Insta(gram)-Love

I try not to linger on this too much, but I’m a bit obsessed with book cover design.

You’d think that as someone who mostly reads digitally, covers would not be that important. But, I’ve found myself paying even more attention to book covers, since they need to work in so many different sizes and mediums.

While there are a lot of fabulous book covers out there, there are also quite a few that annoy me tremendously—and they nearly invariably fall into one of the following annoying cover trends.

#5 Unfortunately-Placed Weaponry… Ahem

Is that a sword/AK-47 in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

There’s a big small part of me that kind of loves this trend because it provides so many laughs. No further commentary necessary.

Oct 18

Oct 18 Review: Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt

I’ve held off on reviewing Tiffany Schmidt’s debut young adult novel, Send Me a Sign for some time now, because the farther away I get from the immediacy of reading this book, the more mixed my feelings become.

On one hand, Schmidt has written a story that is hard to put down—the narrator is not an easy character to like or feel compassionate toward, despite that she’s battling an illness, yet I found myself rooting for her. On the other hand, I keep finding myself not lingering on the quality of the story, but on my discomfort with the main character, her relationships and her motivation, as well as a very uncomfortable feeling about a plot device near the end of the book [spoiler discussion is here] that’s truly one of my book dealbreakers.

When I finished reading Send Me a Sign, initially I enjoyed it, having read the book in a single sitting. This is fairly remarkable, as I generally avoid 1) cancer books and 2) books about popular girls—especially from new-to-me authors. And Send Me a Sign has both. The writing was fresh and Send Me a Sign is an emotional novel that surprised me.

Mia is a popular cheerleader with a perfect life, leading me to think while reading the first few chapters,

“I’m not sure I can spend 300+ pages with a super popular cheerleader, those girls hated me in high school.”

Her friends have the perfect summer before their senior year planned. Except Mia is diagnosed with leukemia. But, she doesn’t tell anyone.

Was it even possible to keep my cancer a secret? I needed a sign.

Actually, she does tell someone: her neighbor Gyver (yes, like MacGyver), who’s a childhood friend. He’s there for her during her stay in the hospital for treatment and is all around wonderful.

After she returns home following a month in the hospital and having successfully concealed her illness from nearly everyone who cares about her (egged on by her mother in a sadly realistic case of WTF denial), she continues her deception, while being pursued by The Jock aka Ryan. There are many complications in their relationship, and even though Ryan wasn’t the guy that I wanted for Mia (obviously her sweetie pie musician neighbor Gyver is the boy you’ve got to root for), I really applaud Schmidt for never portraying Ryan as a bad guy for the sake of Gyver being the right boy for Mia. Both boys’ reactions to dealing with Mia’s illness rang authentic and it made me care about and sympathize with each of them.

Oct 17

Oct 17 Review: Live by Night by Dennis Lehane

Sandra

I’ve long been a fan of Dennis Lehane’s novels.

I was solidly hooked once Sarah introduced me to his first book, A Drink Before the War, so by the time I held his fourth novel Gone, Baby, Gone (which is also an excellent movie), the hook was set. When I saw he had a new book, Live By Night, coming out, I preordered it with great expectations.

I have no concerns about disappointment when a Lehane book is in my grip.

Live By Night features minor characters created in The Given Day, his lengthy previous novel, though it is not necessary to read that novel prior to reading this one. Lehane’s writing treats his readers with exact historical background. While reading The Given Day, I would pause in my reading to Google details from the book. They were always meticulously researched.

Yes, there was really a Molasses Flood in 1919 Boston. That’s right. Two-and-a-half million gallons of crude molasses heated up to the point where an eruption from the tower holding it resulted in a thick, hot flood of the sticky stuff traveling at 35 miles per hour with waves of eight to fifteen feet. Twenty-one people died in the scalding river of molasses.

I admit that it took me twice as long to read The Given Day than it should have—all that fact checking got in the way.

Oct 15

Oct 15 Photo Essay: Mindi Scott's Live Through This Launch Party

Events, Photo Essays

On Saturday, Laura, Sandra, Linsey (who’s in our subversive book club and super-cool) and I headed up to Seattle for Mindi Scott’s launch party for her second novel, Live Through This, at Elliot Bay Books.

If you haven’t read the book yet, you really should—it’s a unique, sensitive take on a very difficult subject and I cannot recommend it enough. Rather than writing a normal recap (which I’m terrible at anyway), I thought I’d share our little adventures in photos. We braved rain, half of the streets in Seattle being closed and detoured (what is with that city and its traffic?) and drunken football fans all in the name of books—uh, and acquiring a stash of Top Pot Doughnuts.

Seattle Skyline - It’s getting dark so, so early here in the Pacific Northwest. (I forgot to take a photo of the bookstore, so this is my stand-in.)

Laura had a “significant” haul of Australian books thanks to a Fishpond order and the lovely Mandee from Vegan YA Nerds. We divided them up and this is my stack to read first.

And Laura’s stack… It’s amusing how often we end up dividing up books on the street, looking somewhat like we’re conducting some sort of illegal activity. Have I mentioned that we usually exchange books in a rumpled paper bag?

Piles of Live Through This

Oct 13

Oct 13 List-O-Rama: A Bunch of CEFS Reader-Suggested Backlist YAs

We had such fantastic suggestions last weekend for backlist young adult novels that I had to spotlight them all into a list this week.

Thank you all for making to to-read list so enormous!

Small Steps by Louis Sachar (2006)

I may have ruined my life, but at least I got to eat some really good Chinese food.

Our friend Gabrielle Prendergast (whose book, Audacious, is one of our very much anticipated 2013 verse novels) suggested Louis Sachar’s follow up to Holes. I’m shocked I haven’t read either Holes or Small Steps because they really sound like something I’d like. All of the reviews say that you don’t need to read the first book to enjoy this one about a teen recently released from juvenile detention who’s trying to turn his life around in Austin, Texas.

Gabrielle also suggested anything by Barry Lyga (I know she’s a huge advocate for Boy Toy in particular), Pete Hautman and I am the Messenger by Markus Zuzak.

Oct 10

Oct 10 66 Thoughts After Watching 66 Episodes of The Vampire Diaries

Listorama, Television

As has been well-documented, I love television.

And I work out of my house. And I need background noise. Silence distracts me. While I love Pandora for background noise in short bursts, I love putting on some Netflix Instant in the background while I crank out a bunch of CSS coding or plan a class or write a communications plan.

Now, I know you’re thinking,

But, Sarah, how can you watch television and concentrate? That is not at all normal!

Good question!

First off, I never, ever claimed to be “normal.” Secondly, I have no idea, but this dates way back to fights I would have with my mother over watching television while doing my homework. I can actually concentrate better if I have something else to concentrate on too. It’s all part of my genius. Ahem.

The thing is, I’d kind of run out of new-to-me televisions shows to watch and was resorting to rewatching some of my old favorites.

Last month, I found myself inexplicably drawn to hitting the “watch now” on The Vampire Diaries. And watched all 66 episodes of the first three seasons over the course of an embarrassingly short period of time.

And I have some thoughts on The Vampire Diaries. Sixty-six of them, to be precise.

1-2) The first few episodes are essentially Dawson’s Creek with Vampires. I almost didn’t keep watching. So much angst and silly dialogue.

3-6) I have many concerns about Stefan’s hair.

First of all, he’s supposed to be from the Civil War Era, but his hair is straight out of 1955. And I wonder how much time Stefan spends on his hair—certainly more than Elena. This should have been a warning sign. And since the TVD vamps are vulnerable to fire, wouldn’t all the product pose a risk, given all the candles used around the Salvatore mansion?

Oct 9

Oct 9 Review: The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

I am desperately seeking a kick-ass survival book. If I hear that a book involves lifeboats and/or being marooned on a island, I am all over it.

As a result, I had high hopes for S.A. Bodeen’s young adult survival novel, The Raft.

Unfortunately, like the other survival story I read this year, The Lifeboat, The Raft didn’t live up to my (very high) expectations. With that said, I think there’s an audience that will enjoy this lost-at-sea, Hatchet-style novel.

Robie is a 15-year old with an unusual life. Her parents are researchers and she lives on Midway Island. She frequently hops a ride on the cargo plane between Midway and Honolulu, where her aunt lives and has a measure of independence that’s unusual for someone so young. It’s on one of these trips to visit her aunt that she leaves suddenly, following a frightening encounter with a stranger on the street. Because the phone lines are down and her aunt is out of town, no one knows that Robie’s headed back to Midway.

On the flight back, the plane experiences engine trouble and crashes into the sea. The co-pilot she’s never met before, Max, tosses her a life vest and deploys the plane’s lifeboat. Suddenly she and Max are alone in in the boat, adrift at sea. They have no water. They have no food (except a single bag of Skittles). There are sharks. It’s cold, it’s miserable and their only hope is that someone finds the raft—and soon.

Alone with the stinging of my scalp. Alone with the pain in my chest. Alone with the rain on my face. Alone with my freezing wet clothes, clammy dead weight against my skin. My breathing slowed. Alone with the truth…

Oct 8

Oct 8 Review: Can't Hurry Love by Molly O'Keefe

I have a a tough time reading the romance genre. Renegade is our Official Romance Correspondent, and she is so shrewd with her observations of what works an what doesn’t, and really articulating that in the context of the genre.

And, I think that romance is a very important genre. Yep. People who know me are often shocked by this. That’s because romance is the only genre that’s largely dominated by female readers and writers. This is a significant thing.

However, I often find myself distracted by the tried and true character types and story structures. There’s nothing wrong with those things, it’s just they often don’t work for me. I like books that push the limits and take characters in unexpected directions. And more than anything, I want an emotionally authentic story.

This is why I appreciate the two novels I’ve read by Molly O’Keefe so much—they work for me because they’re emotionally complex and the characters surprise me. Can’t Buy Me Love was remarkable in how challenging the characters were, pushing all sorts of boundaries in terms character motivation and development. Can’t Hurry Love, the companion novel featuring different characters but set in the same Texas ranch, featured similarly challenging characters, one of whom was simply unlikable in the previous novel.

But (also as in the previous novel) Can’t Hurry Love explores damaged people finding a path forward and coming to terms with their own pasts and figuring out a future together.

Oct 6

Oct 6 List-O-Rama: 3 Backlist YA Novels You May Have Missed

And by “backlist,” I mean books published prior to the explosion in popularity of YA in the last few years. These are a few of my go-to books when I make recommendations to folks who fell in love with young adult fiction and plowed through most of the popular titles.

These are all contemporaries, natch. And bonus: they’re generally way cheaper than new releases, so it’s easier to feed your book addiction.

Adios to My Old Life by Caridad Ferrer

MTV Books 2006

I adored Caridad (aka “Barb”) Ferrer’s 2010 novel, When the Stars Go Blue (which is inexplicably omitted from lists of “New Adult” titles, by the way), so I immediately bought both of her previous novels. (I’ve actually held off on reading It’s Not About the Accent because then I will have no other books of hers to read—please tell me I’m not the only one who does this.) Frankly, I’m surprised Adios to My Old Life wasn’t more popular when it was released, since it was published during the height of the American Idol craze, when everyone was talking about Idol around the watercooler. Adios follow Alegria, a talented 16 year old from Miami who’s competing in Oye Mi Canto, a reality show searching for the next Latin pop star. This is a fast-paced novel that I read in one sitting.

Oct 4

Oct 4 Review: Strings Attached by Judy Blundell

Sandra

Strings Attached depicts the fifties in all its grime with an edgy tilt highlighting the days of the McCarthy Era hearings on a witch hunt for communists. This era of bomb drills, mobsters and a rapidly changing America where nothing is as it once was but no one knew where it was heading comes alive in Judy Blundell’s 2011 novel.

Kit Corrigan, a sassy redheaded triplet whose mother died giving birth to her three children, is a multi-dimensional and fascinating character who falls in love with dance at a young age. Life for her plays out in terms of dance movements. Metaphorically, it’s as if she’s dancing allegro and flies into the arms and heart of love as if she’s a heroine in a tragic ballet.

Strings Attached travels with Kit both physically and emotionally as she leaves Providence, Rhode Island for a career as a Lido Club dancer in New York, becomes embroiled in the underbelly of mobster life, finds her way back to Providence and the strength of family while facing the secrets that brought them sorrow and tore them apart.

Indeed, there are strings attached in many ways, good and bad.

Oct 2

Oct 2 Review: Live Through This by Mindi Scott

There’s something thrilling and even a bit nerve-wracking about reading the second novel by an author whose debut landed squarely on my True Book Love shelf.

It’s thrilling because of the anticipation of hoping that book magic will happen all over again.

Mindi Scott’s 2010 debut, Freefall, is a book I love dearly (Laura’s review pretty much nails it) so I have been eagerly anticipating Live Through This. It received a starred review on Kirkus, and the pre-publication buzz has been extremely positive. When I saw it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble and noble—a whole week early—I squealed far too loudly and sprinted to the register, breathlessly explaining to the BN employee who rang me about about how much I’ve been looking forward to this book, and how it’s not actually out until October 2nd, and how I’ve got to know Mindi after I read Freefall and how it got a Kirkus star—and isn’t it all just so exciting! Needless to say, the poor guy thought I was a nutjob.

Oct 1

Oct 1 Has Goodreads forgotten readers?

Opinion

When I first discovered the book nerd social networking site Goodreads a couple of years ago, I was thrilled.

Despite that I use social media as an important part of my work, and teach classes on the subject, the only one of these platforms I’d personally enjoyed was Twitter (which is still my absolute favorite)—until Goodreads. On Goodreads, like on Twitter, I found my people.

Once I joined, Goodreads quickly became part of my daily routine. I loved reading other readers’ recommendations and perspectives—and I adored finding books that I would never have considered. Goodreads has broadened my horizons as a reader and opened my mind to new genres and writers in way that’s been extremely rewarding.

For a couple of years, I puttered along on Goodreads without any hiccups. But things changed.

I’ve never amassed loads of friends on the platform, mostly because, as with Facebook, the terminology of “friend” is one I’m not wholly comfortable with. “Friend,” to my old school mind, implies a specific sort of relationship, so I tend to “follow” Goodreaders whose reviews I’m interested in, rather than friending them. However, I generally do accept any friend requests I get on the platform (more on that in a bit), unlike on Facebook where I try to keep things limited to people I at least have an email sort of relationship with. But really, my friend numbers are teeny, tiny compared to most folks (as of today, I have 135 Goodreads friends).

But, a few months ago I started getting a lot of friend requests from people with author status on Goodreads. The pattern went like this:

Receive friend request from person with author status.
Blindly accept friend request.
Receive message from new “friend” recommending a book they wrote. (Always self-published.)
Delete message & remove my new “friend” from my friends list.
Rinse and repeat.

Initially, I complained to Goodreads about this pattern. It felt “spammy” and not in the spirit of the Goodreads community. Furthermore, it felt like it was an attempt at circumventing the paid promotional opportunities for authors on the platform and against the general guidelines of the Goodreads Author Program.

Goodreads’ response was disappointing, to say the least. Their oh-so-helpful recommendation was to unfriend people if I didn’t want to receive messages and recommendations of this nature.

Sep 30

Sep 30 List-O-Rama: Some of Our Favorite Male POV Contemporary YA

Gabrielle’s excellent post this week, “The Broken Boys of YA,” and subsequent huge Goodreads list inspired me to dedicate today’s post to highlighting some of our favorite young adult novels written from a male point-of-view.

These are all contemporaries, which is near and dear to us here, though there are some excellent paranormals and dystopians which Gabrielle’s Goodreads list highlights as well. It’s interesting, because I didn’t realize until now that many of my favorites are written by women. It’s funny, because many of the books I’ve had the biggest problems with have also been written by women. It seems like authors either knock this out of the park for me or absolutely fall flat. Funny… I would have thought there’d be more of a gender divide.

Freefall by Mindi Scott

“I just love that feeling when things are about to change. Like when you know that in a few seconds you’re going to do something and become someone else.”

I’m pretty sure that Laura and I are friends thanks to this book. Seth’s voice is one of my absolute favorites, it has a wonderful note of authenticity that makes Seth seem absolutely real. (I read Mindi’s new book last week and I literally squealed because Seth is mentioned and thought something along the lines of “I hope he’s doing well” before reminding myself that Seth is a fictional character.) Freefall has a very strong theme about actively choosing to make things change and it really resonated with both Laura and I. Seth Rocks.

{Laura’s Review | Amazon | Goodreads}

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

He was the person all of us should be, but most of us aren’t. And if I could have taken his place to buy him a little more time in the world, I’d have done it. I’m sorry I couldn’t.

Trish Doller’s debut is still reigning as one of my absolute favorite books of 2012. A 19-year old Marine coping with PTSD, on leave back in his hometown, in his family home, Travis’ should be pretty unrelatable for a dorky girl like me, but his story is told with such emotional authenticity that ultimately I found extremely compelling and familiar.

{My Review | Amazon | Goodreads}

Sep 27

Sep 27 Joint Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Note: This is a joint review by Sarah, Laura & Rebeca aka Renegade.

Blue had two rules: Stay away from boys, because they’re trouble, and stay away from raven boys, because they were bastards.

Without a doubt, the first book in Maggie Stiefvater’s new series, The Raven Boys, was one of our most anticipated novels of the year. All of us adored her 2011 standalone novel, The Scorpio Races, and couldn’t wait to see what sort of world Maggie created next.

Blue Sargent has been warned her entire life that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When she and her clairvoyant mother hang out in the local graveyard on St. Mark’s Eve—as they due each year, for the first time, Blue sees a soon-to-be-dead person. This boy speaks to Blue and he’s a Raven Boy—one of the students at the exclusive Aglionby Academy in her Virginia town.

Soon, Blue finds herself entangled in the Raven Boys’ world, a world filled with magic and mystery.

The World/Setting

Laura: I love the setting of a boarding school in a small town, with the push and pull that comes from those who live there year-round and the revolving door of students. It reminded me quite a bit of the dynamics of Ithaca, New York where I attended college. In both cases, so much of the town’s economy and cultural vitality is dependent on the student population, yet there is still a tension between those who consider it home and those who come off as entitled, sweep in and out at will and live separately when they are there.

Sarah: I am a sucker for boarding school in a small town books (there were a lot when I was a kid, okay?), so that alone makes me happy. The tension between townies versus the Raven Boys is really interesting and felt very vibrant. The magical world that’s alive beneath the surface of their town is really brilliant. I love how Maggie always takes a tiny bit of folklore (in this case, the Welsh sleeping kings) and makes it into something I completely believe in. The magical elements are thoroughly developed in this first book, but I also feel like there’s a roadmap for even more in this world’s mythology in the future books. As I was reading, I could feel the layers unpeeling. The way she melds the contemporary world and the paranormal is really distinctive in The Raven Boys, even more so than in the Mercy Falls series.

Sep 26

Sep 26 Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Kami had never wanted to do anything but these two things: discover truth and change the world.

Until I picked up Team Human for book club last month, I’d never read a Sarah Rees Brennan novel. Clearly this was a grave oversight on my part.

Unspoken is a wonderfully unique gothic young adult novel (that’s also—arg!—the first in a series) centered around Kami Glass and her friends in the English village of Sorry-in-the-Vale as they attempt to unravel the mystery behind the Lynburn family, who has recently return after years abroad.

As long as Kami can remember she’s had an imaginary friend, Jared, who she hears in her head. Except it turns out he’s very real.

I will admit, I was nervous about the premise behind Unspoken—I’m not a fan of the soulmates/deep, unexplain connection trope, especially in YA.

But Brennan takes that concept, the inexplicable connection, and turns it into something fresh. Jarden and Kami’s connection means that they are intimately a part of one another, but that doesn’t mean it’s not awkward and that awkwardness is heightened when they connect in real life. Jared is also an angry teenage boy. His life has been difficult, so being his friend in real-life isn’t that easy for Kami.

In fact, Kami and Jared’s connection, and the challenges in negotiating having one another literally each other’s heads, is the most fascinating aspect of Unspoken. Their relationship is different from anything I’ve read in a YA novel. There’s really not any romance to speak of in this book, despite some of the blurbs that mention it being romantic-slash-swoony. It’s more complex than romance, and oddly closer. Kami, who tries her best to plan and be a smart girl, sees their connection as intrusive, yet at times also comforting. Jared, on the other hand, views Kami’s voice in his head as a lifeline out of his troubled family.

And, the contrast between the two makes this all the more interesting. Jared is a bit of a disaster, sort of emotionally stupid and oddly shy. Then we’ve got Kami, who’s all full of confidence and sass and though she’s not the most emotionally intelligent person, she’s pretty good at keeping it all together as well as a teenage girl who fancies herself a hard-hitting investigative journalist can.

A serious journalist should probably not make so many jokes, but whenever Kami sat down to the computer it was as if the jokes were already there, hiding behind the keys, waiting to spring out at her.

Sep 23

Sep 23 I Love... Poetry

Sandra

I Love

The beauty of words weaving themselves into verse, into poetry, has always been a treasure in my life, an essential part of who I am.

There’s good reason for this. The wonder of language formed around me naturally, an essential part of growing up. The following are my memories how how the joy of poetry eased its way into my my life.

Evening wrapped itself around our campsite, the fire crackled and the s’mores dripped like warm icicles from our fingers. A day of leaping about the sand dunes and the folding of ocean waves one upon another settled upon my cousins, my sister and myself. It was at the perfect moment, orchestrated by the ambiance surrounding us that my aunt would begin to speak.

The words rolled from her heart to her lips weaving its magical spell.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold:

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

We five young children huddled about the fire hearing crickets chirping in the background with the sound of the Pacific and the heat of the summer sun upon still us, listened to the tale in rapt silence. Ah, The Cremation of Sam McGee, the chill of the Arctic and then to the final words of the verse.

Sep 23

Sep 23 List-O-Rama: Five 2013 Releases I've Already Preordered

There’s something crazy-making about forthcoming books by authors I love.

I obsess over their release dates, cover art, blurbs—and I know I’m not alone in this. Since I discovered the whole preordering thing a couple years ago (yeah, I was late to the party on that one), I take special care to preorder books I’m hotly anticipating in order to ensure that I’m not going to somehow miss one I’m hotly anticipating. Even though we’re barely into fall of 2012, I’ve already pushed that preorder button on five books coming out next year.

Falling for You, Lisa Schroeder - January 1

When I first learned that Lisa’s next YA novel was not going to be in verse, I was a bit bummed out—The Day Before is one of my favorite reads and I just adore her approach to the verse format. However, now that I’ve come to terms with it, I’m actually very excited to see what she’ll do with a traditionally formatted novel. Lisa described this book as mysterious and about “darkness and light,” which really intrigues me, since that’s a theme I usually enjoy in novels. I have to admit to muttering some not-very-grownup words of jealousy when I saw half of Twitter talking about how they snagged ARCs of this one at ALA this year—and I rarely come down with ARC Envy Syndrome.

{Amazon | Goodreads}

Gayle Forman, Just One Day - January 8

I really liked If I Stay, but Where She Went is one of my favorite reads ever—I was just completely gutted by Adam’s story. I was lucky enough to hear Gayle speak at a little event in Seattle this year and was really impressed with her thoughtfulness and insights into storytelling, so I’m an even bigger fan now. Like the If I Stay series, her next two books will be a duology form two different characters’ points of view, and I really like that style. I’m even more excited that this series is going to deal with the transformative power of travel, because that’s something that was very important to me at the time I was the age of the main character in Just One Day.

Sep 19

Sep 19 E-reading Aggravations

E-reading + Digital Stuff, Listorama

Last week I went into detail about why e-reading works for me. However, not every aspect of e-reading works for me. There are a number of inherent problems with digital reading that frustrate me to no end, and I don’t think I’m alone.

Platform Lock-in/DRM

This is probably the most frustrating thing for a many readers. That committing to an e-reader means that you’re likely committing to a specific vendor for your book purchases. Now, there are ways around this (which usually violate your terms of service), and people who own some of the devices that use epub format can buy from alternate vendors. However, in large part, people are locked in. We have several Kindles in our house, for example. Because I would have to violate my terms of service to move my ebook library to another platform, I’m essentially locked into the Amazon environment. Nook users face the same problem—if they wanted to move to Kindle, they couldn’t take their libraries with them. Functionally, this doesn’t really impact me, because I rarely re-read, but the principle of it really aggravates me. I still haven’t seen data that makes the case that DRM actually prevents piracy, so all it’s doing now is keeping consumers from being able to choose from a multitude of ebook vendors. (Part of me also wonders if DRM prevents specialty ebook vendors from cropping up, but that’s simply speculation on my part, because I haven’t seen data on that issue.)

You Don’t Own Your Ebooks

Yep, you just own a license to view content (and on some platforms, the license restricts you even further to a specific device). I get the why behind this thinking: if consumer own their ebooks, that means they can resell them, but because electronic files are easily duplicated, someone could buy a book for $10 and resell the same file over and over again. But, again, there’s something about it that doesn’t sit with me.

A Multitude of Formatting Problems

Now, this isn’t the exclusive domain of ebooks—I’ve had loads of print books with weird formatting issues. However, I have experienced some of the strangest formatting problems with ebooks, particularly non-fiction. My “favorite” was one that had the center third of the book centered and italicized. A tip: if you encounter any formatting weirdness, and you’re an Amazon customer, they will refund your money. (I have been told BN does not offer this same courtesy for Nook books.) I’ve also encounter overly large indents, odd page breaks and random hard returns between paragraphs. If this bothers you, and you like all of your books to be formatted consistently, there are some tools out there that will allow you to re-format your ebooks. Again, though, this is a violation of your terms of service.

Sep 18

Sep 18 More Mini Reviews: Two Paranormals I Actually Liked