We’re sorry, this post is in another castle.
April 30th, 2009
John Scalzi on the derision expressed toward YA titles that are on the short lists of major SF/F awards:
Yes, how horrible it is that some of what’s being hailed as the best science fiction and fantasy written today is in a literary category designed to encourage millions of young people to read for the rest of their natural lives. Because God knows the last thing science fiction and fantasy publishing needs right now is whole generation of new and enthusiastic readers who might actually get hooked into the genre until they die. It’s a goddamn tragedy, it is.
Guys, there’s a reason I adore this man and it’s not just because his books are amazing. If you only read one of his books, read Zoe’s Tale, which is the last book published in his Old Man’s War trilogy but stands alone quite well. I was a hot mess at the end of it. So good.
April 27th, 2009
posted in reviews
- Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
- Title: Life As We Knew It
- Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books
This book is depressing. Or, as the author likes to say on her blog, it is 150% filled with bleakity bleak. There is bleak, and then there is bleak. This book is the latter. The ending even had me going, “wow, that is DEPRESSING.” (And I think the ending is supposed to be HAPPY.)
Do not read to be happy. In fact, do not read anywhere when you’re already feeling low, feeling extra cheerful, or anytime near a full moon. Any other time is (mostly) fine. However, there’s no escaping being depressed.
The story starts off normally, with the big event of an asteroid hitting the moon. It’s trotted out to the masses as a one-in-a-lifetime spectacle. Miranda, who narrates the story through diary entries, is interested but more bothered by the fact that all her teachers are using it to assign extra homework. Then the asteroid hits, and the moon’s orbit is shifted. This changes the entire make-up of the Earth as the altered orbit throws wrenches into normal weather patterns, changes the tides, and other nasty phenomenon. Through it all, Miranda’s family has to survive and adjust to the way the world is now.
In other words, it was Day After Tomorrow in YA form, and without Jake Gyllenhaal. But if they wanted to cast him as Matt in the movie version of this book (this would be awesome) I am all for it. Read the rest of this entry »
April 26th, 2009
posted in in my mailboxThese are the YA books that I acquired this week. I would be ashamed but I am way too excited about them to care! SORRY READING PILE, brace yourself for some additional weight.
- Author: Bill Konigsberg
- Title: Out of the Pocket
I bought this one. I’ve wanted to read this for awhile. I blame Chris Crutcher for my sudden obsession with sports fiction! CURSE YOU, CRUTCHER. *shakes fist*
- Author: Drew Ferguson
- Title: The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second
Purchased! I’ve heard a few things about this title, but I was mostly enticed by the Q & A with the author, where he said this:
I wanted Charlie to come across as being real and authentic, which meant not shying away from the fact that, at seventeen, Charlie was going to be thinking about sex on an almost constant basis and that he’d be desperate to get off—by himself or with someone else. And since the novel is set up as if it were Charlie’s diary, there’s no reason why he’d censor himself about sex, especially when he wasn’t censoring the way he wrote about his friends and family.
DREW FERGUSON, ARE YOU READING MY MIND? There’s nothing worse than a novel where teen boys aren’t totally stoked about getting off in whatever way possible, or worse, refer to their penis as a “trouser snake”. NO. Please think of the fangirls. *shudder*
- Author: Steven Kluger
- Title: My Most Excellent Year
Also purchased. There’s been a lot of fluttering over this title and I’m really curious about it. I have my eye on every single novel by Kluger, actually! I chose this one first, because why not.
Library books:
- Author: Cory Doctorow
- Title: Little Brother
- Author: Jennifer Bradbury
- Title: Shift
I couldn’t resist! They were faced right by the room where the library book sale was being held. Alas for me, the library book sale never contains YA titles. Our YA section is way too popular for them to be getting rid of stuff, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I’m reading Graceling and want to write some fic for it so bad. There better be makeouts in this book, that’s all I’m saying. DON’T LET ME DOWN, CASHORE. Makeouts are necessary so I can survive going through the rest of this book.