Sweethearts by Sara Zarr was a CCBC Book Discussion book today and I was happily surprised to discover that I wasn’t the only one who loved this book. Usually books with adorable pink hearts on the cover (cookie hearts no less) don’t get such huge rave reviews by anyone but me, but this book was so spot on perfect as far as suspense, depth, relationships, and emotions go that it won over lots of readers. My only complaint was that it had such a definite ending and I wished she’d left it open so I could have imagined what happened in years to come instead of having it told to me. But I think that was on purpose. The story is about a girl who’s remade herself in high school into a new person after a difficult childhood with a single hard-working parent and only one friend. When her past and her present connect, everything gets all jumbled and she has to find her way through. Great read!
Watch Kevin Henkes read from Bird Lake Moon
The best part of the Kevin Henkes reception (besides the chocolate) was his reading from Bird Lake Moon. First, Katy Horning introduced him and then his current editor (whose name I can’t remember — doh!) from Greenwillow spoke. She had a great story about when Susan Hirschman had Kevin call her at the publisher she was currently working for (Simon & Schuster, I think?) because she was trying to get her to come over to Greenwillow and didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing. Of course, that didn’t work out at all. As soon as the secretary announced that KEVIN HENKES was on the phone everyone crowded around her office to listen in. V. funny. This editor also had quite possibly the best reaction of the night too when she announced that this was Kevin’s 38th book. Everyone in the room gasped and Kevin looked more than a little surprised himself.
Click on the picture below to watch Kevin Henkes read an excerpt from Bird Lake Moon.
Friday Six, April 25
1) I just discovered Bumble and Bumble — the nicest smelling bestest ever hair products. Where have you been all my life?
2) Kevin Henkes book release party for Bird Lake Moon was last night. It was lovely — great chocolate treats and nice short speech. Strangely though I didn’t see everyone there who I thought was going to be there — writers or librarians. It was sort of a spread out party so I think they may have actually been there, but I just didn’t run into them. Then while hunting for them, I got in trouble for accidentally standing in the signing line and generally causing trouble, so that pretty much put an end to that. Plus, Afghani was calling to me.
3) Afghani food. Yum!!! So delicious. Madison is lucky enough to have two Afghani restaurants and we went to Kabul’s last night. My favorite is the vegetarian strudel.
4) Spring. I think it might finally be here. Yes!
5) Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. Today is the first day of my vacation (at home writing vacation, not going off on adventures vacation) so I splurged and bought this one. I’m totally not going to get distracted and just read this. Really. This is a write til your fingers bleed kind of vacation. But it doesn’t hurt to have something fun to read AFTER writing. Except for the bloody fingers issue.
6) Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. Double vacation splurge.
Have a great weekend!
Bridget
Friday Six, April 18th
1) David Macaulay gave the Arbuthnot lecture in Madison last night. It’s an honorary lecture that floats geographically every year. There had to have been close to 800 people there. He gave the perfect lecture — sometimes serious, often funny and with a nice glimpse at his life as a writer and illustrator. I’m not the ideal lecture audience member because if it’s at all boring and it’s at night I will start to nod off (probably because I don’t drink coffee) or to daydream (something I think writers have a tendency to do — your brain keeps working on the story even when you think you’re done working for the day), but I was with him the whole time.
2) Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King is a great book. I’ve picked it up at least once a year since I first read it and it’s a good reminder on how to keep your writing neat and concise. The examples in it are super helpful — they make it clear why it’s so important to be strict when you’re revising. Sometimes when I’m going through to take out every lazy little blip I’ve made I just want to shout “But everyone else does it! Why can’t I go crazy with adverbs???” Then I read something like this and I think “Oh yeah, that’s why.”
3) I’m half-way through this round of revisions for the novel I’m currently working on. Woo hoo! That half-way mark always makes me feel like the end is in sight. Except that I go back and re-read the first half all the time just to make sure it’s exactly how I want it and sometimes jump ahead to later scenes that I need to work on, so it isn’t a clear sign of linear progress. But it still feels good to know that I’ve touched every word in the first half of the book (and changed most of them at least once).
4) I tried to read Uninvited by Amanda Marrone this week — the vampire story where the girl’s ex-boyfriend dies and comes back to haunt her as a vampire, but I couldn’t get into it. It’s probably not the book’s fault — I haven’t given it enough of a chance to be able to judge it. Might be the wrong book at the wrong time for me, but the ratio of depressing to sexy in the beginning of the book was too high and didn’t work for me this week. It’s a great premise though, so it’s probably just me.
5) I’m just starting The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. It’s such a different direction for her, I’m excited to read it. It’s got these kids who want to be orphans who have parents who don’t want kids (or that’s my take on it from reading the bookflap). It sounds really dark, but the art is all old fashioned/sort of goth so I’m wondering if it’s dark humor ala Lemony Snickett. It’s a CCBC Book Discussion book this month.
6) It’s Friday. Yay! I will be watching Enchanted tonight (again). It’s sooo funny. When we saw it in the theatre I laughed so hard at her singing scene that I was literally doubled over my stomach hurt so much. Just when I’d start to get my breath back, it would crack me back up again.
Have a great weekend!
BZ
Finished City of Bones
Oh My God. That was not how I was expecting City of Bones to end. So shocking. But overall the book was so good, I had to go out and buy the next book City of Ashes. I think the most impressive thing is that it has action, romance AND humor. It’s hard to get that last part in when you have the first two. But I LOVE it when authors do that. Great books, though I have to admit both are mildly disturbing.
The ending of the second one got me thinking about something that Sarah Cloots from Greenwillow said in her speech last Saturday — she said she doesn’t want books that are obviously part of a series without having a satisfying ending in themselves. I’ve heard this from several different editors and I can see where they’re coming from especially with the first book in a series. The writers in my group were talking a lot about this on the car ride home (in which we did not get lost) and we all thought that it was okay to have a cliffhanger for us as readers as long as we felt satisfied anyway.
But the second book in the Mortal Instruments series City of Ashes really made me worry because it was so open and we really didn’t learn any of the secrets that kept getting hinted at that I thought we would know by now — does the author have a plan in which I will one day know everything??? Because I want to feel that there is a master plan here — that one day I will be satisfied (like with HP7). But with series now not being in neat little bunches as much as they once were (quartets, trilogies, sequels) are they just going to go on forever and keep stringing me along? I don’t think I can take it!
Not that I want the Mortal Instruments series to end, I’d like to just keep reading and reading, but at the same time I don’t want to be strung along forever. Like Days of Our Lives — I watched it in college and was waiting for the day that Marlena and John got together (okay, I wasn’t that into their storyline because I thought they were sort of boring, but I did want them to find love) and I just read the headlines of Soap Opera Weekly and they’re still just about to get together! I don’t see it ever really happening, the only conclusion here is for them to get booted off the show or for the show to get canceled. I don’t want that in my books — I want some kind of an ending at least of that story arc. Pretty Little Liars does this too — will we ever know who “A” is? I’m okay with not knowing for awhile but please tell me I’ll know someday!!!!
BZ
Friday Six! Five Books and One Movie, April 11
Five books I read this week and one movie!
1) The new book by the author of the Artemis Fowl series totally blew me away.* Airman has this late nineteenth century/era of new innovations kind of a thing going on. Airman is so so good! It’s got swashbuckling, a princess, science, and a great main character. It’s way different than Artemis Fowl — it’s much more grounded in reality and less stylistic. And it is a little bit dark at times, but it’s worth it for the good stuff. It reminds me a little bit of Airborn by Kenneth Opel with it’s focus on flight, although with a kingdom off the coast of Ireland to save kind of twist.
2) Avi’s new book The Seer of Shadows is a ghost story and with two writers in my group writing stories with ghosts in them I’ve been drawn to read this kind of thing. I enjoyed this one — it has a nice classic ghost story feel to me. Set in the 1870’s when mysticism was all the rage, the main character is a logical thinker which was fun — you were right there with him not believing and than being convinced that ghosts really do exist.
3) I also read Better Off Famous? by Jane Mendlewhich which was just as super light and chick-lity as the premise would suggest — the main character gets discovered on the streets while visiting her aunt in New York to be on the new hot teen drama. It was a super quick read and had enough going on to keep me engaged, but I did wish there had been just a little bit more, you know? Like a scene would have this great exciting thing about to happen or a relationship starting to develop and the chapter would just end and the next chapter would pick up well after the event had taken place. I think it’s easy to do this, especially in early drafts, and I may have done it once or twice myself — it was helpful to read a book full of them to remind me how important it is to give the reader the full experience. So they don’t throw the book across the room in frustration (not that I did, I swear! it will get back to the library COMPLETELY pristine).
4) I’m reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare right now. It’s SO good! I first saw it at Powell’s in Portland and I went back to re-look at it like four times (the blurbs by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier didn’t hurt), but I decided not to get it. As soon as I got home, I ordered it from the library just in case it was as good as I’d hoped it would be and feared it wasn’t going to be. I’m really picky about teen fantasy/magic realism/vampire type books nowadays because the market is so flooded with them. It isn’t like before where it had to be a pretty good book to be published since it wasn’t a super hot genre. You really have to dig through the junk to find the gems now. And this is one of them. The world is unique — it takes place in modern day New York, fairies etc exist, demons exist and Shadowhunters are special humans whose job it is to keep demons under control. See, it doesn’t sound super unique, which is probably why I didn’t pick it up right away, but the way the author has done it is. The world feels real and distinct. The added bonus is that there are, at current count, two super hot guys. Yes, it is a great book! There has already been some butt kicking too and lots of funny banter. I would highly highly recommend it to Twilight fans as well as fans of Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (it’s no coincidence that they blurbed it). It’s different enough to feel like it’s own book, but similar enough to appeal to the same fans.
5) A friend and I bought The Year It Rained by Crescent Dragonwagon together and she read it first and loved it. It’s an older book, 1985 I think. I’ve been nibbling away at it this week, but haven’t gotten into it yet. It’s written by the daughter of Charlotte Zolotow and word on the street is that it’s semi-autobiographical. It’s hard not to be somewhat fascinated by Charlotte Zolotow living in Madison, WI. She has both an award and a lecture here, so you hear her talked about at least twice a year if not more. Since she isn’t here herself, she’s like this legend, larger than life. I first heard about the book on a blog and I’ve heard it’s heavily criticized, but I’m looking forward to diving into it.
6) And finally the best movie I saw this week (which is really sad since it was the WI Film Fest this week, and I was even in one of the movies that was shown, and I didn’t make it to any of them — but I had bronchitis!) was Kinky Boots! It was so funny. Maybe it’s my boot obsession, I don’t know, but it cracked me up. The boots were so over the top and I fell in love with the two main characters — how can you not love the two men who devoted themselves to making such fabulous boots?
Have a great weekend!
BZ
*apparently, it blew someone else in this house away too since he was up all night last night reading it!
SCBWI-WI Spring Luncheon Last Saturday
Featured Sarah Cloots from Greenwillow, a schmancy country club with lots of big windows (there was even hand lotion in the bathroom), and gigantic delicious salads. Everyone and everything was super fun and fabulous as usual. The directions, however, were not super fab. As a matter of fact, they lead us out into the middle of nowhere. And sadly the staff at the lovely country club was not all that keen on getting numerous telephone calls from lost writers.
Phone conversation number 1:
Me: So we’re on 16 going west, are we close?
Them (female): I don’t know. What are you near?
Me: A bunch of fields, some trees, and um, oh hey, there’s a sign for Lake LaBelle! That’s it — we’re in Lake LaBelle.
Them: No, you’re not.
Me: Yes, we are. We just passed a sign.
Them: There are lots of signs for Lake LaBelle.
Me: Okay, so that’s where we are. In Lake LaBelle.
Them: You are not in Lake LaBelle. If you were in Lake LaBelle you’d be drowning.
Me: What should we be looking for?
Them: Are you near any landmarks like the Pic N’ Save?
Me: We’re in a field — we haven’t seen any buildings for a long time now. Should we be near a Pic N’ Save?
Them: No.
Me: What is the country club near?
Them: It’s not out in a field. Isn’t there anything nearby?
Me: There isn’t. We’re turning around now. Why don’t we call you when we see something?
Phone Conversation Number 2.
Me: So we’re on 16 going east, we’re starting to see some signs of civilization and we need directions.
Them (male version): You should be on 16 going west.
Me: We were on 16 going west and we ended up in the middle of nowhere so we turned around and now we’re going east.
Them: You need to go to the top of the hill and turn right at the light.
Me: We’ve driven the length of 16 and we haven’t encountered a hill with a light. Where should we be looking for the hill?
Them: It’s near the exit you need to take… Hey! Are you listening to me?
Me: Yes, I’m listening to you. Where is the hill? Is it on 16?
Them: It’s this hill with a stoplight. Once you get to the hill… Look, you need to pay attention to me. Are you talking to Her or are you talking to Me?
Me: There is no Her talking to me. I’m in a huge van full of people and they are all talking amongst themselves. You have my full and undivided attention. These people mean nothing to me.* I am completely devoted to you. Just please tell me how to get from 16 to your country club please!!!!!!!!!
Them: Uh huh. As I was saying you get to the top of this hill…
Me: Where is the hill??????????????????
Them: It’s got a light and you exit off of 16 there….
We never got anywhere. My full and undivided attention came to naught. Finally, we went to a BP and the nice gas station attendant gave us directions. And he didn’t even make any snooty remarks about us drowning or not paying attention to him. Ha! Take that mean country club staffers. I feel for the situation they were in — I wouldn’t want a bunch of lost nutty writers (it turned out we weren’t the only ones) calling me all morning long, but still. They could have been nice. I work at a library all day. We’re nice to everyone NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES WE GET ASKED THE SAME QUESTION!
Otherwise, everything was great and it truly was the best food I’ve had at one of these things yet. Greenwillow sounds like an awesome imprint and Sarah seems like she’d be fun to work with. Also, besides her other numerous merits, she has great hair.
BZ
*Added later: This statement is blatantly untrue.
Friday Six Special Wisconsin Addition! April 4
I’m posting six extra great things about Wisconsin to even out last week’s Oregon post. I don’t want Wisconsin to feel neglected!
1) The Cooperative Children’s Book Center. Could this be the greatest place on earth?
2) SCBWI-WI. We have a kick ass regional chapter.
3) My Writers Group. Previously, not everyone would get to appreciate my writers group so it wouldn’t have been fair to post. But now they’re popping up all over online so everyone can enjoy their wonderfulness. Judy has a super fun blog and writes about everything from writing retreats to new toilets. 🙂 Kashmira has a blog where she talks about her writing and books. Michael has a website with some of his illustrations. Melinda and Rosanne have a blog together where they talk about health and food. Aiden and Julianna are on jacketflap. Plus, you can enjoy Kashmira’s books and Aiden’s book, and pretty soon Michael’s illustrations for Raven Tree Press, and the rest will have books out soon and then everyone can enjoy their writing as much I have for the past four years. I guess that just leaves Emily in my other writers group as the online holdout — but she has some kind of investigator job and I think she might work for the Ministry of Magic so possibly she needs to keep a low profile. You know how those Ministry types are.
4) Cheese. I really do love cheese. *sigh*
5) Great librarians. There are so many cool librarians in Wisconsin! Some of them are featured in the movie The World’s Fastest Librarian. Yes, the guy with the “M” painted on his forehead who’s so excited about the shelving competition that he rips his sign with his teeth is a librarian! Quite possibly in your neighborhood.
6) The guy who used to play bagpipes on the bike path on my way to work downtown. So much better than that snake guy. Why would anyone want to bike by a guy with a giant snake wrapped around his neck??????
Have a great weekend!
BZ
Jennifer Crusie May Have Saved My Life
Or at least my sanity. Jennifer Crusie’s Tell Me Lies* came in from the library right before we left for vacation and I saved it for the trip home. Thank god! There was a snow thing going on in Minneapolis and we spent A LOT of time circling. If I hadn’t had something good to read, I don’t think I would have made it.
I discovered Jennifer Crusie through the weirdest twisted way possible — I was reading Maureen Johnson’s blog which linked to insideadog where she was guest blogging which linked to her agent’s website which had a list of all of the authors that the agency really likes, some of which I’d read, but of the ones I hadn’t there was the gleaming name of Jennifer Crusie. I immediately checked Agnes and the Hitman out of the library and it cracked me up! Her style is quirky — both of her books I’ve read have these slightly nutty southern women and a lot of descriptions of food which I appreciate. Agnes and the Hitman and Tell Me Lies are funny mystery/romances — she does this genre really well!
So thank you Jennifer Crusie for saving my life!
BZ
*added later — Jennifer Crusie is an adult author. There will be sex in her books. Thanks for asking for the clarification, Judy!
Friday Six Special Oregon Edition! March 28
Special Oregon Edition!!!
6 Cool Things About Oregon (where I am right now)
1) Beverly Cleary. She’s so cool. We went to her birthplace McMinnville, Oregon and it’s adorable. For some reason they don’t have any big signs or anything announcing this fact (that she was born here, not that she’s super cool, everyone already knows that) like they do for Ronald Reagan in Dixon, Illinois*. I’m not sure why — I’m sure she has more fans than most presidents. I think Portland lays claim to her though as her childhood home — we’re going there later today, so I’ll check it out then.
2) Graham Salisbury. I think I read online somewhere that he lives in Lake Oswego, this super ritzy suburb of Portland. We stopped there for a stroll down the street and a trip to Rite Aid for the contact solution I forgot to pack. It’s like Oz. There are flowers bursting out of every nook and cranny. Even the 7-11 looked like something out of a fairy tale with huge swaths of flowering trees out front. Will post a pic of this when we download our camera. It was especially wonderful and surreal coming from snowy Madison, WI.
3) Ursula Le Guin also lives in Oregon, I think in Portland. Oregon has the craziest and most diverse topography ever and I can see why it would be the perfect place for a fantasy writer to live. Within a few hours drive you can go from barren desert to super lush rainforest to mountain top to ocean side and on and on… Sometimes it seems like you’ve slipped into a different world.
4) Powell’s Bookstore. Also on our list for later today. How can you not love such a gigantic indie bookstore? [added later — Powell’s is one of the biggest independent bookstores in the world. It’s so big they have maps!]
5) The million other bookstores in Portland. The place is just bursting with them. I can’t wait for the tour.
6) The ocean!!!!! (and sunshine ON THE OCEAN!!!!)
BZ
*On further research it turns out that Ronald Reagan was not born in Dixon, but I SWEAR that I saw signs stating this last time we were there. Either the signs are lying or my memory is faulty.
