BBAW: The Finish Line!

It's day five of Book Blogger Appreciation Week and time to say goodbye to the event for another year.  Sadly, the event coincided with compute problems and I basically wasn't able to get on at all on Thursday and likely won't be able to explore much today either.  It's still been fun!

I think the interviews were the highlight of the week.  It was a great way to learn about a number of bloggers quickly.

I also loved clinking on random names on the daily link lists and finding all sorts of new blogs.  I can get stuck in my blogroll, so it's nice to discover some new blood!  The first day was also great for finding new blogs to read since everyone recommended their favorites.

The conversation has also been wonderful.  It's lovely to talk to so many bloggers every day.  I'll have to try to keep it up!

What did you like best about BBAW?

BBAW: Obscure Favorites

It's day four of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and time to pimp some obscure books!  When I started writing my Best Authors You Aren't Reading feature, I didn't intend for it to be sporadic.  But I quickly figured out that defining obscurity was tough.  What if the book won an award but has few reviews on Amazon or Goodreads?  What if you can find lots of reviews but the book is out of print?  And how do you define "lots" of reviews?  How do 115 reviews of a book released in 2010 compare to 115 reviews of a book released in 2002?  So I don't want to pimp just one under the radar book, because it might not be so under the radar.  So here are three books I love, that as far as I know aren't well known.  All three are out of print, but copies are available for cheap through secondhand bookshops.

THE CHINA GARDEN by Liz Berry

THE CHINA GARDEN made YALSA's Best Book for Young Adults list in 1997.  I first read it in 2001.  I'd noticed it on the shelf in the bookstore for years.  I was entranced by the cover, a ghostly figure moving down a sunlit path.  (I would, once I owned the book, realize it was a silhouette of a couple kissing.)  Then I found a copy for twenty-five cents in the library's book sale.  I eagerly bought it, but didn't read it immediately.  I read it for the first time in the car, moving from Houston to a Fort Worth suburb in the wake of my parents' divorce.

I then proceeded to read it everyday for a month, if not longer.

I don't know why THE CHINA GARDEN is what I needed.  It's a romance, about a good girl and a bad boy.  It's a story of family secrets - turns out the heroine Clare didn't even know her mother's real name.  (For that matter, she didn't know her own middle name.)  It's a tale of magic and things worth protecting.  It's delightfully English and incredibly sensual.

Or maybe I do know why I needed it.  It's about a girl whose mother takes her from everything she knows and moves her out to the sticks.  Clare had her life planned and suddenly she doesn't understand what's going on and why everyone knows things she doesn't.  It spoke to me, even if I wasn't at the age to want a boy with a motorcycle to come along and sweep me off my feet.

THE TRICKSTERS by Margaret Mahy

New Zealand author Margaret Mahy died this year, at the age of 76.  She left behind quite a legacy.  My three favorites, of the many books she wrote, are THE CHANGEOVER, MEMORY, and THE TRICKSTERS.  But THE TRICKSTERS is my absolute number one favorite.

I wrote about it here for Angieville's Retro Friday.

Don't want to follow the link?  That's fine.  I can list a few of the best things about the novel: a dreamer heroine, sinister strangers, unexpected twists, and conflicting, passionate desires.  It's not a simple novel, but one that rewards the careful reader.

TELL IT TO NAOMI by Daniel Ehrenhaft

I have a soft spot for TELL IT TO NAOMI because it's one of the first books I read as an ARC.  (The very first was Sara Manning's GUITAR GIRL.)  I've always had a soft spot for it.  It's just a simple, cute novel about a guy pretending to be his older sister in order to write an advice column, as one does.  I only learned Daniel Ehrenhaft has written other books a year or two ago, and I still need to read them.  (He also writes under the name of Erin Haft.)

But I want to read his other books because TELL IT TO NAOMI has such a strong voice.  I can still remember details of the music Dave's family listened too.  Also, it was one book I know I like that counts as obscure under any definition you can think of.

BBAW: What Book Blogging Means to Me

It's day three of Book Blogger Appreciation Week and I'm not sure how to approach today's topic.  What does book blogging mean to me?

It's not a question with a concrete answer.  Book blogging means a lot of different things to me.  On the most basic level, it means writing about books in a place where others can easily discover and read that writing.  But that's not a very interesting answer.

Part of my motivation for blogging, that is quite relevant to this week, is to push myself out of my comfort zone.  There is a social connotation to blogging and I'm not at my smoothest when meeting new people.  In person, I tend to be quiet around people until I get to know them and then I don't shut up.  But on my blog, no one is going to speak up if I don't.  I have to be chatty from the word go.  The more I blog, the better I get at it.  And let's face it, social skills are super important.

The comfort zone pushing applies to books as well.  I have my favorite niches.  I'd probably go crazy if I wasn't allowed to read anything but urban fantasy novels, but it would take longer than if I was asked to read only modern poetry.  There's nothing wrong with modern poetry, but I prefer it in small doses.  I also don't seek it out.

But the thing about book blogging is you don't always have to seek something out.  You'll get pitches from people who obviously never read your review policy, but some of those books will sound interesting anyway.  You'll enter a contest on a whim and win a book you might not have been willing to pay for.  You'll see books on someone else's blog, on Tumblr, on Goodreads, on LibraryThing, and you'll remember it and read it later.  Book blogging is throwing yourself bodily into the path of new, strange, wondrous books.

Some of those books will be total crap, but let's not talk about that.

So what does book blogging mean to you?  Is this a question that makes you want to run for cover?  Because that's kind of how it makes me feel.

BBAW: Interview with Charlotte of Charlotte's Library

Welcome to Day 2 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week!  I've seen the BBAW interviews before, but this is the first year I've participated.  It's just as fun as everybody says it is!  (Side note: new visitors might want to enter my AMERICAN DERVISH giveaway.)

I interviewed Charlotte of Charlotte's Library and she interviewed me.  You may be familiar with her blog because of her weekly Sunday round-up of posts about middle grade science fiction and fantasy.  But whether you've heard of Charlotte's Library or not, it is my pleasure to introduce her.

IBWB: What is your favorite thing about being a book blogger?
 
CL: I've been blogging for five and a half years now, and my perspective on blogging has changed a lot!  If you had asked me this back in, say, 2009, I'd have said that the Excitement of it all was the best thing--the community, the books arriving in the mail, the getting to know authors, the delightful feeling that there were so many books waiting to be read...

Now my favorite thing is much more prosaic. It's the sense of accomplishment when I write a review and hit the publish button. So many things in my life (house, job, children) are never Finished, so I love that little thrill of having satisfactorily completed something that it as least a little worthwhile to have done.

IBWB: What's the most challenging part?
 
CL: Finding enough uninterrupted time to read and write is a huge challenge. I'm not entirely sure how I do it, and still manage get my children of to school in (mostly) clean clothes...

IBWB: I find that writing a book blog takes up a decent chunk of time.  How do you balance motherhood with book blogging?
 
CL: The greatest challenge motherhood poses to book blogging for me at this point is not that the children themselves are demanding all that much of my time. My cunning plan to have two of the same gender reasonably close in age has paid off, and they play together nicely, and they are also old enough to forage for themselves.   No, the big problem is that we have only one computer, and they love it so.   I have had to resort to leaving home to go blog on the library computers down the street...

I have not guilt whatsoever about book blogging. I am utterly convinced that they are better people in so many, many ways because they have a mother who blogs, and I'm sticking to that story. Now if they were from a two blogger family, that might be a bit much...

IBWB: What has been the coolest thing that happened to you because of your book blog?

CL: The first and one of the most memorable cool things that happened was that Candlewick invited me to be their gusts at the banquet for the Independent Booksellers Association, when I'd still been blogging for less than a year...It was So Cool to be part of the book world! Here's the post I wrote about it: http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/2007/09/taste-of-life-in-childrens-book-world.html.

IBWB: Can you name a few books flying under the radar that you really love?

CL: So far this has been a slowish book year for me book love wise--there have been lots of books I really liked, lots of books I think their target audience will love, and lots of books for which I can understand other people's enthusiasm, but not so many new books that I Loved just for my own reading pleasure. House of Shadows, by Rachel Neumeier, and The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, are the only two I actively want to re-read, which is my measure of book love, but neither of those is really under the radar...

However, this year is my first time ever keeping track of the books I read on Goodreads (194 right now, but the day is still young), and so I am reminded that Yes! There is a book that I think many more people should read! Last year Seven Sorcerers, by Caro King, didn't get anywhere near the attention it deserved, and this year the sequel, Shadow Spell, is in the same boat. Anyone looking for a truly entertaining, good read of a middle grade fantasy should try these two!

IBWB: What book do you find yourself recommending the most?

CL: Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, is one that leaps to mind, if I'm recommending one for, say, nine year old. My own most favorite books tend to be out of print and English...so though I might well recommend Sally's Family, by Gwendoline Courtney, to anyone wanting an utterly soothing comfort read full of domestic detail set in just post WW II England, it won't do them much good...

IBWB: Not many bloggers specialize in middle grade novels, but you cover MG more than YA. What led you to your niche?

CL: I was a sci fi/fantasy Cybils panelist for two years, at a time when the panelists read both YA and MG (it's now done by two separate panels), and I realized that I really liked the MG books much better.  They are shorter and snappier.  They aren't as often in written in the 1st person present angst tense.  There are fewer love triangles, and less romance in general (I love a nice romance, but my favorite ones are the smoldering ones where the tension is everything...). I don't like zombies or vampires. I don't like people suffering (although well-done suffering makes good reading, so there are exceptions), and fighting tends to bore me. And one time through high school was plenty.

With MG you risk going back to junior high (ick), but odds of getting a fun escapist read are much more in your favor (it makes me feel a little consternated, typing that, because the reason I don't read grown up books is that they are too much real life for me... soon I will be reading mainly picture books if this trend keeps up). Middle grade books tend to take place in more pleasant settings, too--I love books that make me see lovely and interesting things, and what with all the darkness in YA, you don't see many appealing vistas. It's true that with MG there's more chance of running into pirates and dogs (which are on my do not care for list along with the vampires and zombies), but you can't have everything in this imperfect world....(that being said, I have no objection to dogs in real life.  And the original Lassie is a really good book).

So there I was three or so years ago, liking the middle grade better, and this was about the same time that the YA bloggerverse seemed to explode, and there were tons of people reviewing the YA sci fi/fantasy, and the same YA books were getting attention all over the place. I feel it's a bit pointless to review books that have received lots of attention elsewhere, and in the meantime, there were all these middle grade fantasies getting not many reviews...

And here I am today, niched, but not trapped. (And I actually read a lot more YA than I review.)

BBAW: Blogs I Enjoy

It's the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week!  The first daily topic is straightforward: write about book bloggers we appreciate.

I'd like to start with some of the bloggers who inspired me to start my own blog.  Those ladies include Professor Nana of The Goddess of YA Literature and Rachel of The Book Muncher.  I once credited Lenore of Presenting Lenore as an influence, but it turns out my memory was faulty that day, as Lenore then pointed out that my blog was older than hers.  Either way, Lenore is a terrific blogger who once let me crash in her apartment and showed me around while I was in Germany.  I can't wait to read her debut novel, LEVEL 2, when it comes out next year.

When I first started my blog, I reviewed urban fantasy fairly frequently.  (Nowadays I tend to do that on The Good, The Bad and The Unread rather than here.)  But three urban fantasy reviewers really supported me through those early days.  I'd like to thank Amberkatze, Sidhe Vicious, and Tez Miller.  Tez and Amberkatze are still active bloggers.

Two blogs with features I really love are Stacked and Intergalactic Academy.  Stacked's reviews are long and informative and their articles are very well thought out.  They ran a "So You Want to Read YA . . ." feature this summer that was ingenious and I'm happy they're considering continuing it.  Intergalactic Academy has an ongoing Animorphs reread that I'm getting a major kick out of, considering Animorphs was my absolute favorite series as a kid.  (I still have a giant box full of the entire series.)  One of the contributors, Phoebe North, has a novel called STARGLASS coming out in July 2013 from Simon & Schuster.  (You can win a copy here.)  Given her (and her partner's) terrific insight into young adult science fiction, I'm sure it will be a fabulous read.

Two of my favorite bloggers are Lauren of Shooting Stars Mag and Cecelia of The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia.  Lauren's taste isn't the same as mine, but I admire her.  She's organized some cool publicity for several great books and she started a scholarship program for LGBT students.  How awesome is that?  Conversely, Cecelia and I have very similar tastes, making her reviews super useful for me.  Plus she posts all kinds of mouthwatering recipes.  I highly suggest you take a whirl around her blog.

It would take forever to mention every single blog and blogger that I love.  But I can tell you how much time it would take me to list every blog and blogger I hate: no time at all.  Any group of people that loves books is alright by me.

Let's get BBAW off to a good start!  Why don't you tell me a little about yourself and your blog in the comments?  I'd love to add some new people to my blogroll.

Upcoming Book Blogger Events

First, Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2012 is going to be next week from September 10-14th. This year is going to be run a bit differently in that there are not going to be any awards. You can register here and you have until tomorrow to sign up for the famous interview swap. BBAW is still run by bounder Amy of My Friend Amy.

Coming later in the month, September 28-30th, is Bloggiesta! I'll be out of town, but I'm still going to try to participate. Bloggiesta is now hosted by Danielle of There's a Book and Suey of It's All About Books.   You can sign up here.  I know book bloggers around Austin will be busy with the Austin Teen Book Festival on the 29th, but there's still the other two days to participate.

BBAW Registration

As many IBWB readers probably know, Book Blogger Appreciation Week will be held September 13-17 this year.  Part of the festivities are the awards.  This year, the bloggers nominate themselves in whatever categories they feel are appropriate.

I was torn about registering IBWB since it feels very egotistical.  In the end, I've decided, "Why not?" As for choosing posts to represent my blog, I decided to pick based on a combination of stuff I enjoyed writing and stuff that got a reaction from my readership. I'm including explanations for each post because I find it fun to explain my reasoning and the rules don't say you can't.

If you follow the link above, you can find instructions for registering.

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Best Young Adult Book Blog—This blog offers the best consistently excellent reviews, recommendations, analyses, and other content for books written for a young adult audience.

While I try to include a variety of books on IBWB, my main focus on this blog is books for young adults.  So without further ado, here are my five posts, at least three of which are reviews/recommendations/analysis:

1. Review: tales of the MADMAN underground: An Historical Romance 1973

I loved this book and I think that love shines through in the review. I've found other people linking to this review, and there's nothing more rewarding for a book blogger than learning you convinced someone to read a book.

2.Review: Fallen

To balance the love, here's the worst review I've ever given a book. To me, hate for a book must be explained more carefully even than love. I mean, there's at least one redeeming feature to be found in almost everything.

3. Review: Shiver

With a popular novel like SHIVER, everyone and their dog writes a review. I enjoyed trying to write an original review under those conditions.

4. Hottie: Third Time's A Charm?

Discussing Jonathan Bernstein's covers is a tradition on IBWB. I think this was the most lively discussion, and I feel especially proud since this cover change came after Bernstein e-mailed my review to his publisher. (No, one little blogger did not get the hideous cover changed. But I like to think I helped.)

5. Best Authors You Aren't Reading: Patrice Kindl

This is the inagural post of my first feature. I'm still getting my feet under me, but showcasing authors "who I don't perceive as being popular, but whom I truly love" is rewarding. After all, one purpose of book blogging is spreading the word.

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Best Author Interviews—This blogger does his or her research and asks the questions no one else does. These interviews are top-notch. Note that this award reflects the quality of the interviews, not the popularity of the person being interviewed. [Note that nominated bloggers for this award are required to submit 4 interviews; 1 post is left to their discretion.]

While one post is left to my discretion, I'll submit five interviews. I'm not creative enough to figure out what showcases my abilities as an interviewer other than an interview.

I am proud of all of my interviews, so my first three choices are all interviews with authors who have supported me in my blogging efforts.

1. Beth Kephart

An interview can't be bad when you're interviewing such a lovely human being.

2. Cynthia Leitich Smith

Smith gave me one of my first interviews and agreed to do this short interview with me even though she was rather busy at the time.

3. C. Leigh Purtill

Leigh is a frequent visitor, commenter, and a fabulous author. (Plus, she knitted me a pair of handy legwarmers. Yes, that is a pun. Deal with it.) Interviewing is always fun, but interviewing an author you're friendly with is especially fun.

4. Jaclyn Dolamore

Dolamore worked with me despite being in the middle of an internet hiatus and dealing with a cover controversy (due to which one of the questions was changed). I think the interview turned out well!

5. Rhonda Hayter.

I got to question her about time travel. Everything is better with time travel.