Sage Collins's Blog, page 3

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

I was given The Summer I Became a Nerd for review by Entangled Publishing.  But I wanted it far before I saw the offer on twitter.

 

(Little bit of trivia. Maddie’s boyfriend at the beginning of the book is a football player named Eric.  And the main love interest is named Logan. You may remember that those are the names of the love interests in Love Sucks.  Weird, huh?  Especially because Eric’s a football player there too.)

On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl’s body isn’t just unknown, it’s anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

When I read about this book, I squee-ed in nerdish glee. I couldn’t wait to see a YA contemporary where the main character was celebrated for going to cons, for playing role-playing games, for making sci-fi/fantasty (hereby referred to as SFF) inside jokes.

There are many moments where the author just hits the fangirl note perfectly. Right at the beginning, we find Maddie freaking out because it’s going to take 2 months to get the last issue of her favorite comic book. Can she stay away from the chatrooms, keep spoiler-free for 2 whole months? Yeah, I’m how many episodes behind on Doctor Who and putting my hands over my ears (or eyes when online), going “la la la, no spoilers please,” and considering just downloading the eps to catch up? I get it, Maddie, I get it. The overwhelming feeling of being at your first big fan event, full of people having their wild and crazy nerdy fun, was well written. Then add in little gems of geekdom like the dog being named Leeloo (The Fifth Element) or a joke about a Jedi master getting exasperated at his Padawan for using the Force to get the remote control. And yet, oddly, along with the specific titles and references, occasionally movies/shows/songs are given to us in vague terms where we have to guess (if we even know) what Maddie is talking about. Which is a weird dynamic, especially when you have both examples on the same page, going, “What up, Akira?” “Not much, unknown sci-fi show about a love triangle and a psycho bounty hunter.”

The book does require some suspension of disbelief. You have to believe that a girl who was ridiculed in front of the entire school for being a comic book fan could erase all memory of the incident and hide her love of comics, magically become popular, and get the football star to date her even though they’re clearly not interested in each other. But, please, I’m a SFF fan, I can suspend belief like it’s a kid caught with pot on school grounds.

Maddie herself was oftentimes frustrating. She also seemed really bad at this whole lying thing. First of all, suddenly she feels guilty about it, even though her whole life is a lie. Also, she goes through the most contrived process to hide her love of comics sometimes. It is way more conspicuous to hang out in the alley between the popular kids’ favorite restaurant and the comic book store, pssting at a strange man to go pick up a comic for you, rather than taking a few seconds to walk into the store, where you would be then hidden. I understand her need for secrecy and the fear she had at being exposed, really, but sometimes it just felt like it was too much, particularly when she was already at places where everyone else was into the same things she was. The way she maintained her popularity seemed overblown in her head. Like her friends would dump her if she didn’t like the same singer as them. Like the only reason she was popular was because she was dating the head quarterback so breaking up with him would be the kiss of death (but since neither of them were really that into each other, they were both using each other, which suggests that she already was popular before they started dating).

The second half picked up a lot, while the first half dragged a little. Some of this was the repetition of the “how will Maddie hide her love of Logan and superheroes from her friends, while she and Logan bond over comics?” game. The first LARP (live-action role-playing) game isn’t all that exciting, although just the atmosphere of it can be fun to be introduced to if you’re not used to RPGs or folks in fantasy costumes. The ridiculously fake love triangle gets wrestled with in the first half, but is dispensed of, for the most part, not too far into the book. There’s a lot of talk about going to a concert with her BFF vs. going to a convention with Logan (even before Maddie realizes it’s the same day, you guess it). I was actually surprised that the concert vs. con was resolved pre-climax.

But that’s okay with me because I LOVED the climax! Actually the last quarter of the book was perfect for me. The final LARP game was amazing. It was exactly the sort of thing I wanted when I was geeking out imagining what this book was like. I know, I know, the whole concept is Maddie’s transformation leading up to that point, but it was great to have the payoff. More payoff was how a lot of minor things that had been mentioned earlier in the book got used in the final pages.

Recommended for fans of: comics; LARPing/RPGs (or just the curious about them); contemporary stories about SFF stuff; adorkable love interests; fake love triangles; secret identities; minor SFF inside jokes.

Rating: 3.5 hearts

Lots of love,

Sage

Editing Experiment

You know me, I’m a mad scientist when I’m not writing, doing experiments every day.  But this time around I’m trying an experiment with revisions on A Paranormal Bromance, which you might remember was my NaNoWriMo novel last year.  Or maybe not, since it was NaNo, and who has time to write then?

As I wrote aPB, I knew I was going to have to rewrite at least one of my main character’s voices, possibly both.  I also noted a ton of structural problems, some because I’ve had the same problems in the past.  And then I knew there were things I wanted to add throughout the novel and characters that needed to change.  Knowing that the way I usually edit might not be effective for these edits, I decided to try something new.

For aPB, I’m rewriting the book from scratch in a notebook.  I have the original on the Kindle, and I’ll admit to referring to it a lot, but by writing out even the sentences, paragraphs, and scenes I want to keep intact, I still force myself to look at each sentence, paragraph, and scene and think about it, the way that I sometimes don’t while writing the first draft because I might be in the zone, or even just plodding along to get words down (because, let’s face it, it was NaNo).  It’s also easier to cut something and fix that cut when writing it anew, as opposed to trying to squeeze transition or info into lines that are already there on the screen.  For me, it’s just a mindset thing.  If I’m already rewriting it, it’s easier to change or add to it, at least in my brain.

I haven’t gotten to a part where I have to add more than a line or a feeling or descriptive details, so I don’t know how well this experiment will work there, but I’m excited to find out.

At the very least, this helps me change the voice and to create stronger sentences and paragraphs, so no matter what, I see it as a great exercise.

According to my Kindle, I am currently 13% done, but that’s a bogus number, because it will depend on what I add or subtract.  I’m also debating a plot/characterization point, and I’m sort of at a standstill until I decide it, but I don’t think that will last long.  Worst case scenario, I’ll flip a coin

Anyway, I’m excited to see where this new experiment leads me.  It feels productive right now, but we’ll see how I feel at 30% or 50% or 80% when the end looks so close, but so far.

What revision techniques do you use? Do you rewrite or revise within the same document you wrote the novel in?

Lots of love,Sage

The Advantage of Pitch Contests

If you’re researching the publishing world, you’ve probably noticed that there are a ton of pitch contests out there.  Blogs and twitter are the main sources of these contests.  A lot of people are afraid to enter them, but they shouldn’t be.  Pitch contests are an extra way to put your novel out there for potential requests without risking your chance to actually query.

When you query, you’re picking the best agent in a given agency for your book.  For some agencies, this is your only chance to query that book to any agent there, while others have policies that allow you to query several of them if the first one you choose doesn’t work out.  Either way, once you query that agent, it’s done.  With very rare exceptions, if you decide you need to rework your query, you still can’t requery a rejecting agent.

If you enter a pitch contest, you can do so with your query, as is, or with a different pitch altogether.  Some contests require a different pitch.  If you’re pitching on twitter, you’re restricted to less than 140 characters.  Some pitch contests on blogs give you a limit: for example, three sentences.  With these, you can mix up your pitches and try something new or just use a shorter version of your query.

Here’s a couple of examples of pitch contests, and how they work to your advantage.

1. Let’s say a writer friend is having a mystery agent visit, and she’s running a pitch contest on her blog for that agent.  You know what the mystery agent likes, and your novel fits the bill.  You put on your query or a three-sentence pitch or a one-sentence pitch–you know, whatever the contest calls for.  Then the agent is revealed and it’s an agent you love from a “no from one = no from all” agency!  The contest ends, and the agent doesn’t choose yours.

Now sometimes that doesn’t mean the agent wouldn’t have requested if it had been a query in their inbox.  I’ve had an agent in a contest not choose my query as his top three, but my query was already in his inbox, and he requested off of it once he saw my sample pages.  In that contest, he could only choose three, and mine wasn’t one, but some contests have the agent(s) choosing all the queries he or she wants to see pages from.

In the case of this “no from one = no from all” agency, you now have the option to reconsider whether this agent is the one you should query.  The best part is that even though this agent saw your query, you haven’t actually queried them.  You can query this agent with a different pitch or query someone else at the agency.  No harm done.

2.  All-day Twitter contests.  I love these, especially when they’re like the #pitmad contest that was recently held.  Here you can pitch your novels all day long.  You can use a tried-and-true pitch or vary it every time.  Agents and editors come on when they have time and let authors know if they want to see more.  They don’t request usually, but instead ask for queries.  But in this case, you know they’re interested.  You can still query the same agents whenever you want, so you haven’t lost your chance with them, but if you get that “favorite” on your pitch, you know you have their attention, and it’s likely to lead to a request unless something in your query shows them that this isn’t really the novel for them.

These aren’t the only pitch contests out there.  Agents might hold their own.  Several blogs might get together and do something really complicated.  You might have to get in a certain time limit to even post your pitch.  You might have a ton of agents battling over pitches.  The contests can be simple or highly creative.

I know some people use these contests as a way to test their queries before they start querying.  I say it depends on the query and the contest.  If a single agent can only pick one out of a hundred queries, it might not be the best way to see whether your query is working, not compared to sending out queries to 10 agents who can request from as many queries in their inbox they feel like and getting no requests that way.  But if it’s one of those where your query is seen by several agents and they “bid” on queries they’d like to see more of and you don’t get any bids, you might rethink your query.  It just depends.

But overall, I think these types of contests are great ways to get your novel out there just one extra time without any risk whatsoever.  So give them a shot, and don’t be afraid.

Okay, so now you’re all my competition in the next pitch contest, right?

Lots of love,

Sage

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

I picked up Vessel in the store because the cover caught my eye.  Not only is it very attractive, but, amazingly, it is not whitewashed.  I checked out the first chapter, and bought it that day.

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. She will dance and summon her tribe’s deity, who will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But when the dance ends, Liyana is still there. Her tribe is furious–and sure that it is Liyana’s fault. Abandoned by her tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. The desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice–she must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate–or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

Vessel is an overall solid YA fantasy book with a gorgeous cover and an interesting premise. I was immediately drawn in by the first chapters, where Liyana prepares to sacrifice herself for her clan in a ceremony that will kill her so that a goddess can take over her body and save her clan from drought. Her relationship with her clan and the sorrows and joys they had over the ceremony were richly drawn in my opinion.

When the goddess does not come, she is cast aside by her tribe due to their belief that the goddess did not find her worthy and that a new vessel will please her enough to save them. Shortly after she is left behind and faces the dangers of the desert alone, she is found by a god-in-a-vessel, Korbyn, the trickster god.

I’m not sure I ever bought Korbyn as the trickster god. Or maybe current perceptions of how trickster gods should act and talk in fiction have influenced my assumptions about such a character. At times it felt like Korbyn was only the trickster god because it made it harder to convince others that he was telling the truth and because his stories could be more interesting that way. I can only think of one time when he “tricked” anyone, and, really, it was no more deceptive than anyone infiltrating an enemy camp would have thought of. More often than not, he seemed to play the “wise, old mentor/guide” role we often see in fantasy

The world-building in the book was pretty impressive, in my opinion. I felt like a lot of time was spent on building the world and the clans’ relationships, their relationship (or lack thereof) with the empire beyond the desert, and especially the myths. I also like how sometimes the myths were completely true, then other times the myths were simply stories. The only time I felt really confused by the world-building/myths/actions of the gods was in the climax. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, what rules they were following, how they were affecting anything, etc.

Another point of note is how the different clans reacted differently to their gods not coming. One drowned their sorrows in liquor, one killed their vessel in revenge, one seemed more reverent with the vessel singing about it, one met any intruders with suspicion and lied about what had happened. Of course, Liyana’s tribe’s answer was to move on and try again.

On the other hand, meeting each of these tribes seemed to slow down the pacing of the novel. It was pretty standard fantasy fare. We visit each tribe and find out how they’re different from the others: how their setting is different, how their culture is different, how they react to strangers and other vessels and other gods (and so we end up with some stereotypical fantasy characters: the warrior, the princess, the rebel; plus a hero, Liyana, and a wizard, Korbyn). In between, Korbyn uses magic to help them survive the desert, then gets weary, and he and Liyana joke around and fall for each other.

The second half focuses more on the “enemy” of the Empire. We’ve already met the Emperor, a teen who is on a quest to save his people. We understand his motives pretty well, and while it is easy to see how he and Liyana could develop feelings for each other, the relationship that develops between them is so fast and so shallow, that, even expecting it (and kind of hoping for it), I had a hard time believing it when it happened.

There’s a lot of good conflict behind whether it’s right to sacrifice one person for the good of the rest, and whether the gods are righteous in taking a vessel or selfish. Liyana, who was ready to die for her clan in the beginning, fights very hard to live throughout the rest of the book. You can see that she does believe that it is right for her goddess to sacrifice her, but that it’s harder to maintain that belief once the moment she’s always prepared herself for passes by and she has to do it again. Or when there appears to be a loophole (but not a plothole, I promise) in how vessels work.

But even with a few pacing problems, I enjoyed the book overall, and think it would make a great addition to YA fantasy lovers’ bookshelves.

Recommended for fans of: traditional fantasy tropes in a unique setting, great mythology and world-building, desert settings, covers that are not whitewashed!, “villains” with understandable motives.

Rating: Four hearts

Barbershop

So in my spare time, I sing in a barbershop choir–I mean, chorus, as they keep reminding me–as part of the international organization of Sweet Adelines.  My chorus does a concert in the winter or fall and sings for various other events, but we also compete along with other Sweet Adeline choruses and quartets.

You probably think of barbershop as men’s quartets, possibly thinking of the guys in The Music Man, singing “Lida Rose” or “Goodnight, Ladies.”  So did I.  The first time I knew that women could be in barbershop quartets was when I saw MAXX Factor on the show The Sing-Off.  And it wasn’t until I was looking for a choir to join that I found out that there were choruses.

Barbershop is a cappella music, featuring four vocal parts–in order from highest to lowest: tenor, lead, baritone, and bass.  Even with women singers, the parts retain these names.  My part is lead, which means that 90% of the time I have the melody (phew).  This is pretty different from choirs that I grew up with, where the first soprano part–the highest part, which corresponds with the tenor part in barbershop–has the melody.  The tenor sings harmony over the lead, the bass is our foundation, and the baritone completes our chords.  One thing we strive to do is ring a chord so that a fifth note appears to be included, an overtone.

The music we do spans many decades, but traditionally, barbershop sings music from the 40s.  But, for variety, we had a quartet sing us “Poker Face” (the Glee version done for four voices instead of two).  For competition, every chorus and quartet sings a ballad and an upbeat song, and the performances I saw this weekend followed that format.  It’s great because some people get bored during ballads, while others prefer the emotions in them, so you are guaranteed the variety with each chorus/quartet’s performance.

This weekend, my chorus met with others in the region.  Apparently during this convention, there are usually many vocal techniques given to us, but this year they focused on two things: choreography and attracting younger singers.  That was fine by me because I had a sore throat and I miss zumba, so spending a weekend dancing was lots more fun than straining my voice when I could be saving it for rehearsal.

While there I met a high school choir (chorus?) who came to learn along with us, even though they don’t belong to Sweet Adelines.  A group of us had them sing for us, and they were great!  And later on, there was a contest for quartets with younger women (under 25) to see who would be sent to the Rising Star contest. (BTW, here‘s the winner of the most recent competition, if you want to get an idea what that’s like.)  And as I was watching them, I was thinking of the girls’ stories and how unique each one was, and what must have attracted them to barbershop (thanks a lot to those presentations on how to get them interested), and it sparked an idea for a novel!

So I’m sure that I’ll have more on that when I get closer to writing it, but for now I need to do more research.  I’m still really new to barbershop (I’m sure my chorus friends will come on here and laugh at how basic my barbershop info is in this post), and I’d like to get more experience under my belt before I go writing anything about it.  Besides, I have a novel to rewrite and another to start querying again.

Lots of love,Sage

Review: The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Today I will be reviewing THE LOST GIRL.  This is a book that I got in a fit of excitement on a day when like 10 other YA books I wanted to read also came out, so it got shuffled to the side.  Then I packed it for reading over Christmas vacation, and started it Christmas Eve, but only got one chapter in before Christmas came, and I got a ton of new books.  Looking at all those shiny new books, I didn’t want to read this one anymore, so I started one of the new ones.  Well, despite that, this is the one that grabbed me.

Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be—until she found the strength to decide for herself.

Rare is a book that I read and have no complaints about. Even books I love, I tend to find fault with, but, despite the reluctant beginning, I fell hard for The Lost Girl.

The plot is fascinating. Back-ups, or echoes, of people are created to replace those who have died. These Echoes have to pretend to be the person they’ve replaced. They receive journals and sometimes letters from the person they’re replacing, and sometimes they can even see what the “others” see. There are those that control the echoes–the Weavers–and hunters who would see them destroyed.

This is the story of Amarra, who chooses to rename herself Eva to distinguish herself from her other. She wants to live her own life. In fact, she’s not much like Amarra at all, but when Amarra dies, Eva has to assume her life and pretend to be her.

The book deals with deep subjects, how far people will go to bring back those they loved and have lost, and how far they should respect the deceased’s wishes if it hurts another. While Amarra is called the “other,” it is Eva who is treated as “other” by some who find out she’s not Amarra. Others treat her as just another person. And still others are torn between seeing her as an abomination or as a person. Eva is torn between wanting her own life and fulfilling the one she was created for. At first she does so only because she could be killed if people don’t believe the soul in her body is Amarra’s, but she’s also hope to Amarra’s mom and friends, so proving that she’s not Amarra would mean killing that hope.

The writing is of great quality, and the characters are well-drawn. Even when people were making bad choices, I didn’t question their logic or motives–rare for me. I never got bored with the pacing, and was pleasantly surprised by several routes the plot took.

Occasionally the book dipped close to a love triangle, and, don’t get me wrong, I love well-done love triangles, but this book didn’t need one, so I was happy to see that most of the time there was no question about who Eva loved, only the occasional question about who she was supposed to love.

Most amazingly in this world of YA fantasy, the book had a clear ending. There are strings left loose for a sequel if there is one, and the romance isn’t definitively tied up, but I like that openness, actually.

Overall, I was highly impressed with this book. One of the most satisfying YA reads I’ve had lately.

Recommended for fans of: well-written YA contemp fantasy, stories of loss and hope, stories about identity, India, England, standalones, strong characters, strong world-building.

Rated: 5 blue hearts

Lots of love,

Sage

The Hobbit: movie vs. book

So I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien for the first time this month.  I’d been wanting to read it, but unlike many classics, it wasn’t free on my Kindle, so I put it off.  Then I heard about the movie, and decided to wait until after seeing part 1 before reading.

As soon as I watched the movie, I downloaded the book and began it.  And I was over half done (more than past the first movie) when I went to see it again.

There are those people out there who want movies to be identical to the books that they are based on.  I have heard many grumblings from LotR fans about the differences between the books and the movies.  And the Hobbit movie is very different from the book.  I described it to my dad like this: “It’s as if they received an outline of what happens in the book, and followed the outline to the letter, but had to fill in all the details themselves.”  That is exactly what it’s like to compare the two.

All the events in the book are there in the movie.  Direct dialogue from the book makes it to the movie too, but, quite frankly, most of the conversations in the book are told to us, not shown.  I remember remarking in Goodreads, about a third of the way in, that the longest conversation anyone had had so far in the book was between Gollum/Smeagol and himself.  But screenwriters like dialogue, so naturally they made it up.  Scenes are expanded.  Battles are more epic.  Scenes were added.  Hey, what’s this ex-Doctor brown wizard doing in here?  He’s clearly setting up the battle that we’re inevitably going to see Gandalf have in a later movie (only mentioned in the book).

But it all worked.  Peter Jackson took a thirdish of the book and made it into a full-length movie that was had it’s own plot arc.  In the book, Bilbo doesn’t become part of the gang until they deal with the spiders.  The plot arc for this movie is Bilbo coming into his own, becoming part of the gang, going from a guy who wants to go back for his hanky to a guy who throws himself between an orc and a dying dwarf.  And I dare say, I was more impressed with his arc in the movie (where he doesn’t use the ring to do his most heroic bits) than in the book.

Some parts in the movie do go overboard in their quest to be epic.  The battle against the goblins requires just too much suspension of disbelief.  I mean, really, what could possibly be a challenge to fight after 14 people take on millions of goblins.  On the other hand, the troll battle was perfectly done, IMO.  And I liked how Bilbo got to actually help in the solution to the troll problem.

Pretty much all the dwarf history, including the intro does not exist in the book, but it’s a gorgeous set-up to the movie.

Having just read the book, I can easily see where the line is drawn between movies 2 and 3.  It’s spiders and wood elves for 2 and Smaug and Five Armies (or will it be Six with the pale orc involved?) for 3.  Plus Gandalf will be off doing stuff and I’m sure we’ll get to see that added to it.  And who knows what else will be added.

If you haven’t read The Hobbit yet, I do recommend seeing the movie first, then reading the book.  For me, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed that first third as much without certain visuals already added for me.  It’s a lot of narration, which is not my preferred style.  By the time I got past the first movie, though, I was used to the style and could read the last 2/3 with ease.  In general, I’ve found that if there’s a book and a movie, watching the movie first, then reading the book, leads to less disappointment than reading the book first and then watching the movie.  Not always, but usually.

Overall, the movie was quite an achievement, and I  look forward to the next two.  I wonder if those that read and loved the book first would agree

Lots of love,

Sage

Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I’ve decided to add my reviews to my blog.  Starting this out is my 100th book of 2012, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.  You can find these reviews on my Goodreads page as well.

Goodreads description of the book:

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska.

Supposedly, the first John Green book is the one you like best. This is my second John Green solo book, and I liked it much better than Paper Towns, as I always suspected I would. (However, as I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson first and loved it, perhaps that counts as my first, but I digress).

I was pulled to AoK by the whole premise of finding an equation to calculate a relationship. When I was a teen, I adored math, and I was intrigued by a book that seemed to revolve around a math equation. It sort of does, but actually the prodigy main character is not interested in math, but rather in languages. Still I found many things about Colin to be fascinating. Although he is incredibly self-involved, I love seeing the way he thinks and learns. His lists of how his mind jumps from one subject to another is just the way I think. In fact, one friend calls this “Sage logic.” To outsiders there was no connection, but to the person thinking this way, the connection is obvious. It’s actually surprising, then, that Colin isn’t a math prodigy, getting in trouble for jumping to the answer in a math equation without doing the problem on paper for the teacher to see. Yes, there are a lot of us with that experience.

I was a little hesitant about the initial “road trip” plotline, since that was something I didn’t love about Paper Towns, but the road trip is actually short and the destination is quite interesting.

There is a little mystery in the book about Hollis, but it was pretty obvious what her secret is based on every single element that causes the characters to go “hmm.” Instead, it is other twists in the book that are more fun and help the story tie together, like some twists about Colin’s Katherines.

Then there’s a girl who isn’t named Katherine. Lindsey suffers from what a lot of teen girls suffer from, I think. She’s trying to define herself based on what others think she should be. Whether she’s redefining herself for Colin, it’s with him that she is the most appealing character. And their dialogue-only scenes in her secret cave are adorable.

Overall I enjoyed this book, although I was a little iffy in the beginning with an overload of the word “fug,” starting out with vomiting and a road trip. But once we got to a destination, I was pulled in on Colin’s journey of self-discovery instead.

Recommended for fans of: contemporary YA, male POVs, math, anagrams, stories about teen prodigies, non-heroic main characters, feral pig hunts, and interesting trivia (even when other characters are saying it’s not interesting).

Lots of love,

Sage

ETA: I realized that I hadn’t worked out a rating system for the blog yet.  I gave this book 4 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.  I’ll work something out before my next review, promise

100 Books 2012

Just today I finished my 100 book challenge for 2012.  And over a week to spare.  For those just tuning in, the 100 book challenge is to read 100 books in the year, which includes MG, YA, or adult, audiobooks, and graphic novels.  I also include completed, but unpublished, books that I beta read, but not books of mine that I read for fun, unless they are published.  A book is counted only once if I reread it in this year, but I can count it if I read it again next year.  For this reason, I’ve been waiting on a few books that I’m really looking forward to rereading.

Here’s my list of my 100 books for this year:

1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

3. Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

4. The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

5. Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

6. Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz

7. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

8. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

9. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace

10. Geek Fantasy Novel by E. Archer

11. There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff

12. The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers by Lynn Weingarten

13. Absolute Visions by various, including some sage girl

14. Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon

15. Saving June by Hannah Harrington

16. When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen

17. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 1

18. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 2

19. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 3

20. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 4

21. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 5

22. Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 6

23. beta read

24. Love Sucks by Sage Collins

25. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

26. Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

27. Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

28. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

29. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

30. beta

31. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

32. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

33. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

34. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

35. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

36. Holes by Louis Sachar

37. Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole

38. Demon Diary, vol. 1

39. Demon Diary, vol. 2

40. Demon Diary, vol. 3

41. The False Prince by Jennifer a. Nielsen

42. Demon Diary, vol. 4

43. Demon Diary, vol. 5

44. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

45. Demon Diary, vol. 6

46. Demon Diary, vol. 7

47. Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

48. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine

49. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling

50. Loveless, vol. 1

51. Loveless, vol. 2

52. Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin

53. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

54. The Selection by Kiera Cass

55. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

56. A Want so Wicked by Suzanne Young

57. beta

58. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

59. Eona by Alison Goodman

60. White Knight by Jim Butcher

61. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer’s Comrade by Mark Twain

62. Loveless, vol. 3

63. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

64. Loveless, vol. 4

65. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

66. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling

67. Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

68. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

69. Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

70. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

71. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

72. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okirafor

73. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey by Isabel Fonseca

74. Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott

75. What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang

76. The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

77. Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator by Jill Baguchinsky

78. Small Favor by Jim Butcher

79. Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

80. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

81. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

82. The Diviners by Libba Bray

83. The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

84. Fox’s Mask by Anna Frost

85. The Turning by Francine Prose

86. Ten by Gretchen McNeil

87. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

88. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

89. Firelight by Sophie Jordan

90. Loveless, vol. 5

91. Loveless, vol. 6

92. Cloaked by Alex Flinn

93. Loveless, vol. 7

94. Columbus: Past, Present, and Future by various

95. Speechless by Hannah Harrington

96. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

97. Phoenix by Jennifer Mason-Black

98. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

99. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

100. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Of books that I counted, 3 were beta reads, and 2 were either by me or included a story of mine.  4 were classics, 53 were YA, 13 were MG (counting all Harry Potters), 7 were adult, 2 were anthologies, 1 was non-fiction, and 20 were manga.

33 of these books were ones I had read at least once before 2012.  17 were ebooks.  7 were audiobooks. 13 were library books.

Oh, and I finished the 2012 YA/MG Debut author challenge, which you wouldn’t think would be too hard, since 4 people within my writing group, including myself, debuted this year and I only needed 12, but I finished the last two in mid-December

1. When the Sea is Rising Red

2. Love Sucks

3. Incarnate

4. Cinder

5. Kiss the Morning Star

6. Scarlet

7. What’s Left of Me

8. Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator

9. Fox’s Mask

10. Stormdancer

11. Shadow and Bone

12. Phoenix

It will be interesting to see if I make the challenge in 2013 (will it be 13 debut authors?) since so many of this year’s debuts have sequels coming out, and I know nothing about the debuts for next year.  Then again, that’s how I found out about so many of the ones that I read this year and loved.

So there’s my stats for 2012.

Did you take on a challenge to read a certain number of books this year?  How did you do?

Lots of love,

Sage

Workout Wednesday – Sad news

Taking a short break from NaNo (by which, I mean that I haven’t written anything today yet O_O) to do a Workout Wednesday.  It is Wednesday, right?  My sense of time is wacky this week for some reason.

Anyway, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I was working hard to do the Disney Princess Half-Marathon next February.  Due to financial reasons, I will not be able to do that.  I might do some other local race next year and maybe I’ll be able to do a Disney half-marathon in 2014, but I just can’t justify the trip right now.  It pretty much broke my heart, but I have to do the responsible thing right now.

I’m still running, although I’m not working hard on improving my speed at the moment. A lot of my running was spurred on by imagining the trip, so to avoid relapsing into thoughts of it while running, I’ve started listening to shows I have on my iPod, which means I can’t keep track of my laps at the same time.  So if I’m at the gym, I just run for half an hour and don’t count the laps, which means I can’t keep track of my speed.  But when I ran outdoors the other day, RunKeeper told me that my speed isn’t suffering for this.

I’m still doing my PT routines and other workouts as I can fit them in (on top of losing the half-marathon, my work schedule changed so that I can’t do my midday classes), and I haven’t really let up on how many workouts a week I do.

Still, it was very disappointing to lose the Disney trip.

I hope you are doing well with all your exercising endeavors and that if you’re participating in NaNo, you haven’t gone completely sedentary, as sometimes happens to obsessed writers.

Lots of love,

Sage