in my post about the female body on covers. Then there’s this piece from the Huffington Post, which is really a post about the self-pubbed author’s book, rather than about covers. I don’t want to link it, but I am because I want to use this as a jumping off point for a future post on how to successfully work with bloggers to promote your book. I’m bothered less by her discussion of her cover — which looks cheap to me — and more about how she’s reduced the YA blogosphere into a publicity tool rather than a dynamic organism.  You can gather some of that from reading her older blog posts.
  • One of my best experiences in college was taking a class at the Newberry Library in Chicago. I had access to amazing and rare primary source materials and was able to write what I think was the best/most interesting paper ever because of that. So when I saw they’re starting a blog highlighting their children’s books, I added it to my list of must-read blogs. Check it out. 
  • Has Kindle killed the book cover? I love how whenever anyone talks about ereading, it’s always about the Kindle. But alas. The Atlantic has an interesting piece about how book covers are shifting in the digital environment. I think the second we start seeing interactive covers, I’m going to put myself much more solidly on the print is better side. I don’t need my books to be moving and entertaining me through gimmicks. 
  • I mostly ignore the list of “most banned” books that ALA releases every year, but there’s an interesting piece on the Huffington Post from Lauren Myracle talking about what it’s like to be the most banned. 

  • I’ve kept a paper notebook of all the books I’ve read since 2001 (and I know there’s a book of books prior to that but it’s forever lost). I really liked this essay out of the New York Times about someone else who keeps a “book of books.” Anyone else? Sure, I love Goodreads, but a book is never a book I’ve finished until I have written it down in my notebook. 
  • One argument that never makes sense to me is the one about tense in books. All stories have their own way of being told. It’s cool to have preferences (like Kimberly does), but I refuse to think one is the right tense and the rest aren’t. This is all to preface a nice favorites list compiled by YA author Nicola Morgan with books written in present tense.
  • Is there a difference between boys and girls when it comes to how one reads? Research here suggests boys read more if they have digital readers. I…don’t buy this because it seems much less about the reading — the contents — and much more about the container. There’s something pretty exciting about technology and I think the notion of technology is being a bit conflated with reading as an activity. 

On a completely different note, join us this coming week as we celebrate our blog’s 3 year anniversary. We have a couple of giveaways and we’ll take you down memory lane. . . but probably not in the way you expect. We’ll kick things off Tuesday.