Title: Openly Straight
Author: Bill Konigsberg Genre: Contemporary YA Length: 320 pages Summary Rafe Goldberg begins his junior year at Natick, an “all boys” boarding school in Massachusetts. He was an openly gay 16-year old from Boulder Colorado where his community had accepted him since he came out in eighth grade, and his parents truly celebrated his diversity. However, he found the gay label got in the way of people seeing him and prevented him from being just "one of the guys". He wanted to take a break from being gay, so he researched other schools and begged to transfer to Natick. At the beginning of the school year, Rafe is immediately drawn into the soccer crowd and is labeled as a jock for the first time in his life. He relishes being part of a group that had always shut him out . He also becomes friends with his eccentric roommate, Albie, and Albie’s openly gay friend, Toby. As the weeks go by, Rafe develops a tight friendship with a jock named Ben. Ben is different from the rest of them. He is smarter and philosophical and doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks of him. As their friendship deepens, Rafe realizes he loves Ben but doesn’t know how Ben feels. It’s complicated by the fact that Rafe is hiding his true identify from all the students at Natick. All the while, Rafe’s English teacher, Mr. Scarborough, asks each student to keep a private journal to record his thoughts, so Rafe’s essays are peppered throughout the book. The book takes place between September and December. My Review This was an excellent book. It was not only a fun, entertaining read, but I came away with a greater knowledge of the challenges of being labeled as different. (The book focused on gay versus straight, but through Bryce, the only black in their class, you also learn some of Rafe’s challenges are shared by others perceived as “different”.) Written in first person, the reader gains access to a teenage boy’s thoughts about being gay. Given that Rafe had been openly gay back in Colorado and was now hiding it, he was able to constantly reflect on the differences of being gay versus straight in a way that you may not see in a book told from the viewpoint of a person just coming out or openly gay. Also, Rafe’s parents are very involved in the LGBTQ community, so Rafe is a far more educated gay male than the average 16-year old. Finally, through his essays the reader gets an even deeper view of his experiences. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post.
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Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell Genre: Contemporary New Adult with Fantasy Excerpts Length: 445 pages Summary Cath and her twin sister, Wren, move away from home to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Until now, they have been inseparable and Cath wants to remain that way. However, Wren insists it is time to become independent, so they have separate roommates in separate dorms. Cath is miserable. Not only does she miss Wren, but she is stuck with a hateful roommate, Reagan, and her boyfriend who is always hanging out. Meanwhile, Wren is partying it up with her own roommate and loving college life, growing farther and farther apart from Cath. During her freshmen year, Cath learns to live on her own, make a couple of friends, and find her first real boyfriend. She also has to deal with having a father with mental illness living on his own back at home as well as dealing with a mother who is trying to get back into the twins’ lives after leaving them ten years earlier. Cath does have one activity that brings her great joy. She writes fanfiction for the hugely popular Simon Snow series (think Harry Potter). Unknown to everyone at school, she is a famous author in the fanfiction world, often getting tens of thousands of hits on each chapter she writes. Between each chapter of Fangirl, we see excerpts from either one of the seven published Simon Snow books or from Cath’s fanfiction, so we slowly get to see the magic world that Cath would prefer to live in. The book takes place over the course of a school year in 2011-12. My Review I truly enjoyed the story of Cath discovering herself away from her twin at college. The author did a great job with character development, and I got to know Cath, Wren, Reagan, Levi and her father very well. It portrayed an authentic representation of the unique challenges of college for a small segment of people: the extremely introverted ones who distance themselves rather than participate in the social aspects of school. What was unique about this book is the author inserted 1-2 page excerpts between each chapter from the Simon Snow series or from the fanfiction that Cath was writing. Each of these excerpts tied in with the chapter that preceded it. I would have liked to analyze each of these pages more. Unfortunately, I tend to plow through books so probably lost a lot of the meaning in those scenes. Also, I don’t love fantasy, so at first they were distracting and I read through them quickly to get back to the main story. I would recommend that you take the time to get to know the Simon Snow characters right from the beginning and you will get much more enjoyment and understand from these pages. It was also interesting to me to learn more about fanfiction. Although I am a diehard reader, I have never known much about this type of writing. Although the book is written about girls in their freshmen year (thus New Adult), I believe the content was appropriate for a younger reader as it is much milder than you would find in many YA books. There were references to alcohol, but Cath and her father frowned on drinking, particularly when Wren ended up with alcohol poisoning. Through her sister there were references to sex, but Cath herself only kissed her boyfriend. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. Title: The Game of Love and Death
Author: Martha Brockenbrough Genre: Historical Young Adult Romance Length: 329 pages Summary The book opens in 1920 when Love and Death begin a new game. Love picks a Caucasian baby, Henry, as his player while Death picks a black one, Flora. Who will win? Fast forward seventeen years. Henry is now an orphan living with his friend’s wealthy family in Seattle. Playing his cello brings him happiness. Flora lives with her grandmother and sings in the jazz club she co-owns with her uncle. She dreams of becoming the first black pilot to fly across the world. Love and Death’s pawns now begin to interact. Love needs Henry and Flora to choose love above all things. As Love’s player, this comes easily for Henry. However, Flora fights against her feelings for him because she knows falling in love with Henry is not the smart thing to do as a black woman in 1937. Little do they know there are greater beings throwing aides and obstacles their way, in the form of people, as they fight to for their players to win their game. The majority of this book takes place in the spring and summer of 1937. My Review This was a very interesting book. I highly recommend it as a book club read as there are many aspects and layers to discuss. Even the question, who is the protagonist? could lead to a lengthy discussion. I also believe the book would appeal to both women and men, unlike typical romance novels. I love that the book is so original, which makes it memorable for me. The only other book I’ve read with a similar character is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (another great read by the way) where Death plays the narrator. However, the story is completely different. The Game of Love and Death is told in third person from a variety of points of view, primarily Love, Death, Henry and Flora. The chapters are very short which leads to faster reading. I listed the genre as historical young adult romance. It was listed as different genres depending on the website, so I included them all. I believe it would appeal most to readers who enjoy romance novels because love is the focus of the book. I listed it as historical since it takes place in 1937, and the author did her research to make sure the setting was appropriate. However, learning multiple facts about the 30’s was not the focus. As for Young Adult, it would be classified as such because the protagonists are both 17 years old. However due to the times, the characters, Flora in particular, do not behave as today’s teenagers. Flora is living an adult life with adult responsibilities. Therefore, I expect today’s adults would identify more with these characters than today’s teens. But the content is perfectly appropriate for a younger reader. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. One of the best activities an aspiring author can do is attend conferences. Conferences can vary significantly. Some are huge, and some are intimate. Many are geared towards writing whereas others are focused on literacy.
Below, I have listed what I consider to be some of conference’s greatest benefits: Increase Skills Most conferences have lectures or working sessions designed to improve skills. These skills could run the gamut from structuring your novel to developing your social media platform. Pitch Sessions Some conferences offer pitch sessions where you can meet several prospective agents or editors in a short period of time and present your manuscript’s pitch. Many authors have found great success taking this route rather than the traditional query approach. Network Conferences are an excellent way to meet authors, agents, and editors. You may get to mingle with authors you have admired for years and get a book signed. You can also meet people who may become your future beta readers or a likeminded person to reach out to when you need encouragement. Inspiration It is hard to leave a conference without feeling inspired to keep writing and feel that you are part of a great industry. Two weeks ago, I attended my first conference, the Children’s Literacy Conference in Bellingham, WA. Although it was geared to a broader audience than just authors—I was seated between a librarian and a teacher—I listened to four established authors speak. I heard their stories, their struggles, and advice. I left motivated to get back to my computer to keep working. I look forward to the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in July, which will have a different focus. I encourage you to research the conferences coming to your area. Or if you have the time and money, make a trip of it. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you found it helpful. Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty Author: Libba Bray Genre: Young Adult Length: 403 pages Summary This book begins in 1895 in India on Gemma Doyle’s 16th birthday when she begins to get visions just prior to her mother’s suicide. Fast forward a few months and Gemma and her father have relocated to London, and she is sent to the Spence Academy for Girls, a finishing school. At Spence, Gemma continues to be plagued with visions. She also meets Felicity and Pippa. At first, these girls do pranks to see where Gemma will fit in socially. But soon, though blackmail Gemma becomes part of their crowd along with her roommate Ann. Through her visions, Gemma finds a buried diary and learns to travel to the realms, a dream-like place between Earth and the afterlife. By bringing her new friends to the realms, they form a special bond. In the realms, their dreams can come true. They can be beautiful and loved and have an independence that girls could not have back in the 19th century. They can even do magic such as turning leaves to butterflies. Gemma finds her mother in the realms and learns many secrets of her mother’s past. She also learns that the realms were closed off from the world because of a terrible incident that happened twenty years before. Gemma now has the power to re-open the realms and bring some of the magic back to the real world. But doing so has dangerous implications since an unknown person by the name of Circe wants to have the magic and power for herself. Aside from the first chapter, this book takes place during the fall of 1895. My Review I was immediately immersed into Gemma’s worlds at both Spence and in the realms. At Spence, I felt their claustrophobia of being stuck not only in a boarding school, but knowing they would never have independence as women even after graduation. In the realms, the author did a great job painting a picture with all of our senses, and I could feel the independence and power that was not available to women in the real world at that time. The four main characters were well developed. Ann was the poor mistreated orphan with no self-confidence. Felicity had a magnetic personality yet wasn’t wanted by her own family. Pippa was the beauty who wanted true love rather than an arranged marriage. And Gemma was the one who had the power and thought differently from the others. Many readers will likely identify with one of their unique personalities. The book was written in first person from Gemma’s viewpoint, so it was easy to get into her mind and be part of her internal struggle of what to do with her visions and newfound power. Should she follow or mother’s advice and warning about Circe, or should she give into her friends’ wishes to have some magic for themselves? It was fast-paced and original. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. Fortunately, when you finish this book you can read book 2, Rebel Angels and book 3, The Sweet Far Thing. I immediately picked up Rebel Angels and so far, it is just as good. Although it was Young Adult, the language was sophisticated and held my interest. I even found myself having to check a dictionary frequently, partly because so many terms have changed in the last 100 years. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. Have you told people you are writing a book?
If this is a new project for you, perhaps you have not. What is holding you back? Most likely, fear. Fear of failure. Fear that friends will be unsupportive … maybe they will even laugh. Fear that you will be held accountable … by them and yourself. I didn’t tell anyone outside of my immediate family that I had started writing a book. I was worried for all of the reasons above. I went along this way for many months as I pecked out my first chapters. But once I reached the point that I was confident that I would see it through to the end, I began sharing my dream … one-by-one. Once I began talking, I discovered so many benefits. Telling the first person was the scariest. But my friend was encouraging, and she told me I deserved to do something for myself and have a creative outlet. A while later I told my sister. She too thought it was a great idea, but she was truly shocked when I handed her the first draft just a few weeks later. She devoured it in a weekend. She was my first reader and gave me the positive feedback I needed to move on. (How had I forgotten she had been Literary Agent’s assistant many years before. Yes, she was biased, but she had some experience.) Another month later, I announced I was writing to my book club. Now I not only had a roomful of supporters, but I had a handful of beta readers anxious to read another draft. And better yet, one reconnected me with a mutual friend who was also writing. That person has become my number one beta reader as we move forward in our new careers together. The trend continued. It got easier and easier to open up. Each time, I gained something. Perhaps it was just more support. Often it was another reviewer. And several times I got an important contact in the industry. And maybe most importantly, I began to feel like an author. Only when my book was nearly agent-ready was I ready to announce on Facebook and in my annual Holiday Letter that I had written a book. It felt akin to announcing I was pregnant in the scary early days where so much can still go wrong. Will I get an agent? Will it get published? Will it sell? These questions are still unanswered. But now that I have shared my dream, I have become accountable to them (and myself) which will help carry me through the challenging road ahead. I encourage you to open up about your writing. It is one step forward on the path to achieving your dream. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you found it helpful.
Title: Lies We Tell Ourselves Author: Robin Talley Genre: Historical Fiction - Young Adult Length: 368 pages Summary This book is about two high school seniors who meet when their high school is integrated in 1959. Although the story and high school are fictitious, the author did her research. Unfortunately integration didn’t go smoothly in every school district including some parts of Virginia that fought it for years after it had become the law. Sarah is a college bound black teenager who transfers to Jefferson High School to get a better education. Along with nine other blacks, Sarah is put into remedial classes and has to deal with a barrage of humiliating and dangerous pranks. Linda grew up in a family strongly opposed to integration. These two students are forced to work together on a school project. Over the course of a few months, they slowly come to grip with some of the lies they have told themselves about each other’s races and realize they are not as different as they suspected. The book takes place over a period of four months. My Review (small spoiler in 2nd paragraph down) Although it was painful to read at times, it opened my eyes to our country’s recent history. In all my lessons about integration, I had only learned about adults such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. I had never thought about the children who sometimes had to be the ones on the front lines. I had a hard time putting it down. It was fast paced, and I was fascinated by the history of school integration. This book also touched upon the difficulty of coming to terms with lesbian feelings. The focus was on the girls’ feelings rather than on a physical relationship. There was only a couple brief kisses. Part of my enjoyment was due to the way the story was told. One-half of the book was in first person from Sarah’s point of view, the other half from Linda’s. (The last chapter was told by Ruth, Sarah’s younger sister.) Unlike other books that switch back and forth between points of view after every chapter, this book only switched a couple of times. For me, this was the best of both worlds. I got to identify with each of their perspectives, but I didn’t have to struggle through the transitions from one point of view to the other very frequently. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. Several months before I finished my first book, I sat down with a local author for several hours to pick her brain. I was anxious to find out as much as I could about her life and how she got her first novel published.
One topic that kept coming up was the importance of building my social media platform. Of course, I had been hearing this for months, but this was the first time another author was giving me one-on-one time and was able to be specific with her advice. Yes, she made some many comments about having a website and Facebook Pages— both of which I was inspired to finish and launch within days of our meeting—but it was Twitter that resonated with me the most. Perhaps it was because it was the one area I had yet to explore. She was able to give me some pointers on how to use Twitter as an author and I have added a few of my own. Get a handle that is easy to find. The handle is your identifier and begins with the @ sign. I already one as I had signed up, but was not actively tweeting. She encouraged me to change it so it would be easier to find. If you have a long name (like me) or a popular name, you are not going to get your exact name. I finally decided on @christinegrabo because it will pop up if you start typing my full name. Follow Authors Find authors to follow, especially those in your genre by typing in a few words such as Author and Young Adult in the search bar. In time, that will lead to most of you followers being authors too. Support Fellow Authors She explained that twitter should be used to help each other out. Right now, I don’t have my own book to promote, but I can help out other authors by retweeting their tweets or reading and reviewing their books. When it’s my turn, they will be there to help me. Educate Yourself Of course, she didn’t teach me everything, but it was enough to jump in and get started. From there, I was able to look for tutorials to take the next step or learn by lurking and watching others tweet. Link Twitter to Social Media Accounts Once you get going, it is easy to tie your twitter into your website or blogs as well as other social media accounts such as Facebook, Goodreads, Linked In, and Instagram. This will help your followers find you in other arenas. I have found twitter to be a source of valuable information. I follow people who may be anywhere on the continuum of aspiring author to bestselling author as well as editors, literary agents, and marketers, and they have lots of pertinent knowledge to share. Plus, it’s a way to feel camaraderie with fellow writers rather than feel I am stepping out into this new career alone. I encourage you to sign up, get over your fear, and start to tweet. Feel free to send me your first one. I promise to follow you back. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you found it helpful. Title: Since You’ve Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson Genre: Contemporary Young Adult Length: 449 pages Summary Emily Hughes is a seventeen-year old who just finished her junior year. As summer vacation begins, her best friend Sloane disappears without an explanation. Soon, Emily receives a “to do” list in the mail. Sloane has created a list of thirteen activities Emily is supposed to complete over the summer. Emily was the shy one who relied on Sloane the past two years to bring her out of her shell. She can’t imagine doing many of the items on the list, a list that includes activities such as: Kiss a Stranger, Break Something, Hug a Jamie, and Apple Picking at Dark. But in hopes that completing the items on the list will somehow lead to her lost friend, Emily begins. She enlists the help of an unlikely Boy Scout type of guy from school and his best friend. She also becomes friends with a girl at work. With the help of her new friends, she works through the list, stepping out of her comfort zone in many cases. The book takes place over the course of the summer. My Review I loved this book! Based on the thirteen items listed on the back cover, I didn’t expect it to engage me. I had picked it up only because I heard that it was good. There wasn’t anything magical or out of this world in the book; it was just real life. However, I would say this is one of the best contemporary Young Adult books I have read. Ms. Matson did an amazing job of getting into Emily’s head and transporting me back to what it felt like to be a teen. I believe many readers, especially those who are not naturally outgoing, will identify with Emily. She feels lost at the beginning of the novel. We root for her as she matures and becomes her own person separate from her best friend. I felt comfortable letting my tween read this novel, as the mature content was limited and not the focus. There was some underage drinking, use of a fake ID, skinny-dipping, and a couple of kisses. My daughter enjoyed it too, by the way. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. These days with so many electronic devices, people can write anywhere: the office, the coffee shop, the kitchen table, or even outside by a pool. Although you may actually choose to lug your laptop to a variety of places, you should have a home writing base as well.
If you are one of the lucky ones who has an entire office to themselves to spread out, this post may not for you. However in talking to fellow writers, I have found that some of them don’t have any designated space. Even if they have a home office, the space has been allocated to their spouse and/or their kids. They get the leftovers. Or maybe you do have your own space, but your day job takes over and your notebooks and writing literature are just scattered throughout. In either case, your writing is not taking enough space in your life, (both physically and mentally). I am telling you if you want to write that book, you will be more productive if you make space for yourself and your writing. You need a place where you can sit and feel, I am a writer. So clear off that shelf, empty a drawer, and give yourself room at the desk (even if you have to work out some sort of time-share). You are important, and so is your writing. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you found it helpful. |
My BlogThis is a place where I post events, my latest news, and the occasional book review.
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