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Bookanista Rec: The Secret Side of Empty

Apr 24, 2014 | , , , , ,

It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: Maria E. Andreu’s  The Secret Side of Empty.

18079898Here’s the jacket copy from the publisher:

As a straight-A student with a budding romance and loyal best friend, M.T.’s life seems as apple-pie American as her blondish hair and pale skin. But M.T. hides two facts to the contrary: her full name of Monserrat Thalia and her status as an undocumented immigrant. 

But it’s harder to hide now that M.T.’s a senior. Her school’s National Honor Society wants her to plan their trip abroad, her best friend won’t stop bugging her to get her driver’s license, and all everyone talks about is where they want to go to college. M.T. is pretty sure she can’t go to college, and with high school ending and her family life unraveling, she’s staring down a future that just seems empty. In the end, M.T. will need to trust herself and others to stake a claim in the life that she wants.

Author Maria E. Andreu draws from her personal experience as a (formerly) undocumented immigrant to explore an issue that affects over one million children in the U.S. But while the subject matter is timely, it is M.T.’s sharp, darkly funny voice and longing for a future that makes this story universally poignant.

Protagonist M.T. was one of those rare characters that I felt an immediate connection with–I loved her wry and funny, pitch-perfect teenage voice. I cared about M.T. from the first page, and so reading her story was intense and sometimes painful but ultimately rewarding. This is a powerful story about immigration, abuse, and suicide–but it’s an equally powerful story about hope and resilience. And the romance between M.T. and first boyfriend Nate is so achingly sweet and real. I loved this book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to read a good contemporary YA–the fact that it’s also an important and honest about about some big social issues makes it even better.

See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:

Bookanista Rec: Push Girl

Apr 10, 2014 | , , , , , ,

It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: (my friend and fellow Bookanista) Jessica Love’s Push Girl.

Here’s the jacket copy from the publisher:

An inspiring, real, and fresh young adult novel about how life can change in an instant [cowritten by Jessica Love and] Chelsie Hill, one of the stars Sundance Channel’s unscripted series Push Girls, based on [Chelsie’s] own life.

9781250045911Kara is a high school junior who’s loving life. She’s popular, has a great group of friends and an amazing boyfriend, and she’s a shoe-in for homecoming queen. Even though her parents can’t stop fighting and her ex-boyfriend can’t seem to leave her alone, Kara won’t let anything get in the way of  her perfect year. It’s Friday night, and Kara arrives at a party, upset after hearing her parents having another one of their awful fights, and sees another girl with her hands all over her boyfriend. Furious, Kara leaves to take a drive, and, as she’s crossing an intersection, a car comes out of nowhere and slams into the driver’s side of Kara’s car. 

When Kara wakes up, she has no memory of the night before. Where is she? Why are her parents crying? And, most importantly — why can’t she feel her legs? As Kara is forced to adjust to her new life, where her friends aren’t who they seemed to be and her once-adoring boyfriend is mysteriously absent, she starts to realize that what matters in life isn’t what happens to you — it’s the choices you make and the people you love.

I’ve been telling every YA reader I see about this one, which is both a great contemporary YA novel and a really powerful story of handling adversity with grace, grit, and hope. Kara is a character I won’t soon forget–my heart broke for her many times as I read. I loved how as the story progressed, Kara not only started to rehabilitate physically, but grew emotionally. Her injury brings physical limitations, but the new way she looks at her world and her self brings Kara so much agency. Even before the accident, Kara encounters things in her life that are beyond her control. But it’s only after that she has gained the strength to make healthy choices about how she responds. That’s an important lesson that all teens can relate to: you can’t always control what happens to you in life, but you can control how you respond.

Push Girl is also eye-opening and informative about life with spinal-cord injuries. Reading it, I realized how many incorrect assumptions I had about how people can recover and live independently after sustaining such a traumatic injury. I watched a few episodes of the Sundance Channel show, Push Girls, after reading and I highly recommend it–it’s a really powerful and engaging series.

I think teen readers are going to get so much out of reading this book–a well-written, diverse contemporary story and an invitation to think about how one chooses to live life.

And now I really can’t wait for Jessica’s next YA novel, In Real Life, which will be out in 2015!

Push Girl releases on June 3 from St. Martin’s Griffin.

See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:

What’s Up Wednesday, 2/19

Feb 19, 2014 | , , , , , , , , ,

WUW7

What I’m Reading 
I sped through the great historical-fiction middle grade Esperanza Rising and lingered in Alice Munro’s Dear Life. Her stories are fantastic–sharp and poignant. Now I’m starting Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior. I love her books so much, and so far this one is no exception.

What I’m Writing   
I’m taking a break from revising while I keep working on guest posts (here are some of the ones I’ve done so far: WAMA blog tour) and get ready for my launch party (this Thursday! At Books of Wonder, if you’re in NYC) and a few fun upcoming events. I miss writing/revising–but I’ll be back to it soon, and reenergized thanks to this time away.

What Inspires Me Right Now

The enthusiastic and enriching writing community; the readers and bloggers I’ve had a chance to meet the past few weeks; my insanely supportive friends and family.

What Else I’ve Been Up To 
Baking a ton (I almost mean that literally) of cookies for my launch party; practicing reading my book out loud (not the world’s easiest task for an introvert like me); binge-watching House of Cards–seriously, how did I not watch this show until now? I’m 6 episodes into Season 1 and I’m pretty obsessed.

So what have you been up to lately?

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. You can find the link widget (and cute buttons!) on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts.

Bookanista Rec: Nightingale’s Nest

Feb 13, 2014 | , , , , ,

It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: 18079712Nikki Loftin’s Nightingale’s Nest 

Here’s the jacket copy from the publisher:

A powerful novel about friendship and family that calls to mind Bridge to Terabithia

Twelve-year-old John Fischer Jr., or “Little John” as he’s always been known, is spending his summer helping his father with his tree removal business, clearing brush for Mr. King, the wealthy owner of a chain of Texas dollar stores, when he hears a beautiful song that transfixes him. He follows the melody and finds, not a bird, but a young girl sitting in the branches of a tall sycamore tree.

There’s something magical about this girl, Gayle, especially her soaring singing voice, and Little John’s friendship with Gayle quickly becomes the one bright spot in his life, for his home is dominated by sorrow over his sister’s death and his parents’ ever-tightening financial difficulties.
But then Mr. King draws Little John into an impossible choice—forced to choose between his family’s survival and a betrayal of Gayle that puts her future in jeopardy.
Inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen story, Nightingale’s Nest is an unforgettable novel about a boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders and a girl with the gift of healing in her voice.

Isn’t the cover stunning? It might be my favorite of the year. I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this incredible MG last fall, and I’ve been sitting on my recommendation until closer to Nightingale’s Nest pub date (which has been hard, as I wanted to tell the whole world to read it!). But I’ve still thought about this book countless times since I turned the last page–it is a story that takes root in your heart. Powerful and moving, Nightingale’s Nest is a story of grief, love, and forgiveness, told in lyrical prose that remains accessible to MG readers. The magical realism elements were perfectly woven into a starkly realistic setting. One thing I appreciated so much was how sensitively and truthfully Nightingale’s Nest portrayed a family struggling not only emotionally but financially, and how the two can relate. Nikki is such a gifted writer and storyteller: the delicious The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy (also a re-imagining, of Hansel & Gretel) was one of my favorite reads of 2012. It recently released in paperback. Both books are truly unique, and wonderful.

Nightingale’s Nest releases on February 20 from Razorbill/Penguin.

See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:

2013 in Reading

Jan 5, 2014 | , , , , ,

What I read in 2013, more or less*:

Screen shot 2014-01-04 at 11.52.38 PM

Screen shot 2014-01-04 at 11.53.25 PM(How much do I wish I’d read two more books to get a nice, neat last row?)

*Based on Goodreads–I didn’t join until summer, so I might’ve missed a few books.

Superlatives Blogfest 2013: Best in Show

Dec 19, 2013 | , , , , , , ,

superlatives-button

It’s time for the 3rd Annual YA Superlative Blogfest! Jessica Love, Tracey Neithercott, Alison Miller, and Katy Upperman host this blogfest, which highlights favorite YA novels, covers, characters, and story elements. It’s fun to go through the list of 2013 YA releases I’ve read, and it’s even more fun to get a bunch of new titles to add to my TBR list. Today wraps up the blogfest with Best in Show.

Best in Show

Favorite Cover: I loved the cover for The Art of Wishing–it was dreamy but grounded, and it had a lovely script-inspired font.
Most Likely to Make You Miss Your Bedtime (Book you couldn’t put down): The 5th Wave, definitely. Once I started reading, I should’ve cleared my calendar. It was truly unputdownable.
Best Repeat Performance (Favorite sequel or follow-up): This feels like a cheat, but Just One Year. Both books were their own stories within a closely tied pair. I suppose Just One Year could’ve felt redundant, but instead it built on the story in Just One Day, beautifully.
Best Old-Timer (Your favorite read of the year published BEFORE 2013): I finally read Code Name Verity this year, which was worth the wait. (Or maybe I shouldn’t have waited, because it’s a really excellent, powerful book.)
Book Most Likely to Make a Grown Man Cry: Probably Second Chance Summer, which is such a tearjerker that the book should be shrink-wrapped with a big box of Kleenex.
Most Pleasant Surprise (Book you didn’t think you’d like, but totally did): I’m going to have to give this one to The 5th Wave, too–I don’t like aliens, and sci fi/dystopians are not usually my thing. But I really enjoyed this one. 
Favorite Outlier (Favorite picture, middle grade, or adult 2013 book): A favorite MG of this year was Tim Federle’s Better Nate Than Ever, which is hilarious and heartwarming, and should be required reading for mildly disgruntled New Yorkers. It made me want to go kick up my heels in Times Square–and that’s saying something!
My superlative: Best Friendship: And that goes to Red. I love reading about strong, honest, and supportive female friendships, and that’s exactly what Felicity’s trio is!

What were your picks for Head of the Class? I skipped over a few categories, so I’d love to hear your picks for those!

Superlatives Blogfest 2013: Head of the Class

Dec 16, 2013 | , , , , ,

superlatives-button

It’s time for the 3rd Annual YA Superlative Blogfest! Jessica Love, Tracey Neithercott, Alison Miller, and Katy Upperman host this blogfest, which highlights favorite YA novels, covers, characters, and story elements. It’s fun to go through the list of 2013 YA releases I’ve read, and it’s even more fun to get a bunch of new titles to add to my TBR list. Today kicks off the blogfest with Head of the Class, and I’ll be posting again on Thursday for Best in Show.

Head of the Class 

Favorite Science Fiction: I was a little iffy on how to categorize The 5th Wave, but I’m pretty sure it fits best as Science Fiction. This book is riveting, and I can’t wait for the sequel, out this spring. Coming from someone who regularly has nightmares about alien invasions, that says a lot.

Favorite Contemporary: Sure, Just One Day/Just One Year are technically romances. But what I loved about this contemporary duo was how the very romantic story was about self-discovery (for both characters!) as it was about love and passion. The journey, both literal and figurative, that we went on with Allyson and Willem was as sweetly compelling as the romance.

Favorite Historical Fiction: Out of the Easy is full of secrets and strong women and a really great setting (the French Quarter of New Orleans in the 1950s). Ruta Sepetys again has created characters and places that you can’t soon forget.

Favorite Comedy: Alison Cherry’s Red is technically a satire–and it’s a wickedly funny one. IMHO, the best humor is smart humor, and the pageant shenanigans in Scarletville are full of that.

Favorite Paranormal: Speaking of funny, The Art of Wishing is also hilarious–and full of action and romance. Margo is a relatable, funny, and smart narrator, and I adored her passion for music. I’m excited for The Fourth Wish this spring, so I can figure out what happens next with gender-bendy genies.

Favorite Family Drama: Bring your tissues for the family drama in Second Chance Summer, which tackles very tough subject matter with grace, empathy, love, and just the right amount of humor. This one is moving and memorable.

What were your picks for Head of the Class? I skipped over a few categories (Favorite Dystopian, Favorite Fantasy, Favorite Action/Adventure, Favorite Mystery, Favorite Romance, Favorite Genre Bender), so I’d love to hear your picks for those!

What’s Up Wednesday, 10/30

Oct 30, 2013 | , , , , , , , , ,

 

WUWAutumn

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. If you’d like to join in, you can find the link widget on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts. I love this idea because it gives a structured, easy way for me to keep up with blogging. Also, the buttons are cute. Thanks for the idea, Jaime and Erin! 

What I’m Reading 
Last week I read Steve Martin’s An Object of Beauty, which was a story of high art, love, money, and ambition–told in a very readable Steve Martin-y voice. Now I’m finally reading Alison Cherry’s Red! Truth: It’s making me want to dye my hair.

A 2014 debut author photo, taken by Ghenet!

A photo from Alison’s Red launch party, taken by Ghenet! (l to r, Michelle Schusterman, Lauren Magaziner, Emery Lord, me, and Kim Liggett)

What I’m Writing   
I’ve decided to work on a “palate cleanser” project–something just for fun, and for me–and I think I might try to NaNo to finish it. Which definitely makes me an unofficial NaNoer. But I’m excited to try to push myself to write as close to 50K words as I can next month!

What Inspires Me Right Now   
Still loving the Halloween time of year. Last weekend I went on a Ghost Tour of Greenwich Village, and it was super fun. (Super touristy, yes, but I strongly believe that sometimes tourists know how to have a really good time, and there is no shame in joining them.) The stories the guide told as we scuffed through leaves on the quiet, dark Village streets were fascinating–and inspiring. Not only did I have a total “I heart NY” night, but it gave me lots of ideas. (Okay, some of those ideas might have made me afraid of my basement. And convinced that the sound of a trailing vine scritch-scratching the window at night is actually a skeleton’s hand. I love ghost stories, but I also scare ridiculously easily.)

What Else I’ve Been Up To 
Becoming an aunt! My nephew was born in the wee hours on Monday morning. He’s adorable, and I am counting the days until I hop a plane to meet him.

So what have you been up to lately?

 

Bookanista Rec: Better Nate Than Ever

Oct 10, 2013 | , , , , , , ,

It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: Tim Federle’s hilarious and heartfelt Better Nate Than Ever.

Here’s the summary from Goodreads:

13414183Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. (Heck, he’d settle for *seeing* a Broadway show.) But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he’s stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one (except his best pal Libby) appreciates a good show tune? With Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There’s an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom.

You know how movie ads used to always feature an announcer saying, “Blah Blah Movie will make you stand up and cheer!” Well, Better Nate Than Ever will make you stand up and cheer. (So since you’ll be standing up and cheering, watch what you’re wearing while you read because it might also make you pee your pants. It’s that funny.) Nate is a protagonist you will root for, cringe with, and want to give a big huge hug. Mostly, you’ll wish you could be there in the scenes with him, to watch him be in the world with such hope and wonder. I love how exuberant the boy on the cover is; I love it even more after reading the book and knowing that Nate encounters some real hardships.

Reading this felt like a bit of bibliotherapy for me. I do a lot of my reading on the subway, and as much as I love New York, sometimes it seems one or more of the following: stressful, crowded, dirty, stinky, rude, exhausting, expensive, noisy. Et cetera. While reading, I felt like I could vicariously fall in love with my new hometown all over again, seeing it through Nate’s eyes. Or at least laugh hysterically at the uber realistic details Tim Federle weaves into the story–and bonus, that makes the people next to you on the crosstown bus scooch away and give you a little more space! Win win.

See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:
 

MMGM: Keeping Safe the Stars

Jul 15, 2013 | , , , , ,

One of my favorite reads of 2011 was Sheila O’Connor’s Sparrow Road. A midwest setting, a creepy mansion/artist’s colony, and mysteries–what more could you want? (Not to mention beautiful prose and compelling characters.) So I was very excited to read the author’s next book, Keeping Safe the Stars. Here’s a summary from Goodreads:

Such a gorgeous cover

When crisis hits, a young girl becomes the only one left to take care of her family

Pride,
Nightingale and Baby are the Stars. Orphaned and living with their
grandfather, Old Finn, in rural Minnesota, the children, like their
grandfather, are wary of outsiders. They believe, as Old Finn taught
them, in self-reliance.
But then Old Finn falls seriously ill and
is taken to the hospital all the way in Duluth, leaving the children to
fend for themselves. Pride, as oldest, assumes the lead. Though she
makes mistakes, she keeps them afloat; they even earn money for the bus
trip to Duluth. But when they finally see Old Finn, he can’t walk or
even say his own name, and Pride knows her days of keeping safe the
Stars are drawing to a close. Self-reliance can’t make Old Finn well
again. But maybe, just maybe, a secret from Old Finn’s past might make a
way for them to stay together after all.

In a review somewhere (possibly on Goodreads), Keeping Safe the Stars was compared to the Boxcar Children series. The resilience and love in the Star family did remind me of that beloved series (not just the plot element of kids fending for themselves). This story is set in the Watergate era, and it was so interesting to step back into a relatively recent time when kids were encouraged to be independent in their home/community–I’m not necessarily saying it’s good or bad that middle-graders rarely roam free on country roads today; things are just different.

This book is full of strength and grit and community, and it has a love story, too. I really adored it.
I’m not alone in my feelings for Keeping Safe the Stars; it recently won the Midwest Bookseller’s Choice award for Children’s Literature.

To see what other marvelous middle-grade books readers and writers are blogging about today, check out Shannon Whitney Messenger’s blog for the MMGM links!

The Problem with Stars

Jun 18, 2013 | , , , , , , ,

Confession: I’ve resisted joining Goodreads for the longest time. While I’ve long used–and appreciated!–the site to get information about books and read non-editorial reviews, I didn’t want an author account.* The main reason why? The stars. 

To clarify, I don’t think there is anything wrong with rating and reviewing books, and I certainly don’t judge anyone who does. Ratings can be a very useful tool for readers, and even authors! My problem is that I personally can’t figure out a way to use the stars that seems fair to me as a reader as well as fair to the rest of the people on the site.
The thing is, the star rating system (on Goodreads, Amazon, or any site that encourages quantitative ratings of books) doesn’t use a standardized metric. Each individual on the site has to come up with their own, unique rating system–and they might vary their method depending on the book, their mood, or changing tastes. That’s how you get one-star reviews of Jane Eyre and five-star reviews of critically-trashed commercial fiction. Some people rate based on personal opinion. Some based on quality of the writing, despite whether or not they enjoyed the work. Others rate on whether their expectations (based on category, genre, etc.) were met. (To be honest, that’s probably the method that makes the most sense to me. Otherwise I would feel weird about giving five stars to both a lauded classic and a beach read, you know? They weren’t intended to be the same type of work or reading experience–and that’s okay.)
If a reader wants an apple but gets an orange, is that 1 star for not being the desired apple? Or however many stars the book deserves as an orange? Because that orange book was never intended to satisfy apple cravings, anyway.

(Now I want some fruit.)

A solution, of course, is writing a review that explains the rationale behind the stars. But some people–like me–don’t want to review. And for that reason, I’m shelving books aplenty on Goodreads, but I won’t be rating them. It doesn’t seem fair to assign a quantitative measure without explaining how I got there. I really value Goodreads as a reference and a community, and I’m excited to become more active there, but for now I think I’ll keep a blank slate of stars.
Are you on Goodreads? How do you approach reviews and stars?

*But now I have one. Let’s be friends!

MMGM: Every Day After

Jun 10, 2013 | , , , , , , , ,

One of the many fun things about being part of OneFour KidLit is getting to interview debut 2013 authors about their great new books. Tomorrow, my interview with Laura Golden, author of Every Day After, will be up on the OneFour blog. But I couldn’t wait until then to post about this historical MG gem. Here’s a little about the book, from Goodreads:

Trouble has rained down
on Lizzie Hawkins. Her daddy has deserted the family, her mama is
silent with sadness, and the bank is after their house.
Daddy
always said Lizzie was born to succeed, but right now she can’t even
hold on to her top grades or her best friend, Ben. Bratty newcomer Erin
Sawyer has weaseled both away from Lizzie, but Erin won’t be satisfied
until Lizzie is out of her hair for good, packed off straight to the
nearest orphanage.

Still, Lizzie refuses to lose what’s left of
her family. With the bank deadline fast approaching, Erin causing strife
at every turn, and Mama and Ben slipping away from her, Lizzie finds
comfort writing in her journal and looking at Daddy’s face in the
heirloom locket he left her. She’s keeping her head high and holding
onto hope that Daddy returns on her twelfth birthday. Still, she can’t
help wondering: Why did Daddy have to leave? And can I save us if he
doesn’t come home?

Times may be tough in Bittersweet, Alabama,
but the unsinkable Lizzie Hawkins will inspire readers with her
resilience and determination.

Laura kindly lent an ARC to me so I could read Every Day After in advance of our interview–although I plan to buy a copy once it hits shelves, because this is one of those marvelous MG books that will be an instant classic. The character development is rich, the setting is so real that you start to feel like you have GooGoo Clusters stuck in your teeth (a candy that Lizzie longs for in the book), and the themes and message are timeless. It really struck me, while reading, how relevant a story about a young girl staying strong in the face of economic troubles is today. Lizzie’s determination and strength are a model to anyone, of any age, who is struggling.
But this is also a great MG story about community, friendship, and finding yourself, one with plenty of sweet humor. I highly recommend that tomorrow, you pick up a copy of Every Day After.

To see what other marvelous middle-grade books readers and writers are blogging about today, check out Shannon Whitney Messenger’s blog for the MMGM links!

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