Top Ten Tuesday: Authors who Deserve More Recognition

Hellllllllllllllllo Top Ten Tuesday people! Today we can only offer an abbreviated list of authors who we think deserve more kuddos and more readers.  We think this is a great topic though, since if people are listing authors today, then maybe there are awesome writers out there just waiting to be discovered by us, the ladies of Young Adult Fiction and Whiskey Sours! We look forward to your lists.

1. Lili St. Crow. How many times do I have to tell you to read the Strange Angels series!?!?
2. Rae Carson. Her Girl of Fire and Thorns series is epically well done.
3. In the US Grad Student has trouble even finding a copy of the later books in the Tomorrow, When the War Began series by John Marsden. In Australia everyone know about Marsden and this awesome series. This country need to get on board.
4. Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. People, there is more then just the HBO show!  Sookie deserves some more credit cause her character in the book is way better than the TV version.

As always, cheers to The Broke and the Bookish, the kick-ass hosts of TTT!  If you want to know more about these authors, see our posts on The Girl of Fire and Thorns and The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson, Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow,Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden and Deadlocked  and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.

Top Ten Tuesday: Beach Reads!

Our beach of choice in Newport via

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is dedicated to Beach Reads. I define beach reads as 1. set in the south 2. have people falling in love and/or 3. at a beach town. I cannot wait to get my tanning on and get involved with more beach reads this summer!

• hello, Sookie! The Southern Vampire Series are total fluff and fit these categories.
• Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker. Boat trips and cute ginger-haired boys who mend broken hearts are perfect for the beach.
• Sarah Dessen's books. So far I have inhaled Along for the Ride and Keeping the Moon and love her beach town setting of Colby

    

Crazy Camper says:

"I would say anything without paranormal, just teen romance is a good beach read. Actually, as long as there is romance, it qualifies! NOT BEACH READS = anything that qualifies and a penguin classic (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre) these require too much thought."

• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Southern and romance.
• Not just Sookie, but any Charlaine Harris book (we have read the Harper Connelly series and Sweet and Deadly and liked them both, although Tolliver is smokin' and makes the last Harper Connelly book Grave Secret extra worthy of beach reading).

Goosie Mama says:

"Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green. AWESOME beach book (doesn't the cover just look like a fab beach read? Yes sir, may I have another!), beach town setting, crazy thriller plot - there is even (minor) surfing involved!"

As always a big cheers of our whiskey sours to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting TTT, our fav weekly book blog meme! What makes your list? We want to know so we can stock our e-readers for this coming summer! If you want to know more about these reads, see our reviews of Deadlocked and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen and Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker. 

Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Gosh, Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris isn't really YAF either, but please indulge me - I'll be done soon. I just finished Partials!

Anyhooze, people who have more money than I do (or who are more willing to spend it on premium cable than I am) often rave about True Blood and how great the HBO series is. About 3 years ago, my friend lent me his DVD of the first season and I think I watched it over one weekend - it was great (albeit, not PG!).

In addition, Grad Student and Mama Pajama have also been crusin' through this series for a long time as new books become available, so I decided I needed to pick this up (let's be honest, there was no wait list at NPYL.org, so I snapped it up!). That, my friends, was a good choice!

• Originality: 8 - Based on the first book, there is a LOT that happens in this series - almost every paranormal instance (shapeshifters, vampires, mind reading - shall I go on?) is thrown in. And you know what? Why not - if you're going to paranormal, you may as well go all in!
• Absurdity: 8 - Gosh, there is a lot of absurdity that happens just in the first book (also, seeing all the story lines that weave their way in and out of the first season of True Blood helps reinforce this point!), so I'm ranking it pretty high. That being said, I think that within the the grand scheme of the series, this is probably the most normal book, so I may have to lower it once I read a few more!
• Level of Paranormal Romance: 7 - It's romantic, I guess, but not really PG. Sukkeh and Bielllll  - what's not to love (although I can't picture anyone but Anna Paquin and Steven Moyer in the role and I don't know if that's a good thing!)?!
• Level of Harry Potterness: 4.5 - Not the best or worst-written book I've ever read (how's that for vague??) but I liked it and was legitimately obsessed with reading it, so all in all, I'd recommend!

Don't worry - up next a bunch of actual YAF for the blog. Thanks for bearing with me!!

Review: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

FRIENDS I am not sure how I feel about Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris. To start, lets recap the 12th installment of the Sookie Stackhouse crazy-fest:

With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank. Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down. (Good Reads)

•  Level of Originality: 2. It is hard to review a book that is so far along in a series for originality--so much ground has been covered! It is even harder with Deadlocked because there is not much to the plot. What mystery was at the center of the book? The dead person on Eric’s lawn, or the missing Fangtasia employees, or the fact that someone is after Sookie’s antiques? (ya, that is about as boring as it sounds). Book #12 does not stand out.
• Level of Absurdity: 2 or 10 (depending on how you feel about this series). I give this a 2 since no NEW paranormal species are introduced in Deadlocked. But if you have not accepted the witch-fairy-vamp-shifter mixing, this is a 10.
• Level of Paranormal Romance:  3. Eric was not as awesome as he usually is and SHOULD be. I mean, if I like Bill more than Eric, you know there is a problem. Because Bill is 90% made of boring.  CHARLAINE HARRIS DO NOT RUIN THE AWESOME THAT IS ERIC.  Please realize that you have been warned.  
• Level of Harry-Potterness: 2. I was not taken with Deadlocked. I was delighted by the first couple of these books. But in the end, I still love Sooks. She is strong-minded. She  unwinds with a clean house, sunbathing, and doing a bit of nothing alone--I wish I had a cool old farmhouse somewhere in the woods to do this, too. But this plot really dragged. AND can Sam get a normal, good girlfriend for once?!

The best part: for Sookie’s birthday the vamps stopped by and Eric said:

“And I suppose as usual, Bill will want to express his undying love that surpasses my love, as he'll tell you--and Pam will want to say something sarcastic and nearly painful, while reminding you that she loves you too." 

MORE OF THIS, please.
Breaking News! Dead Ever After, the 13th book, due out in 2013, will be the last! (Vulture)

Friday Library Updates

I arrived at my parent's house on Wednesday and my Mom was all, "Hi hunnie, I saw the new Sookie  Stackhouse at the library, so I picked it up for you." And I said, "Gee, thanks!" Then I came into the kitchen to this:

MOM IS AWESOME. Then I turned the books over and almost died: 

I followed her around the kitchen holding this to my face pretending to be Charlaine, but she would not participate (we could BOTH do it with our Mommy and Me books). Moral of the story, Mom didn't want to have to fight me for Deadlocked. 'Cause shiz would have gotten real fast. I told Crazy Camper, and this is the g-chat conversation that followed:

 Crazy Camper:  can you finish it so i can take it home? [CC comes to NYC this weekend. Huzzah!]

 me:  its a lib book

 Crazy Camper:  SOUL CRUSHING

i could mail it back?

 me:  7 day loan- sorry to be a dream crusher

 Crazy Camper:  library book woes

Meanwhile in Insurgent library news.... Goosie Mama needs to GET HER ACT TOGETHER because I am #130 on the list* to get Insurgent  by Veronica Roth from the NYPL. And that list is not getting any shorter. Goosie Mama is a much bigger fan than me. What is she thinking!?!

(Note: We are hoping the library buys like 80 more copies of this book. They do that sometimes, because libraries are awesome.)

Top Ten Tuesday: "Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters In Books"

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is entitled "Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters In Books." Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish TTT is a weekly feature dedicated to book-list-mania.  I found this top ten hard to do--recent characters I read and liked, but had not necessarily upgraded to love status, crowded for attention. Sheesh (made-up) people, get in line! Not to mention I tend to love supporting characters best. I didn't realize it until I made this list! Without further ado, characters we love fall into these categories:

Ridiculousness Incarnate 

1. Peasebottom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed from the Theatre Illuminate series by Lisa Mantchev. I dare you to resist them! For example, this is such a funny play on famous first lines (as the first lines of Perchance to Dream, the second book in the series).  Ridiculous AND smart at once!

 “It is a truth universally acknowledged,” Mustardseed said, flying in lazy loops like an intoxicated bumblebee, “that a fairy in possession of a good appetite must be in want of a pie.” “Yes, indeed,” Cobweb said over the rattle of the caravan, “though I awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, I found myself transformed in my bed into a gigantic pie.” “It was the best of pie, it was the worst of pie,” was Moth’s contribution."

Exuberant characters!! Exclamation point!!

2. Eldric from Chime by Franny Billingsley. McDREAMY with an excellent vocabulary and a vivid imagination. (my review!)

3. Augustus Waters from The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

“When surprised and excited and innocent Gus emerged from Grand Gesture Metaphorically Inclined Augustus, I literally could not resist.” --ME EITHER. Augustus loves life and I love him. He is my new favorite (made-up) person.

4. Joe Fontaine from The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. (my review!)

 “The guy is life drunk, I think, makes Candide look like a sourpuss.”

Spunky Heroines 
5. Alanna of Trebond from the Song of the Lioness books by Tamora Pierce. We talk about these books a lot. Alanna is the original gusty heroine in the reading lives of Crazy Camper and Grad Student. When my roommate ran in (last month) and said “did you ever read those books about the girl with purple eyes?” I KNEW EXACTLY what she meant. We love her still.

6. Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling's HP. Smart and Sassy. What is not to like? Points to Crazy Camper for adding to the list.

7. Puck from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. She loves being terrible! But is really awesome. (my review!)

8. Sookie Stackhouse from the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. Sassy and southern. YES. This was Crazy Camper's second excellent addition. I think it says something that 12 books in we still get a kick out of Sookie.

Waiting on Wednesday- Sookie Stackhouse Book 12 Deadlocked

This Waiting On Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine, is dedicated to books we (today represented by Sweet Tea, Crazy Camper, and Grad Student) just can't wait for.

O Sookie, Sookie, Sookie.... We can't wait for your new book! On May 17th, Book 12, Deadlocked arrives.

"With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank. Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down."

Check out this supercut video of everyone saying Sookie's name...enough said.

(New York Magazine-Vulture)