Around the Blogosphere

This is a post that I am going to probably edit randomly and repost, adding different things, mostly contests, that I've found around the blogosphere. (And once the contests have ended, I will remove them when I update the post).So keep an eye on it and see what else comes up!

Books at Midnight is holding a rather awesome 200 followers contest! There are two parts of the contest and in part one there will be THREE winners, and in part two there will be one winner! So go sign up! Ends January 15, 2010!

Sophistikatied Reviews is also holding an awesome 200 followers contest, where you can win either a signed ARC of The Dark Divine or a signed ARC of Brightly Woven! Ends January 11, 2010!

Princess Bookie is holding an awesome contest to win either Forget-Her-Nots, Wish, or By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead! Go enter! Tell her I sent ya! Ends December 31, 2009!

Princess Bookie is also having the HUGE, amazing contest for Christmas and you should so go enter! These are some amazing titles (Beautiful Creatures, Hex Hall, Hush, Hush, Firespell, Along for the Ride, AND more!) If you become a follower (and you should, Cindy's awesome!), tell her I sent you! Ends December 31, 2009!

Bloody Bookaholic is having a HUGE, like HUGE!! Holiday/500 followers contest! It includes Books and Gift Cards and some Swag. Tell her I sent you! This is a MUST enter contest! Ends December 25, 2009!

The awesome Kimberly Derting is having a FANTASTIC contest for her book, The Body Finder. I am dying to get my hands on this one! Grand Prize is a SIGNED ARC, bookmarks, stickers, and awesome Tote Bag, a Poster, and a $25 gift certificate to the online bookseller of your choice!!! The second and third prize winners get the same swag (minus the ARC and gift certificate)! So either way, talk about awesome prizes! Ends December 25, 2009!

Steph Su Reads is fabulous enough to give away the copy of Some Girls Are by Courtney Summer that she won! There are quite a few ways to enter, so head over there and enter!! Ends December 25, 2009!

Katie's Book Blog is also having a contest for a SIGNED copy of Taken by Storm by Angela Morrison! It's open to US and Canada. Ends January 1, 2010.

Parajunkee's View is holding a 300 follower contest! Which has now turned into 350 followers contest! So far there will be FOUR winners! Winners get to pick their book out of a list and there's some great books in there! Contest is International! Ends December 30, 2009!

Confessions of a Wandering Heart is giving away a SIGNED copy of The Dark Divine! Ends December 30, 2009!

The Neverending Shelf is having a two part Thank You contest! Part one is like a normal contest, and part two requires more thought! It includes a cover collage :) Open Internationally! Ends December 31, 2009!

Lit Bites is holding a contest to win the first 3 Blood Coven novels by Mari Mancusi! (I am so DYING to read them!) Contest ends December 31, 2009!

Penultimate Page is giving one of my FAVORITE series that I have yet to get my hands on: The Blue is for Nightmares series by Laurie Faria Stolarz! The whole series! Contest ends January 1, 2010! Go enter! Tell her I sent you!


Stay tuned for more things I find! :)

Teens that read YA aren't as smart as those that read adult novels

I think the headline speaks for itself, but before I get jumped here, that is obviously not my opinion since most of what I read is YA. That seems to be the opinion of a "YA author" who recently wrote an article for NPR.

This article was brought to my (and many others) attention on Twitter by the lovely Heidi R. Kling, author of the much anticipated upcoming YA novel, Sea, a couple of nights ago. The author of this article, Garret Freymann-Weyr, seems to be under the impression that the genre of YA isn't intellectually challenging enough for teenagers and "Many young adult novels don't set the bar very high in their language, character complexity or emotional nuance, which is why I — a young adult author — like to encourage young readers to venture into the adult shelf." (Taken directly from the article).

Now, I personally have never read any of Mrs. Freymann-Weyr's books and for that reason, I will not judge or comment on what she has written, but it appears that she obviously hasn't read many YA novels over the past 10 years or so. Because if she had, she would have realized that the YA genre has evolved immensely with authors like Laurie Halse Anderson, Elizabeth Scott, John Green, Ellen Hopkins, and Jay Asher (just to name a few).

Mrs. Freymann-Weyr's article, which is titled "Three Books For The Smartest Teens You Know," listed three books that I've personally never heard of, much less read, and honestly if I saw them in the bookstore, I wouldn't pick them up. It seems that she has this idea that all YA books need to be these complex works that challenge the mind, and there's nothing wrong with that, but personally after reading so many serious novels, I need some fluff so I don't become depressed! Not all books need to be these complex stories, sometimes you need something light, fluffy, and unrealistic to balance things out.

I know in the comments, books like Twilight were being mentioned and even Twilight and that series has it's place in YA and has impacted lives. For many it got them to get into reading at all, and for some it's just a nice escape into another world and there's nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing wrong with stories that allow the reader to escape and to have this light story on their minds.

As you can tell, this article (I'll include the link below, and I urge you to go leave your thoughts) really got me worked up. I'm almost 21 years old, which I know some of the other YA bloggers are older, but I prefer YA. I've read YA novels that have more depth, development, and writing style than a lot of adult novels.

So I decided to put together a list here of just a few YA novels that set the bar pretty high, and have character development and emotion that rivals, if not exceeds many adult novels. And I urge you to leave me comments on what I've forgotten (I know I'll forget some), and on your own thoughts, as well as leaving your comments over on the NPR site about Mrs. Freymann-Weyr's article.

You can read the article here.

*My list:
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Willow by Julia Hoban
Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
Crank; Glass; Burned; Impulse; Identical; Tricks (all) by Ellen Hopkins
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
Nineteen Minutes; The Pact; My Sister's Keeper; The Tenth Circle (all) by Jodi Picoult
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
The Louder Than Words series
Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

*Some of these I have not read, but I do know the impact they've had on others and feel they should be included.

Those are just SOME of the books that came to mind, and I know there are numerous others that belong on this list that I have forgotten and you can leave those in the comments if you would like.

I know this little rant of mine came a bit out of nowhere, but after reading that small article, I just got so worked up and then having to put off writing this for a couple of days just caused it to stew, but I think it was something that should be addressed. I would love to hear your thoughts as well.

XOXO

Holiday Break Reading Challenge: Activity #7!

So I've actually kinda slacked off on my first reading challenge. (I fell, my sister got sick and had to go to the hospital, and last minute shopping have made reading impossible) But I am hoping to fix it this week.

And in getting back on track, this is Activity #7! The activity is to pick the best and worst book to movie adaptations you've seen. So here's mine. And I will explain a bit on why I picked both.

Best: Speak

It wasn't a blockbuster or even a theater release, it was actually a Lifetime movie. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is one of my favorite books of all time, it's so beautiful and so powerful, and the movie captured the story so well. Kristen Stewart starred in it and despite her role in Twilight, her role as Melinda in Speak showed just how talented she really is. This is my favorite book to movie adaptation, and few have been able to capture the original story anywhere near as well as Speak managed to. If you're never seen it, I highly recommend picking it up. You won't regret it.

Worst: My Sister's Keeper

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult is one of the few (and first) books to ever make me cry, and I don't just mean a few tears, I mean this book made me need Kleenex kind of cry. But the movie did not live up to the expectations the book had set. I couldn't buy into Cameron Diaz being a mother or portraying the type of role she did, and the fact that they changed the end, among so many other things, just made me annoyed and angry over anything else. This was one of those books that was tragically perfect, but the movie mostly made me annoyed and bored. I know there are some that loved the movie, but I would have preferred them to stick closer to the book and not try to make it so "Hollywood" like they did. This is not something I would ever willingly sit through again.

In My Mailbox *23*

Created by The Story Siren who was inspired by Alea.

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This week I only go one book, but that's fine with me because I am expecting a box of them any day now :) And since I only got one book, I'm going to do this weeks IMM the old fashioned way. Plus I fell a couple of hours ago and really hurt my foot and don't really feel up to getting the camera and everything to take a picture. Sorrys!

For review:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
(It's the 25th anniversary edition)

Esther, an A-student from Boston who has won a guest editorship on a national magazine, finds a bewildering new world at her feet. Her New York life is crowded with possibilities, so that the choice of future is overwhelming, but she can no longer retreat into the safety of her past. Deciding she wants to be a writer above all else, Esther is also struggling with the perennial problems of morality, behaviour and identity. In this compelling autobiographical novel, a milestone in contemporary literature, Sylvia Plath chronicles her teenage years - her disappointments, anger, depression and eventual breakdown and treatment - with stunning wit and devastating honesty.






That's what was in my mailbox, what did you get in yours?

Holiday Break Reading Challenge: Activity #1!

So today officially begins the Holiday Break Reading Challenge! The first activity in the challenge was to do something that I've seen over the blogosphere before, but never participated in, so this time I did!

The activity was to create your own Debut YA Cover and write a short synopsis! So here it is:

Synopsis:

Eighteen-year-old Natalia has gone from one thing to the next, flying through life, not taking time to really get to know anyone or focus on anything outside of school, art, and the band she started with her best friend, until now.

When Bryce, a boy from Natalia's past, shows up as her new next door neighbor, it throws Natalia through a loop. Natalia and Bryce share a secret the could potentially destroy everything she's worked for. Now Natalia has to slow down and pause long enough to find out what Bryce is doing back, and what she needs to do to get him to keep the secret a secret.

Just know that I only I was only able to spend a few minutes to put it all together, and so I hope it sounds interesting enough. I'm feeling a bit uninspired today, but I do like the picture!

What do you guys think? And if you want more information about the challenge, check it out here!

Holiday Break Reading Challenge!

That's right! I've decided to join my FIRST! reading challenge! There's been numerous one's I've thought about joining, but wasn't sure if I'd have the time, the books, or the money to buy books if I needed, but this challenge is different!

Karin explains the rules much better than I can, so I'll post those now:

1) Anyone can participate. I'm focusing on teachers and students, but if you want to cram a little extra reading in during the holiday season, please join us.

2) The Reading Challenge is designed to be self-paced. I will ask for you to set a goal for the number of books you want to read, but if you don't reach the goal - no big deal. This is for fun.

3) You don't have to provide a list of books you plan to read in advance. You can, but it isn't required. My mood determines what I read so I usually don't stick to a list. If I can't do it, I don't want to force others to do it.

4) The Holiday Break Reading Challenge corresponds with my time off from school. So, it starts on Friday, December 18, 2009 and ends on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at Midnight.

5) I'll have a section set up on the blog for reviews. Please link your reviews of the books you complete during the challenge.

6) Everyday there a new "Challenge" will be posted. These "Challenges" are designed to help you get to know other bloggers, talk about what you are reading, and share information about books. A new Mr. Linky (if I can figure it out) will be used in each post to record everyone's responses.

7) HERE IS THE BIG ONE! At least one prize will be given out everyday during the Reading Challenge. This might be a book, a bookmark, or other swag. No specifics lined up yet.

8) Be sure to follow the Reading Challenge on Twitter. New challenges and prize information will be announced there, too.

9. Grab the button to put on your blog.

So I've not totally decided which books I'm going to read, since like many of us our mood reflects what we'd rather read, but I may come up with a partial list this week and I'll post it then =)

By the way, my goal is at least 5 books. But hopefully more :)

If you decide you want to sign up, then head on over to Holiday Break Reading Challenge and sign up!

CONTEST TIME!

A couple of weeks ago I received two books for review (Nanny Returns and The Real Real, both by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus), and the publisher was kind enough to send me an extra copy of each book to give away!

I was going to wait until I could get it reviewed, but I will be moving soon and would like to get them sent out to their future owners before I do. This contest is for a new paperback copy of The Real Real which comes out December 31, 2009! The contest for Nanny Returns will be posted with the review later in the week :)

Here's a little information about the book:


The Real Real by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
HarperTeen Publishing

From Goodreads:

Imagine there was never a Laguna Beach, a Newport Harbor, the shimmering Hills. Imagine that your hometown—your school—is the first place XTV descends to set up cameras.

Now imagine they've trained them on you.

When Jesse O'Rourke gets picked for a "documentary" being filmed at her school in the Hamptons she's tempted to turn down the offer. But there's a tuition check attached to being on the show, and Jesse needs the cash so she can be the first in her family to attend college. All she has to do is trade her best friend for the glam clique she's studiously avoided, her privacy for a 24/7 mike, and her sense of right and wrong for "what sells on camera." . . . At least there's one bright spot in the train wreck that is her suddenly public senior year: Jesse's crush has also made the cast.

As the producers manipulate the lives of their "characters" to heighten the drama, and Us Weekly covers become a regular occurrence for Jesse, she must struggle to remember one thing: the difference between real and the real real.

Rules:
1. Fill in the form below!
2. Open to US residents only. (Sorry!)
2. Contest ends December 28, 2009!