Category: Uncategorized
Books that Should be Taught in School: Feed by Mira Grant
You’re probably thinking I’ve gone insane right now, aren’t you? At least, literary snobs, those of you that have read Feed and those of you that have seen my review are. I mean, a zombie novel in school. How crazy can you get? Well, it’s actually not that crazy. So please hear me out before you pass judgment:
1. It will engage high school students.
Yes, Feed has violence and coarse language. Yes, it’s a zombie novel. But I know for a fact that ‘worse’ books (content-wise) have been studied in school. Does anyone here remember reading Catch-22 in high school English? When I first read it, I was shocked that anyone ever studied this in school, yet it was still studied because it was a good novel. Feed is an excellent novel and in my honest opinion, it’s no worse than Joseph Heller’s classic novel. In some aspects, it is less ‘offensive’.
In most people’s minds zombies=awesome. By high school, most people (especially boys in my experience) hate reading passionately. Educators are always asking themselves how to improve reading scores and get kids interested in reading again.
Do you see where I’m going here?
Feed has all of the themes, messages and three dimensional characters that educators love to analyze to death while having all of the zombies, weapons and gross science that teenagers love. It has bad language and violence (obviously), but for kids in grade 11 and 12…they’re going to see and hear a lot worse on television on an ordinary day. Continue reading
The True Confessions of a Book Reviewer
I’m approaching my ninth month as a book reviewer, even though it doesn’t feel like it and I’ve been reflecting a lot on my blog and book reviewing in general. It wasn’t until I saw this article on The Perpetual Page-Turner that I realized a lot of other reviewers experience the same things. Well, here are my confessions:
1. There are times when I don’t want to get out of bed, let alone write a review.
I love writing reviews and when I really love a book, writing a review is easy. However, when there are mixed elements in a book it’s hard to write a review. You have to balance out the good and the bad and say why certain aspects were bad. Writing-wise, it’s much more difficult than to gush, but it needs to be done. I owe it to my readers and the author to write a fair review, but that doesn’t make it any easier to write when I have writer’s block. There are some days when I don’t even want to get out of bed to go to work and make money, let alone write a review for fun.
I go through the occasional period of writing trouble and feel under-appreciated; I’m not ashamed to admit that. But then I get that one comment that makes my day and gives me new motivation to write through the good and bad times. It’s comments that expand upon the article, promote discussion and show that someone appreciates what I’m doing that give me the motivation to keep writing every day. To some it may seem pathetic, but it’s that occasional thoughtful comment that makes my day, especially when I’ve had a long day at work. Continue reading
An Open Letter to the Boys of the World
Dear boys,
We’ve failed you. Educators, authors, parents and the media; we’ve all let you done. Some people try to place the blame on one group alone, but the truth is, it’s everyone’s fault.
According to some sources, your overall reading test scores are going down and no one really seems to know why. But you already know why, don’t you? It’s partly a cultural problem because if you read and enjoy it, you’re a nerd and/or a wimp. It’s also an educational problem. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, The Diary of a Young Girl, The Outsiders…a lot of the books you are forced to study in schools are written by women (obviously so in S. E. Hinton’s case) or are all about teenage girls. And even if by some miracle you do like reading despite school, there aren’t many YA books with male protagonists, are there?
We’re trying to make it up to you and the future isn’t as bleak as it may seem. More and more YA writers are writing books aimed at you, but there is still a disproportionate amount of YA with female protagonists. Alas, for some of you, it may already be too late. I was the only girl in my grade and by the seventh grade 7/8 of you proudly proclaimed you hadn’t read a book cover to cover all year. This could be dismissed as a case of rural redneck mentality, but this study shows that the average number words read per year by boys is significantly lower than the average number of words per year for girls.
Basically, we’re sorry. We screwed up and have let you fall behind. It may not be much consolation and you may have sworn off reading long ago, but the face of YA is changing as more male authors write for you. Authors like Anthony Horowitz, Michael Scott, Eoin Colfer and Matt Myklusch (and so many more) are writing incredible books with strong male protagonists. That helps, but what I and many others are hoping for is—at the risk of sounding cliché—a cultural revolution. Society needs to get past the ridiculous belief that reading isn’t “macho” or “cool” and there’s only one way to achieve that:
We need to create a conversation that brings the issue into the public eye, where something may finally be done about it. So Tweet, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, re-blog and write your own thoughts on the topic. It’s time for your voices to be heard.
Sincerely,
Carrie Slager
The Mad Reviewer
What’s New in the World of Books?
A lot, apparently. So let’s go down the list, shall we?
1. The Masquerade Crew’s anthology, which you can be a part of!
Mark from The Masquerade Crew is putting together an anthology based on the premise of characters time-travelling to the future. What do they see? What’s the world like? Are they stuck or are they able to return? You tell us! Write and submit a short story from 5,000 to 10,000 words to be considered for Mark’s first anthology. For more information, here is my post ‘Calling all Writers!’ and Mark’s post on his blog. You can also email him at msl_007@live.com to submit your story or if you have any additional questions.
I will be one of the editors working on the project and to be perfectly frank, other than critiquing short stories in forums, I have no experience editing. What relevant experience I do have has been obtained by book reviewing, in which I talk about characterization, plot, dialogue, etc. Therefore, I will be the developmental (content) editor and any changes I make will be subject to Mark and the author’s approval. This is my first foray into formal editing and Mark’s first foray into publishing, so it will be a learning experience for the whole team.
Note: this is the first of hopefully many anthologies The Masquerade Crew will be publishing. If you can’t find inspiration for this particular prompt, wait around for the next one!
2. Sue Grafton makes an ignorant remark about indie authors.
My little circle of followers and people I follow on Twitter almost exclusively includes people who are authors, publishers and book bloggers, so you can imagine that I heard the rage of indie authors when Sue Grafton basically insulted all of their hard work. I think some people have taken things too far, but on the whole, the posts about her remarks and the aftermath have been relatively level-headed. For some background about the controversy, here’s a great post by Nobody Asked Me, But…
3. Clockwork Princess cover art and release date have been announced.
As if you Cassandra Clare fans didn’t know this already! By internet standards, it’s old news, but for you guys who don’t obsessively check writer’s sites, this is probably new. But Clockwork Princess, the third book in The Infernal Devices trilogy has a set release date of March 19, 2013 (so long, I know!) and the cover art is now all over the web. I like the cover art on The Infernal Devices much more than I do on most of The Mortal Instruments books. There’s less emphasis on the ‘sexy’ aspect of the novels, but that’s to be expected as they are set in the Victorian Era of England.
Personally, I’m apprehensive about the end of the trilogy. From the way it intertwines with The Mortal Instruments, things don’t bode well for Tessa and the gang (I’m predicting an operatic tragedy, personally) and Cassandra Clare has a lot of loose ends to tie up. It will be interesting to see how she handles things.
So what have you guys heard in the world of books lately? Any series you’re eagerly awaiting the next book(s)?
3 Pieces of Advice Authors (Should) Ignore
There is a lot of advice for authors out there and, as such, there is a lot of advice out there that is mediocre or just plain bad. Here are some examples of wretched advice I’ve found on writing sites and why authors should just plain ignore it.
You don’t want to be this guy, do you?
1. Never read reviews.
This lovely little piece of advice has been around a long time and is in practically every book and blog about writing ever. 9 times out of 10, it makes me burst out into hysterical laughter. Why?
Because no one follows it.
Well, I shouldn’t say that. I mean: 99 out of 100 authors who have access to the internet never follow it. We humans are curious by nature, especially when it comes to the opinions of our fellow humans on something we’ve worked hard at. The internet makes this curiosity pretty much unbearable because book reviews are so accessible, therefore at one time or another, an author is going to read someone’s review of their book.
How do I know this? I’m a book reviewer, of course. My reviews have been read by Matt Myklusch, Krystal Wade, Michelle Hansen and Mira Grant, just to name a few. The first three I mention contacted me via my blog or email and Mira Grant mentioned me on her blog in a round-up of reviews of her books. Keep in mind that these are just the authors I know for certain have read my reviews. I’m pretty sure more have stumbled across my blog.
I do have to add one caveat to my derision of this advice: you shouldn’t read reviews if you’re sensitive. No matter how amazing your book is, you will get a bad review and it will hurt. Now, if you’ve already developed thick skin, this will be a minor hurt you can just brush off or even laugh about. However, if you haven’t developed that thick skin that’s necessary in the publishing industry, you really shouldn’t ignore this advice. Continue reading