#9books9days

If you've been following our twitter (or our Facebook page), you might have noticed that I took a little trip!  And since I had nine relaxing days away from work, I decided to read nine books while I was away.

I'm only going to review seven of them today (you're going to have to wait until the end of the week when Alex and I do Bunnicula books), but I'm going to review the rest of them right here, right now, including TWO books that aren't out yet!!

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld (Release date 9/29/15)

Really, did you expect a Westerfeld book to be bad?  Well, if you're waiting for one, this isn't it.  You have dynamic characters, who grow not only in their characters but in their powers too.  And you know what?  They pushed the envelope on what we think super heroes are.  We think of people with powers as either good or evil, but these kids?  They could really go either way.  And that's kind of what I love about this book.  At the end of the day, they're still just people.

Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman

This is one of Shusterman's earlier ones and, honestly, I was a little weary.  I had read Downsiders and had been a little disappointed, so I wasn't sure how I would feel.  the Unwind distology is a high bar to set, and some of his other writings hasn't met it.  However, Full Tilt isn't in that category.  It was gritty and in your face and really made you think about life.  It was this nice middle ground between Goosebumps and Fear Street.  Scary, but not so scary you had to put the book down.

The Lightning Thief Graphic Novel (Percy Jackson #1) by Rick Riordan

What is there to say about Percy Jackson that hasn't already been said?  Do I love him?  Of course I do.  Percy Jackson is one of my go to book series.  And, if your kid isn't big on the reading, I might direct you towards the Percy Jackson GNs.  Graphic Novels are great things, and I think they fill a certain niche.  But at the end of the day, this just doesn't even hold a candle to how good the first book was.

Poison by Sarah Pinborough

This one was the only real wildcard in my books this month.  All the other books were either ones I'd read before or by authors I adore.  Pinborough was the only author I knew nothing about, and really didn't know much about her books other than they were retellings of fairy tales.  But I like fairtale redos and the covers on her books look beautiful if nothing else (plus, I got them fairly cheap during employee appreciation.)

However, it was the biggest disappointment this week.  Really, Poison just ended up being the same old Snow White story we always knew, with a twist ending.  The only problem was that twist, wasn't really good enough to make up for the rest of the book.  Her writing was mediocre so, really, the book ends up just being something to look pretty on my shelf.

Sold by Patricia McCormack

I have found I have a love hate relationship with McCormack's book.  Some are AMAZING, some are... eh.  Some I think the topics are important, I think the execution just is a little wanky.  Sold I think falls into the last category.  It most definitely gets better as it goes along, but the beginning of it was just really slow and hard to get through (and not in the 'this is so terrible it's hard to read' kind of way.  In the 'this is kind of boring; please get to the story' kind of way.)  But once our main character had entered the brothel and we saw her deal with her life, her reality, and learn to make friends and negotiate her situation, I think that's where the real story came out.  So, good book, but one that you had to stick with to get there.

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

I actually expected more out of this book.  That's not to say that I didn't like it, because I did.  I think I've just gotten used to the shock factor in her books and this wasn't one of those books.  BUT I will say that I really did like her approach to the ideas of religion and there being a God.  The main character of our book is an atheist, and there are varying degrees of religious belief all around him, from his overtly christian girlfriend, to his mildly religious aunt, who believes in a creator, but doesn't push it.  As usual, Hopkins hits those topics that people are afraid to talk about, like the idea of a creator, and how people believe, and THAT is what I liked about this book.

Another Day by David Levithan ( Release Date 8/25/15)

When I saw this sitting on the break room table just two days after David Levithan had posted a picture of the cover, words can not describe the excitement I felt.  Seriously, I was jumping up and down in our break room, I was so stoked (we hardly ever get ARCs that I TRULY want to read.)  And this book was every word as good as I thought that it would be.

Levithan really pushes the bounds of sexuality for us, really making us rethink what is male and female, gay, straight, does it even matter, if we're in love?  And I like that it's not a straight forward answer either.  A has been like that his whole life, but it's much harder for Rhiannon to get past the conventions.  Either way, Levithan construction a most wonderful love story that pulls at our heart strings.  I've been waiting for this book for years, and I was not disappointed for a moment.

Dinosaur Books

Dinosaur books isn't exactly a book topic you come across everyday, and it's a fairly small genre, let's face it, but there are some really great ones out there.  And, since Alex decided to introduce me to one of them this week, I'm going to introduce you to a few more of my favorites.

It wouldn't be a list of dinosaur books if I didn't include Jurassic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton.  They're the first ones anyone thinks of (mainly because of the movies) and there's a good reason they've become literature staples.  They're intense and interesting and exciting and just plain fun to read.

Tea Rex by Molly Idle is one I actually came across just recently at my job.  It's a children's picture book about a T-Rex coming to a tea party and the proper manners you should have when having a dinosaur at your house.  It's an adorable book and incredibly well illustrated and, I think, subtly teaches something like manners without beating the kid over the head with it.  Since the book is being so silly about the whole thing, the kid reading it doesn't feel like they're being talked down to.  They just think it's a funny book about dinosaurs.

You can't have dinosaurs without a little bit of humor somewhere.  All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen is a short little picture book that starts out with a dinosaur saying "All my friends are dead" and the second page has a picture of an old person saying, "Most of my friends are dead."  You can guess where it goes from there.

Those are just a few of the dinosaur based books out there.  What are your favorites?

Review Me Twice - What If? by Randall Munroe

Alex picked the book this week but in all honesty, I probably would have picked it up sooner rather than later.  It's been flying off the shelves at my job and has had tantalizing pictures luring me into its pages.

This book is, in the truest sense of the word, a coffee table book.  You can stick it on your coffee table or a side table and people can pick it up and read snippets of it, and then put it back down.  It's fun and it's funny and it's informative and it's a conversation piece all in one.  Considering it's a book about stick figure web comics and science, that's REALLY hard to do.

But Munroe keeps you interested and engaged and amused and not to mention makes you a little smarter by the end of the day.  Everyone should go out and buy this book.  That's right, I said BUY it.  I mean, ok, you should read it to, but go buy yourself a copy.  You'll be really happy you did.

Author Bio: Randall Munroe

Randall Munroe's self portrait

Randall Munroe is the creator of the popular webcomic xkcd (no, you don't pronounce that, you spell it). It's simple in that it is typically comprised of stick figures, and complex in that it is usually about advanced sciences.

Personally, my favorite fact about this week's author is that Cassy and I went to the same college as him at the same time as him. One of my roommates dated one of his roommates, so I have that weirdly specific and totally tenuous connection to him. (Actually, when we met him at New York Comic Con last October, he remembered her after we reminded him of that fact, albeit a little vaguely. Either that or he's great at faking memory and very polite.)

He wrote What If? (and was interviewed by Stephen Colbert about it shortly before "The Colbert Report" ended) and it is something very unique. You'll hear more about it when we review it, but he took crazy questions from xkcd readers and answered them with a heaping pile of science, peppered with his style of illustrations. I can't wait to tell you more about it on Friday!

Review Me Twice - DarkFever by Karen Marie Moning

So the book wasn't ACTUALLY as bad as I expected.  It was the first surprise I've gotten this month (though, not the last.)  I was expecting hot and heavy sex by page three and the two main characters to be desperately in love by the end of the book.

But it's book one in a series and you can tell that Moning is in for the long haul with this book.  It's told from Mac's perspective, her future self telling the reader about her past experiences, in this case, about finding out about her powers, about her past and her heritage.

I like that Moning used this book to lay down the ground work for her novels.  She was setting up her story and her characters and really giving us a chance to get used to the world that we were being thrown into.

That being said... it's still really obvious it's being set up to be Overly Sexualized Romance Novel.  There are Fae's whose sole purpose are to make you want to have sex with them (our main character gets naked in public twice.)  It's clear that her and Barrons dislike each other so much that the only eventuality is that they are going to fall for each other.  The whole point of Faes is to steal people's beauty or lives or to sex them to death, so on that front, it's all kind of ridiculous.

But if you're looking for something fun and easy, this one has just enough substance to keep you interested but not enough to really make you think too much.

Did you know that the best way to pitch a movie in Hollywood is to describe your script as "[popular movie] but [twist]"? I feel like I'm doomed to see all paranormal romance as "Twilight but [twist]." For example, I saw Darkfever as "Twilight but Irish." It's not really anything specific about the characters' relationship or even the plot that makes me think "Twilight"; it's just that I see paranormal romance and start making connections to Twilight immediately. It could be my fault for letting Twilight be the first paranormal romance I ever read.

Otherwise, I agree with Cassy. I expected less mystery and detective work about the protagonist's sister's death and more immediate jumping into bed with the Adonis character, so that was a pleasant surprise.

I didn't really enjoy it, but this isn't my genre. I had to work really hard to push myself through it because I had to tell you guys about it. I would have put it down and walked away days ago if I could have. But like I said... this isn't my scene.

Author Bio: Karen Marie Moning

Source

Karen Marie Moning is the author of this week's review book, Darkfever. It's the first book in her second series (the Fever series). Her first series was the Highlander series. She started off writing paranormal romance set in Scotland (this week's book is from that era) and later moved into urban fantasy set in Dublin, Ireland, with a focus on the Fae.

She was born in Ohio and got a degree in Society and Law from Purdue University. She has won the Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Paranormal Romance and has been nominated for other RITAs, and her books have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list multiple times.

Review Me Twice - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

So, truth time.  I didn't finish the book this week.  But, in my defense it's a REALLY long book, and I came pretty close to finishing it (according to my Kindle, I'm 87% of the way through it.)  I feel like I've hit a lot of the important stuff, and what I haven't hit, well, I've seen the movie.

Speaking of which, as usual, there is SO MUCH that the movie left out.  Like did you know that Scarlett had THREE kids?  Yeah, that's right, three.  And she had sisters and she was married three times (though, thinking back on this I think I kind of remember this from the movie, but they really barely talk about husband number two.)

Also, the book really wasn't all what I expected.  I was expecting a stuffy book talking about how great the south was an how they were wronged and for it to be all about the war!  And the south will rise again!

Not at all about that.  Scarlett hates the war and, while we do learn a fair amount about late 1800s politics, it's not necessarily the focus.  You actually get a much better picture about what the war was about, and how BAD things were post-war.

Also, the book is so incredibly FEMINIST.  I mean, I was stunned.  Scarlett is an incredibly forward thinking female.  She hates that she has to act a certain way to make men like her, and the fact that men never really want women to speak their minds infuriates her and she realizes early on that she's smarter than most of them.  She bucks society and does things like have a job: she runs a lumber mill, incredibly successfully, better than the men, and when she gets pregnant, she doesn't let her "condition" stop her from going out in public.

Really, I was just incredibly and plesantly surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this book (and will probably continue to enjoy it, once I finish it.)

You have no idea how happy I am that Cassy also didn't finish this book, because you guys have no idea what a freakishly fast reader that woman is. But I also didn't finish it. Because it is absurdly long.

I started the book hating everybody. Scarlett seemed like a brat, and all the men seemed so fake, but they grew on me. I might pick it up again at some point (but my priority is to read the next several books we're going to review, now that this one isn't hanging over me anymore). I've heard a lot of people say this is a good read for a whole summer, and I can't argue with that. It's just the right length to start reading right after school lets out, and finish just before it's back in session. Plus it just feels summery to me, being set in the South and all.

I'm definitely more of a short story and novella person, so reading something this long was an ordeal for me. I don't normally read things that I have to put down more than once or twice due to time. So this was quite an adventure for me, and I'm not sure I enjoy it any more than I did before, but I gave it a shot.

I Like Big Books and I Can Not Lie

So this week we're reading Gone With The Wind, which, if you've never seen a copy, is a pretty hefty book.  I know a lot of people who have looked at large, intimidating books and thought, "no way!" but I'm going to give you a list of some of my favorite large books.

Earth's Children by Jean Auel

While the first one isn't especially long, the series quickly picks up and by book three, each one is a beast.  But each one has a spectacular story line, a ridiculous amount of research and always keeps me incredibly interested.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Probably one of the shortest books on this list, it's still pretty hefty (especially if it's part of an anthology of her books.)  But the poetry of the language and the romance of the characters gets me every time and makes me come back to this book about once a year.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

This book is pretty recent to popularity (mainly because of the television show) and each book ranges from 700 - 1200 pages.  But the characters are engaging, the plot incredibly tangled and wonderful and you can't help but get lost in the imagery.  It's really a book that you don't even notice that it's almost 1000 pages long.

What book do you love that's really long, but you have read it over and over?

Review Me Twice - My True Love Gave To Me by Multiple Authors

I am actually a big fan of anthologies.  I have the theory that, by sheer odds, you're eventually going to hit ONE story that you like in it.  And I did.  In fact, there were a number of stories that I liked in it.  I really liked the one by Rainbow Rowell, though probably more so because when I went to see her at Politics and Prose, she read it.

If you ever get the chance to hear an author read their own work, do it.  It's SO MUCH BETTER than what happens in my head (and what happened there was pretty good.)

Some were definitely better than others, because you have twelve authors and while some are great authors, not all of them are meant to be short story writers.  David Levithan's was not one of my favorites.  I love him, and I liked his better when I heard him read it out loud, but I still didn't enjoy his story as much as I have enjoyed his books.

But probably my favorite out of the whole batch was Gayle Foreman's.  It was funny and poignant and sweet and just a great story.  I thought it was well done and one of those stories that was satisfying where it ended but still full of potential.

The book was a good anthology, and definitely worth reading, especially if you're just looking for a nice Christmas book.

I promise, one of my New Year's resolutions is to read every single Review Me Twice book beginning to end. But it's still 2014, so I didn't finish this one. What I did read, though, I really loved. My favorite thing about anthologies (other than what Cassy mentioned above, finding at least ONE you like) is how different authors take different approaches to the same theme or topic. I think a major reason why I didn't manage to finish this book on time was that I had to put it down between stories (and there are a lot of stories... twelve, so sayeth the subtitle). I don't read different authors' short stories back to back. When the anthology is all the same author, I can read straight through, but I have to do that thing where you put it down and digest what you read before I can pick it back up in the multi-author situation.

Twelve Author Bios

This week, we actually have TWELVE authors, because we're reading a Christmas Anthology!!  So, I thought it might be fun to actually do a quick bio on each of them (and that means most of them will be almost directly copy and pasted from Goodreads.  So be prepared for that.)

Stephanie Perkins

Perkins writes novels for teens (and for adults who aren't afraid to admit that teen books are awesome). She was born in South Carolina, raised in Arizona, attended universities in San Francisco and Atlanta, and now lives in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

Her best friend is her husband Jarrod. Their house is almost a hundred years old, and every room is painted a different color of the rainbow. They share it with a cat named Mr. Tumnus.

She's always worked with books—first as a bookseller, then as a librarian, and now as a novelist. On weekdays, you'll find her at her desk, typing away, downing cups of coffee and tea. On the weekend, you'll find her at the movies, waiting for the actors to kiss. She believes all novels and films should have more kissing.

Holly Black

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with Justine Larbalestier), and Welcome to Bordertown (with Ellen Kushner). Her most recent works are the middle grade novel, Doll Bones, and the dark fantasy stand-alone, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.

Ally Carter

Ally Carter is a writer living and working in the Midwest. She loved school so much she kept going...and going...and going...until finally she had to graduate. Now she has degrees from Oklahoma State University and Cornell University and a house and a job and other very grown-up things.

Her life is either very ordinary or the best deep-cover legend ever. She'd tell you more, but...well...you know...

Gayle Foreman

My name is Gayle Forman and I love to write young-adult novels. Because I do. So thank you for reading them. Because without you, it’d just be me. And the voices in my head.

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications asJane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Jenny Han

(Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and she went on to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn.  She is the author of To All The Boys I Have Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty

David Levithan

David Levithan (born 1972) is an American children's book editor and award-winning author. He published his first YA book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a Young Adult imprint of Scholastic Press.

Kelly Link

Kelly Link is an American author of short stories born in 1969. Her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: sometimes a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism.

Myra McEntire

Myra McEntire is an avid Doctor Who fan and will argue passionately about which incarnation is the best. She loves to search thrift stores for things to upcycle, as she’s a big believer in second chances. She lives with her two boys and husband near Nashville, Tennessee. Myra is the author of the Hourglass trilogy, which has been nominated for two RITAs and a YALSA Teen Top Ten, and was chosen as a SIBA Okra Pick. She’s currently contracted with Storybird, where she’s serializing a middle grade novel, called THE SHADOW GATE.

Matt De La Pena

Matt de la Peña is the author of five critically-acclaimed young adult novels—Ball Don't Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You and The Living—as well as the award-winning picture book A Nation’s Hope: The story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He teaches creative writing and visits high schools and colleges throughout the country.

Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

Laini Taylor

Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . about kissing. I am also an artist with a licensed gift product line called "Laini's Ladies."

Kiersten White

Hi! I'm the New York Times best-selling author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally. I also give the most awkward hugs in the world. You should probably opt for one of my books over one of my hugs, but then again, maybe you like awkward hugs.

As for me, I like writing flirting scenes, and fighting scenes, and sometimes I write scenes that fall somewhere in between the two, but only if I can't avoid it.

And don't forget to enter our contest to win a signed copy of Unwind!!!

Meeting Meg Medina

Sure, I completely forgot to write a post for today. But the neat thing about that is that I managed to go and do something related to this blog today!

I'm out of town for a library conference, and it just so happens that Virginian author Meg Medina (you may remember us reading Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass about a month ago) was here! I went to her panel: her, Kat Spears who wrote Sway, and Kristen Paige Medonia who wrote Fingerprints of You, talking about "reluctant readers" and how to use their novels to help those readers. Afterward, they were signing their books. So obviously I got a copy of Yaqui signed!

Meg Medina is awesome. The first panel I went to was presented by representatives of the Richmond Public Library, and they were talking about holding author events. They talked about Meg Medina helping them with a couple of their events and how great she was... they weren't kidding. She's funny, she loves libraries, she loves young people, she loves readers, and she's super nice. I hope to convince her to make the trip down to Virginia Beach to visit my library at some point, because I think she does good things for all age groups, even though she writes for young adults.

The Top Ten

Just like last year, I'm going to give you the top ten books that have been challeged/banned in the last year (since it's 2014, this is the list for 2013.)  There are a lot of repeats (Captain Underpants is number one again!  Really!?)  But there are some newbies to the list too.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Reasons: Offensive Language, Unsuited for Age Group, Violence

The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit,  Unsuited for Age Group, Violence

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Reasons: Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking, Offensive Language, Racism, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited for Age Group

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Reasons: Nudity, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited for Age Group (which is just silly, because it's an adult novel, so you're basically telling me either A. it's appropriate for people YOUNGER than an adult or B. it's inappropriate for everyone.  Everywhere.)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Reasons: Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited for Age Group

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

Reasons: Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking, Nudity, Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Reasons: Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited for Age Group

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

Bless me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Reasons: Occult/Satanism, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Sexually Explicit

Bone by Jeff Smith

Reasons: Political Viewpoint, Racism, Violence

A good list this year (especially because we don't usually see graphic novels, so good for you, Jeff Smith.)  The usual reasons for banning book, sex, drugs and inappropriate topics, though I will admit, this is the first time I've seen Occult/Satanism on the list (though, I'm sure not the first time that it's been on there.)

What are your favorite banned books?  We would love to hear and tell us why they've been banned.  What "reasons" were given for the challenge?  

Review Me Twice: Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Y'all know how Cassy and I feel about YA fiction in general. (If you don't: favorable.) So for me to say that this is great YA fiction is quite a thing.

It gets bonus points for passing the Bechdel test so hard, and also for being a widely banned/challenged book.

The title and cover explain the plot pretty well: one high school girl wants to kick the ass of another high school girl. The book touches on issues that a diverse audience can identify with: being a go-getter and being the go-getter's friend; hiding your sexuality in an unfriendly environment; being the bully and being the bullied; having a parent who can't spend as much time with you as you might want because they have to work; moving to a new neighborhood and new school; being smarter than your peers and therefore being bored in class; public humiliation hosted online... I'm sure I'm missing at least a dozen other situations dealt with openly and honestly (and non-patronizingly) in this book.

I think it's really hard to be a "problem novel" without coming off as super condescending.  Mostly because I believe that a lot of adults just genuinely don't really get (or care to get) what teens are going through and so the condescension happens.  There are, of course, exceptions to the rule.

This is most definitely one of those exceptions.

I think bullying is one of THE hardest topics to approach because so many adults just. don't. get it.  Bullying isn't just picking on a kid.  It's demoralizing a kid.  It's making a kid feel like they're just not worth it.  It's finding the absolute worst ways that you can insult that kid to make that kid feel like they're not a person anymore, to make that kid feel like they're not themselves anymore.

Bullying leads to suicides, it leads to fights, aggression, drop-outs, drinking and drugs.  A lot of which could be avoided if you would stop telling kids things like, "it's just a phase" or "it won't matter when you're older."  It matters now.

I love this book because the characters in it are real.  The bullying in it is real.  The conflict that Piddy feels in it (if I tell, she's just going to keep beating me up, but if I don't tell, I can't go back to school) is SO REAL.  That's the constant struggle that kids deal with.

And I like that the solution, is also real.  It's not perfect, and it isn't punishing who you want, but unfortunately, that's how it happens, and it's INFURIATING, but there's little that can be done.

I loved this book, and I think this is a book that every kid should be made to read before they enter middle school.  And then again, before High School, just to remind them.

Author Bio: Meg Medina

As with so many great books I read, I discovered this week's review book, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, by reading an article about how it was being banned in a school. It wasn't too surprising... the book has the word "ass" right there in the title, and it's about bullying and violence and there's some stuff about a girl experiencing puberty (noticing new body parts and whatnot). But what I remember most about the article (I wish I could find it to link it for you) was what the author, Meg Medina, had to say about the banning. I don't remember her response specifically, but it had to do with how kids should be able to read about situations similar to what they're going through, to see that they aren't alone and there are ways out of their predicaments.

Medina's website says that she's about "strong girls, tough circumstances, and the connecting power of culture." All three of these are major themes in Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.

She is Cuban-American and currently lives in Richmond, Virginia. Between bouts of writing, she works on community projects that benefit young girls like the ones in her books. This year, she won the Pura Belpre award (named after the first Latina librarian at NYPL, awarded by the ALA since 1996 to a Latino/a writer/illustrator who portrays, affirms, and celebrates Latino culture in a work for youth) for Yaqui Delgado.

She has also written The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, Tia Isa Wants a Car, and Milagros: The Girl from Away. They all feature strong Latina girls, something YA books need more of.

This is a great time of year to be reading Meg Medina... Hispanic American Heritage Month is September 15 - October 15, and Banned Books Week is September 21-27!

Review Me Twice - Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Mahoh

Ok, so, first things first.  This graphic novel is SOOO NSFW.  As I discovered... at work.  It was an awkward lunch period for me trying to hide the penis pictures on my Kindle.

That being said, I did enjoy the story. It was heartfelt and sweet and showed well what a lot of people who are gay go through.  Clementine has a ton of problems when her parents (inevitably) find out about her sexuality.  (Though, spoiler alert, it's the dumbest way possible because who walks around naked in their significant other's parent's house?)

I do think something is lost when viewed in black and white (I think all the copies are black and white, but I could be wrong.  I'd have to see a non-digital version.)  Either way, my Kindle is black and white, so I didn't catch onto things like... Emma's hair is blue, until the very end when Clem mentioned it.

I also like that Clem has friends outside of her girlfriend.  The passing of time is a little weird in this book.  One second she's 17 and the next second she's 30.  We really don't get any sort of real transition, it's just BAM all this time has passed.  It almost seemed like Mahoh got bored of writing and just wanted to hurry the story along (which is legit, because it was dragging a bit.)

Overall, the book wasn't bad, but it's not something I'd ever pick up again.

As many French books are, and as many graphic novels are, this is kind of a confusing book. And that's not good. Considering I was a French major and read almost any graphic novel I touch, me being confused by it is a bad sign. Not that I'm an expert on either of those things, but you shouldn't have to be.

Cassy's absolutely right... this is an absolutely NSFW book. The movie adaptation is NC-17; that should give you a heads-up. Also, French graphic novel about lesbians, did you miss that part? There's going to be nudity and sex and... a lot more of both of those.

I watched the movie, too... also confusing. And boring. But hey, indie film based on a French graphic novel about a lesbian relationship? You have to be part of a very specific audience to enjoy that. Granted, I am part of that very specific audience, so I guess you also have to really want to watch 179 minutes of an NC-17 movie with improvised lines, a sex scene that took 10 days to film (and that's only one of the sex scenes) with no hairstylist or makeup artist on set (which I actually think is pretty cool, but it was a little odd). But hey, it was the first movie adaptation of a graphic novel to win the Palme d'Or, so there's that.

Least Favorite Graphic Novel

Usually when Wednesday comes along, we let you know about the things that we love best.

But, this week, Alex and I figured we'd change it up a little and tell you our LEAST favorite.  And, since we're reading a graphic novel this week, the best idea was to tell you our least favorite graphic novel.

Ok, we shouldn't be surprised that the Twlight graphic novel was bad.  I mean, the books were terrible, so we shouldn't expect much more out of the graphic novels.  And I really didn't, storyline wise, but I figured that the art might be nice and, ok, there was a part of me that was morbidly curious.  So I read it.

I can forgive the bad story line that has even more plot holes than the original story (seriously.  Nothing about James & his crew at all until they're trying to kill Bella.)  But the thing that really annoyed me, really made this the worst graphic novel ever, was that the art was terrible.  Half the time, it looked like the characters were drawn over picture-like backgrounds.  It didn't look like anyone had actually drawn them.

Also, the white washing that happened in this book was so ridiculously bad.  Say what you will about the book, there is a surprising amount of diversity (well... at least in the movie, and Stephanie Meyer had a say in a lot of it, so I have to assume she approved of the casting choices.  It's not like she describes the characters in the book.)  Everyone was the same color, ethnic background.  I almost expected them all to be one gender!!!

Seriously, the books are terrible.  Don't even pick them up for the morbid curiosity.

Author Bio - Julie Maroh

This week, we're reading Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh (a graphic Novel, so you know it was Alex's week to pick. ;))

Maroh is actually French, and the book has been translated into English (and a few other languages).  The original title is Le bleu est une couleur chaude. Blue seems to be her first book, one that she stated writing when she was 19 years old.  It has been adapted into a movie and won an award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2011.

Maroh is currently living in Angoulême, France.  This is her website, but it's in French, so unless you know French, it's unlikely you'll glean much from it.

Favorite NaNoWriMo Book

We're big fans of NaNoWriMo around here.  And we've read a lot of NaNo books on this blog.  Today, we're going to pick our favorite book written during NaNo.

I have actually liked a lot of the books we've been given from NaNo writers.  (Superceneries had such a great premise and the drawing in The Lesser Evil were done so well!)  However, it's hard to compete with The Night Circus.  It's beautifully written, really pulling you in and assaulting your senses with it's scenes and its characters.  And it's such a NaNo story.  Morgenstern hated The Night Circus when she first started it one NaNo.  It wasn't at all going the direction that she wanted it to, so she dropped her characters into a circus and VOILA!

I like how creative Morgenstern is.  I mean, the settings that she comes up with and all the ideas for the tents, I couldn't even begin to create worlds like that and she does it so naturally.  It's second nature, like she can see it all so clearly in her mind, so when I read it, I can imagine so clearly and crisply.

It's a great book and, if you're going to pick up and inspiring NaNo novel, this should be it.

Ditto! But that's no surprise. For the third time ever, Cassy and I have chosen the same book for a favorite! (The other two were our favorite Harry Potter book and our favorite Christmas story.)

I would love to see the evolution of this book, with each edit as it went from original NaNo to its published form. It would be very heartening in doing my own editing (which is only showing me how the first 1/3 of my book is a lot like the upcoming Ben Stiller movie and the last 1/3 is depressingly similar to the story of United flight 93 on 9/11, which I didn't realize until yesterday).

Morgenstern talks openly and honestly about the NaNoWriMo process, too. It's nice to hear a success story like hers from the metaphorical horse's mouth.

Favorite Paranormal Book

With Halloween coming up, we're choosing our favorite paranormal books this week!

I want to tell you about Good Omens or American Gods or The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman... but you're probably sick of hearing about those. And you know, technically, Harry Potter falls under paranormal... but we already talked about our favorite Harry Potter books. Peeps is another great one, but we actually reviewed that one!

The problem is, I don't read a lot of what can be classified as "paranormal" fiction, and what I do read, I don't much care for (namely, Twilight and Blood and Chocolate come to mind). So you might disagree that this one is "paranormal," but...

One time, when I went to visit my mom, her public library was selling off a lot of their weeded books to help raise money to move into a new library. So I got a whole bag full. A lot of them were from this series of Robert Cormier's books (I mean "series" as in "this set from the same publisher with similar cover aesthetics," not that the stories have anything to do with each other). Fade was among them, and while I remember enjoying it cover to cover.

That Stephen King quote on the front cover ("Imagine what might happen in Holden Caulfield stepped into H. G. Wells's The Invisible Man, and you'll have an idea how good Fade is... I was absolutely riveted.") isn't far off... though I've never read The Catcher in the Rye, and from hearing others' opinions, it sounds like Holden is way whinier than Paul from Fade.

Like with most Cormier books, this one has spent some time on banned books lists, but it's not one of his most famous books... but it's worth a read.

I read... almost exclusively paranormal & fantasy when I was in Jr. High & High School.  It was a thing, and I thought all other books were absolutely boring.  Of course, now I know that I was just stupid and that I should expand my horizons.

And I have talked about some of my favorite paranormal books, like The Vampire Chronicles or Peeps or the Anita Blake Series.  And while I do love these books, I'm not going to talk about them again.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (which, by the way, is TOTALLY a play on words for Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer) is a book I was just recently introduced to.  I have a book club at the library once a month that I go to, and this was the book last month.

In some ways, it's got a lot of "been done a million times" elements.  Kid doesn't know he has powers and discovers them by accident and now a big bad is after him.

But at the same time, despite all the elements that should make it seem over the top, it's not.  You hate, hate, hate the bad guys, and love, love, love the good guys.  But, the good guys still do some shady things.  It's vampire-less (in this book anyway.  There are two after I haven't read), which is nice because that's a fad I'm kind of over.  But there are werewolves & dragons and, OH YEAH, the kid can raise the dead.  So that's kind of awesome.

Honestly, I think I was just a lot more impressed with it than I thought I would be, especially because there's so much of this literature out there, and I've read a lot of it.

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Favorite Animal Books

What's your favorite book about animals, featuring animals, or generally dealing with animals in some way? Here are ours:

I got The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems in college, after being read Knuffle Bunny in one of my favorite classes (children's literature, of course). My roommate Audrey does an exceptional read of this book, with just the right voices for the titular pigeon and that little duckling on the right side of the cover. Most people love Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! but I prefer this one.

If you've never read a book by Mo Willems, I urge you to pick one at random and read it immediately. Your life will be improved.

I LOVE Life of Pi.  Pi gets stuck on a lifeboat with a Tiger, a orangutan, a zebra and a Hyena.  Inevitably it ends up being just Pi and the Bengal Tiger on a lifeboat for almost 300 days.

The book, while it has a lot of animals in it, isn't actually about animals.  It's about Pi and choosing his religion and deciding what is true and what isn't.  The animals are supposed to be representative of the religions that Pi has been trying to decide between.

I've mentioned a few times on this blog that I just love books that explore religion and Life of Pi is a book that really puts the idea forth: why do I have to choose one religion?  One of my favorite quotes comes from Life of Pi.  Everyone is telling him he has to choose a religion and Pi asks them why.  He tells them that he "just wants to love God."