In the Hammock Giveaway

Okay, so I've recently added a ton of giveaway buttons on my sidebar. I've decided to blog about one really great giveaway by In the Hammock Book Reviews. The winner wins SIX incredible books:

"Queen of the Dead" by Stacey Kade

"After Obsession" by Carrie Jones and Steven E. Wedel

"Between" by Jessica Warman

"Dracula in Love" by Karen Essex

"The Near Witch" by Victoria Schwab

"Fallen Grace" by Mary Hooper

Between and The Near Witch are on my TBR list, so I'm very excited. The others look just as good.

Contest ends Nov. 1, so head on over to In the Hammock to enter!

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Feature and Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (#6)

Hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View, Feature and Follow Friday allows book bloggers to answer a question, leave comments, gain followers, and explore the realm of book bloggers.

Q. If you could pick one character in a book, movie or television show to swap places with, who would it be?

All the characters in the books I've read lately have crazy trials that test their faith after a family member dies. So I guess I would have to say Ariel from The Little Mermaid. She can sing underwater without choking to death AND she gets a happily ever after with Prince Eric. So what if she has to defeat an evil octupus and her voice is stolen for a while? Everything happens for a reason, right?

Jen at Crazy for Books hosts Book Blogger Hop with a new question each week.

“It’s time to spread some love beyond the borders of the Book Blogger Hop! This week, we aren’t answering a question. We are spotlighting our fellow bloggers. Find your favorite(s) author interview(s), guest post(s), book review(s), or bookish article(s) that ANOTHER BOOK BLOGGER featured on their site recently and tell us why you love it/them! As an additional challenge, find your favorite one of EACH of the categories above and spotlight all 4 (interview, guest post, review, article).”

1)  My favorite author interview is the one on I am a Reader, Not a Writer with Michael Robb Mathias. He's hilarious:
"Q: If you were stranded on a desert island what 3 things would you want with you?
 A: I would want a harem, a solar powered fishing boat, and that crazy, spike-haired chef from the food channel. I bet he could make some great meals out of the seafood I catch in my fishing boat!" 
And the book he'd most want signed is the Bible.

2)  Guest post...didn't find one I particulary enjoyed that's recent...guess I failed the challenge:(

3) Kristan from Lost Amongst the Shelves always gives honest, thorough reviews that show her personality and eye for detail, whether it be in the structure of the prose or things about a character. Her review on Stephanie Perkins' Lola and the Boy Next Door makes me want to run right out and buy it.

4)  Raindrop Reflections just posted Covers That Make People Judge. Very true words in here, people. A cover is our very first opinion of the book. If it's crap, well, I feel bad for the author because he or she doesn't always have a choice. Luckily we're all individuals and have our own thoughts on what we like to see on a cover. One man's trash is another man's treasure and all that.

I love you all and your posting brilliance. These are all great blogs, so check them out!

Check out our 100 Followers Giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of Sonia Gensler's paranormal romance The Revenant and Alex Sokoloff's suspenseful ebook The Space Between.

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Waiting on Wednesday (#7): A Breath of Eyre

Jill at Breaking the Spine hosts this weekly meme to let other bloggers know what exciting new books are coming out. 

Totally saw this pick on Liza's site- Reading with ABC- and stole it. She has impeccable taste.

Release date: April 1, 2012

"Emma Townsend has always believed in stories—the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates in her head. Perhaps it’s because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn’t come close to filling the void left by her mother’s death. And her only romantic prospect—apart from a crush on her English teacher—is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma’s confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre…

Reading of Jane’s isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane’s body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she’s never known—and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane’s story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own..."

-Good Reads

Reasons I'm excited:

• She's wearing a purple gown with long skirts. I've always wanted to play dress-up in one.
• Storyline is amazing. I'm currently trying to hold off on watching Jane Eyre so I can wait until my mom and I are together again...my will is slowly deteriorating.
• Time travel...AND the first of a series. Will the second book be about Jane or another time traveler?

How can this not make you squeal? Well I can understand if this isn't your favorite genre and you don't have any particular fondness of Jane Eyre.

But I'm a serious English buff.

What are you waiting on?

Don't forget to check out our 100 followers giveaway...up for grabs are a free ebook copy of The Space Between and a signed copy of The Revenant.

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Author Interview and Giveaway

 All About the Author (#2)

Spotlight on Sonia Gensler and The Revenant

      I was so excited when I heard this book was coming out.

I recently met Sonia Gensler at an   

Oklahoma Writer's Conference, and she is

 such a nice and genuine person. She is in the same

 critique group as someone I teach with at the high

school. Besides the cover,

what drew me to this book was that it

takes place in Oklahoma (where I live!) and

the main character pretends to be a teacher (what I do, but for real!) This book had everything: a creepy haunting, beautiful prose, and a great love story.  

Read below for Sonia's thoughtful answers to my

questions and for a chance to win a signed copy of her book!

"When Willie arrives in Indian Territory, she knows only one thing: no one can find out who she really is. To escape a home she doesn't belong in anymore, she assumes the name of a former classmate and accepts a teaching job at the Cherokee Female Seminary.

Nothing prepares her for what she finds there. Her pupils are the daughters of the Cherokee elite—educated and more wealthy than she, and the school is cloaked in mystery. A student drowned in the river last year, and the girls whisper that she was killed by a jealous lover. Willie's room is the very room the dead girl slept in. The students say her spirit haunts it.

Willie doesn't believe in ghosts, but when strange things start happening at the school, she isn't sure anymore. She's also not sure what to make of a boy from the nearby boys' school who has taken an interest in her—his past is cloaked in secrets. Soon, even she has to admit that the revenant may be trying to tell her something. . . "

-Good Reads

(On your book The Revenant:
1. How did the original idea for The Revenant come to you?

It started brewing in my imagination when friends Brandi and Martha gave our critique group a tour of Tahlequah, OK (Brandi had recently relocated there). Part of the tour took us by the Northeastern State University campus and its beautiful centerpiece, Seminary Hall. When Martha explained that the building was once a Cherokee girls' school, I HAD to know more. My research inspired the setting and conflicts of The Revenant.

2. What genre would you classify this novel as since it has elements of historical fiction and paranormal romance?

It's definitely a mish-mash of genres. I personally like to call it a Gothic mystery, but booksellers usually classify it as paranormal romance.

3. Some readers may find it hard to believe that Willie passes for a teacher at 17 years old. What details did you provide for readers to make the situation plausible?

These days teachers must be college grads to get hired, but have you seen 22-year-olds lately? They look 17! Seriously, though, I tried to focus on Willie's dramatic flair to show that she was playing the role of a teacher. Mrs. Crenshaw comments on how young she looks, and how younger teachers have trouble holding themselves apart from students who are near their age, as if it's a common problem. Seminary graduates often returned to the school to teach (like Olivia Adair did), so young teachers wouldn't have been unusual at all.

4. Why did you choose to make one of Willie’s most prized possessions a volume of her father’s Shakespeare books?

It goes along with her dramatic flair. Her father was an actor, and her strategy for dealing with new and uncomfortable situations is to perform her way through them. She also sees the world through the lens of Shakespeare's characters and conflicts, so it seemed natural that she would treasure those books.

5. What do you like most about Eli Sevenstar?

I like how he switches back and forth between gentlemanly and dangerous behavior. He's a rule-breaker. He certainly keeps Willie on her toes!

6. The details about the haunting were quite descriptive. Did you have fun writing the suspenseful parts of the book?

It was hard work and required a lot of tweaking and revising. I guess it was too technical of a process for me to actually scare myself, but at times it was quite entertaining.

7. The style in which the book is written suits the time period well. It reminds me of Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte type prose. Who are your favorite authors and were they inspirations to you in the writing of this novel?

Austen and Bronte will always inspire me. Bronte's Villette, which is about a young teacher in a foreign city, was a huge inspiration behind The Revenant. Other 19th century writers who shaped my style include Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery and Laura Ingalls Wilder. More recently I've been inspired by the historical fiction of Jennifer Donnelly, Libba Bray and Saundra Mitchell.

8. Among the issues this novel brings to light is the discrimination toward full-blooded Cherokee girls by girls who were half-Cherokee, half-Caucasian. What part of your research led you to believe this prejudice existed?

Devon Mihesuah, a professor in the Global Indigenous Nations Studies program at University of Kansas, wrote a very detailed account of the school and the various conflicts the girls experienced. I made extensive use of her book, Cultivating the Rosebuds: The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1909 in my research. The school admitted girls who were as little as 1/128 Cherokee, so it wasn't just a half vs. full blood quantum situation -- in truth, there was a lot of diversity, including some students whose cultural heritage included other tribes in addition to Cherokee. Mihesuah found evidence that the girls who were fairer-skinned and more acculturated often considered themselves superior to their darker-skinned, more traditional cousins, and this fostered resentment within the school. However, Richard Allen, policy analyst for the Cherokee Nation, reminded me that tensions didn't arise solely from racial discrimination -- there also were various socioeconomic biases, same as you see in schools today. I tried to touch on these issues in The Revenant, but hopefully in a manner that was sensitive and didn't overpower the mystery.

9. Have you visited the actual seminary that is portrayed in The Revenant?

Oh yes. I attended a Haunted Seminary Hall tour in 2008 and have returned to explore the building since then. As it's now a part of Northeastern State University, the building has been renovated quite a bit, but there's still a cool historical feel to it.

10. I heard rumors of a second book related to The Revenant. Can you tell us what it’s about?

I wonder who started that rumor? I do have a second book coming out from Knopf, but it won't be a sequel to The Revenant. I hope it will be another Gothic mystery, but the similarities end there. Several readers have expressed interest in a sequel, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Maybe someday I'll write a short story -- one that gives us a peek into Willie's future.

For more information on Sonia Gensler and her writing, check out her blog by going to http://soniagensler.blogspot.com/

For our 100 Followers Giveaway, Alex Sokoloff, author of The Space Between, is providing one e-book copy for a lucky reader. We are now adding an additional prize to the pot for that same reader: an autographed copy of Gensler's book The Revenant.

If 50 people enter, I'll throw Stephanie Perkins' new book in the mix:

  

Please leave a comment on this post for the author then click HERE to officially enter the giveaway. The deadline is October 14th at midnight.

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Feature and Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (#5)

Paranjunkee's View and Alison Can Read host Feature & Follow Friday. This is a meme where bloggers just starting out can gain followers (and so can the rest of us!).

Q. What book that hasn't been turned into a movie (yet) would you most like to see make it to the big screen, and who would you like cast as your favorite character?

Matched, of course! I believe a movie is the work, but something so good by Ally Condie should be shared with as many people as possible. I'm excited to see dystopian books played out on the big screen...can't wait for The Hunger Games!

Jen at Crazy for Books does the Book Blogger Hop so we can check out each other's blogs every weekend.

“In honor of Banned Books Week, what is your favorite “banned or frequently challenged book”?”
Click here for 2010-11 list in PDF format. You can also click HERE to view past years and choose from any of those titles!



Mine is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. How can this book not impact your life in some way? I read it 12 years ago; I still remember it. Anderson knows how to connect with her readers. Rape is one of worst evils in the world, and it is important to let our teens know it is not okay. Also, victims of rape need a support system-- something out there that tells them they will survive this and their feelings of shame and guilt are natural ones. I can't believe my home state, Missouri, is also home to the parents that challenged this well-written and powerfully moving book for "soft pornography" and text that "glorifies drinking, cursing, and premarital sex." Have these parents lived in the 21st century lately? Are they going to write MTV to request a station ban from the air?

Check below for my 100 followers giveaway and have a great weekend!

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YA Authors Told to "Straighten" Gay Characters by Agent

Apparently I should be reading Rose Fox's work over at Publishers Weekly more often, because she keeps coming out with really interesting articles. This time she's using her column to relate the difficulty YA authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith encountered when their (unnamed) literary agent attempted to force them to alter a gay character's orientation in their upcoming post-apocalyptic YA novel. In their own words:

"Our novel, Stranger, has five viewpoint characters; one, Yuki Nakamura, is gay and has a boyfriend. Yuki’s romance, like the heterosexual ones in the novel, involves nothing more explicit than kissing.

An agent from a major agency, one which represents a bestselling YA novel in the same genre as ours, called us.

The agent offered to sign us on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation.

Rachel replied, “Making a gay character straight is a line in the sand which I will not cross. That is a moral issue. I work with teenagers, and some of them are gay. They never get to read fantasy novels where people like them are the heroes, and that’s not right.”

The agent suggested that perhaps, if the book was very popular and sequels were demanded, Yuki could be revealed to be gay in later books, when readers were already invested in the series.

We knew this was a pie-in-the-sky offer—who knew if there would even be sequels?—and didn’t solve the moral issue. When you refuse to allow major characters in YA novels to be gay, you are telling gay teenagers that they are so utterly horrible that people like them can’t even be allowed to exist in fiction.

LGBTQ teenagers already get told this. They are four times more likely than straight teenagers to attempt suicide. We’re not saying that the absence of LGBTQ teens in YA sf and fantasy novels is the reason for that. But it’s part of the overall social prejudice that does cause that killing despair.

We wrote this novel so that the teenagers we know—some of whom are gay, and many of whom are not white—would be able, for once, to read a fun post-apocalyptic adventure in which they are the heroes. And we were told that such a thing could not be allowed.

After we thanked the agent for their time, declined the offer, and hung up, Sherwood broke the silence. “Do you think the agent missed that Becky and Brisa [supporting characters] are a couple, too? Do they ever actually kiss on-page? No? I’M ADDING A LESBIAN KISS NOW!” "

You can read the full article over at the PW website.

This is just really sad. I'm used to hearing about religious groups or parents complaining about content in books, and I've read about librarians censoring materials when making ordering decisions, but I never really considered how much censorship can (and apparently does) happen so close to the source: the publishing companies. This makes me wonder how many books that have been altered by authors willing to make concessions to their works to get them published. Then again, I know tons of authors who are anti-censorship advocates, so it's hopefully really rare that an author caves.

What do you think?

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Tempest Rising

Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs

Tempest Maguire wants nothing more than to surf the killer waves near her California home; continue her steady relationship with her boyfriend, Mark; and take care of her brothers and surfer dad. But Tempest is half mermaid, and as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she will have to decide whether to remain on land or give herself to the ocean like her mother. The pull of the water becomes as insistent as her attraction to Kai, a gorgeous surfer whose uncanny abilities hint at an otherworldly identity as well. And when Tempest does finally give in to the water's temptation and enters a fantastical underwater world, she finds that a larger destiny awaits her-and that the entire ocean's future hangs in the balance. -Plot summary borrowed from Good Reads

When I started with the mermaids theme for the summer, I really had expected more of them to be Paranormal Romances a la Twilight (love triangle, dark mysterious stranger, etc etc etc) and this has been the first to actually fit that mold. And that's not a bad thing.

While Tempest Rising reminded me a lot of Twilight (which as a reader I loathe but as a librarian, I grudgingly acknowledge that it does get teens reading, so, all grumbling aside it does do a lot of good) in the setup, Deebs does a lot of things Meyers did not. Tempest has a loving family that she is an active part of, she has a supportive network of friends, she has hobbies, an emotional life beyond her romantic life- I could go on. I did almost give up on the book when Kona, the requisite Mysterious Dark Stranger is introduced and Tempest is immediately and inexplicably drawn to him despite her misgivings blah blah see previous post. BUT, Deebs almost immediately fleshes out his character and makes it clear that there are reasons to trust and like him. 

Best of all, this novel talks a great deal about choices. Tempest has a choice whether to be human or mer, it will just be a difficult one. She can choose which, if either, boy she loves and will be the best for her. She makes one choice that has terrible consequences, which she must then face.

This was also a good read, an definitely interesting in terms of the mermaid theme. Tempest despises the idea of becoming mer (this happened a bit in Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings, but it wasn't clear why, other than the idea of having a fish tail weirded out the protagonist). For Tempest, becoming mer means becoming more like the mother she was abandoned by, and will mean leaving her family forever if she cannot resist the lure of the ocean. To me, this is much more meaningful. The mer world is not a sparkly, happy place like in Forgive My Fins, because this is a much darker book all around. Despite that, there are light moments and I enjoyed the relationship between Kona and Tempest as being much more realistic and likable than many other paranormal pairings. 

If you like paranormal romance but are looking for a heroine with a bit more of a backbone, this is a solid bet. (If you're looking for an even tougher heroine, check out Rampant by Diana Peterfreund).

It hasn't been announced yet, but I'd be surprised if a sequel is not in the works.

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