Tagged: ya
Look What Just Arrived! (#15)
As I mentioned my local independent bookstore is closing, so I’ve been stocking up on books. They’re having a big sale so I decided to go to the city yesterday and snap some books up while there’s still a bit of selection. Here’s what I bought:
- The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
- The Serpent and the Pearl by Kate Quinn
- The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland
- Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
- Penelope’s Daughter by Laurel Corona
- Alchemy by Maureen Duffy
- The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau
- Mordred’s Curse by Ian McDowell
Out of all these awesome books I bought the other day, I think the one I’m most excited about is The Demon King. I’ve seen it and the other books in the Seven Realms series all around the blogosphere so I figured I’d pick it up. The premise is certainly intriguing and the excerpt I read sounded good, so why not?
Most of the other books I’m not very excited to read, but I’m looking forward to The Serpent and the Pearl as well as The Secret Eleanor. Both are historical fiction and although I’ve never read either author before the blurbs sounded good. I’ve read only one book about Eleanor of Aquitaine and that was a couple years ago, so it will be nice to get a little more detail about her life. And while I’ve read books about the Borgias, seeing their world through the eyes of an outsider will offer a little more perspective.
When I picked up Red Riding Hood I had no idea it was the companion novel to the movie. I’ve never even watched the movie, so we’ll see how things go. Mordred’s Curse sounds interesting because I’ve always felt there was a little more to Mordred’s story than we get in the traditional Arthurian legend. Penelope’s Daughter was a no-brainer for me because I do love Greek mythology and Xanthe is a character I’ve never really encountered before. Alchemy was more of an impulse buy because I thought it had the potential to be good and in all honesty I just bought The Crown because it featured a nun. That’s definitely not the traditional heroine of a story.
So, do you see anything you like? Have you read any of these books?
4 Lessons Writers Can Learn from Opera
Opera has a reputation as a rather dreary art form, full of over-complicated/ridiculous plots and fat women screeching. Nothing could be further than the truth in a lot of cases. And rather than mocking opera without even trying it, many people would do well to learn lessons from it. Writers especially because it may come as a shock to some, but opera imparts some very important lessons to us. The following are just some of them.
Lesson: Good characters can have terrible flaws.
As taught by: Tosca, Ernani, Aida and La Boeheme.
In Tosca, the title character (who is a notable singer within the opera) is the epitome of a wonderful person: she’s sincere in her faith, tries to do good in the world and her love for Cavaradossi (a notable painter and her lover) knows no bounds. Except that Tosca becomes wildly jealous when she sees that Cavaradossi has portrayed another woman as the Madonna in his painting in the church in Act 1. She is haunted by the woman’s eyes and they argue back and forth before Cavaradossi finally changes the Madonna’s blue eyes to black eyes like Tosca’s.
Normally I’d say that extreme jealousy like Tosca’s would make me hate a character, but it works in her case. She’s a good person but has a fatal flaw: her jealousy. The same is true in real life, as I’m sure we’ve all noticed. Even the best people in our lives can have horrible character traits and that’s something authors really need to recognize. Yes, even the main character of the novel has to have something unlikeable about them. That’s how real life is so why should fiction be any different? Continue reading
Exciting Book Deals for YA Lovers
[Full disclosure: I would love to thank Anthea Sharp for tipping me off about these deals. Although I was provided both deals for free from her, I was under no obligation to post about them and would have done it without getting the bundles for free.]
Okay: do you like YA books? Fantasy? Well written stories? Well, if you’re reading my blog you probably love at least two of the three. That means that now’s your time to snap up these awesome deals.
Deal #1: Faery Worlds (Six Complete Novels) for only $0.95 until the end of September!
The Faery Worlds bundle, of course, contains six ebook novels with faeries as the central theme. Although I haven’t yet started on it, I can tell you that Anthea Sharp’s Feyland: The Dark Realm is worth far more than $0.95 alone! I mean, if you love fantasy and/or YA this bundle is an awesome deal. Head on over to Amazon by clicking here. This deal is on only until the end of September, so snap it up while it lasts.
Deal #2: A StoryBundle collection of YA books for a pay what you want price!
Okay, so the minimum payment on StoryBundle is actually $3 and that’s an awesome deal considering how many books are in the bundle. I’ve downloaded this one as well and am really excited to get started on some of these books! Although the image I was sent shows eight books, the bundle on StoryBundle shows only 7 because Open Minds is not there. Still, 7 books for whatever price you want? You can’t get a better deal than that. You have to snap this one up quickly, however: it’s only live until September 17. Click here to see it.
Things I Want to See in YA
Young Adult is now a firmly established genre and it’s not going away anytime soon, believe me. However, it’s also a fairly new genre, and as such has a little more growing up to do. There are possibilities that haven’t been explored yet, there are ways authors can still push the boundaries of the genre without creating an entirely new genre, etc.
Of course this means that I have to add in my two cents. (Or is it 5 cents now that we’ve gotten rid of the penny?) Anyway, here are some things I’d like to see more of or see done at all in YA:
1. Characters with chronic diseases/pain.
Yes, this is an incredibly uplifting way to start off an article, isn’t it? It’s still true: when was the last time you read a YA novel with a character that had a chronic disease and/or chronic pain. “But Carrie,” you say, “young people can’t be in pain!” Continue reading
What I Hate About YA
Obviously I love the Young Adult genre. I wouldn’t be reading it and focusing my blog around it if I didn’t. But YA as a genre has its flaws and there are some things that consistently appear in books that drive me mad. What are some of these things? Read on!
1. The girl always gets the guy (or vice versa).
I won’t claim I’m an expert in matters of the heart, but I do know one thing: You don’t always get the person you want. Seriously, why is love in YA books always requited? It doesn’t happen like that in real life. In real life, when you have a crush on someone, there’s a good chance they don’t feel the same way. And it sucks. Yes, fiction is supposed to be uplifting to a certain extent, but can’t it be a little more realistic? Continue reading