What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Lydia Sharp · Sep 25, 2010

Almost done with A SEPARATE PEACE by John Knowles, an oldie but a goodie. Highly recommended.

Then I read the first chapter of THE DUFF and I'm seriously at a loss as to whether I should keep reading or not. It was a total turn-off for me. The blurb tells you right off that she ends up having lots of sex with this guy she totally hates in chapter one, and the word cliche' kept screaming in my head. Bianca is the presented as the typical "I'm not into guys" type and then we meet the typical "womanizer jerk" guy and then *knowing* they get together later--even if it's not really love, just sex--is not really intriguing to me at all, especially since it is also mentioned in the blurb that, after having lots and lots of sex, they realize they actually have some things in common and find some likeable qualities about each other. Okay... what else? Is that the whole story? Obviously not, but if it's important enough to be presented as the main point, then I'm just not understanding the intrigue here. Plus it is really heavy on the cuss words. Not that that in itself will get me to put a book down (I think BREAK had more F words than anything I've read, adult or YA, and I loved that book), but for this one, it just didn't seem to fit.

So if anyone can give me a real reason to keep reading this book, I will. As of now, it failed my first chapter test. But I know it's gotten a lot of hype, so could someone please assure me there are better things to come?

Senora Verde · Sep 25, 2010

Lydia Sharp said:
Almost done with A SEPARATE PEACE by John Knowles, an oldie but a goodie. Highly recommended.

Then I read the first chapter of THE DUFF and I'm seriously at a loss as to whether I should keep reading or not. It was a total turn-off for me. The blurb tells you right off that she ends up having lots of sex with this guy she totally hates in chapter one, and the word cliche' kept screaming in my head. Bianca is the presented as the typical "I'm not into guys" type and then we meet the typical "womanizer jerk" guy and then *knowing* they get together later--even if it's not really love, just sex--is not really intriguing to me at all, especially since it is also mentioned in the blurb that, after having lots and lots of sex, they realize they actually have some things in common and find some likeable qualities about each other. Okay... what else? Is that the whole story? Obviously not, but if it's important enough to be presented as the main point, then I'm just not understanding the intrigue here. Plus it is really heavy on the cuss words. Not that that in itself will get me to put a book down (I think BREAK had more F words than anything I've read, adult or YA, and I loved that book), but for this one, it just didn't seem to fit.

So if anyone can give me a real reason to keep reading this book, I will. As of now, it failed my first chapter test. But I know it's gotten a lot of hype, so could someone please assure me there are better things to come?

I'm on chapter 3 and I'm intrigued by Bianca's OCD tendencies and her family issues. I'm guessing (hoping) that when she does end up sleeping with Wesley, it's more of a symptom of her self-loathing and less of a romance. I have a (hopeful) feeling that the relationship with Wesley is not the crux of Bianca's story.

We'll see.

Elysium · Sep 25, 2010

Tomorrow, Maybe by Brian James.

It's really good so far. The style is different from anything I've read before, which is awesome.

mellymel · Sep 26, 2010

finally finished Mockingjay. yay. was happy who she ended up with. the book definitely left me with some crazy and intense dreams.

starting now with the 1st book in the Tomorrow When The War Began series by Australian author Marsden. very very excited about this one (THANK YOU NOMES

!!!!)

inkspatters · Sep 26, 2010

Oh, Tomorrow When the War Began is SO AWESOME. Have fun, melly

vfury · Sep 26, 2010

Currently reading Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud for work purposes, and really enjoying it. It's straddling the line between MG and YA, but I can see it appealling to those who enjoyed the Young Bond books by Charlie Higson.

jscribbles · Sep 26, 2010

Listening to Madapple on audio. Beautiful writing! Such a unique voice.

mellymel · Sep 26, 2010

inkspatters said:
Oh, Tomorrow When the War Began is SO AWESOME. Have fun, melly

I'm so friggin' stoked! I'm so jealous you guys are in Australia and get to see that awesome looking movie. I can't stop watching the trailer! I swear, if I was rich, I would have flown to Australia just to see that movie

Lydia Sharp · Sep 26, 2010

Senora Verde said:
I'm on chapter 3 and I'm intrigued by Bianca's OCD tendencies and her family issues. I'm guessing (hoping) that when she does end up sleeping with Wesley, it's more of a symptom of her self-loathing and less of a romance. I have a (hopeful) feeling that the relationship with Wesley is not the crux of Bianca's story.

We'll see.

Thanks for chiming in.

I went ahead and started chapter two... but couldn't finish it. I think I'm just not connecting with this character enough to care what happens and the narrative voice is really grating on me (sorry!). I hate saying stuff like that, especially when I know so many other people liked it. To each her own, I guess.

The next book in my stack was THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson. OMG IT IS SO GOOD! I clicked with this character immediately, and I love the writing style.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 26, 2010

Just read "The Deathday Letter". I was a bit meh on it. The narrator's a bit annoying, and the premise is nonsensical enough to put me off. They briefly discuss how nonsensical it is, but the premise gets rid of causality, and the book wasn't really deep enough to address it in any sort of reasonable way. Props for having more dick jokes per page than any book, ever, though. It was very similar to "Going Bovine", with the Carpe Diem You're Dying Soon So Have A Wacky Adventure theme, down to the slightly homophobic MC finding out his BFF is a big gay best friend and everything. But I enjoyed "Going Bovine" much more.

DarthFormal · Sep 26, 2010

I bought a short story anthology called Zombies vs. Unicorns the other day. I knew nothing about it, I still know nothing about it, but the fact that it was edited by Holly Black and contains stories by Garth Nix, Naomi Novick, Meg Cabot and Scott Westerfeld has me super excited. Oh, and the cover screamed "buy me!". Has anyone else heard about or seen this book?

jscribbles · Sep 27, 2010

DarthFormal said:
I bought a short story anthology called Zombies vs. Unicorns the other day. I knew nothing about it, I still know nothing about it, but the fact that it was edited by Holly Black and contains stories by Garth Nix, Naomi Novick, Meg Cabot and Scott Westerfeld has me super excited. Oh, and the cover screamed "buy me!". Has anyone else heard about or seen this book?

I've seen a couple of authors refer to it in vlogs. It looks pretty cool! Let us know!

inkspatters · Sep 27, 2010

mellymel said:
I'm so friggin' stoked! I'm so jealous you guys are in Australia and get to see that awesome looking movie. I can't stop watching the trailer! I swear, if I was rich, I would have flown to Australia just to see that movie

It's a travesty, but I actually haven't seen the movie yet. Gotta rectify that soon -- I'm always the last person to see a movie, lol.

Shadow_Bee · Sep 27, 2010

As You Wish. And I'm liking it.

Forsaken · Sep 27, 2010

Started BEAUTIFUL CREATURES. It's a bit slow right now, but I'm only 40 pages in, so I'm sure it'll pick up speed.

indie_girl · Sep 27, 2010

DarthFormal said:
I bought a short story anthology called Zombies vs. Unicorns the other day. I knew nothing about it, I still know nothing about it, but the fact that it was edited by Holly Black and contains stories by Garth Nix, Naomi Novick, Meg Cabot and Scott Westerfeld has me super excited. Oh, and the cover screamed "buy me!". Has anyone else heard about or seen this book?

I'm debating about buying this, because it sounds so awesome! Let me know how it is!

I finished Paranormalcy yesterday, and The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan today. I loooooved Evie's voice in Paranormalcy, and Nick's comments in The Demon's Lexicon made me seriously want to work on my own fail dialogue. I had a bit of trouble finishing the latter, though. It didn't really pull me in.

Next up, I Am Number Four. I'm so excited to read this!

K.C. Robertson · Sep 27, 2010

I finished Beautiful Creatures last night and loved it. I ended up so sucked in during the last quarter or so that I kept not putting it down, and then suddenly the book was over and it was after 3am. I loved loved loved how real the town felt.

HayleytheScribbler · Sep 27, 2010

I'm reading City of Ashes right now. To quote Jackson Pearce (when she introduced Cassandra Clare at a recent event): "I mean it takes a really, really good book to make you think like: 'He’s just her brother, it’s cool. Kiss him! Don’t worry; I won’t judge you I swear!' ”

hehe.

Kitty Black · Sep 28, 2010

Lydia Sharp said:
Then I read the first chapter of THE DUFF and I'm seriously at a loss as to whether I should keep reading or not...

So if anyone can give me a real reason to keep reading this book, I will. As of now, it failed my first chapter test. But I know it's gotten a lot of hype, so could someone please assure me there are better things to come?

Nope. It's a 'popcorn read'. (Who came up with that? It's perfect)
I enjoyed it, because Wesley really isn't a typical womanizer. Bianca thinks of him that way, but that's because she's judging him before she knows him. He's actually really decent. Bianca has to learn to stop judging people (like the class slut), because everyone has reasons for the things they do. By the end, she's made peace with her mom for leaving, her dad for drinking, etc. She's learned how to look at things from someone else's point of view, but also to communicate what she wants or needs in a relationship. The cussing put me off, too, but the characters and the evolving relationships were what sucked me in.

Lydia Sharp · Sep 29, 2010

Started THE IRON DAUGHTER by Julie Kagawa (sequel to THE IRON KING, which I absolutely LOVED) and will probably finish it tonight. So good.

RRK · Sep 29, 2010

I just read Dead Beautiful (which was written by an acquaintance of mine, but I don't know her that well, so this review is mostly unbiased

) and was blown away by how engrossing it was. Think of it as Twilight set at Hogwarts, except with a way more convincing and intriguing love story than Twilight (which I admittedly don't care for) and a much more enthralling main character. I highly recommend it!

SaturnV · Sep 29, 2010

I just finished The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I really, really enjoyed it. Dark, honest, and unlike most of the YA books out there right now. I had to go get the next book from the library right away.

eyeblink · Sep 29, 2010

After a run of longer books ending with Mockingjay, I felt like something short and sweet, so it's Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom, a svelte 50k words, taken out of the library.

It has *very* short chapters - 160 of them.

Rebekkamaria · Sep 29, 2010

I'm reading Uglies now. I like the beginning. I'm not sure how I'll feel about it when I've finished it.

Momento Mori · Sep 30, 2010

I'm over half-way through THE DEAD by Charlie Higson, which is his zombie sequel to THE ENEMY, which has been nominated for a couple of awards.

I say it's a sequel, but it's actually more of a prequel - set 12 months before the events in THE ENEMY, it follows a group of public school boys who've survived the outbreak of the virus that turned everyone at their school aged over 15 into insane, flesh eating monsters as they journey into London on a coach driven by an adult who claims he's immune to the virus.

It's a shocking, exciting read so far - just as good as the first book (although I am a bit miffed that we won't find out what's happened to the Buckingham Palace kids for another 12 months).

I'm in the mood for some more zombies afterwards, so will probably try Carrie Ryan's THE DEAD TOSSED WAVES.

MM

What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

for the love of love

Teacher by day, YA writer by night

believe

The coordinates keep changing...

Hearts the furrily challenged.

Who killed my sea monkeys?

for the love of love

i luv you giant bear statue

that's crazysauce!

Who killed my sea monkeys?

The coordinates keep changing...

Meddling with the Muse

...Writing...

I'll bring the twister!

Sitting underneath my laptop

will write for cake

Slowly circling the drain....

for the love of love

I named the dog Indiana

Barbara says hi

Pixie with dust, beware

Tired and Disillusioned