Road Trip Wednesday

It’s Road Trip Wednesday! This week, the folks over at YA Highway are asking In honor of the end of the Olympics, share your favorite sports book.

I’m going to have to cheat a bit here because I really couldn’t think of a “sports book” that I’ve read. Ever.

However! Since the topic is in honor of the Olympics and the Olympics do have horse-related events… I’m going to go with THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater for my answer. I think a re-read of this one might be in my future, in fact. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and read it again. The language is beautiful and rich. The action is brutal. The love story angle is subtle and beautiful – there is no whiny, helpless female character who needs a man to make her succeed. The setting is beautiful and harsh at the same time. All in all, a wonderful read.

Road Trip Wednesday: Best Book of July

It’s Road Trip Wednesday! This week, the folks over at YA Highway are asking What was the best book you read in July?

Well, I’m cheating a bit with my answer because I’m still reading this book. So, if the last third of this book really, really stinks, I’m going to have to retract this entire post. I don’t see that happening, though.

The book I’m currently sucked into (I mean like – “kids, get your own dinner and I’m not doing any laundry this week” sucked into) is the first book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness – THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO.

It is a dystopian YA set on “New World” where settlers have come to start over but there was a war with the natives and things went terribly wrong. You can check this link on Goodreads for the full description. During the war, the natives (called “the spackle”) set loose a germ that made it possible for everyone to hear each other’s thoughts – or “noise” as he calls it.

The thing that I really love about this book is the main character’s voice – Todd. It’s in the first person. There are misspellings and colloquialisms and the first few pages I had to really focus a bit to get into the “world.” But once I did …. I was really all the way in.

Because of this germ that was unleashed on New World, the people can even hear the animals “noise” and vice versa. Because of this his faithful dog, Manchee, becomes a major character in the book. (For those of you who may have read this book… if something bad happens to Manchee, please don’t tell me!)

What’s the best book you read in July? Or are reading?

Giddy as a school girl!

You guys! I think I may actually attend my first ever book signing! How is it possible that I – a voracious reader and fangirl of many, many authors – has never attended a book signing? I have no idea.

Well, for starters, the closest major metro area is more than an hour away so I would really need to be paying attention to when book signings would be happening there. It also happens to be a metro area that does not always get included in some of the major book tours – ie: it’s not New York or Los Angeles.

Thanks to the modern conveniences of social media, I came across a post by Amanda Hocking announcing dates for her book tour after WAKE comes out on Tuesday, Aug. 7. Those dates, times and places are here, if you are interested. Ms. Hocking lives in my home state of Minnesota (woot!) and is starting out her tour here. So several of these places are actually places I can get to.

I’m very excited and hope that, in my book-signing-virgin state, I don’t do anything uncouth and am asked to never attend a book signing ever again.

The description for WAKE – which will apparently be the first in a four-book series – can be found here. I have read her Trylle Trilogy and Hollows Series and enjoyed both so I’m looking forward to WAKE.

And for those of you who do not want to follow the links – check out this cover! Is this not one of the prettiest covers ever?

What book signings have you attended? What advice do you have for a newbie to make the most of the experience?

Happy Birthday to my YA buddy

Last week’s Road Trip Wednesday on YA Highway asked who you share your love of YA with in real life – as opposed to all the wonderful YA bloggers who form a fantastic network of supportive friends. I didn’t participate in that RTW simply due to time but I always like to see what the prompt is and I always give it at least a little thought whether I participate or not. My first thought at this prompt was the few close friends who I have talked into reading things like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter and who, despite themselves, really liked them.

Then it occurred to me that I was looking right past my best YA compadre: my oldest daughter – who is officially a teenager today. (Lord help me.)

She has been my bookworm since… forever. When she was little, we read and read and read books every night. As soon as she could read for herself, she just took off. Her nose is in a book a good part of every day.

And now that she’s getting older, we share much the same taste in books. Some of my favorite moments of motherhood are when she says, “Mom, you have GOT to read this book I just finished.” Then she rattles off an entire summary and list of characters.

And you know what? She’s got great taste in books. Case in point: she just finished Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. She ripped through that in about two days and then insisted that I read it. I started it last night and, though it was creeping me out, I could NOT tear myself away.

She enjoys writing, too. And, I know I’m biased, but I think she’s pretty good at it.

So, Happy Birthday to my best YA buddy!