'Best of' 2014 reads

It's that time of year again! In no particular order, my top reads of 2014:

• Such a Rush, Jennifer Echols- So good, I read it twice! She is an absolute master of sexual tension.
• The Burning Sky, Sherry Thomas- I could gush on and on. Loved everything about this, especially the magic and Titus. Give me your tortured heroes, all of them.
• Seraphina, Rachel Hartman- Orma is my spirit animal.
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin- Just brilliant, especially if you're a book person. Bookseller recommendation, and I picked up a signed copy.
• Grave Mercy, Robin LaFevers- God of Death hooked me; the brilliant writing kept me (for the whole series). I am almost always most partial to book 1 in series with rotating POVs...something about the first characters I fall in love with. (BONUS: Only $1.99 on Kindle as of this writing!)
• The Winner's Curse, Marie Rutkoski- I'm slightly obsessed with this book and especially the last line. This was a 'word of mouth' read that I snagged on a whim after I seemed to be hearing the title from every blogger I followed on Twitter. There's a reason they were all talking about it. A good one.

Honorables!

Best voice: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, April Genevieve Tucholke

Best series (that I read all of this year): TIE

• The Montmaray Journals, Michelle Cooper (I listened to these on audio and HIGHLY recommend that medium)
• His Fair Assassin series, Robin LaFevers

Best series starter: Blood Red Road, Moira Young

Best sleeper hit (ie. HFS, why aren't more people reading this?!?!): The Lost Sun, Tessa Gratton

My stats for the year: approximately 65 books read, though this number includes some novellas and an early chapter book or two I read with my daughter (and does not include DNFs or manuscripts, my own or critique partners'). This is four fewer books than last year; however, it amounted to only 1,600 pages fewer than last year's total, not even a chapter's worth of words. So I read a bunch of BIG books this year. Looking at my list, I understand why, because I devoured a good amount of rich fantasy, series conclusions, and historical fiction.

The above list is only a smattering of the books I loved and liked out of the 60+! Remember you can always follow what I'm reading on Goodreads or here on the blog.

What were your favorites of the year? What should I put on my TBR for 2015?

On reviews, and receiving them, and the reader's right to expression

About a year ago, I wrote this post on feelings and the problem when our expressing of them steps over a line. It's still one of my most 'popular' posts, traffic-wise. This year, there's a similar firestorm happening, but in the reverse. It started with this article (that's a no-traffic link, btw) from an author who, frankly, stepped over the line. Way WAY over the line.

As authors, we write books, and if we're brave and crazy enough, we share them with the world. And here's the thing: the world is allowed to hate them. Publicly and loudly. That's just how it is. Readers are perfectly within their rights to hate every single word of what they just read and, also, to tell people about it. Know what else? So long as they're not actively threatening or condemning the person, the one who wrote the words they hated, readers can express their hatred for a book however they want. Really. However they want. With swears, with anger, with gifs and pictures which may or may not be rude.

Negative reviews are a bummer when it's your book on the receiving end, but that's part of this deal. Not everyone will love your book. Not everyone will be nice about it either. I don't love every book I read. And while I'd not personally choose to write an angry or caustic review, I respect a reader's right to do so.

There are many ways to deal with the pain of negative reviews. Cry, email friends, look at puppy pictures, bake, exercise, channel your emotions into something productive, like more writing. Just for a few examples. The top best way would be not to read reviews at all. Now that takes a willpower I don't possess, though I wish I did. So I do read reviews, even the negative ones. (I posit it's just as bad to read only positive reviews, but that's an entirely different issue.)  I also respect an author's right to engage a critic, respectfully and through established channels, though I don't recommend it.

What's never, ever, ever, ever an okay way to deal with anything, including negative reviews?

Stalking someone.

Seriously, what this author did is not okay. It is not even sane.

I'm equally horrified that a major news outlet gave her a platform to flaunt the insanity and even, just as ludicrously, gain (some) support for it.

Unlike my post a year ago, there is no complexity about this issue. None, zero, not a smidge. There is no gray here whatsoever.

Stalking a reviewer--anyone--is not okay. Not if you meant no harm, not if you just wanted to talk, not even if you wanted to thank them or give them a cake. Just no.

To all the bloggers and reviewers out there, no matter if you loved or passionately hated my books: thank you. I'm so desperately sorry that today some of you have reason to feel afraid.

Friday Five 4.11.14

5 things I read this week ending 4.11.14:

• Fat Chance, on approaching fitness for the (significantly) overweight. It's lengthy and gives a lot to think about, not all about fitness. Takeaway: "'Finally, do not compare yourself to anyone, ever. Your journey is unique. Comparison is the thief of dreams...You can't be a back-of-the-pack runner and not have some fun," she laughs. "It's time to celebrate your efforts and find the joy in the journey.'"
  
• This stop on the yearly YA scavenger hunt blog thingy, at Sarah B. Larson's (Defy) site, featuring a Finn Belastra scene from Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked, Star Cursed). I love me some Finn, but don't read it unless you've read Star Cursed because spoilers.
  
• An interview with Lamar Giles about his debut Fake ID and diversity in writing--authors and characters. Takeaway: Lots, but particularly liked: "But, I believe if you’re writing fiction with the goal of pleasing everyone who reads it, you’re writing bland fiction."
  
• Janice Hardy for Pub Crawl on turning the shiny new idea into a novel. Takeaway: "If [your character's] the same person at the end as the beginning, that’s a red flag that she might just be acting out plot, and doesn’t really have anything to gain (or risk) by going through this experience."
  
• A little kid-craft goodness from No Time for Flashcards on simple flower suncatchers for spring. Takeaway: sequins, glue, fun.

What have YOU been reading lately?

'Best of' 2013

Here we are again, wrapping up another year and delighting in everyone's 'best of' lists! What were my top reads of 2013? It wasn't easy to narrow down, and I might change my mind tomorrow, but right now, I'm calling it these:

• The Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Clare- A fantastic series conclusion. Fantastic.
• The Lucy Variations, Sara Zarr- Beautiful, subtle, and filled with the most perfectly imperfect characters. I was the reader made for this book.
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern- Another book I was meant to read. The style won't be for everyone, but the story is beautiful and the ending is perfection.
• The Dream Thieves, Maggie Stiefvater- Just so good. I'm desperate for the next and the next.
• The False Prince, Jennifer Nielsen- Broad appeal and awesome voice made this so very readable.

Fun fact: my top 5 titles all start with 'The'. Keep in mind all these books were read in 2013, not necessarily published.

Honorables!

Best voice: The Vicious Deep (bonus--only $1.99 on Kindle as of 12/30/13!)

Best series (that I read all of this year): Holly Black's Curse Workers, starting with White Cat

Best series starter: Gameboard of the Gods (Not everyone loved it, but I sure did!)

Best adult book (ie. books primarily intended for an adult audience, just to be clear.): Among Others

Best sleeper hit (ie. HFS, why aren't more people reading this?!?!): Dangerous Girls


If my count can be trusted (which, let's be honest, it probably can't), I'll have finished 65 or 66 books by the time this pumpkin turns into 2014 (not including manuscripts, my own or critique partners') and DNFed only 3 or 4 others. I'm excited that I exceeded my goal of 52 books by quite a few! How did I do it? I made some changes. First, I made reading a priority. I did less of some other things I enjoy in order to read more. Also, I changed the way I read. At any given time now I'm reading three books: one on Kindle, one on audio, and one print copy from the library. This way I maximize my reading time (depending on where I am/what I'm doing and which medium is accessible) and model all reading platforms for my daughter. It's allowed me to read more, though I admit I don't read with as much focus. It's a trade-off I'll accept for now!

The above list is only a smattering of the books I loved and liked out of the 60+. It was a good reading year!

What were your favorites of the year? What should I put on my TBR for 2014?

On feelings, and expressing them, and being stuck between being a writer and a reader

There’s a book firestorm happening this week around a conclusion to an incredibly popular series that was incredibly unsatisfying to a large portion of an already huge group of readers.

That’s a tough place to be, and that’s an understatement.

As an author, this is an intensely uncomfortable situation to watch. It is. I won’t pretend otherwise. Because here are two things that are okay:

1. To write the book you want to write
2. To hate the book you just read

It takes courage to write an ending/plot point/whatever that feels right to you, but that you know will be unpopular. And you do know. Writers deal in emotions. We know. There will be backlash. It takes fortitude to deal with that as well.

It’s gut-punchingly terrible to read a book you wanted to love with characters you already love and be dissatisfied. The worst. Even worse than the worst when you throw in lengthy anticipation and having paid for something you end up hating. Readers know this, and since writers tend also to be readers, we know that too.

There’s not really a way to reconcile those two things. It’s tricky, this situation, so so tricky. There are emotions and expectations and feelings involved. There’s the freedom—necessity—for artists to take risks and follow their vision. There’s the extra-tricky complication of the fact that this art isn’t free—it’s sold to readers for cash money.

Because this situation has all these variables that are at odds with each other but also not wrong, it inevitably leads to some wrongness. Here are two things that are not okay:

1. Threatening a person
2. Denigrating a person

Except I don’t think rational people do those things. But humans, even ones who are generally good and nice and any number of positive traits, aren’t always rational. When emotions—and what are fandoms or content creators but people with intense emotions and investment in a thing?—are involved, you’re even more likely to encounter irrationality. This is not an excuse. It’s just a fact. There will be irrationality. On BOTH sides, which just fuels more irrationality until the situation devolves into inevitable ugliness. No one enjoys this, yet it happens again and again. Because feelings. It all comes back to feelings.

But what to do? I don’t know. There is not a satisfying ending to this situation. Authors want fans and to be true to ourselves. Readers want to be surprised and to be satisfied. These two and four things won’t always come together. There's so much more, too, so many nuances I haven't mentioned, that we could talk about in relation to this conundrum.

I guess the bottom line is to remember we’re all people, writers and readers. Have feelings, intense ones, be they good or bad. Express them even. But not with threats and/or insults directed at people. Please.

"I've noticed it often"--on the condition of being a young woman

Reading Jo Walton's brill Among Others, which is not a YA book but at the same time is, and she so perfectly sums up the condition of being a teenage/young woman, sometimes just a woman at all, that I had to share the passage:

There's a thing--I've noticed it often. When I first say something, it's as if people don't hear me, they can't believe I'm saying it. Then they start to actually pay attention, they stop noticing that a teenage girl is talking and start to believe that it's worth listening to what I'm saying. With these people, it was much less effort than normal. Pretty much from the second time I opened my mouth their expressions weren't indulgent but attentive. I liked that.

--Jo Walton, Among Others

Just think about it. And about whether or not your own expression is indulgent or attentive.

All the thinking thoughts and The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

Yesterday, a really great long early summer day, started with an amazing morning—one of those mornings where as a mom of a young kid you wonder when you’ll ever ever get again. But my young kid is getting less young and this particular morning she was content with my presence rather than my undivided attention, so I finished a book. And I loved it, the morning and the book.

Sara Zarr’s The Lucy Variations was an amazing book, but even more that maybe it was an amazing book for me. I got this book, in my heart and in my head. Maybe it helps that I was a musician in my youth. (Not like Lucy, not at all, just a slightly better-than-average high school musician, but I felt that connection.) It was really more than that though. Lucy’s world intrigued me in a very real way, yes, but I loved three things best about this book:

• The beautiful imperfection of every character. I can’t give a higher compliment than to wish I could someday write flawed people half as well.
• The way it’s made me think. Not about the book, though I continue to think about that, but about not the book. About my life and the world and a hundred different things not connected to the prose except by my own brain. I read a lot to not think, and so many books I would read for thinking I can’t anymore, since I’ve come to know too well that though they’ll be wonderful, they’ll be unhealthy for my mood and my psyche for days/weeks/months to come. This book was different. It was not a comfortable book, which is part of (the heart of?) its brilliance, but it was not a dark book. It was hopeful and thoughtful, and for this particular reader, I suppose that’s the perfect storm.
• The way that it is a love story, but NOT a romance.

I gave the book five stars which, in the way of music competitions, may be jumping the gun, because this was my first audition, so to speak. Lucy was my first Zarr, though I’ve got Sweethearts on my Kindle, and seems not her best-received by audiences so far. I recognize why—how the world may not interest everyone and especially how the uncomfortable nature of much of the story would be, well, uncomfortable for a lot of readers—and suppose I admire it even more for its challenges. The ears of the judge matter as much as anything, and this book found its perfect listener.

Even though I read a lot, book reviewing like this isn't usually my thing... But I wanted to gush about this book and had no reason not to! You can always follow what I'm reading on the tab up at the top or on Goodreads.

Friday Five #9: Reading Roundup

Happy Friday! Lots of interesting reads to share this week:

1. A seriously beautiful post from a writer with serious chops: Libba Bray on what haunted her at seventeen (for Nova Ren Suma's 17 & Gone release)
2. A YALSA post about Boy Books, Girl Books, and what we're teaching kids about who should read what. I think everything about the situation is more complex than the article presents, but what it does say is true.
3. Perfectly accurate post on how to be a perfect parent in 5 easy steps! (Hint: you'll never be, and that's okay)
4. Two on education, starting with this thought-provoking article full of hard truths and minimal educational-rhetoric-blah-di-blah on the exhaustion of American teachers and finishing with this on one what exactly the Finnish did to climb to the top of the education mountain. (Hint: it's probably not what you think!; but also, the entire population of their country is a relatively homogeneous 5.3 million, or ~1/4 the population of New York State)
5. And finally, this Salon article with the typically inflammatory headline about the reality of a self-publishing bestseller's dollars and cents. (Hint: it's less than you think, but more than the title implies)

Whew. So, what have YOU been reading?

Friday Five #8: Reading Roundup

5 things I read this week:

1. Interesting post from author Jo Knowles on a particularly challenging revision. Reading authors' posts on "how do you...?" is always for me both fascinating and stressful. On one hand, I enjoy seeing how different it is for everyone. On the other, it's different for everyone and, therefore, easy to feel like you're doing it wrong or they're doing it better, and to fall prey to the Doubt Monster. As much as possible, I try to ignore the monster and enjoy the diversity, seeing if I might glean something that might work for me too.
2. Author Fiona Paul's two-part post on her experience writing for hire. Part 2 lists her pros and cons.
3. 12 ideas to improve writing productivity from author Marissa Meyer.
4. A smart and not-super-judgey opinion piece on living with less by Graham Hill for the NYT. I don't think I'd abide a fold-down bed, but I find a particular truth in what he says here: "But my experiences show that after a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support."
5. Lovely blog Mostly YA Lit's rant in favor of GOOD BOYS. Earning a hearty cheer from me!

What have YOU been reading?

Friday Five #6: More Blogs

5 more blogs/posts/articles I read this week (enjoyed doing this 5 roundup so much last week):

1. Absolutely thought-provoking post on finding the right scene temperature by Lorin Oberweger. This was a multi-time read and favorite for reference.
2. This BEAUTIFUL essay by Amy Boesky on ghostwriting Sweet Valley High
3. My friend Thomas's blog post on the launch of his second book Legacy! (sequel to The Time Weaver)
4. Author Malinda Lo's brilliant post on curating your online presence
5. Bookwyrming Thoughts- a lovely blog run by--cue epic music--an ACTUAL TEEN READER!

What have YOU been reading?

Top 5 of 2012

It's that time of year: for 'Best of' lists! I love reading them, so why not write one too? Just a little one, my Top 5 reads of 2012. If my count is correct, I read 48 books this year, not including my own or the ones in process. The following Top 5 weren't necessarily published in 2012, but I read them at some point during the past year:

• Delirium by Lauren Oliver- One of my favorite reads in many years, in fact. A heartbreaking story, beautifully written. I blogged about it earlier in the year.
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater- I'm a devotee to her words. There was a moment in this book where it went from good to eerily haunting me.
• Storm by Brigid Kemmerer- I just loved this one, the boys, the "powers". I've read everything else in the series that's out so far, and Chris is still my favorite.
• Forget You by Jennifer Echols- The voice in this book is nothing short of a delight, and it is so very inherently teen to me.
• The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin- If you want to read this, you need to start with The Unbecoming (which I also read this year and was excellent), but the Evolution was even more brilliant. These words are sexy and creepy and breathless and you will love them.

Next year, my goal is modest: Let's see if I can bump my yearly total up to 52. I'd like to read the equivalent of a book a week. Actually, I'd like to read ALL the books, but realistically, if I want to write any my current pace is about what I can handle.

Any suggestions for books I must put on my to-read list for 2013?

Happy New Year all! Keep reading!

Words and Music

I love words and I love music. There's so much power in both of them, how words bring ideas to life, and music brings emotion to words. Together, they're magic, music and words.

 Once upon a time, I was a teacher. Early in my student teaching, my cooperating teacher did the most miraculous thing: The students had all just finished reading (or not) and, for the most part, hating The Scarlet Letter, but nearly all of them rocked the final assignment. Why? Because their task was to find a song--any song, any year, any genre--that personified a character, relationship, or major theme in the story and eloquently explain and defend their rationale. Their choices, and presentations, were amazing, even the kids who barely cared about showing up to class let alone completing homework assignments. Especially those kids, actually. Some of theirs were the best. Given the opportunity to find something they actually cared about and connect it to something in school, they thrived. No, assignments can't always be that fun, but every once in a while it's a beautiful thing. I learned a lot that day and, more importantly, so did the kids.

So what's all this ruminating about? I was just reading Delirium, a poetic book where love is, literally, forbidden. Coincidentally, or maybe it was fatefully, I was also listening to Dashboard Confessional. On came their song, “The Secret’s In the Telling,” and I got lost in how perfectly it seems to encapsulate Delirium. Now, I can’t stop thinking about both of them. Novel and song have a deeper connection in my brain and in my heart. Beautiful.

Words and music. Magic.