Book Blogger Challenge (Day 13, 14 & 15)

This post is part of the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge, hosted by Good Books and Good Wine!

Today is the last day of the challenge! I had a big weekend out-of-town and didn’t pre-schedule any of the weekend’s posts, so today is a little catch-up and finish-up. 🙂
Day 13 – One under-appreciated book EVERYONE should read.
Day 14 – Tell us your deal breakers.
Day 15 – Who are your book blogging mentors?

Day 13 – One under-appreciated book EVERYONE should read.
One book that I love that I know of very few people reading is Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay. I read this based on an Amazon recommendation and had never read a verse novel. I almost didn’t read it or thought I would abandon it right away, but, that’s how great it was and how well it hooked me! Marcie, the main character, has a solid, standout voice. I was amazed at the emotions and ideas that could take place in such condensed text. It was entertaining and a quick read, too!



Day 14 – Tell us your deal breakers.
As I’ve mentioned before, when it comes to blogging/reviewing, I really only read books that I’m pretty sure I’m going to like. No one really approaches me with a new book for a blog fest, cover reveal, etc. and I don’t sign up, so I don’t have an Abandoned/DNF list. But, I read slush pile submissions and some of the things that turn me off while reading include:
1. Lack of strong voice – I know this is frustrating for authors to hear “this didn’t have strong voice” or “I couldn’t get a feel for…” but a distinct voice is what makes any story–whether a contemporary romance or an epic fantasy–stand out.
2. Lack of authenticity – I think many authors write what they know, but as a teacher I know that 99.9% of my 9th graders don’t know about X band that I listened to in college (hey, I was surprised when most of them didn’t know who The Beatles were–how does every main character know who Green Day is when a book is set in present day?) or that 99.9% of them don’t wear Chuck Taylors. Or that a vast majority of them hate reading. Yet, when you read YA so many MCs are book-loving, Chucks-wearing, retro music-lovers. Similarly, if your mc is in modern-day and saying “neato” or calling someone a “brat” when it’s not consistent to the time frame or the character.
3. Errors – Manuscripts are supposed to be pretty polished, but those can be fixed during the publishing process. I can’t handle seeing errors in published books (in most cases one sees this in self-published works). Talk about being ripped out of a story–this is the surest way to do so!
4. Not elevated – I think this can be connected to voice, but I genuinely love it when authors use some higher vocabulary and don’t “write down” to young adults. I say it’s connected to voice because this does have to be organic and  consistent with the voice of the mc. It’s not a deal breaker if a book DOESN’T have amazing elevation, but it’s a consideration when I pick one up or vote “yes” to acquire. Something has to set a book apart (especially if when talking about acquiring a book) and this is something that helps.
5. Lack of description/Lack of characterization – I love being able to picture a character’s face and get-up. I love a vividly built world for characters. Paint a good picture for me, and I’m sold!
6. Repetition – I do not care for details being rehashed a million times throughout a story. Either the author is trying to create a quirk/voice that ends up feeling forced, or, it feels like the author doesn’t trust the reader to remember details that have already been laid out. There are times it works, of course!

Day 15 – Who are your book mentors?
I totally admire bloggers who are consistent and show their personality through their posts. The following people are awesome at this! With the exception of Katy (I’ve known her since high school!), I met/have followed these people on Twitter and you should follow them, too–they’re awesome! I also follow all these people on Bloglovin’.
Katy Upperman
Jessica Love
The Daily Dahlia – Dahlia Adler
YA Love Blog – Sarah Andersen
Good Books and Good Wine
The Broke and The Bookish

Book Blogger Challenge (Day 5)

I am participating in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge, hosted by Good Books and Good Wine.

Today is Day 5, Recommend a tear jerker.

I have a feeling this will be very popular amongst the tear jerkers today, but THE tear jerker for me is The Fault in Our Stars. I have teared up with other books (mentioned below) but I legit cried with TFiOS. I participated in the YA Book Club with a post that is spoilery but you can read all about it if you’d like!

*Added 7/14: After perusing some other posts for the challenge, I remembered the first book that made me cry! In second grade my teacher made us read the end of Where the Red Fern Grows on our own, because she said it was too sad and would make her cry. As I read it silently in class, I totally teared up and I remember thinking my teacher was smart to have us read it on our own.

Other books that caused me to get teary:
The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Dare You To by Katie McGarry
Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
*Added 7/14: Deadline by Chris Crutcher

What book has made you cry? (I need some recs!)  

Book Blogger Challenge (Day 4)

I am participating in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge, hosted by Good Books and Good Wine.

Today is Day 4, What’s the last book you flung across the room?

I can’t really recall any extreme frustration with a book. I think I’m a pretty even-keeled reader and since I’m not really a book blogger, I select books I’m pretty sure I’m going to like. I chatted with Nikki at  Take Me Away: A Book Blog and she suggested talking about a book that wasn’t the Happily Ever After that I expected.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen – So much hype surrounds Dessen, which I DO understand, but I’ve only read one other Dessen book (Along for the Ride) which I really liked. I know that there’s a lot of die-hard Dessen fans out there and after two reads, I can’t say I’m one of them. Dessen liker, yes. Dessen lover, no. She’s awesome to follow on Twitter and I do have This Lullaby handy to read sometime, because I know that there’s “hype” for a reason. 🙂

Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt- I expected this book to be a happily ever after YA contemp and while it was a YA contemp it was a gritty tale with a kind of stream-of-consciousness prose. That’s not really a style I flock to, and I think since my expectations were high/different, I was caught off guard.

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce – I wanted to really like this book. Fairy Tale retelling! Mermaids! Beautiful cover! Plus, Pearce is very personable and entertaining in real life and on Twitter. I haven’t read anything else from Pearce so maybe I would like one of her other novels more? I understand that the actual “little mermaid” fairy tale is quite dark and sad, and while I felt that in Pearce’s book, I didn’t feel like the characters were very rich and likable.

Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy – I’m always fascinated by girls/women who are friends with boys and I thought, a book about THEM–those kinds of girls! But, it really fell flat. I didn’t feel like the main focus WAS Charlotte’s friendships with Oliver and Trip, as there were many other mini-storylines. And of course, there’s a romantic relationship that develops and I just kept thinking that it wasn’t necessary if it was about friendships.

None of these books were BAD, they just weren’t for me.

How about you–ever fling a book in frustration? 

Book Blogger Challenge (Day 1 on Day 2)

To try to get back in the swing of things with this ol’ blog-a-roo, I am participating (mostly) in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge, hosted by Good Books and Good Wine.

So, this is actually Day 2, but I got a late start. Tomorrow’s Day 3 post will be the Day 2 prompt for me, because I don’t really have any book blogging BFFs. I’m not a book blogger, but I do blog about books on occasion. 😉 My internet presence is spotty at best so we’ll see how these 15, er, 12 days go.

Today’s Prompt: 15 Book Related Confessions

1 – I have read  few classics. I’m an English teacher and a reader and I haven’t read…okay, no, it’s probably easier to list what I HAVE read: The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Julius Caesar and I *think* I read The Scarlet Letter in high school. There are definitely more that I read in high school and college, but that’s all I can think of now. 🙂

2 – I leave special “bookmarks” in hard copy books. If you borrowed my copy of Speak, for example, you would find a message slip from my (now) husband from college. Even in my Kindle, I have a parking pass from a camping trip, my friend’s school picture that kept falling out of my purse so I just stuck it in, etc.

3 – I judge books by their covers. Really, don’t we all? I am drawn to covers with cool typography these days.

4 – I have a bone to pick with authors who write a series, because I can’t not finish a series. I have to read each book as it’s released, which typically means a gap year between books.

5 – If I LOVE a book, there’s a possibility I’ve bought it twice: once on the Kindle and then a hard copy (Divergent, Love and Leftovers). Similarly, I sometimes have an e-ARC on my Kindle and then buy the book if I love it a lot (Time Between Us, The Raven Boys).

6 – I always wish to reread books, especially before they hit the big screen, but I don’t have time. Because of the classroom, interning, reading new e-galleys for fun/review, etc., I just can’t. (I’m talking to you, The Hunger Games and Divergent!)

7 – I doggy ear pages and I mark-up books. I love my Kindle because I can mark-up a book without marring beautiful pages, but, I write (in pencil) on my hard copy books, too. My cousin usually then borrows my books…I’ve never asked her what she thinks of my annotations, but I should.

8 – I have this weird OCD-like thing where I mark-up/doggy ear pages when I find vocabulary words from my English class. Do I take the book in and show my students? No. (Although, that is my original intent.) Do I use the sample sentence on a word wall? No. (Although, I should.) It’s a weird compulsion!

9 – I like object covers over the real-life photos that are popular in YA today. Give me an object, colors, and/or cool typography over a girl in a pretty dress any day! (No really, please!)

10 – I have an almost absolute need to read the book before seeing the movie. As such, I have not seen The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Harry Potter, I don’t want to see The Maze Runner until I’ve read, etc.

11 – I favor YA Romance and now NA Romance a lot. I feel a little silly about this, and I know I shouldn’t.

12 – I never finished reading Bill Clinton’s My Life autobiography. It’s just SO MUCH BOOK. I seriously started it probably 8 years ago. Until I started interning, I always completed books and even when I’m reading for fun I still do. I do not have a book blogging/pleasure reading DNF list… except for Bill.

13 – I started reading YA as an adult because I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson in my college YA Literature class. I had no idea authors were writing books set in high school that weren’t like The Babysitters Club and/or Sweet Valley High, which I loved to read when growing up. Speak is a standalone, compelling, provocative, quirky in all the right ways kind of novel and it made me want to read more about high school life, and, get those kinds of books in the hands of my students.

14 – I have never read an audiobook.

15 – I don’t do scary books (creepy/thriller/etc.). When people talk about books that are creepy/scary/etc. I’m just not drawn to them. I rarely read a book that can make me cry, and similarly, I don’t read books that are thriller kinds of page turners. Weird?

‘Fess up! What are some of your book confessions?