{Opinion} How I Met Tom Mackee (or A Defense of Goodreads + Libraries)

Maggie
Opinion

If you’re a sports fan, and you’ve ever made a comment on a sports blog or Twitter, you’ve been trolled.

As a female sports fan, and Asian to boot—before the Jeremy Lin phenomenon, thank you very much—well, you just have to learn to roll with the punches or punch back even harder. It can be ugly and unpleasant.

Then I found Goodreads.

Goodreads quickly became my happy place. More than that, it felt like a safe little corner of the internet where book lovers discussed what they were reading and what they wanted to read. And then things turned ugly in a very familiar way earlier this year with authors attacking reviewers and vice versa. But that’s not what this post is about. You can find posts about all that other bullshit elsewhere.

This is about how Goodreads reviewers and my local library led me to Tom Mackee and one of my favorite authors.

{Guest Review} Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Sandra
Books

Editor’s Note: This is a special guest review from my mom. Sandra is a retired high school English teacher with a lot of opinions and a newfound love of YA literature and urban fantasy—she’s a longtime fan of horror, campy mysteries and police procedurals. As a kid, her goal was to grow up to be Nancy Drew, so much so that she carried around a notebook to report on her neighbors’ potenital criminal activities. We’re hoping that she’ll start every review like this one—with an f-bomb.

Evisceration is so fucking cool!

Kit and Fancy, the Cordelle sisters, take you through a portal into another world that’s bizarre and fascinating.

It’s a world where evisceration’s cool, where a crowd of gorgeous people born to carry their heads in their hands have star status, where imps pass from one person to another through kisses and buried bodies grow into trees sprouting the fruit of their inhumanity.

Portero, Kit and Fancy’s hometown, is a place unlike, yet like, those we know.

{Review} My Beating Teenage Heart by C.K. Kelly Martin

Sarah Moon
Books

C.K. Kelly Martin is one of my favorite “sleeper” young adult authors.

It boggles my mind that her work is not more widely known. The Lighter Side of Life and Death is an outstanding example of authentic, engaging teen male point of view, while One Lonely Degree is a heartwrenching story of friendship. (I haven’t read I Know It’s Over, as it deals with teen pregnancy and I usually avoid that theme, but many folks have told me it’s excellent as well.)

My Beating Teenage Heart was unexpected. 

{Review} Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Sarah Moon
Books

Author’s Note: I read the Australian edition of this shortly after it was released. It is my understanding that the U.S. edition has some significant differences from the one I read.

This is one of those books that make me sound like a crazed superfan.

When I finished Graffiti Moon, I got out of bed, went to my laptop and emailed some friends a breathless message along the lines of,  

Alert! Alert! Omigod. You have to—have to—read Graffiti Moon immediately!

I love, love, love this novel that much.

{Review} Love + Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

Sarah Moon
Books

I ordered Love & Leftovers soon after I finished Audition because I’d really enjoyed that novel in verse and I’d remembered that April had really enjoyed this one as well. The verse in Love and Leftovers is actually far more enjoyable than in Audition, as it plays with form to build tension throughout the novel. If you’re nerdily interested in that sort of thing, L&L is worth reading for that aspect alone.

What I was really surprised by was how compelling and “edgy” (ugh, I hate that word) this one is. The marketing for L&L made me assume it was a “cute/sweet” read (I’ve got no problem with that at all), but it actually dealt with a lot of issues in a realistic manner, particularly teens and intimacy in many of its forms. Marcie is dragged on a permanent vacation from her hometown of Boise to New Hampshire by her mother.

{Bookish Find} Bookworm Socks from Gumball Poodle

Sarah Moon
Bookish Finds

Source: sockdreams.com via Sarah on Pinterest

From the files of book nerd things I actually own comes another bookish find—Gumball Poodle’s (formerly Rock Socks) Bookworm socks. These fab knee socks proudly (and a bit loudly) proclaim your bookworm affiliation. They’re soft like really old fashioned athletic socks that happen to be well-made and actually stay up. 

They’re available at assorted retailers, but I recommend Sock Dreams because that store is made of awesome.

{Review} Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

Laura
Books

FNL Character Rating: Luke Cafferty/Landry Clarke*!!!!

(* I tend to be biased against Landry because he looks a lot like one of my ex-boyfriends, BUT his nerd-to-football player persona works for this rating. And I didn’t even necessarily like the main character of the book, so that works too. And I ADORE Luke, and his cute, sensitive persona works for this rating too.)

On to the Actual Review…

So, I’m at this point in my life where puberty is far enough in my past that I find teenagers bewildering. I find myself too old to relate to them anymore. When I see them hanging out at the bus stop in front of where I work, I think to myself old people thoughts like, “Why are those kids yelling while having a conversation when they’re standing right next to each other?!” Or, “Why are they texting each other when they’re standing right next to each other?!” Or, “What’s with those pants? Are they pants? Their parents paid for those pant-things AND let them wear them in PUBLIC?!” 

{Bookish Finds} "Read" Necklace from Piano Bench Designs

Sarah Moon
Bookish Finds

Editor’s Note: Reader Swag is an occasional series featuring goodies and gifts for readers. Basically, it’s our shopping list! ;) 

“Read’ wire necklace from Piano bench designs.

This necklace is one that I actually own—Laura, contributor to this blog, surprised me with it after I posted about it on Goodreads and I cannot say enough about what a wonderful piece it is.

{Review} Freefall by Mindi Scott

{Review} Freefall by Mindi Scott

Laura
Books

FNL Character Rating: Vince Howard!!!!!

{Editor’s Note: This is one of my favorite all-time novels, and one I recommend to people who think they don’t like YA fiction. I recommended this to Laura and I was thrilled that she loved it as much as I do. What’s even better is that Laura got different things out of it because of her own experiences with music, so it was doubly awesome to read her review. ~Sarah}

The first thing I loved about this book was the voice.

It is so rare and refreshing to read a YA book from a male POV. Author Mindi Scott, manages the very difficult task of making me, a 31 year old female adult, relate to a 16 year old teenage boy’s POV. It is seriously freaky how Mindi Scott managed to write wrote the male version of me (personality and humor) wise into a book character in Seth McCoy. 

{Review} Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Sarah Moon
Books

I don’t read a lot of novels in verse, nor do I read a lot about dance. The former is more because I don’t really know how to sift through the good stuff and the bad stuff, the latter because dance (especially ballet) kind of freaks me out—the body obsessive, intense grind of it is extremely disturbing to me. However, despite my reluctance with both of these elements, Audition was a fantastic read. 

Interesting Themes

Fish out of water, rural girl in an urban, sophisticated setting, is one of my favorites and it’s handled so, so well. Having lived that experience as a 17 year old, I appreciate when this is done well, and in a nuanced, non-stereotypical manner. Audition really nails the feelings of having the wrong everything—the wrong clothes, the wrong accent, etc. I haven’t seen this addressed in a lot of reviews, but it’s an important element. 
{Review} Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

{Review} Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

Sarah Moon
Books

Whoo, boy, this one was fun!

I enjoyed the hell out of Jenn Bennett’s debut urban fantasy novel. I’ve tried so many new UF series the last few months as I tried to fill the void until the next Mercy Thompson installment comes out in 2013 (arg!) and so many have been “meh” to me—but this (along with Rachel Vincent’s new Blood Bound series and Rachel Caine’s new Working Stiff series) is an exception. I would almost give Kindling the Moon five stars, but the resolution came very quickly, and it felt jarring to me as a result. 

{Review} The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Laura
Books
FNL Character Rating: The guy that kept trying to rape Tyra.

This is harsh, I know, especially in comparison to the many rave reviews I’ve read.
However, I cannot abide by the effed up sex stuff & the attitude of Rhys Traehaern, the Iron Duke from the title. In my eyes, he is the prototypical abusive male. I guess some people might see Traehaern simply as an alpha male and find that attractive. I find him possessive, controlling & abusive, yet somehow making the object of his interest, Wilhemina “Mina” Wentworth, believe that’s what she wants.

{Review} Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Sarah Moon
Books

It Was Fun While it Lasted

When I was a teenager in the early- to mid-nineties there was a place a few towns over called Incredible Universe—it was a big box store that sold CDs and electronics and featured, in the center of the store, a massive virtual reality station. I never tried the VR station, because it freaked me out (for the same reasons that first-person video games freak me out), but people were really, really into it, and teenagers would spend so much time queuing up to use it. Aria, the protagonist of Under the Never Sky, basically has a VR station like that implanted in one of her eyes, and has spent her entire life existing in that world (called The Realms). She’s completely sheltered (and is the product of bio-engineering) and hasn’t experienced any of the “normal” things we expect of teenagers, including basic physical contact.

{Review} Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

Sarah Moon
Books

Fangirl squeal!!!

I’m a bigtime Sarah Ockler fangirl. Big. Time. Her books just speak to me—she writes about family, and places, and relationships and life in a way that makes me think, “That is my life/family/hometown/whatever.” Plus, one time I “talked” to her on Twitter about Friday Night Lights (as well as her editor and Melissa C. Walker), so she’s completely rad simply for that reason, natch.

I have a feeling that Bittersweet will be one of those books that people read in very different ways. Some will read it as a “cute” book with a cupcake theme, some with grasp onto the sports themes or the small town story, while others will see it more as a divorce novel. It certainly took me by surprise—I loved Sarah Ockler’s other books, but since most of the early reviews I’d read of this one had focused on the cupcake/bakery theme, I was expecting something less emotional—Bittersweet has a lot of depth and it really surprised me. 

{Review} The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Sarah Moon
Books

Overhyped, Underwhelming. 

SPoLaFS has some really great marketing—the cover, the plot summary, all of that. I was thinking this would be Before Sunrise in novel form, but on an airplane (if you’re looking for a Before Sunrise-type read, check out Graffiti Moon, which I highly recommend). Because, you know, Before Sunrise is amazing.

Unfortunately, fairly or unfairly, those expectations weren’t met for me. And, to frustrate me further, there is a very sizable storyline about Hadley, the main character, and her father (a straight up cheater, who ran off with a woman he met while serving as a visiting instructor in England) that did not sit well with me and was far too tidily wrapped up.

{Review} Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook

Sarah Moon
Books

Well, this is embarrassing. 

Heart of Steel was recommended by Noelle, whose taste is very similar to my own, so I reluctantly looked past the heinous cover (thanks to my ereader) and aversion to steampunk and gave it a try. And, holy moly, am I glad I did.

Heart of Steel is seriously badass: in bullet points.

  • Yasmeen is a fantastic lead character. She’s tough and smart and capable. I loved her as the captain of an airship, and her loyalty to her crew. 
  • Archimedes Fox, the male lead, is delightful. He’s funny and a clotheshorse and awkwardly in touch with is feelings. He’s brilliant character.