Summer Fun

April 6, 2016 |

Publishers have really tapped into the upcoming summer season for YA fiction fodder, and it seems a bit heavier than it has been in the past – though that could just be my perception, this being the first year I’ve really had to pay close attention. I’ve counted eight new titles on deck this summer between April and June, plus three more paperback reprints. These aren’t even all the books that feature summer predominantly in the plot, they’re just the ones with the word “summer” in the title (including a punny one where the character is also named Summer). If you’re looking for an easy display for your teen area this summer, here you go.

Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody (April 5, 2016)

Welcome to Winlock Harbor. Where the weather is always sunny, the water is the perfect temperature, and the boardwalk boasts the best food around. Where best friends Grayson, Mike, and Ian first met as kids, building a sand castle on a cloudless beach day. And where this summer, the loyalties of a lifelong friendship will begin to unravel.

Two Summers by Aimee Friedman (April 26, 2016)

Two possible futures face Summer: either she will spend the summer in Provence with her father, uncovering family secrets, and exploring the old world, or she will stay in upstate New York, coping with her mother, and dreaming of her long time crush–and which future unfolds will depend on whether or not she answers a phone call.

One Silver Summer by Rachel Hickman (April 26, 2016)

Still grieving for her mother, sixteen-year-old Saskia has come from Brooklyn to Cornwall to live with her uncle where she discovers a beautiful silver-colored horse named Bo, and a boy, Alex, who describes himself as the horse’s trainer–but as their friendship deepens into something more she discovers that Alex is hiding a secret about himself and his family that could affect their relationship.

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood (May 3, 2016)

Gottie Oppenheimer, a seventeen-year-old physics prodigy, navigates grief, love, and disruptions in the space-time continuum in one very eventful summer.

Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider (May 3, 2016)

Seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre spends a summer in Hawaii as she deals with being betrayed by both her boyfriend and her best friend, and she and her twin brother, Penn, begin new, complicated, romances.

Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods (May 10, 2016)

As the daughter of an astrologer, Wilamena Carlisle knows the truth lies within the stars, so when she discovers a rare planetary alignment she is forced to tackle her worst astrological fear–The Fifth House of Relationships and Love–but Wil must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her mother’s legacy when she falls for a sensitive guitar player.

Summer Days & Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins (May 17, 2016)

Maybe it’s the long, lazy days, or maybe it’s the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

Summer in the Invisible City by Juliana Romano (June 21, 2016)

Sadie has always idealized her absentee dad and the popular girls in her school, but as she grows her photography skills and develops a crush on a guarded boy, she starts to see things as they really are.

And the three paperback reprints also coming out this summer:

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler (June 7, 2016)

After a boating accident takes her beautiful singing and speaking voice from her, Elyse d’Abreau, the youngest of six sisters, leaves her home in Tobago to stay in an Oregon seaside town where Christian Kane, a notorious playboy, challenges her to express herself and to overcome her fear of the sea.

Since Last Summer by Joanna Philbin (June 7, 2016)

Eighteen-year-olds Rory McShane and Isabel Rule are back for another summer in East Hampton, but their friendship is put to the test as each girl deals with boyfriends, summer jobs, and family issues.

Three Day Summer by Sarvenaz Tash (June 14, 2016)

During the three days of the music festival known as Woodstock, Michael Michaelson of Somerville, Massachusetts, and Cora Fletcher, a volunteer in the medical tent who lives nearby, share incredible experiences, the greatest of which is meeting each other.

3 Books I’d Take to Prison

April 4, 2016 |

In The Walls Around Us, the story in a book is sometimes all a girl may have to herself in the world, now that her freedom has been taken away. I understood this deeply when I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. I would have been the girl in Aurora Hills who gravitated toward that book cart, who read every single title in that library at least once and probably more, who found an escape route in those pages… and stayed as long as she could.

Nova Ren Suma wrote a lovely piece on her blog about the use of books in her most recent novel, The Walls Around Us. Her words here resonated with me for a number of reasons. I relate to that, of course, as a girl who lost and found herself in books over and over, especially as a teenager. Her words also resonated because they reflected what she wrote about in her essay for Feminism for the Real World. But you’ll be treated to that in the future.

She rounds her piece about the importance of books in our lives with a question: what three books would you take to prison with you? Or, perhaps, this is a question that could be posed as what books you’d take with you on a deserted island for the rest of your life?

I’ve chewed this question over many times in my life. I’ve certainly got a stack of books I consider influential, the kinds of stories I’ll read and reread. But what books would make that final, all-important cut? Which ones would I choose to keep with me?

The first book I’d take with me is my all-time, absolute favorite book: Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant.

I first read this book early in my college career. I reread it time and time again thereafter, completing yet another reread early last year. This book has changed with me; in the last reread, I picked up on things I’d never seen before — namely, how young, how inexperienced, how grappling-with-becoming-adults the characters in the book are. Through college, the cast had been older than me, but reading it at age 30, suddenly, they were mostly my age or younger. Yet, it still struck me with beauty and starkness, with the challenges of relationships. The settings of this book are always what sparkle for me, between the glitz and glamor of Los Angeles and the bleak, cold, snow-covered plains of Alliance, Nebraska.

In college, my husband and I did a lot of traveling by car, and on one summer, we drove from Iowa to Montana to see my roommate get married. From Montana, we drove down to Austin, Texas, so I could see the University. On the way, we did an overnight in Alliance — the sky threatening tornadoes, the wind and rain battering our car and the windows of the somewhat shady hotel we’d selected. We drove around and it was incredible to see what did and didn’t match up with the novel. Both of us had read and loved the story, and being in that place, just a few months after we’d both been to Los Angeles for the first time, impressed something into me about this book, about the power of stories, and about how moving setting and place can be.

I’m a huge non-fiction fan, and I attribute a lot of that to falling madly in love with Scott Weidensaul’s The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species. I’ve only read this once, but I think about it regularly. I know it’s the kind of book I’d want with me in prison/on an island because this is a book about people who believe and the lengths they’ll go to in order to follow a hunch.

Weidensaul follows scientists who are convinced about the existence of extinct or lost species. It’s fascinating to see what drives these people to seek out things that no longer exist. If you’re familiar with John Corey Whaley’s Where Things Come Back, there is an element of the book about the search for the Lazarus Woodpecker; this piece of Whaley’s story is also a precisely what Weidensaul’s book is about. Where are those long-lost woodpeckers? Who seeks them out? What happens and who believes the story if one of these so-called lost species are found?

Being in isolation in any capacity requires some kind of hope that there is more than the present moment. Falling into a book — non-fiction — about human’s search through wishful thinking and discovery could only bring comfort and connection.

So what would book #3 be?

The truth is, I can only pick two. That third spot I leave empty because it is downright impossible for me to select a title I’d need to have with me. Not that there aren’t books that would fill that hole; instead, there are too many, and I want that space saved for all of those books I simply can’t take.

Perhaps I’d use that third space to bring along a notebook, where I could capture my own stories, as well as the stories of those who might, however impossibly, stumble upon me in a prison cell or a deserted island.

Tell me: what would YOUR three books be?

This Week at Book Riot

April 1, 2016 |

Because I completely blanked on rounding up my Book Riot work last week, consider this a two-week catch up of what I’ve written over there. There’s good reason for blanking: I went out of town and my head was spinning with details about that. I’ll write a bit more about one of the things I did in the near future since it’s book-related and now a permanent fixture in my life (ominous, much?). Also last week I finished up the hard edits on Feminism for the Real World, which I’m thrilled to say is now onto copyedits, meaning it’s one step closer to a finished book — I cannot, cannot wait to share this with readers because it is good.

3 YA takes on William Shakespeare‘s plays

A literary tour of bookstores, libraries, and other bookish spots in Providence, Rhode Island

YA books that hit shelves in 1986 (please go enjoy that last cover, if nothing else!)

And finally…

Dig into these 100 must-read YA books written in verse.

Recent Non-YA Reads

March 30, 2016 |

Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey

Every once in a very long while, I’ll willingly read a piece of nonfiction longer than a hundred pages. This was my most recent pick, which was gifted to me by someone who knows how much I love Indian food. Madhur Jaffrey is an Indian food writer, chef, and actress, and this is her food-laced memoir of growing up in India in the 1930s and 1940s. It’s interesting both for its descriptions of the food, which are mouth-watering (a couple dozen recipes included in the back) as well as the details of her life during that time in that particular place. She writes of huge dinners where forty or more of her extended family were in attendance, and of how they got everyone in a single car to go downtown to shop (three layers of people, a child sitting on an adult lap who in turn sat on another lap). She writes extensively of the commingling of various cultures – mainly British, Muslim, and Hindu, and how her family took bits and pieces of all three. She writes about the Partition and its subsequent violence as well. Madhur’s memoir is a good pick for foodies (I craved mangoes badly after reading this and haven’t stopped craving them) as well as those who are simply interested in this part of the world during the 30s and 40s. Madhur’s writing is steady and descriptive, providing an individual account of everyday life in a time and place many of us here are not familiar with.

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

I’m a little torn on Rebecca Stead. I thought her Newbery winner, When You Reach Me, was a lovely book and a great pick for the Newbery, but I can’t say that I loved it. Ditto First Light, which had a similar sort of subtle SF bent to it. Goodbye Stranger is probably my least favorite of hers, though I will admit that it’s well-written and finely crafted and would certainly appeal to a certain kind of middle grade reader. Such a reader wouldn’t have been me at that age, though. It consists of two different story threads that ultimately converge, one in third person and another in second person. Second person narration is tricky, but overall this worked, and quick readers will pick up on who the “you” is soon enough. It’s difficult to say exactly what this story is about; there’s no good elevator pitch for it. It’s about friendship and bullying and first love. It features a girl, Bridge, who was in a terrible car accident a few years ago and is still recovering from how it changed her life, in ways not readily visible. It also features her two friends, one of whom is being pressured to send progressively more revealing photos to a boy. And then there’s Sherm, who befriends Bridge and has his own backstory. If I had to come up with a pithy description of the plot, I’d say it’s about a group of middle schoolers growing up. Which isn’t terribly descriptive. It doesn’t have enough of a plot to satisfy seventh grade Kimberly, but I’m sure there are other seventh graders who will enjoy reading about these kids’ ordinary – but not necessarily boring – lives.

Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick

Though I buy all the picture books for my workplace, I don’t get much time to actually sit down and look through them. I made a point to pick this one up after it won the Caldecott, and I can see why it got the honor. Sophie Blackall’s illustrations are quite child-friendly, I think, but what stuck out to me most is actually Mattick’s story. I had no idea Winnie the Pooh was based on an actual bear, and Mattick’s real-life connection to the real-life Winnie is lovely to read about. The way she frames it – as a conversation between herself and her son, ultimately revealing to him that the man in the story is her own grandfather, whom he is named for – is sentimental without being saccharine. It turns the traditional bedtime story into something very personal and profound.

March Debut YA Novels

March 28, 2016 |

It’s time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month. Like always, this round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past.

All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in February from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles.

Beyond the Red by Ava Jae: Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule. Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human like for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity– a secret kept even from him. When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie: Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor of Riaznin. But in a palace of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself. When threats of revolution pit Emperor Valko against his younger brother Prince Anton, Sonya must choose which brother to trust.

The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter: Committed to a mental hospital against her will for something she claims she did not do, Cassie O’Malley signs herself out against medical advice when she turns eighteen and tries to start over at college, until her estranged mother appears, throwing everything Cassie believes about herself into question.

The Girl Who Fell by SM Parker: When new boy in school, Alec, sweeps Zephyr off her feet, their passionate romance takes a dangerous and possessive turn when Alec begins manipulating Zephyr.

Guile by Constance Cooper: In the Bad Bayous, guile–a power in the water that changes people and objects, sometimes for the worse–sets Yonie Watereye, 16, on a path that puts her own life in danger as she traces her family tree and finds a murderer.

The Leaving Season by Cat Jordan: Middie Daniels is torn between the memory of her missing boyfriend, Nate, and Nate’s brooding best friend Lee.

Liars and Losers Like Us by Ami Allen-Vath: For seventeen-year-old Bree Hughes, it’s easier said than done when gossip, grief, and the opportunity to fail at love are practically high-fiving her in the hallways of Belmont High.

When Bree’s crush, Sean Mills, gives her his phone number, she can’t even leave a voicemail without sounding like a freak. Then she’s asked to be on Prom Court because Maisey Morgan, the school outcast nominated as a joke, declined. She apologizes to Maisey, but it’s too late. After years of torment and an ugly secret shared with their class’s cruel Pageant Queen, Maisey commits suicide. Bree is left with a lot of regret…and a revealing letter with a final request.

With Sean by her side, Bree navigates through her guilt, her parents’ divorce, and all the Prom Court drama. But when a cheating-love-triangle secret hits the fan after a night of sex, drinks, and video games, she’s left with new information about Sean and the class Pageant Queen. Bree must now speak up or stay silent. If she lets fear be her guide, she’ll lose her first love, and head to prom to avenge the death of the school outcast—as a party of one. (via Goodreads).

The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks: During a party a tsunami hits the coast of California, and Denver and a handful of others escape death and are swept out to sea. Of course, one of her fellow castaways is none other than her ex-BFF, Abigail, who can barely stand the sight of her. Trapped on a small boat with the most popular kids in school and waiting to be rescued, Denver wonders what might kill her first–dehydration, sunstroke, or the girl she used to think of as a sister?

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton: Amani is desperate to leave the dead-end town of Dustwalk, and she’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to help her escape. But after she meets Jin, the mysterious rebel running from the Sultan’s army, she unlocks the powerful truth about the desert nation of Miraji…and herself.

Save Me Kurt Cobain by Jenny Manzer: A chance discovery makes Nico, fifteen, believe that not only is Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the 1990s grung band Nirvana, still alive, but that he might be her real father.

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate: A chance encounter tangles the lives of seven high school students, each resisting the allure of one of the seven deadly sins, and each telling their story from their seven distinct points of view.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner: The son of a Pentecostal preacher faces his personal demons as he and his two outcast friends try to make it through their senior year of high school in rural Forrestville, Tennessee without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self.

Stone Field by Christy Lenzi: In this loose retelling of “Wuthering Heights” set in Missouri during the Civil War, when free-spirited seventeen-year-old Catrina discovers a mysterious young man with amnesia on her family’s sorghum farm, they fall passionately in love, scandalizing intolerant family members and neighbors.

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson descendants, Charlotte and Jamie, students at a Connecticut boarding school, team up to solve a murder mystery.

Timber Creek Station by Ali Lewis: Thirteen-year-old Danny Dawson lives on a cattle station in the Australian outback, where his family struggles to cope with the accidental death of his older brother a year earlier and his sister’s pregnancy by an Aboriginal.

The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith: After fourteen-year-old Eden is raped by her brother’s best friend, she knows she’ll never be the way she used to be.

Where Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse: Five interconnected stories that weave a subtle science-fictional web stretching out from the present into the future, presenting eerily plausible possibilities for social media, corporate sponsorship, and humanity, as our world collides with a mysterious alternate universe.