Top Ten Tuesday (4) 4-30-13: Top Ten Topics that Instantly Make Me PickUp A Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. <~~~Click Here to learn more and join the blog hop!

Top Ten Topics That Instantly Make Me ***GRABBY HANDS***

I'll admit it. There are certain things I'm a sucker for: any and all references to Batman, guys with eyes like Sinatra, and unicorns that shit cupcakes. 

Wait...what?

Here are the top ten topics that when I find YA books about them, I MUST MUST read them immediately.

10. Anything that references Shakespeare. Because, ya know, it's FUCKING SHAKESPEARE, YO!

9. GLBTQ characters: I think sexual identity is such a hugely mis- and underrepresented topic in YA. I know it takes years to get from query to publication but it still feels to me like traditional publication is decades behind in this topic.

8. Dystopian YA--So bummed that it's on its way out. I'm a total sucker for dystopians. Especially if they have a more realistic/possible twist to them.

7. "John Green"--Beyond being a total John Green fan girl I will also read anything he mentions on twitter or stamps with his approval. It's the whole reason I picked up Eleanor and Park, which incidentally should be on every single person's TBR list if you haven't picked it up yet.

6. Performing Arts--If the MC is a dancer, singer, actor, musician I must read it. Always looking for recommendations in this area.

5. Latina YA--Another underrepresented minority in YA lit. Have a couple on my TBR list right now I cannot wait to read!

4. Atypical Family Dynamics that ARE NOT the book's focus--my favorite thing about Lola and the Boy Next Door is how non-issue it is that she has 2 dads. It's mentioned. It's a subplot point, but it's not the entire focus on the book. I think when we make sexual identity an "issue" then that's what it becomes. And, really, kids with atypical families get enough of that at school.

3. Mental Illness or Psychology--whether it's a story about depression like It's Kind of a Funny Story (which was pretty good) or a psychological thriller like Fracture (which was amazeballs) I love books that make us think about how we think...and that bring to light our cognitive dysfunctionality.

2. Substance Abuse--Because it's such a huge part of my own writing I like to stay on top of how other writers portray the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in their work. Though it often makes me ranty. Two masters' degrees and too many years of experience in the trenches will do that to you. It's really probably better for the community when I leave these puppies on the shelf, but yeeeeeeah, I just can't.

1. An MC with a Disability--Although this goes hand in hand with #4. Don't show me a kid dying of cancer. Show me a kid surviving it. Show me a character who won't be defined by his/her limitations. That's the stuff of real life inspiration.

Got any recommendations in these categories? I'd love to hear them! What are the hot topics you can't leave on the shelf?

Top Ten Tuesday (3) 4-23-13: Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like More Than I Did

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. <~~Click Here to read more and join the blog hop!

Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like More Than I Did

This is kind of a bummer of a topic, but as a writer honing my craft I think it's an important one. We need to know the ways we're letting our readers down so that we can continue to improve ourselves. So here's a list of books I thought I'd like more than I did, and why I felt disappointed after reading them. But to make it fun, yay GIFs!! GIFs make everything fun, right? Right. 

10. Beautiful Creatures--Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl--I read this book right before the movie came out which may have been my first mistake. Everyone I knew was completely fangirling over Beautiful Creatures so by the time I picked it up, I had ridiculously high expectations. It took me a loooooong time to finish a book that really I should have gotten through in about a day. The pace was not fast enough for me and while I liked the male lead, I wasn't really crazy about Lena. She was a little too...Bella...for me. But we'll get to that in a bit. ;)

9. An Abundance of Katherines--John Green--I'm ashamed to include this, really I am. I genuflect at the altar of John Green, but this was one I could not get into. For me the lesson here is the importance of a likable MC. Colin was a little too...

...for me. I felt no empathy for him, which I don't think was necessarily different from what Green expected the reader to feel. But for me it was a deal-breaker. So there ya go. He's still the best YA author ever, though. Really and truly.

8. The List--Siobahn Vivian--I love Siobahn almost as much as I love John Green. Her debut was genius--all the wonderful things about YA Contemp. But The List fell flat for me. I'm all about multi-POV novels. I think it's an important concept for teens to grasp--that different people will see the same situation in different ways. But this was too many POVs for me. I didn't feel like I ever had an anchor. There wasn't one character I really wanted to win. And it made me struggle to root for the book as a whole.

7. Ender's Game--Orson Scott Card--Yes, yes, I know. Putting this classic on my list is a crime against the craft of writing. To be fair, I picked it up primarily because my husband told me to, which made me go in with a lot of skepticism (we don't typically like the same books.) But that's not why I ended up adding this title to this list. I predicted the ending about five chapters into the book. And I don't like my reads to be that predictable. So there you have it.

6. Reached--Ally Condie--I'm too disappointed to really even be diplomatic about it. I was super disappointed in this book. It was one I was looking forward to all year after reading Matched and Crossed. For me, Reached was super telly and because the three MCs were so isolated, there wasn't a lot of dialogue until the very end. And the ending? Blah. I wanted to be like...

Instead, I was sad in my pants after this read. 

5. Walking Disaster--Jamie Maguire--I was reading along, enjoying this companion to Beautiful Disaster, which I liked even in its original self-pub format despite all the yucka errors. It was interesting to see the same story from a different perspective, and it was juuuuuuust different enough that it didn't feel like I was reading the exact same book.

And then came the epilogue.

And so that I don't get screamed at for spoilers, I will leave it at that. :)

4. Sloppy Firsts--Megan McCafferty--I heard so much good stuff about this book on Goodreads that I had to pick it up. Like Katherines, I wasn't a fan of the MC. Or the narrative voice. Or the love interest. I just wasn't a fan. Meh.

3. Requiem--Lauren Oliver--I'm pretty sure there is a lost 4th installment in this series that Ms. Oliver has failed to announce to us yet. Because really? This is not how you end a long-anticipated trilogy. I was so disappointed. The series feels so, so unfinished. I confess myself disappointed. There may even be boo-hissing involved.

2. Private--Kate Brian--This was the first real YA series I read after I decided I wanted to write YA Contemporary. It was sooooooo huge at the time, and I had to see what it was all about. I'm still trying to figure it out. Suffice to say I've determined that prep school books about snotty fashion-obsessed shallow wannabes is not the kind of book for me.

1. Twilight--Stephanie Meyer--I can sum this one up with just a GIF. Otherwise this would require its own post.






What book was the biggest disappointment for you? And feel free to tell me all the reasons I'm wrong about my choices! I love hearing perspectives that challenge my thinking.

Happy reading, everyone!