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.

Review: Dead Cat Bounce

First book in Jonah Lightbody series
By Nic Bennett
Available September 13, 2012 from Razorbill (Penguin)
Review copy

Confession: I find stocks very, very boring.  Reading passages about Jonah Lightbody learning about stocks and derivatives from his father and then his father-figure the Baron was like listening to my father talk about them.  Now, Bennett explains the bare minimum needed for DEAD CAT BOUNCE to make any sense, but that was still almost too much for me.  That is how boring I think stocks are.

Second confession: Economics classes and friends who work in financial sectors have pretty much convinced me that no one knows how the economy actually works.  (Look, I was studying the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis in 2008.  It's no wonder I have a negative mindset.)  Fortunately for DEAD CAT BOUNCE, it didn't ask me to give up that view. 

Nic Bennett's novel starts off with a terrific, in media res prologue.  Jonah's in a hotel room, downloading some secret program and shooting people.  It's tense and violent and genuinely suspenseful.  Then we go back in time to him being a twelve year old and gaining a passion for financial trading.  By sixteen, he's working for the same bank as his father, but as the protege of his nemesis.  Jonah's into taking big risks, whereas his neglectful father prefers to make small, safe bets.  Basically, there's interesting interpersonal dynamics but it's surrounded by a topic that I find extremely boring.

That doesn't mean others won't find it interesting.  Lots of people are involved in the stock market and plenty of them start young.  And DEAD CAT BOUNCE centers around the Financial Crisis of 2008, a crisis still affecting the world.  I can't imagine there aren't people who would find a conspiracy about the crisis fascinating.

As for me, DEAD CAT BOUNCE really started moving once it caught up to the opening.  International chases, shoot outs, confronting the bad guys - all good stuff.  I'm interested in reading the sequel, BLACK SWAN DIVE, since it will probably be more of an actioneer than DEAD CAT BOUNCE.  There's really nothing wrong with DEAD CAT BOUNCE, but if a thriller set in the City doesn't sound like your thing, then it probably isn't.  If it does sound like your thing, then have at it.

Review: Carnival of Souls

Book One of the Carnival series
By Melissa Marr
Available now from HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Review copy courtesy of Krystal of Live To Read
Read my reviews of FRAGILE ETERNITY and RADIANT SHADOWS and my interview with Melissa

I enjoyed the Wicked Lovely series but found it quite inconsistent.  The whole thing was worth reading, but I wished Melissa Marr was on her game for every book in the series.  CARNIVAL OF SOULS is a terrific beginning to an unexpected new series from Marr and I hope she's this explosive in the following books.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS is written in third person, but switches focus between four main characters:  Mallory, Aya, Kaleb, and Belias.  Aya, Kaleb, and Belias are all taking part in a tournament that allows the winner to become part of the ruling class.  Aya was born to the ruling class, but as a woman is expected to bear heirs.  She desperately doesn't want children and enters the tournament to escape her fate and help change the laws governing the land.  Belias, her former betrothed, wants to force Aya to forfeit.  Kaleb is a cur, the lowest class of daimon.  He wants a better life for himself and his packmate Zevi.  Meanwhile, Mallory lives in the human world with her witch foster father.  But all of their lives entwine over the course of CARNIVAL OF SOULS.

Part of the fun of the switch in perspectives is each character knows things that the others don't.  As the book goes on, they begin to learn each others' secrets.  And they are not always pleased to learn the truth.  (Ain't that how it always goes?)  I found all four of them likeable, particularly Aya.  She needs to be ruthless to survive, but she can't help having her soft spots.

I don't want to say too much about the world Marr has created because I had too much fun discovering the details of it and don't want to spoil the experience for anyone else.  Suffice it to say, there are witches, daimons, and humans and each has their own protections.  The majority of the humans are unaware of the witches and daimons, who generally stay in a separate realm.  But the creatures are very aware they were driven to live separately.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS has romance, family drama, fights to the death, intersecting schemes, assassins, and hidden heirs to the throne.  This isn't a vampire-goes-to-high-school urban fantasy.  It's a crazy phantasmagoria exploring how far people will go to protect themselves and those they care about.

Review: Freaks Like Us

By Susan Vaught
Available now from Bloomsbury
Review copy courtesy of Lena of Addicted 2 Novels

Jason Milwaukee, AKA Freak, isn't your average narrator.  He's schizophrenic and his observations of the world are interspersed with aural hallucinations.  His best friend Sunshine disappeared between getting off the bus and going home, and there's a 24-hour window that's the best chance of finding her.  Jason knows her best and thus refuses to take his meds, since they'll make him sleep for eight hours.  He's willing to do whatever it takes to find Sunshine.  Unfortunately, he might've hurt her.  If only he could remember what happened last Saturday . . .

Susan Vaught gets deep into Jason's head and really imagines what life would be like for him, Drip, and Sunshine.  The refrain "no one listens to us" might be repeated a bit too much, but it's very true.  But it is a balance.  Jason has good instincts and is capable of making decisions for himself.  Yet there are times when he's completely confused about what's really happening and thus not competent at that point in time.

There is no big twist in FREAKS LIKE US.  What happened to Sunshine is a mystery, but Jason has all the clues he needs, if he can manage to put them together.  It's much easier for the reader to assemble the pieces, but that's not the point.  The point is seeing the world through Jason's eyes as he struggles to figure out what happened and separate the reality from what his voices tell him happened.  Vaught also shows how he grows through the loss of one of his most important people.  There are some wonderful parallel scenes that show how he matures, in a mere 24 hours.  But I don't want to paint FREAKS LIKE US as a bildungsroman.  It's not.  (It could have been Sunshine's bildungsroman, but it's not.)

FREAKS LIKE US is a fantastic psychological mystery.  The narrator could've been a gimmick, but Vaught's a better author than that.  Jason is not defined by his disease.  He's defined by his desires, by the way he approaches relationships, by the secrets he chooses to keep, and the way he'll do anything to help his friend.  I loved spending time with Jason as much as I enjoyed spending time in his head.

FREAKS LIKE US is often funny, frequently sad, and always exciting.  I hope many new readers are attracted to this bold little title.  Best of all, Vaught isn't a new author so I can go see if she has anything else this good in her backlist.

Giveaway: American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

I am hosting a giveaway with four winners.  Three people will receive a trade paperback of AMERICAN DERVISH by Ayad Akhtar and one will receive the audiobook.  You must live in the US or Canada to win.  No PO boxes, please.

AMERICAN DERVISH has been compared to Khaled Hosseini's THE KITE RUNNER, a novel I enjoyed in high school.  It looks like a terrific crossover title, and I was happy for the chance to give some copies away.

If you want to sample AMERICAN DERVISH first, then feel free to read this excerpt or listen to this one.  You can also view a video of Akhtar discussing the novel.  Below is the official blurb:

Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes.

Mina is Hayat's mother's oldest friend from Pakistan. She is independent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah's doorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates. Even Hayat's skeptical father can't deny the liveliness and happiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deep spirituality brings the family's Muslim faith to life in a way that resonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran by Mina's side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels an entirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for his teacher.

When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.

American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.  Contest ends in a week.

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