List-O-Rama: Thinking About Summer Reading

/
List-O-Rama: Thinking About Summer Reading

Summer reading tends to be feast or famine for me.

My work schedule gets a bit weird, so I alternate between no free time and loads of it. As a result, I tend to be a bit more random with my reading choices (which is saying something, since I specialize in random and don't keep a reading "schedule" like many folks do) and binge on series or authors and try a lot of stuff out that piqued my interest that I previously passed up due to business, etcetera.

Here are a few (actually, a whole lot) of books I'm thinking about tackling this summer.

Darkest London Series by Kristen Callihan

I picked up the third book in Kristen Calligan's Darkest London Series at ALA earlier this year, not realizing that it was part of an ongoing series (I started reading Winterblaze and was promptly confused). I find myself more and more intrigued by historical fantasy (is that what the sub-genre is called?) and this one while having pretty trashy covers, comes highly recommended by several folks whose taste I trust.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Paranormal YA Series Enders

I have a weird habit with series endings: I kind of hate them. There's so much pressure for series to end "right" and in the case of paranormal YA, since there's not a lot that I love, love, love, with Jeri Smith-Ready's Shade trilogy, Rachel Vincent's lengthy Soul Screamersseries and Kim Derting's Body Finder quartet, it's not just series ending stress I'm facing--I'm also looking at not having a lot left in the genre that intrigues me.

Shade Series on Amazon | Goodreads
Soul Screamers on Amazon | Goodreads
The Body Finder on Amazon | Goodreads

Read More

Podcast: What the hell is "New Adult"?

/
Podcast: What the hell is "New Adult"?

​We're back with another installment of the Clear Eyes, Full Shelves podcast! In this episode we ask a lot of questions about the idea of "new adult" fiction.

Is it a genre? Is it a category? Is it even a thing in the real world beyond the internet? Why are most of the New Adult novels seemingly contemporary romance with 18-24 year old? What types of books would we like to see come out of this trend?

As an added bonus, we both reflect on what we were like during that tumultuous--and hilarious--time in our lives. ​We'd love to hear your thoughts on what you'd like to see from this trend.

You can listen by steaming the audio in this post, by control- or right-clicking the "download" link or subscribing in iTunes. (If you're an iTuner, we very much appreciate your rating the podcast--it helps us show up in searches.)

Thanks for listening!

Read More

List-O-Rama: Tangled Like/Love/Lust That Doesn't Suck

/
List-O-Rama: Tangled Like/Love/Lust That Doesn't Suck

I know, I know... the love triangle is everyone's favorite trope to hate. But sometimes... just sometimes, it's kind of fun/intriguing/compelling.

Here are a handful of like/love/lust triangles that I've enjoyed--seriously.

The "Summer" Series by Jenny Han: Belly, Jeremiah, Conrad

Triangle Type: The Classic - Two Brothers Heart One Girl; Girl Hearts Two Brothers--Yo, It's Complicated!
​This series not only features a love triangle (and it's really "love") because Belly really cares about both brothers, Jeremiah and Conrad, and they care about her. Their shared history of summers spent together at the shore makes the complexity of the relationships completely believable--it's achy and the dramatics are irresistible. Read my review here.

Amazon | Goodreads

Read More