Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

Hello Lovelies!! One of my all-time favorite authors is my WCW today! Her books have changed my life for the better. Rainbow Rowell writes books for both adults and young adults. Her first published novel was Attachments in 2011. Probably her two biggest novels came out in 2013: Eleanor & Park and Fangirl. Both books have devoted followings. Landline was released last year, and Carry On will be released this fall. In the mean time, fans (including me!) are anxiously awaiting news about the Eleanor & Park film which has been optioned and for which Rowell has drafted a screenplay.  You can find Rainbow on Twitter , Tumblr , Facebook or at her website . She's hilarious and delightful.

Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote fantastic books. Look at that peach! She's amazing. L.M. Montgomery gave us Anne of Green Gables, and I am so thankful to her. Montgomery published Anne of Green Gables in 1908. It was her first novel, and it was wildly successful. It allowed her to continue writing the rest of her life. She went on to publish 20 novels, 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. She's remembered most for Anne and the subsequent novels in her series. However, she also wrote Emily of New Moon and The Story Girl, two other children classics. She might not have been a pioneer, but without her, the landscape of children's literature would look very different.

This is another author who I have read literally all of their published works. I've loved every moment of reading it too. Stephanie Perkins has three successful teen contemporary novels and a holiday anthology under her belt and she has only been published for just over four years. That's a lot of work! She has another anthology set to release next year, as well as her first foray into horror. I cannot wait to see how she tackles the genre. Perkins gives me so much hope as a (hopefully!) future writer because her life trajectory mimics mine: bookseller to librarian to author. I would be thrilled to follow in her footsteps. She has more than 45,000 fans following her on Twitter, and her books are best sellers nationally and internationally. Her books are the kind of books that give you heart flutters and make you want to goofily smile into a pillow. They are not the kind of books which will allow you to maintain angry resting face on public commutes. I would love...

This author won me over with her transitional reader when I did Middle Grade March last year. I'm still not over it. Lenore Look has created several novels for young readers: the Alvin Ho series (which is my absolute favorite!), the Ruby Lu series, and several picture books.  Look makes school appearances regularly. She encourages young readers to pursue dream of writing and follow her process at her "glob" (or blog ). She even answers questions posed to her on the Q & A page! Look also maintains contact with schools on her Twitter .  Look grew up in Seattle, and now resides in New Jersey. She credits Alvin Ho with making her a Red Sox fan and gatherer of trivia about Fenway Park. Look's first book was published in 1999. Her books tend to reflect her own experience of growing up as a Chinese-American in America and draw on her experience as an American visiting China. Her characters struggle with their own identity and connecting to family. Al...

I thought I would love Shiver, but it fell a little short for me. However, I'm so glad I gave this author a second chance with The Scorpio Races. Now I can't wait to try The Raven Boys.  Maggie Stiefvater (pronounced Steve-Otter, as she will sing to you ) has published seven novels and featured in four short stories anthology. Three of her books have been optioned for films, although one option (Shiver) has lapsed.  Stiefvater grew up in Virgina, and she lives there now with her family. She has been a wedding musician, a technical editor, a portrait artist (primarily for horses!) and a waitress. She still makes art and music along with writing. She also creates the trailers for each of her books. Basically, she can do everything. Well, maybe not everything, but she's still got a pretty cool list of accomplishments.  I find Stiefvater's writing to be emotional and vibrant. The Scorpio Races drew me in quickly, and I felt so connected to both the worl...

This week's WCW made me laugh and cry and rage. And I berated myself for waiting so long to read her work. Alice Walker won the Pulitizer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple . She grew up in Georgia during the time of Jim Crow laws. During her time at Spelman College, she became interested and involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Many of the rights she was fighting for appear in her various poems and novels in some way.  She has been a champion for womens' rights, African-American rights and bodily autonomy. She has come under scrutiny in the past for her activism (particularly involving a Gaza flotilla in 2011).  Her books don't hold back. The Color Purple is raw and emotional. It can be difficult to read, but it matters so much. Walker writes in simple phrases and manages to convey a wealth of emotion behind them. I don't understand how she works her magic, but it definitely works. 

Another new crush. Unfortunately, this author doesn't have a backlog of books for me to read my way through. Leslye Walton's debut novel The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender came out in 2014. It's a Morris Award nominee, and oh boy does it deserve it.  Walton has an MA in writing, and she also teaches middle school (brave soul!). She lives in Seattle, and I think that fondness for the Pacific Northwest definitely comes through in Ava Lavender .  Walton's prose is extraordinary beautiful and lyrical. I wanted more constantly. I cannot wait for her next book to be published. 

This week's wcw features a baby crush. A blooming crush. A I need to read the rest of your books immediately crush. Elizabeth Wein is the semi-recently newly published author of several YA historical fiction books, as well as many short stories.  Her first series is the Arthurian Sequence which is a retelling of the Arthur legends. Her newest books while not a series, have a main connecting theme.  Code Name Verity  was the first historical fiction novel I'd read in a while and it was fantastic. It's been awarded several major honors. There's a sequel of sorts out: Rose Under Fire. And a third Black Dove, White Raven coming out in March.  Wein currently lives in Scotland, although she lived in numerous places when she was younger.  I would recommend her books to fans of historical fiction or people who enjoy strong female characters in any genre.  

This week's WCW is an author who gave me the best week long stay at my Grandparent's house over a long and a little bit lonely summer because I found her books. Patricia C. Wrede is best known for her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. They're amazing, feminist fantasy novels for young adults. She has three other series (Cecelia and Kate, Mairelon and Frontier Magic) along with novels that all occur in the same world (Lyra) and a handful of standalones.  She lives in Minneapolis, MN, but was born in Chicago, IL. She donated her archive to the Rare Books and Special Collections of Northern Illinois University. She maintains a blog , and goes to cons around Minneapolis (jealous!!).  Wrede worked as a financial analyst while writing her first five books. Then decided to go into writing full-time (which I think was a stellar decision, but maybe I'm biased). I love that she shows how writers often work first. It's never too late to become a writer. And yo...

Hello lovelies! For this WCW, I'm featuring a rather prolific author who (I think) gets less love because of her preferred genre.  Sarah Dessen is a North Carolina native (although technically born in Illinois, she grew up in NC, so pretty native) who is about to release her 12th novel. Her first book was published when she was only 26 (if that doesn't inspire someone my age, what would??).  Although her books are frequently applauded by librarian based groups (ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults has featured 7 of her books, and School Library Journal's Best Book Award has been given to 2), her books have been widely ignored by award committees and popular culture (Technically How to Deal was based on Someone Like You and That Summer--but really it's barely even similar.) She writes beautiful contemporary novels about teens meeting and falling in love. I think they're typically brushed off as teen romances, but her characters have a lot of d...

Hello Lovelies! This week is the author who really made me want to start this feature in the first place. Jandy Nelson is the author of two young adult books as well as being a literary agent herself.  I'll Give You the Sun was one of my favorite books of 2014 (and probably my life, like seriously it's amazing). I wanted to know more about Nelson, but there's not really a lot out there. She has a BA and two MFAs (one for poetry, one for Children and young adult writing). She has some published poetry in poetry journals (American Letters, Commentary, Five Fingers Review to name a few).  She considers herself to be very superstitious (which I see comes out in her novels in very good and relateable ways). She's been involved in numerous panels and is fantastic about supporting her fellow authors.  I cannot wait for her next novel (which she calls The Fall Boys and Dizzy in Paradise on her Gallery page ). Her books are amazing, and if you haven...

Hello Lovelies! Let me be honest, I don't read a lot of adult books. There are two things that can pull me into the land of marriages, children, divorces, and cheaters: I've either heard really good things about the books (and that usually means that the four things I mentioned aren't present) or I know and love the author (I did go through a phase in high school where I primarily read books published for adults). This week I'm going to focus on one of the few authors whose works I will automatically read even though they're published for adults. Anne Bishop is an amazing author of adult fantasy novels. She is primarily known for her Black Jewels trilogy ( Daughter of the Blood is the first in the series). She has four series and numerous short stories available. I'm currently anxiously awaiting the third book in the Others series, which will be finally available on March 3, 2015.  Bishop focused on short story writing before Daughter of th...

I read 13 Little Blue Envelopes sometime during high school--I can't quite remember when. And I loved it. I pushed it on my friends. I sought out other books by the author. The other books were also amazing ( The Bermudez Triangle , Suite Scarlett , The Key to the Golden Firebird ). Then I started following Johnson on twitter, and oh my gosh, a whole new world. Maureen Johnson is an incredible person. She's witty and hilarious and just generally over all wonderful. She seems to have a lot of bad things happen (She's been in and out of the hospital for like a year including the same surgery two times), but she's delightfully optimistic about it all. It's occasionally hard to tell if she's actually optimistic or if her sense of humor is so sarcastic that it's actually a whole new level, but she usually seems genuine about her bright outlook. Her first book was published in 2004, and since then she's had eleven books published so-far as well as ...

Hello Lovelies! So this is another feature that I'm going to try to do this year. Women Crush Wednesday--52 fantastic female authors, one each Wednesday.  Some people might say, but so many of the authors in YA literature are women, what makes them so special? And to that I would say,  I disagree with the premise of your question. But also, major media prefers to focus on men, and will usually only write about women when their books become sensations (Stephanie Meyers, Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins, etc.). I want to focus on all the female authors that I love. I know that there is no why I'll hit them all with a mere 52 weeks, so I'm hoping this is a feature I can continue until I get sick of blogging (I'm hoping that'll never happen). As my first TBT post was on Harry Potter, it seemed only suitable that my first WCW post be on J.K. Rowling.  For those few people who somehow don't know the backstory of the infamous J. K. Rowling, let ...