September 15th, 2009
Book Blogger Appreciation Week Interview: Sarah from Monkey Bear Reviews
posted in book blogger appreciation week

So I signed up for the interview game for this round of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. The Powers That Be matched me with Sarah from Monkey Bear Reviews and the first post I saw of hers was a) long and b) full of OPINIONS. Everyone knows what that means, and I was totally already crushing before I even sent the e-mail.

(The way to my heart: lots of words! *~Controversial Opinions~* Yes!)

So with no further ado, here’s Sarah answering the slew of questions I tossed at her. Be sure to visit her blog and read all her opinion pieces, gosh, HEARTS FOREVER. :D

First off, an introduction! Can you share a little bit about the person behind the text?

I’ve been an avid reader since childhood. I also love writing and hope to become a published author some day. I grew up in Ireland but I currently live in Switzerland with my family. Switzerland is a dangerous place to be as it has great coffee and chocolate — my two addictions!

What inspired you to start reviewing books? Did you have a goal in mind, or was it just for personal pleasure?

I started keeping track of the books I read a few years ago. Over time, my notes on each book grew more copious. These weren’t reviews in the formal sense, but the experience made the transition to writing proper reviews that bit easier.

I’d toyed with the idea of starting my own blog for at least a year before finally taking the plunge. I had a couple of reasons for doing so. Firstly, my computer skills needed improvement. I’d worked in an educational environment for years and wasn’t required to know much more than Microsoft Office and how to do research on the internet. I thought getting to grips with WordPress would teach me a few new skills and provide a useful introduction to HTML, CSS, etc.

The second reason was to help my writing. I’m the Queen of the First Three Chapters and The Detailed Synopsis. I suffer from chronic over-editing disorder and find it incredibly difficult to progress with a story beyond a certain point. The constant re-reading and re-writing inevitably gave me a crisis of confidence whereby I would decide that whatever story I was working on at the time was utter drivel and abandoned it to start a new one.

My rule when I began blogging was that I had to write a certain number of words within a fixed time and was only allowed a brief grammar/spell check before posting. This has proved incredibly useful training. I admit that I cringe sometimes when I re-read older posts and notice I’ve used the same word three times, or over-used filler words such as “so” and “really”. Overall, though, I think it’s the method which works best for me.

Finally, the actual catalyst for starting my blog came after I handed in my notice at work and was about to become a stay-at-home mother. I needed some sort of focus beyond my children and the household and wanted something that would require me to use my brain.

What were some of the first book blogs you read? How did you find them? Did they inspire you to take up the hobby?

The first blog I ever visited was Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I’d seen them mentioned on the messageboards at All About Romance and I wanted to see what was causing all the controversy. For the longest time, SBTB was the only blog I visited. Then I discovered Dear Author, Avid Book Reader, KristieJ, Karen Scott and a slew of others, some of which no longer exist.

Funnily enough, I can’t really say those blogs inspired me to take up the hobby. My true inspiration came from Twitter, of all places. When I opened a Twitter account, it was on the assumption that it would be an extension of Facebook, so purely for family and real life friends. Then I discovered a few bloggers and fellow romance readers and started following them. Had I started tweeting with the express intention of connecting with authors, readers and bloggers, I would have done so under a pseudonym. By the time it occurred to me that tweeting under my real name might not be such a great idea in terms of privacy, I already had around 70 followers and it seemed stupid to change it. I’ve discovered so many interesting “smaller” blogs through Twitter and this gave me the confidence to start my own.

Flashback! Do you remember the first book you read as a child, or the first book that opened up reading to you; the one that made you go, “I have to have more!”?

My mother and grandmother read to me from the time I was a baby. I could already read when I started school and always had two books on the go: one which would be read aloud to me, and one which I read myself. I can’t remember the name of the very first book I read without assistance. I know the cover was blue and the story featured a little girl and her stuffed rabbit.

We all have books we really, really wish we could get our hands on, but aren’t published yet. What are a few of yours?

Oh, boy, do you want a list?! I could take up a lot of space with all the books I’m looking forward to in 2009 and 2010. A few highly-anticipated ones include J.R. Ward’s Covet (October 2010), Victoria Dahl’s Lead Me On (January 2010), Julie James’ Something About You (March 2010), Melissa Marr’s Skin Starved (April 2010) and Jo Goodman’s next Western.

Has blogging about books changed your perspective about literature and reading? Has it opened up different genres for you that you might not have tried otherwise?

I don’t think it’s changed my perspective on literature and reading per se. What it has most definitely achieved is that I read far fewer duds than I used to. I purchase books almost exclusively on the basis of recommendations. This considerably lessens the likelihood of buying an absolute stinker. I’ve also ventured into new territory and tried genres which I had previously regarded with skepticism, such as Urban Fantasy and Fantasy.

Out of all the experiences you’ve had blogging so far, which has been the best? Which has been the most frustrating?

The best blogging experience so far has most definitely been connecting with people who have similar reading tastes to mine, and discovering new-to-me blogs. There are so many quality “smaller” blogs out there which I’d never heard of. Most of these I found through people leaving comments on my blog, and people linking to me.

The most frustrating experience was when I wrote an opinion piece which I felt was misunderstood and started a bit of controversy. On the plus side, it taught me a valuable lesson: state your opinions clearly and directly and be prepared to stand by them as not everyone will agree with you. In hindsight, the language I used in the post was ambiguous. I’m shy by nature and border on the overly polite. I was trying to cushion my feelings of outrage with respectful language and this undoubtedly led to some of the confusion. Direct speech is much better. I’ve found I’ve become more forthcoming in expressing my opinions since I started blogging — for better or for worse!

If you could give all new bloggers some advice, what would it be? What advice have you found most beneficial to your blogging experience?

Remain true to yourself. Yes, you hope to gain an audience, but authenticity is what really counts. Blog about what interests you and hopefully people will like it. The moment you start to take yourself or your stats too seriously is the moment when blogging becomes a chore.

Another piece of advice which was given to me when I started my blog is that if you find yourself writing a 2000-word essay in response to someone else’s piece, save it for your own blog. I use this advice judiciously. If I feel I have something fresh to add to the topic, I write my own piece on it. I always link to the post which inspired me, and I usually comment on it as well.

What’s a comfort read for you? A book you’ve read before and return to, or just the type you know you’ll love: either works!

Georgette Heyer’s Regencies are perennial comfort reads.

Has book blogging altered how you write? Made you a better writer who is more confident by the nature of showing reviews out to fend for themselves, or perhaps the opposite?

As mentioned above, blogging has helped me curb the tendency to over-edit. This doesn’t necessarily improve the quality of my writing but it most certainly increases the quantity. I have about 20 minutes per day to write something for my blog. If I used that time to polish one paragraph, I’d never manage 5-6 posts per week. Funnily enough, I find my most popular pieces are often the ones which just flow and take the least time to write.

Send us out with some recs: think about all the books you’ve read this year; which do you think will go on to make your 2009 Best Of list?

Here are a few 2009 releases which I enjoyed:

  • Fade to Black by Leslie Parrish – Romantic Suspense
  • Never Love a Lawman by Jo Goodman – Western
  • Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James – Contemporary Romance
  • Start Me Up by Victoria Dahl – Contemporary Romance
  • A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James – Historical Romance
8 comments
 
September 14th, 2009
This.
posted in commentary

I would be interested in this answer, too.

4 comments
 
September 13th, 2009
Review: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
posted in reviews
Howl's Moving Castle

Why yes, I am about to boggle the world with a positive review!

Let’s be honest, though: Howl’s Moving Castle was a reread. I picked it up on recommendation of several people (Yati and Mem specifically, I believe) and was underwhelmed. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t love the hell out of the book the first time through. I couldn’t even find much to criticize—I was just confused. I had read the book, but I couldn’t keep the characters straight, the plot was the worst knot in your laces ever, and I wasn’t much crazy about Howl.

(I have always loved Calcifer, though, I’m not even going to lie. I want my own fire demon, uhhh without all the dangerous parts.)

I rarely feel nothing for a book like I did then, the yawning confusion of boredom and “So why is this so well-loved, again?” Perhaps I wasn’t in the right place, because I picked this up again looking for something light and fun, fantasy specifically so I could just stop wanting to tear my hair out at all the “ew, cooties!” talk realistic fiction has been serving me on a silver platter amid other rotting indignities foisted upon my gender with no apology (or hand-washing, so great, I probably have the literary version of H1NH now). This was absolutely the book to pick up, I think, because even as this book features Sophie in the role that it does, she’s still wonderful.

Sophie lives in the magical kingdom of Ingary, in the town of Market Chipping, working in the family hat shop. As the eldest of three sisters, she doesn’t believe she has much future in fortunes, so as her sisters, Lettie and Martha, are sent out into the world to make theirs, Sophie remains working in the shop with her hats and adornments. When she unknowingly insults the Witch of the Waste with the hats she is making, said witch curses her and sets it so she is unable to tell anyone of the ordeal.

So, cursed to live an old lady, Sophie must set out on her own, and stumbles upon Howl’s Moving Castle, the home of a terrifying wizard who consumes the hearts of young girls, where she must deal with a womanizing wizard and recalcitrant fire demon, a sometimes-surly teenage magician’s apprentice, sisterly concern and bemusement, and a filthy castle where she’s not allowed to kill spiders. On top of that, she enters into a bargain to help the fire demon, Calcifer, remove the curse he’s under so he’ll remove hers, even though they can’t talk about their curses at all, in the best magical, brain-bending back-scratching I’ve ever read.

My issue with this book the first time through is that the plot is sort of complicated and I went in going, “Oh, a romance!” Back in reality, I bought into the press fandom had provided about this book, where I foolishly assumed that it was Howl/Sophie sexy times, candlelight, etc., etc., and don’t get me wrong, romance plays a part in this book but it’s so much more. It’s an adventure, about courage and love and perhaps Fate, but I might be reaching for that. Sophie considers herself dull, but as the story progresses and she interacts with Michael and Howl and Calcifer, it’s quite clear that she is a delightful person but has convinced herself that by product of birth, she is lesser—the story gives her a venue to prove herself to herself, not just clean house and fall in love, but to interact in the world in a form that she feels befits her, whereas the Sophie-that-was was shy and afraid, Sophie-the-crone is outspoken and honest.

The writing is very straight-forward and full of humor. I’m a sucker for good dialogue, too, and this book has it in spades, but of course I have dorky humor, so I would crack up at lines like this:

“Have you heard of a land called Wales?” she asked.
“No,” said Sophie. “Is it under the sea?”

Shut up, guys! It’s funny! Don’t judge me! (alskdlajsdd HILARITY)

My only complaint with this book comes in the length, by which I mean, “Hey Jones, you’re missing about 100 pages!” and has to do with why the first time through I was downright irate with this book for being so damn confusing. Toward the end, the story skips from a nice, brisk pace to FULL SPEED AHEAD, adding new characters and throwing out resolutions to various plot threads at a rate that had my head spinning and this was my second time through, so I can imagine why I was less than impressed with the resolution the first. Concerning the missing wizard and royalty, a dog and characters who aren’t who they seem to be, the last bit of this book was chugging for the finish line in a way I found exhausting, so I generally hand-waved it away and focused on how awesome Sophie was, and how Howl eventually becomes the hero, even though he’s clearly not cut out for it at the beginning of the story. I could do much worse than find a book that hits all the high notes of wit and allusion, that mixes fantasy and reality together so well, and includes a romance that is rooted firmly in an understanding of faults, but grows regardless of them. That’s a good love story.

Therefore, I can forgive the end of this book for not spending as much time as I would have liked on the 5,000 plot threads, because most of the book is just plain fun and I recommend it for comfort reading. It definitely cheered me up and that’s high praise indeed considering how low I was feeling (very). I needed a book that wasn’t going to be all SRS BIZNESS and this delivered, which means I should reread every book I’ve ever felt nothing for and see if I am able to have, if not a better opinion, any opinion at all.

(Doomed.)

  1. Becky’s Book Reviews
4 comments
 
September 13th, 2009
Renay is Crazy!, or Nerds Heart YA Round-Up and Nerds Heart YA 2010?
posted in nerds heart ya

I never imagined whining about the fact that a book tournament was ego-stroking books that needed no more ego stroking would result in this. I had no idea, none, zilch, no clue. I am in awe and touched and honored that this idea spread so far and reached so many people (like the authors! Oh gosh guys Drew Ferguson commented on my blog excuse me while I go have a fangirl attack. WHO NEEDS EDWARD CULLEN WHEN YOU HAVE YA AUTHORS.)

The winner of the tournament was My Most Excellent Year, although going into this I wanted to be clear that winning was subjective—as all reading was. The point was to read these books we might not have otherwise read. It was a haphazard project, because on top of doing it and running a very complicated writing exchange and working full time at $dayjob, I dropped the ball a lot (oh ffffff was there more than one ball? I feel like I dropped 1,000 of them, if you were a judge and I dropped your ball I am so sorry).

I dropped the ball in organization, especially. Foreign YA, YA with POC, just to name a couple, were not very well-represented. The process for choosing the books was hard, too, because we all had different opinions. There were many books nominated that deserved to be on the list, and there were many books overlooked that deserved to be on the list.

People have been making noise about Nerds Heart YA 2010 and to them I say: maybe. I’m not sure, for as much fun as I had, I worry that the same issues will crop up. How do we make the nomination process better? How do we evaluate which books didn’t get enough attention? What, really, is our scope? This is the question we need to answer. For instance, if we chose to make our scope book blogs in general, how does that change the process? If we say: what books didn’t get very much love on book blogs last year? Is that more helpful than trying to guess at sales statistics we don’t have access to and word of mouth?

I love that Nerds Heart YA put GLBTQ YA on the map in a very real, focused way, because I don’t see it reviewed often and when I do oftentimes it reads like the summary was lifted from a publishers website with no citation (boy, can we have a Blogging With Integrity site for that?) and most of the reviews spend copy time talking about how the book has gay characters but it’s still totally okay and it doesn’t matter that they’re gay!

Man, I am tired of reading reviews that are basically defenses of reading a book where people make out with someone of the same gender. I’m not kidding! If Nerds Heart YA shows one thing, it’s that these books are good and no one has to apologize for liking them, or defend them like the book can’t stand on its own unless TEH EVIL GAY inside the pages has been declawed with a warning that it’s there, but it’s okay because you’re warned about the gay! You’re safe.

Seriously, GLBTQ YA can be enjoyed, characters can be identified with…it’s all the same, if people step outside their comfort zone.

I would love for Nerds Heart YA to do that with other books that don’t get picked up: books with minority characters, books by minority authors who don’t get the same publisher push as their white counterparts, and I could go on and on and on. Again, I return to the scope issue: what is our scope?

As for Nerds Heart YA 2009: I loved it and was super glad to be a part of it. It taught me a lot about thinking outside the box, and working with people so very different than me, and uhhh trying to match people with books so they didn’t hate me forever and ever? The judges were great, super awesome folks who went above and beyond—because also, this project was about supporting these authors.

Honestly, everyone did a wonderful job, and I feel lucky to even know these people who made this small, tiny, almost insignificant idea I had not only plausible, but a reality. I am benefitted in my corner of the book blog community, endlessly, endlessly, to know such rockstars. Thanks so much, guys.

For those following at home, here’s the final result for Nerds Heart YA 2009, bolded titles denoting the winners. Read the rest of this entry »

10 comments
 
September 3rd, 2009
Spot the Book Community Pariah! Part One In An Ongoing Series About Renay’s Reviewing Self-Esteem
posted in commentary

Did you know it’s tough out there for a critic? Yeah, yeah, you’re saying. You dish it out, so sit down, shut up, and take your lumps. I’d like to talk about those lumps at length (extreme lengths, in fact). I’m afraid if I don’t disclaim it will backfire, so quick: I am not looking for pity or sympathy or pats on the back. I walked into this knowing there might be consequences. I want to talk about what I experience as a critic in our community, and wish it for it be so, so, so clear that the majority of my experience is awesome because I have awesome pals that support me, even if we are different. I am super lucky to know the people I do.

Onward! Read the rest of this entry »

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