Lisa Roecker's Blog, page 46

Bookinistas: MATCHED by Ally Condie

It's no surprise that people have been buzzing about Ally Condie's MATCHED. When Lisa and I first read this Publisher's Weekly article, we began buzzing too--mainly about how we were going to get our hot little hands on an ARC. Thanks to the Bookinistas, our dream became a reality. And this book? TOTALLY buzz-worthy. Check it out...
About the book:

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It's barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

LiLA's* Take:

We get it. The buzz makes perfect sense. This book rocks. The society is pitch-perfect, the idea of a perfect match fascinating (especially since every other commercial these days promises just that through a "scientific approach to matching highly compatible singles" (Thank you eHarmony). And yet no matter how controlled Cassia's world is (and just wait till you read the details about her world. The clothing, the food, the jobs...controlled, controlled, controlled), there's still a glitch. And not just any glitch, a glitch that impacts her entire future. But our absolute favorite part of this book are the "what ifs" you're left with. It's the kind of book you finish reading and immediately call a friend who has also read to say, WHAT IF...a million times over. It's the kind of book that makes you wonder. And aren't those the best kind?

So, we highly recommend. Two thumbs up. Preorder right now. We can wonder together...

Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week:

Beth Revis and Jamie Harrington are spreading some cover love for POSSESSION.

Veronica Roth is dying over some upcoming SCI-FI/Dsytopian book covers.

Christine Fonseca is raving over THE REPLACEMENT.

Elana Johnson has a special Friday edition where she helps launch the book, EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS.

Carolina Valdez Miller is crying over JOHN BELUSHI IS DEAD.

Shelli Johannes-Wells is tempting us with a DESIRES sneak peek!

Shannon Messenger is showing some serious MG love with MG SPOTLIGHT.


*This power tastes so, so good.

Introducing Laura and Lisa Write

My solo blog internship will officially begin tomorrow. Although if I know my big sister, she won't stay away for long. In fact, she's been sending me a few last minute texts* just to be sure I don't break the blog...

Lisa: u ready?
Laura: um...r u ready? u know ur having a baby, right?
Lisa: yeah, yeah, just dont forget about bookinistas and schedule posts for 6 am...and facebook, and twitter, and...
Laura: what are the bookinistas again?
Lisa: laura!
Laura: kidding, kidding. i. can. do. this. go 2 sleep, u know ur going to be up every 3 hours until x-mas, right?
Lisa: jack slept through night at a month. best. baby. ever.
Laura: um, r u forgetting mia? she still doesn't sleep through the night.
Lisa: i hate u.
Laura: take ur time. i'll be fine. i have all sorts of fun posts planned. oh...and do you think theres a way to change our blog name to laura and lisa write?
Lisa: thats it. changing password. we can go dark for a few wks
Laura: take a joke hormonster
Lisa: not. funny.
Laura: don't try anything funny or i'll report you to ken
Lisa: you are evil. the power has gone to your head.
Laura: muwhahahaha.

So...you guys are stuck with moi--well, at least for a little while. Lisa will be clawing her way back to her MacBook in no time at all. Maybe I'll have to transcribe a few of her new mama truths for Tuesday.

In the meantime, welcome to Laura and Lisa Write, bitches. The blog where second sisters rule and the number of followers drops by the hour.

You hear that sound? It's Lisa sobbing from her delivery room.

This is going to be fun.

*We are now forced to communicate primarily through text because Skype is banned and our husbands want to divorce us after having to listen to our phone conversations all night.

Tell the Truth Tuesday: The In Between

I am in a weird place right now.
Baby #3 is due (literally) any second. We're thisclose to having ARCs for THE LIAR SOCIETY. And we have some crazy new ideas for our WIP.
But right now, at his very moment, we're waiting. It's strange because I feel like I can see all of this amazing stuff on the horizon, but it's all a little hazy. A little out of reach.
There's all this uncertainty in the air. A lot of exciting, scary, once-in-a-lifetime-type things are just lurking out there. And I'm left feeling...unsettled.
You know that weird feeling when you're sure you should be worrying about something, but you can't remember what you're so worried about? It's like that. Only 24/7.
So what's a total Type-A control freak like yours truly to do?
Why freak out, of course. Anyone care to join me?

P.S.
Check out the WriteOnCon site for a transcript of our chat last night (it was AWESOME) and a list of all the contest winners (including THE LIAR SOCIETY ARC and major secret about the next book in the series!).

AND the winner of the 50 page manuscript critique is Rachael Harrie! Racheal e-mail us the first 50 pages of your manuscript. We can't wait to read!

WriteOnCon Chat TONIGHT!

Okay, so we know everyone has cleared their calendars and is limbering up those typing fingers for 9 PM EST tonight because it's the very first WriteOnCon.com live chat! And we've got yet another all star line up of agents and editors.


Literary agent Jessica Sinsheimer of Sarah Jane Freymann Literary: Jessica Sinsheimer has been reading and campaigning for her favorite queries since 2004. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she went east for Sarah Lawrence College and stayed for the op...

Friday Five

1. At book club last night we discussed MOCKINGJAY with semi-mixed reactions. Most loved, some liked a lot, everyone appreciated the message and thinks Suzanne Collins is a genius. We were wondering if she should quit while she's ahead though. How do you follow the HUNGER GAMES trilogy?

2. Next up is SEA by Heidi Kling, which we're all super-pumped about. If the cover doesn't make you want to read the book the description will. We've been waiting to read this one for a while!

3. Got a text whi...

Bookinistas: Cover Love!

Now that 2011 is right around the corner, covers have been popping up around the blogosphere left and right and we can't get enough. We're just a couple of cover whores and like to drool over covers like the best of 'em. Here are a few of the ones we're loving at this moment. How pretty are they?
First up, Veronica Roth's DIVERGENT, in stores May 2011...
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular...

Priorities

We finished our first pass at line edits and then had the choice between attempting to write a witty blog post after deleting hundreds of overly expressive eyebrows from our manuscript or watching Glee.

Guess what we chose?

XOXO,
L&L

Tell the Truth Tuesday: Line Edits

Things we've learned after line editing:

Our characters do nothing but raise eyebrows. We're like the literary equivalent of Groucho Marx.Our characters also like to lower their chins. Does anyone even do this in real life? They probably look like they have neck cramps or something.We like to say, "I was pretty sure." A lot.We have a whole lot of smiles pulling at a whole lot of lips. And there's more. Oh so much more. Our writerly tics are on display and it ain't pretty. My head feels like...

#SpeakLoudly: Your Comments = Donated Copies of SPEAK

  
Since I am the worst tweeter ever, Lisa informed me of the #Speakloudly Twitter campaign that's happening as we speak. It brought back some memories...
I always kept a few copies of SPEAK in my classroom. In my 6th, 7th and 8th grade classrooms.Students who read one of my copies wanted to talk about it. In fact, they couldn't NOT talk about it.SPEAK was the first YA book I recommended that Lisa read way back when. From that moment on she was a goner. She devoured YA, eventually began...

Friday Fabulousity

1. It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week ! To celebrate go follow these AMAZING book bloggers. We're always stalking their sites for the latest and greatest YA/MG book reviews.

Good Books & Good Wine (the title really says it all, no?)The Book Scout (Kelsey is one of the most active book bloggers we know. Love watching her Twitter feed to see what she's reading)Pop Culture Junkie (Alea's blog was the very first book blog we started stalking and it's still a favorite)A CHAIR, A FIREPLACE & A TEA...