Hello, and welcome to another edition of Books I've Recently Acquired! I'm your host, Flannery, so let's get things started with random science fiction and fantasy books that caught my eye at Half Price Books the other day. I picked up Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr based on Kate Elliott's recommendation of the series at an event I went to two weeks ago. She said it was her favorite fantasy series of all time and that was obviously enough to sell me on it. I also grabbed a copy of A Horsewoman in Godsland by Claudia J. Edwards because I loved her book Taming the Forest King. Even though I already own a copy of Horsewoman, I never see copies of her out-of-print books anywhere and buy them when I find them. I kind of feel like the protagonist from The Shadow of the Wind trying to find all the existing copies of her work, especially considering there is basically ZERO information about the author out there on the net. [at this point in typing the blog post I went to ebay and bought two more of her books so I would have a complete set] Are there any mysterious authors of depressingly small fame that you wish more people would read? Do you have any authors whose works you automatically buy when you find those old used copies hidden in the shelves?

The other paperbacks I picked up--all were $1, I believe--were Groundties by Jane Fancher, One On Me by Tim Huntley, and Grasp the Stars by Jennifer Wingert.

Speaking of Half Price Books, every few months they have a warehouse sale over in Greenwood. This go-round, all the books were under $3. I went early in the morning but it was absolutely bonkers with people so I made one quick perusal of the area and peaced out of there...after waiting for over half an hour in line. I picked up the seven books to the right for around $18. I was especially psyched about this because all but one are hardcover and all are in great condition. I haven't read any of them yet but some of them are definitely permanent collection pieces. I am particularly happy I found a copy of Skin Hunger since Catie and Tatiana really loved (love?) that series, and The Highest Frontier since it is about young adults in school in space. I tried to start it once before but my reaction was something like this: "Oh cool! A girl going to college in space! This is going to be so FUN! Wait, what about botany?...there certainly seems to be a lot of talking about plants in this bookzzzzzzzzzzz." I'm hoping my second attempt will be more successful.

Happy birthday to me! Well, it was last month, but these books were given to me as gifts, which is beyond exciting for a bookaholic. Maja sent me Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg and Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein. Naomi sent me Six Impossible Things (signed!) and Wildlife by Fiona Wood. And Tatiana sent me The Zigzag Effect by Lili Wilkinson. All three of us Readventurers really enjoy Wilkinson's books and how she is able to keep them fun without crossing into the land of unbearable cheese. Thanks, buddies! (for the record, the equally awesome Catie gave me an Amazon gift card which I should've used on books but instead I used to buy a new cover for my phone.)

If you are a fan of graphic novels, you are probably already addicted to Saga by Brian K. Vaughn (of Y: The Last Man and Runaways fame) and Fiona Staples. If you haven't read it yet, please get on it. I preordered the second compiled edition and read it the day it arrived. It was just as weird as the first one, though it had a few more really awkward sexual inclusions that had Tatiana and I scratching our heads. Have you read it? What do you think the point of including the huge ogre balls and blowjob pics was? I thought they were just distracting and frankly, they made me kind of angry because they lower the number of people I would feel comfortable recommending the series to. The other graphic novel I bought recently is Empire Lanes by Peter Gross. I bought this one after I really enjoyed Gross' artwork in the Unwritten series by Mike Carey, and I read THAT because I basically loved Mike Carey's short story, "Iphegenia in Aulis". That story is included in An Apple for the Creature, a collection of school-related short stories from about twelve different authors. I recommended that particular story to Tatiana in our ongoing edition of She Made Me Do It and she enjoyed it as well. (spoiler alert!) If you get the chance, you should listen to it. The Ilona Andrews short in that book is also worth a listen. Anyway, Empire Lanes is about a group of people who come through a magical portal from medieval times into the back of a bowling alley. I haven't finished it yet but I kind of love stories about people working at bowling alleys, water parks, golf courses, etc. so I'm looking forward to it.

Hooray for friends! I wasn't able to make it to a recent conference, but some of my bookish buddies were there and they mailed me a few of the galleys they knew I was on the lookout for. My college roommate was also there but she is not as efficient as Arlene and Rachel, so I might have to include whatever she got signed for me in another edition...some other time...when she gets around to mailing it. The books are The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Eye of Minds by James Dashner, The 100 by Kass Morgan, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, The Vow by Jessica Martinez, and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce. Thank you, thank you!

I haven't gone to a ton of author events recently but I did go see Neil Gaiman, Kate Elliott, and Margo Lanagan. I bought one or two books at each event to be signed so here is an amazing picture I took of them in my majestic wood-walled bathroom. I'm joking about the picture being amazing, obviously it is my usual point and click crapfest, but it is actually in my bathroom. True confession: On the other side of that wall is a book of Far Side cartoons that I look at every time I go to the bathroom. They make me laugh every.single.time. The problem with these books is that once books are signed, I never want to crack them open and change the quality. Library, here I come.

The other day I was at work and the store was having a 50% clearance event. I have never read any books by Anne Bishop but I am physically incapable of passing up mint condition, signed hardcovers for $7 by authors I think I might enjoy trying out. In addition to the two random books in the Black Jewels series that I picked up (I know the reviews are mixed!), I also grabbed an installment in the Chicagoland Vamps series that I was missing and Circus Galacticus, which I remember I requested and was denied on Netgalley when it was coming out. Isn't it funny how we remember exactly which books we were rejected for? I know how lucky reviewers are to even be given the chance to read prerelease books, but the rejection still hurts a bit. At least it does for me.

I drove down to Eugene two days ago to help one of my siblings move. On the way down and back up, I continued my alternation between the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews and the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones. I enjoy both series in audio format and I am almost finished with #2 in the CD series, after which I'll move onto #3 in KD. Two or three people have told me that Magic Strikes is where the true magic of the Kate Daniels series picks up so I am pumped to start that one tomorrow. When I was in Eugene, my sister and I stopped to get burritos for lunch and the place happened to be next door to Black Sun Books. What an interesting find! The store has a lot of lit, both used and new, and large sections of poetry, native peoples, and books in translation, among other sections. It isn't much for genre fiction, but the store is well kept and the owner seems to truly care for his books. I found a like new hardcover of War Dances and the Nobel Prize-winning book, The Passport by Herta Müller. I didn't look at the Goodreads reviews for that one before I bought it, and they seem very polarized. I have no idea what I'm in for, but I guess it will be interesting either way.

The last few books I recently acquired include Shadows by Paula Weston and two of The Edge books by Ilona Andrews. We are going to be part of the US/Can blog tour for Weston's book and I am pumped to read that one because it is very popular with my reader friends. Have you read it? What did you think?

I received the two Ilona Andrews books (and a handmade stuffed animal) from the amazing Olivia, one of my oldest friends from Goodreads. No matter how many times I try to tell her NOT to send me things, she always manages to sneak me back a package. Considering how much I am enjoying the Kate Daniels books, I am hoping that The Edge works for me as well. Thanks, Olivia!

So, these are most of the books that I have recently added to my collection. I know many bloggers do weekly posts to talk about what they buy/request/check out from the library but I don't have the discipline to do that. Random posts every once in awhile is the way I have to go. I also added an entire bookshelf to the house recently, and it is already filled with backlog. One of these days I will have a place with a room I can make into a library!

One of the most challenging parts of book blogging, and really to having any friendships with bookish people is managing your to-be-read pile. There are quite literally thousands of books I hope to read in my lifetime and the list gets longer every day after discussions with friends, coworkers, reading reviews, seeing tweets, and reading blog posts. Maja from The Nocturnal Library has been a great friend of mine for a few years now and she has recommended so many books to me, but have I read most of them yet? No. She is certainly not the only friend who probably wants to shake some sense into me but she IS the only I am attempting to appease at the moment. How? Well, I had her compile a list of 50 books she would like me to give a go and we'll see how many I finish in the next few weeks. My personal goal is at least 5 but I am being kind of beastly in how fast I am plowing through audios lately so we'll see if I can do more.

Maja is posting her list at the same time as this post so you can read her challenge post here. She has broken down her recommendations into genres with an emphasis on urban fantasy because I asked her to include a lot of them since I am woefully under-read in that area and she is an expert. She has no idea what my plan of attack is, but she does know that I got a head start.

One of Maja's favorite authors is Ann Aguirre and I get embarrassed every time we have a conversation about Aguirre and I have to pretend I know what is going on, since I have only ever read Grimspace, the first in her Sirantha Jax series. I want to finish that series but they aren't on my list, so I am keen to read both Bronze Gods (which the lovely Maja sent me a copy of) and Perdition, which sounds AMAZING. Seriously, go read the blurb. Actually, here it is:

WELCOME TO HELL

The prison ship Perdition, a floating city where the Conglomerate’s most dangerous criminals are confined for life, orbits endlessly around a barren asteroid.

Life inside is even more bleak. Hailed as the Dread Queen, inmate Dresdemona “Dred” Devos controls one of Perdition’s six territories, bordered on both sides by would-be kings eager to challenge her claim. Keeping them at bay requires constant vigilance, as well as a steady influx of new recruits to replace the fallen. Survival is a constant battle, and death is the only escape.

Of the newest convicts, only one is worth Dred’s attention. The mercenary Jael, with his deadly gaze and attitude, may be the most dangerous criminal onboard. His combat skill could give her the edge she needs, if he doesn’t betray her first. Unfortunately, that’s what he does best. Winning Jael’s allegiance will be a challenge, but failure could be worse than death…

I know, right?

Obviously I am not sure what I will actually get through, but I have to admit that I am most curious about the books that Maja gave 5 stars to. I am notoriously stingy with my 5-star ratings and I am always peeking through people's shelves to see what they've deemed worthy of that top spot. What did they see as basically flawless or have such an emotional attachment to as to rate it so highly? Maja 5-starred 12 of her 50 recommendations, but the ones I am most interested in checking out are The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, As If I Am Not There by Slavenka Drakulić, Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree by Santo Montefiore, and Betty Blue by Philippe Djian. A few of these are on her "made-me-cry" shelf and I am morbidly always interested in books that made people cry since it is such a rare occurrence for me. Will I have the same reaction?

All this could change, but for now, this is where my brain thinks I am going to go. Did you go check out Maja's list? What do you think I should go with? Even just the two I've already knocked out already make me feel better about our friendship. I want to read everything my friends think is amazing and/or that they think I might like. It makes me happy that Maja took the time to compile a group of recommendations so I could read a bunch of them and then pat myself on the back. Hooray for bookish friendships and the amazing book recommendations that result from them!

It's no secret that Phoebe has been one of our, The Readventurers', closest reading, blogging, reviewing and science fiction-loving friends for a long, long time. This is why we are thrilled that her debut novel, a futuristic, outer space thriller Starglass, is finally going to meet its readers. Today Phoebe is answering our questions about her novel, her writing process and a few other (random) things.

Welcome, Phoebe!

1. We’ve always appreciated your commentary on the complicated balance between honesty, reviewing, and being a writer. How does it feel to read your first reviews? Have any of your views changed? And what do you think about a catchy line "Jews in Space" that we've seen people use to describe Starglass?

It's been fascinating! While I don't agree with all the reviews (though honestly, who agrees with every perspective of any work of art?), I have found them, generally, to be insightful, hilarious, and incisive. My readers are just SO smart--it's what's kept me reading my reviews.

As for "Jews in Space"? Hilarious. I've long been a Mel Brooks fan, and my own Jewish mother made a "Jews in Space" crack LONG ago. Of course, the Asherah isn't shaped like a star of David; it's important that new readers don't take it too literally. But I'm glad to contribute to cultural diversity in YA sci-fi, and if the promise of Jews in Space gets people reading? Sounds good to me!

2. Can you tell us a little bit about the concept of a Bashert?  Where does the word originate, and does the meaning differ from what we think of as a soul mate?

"Bashert" is a Yiddish word that means "destiny." The idea is that God selected your spouse for you before you were ever born, someone who will complement you perfectly in every way. Since your spouse is considered selected for you by God, any husband or wife is considered a bashert--whether the relationship is ultimately successful or not. I find that aspect of the concept fascinating, and was eager to explore it in a setting where one's matrimonial choices are severely limited.

The traditional view is perhaps both more overtly religious than our own concept of a soul mate and more marriage-focused. Of course, belief in soul mates depends on some sort of belief in a soul, doesn't it? They're very similar concepts, and if readers understand them as equivalent terms, I don't particularly think they're missing much.

3. We love that you showed how easy it was aboard the ship for the people to become complacent to their basic rights and liberties disappearing in favor of the greater "good."  Do you draw any parallels between the society aboard the ship and the world we live in now?

I think to a certain degree any society depends upon consensus between citizens that a certain degree of compromise in liberty is necessary for us to get along. Not every society is as strict as that of the Asherah, but there exist contemporary societies on Earth where one's choice of spouse or vocation is limited due to factors beyond an individual's control. What distinguishes one society from another is where we draw those lines. Life on the Asherah must, by definition, be more controlled than it would be in many real societies but it doesn't mean that the choices the Council makes are necessarily right for all its citizens. Instead, those choices arise out of a motley quilt of quasi-religious values, necessity, the ruling party's desire for power, and a need to avoid chaos. Which is, I believe, how many real societies are structured. Ours, too, for better or for worse.

4. Is it weird that the character we found ourselves relating to the most was Terra's best friend Rachel?

Not at all! I love Rachel, and think she's a fascinating girl. In many ways, she's more sympathetic than Terra. And I've certainly had that reaction to characters before. When I read Uglies, for example, I LOVED Shay, but was not really all that into Tally.

Terra's been through a unique and uniquely traumatizing experience, and so I understand if it's a bit odd for some readers to get inside her head. It was certainly a difficult place for me to be, sometimes. But I also think that stories about girls like Terra--who have been through trauma and abuse--remain worth telling. For one thing, empathy is important. Terra might be difficult and sometimes unlikeable, but I hope she remains understandable. For another, I truly believe that kids who have grown up in the shadow of alcoholism and grief desperately need narratives about heroism and healing. They deserve to see heroes like them, too.

5. During the editing process, was there anything you cut out that you were sad to see go? Outtakes?

This might sound silly, but at various points in its gestation, Starglass opened with a glossary. We decided to get rid of it (as most of the Yiddish and Hebrew used can be divined by context clues), but I've seen a few readers stumble over these phrases and sometimes, I wish I'd kept it. 

Otherwise, the novel mostly grew--over 25,000 words during the editing process. Nothing was removed that wasn't replaced with something better.

6. Once the Starglass duology is complete and the second book is published in 2014, will you continue writing YA science fiction or you are ready to explore other genres (maybe even adult fiction, though we know you’ve said probably no to that particular question in other interviews?) Are you working on any projects right now?

I can't imagine writing something that wasn't speculative--whether science fiction or fantasy. I'm such a sucker for magic and aliens and dragons and unicorns and especially space unicorns.

Perhaps one day I'll write an adult novel, but my mind just doesn't bend that way, naturally. I find narratives about childhood and adolescence much more interesting. My current itch is to write and publish some middle grade. Twelve is such a fascinating age.

7. Have you ever thought about how we are all essentially hurtling through space on a very large-scale mostly closed system?  We are all trapped here, with our limited resources and space, and we have to survive with each other and what we have.  Did we just blow your mind?  No?

WHOA.

Thank you, Phoebe!

Starglass will be available on July 23, 2013
Don't forget to visit all the other stops on the Starglass blog tour!

[Amazon|Barnes & Noble]

Meanwhile, enjoy the book's fantastic trailer or win a signed copy

If you'd like to learn more about Phoebe or her work, you can visit her website at www.phoebenorth.com or find her on Twitter @phoebenorth. 

Not a Drop to Drink
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publication Date: 9/24/13
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Paper ARC, from Epic Reads
[Goodreads | Amazon | B & N]

Blurb (GR):
Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

Review:

In Not A Drop To Drink, Mindy McGinnis has envisioned a futuristic United States in which access to water is strictly controlled. The population has been decimated by diseases including (but not limited to) cholera due to overcrowding in cities, the aforementioned water situation, and the strain on resources. In terms of YA dystopian “explanations,” I found McGinnis’ world to be very real and very possible, especially the lack of antibiotics once people were forced to move into organized cities and the demand for medication relentlessly skyrocketed. Access to water and medications in this future is controlled and everything is expensive, so a majority of people cannot afford very much of either. I was actually reminded of the Japanese tsunami a few years back, when news outlets were speculating that radiation could affect people on the west coast of the US and they advised people to take potassium iodine tablets. After (no joke) a day, you couldn’t find them anywhere in the whole Seattle area and Amazon suppliers had shipping estimates of months. The plausibility of the water shortage was scarily real to me, and that is one aspect that lends to the overall success of this novel--it doesn't depend on the fantastical to wow the reader, and it doesn't need to.

From the very first few pages, I was completely interested in this story. Lynn, a teenage girl, and her mother live alone in a  house by a pond, from which they gather water to purify daily. Both Lynn and her mother are hard workers and absolutely capable of living in isolation, and when the occasional person shows up to steal water from their pond, they have no hesitation in shooting them down to protect their claim. They don't mess around, and neither does McGinnis with her sparse, frank text, which feels very intentional and totally works for the story. The scope of the setting is small but the containment made the narrative more exciting because it honestly feels like you are sitting on that roof with Lynn or hauling that water bucket up the hill with her. It was refreshing to read about a girl surviving instead of a girl who needs to bring down a widespread government conspiracy, a girl who must save the entire human race, or a girl with two (or more) different love interests. While reading, I tried to think of other experiences that give me the same feeling as reading this book, or ways to describe it to potential readers. Here are a few:


1. You might like this book if you like The Walking Dead and think you'd enjoy reading about living on Season Two's farm setting.

2. You read and enjoyed Susan Beth Pfeffer's Last Survivors series, but wished one or more of the characters were more useful and logical.

3. When you started reading Blood Red Road by Moira Young, you were excited about Saba and what might happen before she ever left home.

4. You love reading books that involve surviving in the wild and don't mind reading more about the day-to-day rather than tons of movement and epic action sequences.

About two-thirds of the way through the novel, I found myself wondering where the plot was going. It kind of meanders around, not that I minded, but I was worried the author would try to throw it all at the reader at once: a romance develops, a few additional (and intriguing) characters show up, and there is a lot of back-loaded action. Though the pacing was a bit off,  when all was said and done, I was satisfied with the ending point and the amount of resolution and I think most readers will feel the same way. There were a few surprises that I (perhaps embarrassingly) didn't see coming and a somewhat cheesy epilogue but overall there was very little about this novel that I didn't enjoy. If I could make one wish, it would be that the city in the novel would've been left as a current and real American city. "Entargo" makes the entire book less serious to me as it reminds me of all the dystopian YA with fictional names for everything, and I really did not understand the point of doing this since nearly everything else in the book is so recognizable. I wish Not a Drop to Drink could just own its realism and call Cincinnati or Cleveland or Pittsburgh or wherever by its name. Regardless, it is really exciting to me to read such a successful debut work. I hope McGinnis will come through with more adventures in years to come.

4/5 stars

Other opinions:
The Book Geek: "I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes survival stories, strong female characters, and realism."
Jenna Does Books: "At the end of the day, NOT A DROP TO DRINK is one of the most realistic and believable speculative future stories I have ever read. "
Chick Loves Lit: "This is a MUST. BUY. for dystopian fans, fans of true gritty worlds, fans of fast page turners."

Guess who's back? Back again? (It's us doing Odds & Ends, not Eminem, I'm sorry to say.) It would be ridiculously pointless for us to try to share fun news and links from the entire time we've been on O & E hiatus so everything that follows will be from the past week.

The biggest news of the past week is that Barnes & Noble CEO, William Lynch, resigned. Commentators seem to feel that this is a result of the failure of the Nook Media strategy, which Lynch headed up. I love the prices over at Amazon as much as the next reader but we need competition and I truly hope that however Barnes & Noble restructures their company or strategies in the coming months is effective. I am still mourning the loss of Borders. Speaking of the rise of digital media, Apple was found guilty of ebook price fixing this week in that case that has been going on for months and months. All the publishers involved in the case settled earlier and the damages Apple will be assessed have not yet been determined, but all parties will be forbidden from using any agency pricing agreements for two years. An Apple spokesperson said they will be appealing the decision.

Lots of film news this week. That virginal hunk  in Outlander by Diana Gabaldon has been cast for the television series, which is set to air 16 episodes on Starz in 2014. Sam Heughan will be playing Jamie Fraser and Gabaldon seems to be happy with that casting. The role of Claire is still up in the air but we'll keep you updated when that news is finalized. What do you think of the Jamie casting choice? We're happy he's at least Scottish. Also exciting is the news that Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone director Guillermo del Toro has commissioned Charlie Kaufman to write a screenplay to adapt the Kurt Vonnegut classic, Slaughterhouse-Five. By the way, if you haven't seen The Devil's Backbone and you like you be creeped out, go ahead and watch that movie alone in the dark and then come back and tell me if you kept your eyes open the whole time.  The Weinstein Company is making a film version of Lois Lowry's The Giver, with Jeff Bridges as the outgoing Receiver and the main character will be played by Aussie actor Brenton Thwaites. In other YA movie news, were you aware that they already made a movie of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? I wasn't! It's coming out in November. Arguably this summer's biggest literary hit, Gone Girl, will be directed by David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Se7en) and star Ben Affleck as Nick. Fun fact: We get several hits daily from people Googling "Did Nick kill Amy in Gone Girl?" And in lighter movie news, the first trailer for the rom-com Austenland, based on the novel of the same name by Shannon Hale, was released this week. Here it is:

It's this girl's opinion that it looks pretty cheesy but also fun and I really have no shame in admitting that I'll probably go see it. Will you? I think a lot of the demographic planning to see this movie will non-ironically enjoy this creepy Mr. Darcy statue that was erected in London's Hyde Park. Don't worry, it's glorious 12-feet of awkwardness will find a permanent home in Cheshire, where the movie was filmed. Let's all take a moment to realize that out there, somewhere in the world, someone got paid to go to work to make a huge molded Colin Firth. I wonder if he/she/they had brainstorming discussions about such heated topics as the length of his sideburns and just how low his v-neck peasant top should go. Speaking of hilarious jobs, Google has done all the muggles of the world a favor by adding Diagon Alley to its Street View. This next bit is absolutely unrelated to books, but did you know that if you zoom enough on Google Maps, you can see exactly which aisles are which at Home Depot?

All three of us Readventurers are newly fanatical about graphic novels so it makes us happy to report that comic and graphic novel sales are up 15% in the past year and remaining steady. This is so exciting because it will hopefully translate to more being published and a wider variety of stories. Amazon, of course, has jumped on the bandwagon by opening Jet City Comics, their own comics/graphic novel imprint, which will release comics from Neal Stephenson, George R.R. Martin, and Hugh Howey, among others. New to graphic novels but grew up in the 80s or 90s? Well, NBC Universal and Lion Forge Comics have teamed up to release graphic novel versions of several shows from that era--namely Saved by the Bell, Knight Rider, Punky Brewster, Miami Vice, and Airwolf--so that might be a good place to start. But seriously, if you need a recommendation for a graphic novel, just ask!  We've also read a huge number of short stories lately so we're excited to mention that the 2013 PEN Literary Awards shortlists were announced this week. I hope to get my hands on each of the nominated shorts:

A group called Geeks OUT is calling for people to boycott Ender's Game, which comes out on November 1st. The reasoning, it will come as no surprise to find out, is author Orson Scott Card's notorious and public anti-gay stance. Card issued a public statement on the matter, saying,

LOL, my sides. First, potential boycotters don't care whether the political issues are in the book or in the movie, they care whether millions of people will go consume a product whose profits will go into the pockets of a person who actively advocates against their civil rights. Secondly, very few issues are ever "moot," and I love the idea that OSC claims that all is said and done on the matter. Remember when every single Supreme Court decision was still 100% valid and never reinterpreted? Yeah, neither do I. But very well then, I guess we can take that to mean that spending even one dollar of his future earnings on any campaign, lobby, etc. that would try to overturn the ruling won't be happening since the issue is moot and doing so would be pointless. By the by, here is Lionsgate's public statement on the matter.

Here's a few extra notable links from the week:

• A New York school district sent home an error-riddled summer reading list.
• An Indian author was given a 1.7 million dollar advance in 1993. He’s being asked to give it back after not producing the book.
• A new Humble Bundle of ebooks was released! You can buy it here, and it includes works from authors including Lois McMaster Bujold, Cory Doctorow, and Peter S. Beagle, who did an AMA on Reddit to promote it. 
•  A rare collection of over 10,000 African American historical books, films, etc. was thrown out in Highland Park, Michigan.  The books were found and people are now protesting the school board.

Okay, I'll admit it: At least half of the author events I go to are for authors whose work I have yet to read. However,  I doubt anyone has a problem with this (except maybe my friends who have read said works and are annoyed I haven't yet) since I fill a seat for the bookstore, buy stuff most of the time for the author and the bookstore, and take rambly notes and pictures and videos for you, the lovely people of the internet. In this case, though I have not read any of her books I am very familiar with the author in question, Kate Elliott, from her online presence. I've read a significant amount of articles, blog posts, and commentaries she's written on a number of topics and I follow her on Twitter. (her handle is @KateElliottSFF) I find her to be extremely intelligent and well spoken (er, written) so I was curious to see what she would be like in person. After an introduction by a University Bookstore employee, Elliott started the event off by reading from one of the two works in progress she has going. I am really sad I didn't video this particular one because I was basically rapt for the entirety of the excerpt. The author mentioned that some members of the audience (and therefore maybe also some readers of this blog post) might be familiar with aspects of the work but as a new fan, I wasn't. It will be the beginning of an adult epic fantasy trilogy for Orbit but sadly, not out until 2014. (or maybe 2015?) Either way, I will definitely be reading it. The only thing I have written in my notes from the first reading is that the protagonist, Sarai, sounds a little bit like a few other fantasy heroines I've enjoyed--Katsa, Yelena, Ismae, etc.--but the series will be an adult one.  The portion she read was about the primary character, who seemed to be a non-marriage material woman for one reason or another having to do with magic, going exploring up a nearby peak. I loved the atmospheric feel of her grappling up a cliffside to document the changes in a series of carvings/artwork that she and a relative have been tracking. There were people riding huge birds, exciting descriptions of the surrounding area and history, and a particularly compelling interaction with another woman on the peak who makes Sarai forget she even ventured out that afternoon. It sounds like the protagonist of this story will be a smart, scrappy woman who goes on many adventures and seriously, I can't wait to read it. The tentative title of the first work is The Black Wolves.

The other project Elliott is working on is a YA trilogy for Little Brown Books for Young Readers. She said the quick sell for that one is that it is, "Little Women meets Count of Monte Cristo in a fantasy world inspired by Greco-Roman Egypt." There are so many things that interest me here. Let's make a list:

1. Laurie.
2. Edmond Dantès.
3. Sisters.
4. Prison breaks.
5. How much I loathe Amy March.
6. Why is Little Women the only instance I've ever heard of people saying "Marmee"?
7. How in the world can Little Women & Count of Monte Cristo be combined in a fantasy world? I can't wait for this.
8. Maybe one of the characters will be a writer like Jo?
9. If there is, please don't have her marry an old German dude.

Moving on, here is a video of Elliott reading an excerpt from the first book in that series.  It is tentatively titled Mask and slated for release in 2015. Sorry for the heads and the quality, but I was on my iPhone in the second row:

The first audience question was where the author got her inspiration for the Spiritwalker Trilogy, the conclusion of which was the reason for the tour--Cold Steel, which was released in late June. Elliott said that when her children were in high school, they asked if she wanted to world-build with them and the group just went wild with it. Originally the trilogy was not meant to be set in an alternate history but it just turned out that way. Another reader commented that she loves Elliott's handling of relationships and how they feel grounded and very real. The author said that she loves world building, in fact is a "world building dork," but that she wants readers to really be invested in characters and what happens to them and the best way to do that is not through world building, but instead through interactions. An author can tell us as much as she wants but we really do not get to know characters until they interact with each other and we can concentrate on the connectedness of it all. Speaking of characters, a few members of Elliott's extended family were in the audience and the author admitted to fashioning a few minor characters in the Spiritwalker books after two of her nieces. How fun it must be to be immortalized in a book!

The next question was basically an inquiry as to whether each progressive book an author writes gets easier to finish. Elliott said no. Some aspects of writing she feels she has improved at, namely recognizing how to structure a book, how scenes work, how to spot the need for x or y, how to frame plots, etc. She knows that she likes to do a quick intro in her series books so readers can recall what happened earlier in the storyline, but she does not recap too much and the series books are meant to be read in order. But along with the things she has learned and feels more confident about, she says the other side of the coin is that she is now much more adept at spotting flaws in her work. Whereas her favorite part of writing used to be the first draft and she was less excited about the editing, she's found that her opinion has changed and it is now quite the opposite.

At this point, the author spoke a bit about her first experience writing YA, after an audience member prompted a discussion. Elliott said it's been great and she was happy that when she turned in the manuscript to her editor, the aspects the editor was most excited about were also what Elliott cares most about, which was important...since the manuscript was a "mere 120,000 words." One thing Elliott knew was that she wanted to write strong women's roles. She mentioned a post she wrote for SF Signal called "The Omniscient Breasts", about the portrayal of female characters from the male point of view in sci fi and fantasy. Evidently, one commenter went on about how there aren't many positive portrayals of female characters out and about doing amazing things in books set in certain historical periods because the fact of the matter is that a miniscule number of women actually strayed far from the home and did anything interesting. They just got married, pregnant, did housework, and then died. (I just went to double check that comment and yes, that's what it says) The point of this mention is that because of that online conversation, she decided to write a compelling short story that is about a woman who does not stray far from home and does exactly those "boring" things. Boom, right? It's available in the Jonathan Strahan-edited anthology, Fearsome Journeys. So when it came to writing a YA novel, she wanted to have strong female characters and in this case, she ended up writing four sisters. Elliott said she started her draft in third person but the story felt lifeless. First person, past tense just didn't feel right either. First person, present tense is very popular nowadays, especially in young adult novels, but she always thought it felt wrong and she never really enjoyed reading or writing in that style. In this case, though, it worked and she can see the sense of immediacy that particular narration style lends to a book, especially a YA novel.

One reader said that Kate Elliott writes great characters but that unlike most authors, it seems to the audience member that Elliott almost enjoys writing side characters (not villains) that people sort of love to hate, and that it does not bother the author when readers dislike them. Elliott says that's probably accurate. She tries to make her main characters sympathetic but some of the secondary characters, "are like [her] on [her] bad days. Sometimes they just come out obnoxious."

The last question of the event was from yours truly. I am always curious what books other readers, bloggers, and authors recommend. The author said her all-time favorite series is the Deverry Cycle by Katharine Kerr. If you think it might sound interesting to you, she and Aiden Moher over at A Dribble of Ink recently did a readalong starting with the first book in the series, Daggerspell.

Her other recommendation, I'm sure Catie will be happy to hear (she's a big fan!), is the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch. Elliott said she read the first three books in three consecutive days and that Aaronovitch has the right blend of humor and that he writes fantastic women characters. The bookstore host mentioned that future editions of that series will only be published in the UK. I don't have a secondary source to confirm that but I did just check on Amazon US and no results showed up for the fourth book in the series, Broken Homes, which will be released in the UK on July 25th.

You can find out more about Kate Elliott's writing on her blog, or follow her on Twitter @KateElliottSFF. For those of us who are Redditors (or if you are just interested and/or have a question for Kate!), she will be doing an AMA on Reddit on July 17th, 2013.

Last February (16 months ago), I wrote a post about all the books I have been meaning to read. In some cases, the books were newer releases I'd heard good things about. In others, I've owned to the books for over a decade and I like to imagine the characters inside of them as actors who've given up on the performance that will never come and instead spend their days tanning by the pool (or probably by the pond since most of these books are oldies) and their nights playing snooker and getting wasted on cocktails. I am 100% sure this daydream of mine is a result of my obsession with Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, in which all of our books are constructed in the BookWorld from the sets down to the casting of actors. Because I love that series, I had no trouble at all catching up with the one book I was behind on and then the next one, which was published after my initial list post. Likewise, I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with Eve and Roarke in J.D. Robb's In Death series. I am now adamant about listening to every installment, after plowing through six audiobooks to catch up in the last year and a half. The only problem with that series is that NORA ROBERTS IS TOO DAMN PROLIFIC AND EVERY TIME I CATCH UP THERE IS  A NEW RELEASE! YOU'RE KILLING ME, SMALLS! (FYI Thankless in Death comes out September 3rd.)

All told, I have finished 26 books from my list thus far. Here they are:

1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (9/12)
2. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (1/13)
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (6/12)
4. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (6/12)
5. The Twits by Roald Dahl (5/12)
6. The Witches by Roald Dahl(3/12)
7. Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt (5/12)
8. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde (8/12)
9. The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde (2/13)
10. Deadline by Mira Grant (3/13)
11. Hallowed by Cynthia Hand (8/12)
12. Boundless by Cynthia Hand (3/13)
13. Indulgence in Death  by J.D. Robb(6/12)
14. Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb(5/12)
15. New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb (6/12)
16. Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb (7/12)
17. Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb (12/12)
18. Calculated in Death by J.D. Robb (5/13)
19. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (2/13)
20. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (4/13)
21. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (6/13)
22. Beekeeping for Beginners (Short Story) by Laurie R. King (9/12)
23. All-Of-A-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (2/13)
24. Being Billy by Phil Earle (2/13)
25. The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (1/13)
26. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (6/13)

Not too shabby but still a bit embarrassing. Several other bloggers were inspired by my list and made lists of their own but I'm not going to link to them because they all seem/ed to be far more successful than I was thus far and this is the part of the internet where I can pretend I kick ass even when I am just meh at something...like completing this list of books to read. Lately (read: since about two months into this challenge until now), I've been thinking about revisiting this list and amending it. I think it would be better for fickle ol' me to have a list, yes, but a list that has some fluidity to it. Therefore, I am going to nix these 26 off the list as well as about 20-30 more that I have an inkling I will never want to get to in the time period and those I don't want to read anymore at all. Also, I think it was optimistic (read: delusional) of me to include long series to finish. Sometimes series go horribly wrong midway (Anita Blake, Sookie Stackhouse, & the Undead series, anyone?) and I need at least the first book in a series to see whether it will be a good fit so I have deleted the remaining books in series that are new to me and only left on the first books.

In terms of new categories of books I want to add onto my list, I have done some serious thinking about this. I have been having a really hard time keeping up with blogging lately but I do love doing it and I especially love doing some of our feature posts. For that reason, I want to include a few books that I really want to compare to their movie counterparts, so here goes:

1. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
4. Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth
5. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
6. It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
7. Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I chose most of these because they are movies I have seen so many times that I know them nearly by heart. Several of them I have read before but want to read anew to compare them to their respective movie/s. This is particularly true for Little Women because I signed up for Classics Retold, a feature coming up in September hosted by Alyssa at Books Take You Places, Alison at The Cheap Reader, and a few other bloggers in which tons of different bloggers tackle all the versions (book, movie, tv show, etc.) of a classic and compare the retellings. I've chosen Little Women for that event and I'm excited to get started on all of it. What are your favorite books that have been made into movies? I have so, so many that I don't even know where to begin.

My next new category is books I've bought or my friends have bought for me that I have not gotten around to, but instead of the ones I included last time (that had been sitting on my shelves for ages), I am picking only the books I acquired in the last few months:

9. Bronze Gods by A.A. Aguirre
10. Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield
11. Pivot Point by Kasie West
12. Golden by Jessi Kirby
13. A Brief History of Montmoray by Michelle Cooper
14. The Amber Amulet by Craig Silvey
15. Wildlife by Fiona Wood
16. The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
17. Girl, Defective by Simmone Howell
18. All This Could End by Steph Bowe
19. A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty
20. The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
21. The ZigZag Effect by Lili Wilkinson

And a few arcs (of the many) that I really want to read:

22. Vortex by S.J. Kincaid
23. Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier
24. Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
25. 15 Days Without A Head by Dave Cousins
26. The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway
27. The 100 by Kass Morgan
28. This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
29. Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce

A lot of my recent reading time has been taken up by graphic novels, and I am hoping to keep that up for years to come. Though I have quickly plowed through a lot of the "must reads" in that area, there are a bunch that I want to get to so I can be more well-read in that format. I don't think I can consider myself any sort of superior recommender of graphic novels until I've completed these ones I haven't crossed off yet:

30. The Watchmen by Alan Moore
31.  Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan (read the first, at least 1 more)
32. The Transmetropolitan series by Warren Ellis (at least 1)
33. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
34. Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
35. The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman (at least 1)

While perusing my shelves, I found a lot of books I bought with the intention of reading them because I loved something else I read by that author. With that in mind, here are a few additions to the list that are around because I love the author (for one reason or another):

36. A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson
37. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
38. Hold Still by Nina LaCour
39. Stories of My Life and Others by Ted Chiang
40. The Musician's Daughter by Susanne Dunlap

That's 40 new additions, so here are the former list items I am keeping, in hopes that I will get to them. All told, I am back up to a few more than 110 so I can keep my arbitrarily made up challenge title of '110+ Books I Have Every Intention of Reading Next':

1. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
2. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
3. Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning
4. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
5. All The King's Men by Robert Penn
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell
7. Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
8. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
9. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
10. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
11. 1984 by George Orwell
12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
13. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
14. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
15. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
16. Earthseed by Pamela Sargent
17. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
18. Green Rider by Kristen Britain
19. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
20. Matilda by Roald Dahl
    
21. The BFG by Roald Dahl
22. Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
23. The Boy by Roald Dahl
24. The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
25. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
26. Going Solo by Roald Dahl
27. Danny and the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
28. George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
29. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl
30. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
31. The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
32. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
33. Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre
    
34. Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre
    
35. Killbox by Ann Aguirre
    
36. Aftermath by Ann Aguirre
    
37. Endgame by Ann Aguirre
    
38. Blackout by Mira Grant
39. The Hidden Star by M.K. Hobson
40. The Likeness by Tana French
    
41. Faithful Place by Tana French
42. Broken Harbour by Tana French
43. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
44. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
45. Soulless by Gail Carriger
46. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
47. As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
48. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgalov
49. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
50. Madapple by Christina Meldrum
51. Between Shades of Gray by Rita Sepetys
52. Kristin Lavransdattar by Sigrid Undset
53. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
54. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
55. The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge
56. The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell
57. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
58. The Taste of a Man by Slavenka Drakulic
59. The Stand by Stephen King
60. Chime by Franny Billingsley
61. Burn Bright by Marianne de Pierres
62. The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan
63. How To Save A Life by Sara Zarr
64. Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
65. The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
66. Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
67. Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
68. Blindness by Jose Saramago
69. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
70. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
71. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
72. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
73. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

So, what do you think? Did you start your original list after me and then LEAVE ME IN YOUR DUST? (*cough*BONNIE*cough*) Are you still working on a list of your own? If so, leave me a link in the comments and I'll swing by and harass you about it every once in a while. Feel free to do the same for me. Or maybe start a list of your own and link me to that! I LOVE lists, especially goal lists of books to read.

Can you believe it?  We made it back here in less than six months! Sure, it still took us two months but we are going to call it a victory. It turns out that a little short fiction may have been just what we all needed.  After starting this challenge, we all ended up diving into various short stories and collections so look out for more of that in the future!  For now, we are playing another round of She Made Me Do It with each other, featuring more short stories, graphic novels, and novellas.

Here's what happened with last month's recommendations...

Tatiana read: Everything but The Gorgon in the Gully.

Verdict: Like Flannery, I ended up reading Rash's entire collection, and it's good, with stories set in different times, with different tones. It's not surprising, however, that I didn't necessarily like the same stories Catie did. Those Who Are Dead Are Only Now Forgiven broke my heart as well (drugs are BAD, people!). But I thought A Servant of History was a lot of fun too, and a nice reprieve from other dark stories.

As for Mo Willems' books, I pretty much read every book of his that my library had, including gems like Time to Pee! I think they are great fun for kids and I will definitely read them again and again, once my boy is old enough to understand them. Willems' are kids' book of the best quality. After reading a bunch of baby books already, I am sure of it.

I will read The Gorgon in the Gully one day, when it miraculously lands on my doorstep:)

I can't really rate everything I've read for this challenge individually. Let's say, they all got at least 3.5 stars from me. Most 4 and up. Thanks, Catie!

Catie read:  Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

Verdict:  Here I am feeling like the slacker of The Readventurer, because I only read one (ONE) of the fabulous picks Flannery chose for me.  And they were all so short!  I have no option but to hang my head in shame.  Oh, and I should also probably mention that the one I read actually served double duty because it was, coincidentally, the selection for my book club this month.  So I’m also kind of a cheater.  Nevertheless!  I really did enjoy Daddy Long Legs.  Yes, it really does remind me quite a bit of my beloved Anne of Green Gables.  In some ways, I actually (gasp!) liked it even more.  Judy is practical and resourceful and scrappy in a way that dreamy Anne never could be.  And while they both share a seemingly interminable optimism, Judy’s feels darker and more realistic next to Anne’s dreams of golden pavilions and starry nights.  Anne had to come down to Earth to find her true love in the simple, reliable boy next door.  But for Judy, finding love requires expanding her dreams and hopes out of her small world.  However, there’s still the small (read: gigantic, unsurpassable) matter of the love interest.  No one, and I mean NO ONE, could ever surpass Gilbert Blythe for me.  So really, when compared to the Anne books, this series doesn’t stand a chance. 

I did end up reading the second book in the series (Dear Enemy) as well.  It was pretty charming, but there were just enough references to eugenics and the hiding away of disabled children to make me uncomfortable.  If that sounds like something that would make you uncomfortable too, I’d suggest stopping after number one.  Overall, this was another awesome edition of SMMDI.  I give Daddy Long Legs a solid 4 stars.

Flannery read: All three, as well as Nothing Gold Can Stay (one of Catie's recommendations to Tatiana).

Verdict: I had a great time reading all of these, and I am a huge, huge fan of these short recommendations. The first one I went for was Ethel & Ernest, as it was the first hold to show up at my library. The author wrote the short, illustrated book about his parents and their romance. I loved that he was able to capture simple living and a somewhat small-scale approach to life without it feeling at all insulting. My grandparents lived similar sorts of lives (or at least that was the appearance they gave a growing me) and it made me miss them and the stories they'd tell. Briggs' parents fell in love and together they experienced a lot of technological advancements as well as hard times during rationing and WWII. The book only takes about twenty minutes to read and I recommend it to anyone new to graphic novels/illustrated stories and anyone who wants to just smile at the story of a relationship.

Next, I listened to Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash, which was recommended to Tatiana in this SMMDI. Good thing I don't pay attention to what is recommended to who because I absolutely loved listening to this collection of stories. Each one begins as a regular story but has some sort of twisty ending. I had to rewind several of the endings to make sure I was getting the full weight of what was happening. I am definitely a Ron Rash fan after listening to this audiobook. I read another of his stories last week in an anthology and I now plan to read everything he's written.

It took a while for my hold on The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate to come in, but when it did I read it immediately. Firstly, it is always amazing to me when an author whose work I am reading lives in my general vicinity. I can't help wondering if I might've walked by them or seen them somewhere. This is especially true when the words they've written are lovely, as this story by Ted Chiang definitely is. Merchant is a sort of time-twisty sci fi fairy tale. I wasn't sure what I was going to get but I was very happy with how original Chiang's tale felt--sort of the middle east meets Replay by Ken Grimwood.

The last stories I went through were the two by Truman Capote. I was a bit underwhelmed by Capote's painting of Marilyn Monroe as a constantly cussing, insecure actress rather than the bombshell most of us know her as. I still liked the story but I think it lacked the depth and interest that, say, my other assigned story, Handcarved Coffins, had. Coffins is based on a true crime serial killer story. While I was riveted by the story, I have to admit that the lack of closure was frustrating. Also, this story would be an amazing episode of a television show or a movie.

When all was said and done, I rate them as:
Ethel & Ernest: 4/5
Nothing Gold Can Stay: 4.5/5
Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate: 4/5
A Beautiful Child: 3/5
Handcarved Coffins: 4/5