Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
After her parents are offered teaching jobs in Bristol, England, american girl Rory convinces her parents to go to a boarding school in London. In London a Jack the Ripper-copycat has started killing people on the same dates and with the same methods as the original Jack the Ripper. At first Rory doesn't get scared but more fascinated, but then weird things start to happen to her. The police are left with no witnesses or clues except for one thing, Rory saw and even talked to a man close to the murder scene on the night of the last murder. The strange thing is that her friend Jazza didn't see or hear him even though she was right there. Rory finds her self not only being an important witness but now also one of the murderer's main targets. And this is not the last time she can see people other's can't. This is the first book in the Shades of London-series.
The characters:
Rory is a small town girl from Louisiana with many weird relatives and is more straight forward than many of her new english friends. The stories about her relatives and the way she struggles adjusting to the british culture is funny but I still find her to be a little boring and uninspired as a main character. She is both smart and funny but she does'nt show a lot of emotions, you are just told about them. She finds her group of friends early on consisting of her roommate Jazza, Jerome, the not so nice Charlotte, and a couple of others.
I think we get to know too little about the characters because I don't get any feelings for them, I dont like them nor do I dislike them. For instance I can't remember if we are told what any of them look like except Jerome's got curly hair. I especially think Jerome is a very vague character and he is part of the book from the beginning and is an important character to Rory. If a book's heroine is going to have a romance should't you at least get to know what's attractive about the guy? Later we meet a new group through her other and new room-mate Boo and I find these people a little more intriguing. Especially Boo is easier for me to picture than the rest. I'm guessing we get to know more about all of them in later books.
The plot:
I did like the way the story plotted around the Jack the Ripper-mystery and we got details from the real case while reading about the new one. There were some short sidecuts to the story about a reporter and a Jack the Ripper-expert that gave some extra information and this strenghtens the book. I didn't know a lot about Jack the Ripper beforehand, but now I know a lot more. I found this book most interesting and exciting during the first half and than again in the end but during the rest, I just wasn't that into it. One one hand you have the plot of the murder investigation and on the other there is Rory finding out about her abilities and learning about the ghost police and their background. In the end I found the second plot to be the more interesting and this story will continue in two more books so there is light in the tunnel;-) What I didn't get about the mystery plot is the murderer's motives. I found them a bit too unlikely and that partly ruins that part of the book for me.
My thoughts:
It takes about two thirds of the book before the action starts for real and this time is not mainly spent to develop characters or build suspense. I actually didn't mind it being a bit slow in the beginning but at a certain point I wanted something more. I like to read about the daily life of teenagers in boarding school but something's not working when what they eat, hockey-sessions and other trivialities almost gets the same amount of attention as the plot and the characters. As I said earlier we don't really get to know or feel any of the characters and even though the plot is promising it's not enough to make this a great experience. I also think the lack of involvement from Rory made me less involved as well. I still think the last part of the book was intriguing and the characters of Boo, Callum and Stephen seems promising and more alive than the others. I might have to wait and hear what others think of the second book before I decide to continue with this series or not. Because even though it could be read as a stand-alone I find it more promising as the first book in a trilogy.
.
Source:
I bought the audiobook for myself.
My rating:
The characters:
Rory is a small town girl from Louisiana with many weird relatives and is more straight forward than many of her new english friends. The stories about her relatives and the way she struggles adjusting to the british culture is funny but I still find her to be a little boring and uninspired as a main character. She is both smart and funny but she does'nt show a lot of emotions, you are just told about them. She finds her group of friends early on consisting of her roommate Jazza, Jerome, the not so nice Charlotte, and a couple of others.
I think we get to know too little about the characters because I don't get any feelings for them, I dont like them nor do I dislike them. For instance I can't remember if we are told what any of them look like except Jerome's got curly hair. I especially think Jerome is a very vague character and he is part of the book from the beginning and is an important character to Rory. If a book's heroine is going to have a romance should't you at least get to know what's attractive about the guy? Later we meet a new group through her other and new room-mate Boo and I find these people a little more intriguing. Especially Boo is easier for me to picture than the rest. I'm guessing we get to know more about all of them in later books.
The plot:
I did like the way the story plotted around the Jack the Ripper-mystery and we got details from the real case while reading about the new one. There were some short sidecuts to the story about a reporter and a Jack the Ripper-expert that gave some extra information and this strenghtens the book. I didn't know a lot about Jack the Ripper beforehand, but now I know a lot more. I found this book most interesting and exciting during the first half and than again in the end but during the rest, I just wasn't that into it. One one hand you have the plot of the murder investigation and on the other there is Rory finding out about her abilities and learning about the ghost police and their background. In the end I found the second plot to be the more interesting and this story will continue in two more books so there is light in the tunnel;-) What I didn't get about the mystery plot is the murderer's motives. I found them a bit too unlikely and that partly ruins that part of the book for me.
My thoughts:
It takes about two thirds of the book before the action starts for real and this time is not mainly spent to develop characters or build suspense. I actually didn't mind it being a bit slow in the beginning but at a certain point I wanted something more. I like to read about the daily life of teenagers in boarding school but something's not working when what they eat, hockey-sessions and other trivialities almost gets the same amount of attention as the plot and the characters. As I said earlier we don't really get to know or feel any of the characters and even though the plot is promising it's not enough to make this a great experience. I also think the lack of involvement from Rory made me less involved as well. I still think the last part of the book was intriguing and the characters of Boo, Callum and Stephen seems promising and more alive than the others. I might have to wait and hear what others think of the second book before I decide to continue with this series or not. Because even though it could be read as a stand-alone I find it more promising as the first book in a trilogy.
.
Source:
I bought the audiobook for myself.
My rating:

Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Friday, 19 October 2012
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Night School: Legacy - Waiting on Wednesday.
The beautiful cover for Legacy makes me believe in fairy tales(even more than I already do ;)! This is one sequel I'm SuperDuperDuperSuper exited to read. Have you read Legacy's predecessor, Night School?
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What kind of feel does the Legacy book cover give you? |
Earlier in 2012 I reviewed Night School by C.J. Daugherty and in my review I wrote
"This is a YA novel that stands out in the crowd, it will have you turning pages and wondering where on earth the last few hours went off to."
Legacy is the sequel to Night School and I have high hopes for it. Not to mention I have high hopes finding out what the beeep is going on in the Cimmeria Academy. Is this a fantasy series, espionage, thriller? What, what? This is not an annoyed kind of what feeling, this is the delightful curious kind of what feeling.
Oh dear publisher can you please release Legacy before Christmas at least? Is that too much to ask?
Today I'm posting my own synopsis of Night School to go with this WoW post. Why? I am afraid of spoiling something for those who haven't yet read Night School:
Allie is not doing so well after the disappearance of her older brother. She has been keeping the grief at bay by acting out, now she has done so one time too many. Allie's parents has had enough and they believe that sending her away to boarding school, the Cimmeria academy, might do Allie some good.
Cimmeria is one weird school but in spite of herself Allie enjoys life there. That is until the day she discovers that she has been surrounded by a bunch of liars. What is really going on at the Cimmeria academy?! Weird sounds, shadows in the night, people breaking into Allies room. Who can Allie trust?
Have you read Night School yet? If so what did you think? If not would you like to?
Legacy comes out January 17th 2013 from Atom .
What are you waiting for this week?
"Waiting On" Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This event spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Please visit Jill's blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for.
"Waiting On" Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This event spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Please visit Jill's blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for.
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Friday, 12 October 2012
Who's buying and reading YA-books?
In september I read an article about adults buying teen books in The Christian Science Monitor. The results showed in this article are based on a study from Bowker Market Research. It shows that 55 % percent of the buyers of YA-literature are 18 or over and they say this is a trend that's only been increasing over the years. The majority of the buyers in the 18+-group are actually 30-44 years old (I am one of those:-) Of course this group could be buying the books for their kids or other teenagers, but according to the survey 78% of the adult buyers reported that they were buying the books for themselves. The popularity of series as The Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter can take some of the blame but not most of it. More than 70% of the readers reported to read a variety of titles. This is good news for the publishers Bowker says because these book's readers are among the most loyal, socially active and committed you can find. So why do adults like to read books meant for a younger crowd?
Why do I like to read YA?
I can only speak for myself since I am one of those adults who like to read YA-literature. I started to read YA-books because of my job as a school librarian but now I really enjoy them and also buy some for myself. The article in The Christian Science Monitor claims one of the reasons for this could be that YA-books are often written in a less complicated matter than many books for adults an therefore may offer more of a literary escape. The genres of dystopia and fantasy that are very popular in YA-literature are both genres that appeals to me. I agree that many times these books are less complicated and first of all easier to stomach (less graphic) than in many of the adult books, which is fine by me. But I also think a reader could find literary escape in adult literature just as easy and many do but maybe the issues and the thematics doesn't appeal to everyone in the less complicated literature for adults.
(Photo: copyright: Flickr/Ben Sutherland)
Also the line between YA-literature and the adult literature is sometimes very thin. There's great diversity in YA and some of it is an easy read and some of it is not. One of the few similarities seems to be that it's about young people and issues that they are concerned about. So, the YA-literature appeals to me for many reasons but one of them is about that last thing, that you can read about a persons period of life that is maybe the most vulnerable, exciting and where so many of your experiences are new and fresh. I think we all like to feel like that again. I also think this is one of the most important periods of life when a person is between childhood and adulthood. This is when you struggle to find out who you are and who you want to be. A lot of great literature has been written about this but maybe not been called YA. I think it's about time that this literature is discovered by a larger group of readers. And this leads to me ending this with the most important reason for me starting to read YA; I didn't know I could find so many fun, exciting and good books among them before I started to read them.
This leads me to another thing. In Norway we don't have a YA-category. Some books are called crossover-books but this is not really working in the marketing process because these books have a problem finding their way to the right readers. Therefore neither the young adults nor the adults read them a lot. This is hopefully going to change now that they are given more attention. How is this in you country?
Why do I like to read YA?
I can only speak for myself since I am one of those adults who like to read YA-literature. I started to read YA-books because of my job as a school librarian but now I really enjoy them and also buy some for myself. The article in The Christian Science Monitor claims one of the reasons for this could be that YA-books are often written in a less complicated matter than many books for adults an therefore may offer more of a literary escape. The genres of dystopia and fantasy that are very popular in YA-literature are both genres that appeals to me. I agree that many times these books are less complicated and first of all easier to stomach (less graphic) than in many of the adult books, which is fine by me. But I also think a reader could find literary escape in adult literature just as easy and many do but maybe the issues and the thematics doesn't appeal to everyone in the less complicated literature for adults.
(Photo: copyright: Flickr/Ben Sutherland)
Also the line between YA-literature and the adult literature is sometimes very thin. There's great diversity in YA and some of it is an easy read and some of it is not. One of the few similarities seems to be that it's about young people and issues that they are concerned about. So, the YA-literature appeals to me for many reasons but one of them is about that last thing, that you can read about a persons period of life that is maybe the most vulnerable, exciting and where so many of your experiences are new and fresh. I think we all like to feel like that again. I also think this is one of the most important periods of life when a person is between childhood and adulthood. This is when you struggle to find out who you are and who you want to be. A lot of great literature has been written about this but maybe not been called YA. I think it's about time that this literature is discovered by a larger group of readers. And this leads to me ending this with the most important reason for me starting to read YA; I didn't know I could find so many fun, exciting and good books among them before I started to read them.
This leads me to another thing. In Norway we don't have a YA-category. Some books are called crossover-books but this is not really working in the marketing process because these books have a problem finding their way to the right readers. Therefore neither the young adults nor the adults read them a lot. This is hopefully going to change now that they are given more attention. How is this in you country?
Monday, 8 October 2012
Banned books week: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Speak is a realistic, gripping and believe it or not humorous young adult contemporary about a young girl working her way back to life after being raped. I chose to read this novel by author Laurie Halse Anderson because it was under attack by a Wesley Scroggins from Missouri State University, back in 2010, for being filth and
material that should be classified as soft pornography.
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UK cover. |
Soft pornography, Mr. Scroggins?
I am terribly sorry to have to be the one to inform you about this, Mr. Scroggins, but you are criticizing the wrong book here. I think you might have confused this excellent read with some other novel you might have read. Had this article been published in 2012 I might have believed that the novel in question was Fifty Shades of Grey and that you just got the two novels mixed up in your article. There is no pornography what so ever in this novel. There is however a short, nothing very graphic, scene where Mel, the main character, looks back on the night she was raped. If someone confuses this with pornography it says a lot more about them, than teachers putting this novel on their curriculum trying to set focus on such an important matter.Is this what high school is supposed to feel like?
As the main character in the book is alone with a boy who is touching her female parts, she makes the statement that this is what high school is supposed to feel like. The boy then rapes her on the next page.
So here is the real deal. Mel is outside taking a bit of fresh air, regretting that she ever tasted beer, when this handsome older guy shows up and takes her into his arms. He gives her a great kiss and for a few seconds Mel is in 7th heaven. Mel lets her mind wonder and thinks about how great it would be to start high school with an older boyfriend to looking out for her. A perfectly normal thought for a girl on her age! Unfortunately this handsome boy turns out to be a beast, someone who wants a hell of a lot more than just a kiss. The beast does not care how Mel struggles to get away from him.
Schoolteachers are losers, adults are losers
News flash!
It is not unusual for teenager to be in conflict with adults and thinking that they are stupid and so on. In my world that was perfectly normal at least. Not that we thought everyone were looser but some, that is also the case for Mel. Mel's character feels genuine and if she is a bit more negative than you're average teenager that might be because of what she has been trough. Want a word of advice? Look up the word empathy in the dictionary.Speak is a story that will speak to your heart, soul and mind.
For the reader Speak carries several important messages. Here are the ones I took special notice of:A) IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT, NEVER! No matter if you couldn't find the word no, the other part should still know the difference between a girl(or boy) that is terrified and a willing participant. If the offender didn't stop then it is still not your fault.
B) If someone you know starts to change personality all of a sudden or does things that is out of character for him or her pay attention. Do not turn your back on the person, he/she might need you a whole lot more than you might think. Let them know you are there as a confidant and a friend, parent, teacher, coach or what ever your role in that persons life is.
C) If you have suffered rape or abuse of any kind find a person whom you know and trust and try telling them.
The importance of daring to shine the spotlight on real problems
I want to salute every author out there daring to write about things that can happen in the real world. Sadly bad thing happen and even though writing about it doesn't fix the problem it it goes a long way to make people understand more and be more aware of these things.Speak is an important read for young boys and girls alike. You get to travel inside the head of a young girl who suffered rape. You get to see how she struggles with high school, friends and trying to cope with what happened to her. The reader is never sure of what the outcome in Speak will be, it is not difficult to understand that life isn't easy when you're trying to survive and have a hard time thinking of a future that is more than five minutes away.
A dysfunctional family Mr. Scroggin wrote.
Mel's family is slowly falling apart and apparently has been falling apart for years. They have no common ground anymore and all three(mother, father and daughter) are leading their separate lives. No, this isn't idyllic family life, but sadly loads of kids live in families like the Halse Anderson portraits here. Is it right to try to convince young adults that everyone is leading a perfectly happy life at home? So the ones that comes from families outside this norm should feel even more alone? NO! What is important is the hope seeps of the pages in this story, things can get better if we try.So there you have my voice, a mere reader, against a professors voice. I know, I know, the BBW ended yesterday but time just got ahead of me is all.
Movie
Did you know that Speak also is a movie with Kirsten Steward(that was before her time playing Bella!) playing the main character, Mel? I did not know that. Now I would love to see the movie, I'm sure it cannot have been an easy adaptation. Transferring both the humor and the hurt onto the screen must be hard to get right.Where did my copy of Speak come from?
I bought Speak during BBW in 2010 to show my support and to give a vote against censorship. However I did not read the novel until now(can you believe it?).
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Kinderboekenweek
Until the 14th of October the whole country is dominated by children's books. Crafting workshops, writing workshops, lectures by popular authors. Throughout the country activities are organized to get young kids to read. The initiative is great in my opinion, I think events like this should happen more. Reading is important for a child's development. Yet so many young people hate reading, hate books. Which is horrible of course.
The evening before the kinderboekenweek starts, the gouden griffel is awarded, a prize for the best children's book. The gouden penseel has already been awarded, the prize for the best illustrations in a children's book.
The winner of the gouden penseel, Sieb Posthuma.
Since I was able to read I have loved this one week. My parents and grandparents both allowed me to pick a book. A month before the actual start of the kinderboekenweek I was already looking for those two special books. When I had finally made my choice October couldn't come soon enough.
I already noticed the UK also has a children's book week. Does your country has one, and if so, what special events are organized? If not, would you want one and why?
~ Sylke
Monday, 1 October 2012
Banned books read-out video
The independent bookstore Bookman made this superb video featuring people reading out loud(excellent quotes) from various books that has been banned over the years.
Support the case, read a banned book!
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