The General YA Book Thread

Finished Midnighters by S. Westerfield a couple of weeks ago, debating if I should read the second one.

I have His Dark Majesties (all three) on audio cd that I want to listen to.

I will be checking out MG books for research since my next WIP is a MG series. (Any suggestions that have a male MC?)

Other than that, I need to catch up on scrapbooking, and other Martha Stewart housewifey stuff. (oh, and I also need to get cracking on short stories for mag. submissions.)

I'm going to start Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness as soon as I finish my current WIP. (ie, next week.)

Turkey Lurkey said:

I will be checking out MG books for research since my next WIP is a MG series. (Any suggestions that have a male MC?)

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Double Helix by Nancy Werlin

The Lighthouse Land by Adrian McKinty - this one does strange things with...not POV, but 1st/2nd/3rd person. Actually yeah, POV too. It worked okay, but I couldn't figure out why it was structured the way it was. I'm interested to read the rest of the trilogy but I have no idea when they might be out.

The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick

Those were three I read this summer...hope they help Ooh -- and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan...that's the start of a MG series with a male MC, but I have yet to read it. It's in the TBR pile.

I just today finished Stephenie Meyer's New Moon, and Westerfeld's Specials before that. (On Westerfeld, I liked the other two Midnighters books [largely because of Dess] and found them worth the read...despite a few things that bugged me. Not biggies though.) Also in the TBR pile are Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, a bunch of titles waiting on hold for me at the library, and Toothpaste's book Alex and the Ironic Gentleman when it comes out next month.

Turkey Lurkey said:

I will be checking out MG books for research since my next WIP is a MG series. (Any suggestions that have a male MC?)

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Try:

The Perseus Jackson series by Rick Riordan:
The Lightning Thief
Sea of Monsters
Curse of the Titans

The Ranger's Apprentice Books by John Flanagan
The Ruins of Gorlan
The Burning Bridge
The Icebound Land
The Battle for Skandia (out next year).

Those are all middle-grade, boy friendly. And darn good reading too.

ETA: Oh, and I have "The Icebound Land" in my TBR. At the moment, I'm reading something that isn't YA.

I read Magic or Madness, and while I enjoyed it, something about the potential for the series bothered me. I love the twists she came up with, and some of the character development there, but it wasn't enough for me to pick up the next two books.

I just got done reading/re-reading the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers. They're pretty good, and for all the criticism (my own included) I can't help but reread them.

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Yes, for the first time. I'm so behind. I totally started it when it came out in 2005, but I got pulled away from it by life, work, and a new John Updike book.

But now I remember why I called these books Literary Crack in the first place, and I may be up all night tonight finishing this one.

I have David Lubar's Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie coming to me next week from Amazon. I've never read anything by him, but I read his Livejournal. In an interview he did, he mentioned that every chapter in Sleeping Freshmen is based around a particular rhetorical device. OMG like Ulysses! *English-major swoon*

Holes is great MG with a male MC. Louis Sachar owns.

Re reading The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli and reading Zel by her for the first time. She's such a great writer. Seriously, nobody here seems to know her but I can't sing her praises enough.

I read Revenge of the Homecoming Queen by Stephanie Hale. Loved her voice. A very fun, very fast read.

Well, I just finished Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer not too long ago, which is the third book in the series and I've read them all so far. I've read all the Harry Potter books too. And I can't forget the fact that I've read Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, those just this summer.

Right now I'm about two pages into Mira, Mirror. I hope it's good.

Mira, Mirror was pretty good as I recall. I think I was expecting something on the lower end of YA when I read it but it was not lower end. Good book.

I'm in the middle of Robert Cormier's We All Fall Down. Been in the middle for a long time. Not really into a depressing book at the moment.

I've been real into graphic novels as of late, so I got myself American Born Chinese and expected to fall in love with it.

I don't know. I'm halfway through, and just not too enthusiastic. Took me maybe two hours to read that far, and, well, there's just not that much to it. I'll force myself, though. That thing won the Printz award for a reason. I hope.

Slap bang in the middle of our very own Toothpaste's Alex and the Wigpowder Treasure. Not exactly YA - I'm guessing it's MG? It was shelved in Waterstone's under "8-12", but it's a great book anyway. V.v.v. funny.

So buy it!

Also, I've recently read Grace Dent's Diary of a Chav: Slinging the Bling. Also very funny.

I have about 6 or 7 books on the go at once and I'm going through a heavy 'non-fiction' period at the moment - history, self-help, English language/grammar...but I always ping back to YA eventually.

scarletpeaches said:

Slap bang in the middle of our very own Toothpaste's Alex and the Wigpowder Treasure. Not exactly YA - I'm guessing it's MG? It was shelved in Waterstone's under "8-12", but it's a great book anyway. V.v.v. funny.

So buy it!

Also, I've recently read Grace Dent's Diary of a Chav: Slinging the Bling. Also very funny.

I have about 6 or 7 books on the go at once and I'm going through a heavy 'non-fiction' period at the moment - history, self-help, English language/grammar...but I always ping back to YA eventually.

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I will for sure! And welcome back to YA! I haven't seen you here in a while!

Most recently I read Bloom by Elizabeth Scott, which I highly recommend, and The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. The latter I read as an ARC; it won't be out until November. Although I found the storyline predictable, I loved the character development and period detail. (It's set approximately 100 years ago in New York City, basically a YA tale in an Edith Wharton setting.) I predict it's going to do very well.

I'm in the middle of the Saffy's Angel series: Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After. The middle two are the best. They're MG/YA crossover, I suppose, and they're fantastic. Omniscience done BEAUTIFULLY. And the characters are hilarious and wonderful and Goooood I love those books. Particularly Indigo's Star, the one I'm reading right now. I'm gonna name my first son Indigo after that boy, I swear I will.

Just finished Looking for Alaska and I loved it. It's totally stuck in my head. I also read The Lullabye by Sarah Dessen, now one of my favorite YA books.

I'm a big fan of the Midnighters trilogy, and Wicked Lovely as well. And I'm not a big fan of Fae stories in the first place. I do think that WL was the best of the pack, even though it pushed me to pick up Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside at the same time.

Anyone else remember the Night World series by LJ Smith? I really wish that series was still in print. Or that Smith was still writing.

Okay. Just got back from Borders. I have The Gospel According to Larry, The Goose Girl, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (though that's not YA, of course.)

I am excited.

Starting with Goose Girl, since it is my all-time favorite Grimm's fairy tale, and I had no idea someone made it into a novel. It looks really good.

roskoebaby said:

Just finished Looking for Alaska and I loved it. It's totally stuck in my head. I also read The Lullabye by Sarah Dessen, now one of my favorite YA books.

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Looking for Alaska. Uhhh God can't read it enough.

I'm rereading Being by Kevin Brooks as well, because it was the inspiration for my WIP and it looks like I'm always going to need more inspiration for this one.

OverTheHills&FarAway said:

Starting with Goose Girl, since it is my all-time favorite Grimm's fairy tale, and I had no idea someone made it into a novel. It looks really good.

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I love the Goose Girl. Shannon Hale's awesome, too. I emailed her when I was like fifteen and she emailed me back and forth a couple of times. I was psyched.

Also I love Looking for Alaska. A lot.

I just picked up Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It's good. I wouldn't say it's fantastic, but she does a good bit of description, even if her dialogue tags annoy me. The characters kind of bug me, as well. The protag, Bella, is not my type of gal. Too passive. I would have whapped Edward over the head a long time ago.

I picked up Smack in the bookstore, but decided against buying it because my sister was there with me, and she would have given me looks. I'll probably check it out of the library at school, if they have it. If not, I'm going back to B&N.

Though everyone is saying it, I just have to put in my 2 cents -- Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series is pretty damn good. If you actually look over the plotline when you're done with it you realise how cliché it is, but somehow Meyer actually makes it interesting :]

Currently I'm rereading The Claidi Journals, by Tanith Lee. It's a pretty good YA series. :]