Posts Tagged "Book of the Month"

Dancia Lewis is far from popular. And that’s not just because of her average grades or her less-than-glamorous wardrobe. In fact, Dancia’s mediocrity is a welcome cover for her secret: whenever she sees a person threatening someone she cares about, things just…happen. Cars skid. Structures collapse. Usually someone gets hurt.  So Dancia does everything possible to avoid getting close to anyone, belieiving this way she can supress her powers and keep them hidden.

But when recruiters from the prestigious Delcroix Academy show up in her living room to offer her a full scholarship, Dancia’s days of living under the radar may be over. Only, Delcroix is a school for diplomats’ kids and child geniuses–not B students with uncontrollable telekinetic tendencies.  So why are they treating Dancia like she’s special? Even the hottest guy on campus seems to be going out of his way to make Dancia feel welcome.

And then there’s her mysterious new friend Jack, who can’t stay out of trouble. He suspects something dangerous is going on at the Academy and wants Dancia to help him figure out what.  But Dancia isn’t convinced. She hopes that maybe the recruiters know more about her “gift” than they’re letting on. Maybe they can help her understand how to use it…But not even Dancia could have imagined what awaits her behind the gates of Delcroix Academy.

From the onset, it’s pretty clear that Dancia is supposed to be an average, run of the mill character that teenage girls everywhere should be able to relate to. With her average, grades, average appearance, less than impressive wardrobe, and no money or classy possessions to show off, Dancia has pretty much resigned herself to a life less lived. Except, although she seems unwilling to admit it, there is something exceptional about her. She has an odd kind of power and can make things happen with her mind. She doesn’t understand it, she can’t really control it, but whenever she ends up using it, bad things happen. Dancia chooses to ignore her power and enters the big fat land of denial.

The Delcroix Academy recruits her. She doesn’t understand why – Delcroix is supposed to be for talented people, and talent is something she’s seriously lacking. Still, there is no possible way they could know about her abilities, right? That couldn’t really be why they want her, could it?

Jack seems to think so. He’s another recruit, just like Dancia. No special, obvious talents (unless you count a juvie record and a bunch of failed efforts under his belt). But Dancia senses something special about Jack immediately. Something special, in her kind of way. Just when Dancia starts getting close to Jack, Cam puts himself in her line of vision. Dancia doesn’t understand his newfound interest in her – he is the most attractive guy in school after all – but when his attention seems unrelenting, Dancia allows herself to roll with it.  Suddenly, she finds herself caught in the middle of a love triangle. Has the world gone completely mad?

Except, she doesn’t like Jack. Honest. She likes Cam. Smart, funny, handsome. Jack is nothing but a troublemaker. So why, if she feels nothing for Jack, does the world stop spinning when he kisses her?

Then the truth comes out about why she was really recruited to Declroix, and all hell breaks loose.

I found Dancia’s naivety completely and utterly frustrating, but if I’m honest with myself, the way she behaved is completely and utterly believable. It’s every girl’s dream come true to have the school hearth throb chasing after you. Unfortunately, I don’t buy it. Even though Cam does seem genuinely interested in Dancia, I refused to let myself believe its true. I can’t pin point it exactly, but there’s just something about it that makes my stomach turn – and not in a good way.

Jack, on the other hand, is totally nuts about Dancia, but I’m not entirely sure it’s for the right reasons. Is he interested in her because of her power, or does he really like her for who she is? I can’t tell yet, but I’m really hoping it’s the latter. In case you didn’t already figure it out, I’m Team Jack.

Delcroix Academy: The Candidates starts off a little slowly, but once the action gets going, it becomes one of those novels that you just can’t put down. It’s Inara Scott’s first novel, and I’m definitely going to be watching to see how this story pans out.

Pages: 293

Publication Date: August 28, 2010

Rating::

Teaser Quote: Jack leaned against the porch rail, his body once again a relaxed slouch. his voice was soft, coaxing. “How can you say that? I’m no bully.”

Maggie Stiefvater’s stellar novel, Linger, is our Book of the Month here for July. As promised, she sat down for a quick Q&A with us (aint she just the cutest?!) Enjoy.

What made you decide to include the additional POV(s)?

Sheer insanity. No, mostly it was because I love to see characters from all sides — often an action they think is very sympathetic is actually very unsympathetic from an outside viewpoint, or vice versa. And with a limited first person POV, you can only see so much. I wanted to see more of Mercy Falls than Sam and Grace could see, and I wanted to see more about Cole in particular. I couldn’t have tackled his character arc without seeing inside his head.

Music is a reoccurring theme in your novels. For those that may be unaware of your affinity with music, please explain.

I . . . just need it. I can’t write unless I have music playing in the background, and I write better if I have dedicated playlists with the mood of the novel or scene or character playing. I also play a bunch of musical instruments so if writing ever stops working out for me, I can go back to busking on the sidewalk with my bagpipes. I’d need to get another kilt, though.

Since the release of SHIVER, your name is now considered among the best of YA authors. How has your life changed lately?

It’s really bizarre, actually, to think that just a few years ago I was reading the “greats” in YA and now I’m on lists with them. It happened so fast that I still sort of just feel as if my hair is on fire. It’s pretty amazing to go into a library, say my name, and have the teen librarian instantly begin nodding her head because she not only knows who you are, but she read your book. It’s just sort of crazy and wonderful and intimidating. I have readers! I don’t want to let these people down!

Can you tell us anything about the SHIVER movie?

Unfortunately I don’t have too much in the way of news. The film rights were optioned by Warner Brothers/ Unique Features, they hired Nick Pustay to adapt the screenplay, and the latest news is that the script is finished. I don’t know anything else other than that! Everything in film movies glacially slowly, and that’s saying a lot, since I’m used to publishing being slow.

Who is your ideal Grace and Sam?

Alex Turner for Sam (I know he’s not an actor) and Rachel Hurd Wood for Grace — or Dakota Blue Richards. She’s a little young at the moment, but movies take so long . . .

Can you give us any information about your next novel

It is not about werewolves. Or kraken. It’s a YA paranormal, mostly realistic with a hint of supernatural, like my other books, and it involves blood and beaches and kissing. That’s all I can say!

We’re featuring Audrey’s memoir, Map, for the month of June here at yaReads. Her story is a brave account of her life as she explores her sexuality, and her candidness continues in this interview. Enjoy yaReaders!

For those that may not know, what is a memoir?

It’s a true story, usually focused on one time period or theme in the life of a regular person, as opposed to an autobiography which is generally about the entire life-to-date of someone famous.  So for instance my memoir Map is a coming-of-age story about a time when it was easier to admit that you were in love with another girl than that you’d met someone on the internet.

Did you decide to use alias names for the people in your story, or did you just tell it how it was?

It was important to me tell the truth, both factually and emotionally, as best as I could.  I even used old credit card receipts and telephone bills and emails to remember facts.  But to respect people’s privacy I used pseudonyms for almost every character in Map, except in the case of two minor characters who gave me explicit permission to use their real names.

How long did MAP take you to write?

Nine-and-a-half years, start to finish.  The first draft took me only a couple of months, but I left out the climax!  My writing group was pretty insistent that that wasn’t allowed.  It took some time for me to get comfortable enough to share the hard parts.  And then with each successive draft, I heard “more,” or “deeper,” or “you need more perspective,” until finally the story was on the page the way it needed to be.

Would you say that writing a memoir is easier, or harder than writing fiction?

Ooh, good question.  I think they’re challenging in different ways.  In both cases, you need to be able to tell a good story and bring compelling characters alive on the page, and neither lets you evade emotional truth if you are doing it well.  I think for me, memoir’s largest challenge was how to write both honestly and respectfully about other real live human beings—many of whom were still a part of my life.  With the novel I recently finished, on the other hand, I had to work to understand multiple characters so that their motivations and actions, not my authorial plot-needs, were driving the story.

At the beginning of MAP, you question your sexuality and essentially conclude that you’re bisexual. Although you were cautious about coming out, it didn’t ever seem like you were completely scared or feared any kind of social rejection. Can you talk about your feelings on this subject?

I’m still not sure how much of my experience was luck of environment. By the time I came out, there were plenty of queer people around me, and I’d witnessed parts of the coming out of a few gay friends and acquaintances.  Some of them had challenges with their families, or with their own comfort levels, but if they experienced any social rejection, I was completely oblivious.  There just didn’t seem to be anything to worry about in that arena.  And I grew up with activist parents, and although their activism was mostly centered around the Jewish community, it was unfathomable that they wouldn’t be supportive of gay rights and whatnot.  So where a lot of people might worry about homophobia, I was more concerned that people would realize I was confused about something, that I wasn’t as “together” and know-it-all as I pretended to be.

How does falling in love with someone you’ve never met in person differ to the more ‘conventional’ way?

Emotionally, I think it’s very much the same, and the differences I’ve experienced in more recent relationships have more to do with the fact that they aren’t “first love.”  But you do miss out on body language, on eye contact, on touch, on scent, which are all different ways to know a person. You find different sort of rhythms.  There’s an intensity to it, a focus and an adrenaline rush that heightens feeling. You rely a lot on voice, both telephone and written, which I think might be hard if the object of your affections was more kinesthetically or visually inclined.  In either situation, you face the challenge of trying to grow an initial falling in love into a sustainable relationship, and although I’ve seen it done successfully both ways, I think the sooner you are fully “in person” present with each other, the better your chances.

Looking back on your relationship with Catrina, do you think that perhaps when reality set in that you were going to meet in person, she freaked out?

I could speculate, but ultimately she is the only one who knows what was going on for her.  It definitely upped the stakes.

Although your relationship with Catrina didn’t work out so great in the end, it appears that she was exactly who she said she was. What advice can you give to teens that might be pursuing online relationships about the dangers associated with meeting online friends?

Don’t do it!  You might get your heart broken!  Just kidding… but there’s always a risk of online chemistry (friendship or otherwise) not translating to in-person interactions.  There’s a great essay by Meghan Daum that I read when I was first working on Map called “On the Fringes of the Physical World” which captures this dynamic and the disappointment really well.  Of course the other danger is the physical safety one, and for that the usual blind date precautions apply: let someone else know where you are going, meet in a public place, have plenty of extra cash and your own way to get home, stay sober and trust your instincts and don’t let embarrassment trump safety.  Someone worth spending time with is going to respect your boundaries, no matter how cautious or quirky, and if you rush off in weird panic and later decide you were overreacting, you can always send an email the next day.

I like this notion of committing to finding a soul mate, not a gender… do you still believe in that, or do you identify more as a lesbian these days?

The “not a gender” part, yes, I still believe, and as to identity, I usually describe myself as queer.  As I get older, “soul mate” speaks to me less than “right choice.”  I think our initial choice of partner is hugely important, but it is over time that we discover whether we are on compatible paths, how we interact, how well we can grow together.  Sometimes right choice means recognizing incompatibility and breaking up. But when we continue to choose each other, choose to give, choose to create something together, choose to make room in our lives for the entirety of another person as they are and as they may become, that’s huge, and it is those continued choices over time that make a partnership.

What happened to the novel that you were working on in MAP?

The novel turned into a short story called The Pre-Fame Days

The short story I was writing in Map, which is called On the Eighth Day came in second place in a national short story contest, and then I got more curious about the characters and spent eight years turning the story into a novel that I’ve begun shopping around to agents and publishers.  (Any agents or publishers reading this, I’d love to hear from you!)

What is in your to-be-read pile right now?

Meghan Daum’s new book, Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House.  A book about homeschooling that I picked up at a library book sale… I love reading about education.  Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna.  Nature Girl by Jane Kelley – a YA novel I discovered on GoodReads about an eleven-year-old who gets lost on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont and decides to hike to Massachusetts to visit her best friend.

If there was going to be a movie made about your story, who would you want to see play Audrey?

I think Winona Ryder, circa 1994, might play me well.  I shudder to think of my life being turned into a movie though.

I love the rock references in your story. What are you listening to these days?

Well I still listen to the Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco, though not nearly as often, and I’ve been a huge Kris Delmhorst fan since about the time I started writing Map.  One of my cousins turned me on to the Israeli singer Miri Mesika… she’s wonderful.  And I’ve been soaking up Mary Chapin Carpenter’s newest CD, The Age of Miracles.

For the gay teens of our community that might be struggling with their identity and/or coming out, what advice would you give to them?

Trust yourself, take the time you need, and it’s okay to not be sure or to come out as “questioning.”  A world full of richness awaits you and often the good stuff involves taking risks, so start practicing!  (And to those of you who know you’re not queer, you’re still part of the welcoming committee, so let’s see those ally buttons on display!)

Anyone who’s interested in reading Map can find direct links to purchase on my website at http://map.audreybethstein.com, and I believe there’s free shipping all summer if you buy two copies, so it’s a great opportunity to donate a copy to your local library or GLBT youth group.

As a late-blooming, sexually-confused senior at the University of Pennsylvania, Audrey Beth Stein was looking for love, but she never expected it to arrive via email, from someone she first knew only as catrina@juno.com…

It was 1996, a time when the Indigo Girls had just performed their first explicitly gay songs, Ellen DeGeneres was preparing to come out on national television, and eHarmony.com and JDate did not yet exist. A time when being queer was a little bit easier than admitting you’d met someone through the internet.

Using layers of introspection and insight reminiscent of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep and Wendy Swallow’s Breaking Apart woven into a largely present-tense narrative, this coming-of-age memoir combines the page-turning exuberance of falling in love for the first time, the disorienting clarity of loss, and the triumph of letting go of the training wheels.

This isn’t like anything we’ve ever featured on yaReads before. Map isn’t a work of fiction; it’s an actual account of Audrey’s life experiences. Because of that, I feel that talking about her in a way I would normally discuss a fictional character’s motivations and actions is inappropriate – she’s a real person with real feelings who bravely decided to share her story with the world. But this is a review, so I’ll comment on those things that are appropriately open for comment and discussion.

Map reads a lot like fiction. So much so, in fact, that unless you noted the word ‘memoir’ on the cover, it could easily be mistaken as so. This is a credit to Audrey, as it is so often the case that biographies, or true and factual stories are often dry, written without the engaging dialogue and internal monologue that we all love so much about young adult fiction. It deals with Audrey’s sexual self-discovery and her journey into the world of bisexuality with class, poise, and honesty. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to say that her process of coming out (to herself and those around her) was all smooth sailing, it was refreshing to hear a coming out tale that wasn’t completely and totally heart breaking.

Map is so much more than just a tale of coming out, though. It’s a story of first love, first heartbreak and loss, growth and personal development. I was especially interested in the online relationship that developed between Catrina and Audrey. Audrey’s account detailed a different kind of falling in love to what we’re used to reading about. With online relationships, it’s less about the physical, and more about the emotional – her take on these issues is refreshing, and a joy to read in an era where so much is placed on physical sexuality.

This is an easy one to read, folks, and I’m sure most of you out there could knock it over in no time. So if you’re looking for a left of center read about a young girl’s journey through sexuality, then I’d say Map is a must read for you. If you’re looking for a queer read that wont totally crush your spirit and burn your soul, then I’d say Map is for you. If you’re looking for something full of action and suspense, perhaps steer clear of this one. This one is more about the mind and the heart than the actual goings on of the plot.

This one has the yaReads stamp of approval.

Rating::

Teaser Quote: A few years later, when I haven’t been drawn to men in a while, I’ll start using the word queer to describe myself. I’ll choose queer because queer will fit me better than bisexual or lesbian, because queer places less emphasis on sex and more on overall identity, because it carries a connotation of confidence and empowerment, because there is space for fluidity inside, because it encompasses a larger community, because it wont be such a scary, radical word to me anymore, because it is one bold and easy syllable.

Carolyn Mackler is the author of highly sought after titles such as Vegan, Virgin, Valentine, Guy-a-holic, The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big Round Things, just to name a few. In the month of February celebrates the release of Carolyn’s new book, Tangled. It’s our Book of the Month for February and as part of our monthly promotion, Carolyn answered a few of our questions for your reading pleasure. Enjoy! I should probably warn you folks, there are some spoilery type moments throughout the interview.

Firstly, I just want to say congratulations on Tangled. It’s an excellent book and I really enjoyed reading it.

CM Thank you!!  I really enjoyed writing it.

With that in mind, I thought we’d get straight into some questions about the story itself…

Skye is one of those fortunate people that seem to have everything: the beginnings of fame, money, respect from those around her, yet it is obvious from the onset of her story that she suffers quite badly from depression. Was it a conscious decision of yours to write Skye in as the depressed character, or did she just come out that way?

CM:  As I got to know Skye, though the course of writing Jena’s story and then her own story, I realized she was suffering from depression.  But it’s not obvious – I had a dig a little deeper into her to figure that out.

Depression is a serious mental health issue that often goes unnoticed or is confused as teen angst. If there is one thing that you wanted readers to take from Skye’s story, what would that be?

CM: Get help.  Tell someone.  Get help.  You are not alone in depression, and never should be.

Archetypes like Jena show up in your stories often. Although both Dakota and Owen label her as hot, Jena doesn’t think of herself that way. Why do you think so many teenagers, like Jena, have serious self-esteem issues?

CM: Because the world often tells us we’re not right the way we are – billboards, movies, shows, videos – and we internalize those messages, those images of what beauty is.  And it’s so not true!  Beauty comes in all different shapes, sizes, and hair colors.

How did you find writing Owen and Dakota’s respective points-of-view? I’m always interested in authors who tap into the minds of the opposite gender…

CM: Loved it!  It was a refreshing break after writing about girls, to see how a guy thinks and sees the world.

Jena is much more confident in her pursuit of Owen than she was with Dakota. What exactly changed in her for this to happen?

CM:  Hmmmm….she got her heart broken by Dakota and became stronger because of it, learned that taking risks is a good thing.  Also, once her beloved grandmother had a stroke, Jena decided to believe her grandma’s wise words that she is, in fact, luscious!

The tone of Tangled is much darker than most of your previous novels. Did you set out with the intention to write something edgier, or did it just happen that way?

CM:  It just happened that way as the story evolved in my head.

Whose story came to you first, Jena, Dakota, Owen, or Skye’s?

CM:  I knew it was four from the beginning – though at first the second guy character, Owen, was going to be a friend of Dakota’s.  Then I decided a brother would be much more interesting.

Do you have any quirky writing rituals or habits?

CM  I wish!  With a five-year-old and an infant (both in the background right now), I just want TIME to write these days.  And coffee.

What is in your To-Be-Read pile right now?

Going Bovine, Punkzilla, American Born Chinese, and a book I’ve been asked to blurb.  Oh, and Goodnight Moon for the baby.  And Harry Potter for my kindergartener.  Time!  I want time to read/write/sleep right now.

Do you have an all time fave novel?

About a million.  Seriously.   Check out my website www.carolynmackler.com for a list of my favourite authors.