All tagged Jeri Smith-Ready
Links + Things: Semi-Short & Sweet Edition
Just a semi-quick roundup of links this week, since I'm on a semi-vacation at home this week and next. So, just bulleted news, cover art and some good deals on books in this edition. We'll be back to our regular programming shortly.
Recommended Reading
- Tiger Eyes is out on on-demand!!! It's taken tremendous self-control to not watch it yet, since I'm meeting up with friends to see it in an actual theater tomorrow. You can get it oniTunes and Amazon Instant Video. (US only so far.)
- Our friend Reynje shared this excellent piece about violence against women and gore on our television and movie screens. I honestly thought I was just being overly sensitive, but it turns out that I'm not alone in being disturbed by the seeming increase in violence in popular entertainment.
- This is the best analysis I've seen of Book Expo America. I kind of hate conferences (I know, I know--I've just had to do too many for work) and can't afford to travel to them anyway, but it sounds like BEA needs to think about how to make the show work for the broad range of attendees. Be sure to read the comments, which have some very interesting discussion.
- I know everyone has already linked to this, but author Ann Aguirre's post about being a female writer of science fiction is a must-read. (via author Alanna Blackett)
- In a similar vein, author Jeanine Frost has an insightful discussion of her feelings on the current SFWA mess.
- I love Nafiza's honest and thoughtful discussion of the whys behind book blogging. So much of what she said resonated with me--especially the numbers game issue, which has been making me increasingly uncomfortable lately.
- The Huffington Post has a list of nine "books" (several are genres/categories) people will judge you for reading. While I appreciate the sentiment behind this post, that it's pretty silly to sit around judging people's reading choices, I really wish folks would stop lumping all romance novels, young adult fiction, etcetera, together, even when they're being positive.
- This is a fascinating interview with Sarah Dessen and her editor about their editorial process, and how they work together.
- I am devastated about this news, re: the possibility of teleportation.
- This lengthy profile of WNBA rookie Brittney Griner is fantastic, even if you don't care one bit about sports.
- The Writers Guild of America apparently has a list of the 101 best-written television shows of all time (PDF). Friday Night Lights comes in at 22. For the record, I have some quibbles with that ranking. Texas forever, y'all.
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.
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
Blogging is a funny thing.
I never imagined that “my thing” as a blogger would be defending genres that I don’t really read. But, it’s something I feel very strongly about. I really do believe that the frequent diminishing of any number of genres is really a disappointing approach to book criticism.
Within every single genre, there’s a spectrum of quality, and that perception varies greatly depending on each individual reader or reviewer’s personal taste, so the dismissal an entire genre out-of-hand really bothers me.
With that said, it’s probably no surprise I was pretty disappointed to read a piece recently that was extremely harsh toward paranormal YA. Admittedly, this is not one of my favorite genres, as I tend to prefer my paranormal in adult fiction (it generally makes more sense to me in a more grown up setting).
However, there are a few paranormal YAs that I sincerely enjoy and often recommend.
Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Alert! Alert! This is a standalone paranormal YA! Try not to pass out from the shock of it all. I loved this book so much, it’s a really fun ghost story and mystery with a whole lot of humor and a light, charming romance. And if you grew up on Nancy Drew, you’ll love the little shout-outs to Nancy’s adventures. (Sandra also recommends the Maggie Quinn books by the same author.)