Brigitte's review of The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner
If you want a light, fluffy read or a book that won't challenge previous moral and social beliefs, then skip this book. Thinly disguised as a novel about the Salem Witch Trials, The Shape of Mercy follows the life of rich college girl Lauren Durough as she struggles against her family's wishes to find her place.
All Lauren ever wanted to do was to free herself from the image of a spoiled rich kid. Her solution? To rebel against her parents and accept a job that her father would frown upon. Her task, given to her by an old woman whose sadness is visible to everyone, is to translate a journal penned by a girl who was accused of being a witch in the late 1600s.
This book reflects over the impulsive judging, even if unintended, of people and provides an insightful look at the human mind. Throughout the book, the growth of main character Lauren is visibly noted as she matures from a naive child to a perceptive adult with the help of the diary written by a doomed girl. The Shape of Mercy, with its dual plot and storyline is sure to entrap you in Lauren's world as she tries to break free from imposed perceptions and learns to see the people behind the facade.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes announced her new book's title on her blog; Raised by Wolves will come out Summer 2010.
Libba Bray announced the winners of her contest on her blog.
Sarah Rees Brennan posted the iconic cover that will be under the flap cover for her US edition of The Demon's Lexicon and posted the cover for her UK/Australian edition.
Ally Carter posted the synopsis from her new book Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover coming out in June.
Bliss is about a girl named, wait for it… Bliss In the Morning Dew. Bliss was left with her southern grandmother when her hippie parents fled to Canada and it’s set in 1969 at a time when in Atlanta there were those who treated African Americans with little respect even though desegregation has already taken place. She begins going to a private high school, though she had never previously set foot in any school for that matter. There’s a girl that most view as perfect, Sarah, but she’s not. One who’s a little odd and is excluded from the rest of the school, Sandy. There’s a boy, Mitchell. And a rumor about of a girl, who jumped out of a Hampton Hall third story window, who’s voice Bliss begins to hear… So, you could say it has it all.
If you haven’t read Bliss, please do so now. One page will make you laugh and the next cry. I’ll be honest, I cried at the end. The way I view books is how well they play with my emotions and/or seem realistic enough that I feel what is happening to the characters as if they were happening to me. Bliss is one of those books that does both. I felt bad for Bliss, at times I thought she was insane, wanted to scream that this one character who was a sociopath even though she claimed she wasn't, and I even felt bad for a cat.
Now I had read Rhymes With Witches, so I kind of knew the basics of what was going to happen or at least what would happen 40 years into the future, but I have to say Myracle made a brilliant prequel. You do not have to read either one first because they are both phenomenal all on their own.
I still can’t completely get over how amazing this book was. It combined suspense with Myracles’s natural humorous tone. There are also multiple morals that are engrained in the book worth reading about and are important for younger readers to learn. (For example, the anti-prejudice aspect.) I read it in a matter of hours and could not put it down.
I must give a brief warning however, if you get scared easily and/or don’t like being scared, you may want to consider not reading it. But be assured that you are definitely missing out and it’s not as horrifying as you may think!
Now that the contest is over we'd like to announce the winners of the Skunk Girl giveaway! The two winners who will be each be receiving an advanced readers copy of Sheba Karim's Skunk Girl are: Tiffany and Joanna
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all those who entered!
ALA posted a video with the 2009 Media Award Winners calls and the authors' reactions.
Ally Carter will be chatting with Sarah Mlynowski tomorrow, Feb. 15 at 5:00pm est. You can go to Ally's diary to get the password and link a few minutes prior to it.
10 YA authors are renting a castle in Ireland for a week. Intrigued? You can find out more about how it was planned and who's going here, here, here, and here.
Sarah Dessen posted a video of her reading an excerpt of Along for the Ride on her new YouTube channel.
The 2008 Cybils Winners were posted. Congrats to the winners!
Lauren Myracle discussed her new book Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks in a video here.
Contests:
Carrie Jones is having a contest. Technically 4 contests( twisting an existing picture book, explain the hotness, creating categories of hot picture or YA books, and telling about the contest). More details on her blog.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes is giving away swag that she got from Comic Con. More details on her blog.
Lauren Myracle is giving away a copy of her sister's new book Bound South. More details on her blog.
Covers:
Cecil Castellucci posted the new paperback cover for Beige coming out in March on her blog.
E. Lockhart posted the new Fly on the Wall cover on her blog.
Books that came out last week:
The Time of Darknessby Nikki Jones
Shadowed Summerby Saundra Mitchell
Ravenby Allison van Diepen
Perpetual Checkby Rich Wallace
Percy Jackson: The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan
Miss Matchby Wendy Toliver
Meg's Challengeby Allie Brock Hyatt
Friends 'til the Endby ReShonda Tate Billingsley
Fadeby Lisa McMann
Eternalby Cynthia Leitich Smith
The Clique #10: P.S. I Loathe You by Lisi Harrison
Bloodlineby Katy Moran
The Anatomy of Wingsby Karen Foxlee
Books that come out this week:
February 17-Mutiny: A Novel of the Bounty by John Boyne
February 17- It's a Green Thing by Melody Carlson
February 17- The Island of Time by Matthew DeBettencourt
Brought to you by Erika. With comments in Red by Lorena, Brigitte in yellow, and Julie in green.
The afternoon started like most days we have events. The one exception being that was there were a lot more books. Lorena, Brigitte, Julie, and Debra told me to bring them all, so I did. (No I didn't! I told you not to!) I have over 50 of Meg’s books, which filled up exactly two of the large Books & Books bags. One of which I had to carry.
Brigitte and I got there a bit after 4:00 and right off the bat got to work. After Debra showed off the crowns we would be using; and we printed quick copies of my, Party Princess menu for the cafe, we went to the West wing to start decorating. While most everyone was doing manual labor Brigitte and I were having a hard time trying to get my glue gun on so we could decorate my plastic shoes & swans for the tables. But right as soon as it started working, Erika called that she was outside and needed help carrying her books to the store.
So, Julie and I arrived about 4:30 and everyone else was already there.
We immediately started decorating. Lorena and Brigitte hot glued pretty flowers in plastic shoes and swans while Julie and I attempted to start with the tulle. (The main word being attempted)Everyone kept passing out table and exclaiming about how cute they looked while I burned my fingers. It was a failed attempt, which led us to start on the podium instead. We then realized we wouldn’t have enough to do the whole thing, so we used the blue to make a bow. When I finished the shoes and got the area cleaned up I went over to see how i could help, between my failed attempt and Stephanie's help we managed to create some sort of decent bow thing. Thanks Stephanie for helping!
We finished the bow, had some tulle hanging from the top, and decorated the signing table. That's was probably one of the worst idea we've had. I almost fell over from that footstool getting the tulle over the railing more than once. Getting the tulle to hang was difficult since I'm so short. I stretched and I still couldn't reachso we just tossed it over and hoped for the best. It also got hopelessly tangled.
The chairs were already set up, so we just put some of the paper crowns we got around on random ones.
By then it was already about 5:40 and we had to change. There was also an incident involving not being able to find the YAthenaeum bookmarks [which are still currently M.I.A. and not at the airport (those from Miami will get it)]. Though, I always carry some around and had a small stack in my camera bag.
Julie and I finally decided which dresses we were wearing, thanks to Brigitte and Lorena deciding for us. So while Brigitte and Lorena had to quickly go somewhere, Julie and I changed. Julie into my black dress, and me into Julie’s purple dress.Yes it does make perfect sense. Apparently no one in Coral Gables has a copy of the 6th Mediator book. I confess, we committed blasphemy, I was ashamed to wear my Books&Books shirt.
When we were finished, Lorena and Brigitte managed to return and changed themselves. This was more or less an episode of yelling back and forth across the stalls about god knows what.
At about 6:20, Meg walked in and Debra introduced her to us. Debra also warned her about my collection of her books. (But nobody could create a proper warning without it being an understatement)
Then, Meg went to give an interview with a girl from Times for Kids.
We were the greeting team while Lorena put our corsages on. This proved to be a more difficult task than it ought to have been, especially on myself.
A little while later, Debra called us in and Lorena gave her her corsage as an honorary member of the Royal Order of YAthenaeum.
Meg then started signing all my books. (Thanks so much Meg!) She signed every single one. At one point while she was finishing Erika's pile she asked "These are all Erika right?" I was in charge of putting Erika's books back after Meg signed them, since they quickly overwhelmed the table.
While she was signing, we had a short interview with her, which will have up soon enough.
After Meg finished signing all of mine, she signed the rest of ours. Then, she opened the card we made for her. (Thanks Emma for helping me make it!)
After that, we grabbed our cameras and it was time to start.
The room was full… Debra introduced us and then I introduced Meg. (I’m SO sorry for pronouncing your name wrong, Meg, if you’re reading this. I realized right after… I was just nervous and had for years thought it was pronounced that way and it grew into a habit I’m trying to break.)Erika just hangs around me too much, I grew to mispronouncing Meg's name and it's stuck to everyone around me. I'm such a bad influence.Why yes, you are. Aside from that, I think I’m getting slightly better with the introductions; I’m not a complete wreck up there anymore. Sure... If it makes you feel better, Erika.
Meg spoke and answered questions. She is amazing!Erika's on the verge of obsession here so don't mind her. Correction: She is obsessing. Ignore the excessive fangirling.
We then went to the other side and began post-it duty. Once we were done, we went and ate chocolate… Most of us anyway, I sat on a stool and moped about not being able to eat chocolate. But you stayed strong and we are all soo proud of you! :D
Eventually, when it was time for stock, I handed to Meg and Debra took away. Meg is an incredibly fast signer; I could barely keep up. I was at first in charge of moving them to the table but we also needed to put Autographed stickers on them so I called Brigitte over to haul them back and forth while I put the stickers on. Becky came eventually and helped me finish the job.We took a few group shots with our assigned book.I didn't know my tiara was tilted so far back. Afterwards, though Meg was probably exhausted, she agreed to do the time warp with us.
The Brians (the DJs) started playing the song and this is what happened: (I was a fail.)
We then said goodbye to Meg and were ourselves exhausted from a great night; it's too bad Princess Mia had to miss it.
Well it's that time again where we happen to snag a few ARCs and we just can't help but share them with you. So now for the second YAthenaeum Book Giveaway, we present you with Sheba Karim's debut novel Skunk Girl!
Here's a bit of insight if this is your first time hearing of this fun new book.
"If Nina Khan were to rate herself on the unofficial Pakistani prestige point system – the one she’s sure all the aunties and uncles use to determine the most attractive marriage prospects for their children – her scoring might go something like this: +2 points for getting excellent grades –3 points for failing to live up to expectations set by genius older sister +4 points for dutifully obeying parents and never, ever going to parties, no matter how antisocial that makes her seem to everyone at Deer Hook High –1 point for harboring secret jealousy of her best friends, who are allowed to date like normal teenagers +2 points for never drinking an alcoholic beverage –10 points for obsessing about Asher Richelli, who talks to Nina like she’s not a freak at all, even though he knows that she has a disturbing line of hair running down her back.
In this wryly funny debut novel, the smart, sassy, and utterly lovable Nina Khan tackles friends, family, and love, and learns that it’s possible to embrace two very different cultures – even if things can get a little bit, well, hairy."
RULES
Send an e-mail to YAthenaeum@yahoo.com
Please include your name and a shipping address.
Entry deadline is Monday, February 16th 7:00 p.m. Eastern
Entrants are limited to 1 entry.
PRIZES 2 contestants will each receive:
1: Advanced Reader Copy of Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim
Winners will be chosen at random on Monday, February 16th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, and probably announced shortly after that. Good luck to all entrants!
That's right! Meg Cabot will be at Books & Books tomorrow, February 7, at 7 pm.
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, Florida
"Meg Cabot brings her internationally bestselling series to a royal conclusion in the tenth and final installment, Forever Princess(HarperTeen, $16.99. Mia is now a senior in high school, and her future -- and Genovia's -- hangs in the balance. Mia has some tough choices to make.
What's a Princess to do?
It's Mia's senior year, and things seem great. She aced her senior project, got accepted to her dream college(s), and has her birthday gala coming up . . . not to mention prom, graduation, and Genovia's first-ever elections.
What's not to love about her life? Well . . .
Her senior project? It's a romance novel she secretly wrote, and no one wants to publish it.
Her boyfriend, J.P., is so sweet and seemingly perfect. But is he the one?
And her first love, Michael, is back from Japan . . . and back in her life.
With Genovia's and her own future hanging in the balance, Mia's got some decisions to make: Which college? Which guy? How can she choose? Especially when what she decides might determine not just the next four years, but . . . forever!"
Please join us to help make the last Princess Diaries event the best it can be! There will be a DJ and treats from Peterbrooke Chocolatier! Hope to see you all there!
Books that came out last week:
Books that come out this week:
