Two hours of sobbing that were well worth it

First- I have been interviewed (I know! I feel so fancy!) by my truly lovely Critique Partner Jenny S. Morris.  Please check out the interview on her blog and stay a while to read some of Jenny's great writing. 

The title of this post refers to the actual TWO HOURS I spent in bed last night bawling while reading the beautiful THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green.   It was so great that I don't have adequate words to express it yet, but I had to put something out in the universe about how amazing it is.  I have enjoyed all of John Green's books and while this is the least quirky, it is also the first one in a girl's POV and so maybe this made me feel closer to the story somehow.  Perhaps someday soon I will have something much more coherent and important to say, but for now- loved it.  Below is the summary from Goodreads:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind. 

Has anyone else read THE FAULT IN OUR STARS yet?  Did you love it?  More importantly, did you cry your eyes right out?

One From the Vaults

You know, I never think of myself as a weird kid, but I am having to reconsider that classification.  My mom and dad are selling the house I grew up in and so we've spent the past few weekends clearing it out.  I found boxes of stories that I wrote between second and seventh grade.  As everyone else painted and scrubbed, I sat and sifted through my childhood and laughed so hard that I was crying hysterical can't-breathe tears.  Here is a fun example from second grade:

If I Were a Turkey by Megan Dolan (age 7)

Once upon a time there was a turkey and her name was Nicole.  There was another turkey.  Her name was Megan.  She was very nice and I mean nice.  But one day she heard a gunshot.  Nicole was dead.  My little sister turkey said, "I am scared."  I wanted to say shut-up but I didn't.  She was crying.  The End.

In addition to the sudden switch from third-person to first-person POV (an egregious error) this story seems to show that I had it in for someone named Nicole.  There was no one named Nicole in my class so I'm not sure who that bullet was meant for, but I am surprised my teacher chose only to give me a "Good Job!" accompanied by a smiley face.

In addition to huge amounts of literary gold from young Megan Dolan, great books I read over the past two weeks include LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE by Dianna Wynne Jones, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis, and THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson.  Of course I have already made my thoughts on the amazing SHATTER ME clear.  See this post. I love good books, don't you?  Anyone have some early writing they'd like to share? 

Road Trip Wednesday- The Writing Retreat of My Dreams

This week the mission from YA Highway was to describe the ultimate writing retreat- where I would go, what I would bring, who would come with me, etc. I love this assignment! It would be a DREAM to take a week, a month, or three months to do nothing but write (and drink Diet Coke and read good books).

So, here is my answer:

I would rent a cottage in the French countryside (France won out over Scotland for weather reasons only).  The cottage would have a huge bathtub and a lot of hot water.
I would bring brand new writing supplies (this is a dream, right?)- new desktop Mac (I like them better than laptops), big whiteboards and corkboards, lots of colored index cards.  I would have an endless supply of American Diet Cokes (I learned the hard way last summer that Diet Coke is not the same in Europe) in cans as well as someone who would do the grocery shopping for me.  If I was there for more than two weeks, I would have periodic visits from my husband and dogs.

Is it too early to start the best of 2012 list?

Because I just read SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi and oh WOW [takes cold shower].  This book is incredible.  Ms. Mafi weaves an amazing story- I dare you to not read this in one sitting- while employing the most gorgeous language and writing style.  Her slightly unorthodox style grabbed me right from the beginning and lines like this one made me catch my breath:

"His voice hugs the letters in my name so softly I die 5 times in that second."

I mean.... wow.  You must read this book!  Here is the summary from Goodreads:



Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.
The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.
Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.
In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

Did you catch that this is a DEBUT novel?  I am agog. I am awed. I am impressed. I hope some of her brilliance rubs off on me! 

Have you read SHATTER ME already? Did you have a similar reaction (i.e. instant love)?

I'm sorry, I can't hear you... and my TOP READS of 2011!

The thing you need to understand is I have abnormally small ears.  Like tiny child ears.  I mean they work and everything (usually), but I still get ear infections (yes, as an adult) and they tend to get all clogged up. In a bizarre medical mishap on Thursday, my ear drum suffered some trauma as it was being irrigated and I have lost the hearing in my left ear.  I believe this will be temporary.  There was also a lot of pain and some embarrassing sobbing as I drove home, but after two days of being confined to bed with dizziness and pain, I have made it to the couch and am ready to share my favorite reads from 2011!!

In no particular order, here are the ten best YA/MG books I read for the first time in 2011:

1. WITHERING TIGHTS by Louise Rennison 
I LOVE LOVE her books.  In this one, she introduces a new main character, the adorable younger cousin of Georgia Nicolson, Tallulah Casey.

2. THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan.

The scariest book I have read in years.  I had to sleep with the light on.  The two sequels were fantastic as well. All three are must reads.

3. DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth.

A champion entry into the dystopian genre.  Tris was one of my favorite female characters of the year.

4. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie

Just so good.  So good.  I laughed and cried (a lot of both).

5. ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was my favorite contemporary novel of the year (yes, I know it came out in 2010, but I just read it).  The characters and romance were terrific.

6. BORN AT MIDNIGHT by C.C. Hunter

This and its sequel (AWAKE AT DAWN) were my favorite paranormal books of 2011 by a landslide.  This was one of those novels that I finished and immediately turned to page one to start again.

7. WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan

This book got its hooks into my heart in chapter one and held tight the entire way through.

8. THE SON OF NEPTUNE by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is the boy I wish I knew in middle and high school. I could not contain my happiness that he returned in this new series.

9. SHELTER by Harlan Coben

My favorite mystery of 2011, by one of my favorite adult novelists- the masterful Harlan Coben.

10. THE GALLAGHER GIRL novels by Ally Carter

Okay, so this is cheating, but these four books were my FAVORITE overall of 2011 and since they are a series, I am combining them for one spot on my list.  I am counting the days until the 5th book in this series debuts in March!!

So, those are my favorites, if you haven't posted yours- feel free to leave them in the comments.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Best of 2011- Best YA Contemporary: Anna and the French Kiss

Just right this second I decided I will join my fellow bloggers in setting out my favorites of 2011 (meaning when I read them, not necessarily when they were released), and I will start with my hands-down favorite contemporary novel.

It had been so long since I had read a truly wonderful truly contemporary (i.e. no paranormal, no dystopian, no fantasy, no mystery) YA novel, until I finally bought Stephanie Perkins' ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS a couple of weeks ago.  What can I say, but j'adore! I have recounted here that although I myself am an over-recommender, I often get resistant to reading books that are continually recommended to me (especially when its my dad doing the recommending- sorry dad, no excuse) and so although this book had been on my "to-read" list for the better part of the year, I didn't actually pick it up until December.

And I'm an idiot.  Books are lauded for a reason and this one was no different.

I loved this book.  To quote my sister, "I am so in love with St. Clair, I feel like I'm cheating."  This was everything that is wonderful about contemporary fiction and exactly what I feel like I've been missing since Steve Kluger's MY MOST EXCELLENT YEAR several years ago.  The characters, and most importantly their dialogue, felt so real and I was desperately involved with them from the opening pages.  All of the relationships- friendships, familial, and romantic were done perfectly.  And like my sister I can add Etienne St. Clair to the list of characters residing in my heart.

What were your contemporary favorites in 2011?

Road Trip Wednesday: Ava's Holiday Gift

 

This is my first time participating in YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday! The prompt today is "What would be the ideal holiday present for your main character?" 

So, my main character is Ava from AN UNEXPECTED KINGDOM. She is a sixteen year-old who spends the first part of the book as a high school sophomore and the second part of the book as a sword-fighting savior of an entire country.  Clearly her gift requests from one year to the next would be pretty different.  As a result I am going to answer twice, once for Ava pre-destiny revelations and once for Princess Avanyarra (the fancey name for Ava after she goes to Leel). 

Ava's Gift:  First edition of Pride & Prejudice.  Since her mom and dad would not have the $85,000.00 that one went for, she would settle for this pretty cloth-bound version from Anthropologie.

Avanyarra's Gift:  Strong but flexible gloves to help protect against those pesky sword-related calluses (no link available!).

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!