ARCs of Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson are being given out by Penguin. Here's the myspace with more details.
You can win a The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks t-shirt, a signed book by E. Lockhart, and a Dramarama CD by making E laugh by Feb. 14. More details on her blog.
The 2009 YALSA's Best Books for Young Adult List is up on their site.
Books that came out last week:
Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
The Tir Nan Og Chronicles by K.E. Bruder
Night Life by Nancy A. Collins
Books that come out this week:
February 2: The Fetchby Laura Whitcomb
February 3: Winnie's Warby Jenny Moss
February 3: Trials in Paradiseby Neal R. Rice
February 3: Evermoreby Alyson Noel
February 4: Promised Virgins: A Novel of Jihad by Jeffrey Fleishman
February 4: Adventurers Wanted: Slathbog's Gold by M. L. Forman
In honor of the release of Scat by Carl Hiaason today, we decided to post this short note to link to Julie's review of it from October seeing as it is now available.
To promote the release of a children's edition of Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson will be at The Temple Beth Am for an event hosted by Books & Books in collaboration with Florida Center for the Literary Arts and Arts for Learning.
Temple Beth Am auditorium 5950 SW 88th Street, Pinecrest "Greg Mortenson stumbled, lost and delirious, into a remote Himalayan village after a failed climb up K2. The villagers saved his life, and he vowed to return and build them a school. The remarkable story of his promise kept has touched millions. Books & Books is proud to welcome Mortenson and his remarkable story, Three Cups of Tea, as he reaches a whole new audience with two children’s adaptations.
In one of his very first appearances for the Jan. 22 publication of these two children’s editions, Mortenson creates a multi-generational, multi-media experience out of his phenomenal story. This will be a memorable evening for all ages.
Tickets are required, and available for free at every Books & Books location."
As always, we'll be there so hope you all stop by and say hello.
Julie's Review of Two Girls of Gettysburg by Lisa Klein
LisaKlein has done it again. Three years after the release her award winning debut novel Ophelia, Klein’s second novel for young adults made its way onto shelves and is sure not to disappoint. Two Girls of Gettysburg is about two cousins, Lizzie and Rosanna who find themselves torn between sides when the Civil War breaks out. Lizzie remains loyal to the Union with her family’s struggling business and her father and brother fighting for the North, while Rosanna is swept away in the traditions of the Confederacy, and her love for a Confederate soldier. Even though the two are separate physically and in their separate views, they attempt to keep in contact, but it proves too difficult for them both.
Two Girls of Gettysburg is filled with love, action, and tragedy that will leave you unable to put it down. The characters are very real with very intense feelings that make the reader fall in love with them. Furthermore, the historic accuracy in this book is phenomenal. Klein does not beautify the war but tells how it truly was, and in the authors note you learn that many of the characters were based on real people. Two Girls of Gettysburg will leave readers hungry for more.
Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci edited an anthology called Geektastic and are having a contest to give out ARCs of it. More details here and here.
Meg Cabot posted the winners of her book trailer contest for Forever Princess on her blog.
Random:
Melissa de la Cruz' short story that had been exclusively for Target with the purchase of Revelations, is now available for everyone. Details on her blog.
Meg Cabot will be having a live chat on her site tomorrow, Sun. 1/18 at 2pm est and on blogtalkradio 1/22 at 2pm est.
Neil Gaiman was on blogtalkradio on Thursday. You can hear the entire show here.
Books that came out last week:
Puppet by Eva Wiseman
Kisses and Lies by Lauren Henderson
The Black Stallion and the Shape-shifter by Steven Farley
The Devil's Paintbox by Victoria Mckernan
The ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro
3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows by Ann Brashares
Books that come out this week:
January 19- Doom Lake Holiday by Tom Henighan
January 22- Flygirl by Sherri L.Smith
January 22- You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay
January 22- Trippe Show Berrys in Love by Jody Gehrman
Bad news everyone. Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, has fallen ill. Hence her publisher has asked to reschedule her Miami event from this Thursday, to sometime in February. Terribly sorry to those who already had their tickets, but it's all for the good of Ann's health. We'll let everyone know as soon as we have word on a fixed event date.
Whether you’ve never picked up The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books or you loved them dearly, Ann Brashares new book will not disappoint. Aimed at younger readers, it’s definitely not the same maturity-wise as The Sisterhood, but that was the point. It takes place in the same town, the Sisterhood is a legend to the girls now, and there are also those character similarities that give a nod to the readers of the previous series, but this is a new sisterhood. 3 Willows is about a group of three girls and their summer between eighth grade and high school. Though the girls had previously been the best of friends beginning in the third grade, the day they were each given a willow, the past year they had slowly grown apart. This summer is about their individual adventures and struggles in different parts of the country where at the same time coming closer together.
3 Willows will be an opening door for many girls who may have been too young during the time of the sisterhood. It will begin their love for Ann Brashares and the friendships she writes about. It will also be a delightful read for the older readers who mourned the end of the pants. Brashares knack for creating realistic characters and friendships that everyone can connect to has not gone away. Whether you connect to Ama- the intelligent, straight-A girl stuck on a wilderness trip, Polly- the one who stays home, decides she wants to try to be a model, and tries to change herself because of it, or Jo- the girl who stays at her family’s beach house, gets a summer job, and then has some family and friendship problems along the way, there is something that can connect to every girl. Brashares succeeded in giving them each a distinct voice that helps adding to the realism and connection. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, that I’m sure many tweens and teen girls will not be putting down anytime soon and will be eagerly anticipating the next one to come out.
Now that the contest is over we'd like to announce the three winners of the first YAthenaeum Book Giveaway Contest! The 3 winners who will be each be receiving an advanced readers copy of Ann Brashares' 3 Willows are:
Elizabeth
Megan Lipsky
Linh Tran-Phuong
Congratulations to all the winners, and many thanks to all of those who entered!
Winners, please check your e-mails with instructions about claiming your prize.
To honor no particular release, but just because she's so darn awesome. Today we give you a post dedicated to Laurie Halse Anderson.
A Short Q&A With Laurie:
Why do you choose the topics that you address in your books? I usually write about what frustrates me or makes me angry. Given how poorly teenagers are treated by the culture, I have a lot of material to work with.
How do you feel that Speak has helped inform children about the "unspeakable topics?
Speak shows the consequences of NOT speaking up and (I hope!) allows readers to ponder their own fears and struggles with talking about hard things. Learning how to discuss the "unspeakable" is one of the most powerful lessons you'll ever learn. If someone suddenly threw a wad of twenty thousand dollars at you, how would you respond? I sure hope I'd have the presence of mind to look around and see if the police were chasing this person. If not, I hope my reflexes are good enough to catch the cash. And then I would take a road trip to sample waffles across the United States. If 'they' decided to make a movie of your life, which actress would you want to play you? Sigourney Weaver
What's the most random question you can think of? Answer it. Why do you like popcorn so much? I am a member of a little-known sub-species of Homo Sapiens that requires large quantities of butter and salt to survive. Can you do the Time Warp again? It's astounding, time is fleeting.... Madness takes its toll,
But listen closely, not for very much longer.... I've got to keep control
.....
.....
.....
IT'S JUST A JUMP TO THE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(How did you guys know I LOVE that movie?!)
Lorena's Chains Review:
There’s nothing I like more than a good fantasy novel. Be it fairies, magic, alternate dimensions. You name it I’ll read it. But there’s only one thing I’ll drop a fantasy book for, and that’s if you give me one hell of a historical fiction. And that’s just what I got from Laurie Halse Anderson when I picked up her latest novel Chains.
Set in 18th century America, at the start of the Revolutionary War, Chains tells the story of a girl, who in a time of war, of pain, and of lies, wanted nothing more than to be free.
Orphaned at the age of 12, Isabel and her younger sister Ruth had never known life outside of slavery. They had, however been promised their freedom at the death of their master. But as the funeral’s pyre died out, they soon discovered it would not be so. Immediately after being sold to the cruelest of masters, to ensure her freedom Isabel is tossed in the midst of battle in the raging struggle between the British and Americans.
I would normally have shied away from this book… the pain… the loss, for me it can sometimes be too much to bear. But Chains always gave me hope, there was always that twist that kept reeling me in, and I wanted nothing more than to see Isabel and Ruth set free. Each character, their own separate universe, each as vibrantly depicted as the next, and just as complex. A strong plot as well, to match a vibrant cast. Never repetitive, never tiring. This book is defiantly not one to miss.
So I’ll just say it. If fictive historical novels are your thing. Go read it. And even if they aren't, I'd still strongly recommend it. Buy it, borrow it, check it out. It matters not, just pick it up. You won’t regret it.
Forever Princess was a phenomenal way to end an incredible series. I’ll begin with something personal: I for one have grown up with Mia. I started reading them in 5th or 6th grade and now in 11th the series is complete. I probably would be sad if it didn’t end so well, but it did. Meg Cabot has been one of my favorite authors for years and I honestly can’t help it, but eat her books up and upon finishing have a hangover only her endings can bring.
Back to the review… Forever Princess is the tenth (full book, not counting halves and three-quarters) and final book in the Princess Diaries series. Most have probably heard of these books, or at least the Disney version, but here’s a short summary. As a ninth grader, Mia found out her father was the prince of Genovia, making her a princess. The books are her journals writing about her everyday life. Everything from guys to the princess lessons she’s forced to take from her grandmere who pencils in her eyebrows to her trouble it algebra and all the random thoughts in between. The final book is about the end of her senior year of high school. It takes place approximately two years after the ninth book, a time when Mia was locked away in her room writing her senior project. Michael just came back from living in Japan making a robotic arm to be used in surgeries and then there’s also J.P. who Mia’s been seeing for two years now. The book covers this love conflict, Mia’s 18th birthday, her final finals, prom, and more.
After 10 books, if you’d think the books would get tiring, they don’t; most certainly not. Overall, it was a brilliant way to end the series. Thinking back on it you can see how much Mia has changed over the course of her high school experience. The difference between ninth and twelfth grade are extraordinary and Cabot captured the high school years perfectly. For example, a girl who in ninth grade begged to go to the prom now is the one realizing that it’s just a dance with bad food. If you’ve been a fan of Mia’s for a while, it will not disappoint and if you haven’t, pick them up. Teenage girls can definitely relate to everything Mia goes through; no matter if they haven’t found out that they are a princess of a small European country. Which is just the thing, Mia is an average girl everyone can relate to, and the princess thing is just on the side; she’s so much more than that. After the ten books, the end is completely perfect and just what it needed to be. Though sad that this girl who we’ve known for four years of her life and possibly longer of ours doesn’t have another book coming out soon, the end will leave you smiling and overjoyed.
Forever Princess will definitely keep the readers happy, at least for a few years until Meg Cabot can visit Mia again later on in Mia’s life, which she’s been mentioning. I think I can wait till then, but maybe not much longer than that.
Pretty exciting news to report, Ann Brashares recently wrote a new novel, 3 Willows, which will be out in stores on January 13th. Even better though, just 2 days after it’s release, on the 15th, Ann herself will be coming down to Miami for an event! This is pretty big stuff going on. So how can this get any better?
With the first ever YAthenaeum Book Giveaway Contest!
We here at Yathenaeum got our hands on 3 Advanced Reader Copies of Ann Brashares’ 3 Willows. That’s right, THREE! And we want to hear from you why you think you should have one! But we also like to have fun with out contests, so we want you to be creative.
So here’s the catch. You must tell us why you deserve a copy of 3 Willows. In a haiku.
What’s a haiku? A haiku is an un-rhymed poem having three lines containing five, seven, and five syllables respectively.
Here is an example:
Haikus are easy But sometimes they don't make sense Refrigerator -Rolf Nelson
So don’t worry if your entry doesn’t make sense, we like those best anyway!
RULES
Entry must either be submitted as a comment below or e-mailed to us at yathenaeum@yahoo.com.
Entry MUST be a haiku, following the 5-7-5 rule.
Name & E-mail required with entry.
Contestants are limited to 1 entry.
Deadline is Friday, January 9th 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
No cheating/copying or anything along those lines.
Have fun!
PRIZES Top 3 entries will each receive:
1: Advanced Reader Copy of 3 Willows by Ann Brashares
But here’s our little added bonus! We will try to have your book arrive as soon as possible. But, if you think you can wait a few days, we can have your copy signed & personalized by Ann herself! This is up to you of course, but we will need a reply no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern on the 10th, this is to ensure those who want their copy early get it fast.
Winners will be announced Friday January 9th at 10:00 p.m. Eastern or later based on judge deliberation.
Shape-shifters, sparkly pixies, and a remote town in some far off corner of the U.S.A.? No, it’s not Holly Black’s Tithe, but close enough.
Carrie Jones’ Need tells the story of Zara, the girl who collects phobias. Since she was young, Zara had always been told that if she can recite her fears, she would be able to face them. But she fears most the one she cannot name, the unknown. That fear is only fed by the events following her stepfather’s death. Unable to deal with Zara’s state of depression, her mother decides to send her to live with her grandmother Betty in the barren town of Bangor, Maine, were she believes she will be better off, safer. But in that small town Zara begins to unravel the secrets of her heritage, and the dangerous beings she is now exposed to. Someone, or something is following her, leaving a strange trail of golden glitter in it's wake. He's a pixie, they all know it, all except for her.
It’s a fast paced novel that fits into more genres than I could possibly list. You’ll find everything needed, from epic love triangles; to those “Well I sure as hell didn’t see that coming!” plot twists, to keep you entranced from cover to cover.
To fans of fairytales, new or old, I highly recommend picking up Need. This goes out especially to those Melissa Marr fans since I know you’re just as eager as I am for Fragile Eternity.
Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely), Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments series), Janni Lee Simner (Bones of Faerie), Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Golden), Carrie Jones (Need), and Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon) will be on blog talk radio 1/8/09 at 6:00pm est.
On behalf of Meg Cabot's new book Forever Princess The New York Public Library is having a tiara auction with tiara's made by celebrities including Julie Andrews, Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Lauren Conrad, Julianne Moore, Bobbi Brown, Austin Scarlett, Nicole Miller, R.L. Stine, Chris Van Allsburg, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, and Meg Cabot. The money raised will be used for teen programs at the library. The auction will be held here and end on January 31.
Cassandra Clare announced the City of Glass ARC Contest results on her blog.
Congrats to the 2008 Cybils Finalists which were posted.
Books that came out last week:
From Somalia with Love by Na'ima B. Robert
Angel Boy by Bernard Ashley
Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? by Marissa Walsh
The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer and Sujean Rim
Brought to you by Erika. (With comments by Lorena in Red),(Julie in Green) (and Brigitte in yellow)
The day started at the Jr. Orange Bowl golf tournament, which my dad runs. We were all volunteering on holes doing the live scoring. (Asking players for the scores of their past few holes).Blegh, nasty farmer's tan is what we ended up with. (I've always had a farmer's tan so no complaining!)
Lorena and Brigitte stopped around 2 and started getting ready. A damn good thing too since Brigitte is notoriously known for ridiculously long showers. When you have gorgeous hair like mine, you have to pamper it. Julie and I started about 3. (Because WE work as hard as possible. Cough...Cough...)
So, we took showers, you know for all the prestige of the Biltmore, you'd think they could spring for a lock on their showers, (seriously)got into our purple dresses, blow dried/curled/did nothing our hair, and then attempted to walk in high heels across from the pro shop to the tournament office. Yeah, I've made a vow to only wear flats to signings from now on. Seriously, no more limping around everywhere even if heels do look nicer than flats. Once there everyone was repeatedly saying how beautiful we looked, so embarrassing, and in front of the golfers who happened to be GUYS, and we put on our which hats. Though we had a bit of a dilemma since I made one hat much too small and it didn't fit anyone.
Since my mom was alone at the scoring table, I went over and helped her. Players came in and were probably wondering why in the world we were wearing dresses.
We went outside by the fountain, my dad attempted to take pictures, but my camera wasn’t cooperating, so that failed. We went back, took everything we could and walked to the parking lot. We were carrying a ton of stuff and had no idea where my mom had parked. Who sends someone to a car, when that said person wasn't there when the other person parked it? Back and forth, back and forth, was it 4th row from the front or from the back? So in heels we were wandering around the parking lot… Then, we eventually found the car, put everything in it, started walking back, but my mom met us halfway. All throughout our escape there were some golfers putting away their clubs, we must have passed them by at least 4 times.
After getting in the car, there was some scoring emergency, so my dad called and we waited in the car as they discussed what it was. One of the golfers previouslty mentioned was sitting in a bench near the car and kept looking at us quizzicaly. Eventually at about 4:30 we left the area and began driving to Bal Harbour.
Lorena and Brigitte fell asleep in the car. Long car ride, what else did you expect?I wasn't sleeping! I was merely resting with my eyes closed.Yeah but imagine being me stuck in the corner watching you two sleep. And you, Julie, as I recall were reading a book, not staring at us.I wrote my introduction in my i-pod for Sarah.
Eventually as we were getting close, Julie woke them up. Then, we saw there was a toll and all of our coins were in the trunk. Luckily my mom got behind someone else who didn’t have exact change and was able to get out and get her and Lorena’s bag. We managed to find a dollar and made it inside Bal Harbour. My mom decided to call 2 minutes after we escaped the toll and I was trying to explain what had happened without laughing. She failed.Then, we got to the parking garage, but weren’t exactly sure where the Books & Books was inside, so I called Debra. She told us, so we parked where we needed to and headed on in. That walk to the store must have been the most agonizing walk of my life. So, so true.With 1 being "Skipping through a meadow with puppies and butterflies" and 10 being "the Trail of Tears", I'd give it a 9.
It was now about 5:10, and it was supposed to have started at 5:00, but Debra said Sarah had just gotten there so we weren’t too bad.
We found the Books & Books and made a grand/exhausted entrance. Sarah saw us and immediately said how great our dresses and hats were. We gave her her hat as well as the baby one we made (which she adored) and she hugged us all. It was my first time meeting her and I was surprised at how nice she was! She was also so surprised that we had known it was her birthday in a few days (Thanks to facebook) and was overall delighted. Apparently it was the first time she had ever had cake at an event. Gee, I wonder why...
Debra brought us to the back, going through the front of all the seated fans (The seats were practically full!), and we put down all our stuff.
Then, we made our proper entrance with Sarah. Debra introduced us all and then I stumbled through my introduction of Sarah. Hey, least it was better than my Nerfighter lingo intro at John's event. Yeah it was better than that... They were both alright, all things considered.Sarah began saying how great we were and began reading from Parties & Potions. We stood in the back and Lorena began filming. Haha! The memory card kept getting filled so I spent a good 5 minutes deleating all the videos from past events to make room. She then began taking questions, by which point our feet were killing us and we sat down.
Afterwards, we brought out her cake and began singing Happy Birthday to Sarah, then there was signing. Everyone had kind of bunched around her table, so we only got to do post-its for the second half of the line. I tried to give out bookmarks to whomever wasn't crowded around the table, which weren't that many people. Me too.
Once most people were gone, Sarah began signing stock while we talked to her (taking a few breaks for cake).
Then, she signed Debra and my own books. We took a few pictures with her and she thanked us all again repeatedly. More hugs!
We raided the ARC stacks, talked to Debra, then went to eat.
Books that came out last week:
Books that come out this week:
