Friday, July 25, 2008

Another Book Trailer



Here's another book trailer, this time for Class of 2K8 member Brooke Taylor's inagural novel, Undone. Enjoy!

(Sorry for the absence of reviews, I haven't read any YA lately!)

Friday, July 11, 2008

ZOMG: Every Twilight Fangirl's Wet Dream

Do you live in Canada or the US?
Are you obsessed with Stephenie Meyer's now world-famous Twilight series?
Would you like to win the ENTIRE series?

Click here, my dear.

Shopping Spree (For Books, Naturally!)

Another installment of everyone's favourite segment... I got a whole bunch of YA books last night and decided to post them here. Everywhere I go it is just marketing, marketing, marketing for Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn. Is anyone going to one of those midnight masquerade parties? I went to something like that for the last Harry Potter book (and I'm not proud to admit that), I probably wouldn't go again.

1.Ambition (A Private Novel) by: Kate Brian
2.Boy Heaven by: Laura Kasichke
3.Criminal Minds: Killer Profile by: Max Allan Collins
4.Looking for Alaska by: John Green
5.Now You See Her by: Jacquelyn Mitchard
6.The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by: Jessica Anya Blau

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

TV vs. Books? (Re: Books Into Movies)

While I've always been way more into reading than with TV, there are some shows I absolutely adore. Several of these I've picked up the mass-market paperback of and been less than impressed. For all CW drama fans, The O.C. was made into a novel series, fairly decent writing, good for the die-hards who love those little extra scenes. Also, Gilmore Girls has been made into novels, too, I'm pretty sure from Rory's POV, though I've never read them, just flipped through them whilst shopping.

As any original (before the TV show!) Gossip Girl fans know, there was a highly popular book series prior to the days when Blake Lively and Penn Badgley are being hailed as the next teen supercouple.

CSI, all its offspring, and several other crime shows (Criminal Minds and possibly Bones, though I can't be sure about that last one) have already been made into book series, written by TV-into-books superstar, Max Allen Collins.

Is there a TV show you think would be perfect as a book?

My top picks would probably be Lost and Numb3rs. I choose not to count The Numbers Behind Numb3rs or the hundreds of Lost guides, because they simply offer insight and no actual plotlines or extra info.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Peeps by: Scott Westerfeld

Floating among a sea of overtly steamy, "vamped-up" (pun FULLY intended) vampire novels, both for YA and Adult, Peeps is informative, memorable, and above all: unique.

Cal Thompson arrives in New York City fresh-faced, wide-eyed and virginal. He doesn't stay that way for long. After meeting sexy, perfect, gorgeous Morgan (whose last name he can't remember, possibly due to a dozen or so fruity drinks), his virginity is long gone and so is, well, his human life.

Re-born as a "parasite-positive," commonly abbreviated to "peep," Cal's eyes are opened up to a whole new world where he's super-strong, with a cat's eyesight and a dog's nose. Seems pretty cool, right? Well, that's not all.

He also has to take a vow of celibacy which for an abnormally horny teenage boy (another side effect of being a peep) and track down all the girls he has kissed, who he's infected with the peep disease.

Surprisingly, I didn't like this as much as I expected to. While I fully expect to here from others who've read this saying I must be on something, I just didn't like it half as much as I did his other series, Uglies.

One major reason is this: Peeps is told in Cal's first-person point-of-view. Almost half of YA novels are written this way (the rest being third-person) and yet, Westerfeld's voice seemed highly unrealistic as a teenage at some points. It was either "yeah, cool, whatever" or, comparatively, going on about things no teenager could talk about with bursting into laughs. One phrase that stood out was "pigeon's breast," which Cal's inner voice uses without commenting on.

Also, every other chapter gave a mini-biology lesson on different types of parasites. I found this to be pointless. It only muddled up the plot, for the sake of the reader understanding a few references scattered throughout. In addition, these alternate chapters made this novel impossible to read while eating.

Total: Three stars.

I would've given Peeps even less but Westerfeld's an amazing writer and, I will admit, the premise for this novel was quite quirky and unique.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Shopping Spree (For Books, Naturally)

Lately, I've been trying to make the leap from YA to adult (although I still love my YA!) and while I was running errands, I found some well-priced books that I decided to get.

1. Bones to Ashes by: Kathy Reichs (I love the TV show, Bones, but apparently I started in the middle of the series rather than with the first one!)
2. Perfect Match by: Jodi Picoult
3. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by: Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer
4. How to be Single: A Novel by: Liz Tuccillo