Yesterday was Book Awards Day! We’d like to congratulate all of the winners of the 2012 ALA Youth Media Awards but especially to the YALSA section of the honorees, particularly the 2012 Michael L. Printz Award Winner: “In Darkness” by Nick Lake. I know that I was not the only one expecting “The Fault in Our…
January Book Club: Return to Me by Justina Chen Headley
After reading our TLR friend Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Odyssean adventure “Summer of the Mariposas” in December, we took a short break to recoup, consider our favorite books of 2012, and only then did we pick our January read. We chose “Return to Me” by Justina Chen Headley based on “North of Beautiful,” which I read…
Twelve Favorite Swoon-Worthy Literary Crushes of 2012
Diana and I have had a year full of literary crushes. We fully support reading books that don’t have romantic elements, but we have to be honest and say that our favorite Young Adult novels do incorporate romance, even if it’s not the *most* important theme in the book. Last night we took a break…
Five for Friday: Top YA Authors We Discovered in 2012
There are only four weeks left in the year, so we’ve decided to spend every Friday posting a retrospective of our year in reading. We’re going to dedicated another post to debut authors, but as for established writers (which we categorized as publishing at least three books) we never read until 2012, here are the ones who…
Book Club Day: ‘The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls’ by Julie Schumacher + Giveaway!
This month in honor of summer, we read Julie Schumacher’s novel about a mother-daughter summer book club. In this book club the moms decide to help their daughters get their summer AP English reading done. In practice it sounds like a great idea. The problem is that although the girls are all in the…
Book Club Picks: Author Julie Schumacher Suggests Five Novels
Because my most recent novel is about a mother-daughter book club, my list below consists of Five Book Club picks – books that will spark discussion this summer at the pool or on the porch, when you’re armed with well buttered popcorn and a pitcher of lemonade. I lean toward classics as well as contemporary…
Author Q&A: Rebecca Serle Discusses “When You Were Mine”
Rebecca Serle’s new novel “When You Were Mine” is our May Book Club pick, and we’re fortunate she took the time to talk about everything from Shakespeare and shopping to alpha girls and swoon-worthy boys with us. In “When You Were Mine,” Rosaline and Rob’s longtime friendship has reached that all-too-familiar point where it’s blossoming…
Author Q&A + Giveaway: Margie Gelbwasser Discusses “Pieces of Us”
Margie Gelbwasser is an author dear to our hearts. She was our very first Author Q&A, taking the leap of faith to talk to us when we’d barely launched. When we first interviewed Margie last year, we discussed her debut novel “Inconvenient,” and now we’re talking to her about “Pieces of Us,” her powerful new…
My Top Five: Author Deanne Wilsted Picks Her Favorite Novels
Deanne Wilsted is the indie author of “Betting Jessica” which is currently available on Amazon. Today, Feb. 10th, Amazon will be running a promotion on the book, which will be free for the entire day. ~~~~~~~~ Since my favorite books to read have always been those with true to life heroines and lots of humor it is…
My Top Five: Author Guadalupe Garcia McCall Picks Her Favorite YA Novels
Top Five, huh? Wow! But I love them ALL!!! If I had to pick my top five, I’d have a hard time because I firmly believe the next book I read will be become one of my top five…so with that in mind, I am picking foir and leaving myself open for the next great…