All three of us are huge Laini Taylor fans so it took very little convincing for me to drive down to Portland from Seattle to see her at the last tour stop for Days of Blood & Starlight. I trucked it down there, listening to my Delusion In Death audiobook, and made it in 2.5 hours, which is notable considering the inability of 99% of the population of the Pacific Northwest to drive at a reasonable speed and keep right except to pass. I was meant to make it in time to have dinner with Sarah, Laura, and Sandra from Clear Eyes, Full Shelves but I was too late, so we just met up at the event and went out afterward. The event was at the Barnes & Noble at Clackamas Town Center and the store seemed a bit underprepared. When we all walked in about twenty minutes early, all of the thirty-odd chairs were taken or being saved and there were about ten people just standing around. The employees did go and retrieve more chairs, though there were still about ten people standing during the event. I guess they just didn't know what a literary badass Laini Taylor is. 

Taylor walked out to start the event and seemed totally approachable and comfortable. Actually, she reminded me of a friend of mine from high school who was a bit shy but once you got to know her, she was an absolute riot and a goldmine of hilarity and fun. Also, she blew every other person out of the water when it came to gift-giving. I still have a decorative box that my friend made me that is covered with probably 100 magazine pictures and words that had some meaning to us that she'd decoupaged. Listen, all I'm saying is that Laini Taylor comes off as totally genuine and likable. (also, I bet she and her husband can make amazing artsy gifts for people) She began by speaking a bit about how Daughter of Smoke & Bone came to be--and it was when she was cheating on another book. After she'd finished Lips Touch: Three Times, she was working on a sci-fi-ish story and she just couldn't make it work. She said it was quite demoralizing. One day, she told herself she could just write anything she wanted as a brief respite from the book and what came out was a snippet about a girl with blue hair and her father, who wasn't truly her father and who also wasn't human. Taylor talked about how authors often say that "characters just took over" and "the characters just spoke through me" and how, frankly, she always thought it was a bit of a lie. (So did/do I, most of the time*) However, she said that it actually happened in Karou's case. Bits and pieces of ideas she'd written from earlier writing prompts just intertwined into the story and she was very anxious and excited to see where it went. At that point, she didn't have a book under contract so she wasn't under as much pressure, but her agent sold the book before it was complete and she said she's never wrote something faster than the rest of that book. 

Daughter of Smoke & Bone was initially going to be a standalone but the story just kept growing. She knew/knows the ending but doesn't like to plot too far in advance because she may think she knows what's going to happen but she's wrong. (We both have an aversion to the term "pantser." She prefers to call her method "flying into the mist") To Taylor, revisions aren't as exciting as first drafts because there just aren't any times to high five yourself for your creative feats. When Tatiana and Catie recently reviewed Days of Blood & Starlight, they talked about the change in tone from book one to book two.  Taylor said that when she initially started writing book two, she intended, or at least tried to keep the tone consistent with book one. She found herself trying to start the story six months after the end of book one, after all the dark material had occurred, but realized she was skipping the story she needed to tell because she was a bit scared to tackle it. Overall, she said she wanted to honor the darkness of the story but keep it from being a drag to read. For those interested, Taylor says that book three will have a completely different tone than either of the previous books. (and when asked what color she hoped the cover would use, she said gold.)

It is always interesting to hear authors talk about their journeys to publication, how they work/write, and what makes them tick. At least, to us, it is, else why would we be reading book blogs? Taylor was 35 before she finished her first novel. She often wrote first chapters and then when it got hard, she just moved on to something else. According to her, writing is such a secretive act. It looks like you're working but you could just be fooling yourself and those around you. She said it takes pure stubbornness and courage to finish something, especially when you are always being seduced by what she and her friends refer to as "that slutty new idea." (you know, the one that always seems like it would be more fun that what you've got going now)

Before going into the questions from the audience, the store did a raffle for jewelry from www.daughterofsmokeandbonejewelry.com, and Taylor mentioned that all profits until January 31st from the website will be going to Hurricane Sandy relief. Sadly, we weren't told about the raffle so none of us won but  it was a fun addition to the event and the jewelry on the site is beautiful. She also mentioned that she is running a contest for a book trailer through her website. The winner will receive $1,000 and the runner up will receive $250, though the runner up prize is for the funniest trailer. (intentional or unintentional) 

The first audience question was about the flashback section in Daughter of Smoke & Bone and what made her take such a risk. Her reply was that she didn't realize how unorthodox a move it was until much later--that is, to move the story back in time for such a long section during such a climactic time in the plot. Both she and her editor never questioned the move so it never was an issue, though she can't imagine it being any other way. 

A movie is in development at Universal Pictures, though she is unsure if it will ever happen. (Isn't this always the case with movies we really hope will happen?) The aforementioned flashback section is currently throwing the screenwriters through a loop. Another person asked how much input Taylor will have and she said that she seems to have some, at least on paper, but who knows how that will translate into reality and that the entire process is awesome, but scary. 

Did she always want to be a writer? Yes, for sure, though there was a veterinarian phase, as well as a badass coroner/crime-solver phase that was a result of a loving Quincy, M.E. 

Has she been to Prague and/or Morocco? Twice to Prague--once for a graphic novel that she and her husband (the artist and writer Jim Di Bartolo) never ended up writing. She'd never been to Morocco until after Smoke & Bone, though she was obsessed with Morocco for years beforehand. She said she read some ex-pat blogs and watched YouTube videos for some of her inspiration. Someone followed up this discussion by asking where Taylor would like to go next and another person asked (by proxy for an Australian!) what it would take to get her down under. She said that her Aussie publisher is amazing but the best thing to do would be to let them know there's an interest. 

One reader asked about the Monty Python and the Holy Grail references in the book and what copyright issues surrounded it, to which Taylor said she didn't really know but she assumed it fell under fair use. (I'm sure the publisher looks into this sort of thing and it would've made for a fun discussion in my Copyright Law class. Certainly more than the long, drawn out discussion we had about belt buckles.) She and her sister were huge fans of the Monty Python guys and she is fully aware that many teens wouldn't get it, but she made sure  to include keywords and things in the text so any curious minds could easily find out. I look forward to welcoming these future fans to the bright side of life. 

Does she have any say in the covers? Not really. She loves them and got to see them beforehand but she didn't get to choose them.When she was working on Smoke & Bone, the working title was Wishbone but the publisher nixed that one because of the kickass (my word choice, not Taylor's) dog from PBS who used to retell classic literary tales and who my younger sister and I used to watch. She said it is sometimes easier to start with a title, then start writing because it can be a bitch to think of a title after the fact. Now that she has the "something of something and something" theme going, she has a working list of words to think of for book three. She also spoke a bit about the initial Smoke & Bone arc cover being different and I only realized while writing this that I read the arc of that book and how weird it was to several of us that the eye within the mask was completely blacked out and how they changed it for the finished copy. (good choice, publisher!) One of Taylor's favorite things is checking out the foreign editions of her books. Probably the most interesting factoid of the evening was that nearly everywhere but the US markets the series as adult. She even said that the Slovak edition of one of the books has a beefy adult man on the cover. (I think it's this one?)

The night ended on an adorable note when an audience member asked if she'd ever thought of writing a children's book. She said that she and her husband had been reading their book, Blackbringer to their daughter, Clementine, and that she'd taken to acting as Magpie, a character from the book, and she refuses to brush her hair to stay true to the character. She said that the couple has thought about doing a graphic novel for kids at some point. 

If anyone is still reading, I will just tell you that the dinner afterward with Sarah and Laura and a friend of mine from Goodreads was awesome. Those women are amazingly funny, intelligent, and bookishly awesome. Laura lent me Love-shy by Lili Wilkinson and I can't wait to read it! I may or may not have been very ill on my drive home (twice) but the drive down and back was worth it to see an amazing author and to spend time with lovely people. 

*Props to Laini Taylor for bringing up Castiglione's sprezzatura at a book event in the children's section of Barnes & Noble. 

Cliff McNish is the author of The Silver Sequence and The Doomspell Trilogy, as well as several horror novels, including Breathe: A Ghost Story and Savannah Grey. McNish lives in England. Visit him at www.cliffmcnish.com, or on twitter and facebook. 

I am most happy to make recommendations on great books for teenage guys; it's a topic I speak about in schools fairly regularly. I also tag books on my LibraryThing site with 'books for boys' if I think a title will work well for young male readers.

Some particular favourites follow:

Fighting Ruben Wolfe: Markus Zusak. Markus is best known, of course, for his amazing novel, The Book Thief. While I love that, and highly recommend it, I feel that perhaps teens might like to taste a smaller portion of his work, before tackling The Book Thief. Fighting Ruben Wolfe was Markus' second book. It's quirky and funny and tough and honest - all the best things - and all done in the unique style that has made Markus famous. And it's about brothers and boxing. What's not to like?

Nobody's Boy: Dianne Bates. I'll put my cards on the table and say that this was written by my wife, Di. However, I'm recommending it chiefly because it's a book that I think would have great appeal to teens, especially boys. It's a verse novel, which makes it very accessible for reluctant readers. It tells the story of a boy who is shuffled around from one foster family to another. All he wants is to live with his dad, but for a long time that just isn't possible. Touching and poignant and ultimately uplifting.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian: Sherman Alexie. Funny and warm, vibrant characters, and a gutsy story. This is a winner and I think teenage boys will eat it up, exactly the same as I did.

Into That Forest: Louis Nowra. Highly original and a page-turner, it's about two girls who find themselves stranded in a forest. Eventually they are 'adopted' by a family of Tasmania Tigers, a breed of wild dogs which are now extinct. Even though the main characters are girls, I'm sure the straight-forward narrative, action-packed scenes  and rich language, will make it a favourite with boys. Louis Nowra is one of Australia's leading novelists and playwrights. This is his first venture into young adult books. It's an awesome debut.

The Dead I Know: Scot Gardner. This book won Australia's coveted Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award in 2012. Scot has written many terrific books, but in my opinion, this is his best. It's about Aaron Rowe, who goes to work for a funeral director. Aaron's a sleepwalker, and has other problems to cope with, but in John Barton, the funeral director, he finds a caring man who befriends him. Some of the scenes may be a little grisly and tough to take at times, but they are handled honestly and with great compassion. A brave and memorable book by one of Australia's best writers.

Daredevils: Bill Condon. I thought I'd sneak one of my own in when no one was looking. This is about a boy who knows he's going to die, so he makes a list of things he wants to do while he still can. Daredevils came out before the Bucket List and it's a lot different. For one thing, it hasn't got Morgan Freeman in it. It's got humour and sadness, and there's even a little sprinkling of sex.
 

Deadly Unna: Phillip Gwynne. This won the Australian CBCA Book of the Year in 1999. It's about friendship between a white boy, known as Blacky, and an Aboriginal boy, Dumby Red. They play in the local football team and live in a remote country town where racism thrives. It's funny at times and sad, which makes it all very real.

The Road: Cormac McCarthy. This is for adults and may be too tough for teens to attempt, but it's worth a mention as it is such a brilliant , mesmerising book. There aren't a lot of jokes, because it's set after an apocalyptic event, which is always a downer. But the writing is incredible. I felt so much for this father and son battling to stay alive in a world gone mad. I think it's a classic.

Holes: Louis Sachar. This is brilliant story-telling. Easy to read and gripping.

The Old Man and the Sea: Ernest Hemingway. For teens who feel daunted by huge tomes, I suggest this.The Old Man and the Sea is in the middle ground between short novel and long short story. Hemingway didn't give himself much to work with here. It's about an old man alone on a boat. But Hem turns on all his best writing and it becomes an epic struggle as the old man fights a huge and beautiful fish. When Hemingway wrote well, no one could touch him.

Our very heartfelt thanks go out to each of these authors for taking the time to share their recommendations. What do you all think? Anything new to add to your to-read pile? 

Although we don’t restrict ourselves to a certain genre here at The Readventurer, we read a lot of YA.  Maybe we don’t make it through every single new YA release, but between the three of us, we get through quite a few.  So when we read something like this:

“But as we debate ad nauseam whether, for example, Bella Swan is a dangerous role model for young women, we’ve neglected to ask the corresponding question: what does it tell young men when Edward Cullen and Jacob Black are the role models available to them? Are these barely-contained monsters really the best we can imagine?”

Or this:

"Why is it that in YA literature — a genre generated entirely to describe the transition to adulthood — there is so much fear and ambivalence surrounding manhood? When I read contemporary young adult novels, I see them asking over and over again a fascinating question, a question both for boys and for the stories describing them: are there any good men? And how can a boy become a good man, if he doesn’t know what that would mean?”

we are tempted to scream: WHAT?!!  Are we even living on the same planet?  First of all, we would deny categorically that there are no male role models in the land of YA.  That is just patently untrue.  And secondly, as Malinda Lo so eloquently pointed out – manhood is not a strictly defined characteristic.  There are countless ways to be a “good man” just as there are countless ways to be a good person. 

This particular panicked assertion is just the latest in a string that consists of various THINK OF TEH TEEN BOYS! outcries. If it's not about lack of teen books for boys, then it's about boys being intimidated by public libraries that are apparently too girly- and girl book-saturated, or male authors writing for teen boys being outnumbered by female writers, or the shortage of male protagonists in teen fiction, etc., etc. While we think that there may be a lot to examine about the reading culture at large and about how different genders participate (or not) in this culture and why (Book View Cafe might be onto something here, in the article Girls and reading, the social act), we strongly disagree that teen boys are overlooked, underrepresented and discriminated in the world of YA. Rather, in our opinion, more often than not the alarmists who raise all these questions/issues are not familiar with the variety YA fiction has to offer. The balance might not be optimal but there is certainly a large amount to choose from. 

So today, we’d like to present this wall of over 140 books that we think will speak to the boys of YA.   They’re full of adventure, magic, real-world issues, and romance.  Some of them are even written by - *gasp* - women.    They give us all kinds of male figures: strong, brave, struggling, emotional, confused, and yes - even a few great role models. Most of all, they give us great stories for any reader -- almost all of these books appeal to us as adult women even though we are probably not  the target audience from a marketing perspective. That being said, while we do think that there will always be outlier readers who feel comfortable reading anything and everything (and we love them for it), we  also realize that it might be a struggle to hand-sell  a book with a girl in a dress on the cover or a romance-driven plot to the "average" boy.  We'd love to think of this list as a tool for educators, librarians, parents, and teens to find a great read for the boys in their lives, but anyone who enjoys a great story will find something in this wall of books.  

Tomorrow, we'll be back with a post filled with the recommendations of several  authors represented here. You'll find out what they liked to read as teenage guys, what they read and enjoyed recently, and what they recommend to other readers. Some of their picks are included in the wall but many of them are not, so be sure to check back tomorrow! (Edit: Here's the link! Also, check out the many, many more recommendations in the comments section of this post.)

As the holiday season is picking up full speed, the publishing world seems to be less and less eager to stir up drama. We expect that the weeks to come will be quieter and not as news-filled, just like this past lazy Thanksgiving week. And anyway, who has time to make outrageous statements online when there is so much eating and shopping and decorating to do?

The few posts that did catch our eyes this week are:

Kelly's as ever insightful  and thoughtful post Some thoughts on "new adult" and also "cross-unders." We've talked about "new adult" category so much this year, and yet there is more and more to think about, and the category still hasn't caught on as a legit publishing trend.

Another favorite blogger of ours, Sarah, has a lot to say on the subject of GQ's latest foray into readers advisory "Reading Man's Guide to Dirty Books." Our question is, how good and smutty those men-written book recommendations are if none of us ever heard of them, and surely among the three of us we've sampled plenty of smut? Plus, if these recs are in any way similar in their portrayal of sex to the latest Bad Sex in Fiction nominees, then well... no wonder we are not interested:

Back to Blood, by Tom Wolfe: "Now his big generative jockey was inside her pelvic saddle, riding, riding, riding, and she was eagerly swallowing it swallowing it swallowing it with the saddle's own lips and maw — all this without a word."

Hot stuff!

And as we continue this sex in fiction topic, here is another 50 Shades hilarious exercise in hypocrisy -
Publisher cracks whip over 'Fifty Shades' spin-offs. Infringement, haha!

Over at Publishers Weekly you can read a very interesting recap of a panel called “Pop Culture Publishing: Young Adult Megahits.” The participants of this panel discussed what makes a magahit and what effects YA megahits can have on publishing and entertainment industry as a whole.

In conclusion, and this is almost becoming a tradition here, in our Odds & Ends posts, some quick links to news about our favorite authors:

Here you can see Laini Taylor's photographic inspirations for Days of Blood and Starlight. (We want to go there.)

Patrick Ness announced his next book. And so did Lili Wilkinson. Now, if only her books were readily available in US and didn't cost so much to get from Australia! We still haven't gotten our hands on Lili's previous release - Love-Shy.

Stacia Kane has a small holiday present for all of us, fans of her Downside Ghosts series - a snippet from a novella (from Terrible's POV!) which is to be published around Christmas.

Margo Lanagan has not one, but two short stories available online. Here is The Sky Swam from her upcoming collection Cracklescape. And a podcast of The Goosle.

Enjoy!

Diverse Energies
Editors: Tobias S. Buckell, Joe Monti
Publication Date: 10/1/12
Publisher: Tu Books
[Goodreads | Amazon]

Blurb(GR): “No one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul.”
—President John F. Kennedy, from a speech at University of California, March 23, 1962

In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful.

In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing cultures, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society’s far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction. Includes stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Daniel H. Wilson, and more.

Review:

I like the idea of this anthology way more that I liked the anthology itself.  This world is by no means populated by a white majority, so I think it’s ridiculous that so much of young adult literature is.  One of the main things that can make me interested in reading a YA fantasy these days is a non-western setting - perhaps because I’ve read so much western-centric YA.  I was really looking forward to reading this anthology, but after finishing it I found it to be mostly forgettable.  However, there were a few really bright spots.  Here's the run-down (listed from lowest rating to highest):

“Freshee’s Frogurt” by Daniel H. Wilson (1.5 stars): What the heck is this even doing in the collection?  All of the main action and story is told by a white guy!  I feel like this snuck in on a technicality (whether that technicality is the Native American character or the fact that Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse is being made by Steven Spielberg, I am not sure).  This story is all mindless action with no substance.

“The Last Day” by Ellen Oh (3.5 stars), “Blue Skies” by Cindy Pon (3 stars), and “Gods of Dimming Light” by Greg Van Eekhout (3 stars) were all sorta interesting but ultimately very forgettable.  I am having a hard time remembering anything but the vaguest of details right now.

“Uncertainty Principle” by K. Tempest Bradford (3 stars): The beginning of this really caught my interest, but then it just unraveled.  It felt like she had a great idea for a full length novel, but then decided to cram it all into a short story.  The second half felt completely rushed and as a result, most of the tension built during the first half was lost.

“Next Door” by Rahul Kanakia (3.5 stars): This one  stuck out to me because I thought the world was a really interesting idea – a place where everyone is so plugged in and oblivious that they don’t even “see” the hundreds of their fellow humans squatting in their own homes/garages.  It’s like human apathy to an extreme degree.  However, the story itself did almost nothing for me.

“What Arms to Hold” by Rajan Khanna (3.5 stars): This is another one that I mostly liked.  It also has a very interesting premise – very reminiscent of Ender’s Game.  I also really liked the ending – it was pretty dark stuff.  I’d like to read more from this author.

“A Pocket Full of Dharma” by Paolo Bacigalupi (3.5 stars): This was the second time I’ve read this one and I liked it less the second time.  A very well developed world that is very authentically non-western with a sympathetic main character, but it didn’t really wow me.  It’s a stand-out in this collection, though.

“Pattern Recognition” by Ken Liu (4 stars): This was one of my favorites.  I loved Liu’s tie-in of real world child labor, and it was a nicely contained story that felt complete and very well executed.

“Good Girl” by Malinda Lo (4 stars): Dear girls of YA, please stop falling for the first jerk who treats you like crap.  Even if she’s a girl, it’s still not sexy.  That being said this was actually one of my favorites of the collection.  It felt like an intense snapshot of the life of a girl I could completely relate to, and I thought it had a great ending.  Maybe I didn’t quite like that Lo’s “good girl” main character would fall for the bad girl jerk, but it did feel authentic to the character that she would want to rebel a bit, and the relationship was painted realistically without any rosy, romantic artificiality.  This was one where I wished for more.

“Solitude” by Ursula K. Le Guin (4.5 stars): Probably my favorite in the collection, although it’s a re-print.  Ursula Le Guin isn’t afraid to dive headlong into a completely foreign culture and fully commit herself to its point of view.  Here, we follow a young girl who’s relocated to a very tribal planet by her anthropologist mother and raised within its customs as a sort of experiment.  However, when the time comes for her family to relocate back to their homeland, she finds that she can’t bear to part with her childhood home.  A very interesting look at cultural perceptions and the things that shape us.

On average, this collection rates:

3.5/5 Stars

Writing these Odds & Ends posts for the past nine months or so has really brought home to me how cyclical some of these bookish “issues” really are.  The publishing industry is dying.  X, y, and z will be the death of great literature and “real” book criticism is a thing of the past.  Nobody reads anymore, and if they do it doesn’t count because everyone knows that e-reading isn’t “real” reading.  And of course, our very favorite outcry: the young people!  They don’t read enough/they read too much!  Their books are too dark/not dark enough and they are severely lacking in boys/girls/flying sparkly unicorns!!!

Aaaand so on….

This week The Book Lady’s Blog perfectly captures our frustration with “10 Bookish Conversations I’m Totally Over.”

Malinda Lo also responds to last week’s outcry against YA literature’s abandonment of boys with her post titled “YA Fiction and the Many Possibilities of Manhood” – a very insightful article about the fluid nature of gender and “manhood.”  We tend to think that YA literature already has many, many books that describe the experiences of boys and will appeal to boys (spoiler alert: not all of these books are written by men!  Shocker!).  Look out for our wall of books that will appeal to the boys of YA – coming next week!

The Weeklings also has this hilarious “lit-erotic photo spread” of the Dudes of YA, which you should all definitely check out.

Shannon Hale also responds to claims that Twilight is damaging to young readers.  I personally (Catie) can see both sides to this argument, and the comments for the article contain some really interesting discussion points.  Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to censor any type of literature from young people.  Twilight may not represent what I would consider a healthy relationship, but I think it’s a great jumping off place for a discussion about what constitutes a healthy relationship.  What do you guys think?

The Kansas State Public Library has started a campaign in the social media-verse against the pricing and lending policies of major publishers for libraries, criticizing the elevated pricing, lending caps, and restrictions that most major publishers place on public libraries.

‘Tis the season for best-of lists and here are a few that came out last week:

• Amazon’s Best Books of the Year
  
• Library Journal’s Best 2012 YA Books For Adults

• And of course, the National Book Award winners were announced.
  

In very exciting news, Kathleen Duey announced that she’s finished with the third book in the Resurrection of Magic series and that it has officially gone to her editor!  I know Tatiana and I will be eagerly awaiting that release and probably begging all around town for an ARC of it.

In other exciting (?) news, Gillian Flynn has signed a deal for an as yet untitled young adult book.  Are we excited about this or perhaps a little nervous?  Hopefully she won’t tone down her dark side for YA.

Here are a few great interviews from last week:

• Alpha Reader interviews Courtney Summers (and she talks a bit about All the Rage!).

• Laini Taylor shares five writing tips over at Publisher’s Weekly.

• Moira Young talks about the Dustlands series over at Shelf Awareness.
  

And finally, for all of our artsy friends – do dream of designing the covers for your favorite books someday?  (Looking at you, Trinity and Noelle!)  Simon & Schuster is running a contest right now to find a new design for the anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451, and has extended the deadline for submissions until December 7th!  So get right on that!

Iced
Author: Karen Marie Moning
Publication Date: 10/30/2012
Publisher: Delacorte Press
[Goodreads | Amazon]

Blurb: The year is 1 AWC—After the Wall Crash. The Fae are free and hunting us. It’s a war zone out there, and no two days are alike. I’m Dani O’Malley, the chaos-filled streets of Dublin are my home, and there’s no place I’d rather be.

Dani “Mega” O’Malley plays by her own set of rules—and in a world overrun by Dark Fae, her biggest rule is: Do what it takes to survive. Possessing rare talents and the all-powerful Sword of Light, Dani is more than equipped for the task. In fact, she’s one of the rare humans who can defend themselves against the Unseelie. But now, amid the pandemonium, her greatest gifts have turned into serious liabilities.

Dani’s ex–best friend, MacKayla Lane, wants her dead, the terrifying Unseelie princes have put a price on her head, and Inspector Jayne, the head of the police force, is after her sword and will stop at nothing to get it. What’s more, people are being mysteriously frozen to death all over the city, encased on the spot in sub-zero, icy tableaux.

When Dublin’s most seductive nightclub gets blanketed in hoarfrost, Dani finds herself at the mercy of Ryodan, the club’s ruthless, immortal owner. He needs her quick wit and exceptional skill to figure out what’s freezing Fae and humans dead in their tracks—and Ryodan will do anything to ensure her compliance.

Dodging bullets, fangs, and fists, Dani must strike treacherous bargains and make desperate alliances to save her beloved Dublin—before everything and everyone in it gets iced.

Review:

What is the quickest way to make your intended sexy book absolutely, irrevocably, totally unsexy? Karen Marie Moning has the answer for you - just have your "heroes" act like abusive pedophiles, who love perving all over a scrawny, barely 14-year old girl, have them tell dick jokes around her, crawl into her bed when she is unconscious, lick her and wax poetically about her panties, sexualize this underage girl in every which way, and voila! - your book becomes revolting instead of tantalizing.

Now, I am not going to pretend that I didn't know Moning wasn't exactly a PC writer when it comes to treatment of women - Mac had her share of atrocious, abusive things done to her by a slew of men, including her life mate, in the Fever books, but at least she was a grown-up and could fight back physically, sexually and emotionally. Dani is a child! I seriously question Moning's judgment here. She is definitely no Nabokov to take on a subject so controversial and make something good out of it. She should have stuck to what she knows best and let us, her fans, enjoy a book that is entertaining and fun rather than the one that unnecessarily and thoughtlessly pushes boundaries and makes us gag in the meantime.

What makes me the most annoyed is that with the way Iced is plotted, there isn't actually a reason for Dani to be so young and for the story not to take place 5 or even 10 years in future. As the novel opens, post-wall-crash Dublin is in an even more dire situation than at the end of Shadowfever. Not only is our world infested by fae, but something weird is freezing and icing the whole areas of Dublin and beyond. It seems, Ryodan learns first about the ice problem and then decides to recruit Dani to help him investigate it, and does so by quite literally torturing and blackmailing her. (Don't ask me why a millenia-old man with a gang of friends, equally old, smart and experienced in many things fae and human, even needs a help from a teenager. I still don't get it.) So, having no choice, Dani starts investigating, with assistance from her friend Dancer, a 17-year old science geek and the only non-creepy male in the whole story. Lurking about is pedo fairy Christian, who suddenly and unexpectedly acquires a very unhealthy sexual obsession with Dani.

I personally wasn't that impressed with the first half of Iced. First, there is too much recapping of the Fever story and mythology and second, naturally, there is too much uncomfortable sexualization of Dani, done mostly by the mega-creep Christian. As far as the mystery of Iced goes, I'd say it's of an average quality for urban fantasy. The new bits of mythology are interesting but the plot is not as elaborate and twisty as that in the Fever series.

However, the second part is a tad livelier and less offensive (or maybe I just got used to the grossness of it all by then?). That's where the investigation really gets going, we learn more about Dani's past, we see how Cruce is plotting his escape and how Christian's transformation into an Unseelie Prince is progressing, and, most importantly, Christian's sick POV is scaled back. In this second part he is presented in a sort of humorous way, because once we no longer have to be in his head filled with thoughts of sex and odes to his hard member so much, from Dani's POV he is just a pathetic and often laughable psycho.

With that said, I honestly don't know if I can actively recommend Iced. While reading it, I spent too much time trying to imagine Dani was older, so that I didn't have to feel so revolted all the time. But then, judging by the multitude of 5-star reviews of this book, there is a HUGE portion of women who have absolutely no problem with the blatant pedophilia in this book. It's astonishing, really, just how many don't really think anything of it at all, "as long as Dani doesn't actually have sex with anyone." Oh well...

I will probably read the sequel.

3/5 stars

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's happened to glance at her list of books to be reviewed after a few busy months and suddenly realized that said list is now in the dreaded DOUBLE DIGITS.  In an effort to play a bit of catch-up, I am taking a leaf out of Flannery's book and writing a batch of mini-reviews.  These are YA, adult, old, new, not-yet-released...basically it's a mixed bag here.  The one thing uniting them all is that I really wanted to write something about them, even though I've been short on time.  So hopefully you all can forgive this Reader's Digest collection of my reviews for today!

Jackaroo (Kingdom, #1)
Author: Cynthia Voigt
Publication Date: 8/26/86
Publisher: Collins
[GR | Amazon]

Noelle mailed me the second book in this series last year for my birthday and then challenged me to actually get off my butt and read it this month for She Made Me Do It.  And then, she also sent me the description for this book – the first in the series – by email like a juicy little lure.  A description which contains mention of a feisty innkeeper’s daughter who’s independent and strong and doesn’t want to get married and who stumbles across a disguise for the legendary Robin Hood type figure Jackaroo and decides to start dressing up in his clothes.  Noelle definitely knows how to get me interested.  Needless to say, I finished this in a very short amount of time and stayed up way later than I should have in the finishing.  This is classic female hero driven fantasy at its best, and I would absolutely recommend it to fans of Tamora Pierce or Maria V. Snyder.

I loved that Cynthia Voigt took inspiration from the middle ages, but didn’t romanticize the middle ages.  Gwyn’s life is brutally hard, and the struggles of the people around her are dire.  I loved that Gwyn saw how impotent she was to change everything, but still felt compelled to try.  Her actions as Jackaroo are sometimes harsh (the phrase “vigilante justice” comes to mind) but so is her world.  The only part of this story that I didn’t really love was the ending.  Yes, it’s what I wanted and it was very satisfying.  However, I really wish that Gwyn had gotten there by choice.  It’s lucky for her that she randomly fell into a marriage with the man who was perfect for her all along, but it would have been much more fulfilling for me if she had actually chosen that relationship on her own. 

3.5/5 Stars

Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publication Date: 2/26/13
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
[GR | Amazon]

This was my blackout read and it served its purpose incredibly well.  I was utterly absorbed by this story – much more than I ever expected to be.  This book reminded me that I am a closet romantic and I really do enjoy romance when it’s done well.  Even when prickly Eleanor and quiet Park were saying some pretty cheesy things to each other, my cringe level stayed surprisingly low.  But then, Rowell does such a wonderful job of bucking the typical YA romance roles.  Eleanor is overweight, dresses in ill-fitting thrift store clothes, has a thorny personality, and has to deal with poverty and an extremely bad home life.  Park is an outcast both at home and with his classmates.  He’s quiet and small; he wears black and listens to new wave.  He’s the lone Asian kid in a WASP community. 

When these two slowly forged a connection – through nonverbal sharing of comic books and music at first, and then eventually through…you know, actual talking – I bought it.  This book also reminded me vividly of how horrible it can be to be a child, completely beholden to someone else for your shelter, food, and security – and not always someone with your best interests at heart.  I didn’t connect quite as well with the middle of the book, when it got super romancey with the declarations and whatnot but I thought the ending was pretty great.  It was just resolved enough and it felt realistic.  I will definitely be looking for Attachments by this same author, as I hear that it’s even better.

3.5/5 Stars

Sorta Like a Rock Star
Author: Matthew Quick
Publication Date: 5/1/10
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
[GR | Amazon]

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Pollyanna had a baby with Benji and that baby grew up to be a quirky urban YA novel with lots of weird slang?  Well, wonder no more, for here lies your answer.  Amber Appleton is an irrepressibly optimistic teenage girl who travels through her town spreading hope and cheer wherever she goes.  Nothing can get her down for long – even the fact that she’s living in a school bus with her alcoholic mom and it’s the middle of winter.  She seems to thrive on being selfless and generous – on kindling hope in others.  In short, she’s exactly the opposite of how I would be in that situation. 

But what happens when Amber’s already rough life is rocked by a huge tragedy?  What happens when the ambassador of hope loses the ability to help everyone who’s been counting on her?  Well, if you’ve seen either Pollyanna or Benji, then you will probably know the answer to that question (minus that whole subplot in Benji with the kidnapping scheme).  What elevated this book a bit for me was the style of the writing.  There’s some weird slang in this book, and it is very distracting to begin with but it became more and more endearing the more I read.  Truth?  Truth.  Amber has a kind of merry band of misfit boys, she loves to talk to the big JC (aka Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, for all the Outlander fans), she regularly debates an ancient pillar of negativity, and she runs a Motown chorus for recent Korean immigrants.  Where this book felt formulaic and predictable in its story, it felt fresh and creative in its style.  I think this would make a great movie.  It even has the perfect Hollywood ending.

3.5/5 Stars

Deathless
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Publication Date: 3/29/11
Publisher: Tor Books
[GR | Amazon]

Undoubtedly this is one of the most brilliant things I’ve read this year.  I’m coming to realize that that statement will probably apply to just about every Catherynne Valente I read.  One of the major reasons that I didn’t review this upon finishing it was that I just had no idea how I was going to possibly say anything coherent about something so over the top amazing.  HOW?  How do I explain that this is one of the most seamless, meaningful unions of fantasy and reality that I’ve ever read?  Not only does she bring Stalinist Russia to life, she populates it with legendary fairy tale characters, magic and myth.  In a time of revolution – in a time when new ideas are embraced and the old are burned – she gives us the stories that are so ingrained in the soil and the sky and the blood of the people that they can’t ever truly disappear. 

I had never read about Koschei the Deathless, or Ivan or Marya  Morevna before, but from what I understand (mostly from reading Wikipedia articles – not gonna lie) she turns this story on its ear.  She takes a story featuring the archetypal captured girl (innocent and helpless), the cruel captor (evil and selfish), and the rescuing hero (stalwart and brave), and turns it into something completely different.  What if the girl, through blood and battle, became a formidable woman?  What if she didn’t want to be rescued?  What if the captor were the only man who could truly match her?  I won’t forget this story for a very, very long time.

4.5/5 Stars

And here’s a song, because I just can't help myself on this one:
Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad"

Necromancing the Stone (Necromancer, #2)
Author: Lish McBride
Publication Date: 9/12/12
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
[GR | Amazon]

This one is going to be super short because I just don’t have much to say.  I never do about this series, even though I love it.  These books are completely enjoyable and fun and they make me smile.  I love that Sam, the “sensitive beta-male” isn’t afraid to let his alpha girlfriend be a powerful leader, even at the expense of their relationship.  I love that he’s willing to step aside and respect her decisions and give her time to work out her own life.  Sam is like that sweet, crunchy granola guy who I’m sure we’ve all met a few times in our lives – he’s unassuming and kind, easy to talk to, and he just wants to get along.  In this book, he has to take a bit more decisive action in his life, but he finds a way to do it that’s true to his character and I really appreciated that.  He also becomes somewhat of a badass (in a crunchy granola sort of way) which is pretty satisfying to witness.  This book also had me cackling like a mad woman.  Lish McBride’s humor is easy and effortless and often reminds me of me and my friends just sitting around making random jokes.  Which is probably why it completely works on me.

Oh, and here’s a song for this one too:
Peter, Bjorn, and John - May Seem Macabre

You might think that not having read an author's work would preclude me from going to book events and recapping them. Well, you'd be sorely mistaken, because this is one of my favorite pastimes. In some cases, though, I am especially excited for other reasons. On Friday, I went to go see Margo Lanagan at a branch of the Seattle Public Library. Catie and Tatiana really like Margo Lanagan. She's had two books on the Printz Honor list and won a World Fantasy Award. Everyone tells me to read her books and I'm fairly certain I'll enjoy them (I'm not easily scared off by anything) but I just haven't gotten around to them yet.  I felt like I was meeting a literary superstar. At the event, I read a book (Shadows on the Moon) while I built up the courage to go ask Lanagan if she minded that I took a video during her reading. I can't imagine what it is like for people to be speaking and have some random girl clearly taking a video of them. What am I going to do with it? What if I'm going to search online for a selkie sex website and upload Lanagan reading a hot scene? (I did that.) What if we now start getting hits from people searching for "selkie + sex" on the blog? (I'll let you know when this happens, because it will.) Okay, I didn't really upload anything to a website like that.  Just to our measly Youtube channel.  

Margo Lanagan was friendly, approachable, relaxed, and well-spoken. It was clear that she is confident in her writing and comfortable talking about aspects of her work. Though she discussed several of her works, she read from and primarily discussed her newest young adult book, The Brides of Rollrock Island, which is her take on selkies. One of the aspects of selkie stories that Lanagan always wondered about was why they never seemed to be proactive about finding their stolen skins. The areas where the stories are set are often remote and she never quite understood why the women didn't self-help more, especially considering how they are never truly human and there's always something of the sea in them, which leaves a certain amount of sadness and sets them apart from humans. She said that she wanted portions of the book to be from the male's perspective as an attempt to capture that strangeness. To demonstrate, she read the following section of the book:

Between reading portions of the book, the author talked a little bit about aspects of the novel that readers and fans might find of interest. Rollrock (titled Sea Hearts in Australia) began as a novella and that shorter book was told entirely from Daniel's point of view. While writing the novella, she realized just how big the story was and she knew how much possibility laid underneath, waiting to be adapted. She said she just kept asking herself, "Why is the witch doing this thing?" and it was something she wanted to explore. Lanagan also said that a bit of the storyline surrounding the male characters is due to her own empty nest syndrome, since it was written at a time when her sons had left home. Later, an audience member asked her about the symbolism in her writing and whether she is aware of any of it while she is writing, to which she replied that she is usually unaware until after the fact but in the case of missing her sons, she was well aware of why she was writing what she did. Here's Margo reading the first section of Rollrock, a beach scene with several young half human, half selkie male children:

When she'd finished reading from the novel, she opened the event up for questions and I was impressed by several of the audience members and the questions they had for the author. Lanagan told readers that her favorite character was hard to choose, so she picked two: Daniel and Misskaella. She said that Daniel reminded her a bit of her own kids and that she liked that Misskaella exacted her revenge, even though she did it in an unwholesome manner.  Another audience member spoke a bit about how Lanagan's work has been labelled anti-feminist in the past and about how she felt about that. In response, Lanagan spoke a bit about the sexual scenes in this book. She said that there are several hot sex scenes that no one ever saw. Her agent shopped around the novella with no sex scenes and she thinks Random House was pleased that her new novel would be easier to stomach than her previous (and more controversial) book, Tender Morsels. She then pointed us to one outtake that was not included in the book but that is available online. Listen to her read Flower and Weed here, at Terra Incognita podcast. 

When asked whether writing the novel was a long process, Lanagan said that it took her about eighteen months while she worked part-time. She said that the book had to be wholly re-formed almost twice. "Writing is many levels of self-delusion," she said, "You think you're done when you're not." Editors and publishers might not be an author's favorite people to talk to about their work but she said they asked her all the right questions about this novel and that she knew somewhere inside of her that the problems they mentioned existed, but that she appreciates the criticism because it does not come hand in hand with a presumption about how she can/will fix anything. Tender Morsels took her about the same amount of time. When she started writing that book, she was in the middle of several other half-completed projects and wasn't sure if she could finish anything full-length. Obviously, she said, she felt less tension when writing Rollrock because she had concrete evidence that she was capable. Someone inquired what she's currently working on and the answer is that she's doing short stories now but that she's also working on another full-length novel about an Irish convict who comes to Australia and accidentally brings a goddess with him. (you know, as you do) She wrote a zero draft of the book during NaNoWriMo (presumably last year) but she said it needs a lot of work. When she was writing the first draft of Rollrock, she kept receiving emails from editors asking her to participate in this or that anthology and she said her mental process was like, "Oh! Dragons. Oh! Witches. And short stories are so short, I can definitely do this," and subsequently said yes to quite a few people. As it turns out, she'd agreed to do twelve short stories. She ended up completing every single one of them and they will all be published, though it seemed clear she hoped never to put herself in such a position again. At this point, she has five separate short story collections out, and another one, Yellowcake, containing previously published shorts, will be published in May 2013. (it's already published in Australia)

Here's Lanagan discussing a bit about selkie lore and reading from Rollrock (sorry about the audio quality): 

Speaking again about her short stories, Lanagan intrigued me by saying that her agent has a collection of shorts from her that "by no stretch of the imagination can be categorized as YA." She said they are very nasty, and when and audience member asked her if she meant scary, Lanagan replied that they were less scary and more filled with violence, sex, and gore. (I want to read these.) After this, someone asked how she felt about being categorized as YA, especially in the "Dark YA" context that has saturated discussion in the last year or so. She said that she feels as comfortable as one can in any category and that she's certain the people who feel it is their job to "police" YA probably feel much more uncomfortable than she does. Lanagan likes the blurred edges of reader age categories--there will always be adults who read children's, middle grade, and YA, and there will always be children and teens who read up. She said she loves those 13-year-olds who can and do take anything you give them to read and can handle it. Additionally, she feels like the popularity of books like the Twilight series and Harry Potter have made it more acceptable for adults to read YA and that there's less social stigma attached to doing so. When asked if she heard negative feedback from teens, Lanagan said that she really only hears from the teens who love her books but I chuckled when she said that she sometimes goes on Goodreads when she's feeling "particularly strong" to read what some people have to say--and a lot of it isn't great. She knows that her books will be "what some people need at the time," and I think that's a healthy way to look at it.

The last discussion of the event was about the time period in which The Brides of Rollrock Island is set, for that issue caused a bit of confusion with one reader in the audience. The reader said she was just rolling with the story, picturing it mostly in some olden days year and then a bus came along and she did a double take. For the record, Lanagan said she wanted to set it right on the cusp of technology. She also wanted the setting to be remote but not completely removed from our normal world so we could relate to it in some way. The actual time period is somewhere around the turn of the century. The audience member also asked about the witch character (Misskaella), because she seems to outlive a lot of people. To that, the author said, "There's just something about evil, isn't there?" 

After the event, while I was waiting in the signing line, Lanagan spoke with two other readers about selkie stories and like the creep I am, I totally eavesdropped. They had a discussion about how popular some topics are in young adult literature--mermaids and angels, for example, but that selkie stories represented a far smaller slice of the genre. One reader suggested that might be because selkie lore is not as well known in the United States as it is in Ireland, Scotland, and the like, though Lanagan mentioned that it is more well-known in fisherman communities from Maine upwards to Newfoundland and other Canadian provinces. She also said, and I found this particularly interesting, that she wanted to write a particular kind of selkie story. Angel stories are often viewed as overly sentimental and she liked that there is an underpinning of unhappiness in selkie lore. Though I don't have notes for this conversation, what I understood Lanagan to be saying (and what is evident in the stories she does choose to write) is that she is less inclined to write fanciful, happy books.

First things first: Congratulations to us all - the elections are finally behind us. No matter what your personal pick was, to be sure, you are happy for it all to be over as much as we are.

What evidently isn't over is the practice of writing absolutely inane articles about YA, articles with sweeping conclusions and generalizations not backed up by actual reading of any YA literature, except Twilight, of course. In her article almost menacingly titled YA Fiction and the End of Boys Sarah Mesle (who, by the way, teaches YA literature), speculates that while YA opens the doors for the discussion of what it means to be a good woman (your usual Bella/Katniss dilemma), it doesn't talk at all about what it means to be a good man (only Edward and Jacob models are at hand to go by). She also seems to regret that her preferred type of masculinity (the one found in 19th century lit aimed at young adults) is not represented enough in contemporary teen novels.

We are not going to argue that there are many unhealthy male role models that exist in girl-oriented YA fiction, but to say that there are no teen books that explore how to be an honorable, brave man is just an indicator of Mesle's poor familiarity with contemporary YA. You should check out Phoebe North's post YA and Boys and the Problem of Limited Historical Context, where she disagrees with Mesle's arguments quite nicely. We, The Readventurers, on our side should probably start working on our next Wall of Books, this time dedicated to YA books with boy appeal. Because no matter how often people like Mesle talk about the lack of books for teen boys, all they prove is that they don't make any effort whatsoever to actually seek them out and instead build their arguments around a couple of the most visible bestsellers.

If you are interested in ever-living Amazon-is-a-killer-of-all-good debate, there is a couple of articles you might find entertaining. The New York Times'  Booksellers Resisting Amazon’s Disruption talks about how booksellers have been standing in the way (and it appears rather successfully) of Amazon's efforts to break into serious book publishing. And The Guardian's Book publishers have long been playing into Amazon's hands explores the history of publishing, noting that if anything is disrupting the publishing industry, it's the publishers themselves who over the years have made themselves more vulnerable to Amazon's takeover:

"The funny thing about the publishing industry is that long before it was really threatened by the internet it was busily rearranging itself so as to make it more vulnerable to it. The process was vividly described by sociologist John Thompson in his book Merchants of Culture, the best account we have of what happened to publishing. As Professor Thompson tells it, the transformation of the industry occurred in three phases. In the first, the retail environment changed as large chains (Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Borders et al) supplanted independent bookstores. This created a new phenomenon – the mass-market hardback. Second, a new breed of aggressive literary agent appeared, poaching authors and leaning on publishers for unsustainable advances for the aforementioned hardbacks. And finally, large public corporations (think Bertelsmann, Pearson, News Corp) started acquiring the smallish publishing houses that once constituted the bulk of the industry, in the process transforming something that was once based on private ownership, long-term thinking, the nurturing of authors and backlists into an industry driven predominately by the obsession of stock markets with short-term (ie quarterly) results."

Have you ever wondered if our beloved The Hunger Games trilogy would succeed if published today? io9 asked various publishing people for an opinion. If there is any lesson to be learned from this article , it is that publishing seems to have a sheep-like mentality with the majority working in it preoccupied with chasing  trends and over-saturating the market with poor imitations of bestsellers and not at all with searching for originality and quality. Special eye roll goes to:

"Says Laurie McLean with Larsen Pomada Literary Agents, "I believe The Hunger Games might well be lost in a sea of YA dystopian thrillers today, especially if it followed a book like Divergent by Veronica Roth, which is better written with a more intricate and interesting story." She adds, "There's a lot to be said about being first in a new trend.""

Divergent? Really?

Some small book news:

If you are a fan of Maria Snyder's Study books, rejoice, there will be another Study trilogy.

Britney Spears might become a YA writer too.  Another masterpiece a la Tyra Bank's Modelland (current average Goodreads rating of 2.86)? We shall see.

Helen Fielding is writing the 3rd Bridget Jones novel. 1) It is unclear yet how Fielding's previous attempt at writing this 3rd book, that was published in a series of columns in The Independent in 2005, will factor into this novel and 2) Hasn't this ship sailed already?

Good news for Outlander fans. Looks like the TV show will be made indeed. Considering that it will air on Starz, we can be sure all smut will remain intact, right?

If you have already read Days of Blood and Starlight, or are planning to, you should check out Laini Taylor's short but meaty blog tour. All stops are full of awesome insight and teasers.

Do you remember those horrid, book-destroying DIY decorative projects we love to talk about? Well, Flannery found one that we can totally get behind.