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What Are You Reading In June?
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Racheal
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May 31, 2016 04:50PM
Any good reads or rereads planned for this month?
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Reading
today. Great finale to this duology. I'm going to reread
next before seeing the movie on Friday.
@Brittany- So I take it that it's a two book series? I read The Witch Hunter when it came out and gave it 3 stars. Let me know what you think of it when you're done. =)I'm just about finished (few more chapters left) with
. Seriously this book is like candy. It's so good and very hard to put down! =P
@Rach: Yup. Just the two books. Which works perfectly. I really like the duology. Good quick reads with a lot of action. Glad I made you guys read it. Haha! Just wait until The Rose and the Dagger.
I've been reading Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. It's not something I'd typically pick up but I like it!
@Brittany- That's good to know and I ended up loving it! I'm gonna start the second book soon.@Rachel- Let me know what you think of Truthwitch! That's on my tbr list. =P
I finished The Wrath and The Dawn and loved it! I also read
The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon and it was so goooood! It's technically an NA book but it has some YA elements to it. I definitely recommend it as a good fantasy/romance read. =)
I have to write a review for Sea Spells, the fourth book in the Water fire Saga series by Jennifer Donnelly so I'm working my way through the first three books.
I finally finished Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. It was written really well and it was a middle-eastern crossed with a western (as in cowboys and guns) type of setting. The magic and story-telling in the book were pretty neat too. My only hang-up on this book was how long it took to get through it. I don't know if it was just me or what, but it took forever for the book to pick up pace.
Racheal (Most Honorable One) wrote: "I finally finished Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. It was written really well and it was a middle-eastern crossed with a western (as in cowboys and gun..."
Yes, I've heard this complaint from several other readers. I'm curious as to how she combines the Middle Eastern vibe with a Western one. I might pick it up for that reason alone, but I'm a bit weary of the slow pace.
After reading four mermaid fantasies alone, I'm going to take a short break from fantasy. Next up I'm reading Forgetting Time, which many are calling a murder mystery. I've haven't gotten that far yet. Then I'm going to dive into realistic fiction for a bit.
Finished The Carnival at Bray and really liked it - much more than I thought I would. Now reading (very carefully) The Raven King. I'm going slow, which I've found is best with Maggie's books. Trying to take it all in and not miss anything. She still has some of the best quotes and one-liners!!
Also listening to Glass Sword
@Rummanah- Well it had the Middle Eastern vibe from how they dressed, men having multiple wives and being dominant over women... I know that sound very stereotyped and I don't mean it that way, I just don't know how else to describe it. And then it's got the western vibe from the main character being really good at shooting pistols and from her having a drawl with how she talks. Not to mention that you get that western vibe from the town she lives in. That aspect of the book was really cool how the author weaved those two themes in together... I thought it worked really well. As for the book being slow, the story itself isn't boring and it actually a really interesting read, it's just the pace that's slow. Like, there's action, but the way it's written is drawn out that makes it feel like it's taking a while to happen if that makes sense.
On another note, how did you like the mermaid series you recently read?
I recently read
via Kat's recommendation and I really enjoyed it! =)
@Rachel: Overall, I enjoyed it but I also had zero expectations for it. Instead of the usual mermaid falling for a human, we get court intrigue, magic, and a focus on female friendship and empowerment. The world building was done well but there were a few things that tripped me up like crying or drinking tea. There is also diverse characters and six main characters but they didn't get the same amount of page time. There is just a hint of romance even then it happened really quickly and not developed as I liked.
@Rummanah- LOL! Seriously? Crying and drinking tea under water? That kinda cracks me up! x) Ugh, that's a bummer. I did look at the first book to that series in the book story the other day but was leery about it. I have to have some level of romance in a book.. it's a must. I hate it when authors just write it in like you said. =/
Racheal (Most Honorable One) wrote: "@Rummanah- LOL! Seriously? Crying and drinking tea under water? That kinda cracks me up! x) Ugh, that's a bummer. I did look at the first book to that series in the book story the other day but was..."I've had that mermaid book on my shelf for forever. I'm glad you liked it enough, CG. I've heard such mixed things and am not a big fan of mermaid stories that I've continually put it off.
Rach! EASY!!!!! It is the best! And absolutely shows how strong a women can be after such a horrible experience.
I've done a lot of re-reading lately and other things. Lol.
Right now I'm reading
. Which is a historical Scottish steampunk fantasy mix. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.
Rummanah (Books in the Spotlight) wrote: "@Rachel: Overall, I enjoyed it but I also had zero expectations for it. Instead of the usual mermaid falling for a human, we get court intrigue, magic, and a focus on female friendship and empowerm..."Tripped you up sort of like Spongebob does?
@Brit: I've had Falconer on my tbr since it came out. I also tried to book talk it to my fantasy loving teens but had no takers. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.@Karin: You could say that. ;)
I picked up
last night for a break from studying (more midterms and finals next week!), because the cover is gorgeous, it's steampunk, and I love Poe. I don't know what it is but I just can't do it. It feels like it's written on a 2nd grade level. The story just kind of hurls itself headlong into the opening scene and there's no setup, there's some kind of vague handwaving at emotions, and the writing style is so choppy (and...narcissistic?) that I just tuned out. I mean, it's not just angst and woe, but SO completely inwardly focused on the character it sets my teeth on edge. It doesn't feel atmospheric at all. I mean...it feels atmospheric like a girl putting on black lipstick and nail polish to prove her existential nihilism or something. *shrugs* I have zero spare time right now...can you tell I was sorely disappointed by what I REALLY hoped would be a lovely, quick, but emotionally-impactful read? >.< *sigh* Think I'll try
instead.
@j Leigh - I was surprised how much I loved Salt to Sea- hope you enjoy it! :)
I just started
and so far it's good. =)
@Linda I'm finding it...strangely appealing so far. I mean, it's got several elements that are usually my pet peeves...consistently short choppy sentences, multiple 1st POVs that all sound identical, etc...but I just want to keep reading! :-)
@J Leigh I know. I didn't expect to be sucked in to it like I was. I listened to the audio and it was really well done. :)
So far I've read both In Real Life and In Real Life (by coincidence), A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and Back, and A Little Princess this June.I'm in the process of reading I'll Give You the Sun, I am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, and a few other books I keep picking up. I'm also rereading Lily's Crossing since I remembered really liking it as a kid. I'm a youth service assistant in the process of getting my MLS degree so I'm trying to read a lot of good kid's books, and I'm hoping to get some good recommendations here, too!
Hi Natalie! I work in youth services at a public library and read J and YA fiction all the time. I'll Give You the Sun was really well done - I thought it was brilliant :)Here are a few that I've loved (no particular order):
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Everything, Everything by Nicoloa Yoon
The Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Gated by Amy Parker (1st in a duology)
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
The Thickety by J. A. White
What aged group to you work with the most? My focus is teens.
Finished Salt to the Sea and was pleasantly surprised! That was much more like what I was hoping for...a quick getaway into some delightful fiction not nursing-related (although, I was delighted that one of the characters was a nurse figure...I really related to Joana!). :)Probably I'll just be reading my textbooks for a while now, as I get ready for my final exam on Wednesday...O___O
Hi Linda!! Thanks for the response! Here's the weird thing, though - all the other librarians I've talked with really enjoyed "We Were Liars" and "I'll Give You the Sun", but I don't think I did. Almost everyone I know loved "We Were Liars" but I really didn't... and the ending of "I'll Give You the Sun" made me uncomfortable. I got sucked in but by 3/4 of the way I couldn't wait to be done and I felt like it just derailed from the beginning. But a part of me feels like my opinions are just uneducated? Is it because I haven't read as much as others around me that I have these negative opinions? I'm not generally a negative person, so I have no idea! Also I saw we just got The Thickety at our library, so I'll have to take a look at it!In our library, YA encompasses picture books to junior high and teen is in another section, but we still assist teens when the come to our area. So I'd say the age group I have the most experience with is late elementary-early middle school, but I also do baby story time so I see a lot of them too!
Hey Natalie! I don't think you have uneducated opinions at all. Everyone is drawn to different things. There were definitely things in I'll Give You the Sun that were uncomfortable and pushed the envelope - and I'm thinking of more things while I'm writing this - things I'd forgotten :) So you are not weird, there were things that bothered me too. I guess my overall opinion of the writing, the characters, reveals, etc have gotten better as I've looked back with a little distance. I liked We Were Liars because it sucked me in and surprised me. There is nothing wrong with your opinion, you just didn't care for those books. There are books that I didn't care for that it seemed like EVERYONE else loved. That's one of the great things about this group. We can talk about what we liked or didn't and everyone's opinion is valued.
Hope you enjoy the Thickety :) I'll try to think of more Middle school books that you might like...
Linda - haha, thanks! I would like to think I don't have an uneducated opinion, but sometimes I wonder when the librarians I work with love a book that I just don't. "I'll Give You The Sun" was also recommended to me by a pretty cool patron that all the other librarians are friends with so I want to tell them I enjoyed it, but maybe I should be honest. I definitely agree with you that the characters and writing were spectacular - I'm a twin myself, though we're both girls, and I think it's great that Noah and Jude were compared and contrasted so realistically, especially in terms of their speech patterns and the way they interact with each other. It was like reading a work of art! That I thought was really great.Please let me know if you do have more suggestions! I just finished Lily's Crossing last night too and loved it as much as I remembered it. Middle school books can be so fun to reread sometimes. :-)
Hey Natalie, I pretty much always hate self-promotion with a fiery and burning passion, but I've got two series (one finished, one in progress) that might interest you. The Lost Road Chronicles is a true YA (contemporary-ish?) fantasy, while The Madness Method is steampunk fantasy that edges the line between YA and adult simply because of the plot and some of the darker psychological issues at play. I know 11-year-olds who loved it and 75 year-olds who did too, so, who knows! LOLOther great reads I've met recently were the Leviathan series as kind of a MG/YA option;Jackaby; The Graveyard Book; and the Insignia trilogy. If you enjoy adult fantasy and don't mind some, eh, exuberant language, I absolutely ADORE The Lies of Locke Lamora. Hope that helps! :)
@J Leigh it is my goal to read the Madness method this summer before I have to start reading again for my book committee. It is already on my iPad :) Can't believe I haven't read it yet. @Natalie I totally agree with all the MG/YA books J Leigh listed - they are all great!
Some others I enjoyed:
Etiquette & Espionage series is a lot of fun.; Dark Life and it's sequel - underwater/mystery; Airborntrilogy - steampunk/fantasy
:)
Hi guys. This is my first post to this group although I have been a follower for some time. I have always wondered how books get chosen and recommended by librarians. As self-promotion is an unforgivable sin (unless you're running for president) I will not mention the name of the book I wrote for middle-school and YA readers, but I would appreciate the inside scoop from an actual librarian. Natalie, any suggestions?Regards,
Jack Bee
@J Leigh - Thank you for telling me! I actually read very little fantasy and so it would be good for me to read more of that genre. I will be sure to check them out! I'm very flattered that an author would reach out to little old me, haha. When did you finish your first book? I've always enjoyed writing but I've never been near the level of being published. But my girlfriend and I have considered writing a children's books together, though it would be a picture book, so much less complicated!@Jack - Wow, I feel so cool being asked! To be honest, I'm not a full-fledged librarian yet. When it comes to reader's advisory, I'm still lacking, and often times I will still ask for help from the librarians I work with. They have a better idea of what's new and what books are on the shelves because they do all of the ordering.
With young children, it's fairly easy if they just say "I want a book about trains!" or "animals!". We have plenty of those, and I'll just look up the right word in the catalogue and get however many books they want. I've read a lot of the picture books because those are easy to get through, so I usually know which ones are good and which one to avoid.
For the older kids (like 7-8 and into the teens,) usually I'll start by asking the patron for a book they've read before that they like or a genre they enjoy. I'll always do my best to go with books I've heard a lot about or I've read myself so I know that they're appropriate and a good read. But sometimes you'll have to recommend a book that you know nothing about. Usually I'm on the computer and I can look up a quick synopsis on goodreads or commonsensemedia.org. There are definitely times when I slip up or it takes me a little time to find a book for someone, especially if the books I want to recommend them are checked out or missing. But we always try to do our best! I hope that helps, I apologize that my response was so long-winded.
(@Linda - you might want to throw in your two cents as well! :) )
I also have no issues with self-promotion. It's so difficult to be an independent artist/writer/etc. and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So I think you should just feel free to make the choice that's most comfortable for you!
Hey Jack,If you look at our discussion topics, under Book Updates/Promotions, you'll see the "Author's Promotional Thread". Feel free to promote yourself shamelessly! :D
Hi Jack. I am a teen librarian and get the privilege of ordering the YA books for our branch. I’ve always been a fan of YA fiction and I’m an avid reader. This is a huge help when ordering. But here are some other ways I find titles…First of all - I follow several blogs and review sites and get emails from publishers about upcoming titles.
I’m also on a State Book Award committee and get lots of recommendation from that group – many are already on bestseller lists, but often a lesser know title will be presented that another librarian has discovered.
I take note when authors that I follow (on goodreads or blogs) mention other books.
As for books that may not be noted on the high demand lists:
Being a part of groups like this one is a great resource. I get to chat with people who love YA fiction like I do and I’ve found several titles to add based on recommendations from this group.
Donations from patrons- we get lots of donated books - many that might not have been on my radar at all.
Donations from authors – I recently had a local author donate a copy of her book for our collection.
Teen book chat club – I have several teens from the community that meet monthly and discuss books they are excited about. In addition to getting recommendations, this is a good forum for me to recommend books I’ve heard about, read and loved. Several times I've recommended books that are still only in e-book format.
I always “highlight” new books when they come back from cataloging. I have a designated shelf for this purpose. For the local author that donated the book to us, I was also able to draw attention to the fact that she lives in the community and would be appearing in person at our main library.
Annually, our library system holds a huge book event for the whole family and we invite nationally known authors and also local, lesser-known authors.
I would recommend getting to know your local library and partnering with them to highlight your book. Or find bookclubs that might be interested in reading your book - word of mouth goes a long way. Also, see Kat’s post above and go to the author promo link. Like Natalie said, I have no problem with self-promotion :)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to finding out more about your book. Hope this has helped in some way. Others may have more ideas.
Linda
Linda, Kat and Natalie,Thanks for your responses, they are very helpful. My issue is that I have a regular career in the finance world and only wrote my book when I saw how popular the stories I created for my kids and my campers (when I was a camp counselor back in the day) were. Then when I put it up on Amazon I started getting very good reviews, and I think there may be some potential for this to take off (you guys said you had no problem with self-promotion!) I would love to spread the word through libraries but where I live (in New York City) it's hard to get their attention. I gotta run but will check back here in the future, I may want to follow up on some of the ideas you mentioned in your local branches. Let's stay in touch, and if you get a chance to check out my book in the meantime, by all means,
Best regards,
Jack B
Linda wrote: "@J Leigh it is my goal to read the Madness method this summer before I have to start reading again for my book committee. It is already on my iPad :) Can't believe I haven't read it yet. Eee! So exciting! I really hope you enjoy it. :) I've been trying to steal snatches of moments to work on #3 but it's hard, busy as school is right now. *sigh*
@Jack — I know, self-promo in any venue is not something I cherish, but there's nothing inherently wrong with doing it here on Goodreads, where, as some of the others pointed out, there's often a special place in a group for you to do just that! It's more important for authors to be tasteful and considerate, and not just blast out spammy self-promo posts on a bunch of groups they don't actually want to be a part of, which annoys readers and therefore kind of defeats the purpose. ;-) All things in moderation. :) Welcome to the group, and good luck with your book!
@Linda - Fabulous suggestions! I definitely need to follow some authors and blogs and find some other resources for checking out good books, too. If you have any recommendations for who to follow, please let me know!I also wanted to ask, how big is the library you work in? Ours is on the smaller side, it's not tiny but it's not big, either. But as far as I know, we rarely ever take donations from patrons. I think that's more because we don't have the space, though.
@Natalie - My branch is part of a 19 branch library system and we are the 3rd largest of those in actual space and collection. My YA section has roughly 4000 books/audiobooks. I process an average of about 250 donated titles each year. The new/like-new get added to the collection and the others are sold in our annual book sale. We have a very active "friends of the library" group who collect the donations and run the sales. Does your library have subscriptions to Booklist or School Library Journal or any other publication like that? Those are good resources and you can even sign up for email notifications.
In addition to the recommendations talked about on this thread, several of the members here have blogs that you can follow. There are a lot of avid YA readers here. There used to be a thread with blog listings, but I couldn't find it when I looked.
@Kori or Kat, did that thread get archived? Did I just miss it?
Here are a couple of others that I follow:
http://www.yabookscentral.com/
http://www.epicreads.com/
http://disabilityinkidlit.com/
So glad to have you as part of the group! I love to talk library stuff :)
@Linda - that makes sense, you probably have more space than we do! We only have one branch... haha. I'm not sure how big our collection is but I don't think it's quite that much. We only have one shelf of audio books, and we definitely don't have a group that collects donations for us. We do have a subscription to School Library Journal and I try and check that out when I can! I should sign up for e-mail notifications and follow some blogs as well. Thanks!! :)
@Linda, go to "Book Updates/Promotions and click on it. You'll see the YA Blog thread there.
@Kat - thanks!! :) @Natalie - the YA blog thread is on here - see Kat's post above.
J. wrote: "Linda wrote: "@J Leigh it is my goal to read the Madness method this summer before I have to start reading again for my book committee. It is already on my iPad :) Can't believe I haven't read it y..."Hi, sorry for not replying till now, didn't want to be one of those drive-by authors...
Your points are well taken, I purposely did not mention the name of my book nor leave a link to it for that reason. I was merely giving the librarians here some of my background so they understand where I was coming from.
That said, I would very much like to correspond with the librarians (Linda, Natalie, any others here) and work with them to introduce my book into their systems. I would be happy to donate some as well as part of the effort, along with a promise to interact with the readers as much as time allows. This is probably not the proper forum to have this dialogue, though, so if there is any interest, please feel free to send me a message here on Goodreads or by email at pickleboy613@yahoo.com.
Thanks for the welcoming words and ideas, and a great summer to all!
JB
Sorry, I haven't been here much; limited Goodreads time in the summer and I often don't get further than updates!The only y/a I read this month was very disappointing,
by Peter Rock.
Readers of YA Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
Klickitat (other topics)Dark Life (other topics)
Airborn (other topics)
Etiquette & Espionage (other topics)
Insignia (other topics)
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