Top 100 Poll

Adele of Persnickety Snark is compiling a list of the top 100 YA books of all time. Go here to find out more and vote for your favourites.

Update. Also, Catching Fire

I’m so sorry I’ve been neglecting the blog lately, but I’m going back to Uni soon so I’m catching up with friends as much as possible these last few days. I’m not going to do a review for Catching Fire because anyone who enjoyed The Hunger Games will buy Catching Fire regardless of what I say. (A review will probably come soon anyway though).

But for now, I’ll just give a few thoughts. When I finished, I wasn’t completely happy. It hooked me and was brilliant, but the things that happened weren’t what I wanted to happen. I thought it was amazing, but I also wasn’t sure about it. Then I remembered – I felt this way about The Hunger Games. Exactly the same. They’re definitely growers for me. This is why – what I want to happen doesn’t happen. What does happen is better, but it takes me a while to see that. So now I’m going to sit back and say that Suzanne Collins knows best.

And again...

So, having been back a week from here...... which absolutely was as beautiful as the photo looks, (and hot! I'm from England. I'm not used to hot!) and then running into several problems with my internet, I'm leaving again! It's just for a long weekend though, over the bank holiday. I'm going to schedule some posts, so you might even get more than normal. But I definitely will have no internet access where I'm going. A clue - it involves a huge field. Another clue - it involves a tent. Yep, I'm going camping. Wish me luck.

(and one more because I have a huge folder full of photos of the amazing scenery)

Ahh, Greece. You are so very pretty.

Holiday

I'm going on holiday tomorrow so will be away from the internet for over a week. I was planning on scheduling some posts for while I'm away but my internet has been down all day so there will just have to be silence at About Books for a week. I'm on a different computer just to post this quick note. Have a good week everyone!

What NOT to do 2

I've collected a few more of these, so here for your reading pleasure is What NOT to do part deux, alternatively known as Please Authors, I beg you, don't ruin a good book by doing these things. Maybe before reading this post you should go back and read What NOT to do 1 if you haven't already.

As before, I'm leaving out general problems like poor characters or plot. Here are some specific things I've been picking up on recently. Again, I'm not trying to criticise specific books so anything in quotation marks is paraphrased by me.

Show that a Lord in a historical fiction book is a nice guy really by having him always address his servants like ‘if it isn’t too much trouble, would you be so kind as to fetch Miss Moore some tea and refreshments?’ – I don't care how nice a guy he is, it wouldn't occur to him to be so polite to his servants all the time. Plus it gets annoying very quickly. Show how nice a guy he is by making him rescue kittens or something instead.

Heroines who are absolutely gorgeous, but charmingly unaware of it. – Generally seen through the eyes of several males just so the reader realises she’s beautiful (because charmingly modest heroine has told the reader that she’s not beautiful and we can’t have the reader believing that their heroine is plain!) before moving back to her point of view. On the same note, heroines who have a childhood friend desperately in love with her, several men along the way in love with her, just about anyone who meets her, in love with her.

Quests whose success balances upon knife edges/hangs on single threads – Questers are frequently reminded of this by random wise people along the way even when they’re not in immediate danger of any kind.

Questers seek wise/knowledgeable person to shed light on their quest. Wise person falls over himself being friendly and generally wise yet doesn’t say anything useful, despite knowing stuff. Finally, he wishes questers luck on their quest, telling them that he can say little (and why is that exactly? ) but this ... proceeds to speak cryptically and in verse even though he managed normal conversation moments ago. At the end of the poem, wise/knowledgeable person can say no more (other than you have very little time, usually) and reminds questers of Knife Edge/Single Thread mentioned above – Questers and reader alike can then spend most of the book trying to figure out the cryptic poem, which adds a fun element. Hey, it’s interactive! Then they can feel stupid at the end when all is revealed. How obvious! Everyone say ‘of cooouurse!’

Have a character called Cat – I’m not being critical if you ALREADY have a character called Cat, that’s fine. I have nothing against the name, or your books. But authors take note! There are now enough Cats in YA literature to last us a while. And Kat is not a whole different name. Same applies. I know two Cats in real life. I have read about more than fifteen. Why is this?

Have a boy who turns out to be a girl in disguise at the same time as the Princess disappears – WE KNOW IT’S HER!!! Just because author has ever so casually mentioned how Princess has one colour hair and girl in disguise has a different colour hair doesn’t fool your discerning readers. Some of us have heard of wigs before.

Some cryptic verse making up a treasure hunt to treasure which an eccentric, but extremely wise old person hid centuries ago (it is generally unexplained why such crazy-but-genius old people are always in possession of priceless treasures) - said eccentric knows, of course, that the treasure must be hidden well, so only one who is worthy/really needs the treasure/is noble of heart can find it. They don’t consider how if it’s important, maybe they shouldn’t bury it/ hide it in that secret compartment in the loft/ build a house on top of it. If it’s so important, maybe someone will need it in a hurry and not have time for a treasure hunt. Invariably, it’s a close-run thing, but treasure is found in the nick of time to avert disaster.

Explain every action of a character to show how good they really are. If someone was shooting at us/chasing us/trying to kill us in some horrible way, most of us would have no qualms in retaliating. You don’t have to explain why it’s alright for character to fight back – ‘I know violence is wrong and all, but I firmly believe that in self-defence it is occasionally the only action and I’m no pushover despite being peaceful and full of goodness. So I pulled my arm back and punched him’ is unnecessary.

Decide to branch out into young adult books and create a series (*cough franchise cough*). The necessity of an actual plot is reduced and the writing doesn’t have to be as good because after all the readers are younger. We won’t even give them a satisfactory conclusion at the end because then we will have the impressionable youngsters hooked for life – I hate to break it to you, but the choice in YA lit is more diverse than ever before. There are some excellent books out there and teens are harsh critics. Just because a few teen series have been huge recently does not mean that you will win at this. You probably won’t.

Make your book seem ‘classic’ and your newly created world rich in history by sharing it all in a dry and unexciting manner – Yes, that reminds us of a history book. Yes, we believe in your world as a real place. No, we are not still reading because the dry and unexciting voice sent us to sleep.

That's it for today. What about you? Any pitfalls you find authors falling in to far too often? Any irritating little problems that stop a good book from being a great book?

Sorry for neglecting the blog so long. I'm in the middle of exams, so going a little crazy. The good news is that from Monday onwards, I'm freeeee for the summer!! Other good news is that apparently one of my favourite ways of putting off exam revision is reading, so I've got a massive pile of books to review. They'll be up as soon as I can get them up.

Guess who's only a billion years behind everyone else?

That's right, me!

I've finally got a twitter account at twitter.com/Simply_Hannah
Sharon has compiled a good list of book blogger twitterers which I am slowly working my way through.

Giveaway Reminder

The Exteme Kissing giveaway ends this Wednesday, March 6th. I haven't had many UK entries, so if you are from the UK and want to read this fun book, enter! Or if you've already read it and liked it, please spread the word and give your friends a heads up about this.

The contest is also open internationally (the rules are explained here) So the upshot is, wherever you're from, you can win!

Read my review of Extreme Kissing here.

An update

Neon shoes + fabric paint = A Bad Idea

Also

If my post yesterday wasn't enough, Steph Su has posted an interview with me as her Friday Featured Blogger! Her blog is one of my favourites, with very thoughtful book reviews - if she likes a book then I try to look out for it. Thanks for having me Steph.

Also also,

Lenore said she'd like to see my uninteresting cat. So here she is. She hates the camera, so this is actually quite rare to get a photo with her eyes open.

Despite what you might think from my description of her, I do actually like Sophie. But it can't be denied that she doesn't do very much. She's very good at lying but I don't think this counts as interesting like sitting in a pan does. And she definitely wouldn't let me put scrabble tiles on her.

Ten things about me you didn't necessarily know before and maybe didn't want to

I hear your questions, your burning desire to know more. Who is the person behind that fascinating letter? you ask. It's about time I did an About Me post. (Yes, it's also about time I did a Series Spotlight post, being Thursday and all, but I'm finding it hard choosing a series. This was much more fun to write.)

So I present...

Ten Things About Me That You Didn't Necessarily Know Before And Maybe Didn't Want To

1. I have a pair of orange neon shoes. They are hideous.


2. When I told my mum I might start reviewing books, she laughed a lot. ‘Why not?’ I demanded. ‘You couldn’t even keep a book log,’ she pointed out. This is true but I wasn’t going to concede defeat. ‘I could if I WANTED to,’ I said. At primary school we had about half an hour reading to start off the day, reading anything we wanted. Then fifteen minutes to write in our book log our THOUGHTS and IMPRESSIONS. What might happen next. Er, how about I forego pointless exercise writing about what I think could happen next, and use the fifteen minutes READING MORE OF THE BOOK and finding out!? So I did. Then I mean really, what’s the point in writing about it after I’ve finished? I could be STARTING A NEW BOOK! I never wrote in my book log ever. My teacher never noticed. I’m actually not sure how my mum knew. I probably told her as a very smug ten year old.


3. I’ve never drawn on my shoes. I feel I’ve missed an important rite of passage for every teenager. Everyone in teen lit seems to have a pair of beat-up converse that someone has drawn on. This must be where I’ve been going wrong all these years.


4. I giggled a lot when I was sorting out the interview for Luisa Plaja. Not were we Extreme Emailing right up until I posted it, but I googled her name to see what else was out there and make sure that what I was posting hadn’t been done before. On the first page, I saw the same quote twice for two websites. It looked familiar. Did I write that? Maybe. I can’t remember. I click to check. Yes I did, and one of the websites is a bookseller website. My quote is listed under ‘what the critics say.’ This is so very cool, both that I’m quoted, and that I’m a ‘critic.’ I guess I am one, but you know, it’s cool to be referred to as one.


5. My spell check tells me that my grammar above is wrong. It shouldn’t be ‘I’m a critic,’ but ‘I are a critic.’ I think I ARE A CRITIC should be my new tagline. It should also be on a T-shirt.


6. It is no coincidence that there is a cup of tea in my profile photo. I love tea. My friend and I are almost single-handedly upholding the stereotype of English tea-drinkers. Though not from dainty teacups with doilies. Or with crumpets. Just the tea.


7. I think maybe I’ll cover the neon shoes with fabric paint. It might make me look like a walking paint-pot explosion, but at least I could wear them.


8. My grandparents owned a narrow boat. I grew up spending part of my holiday every year on the canals. I really recommend it. The feeling of lying on top of a narrow boat with a book and the sun so strong that it makes the paint you’re lying on almost too hot to touch and the sound of the motor chugging along and the very slow movement? One of my favourite things EVER.


9. Also, I’ve never fallen in. My middle brother (the incredibly competitive one) has. This makes me happy. This in turn makes me a bad person :)


10. When I was about eight, I learned the piano. One week, the teacher told me off for not practicing even though I had (probably not enough, but I DID.) A few weeks later, I didn’t practice. At all. In my lesson, she praised me and said she could tell I’d tried really hard with the piece. I was disgusted and from then on convinced that practicing achieved no result whatsoever. It was just a form of torture that parents and piano teachers dreamed up to keep kids out of the way. Needless to say, I am not a pianist today.

So do Laaaaaaaaaaaa

I saw this on Lisa Yee's blog. Doesn't it make you want to go to the closest train station and dance? (Maybe that's just me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

It also reminds me of Extreme Kissing, where Carlotta and Bets get all the tourists at the London Eye dancing. Look at the crowd joining in!

Where am I?

Sorry the Series Spotlight wasn't up today but I have a big essay deadline for tomorrow at the moment, and another one for Monday. I'll have the Spotlight up by tomorrow and I've recently had the chance to read Luisa Plaja's fabulous Extreme Kissing, so the review of that will probably be up on Saturday. I'm also in the middle of Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key, which is distracting to say the least, knowing that it's sitting there, waiting for me as I type away!

I'll leave you with random quotes from the pages of the books I currently have open, one of which I really want to read more of, and the other I have read entirely too much of writing this essay. But enjoy!

Lock and Key (page 338, UK edition)
'Well,' he said, 'I looked for one that said "If you expect the worst you'll never be disappointed", but they were all out.'

The Tempest (Act I, Scene I, lines 365-366)
You taught me language; and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse.

What NOT to do

Most books aren’t perfect. Everyone understands this, usually we will notice a mistake and then ignore it. I’ve read a lot of books recently that have really annoying problems that pull my attention away from the story. What’s even worse is that most of these are good books! Yep there are worse faults in books – poor editing and an unbelievable plot spring to mind. But when a book is so nearly there it's almost worse. These things are so basic, so easy to avoid! I've written a list of the most recent that I've read, leaving out more general problems, like having characters who don’t act their age. I don’t want to mention any names or point fingers, but I do want to share these with the world.

Things that authors shouldn’t do but seem to far too often:

Have an ‘expert’ spy make loads of mistakes. Like every now and then pausing and instinctively feeling that someone is following her, but not being able to see someone and shrugging. No matter, I have more important matters to deal with. – I get that this is to show the audience something the character doesn’t know – uh-oh, someone must be following her! But a master spy just wouldn’t repeatedly ignore their instincts. Especially when they have just been set up for murder by another expert spy and are running for their life. Such a spy would think, maybe it’s the person who set me up! They are following me. It is because they are an expert spy who can manage to set me, another expert spy, up, that I can’t see them, not because there is no-one and I’m just feeling a little jumpy.

Having a ‘positive’ ending being that ah well, the guy she loved has died, but they’ve defeated the bad guy and for the last page we suddenly move to the point of view of a completely different man whose point of view we’ve never seen before. He is thinking ‘I’m glad we’ve survived because I’ve been in love with her since first I saw her.’ – There was NO CLUE to this through the entire book. And this is supposed to make me feel better. Yay, the main character has a chance at love after all! That guy was interested in her the whole time!

Having aforesaid guy feeling happy in the last page of the book that he has a chance with her. – Erm, he has a chance because HIS FRIEND WHO SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH HAS JUST BEEN MURDERED!!! This is maybe one or two days after the death. And it’s supposed to make the reader feel that the ending was positive. Also, Aforesaid guy, you should concentrate on more immediate problems, like getting down off that roof.

Having main character children realising that adults have a secret that somehow involves them. They then get into (life threatening) trouble trying to discover the secret. The finale is that the adults come and rescue them – The children have essentially accomplished nothing. Granted, the adults admit the truth in the end, but I’d like the kids to play an actual role.

Main characters arriving in a new and (inevitably) very dangerous world where everyone they meet is suspicious and not to be trusted. By coincidence, the first person they meet is a nice person who helps them and warns them about not trusting anyone else – Usually this person goes far out of their way to help these random strangers, like going on a whole quest with them. Quite often by more sheer coincidence, the person’s past is somehow linked with the quest that the main characters now face. They may not remember this past but then a chance clue will show them that everything is somehow linked.

A sweet lovely family of kids with the oldest looking out for the youngest since the mother died – The dying mother usually extracts a promise from her eldest child to take care of the baby. Often if you work the ages backwards, this oldest child was about eight at the time. There is a perfectly acceptable father, yet the mother feels compelled not to ask him to take care of the kids, but to make an eight-year-old promise to do it.

Character’s who are ‘klutzy’ and therefore knock over everything in their path (and sometimes out of it too) and can’t control anything that comes out of their mouth – this is more of a personal pet peeve. There’s just too many of these characters in teen fiction.

Characters who are geniuses and therefore are inevitably socially incompetent. They will get nervous whenever they experience human interaction, quite often actually forgetting how to speak, putting words in the wrong order or something – I understand not being able to think of anything to say. But forgetting how to speak entirely? Every time anyone speaks to you? This isn't someone just not knowing what to say, this is people going 'there I'll over put it. I mean I'll put it over there.' These characters almost always get the cute, popular guy/girl, who finds their lack-of-speech-ability amusing and endearing rather than strange.

Historical fiction books where the character will ask a question that they would know the answer to just so the author can explain it to the audience – example being a person in Henry VIII’s reign asking what attainting is. Anyone in that time would know because it happened on a regular basis, there’s no way a teenager of the time would have no clue. It’s simply done for the audience today, who can’t be expected to know what attainting is because it doesn’t happen now. But for anyone who already has good knowledge of whatever time period the story is set in, this stands out badly.

Having books start with letters along the lines of; ‘dearest mother, I can’t believe I haven’t seen you for three months, ever since you went to London with my elder sister Primrose in the hopes of finding her a husband. We have visitors. As you know, our modest country house has enough room to hold ten visitors quite comfortably so the group of thirty staying with us presently is causing problems. My childhood friend James and I have been visiting my Uncle...’ – Information overkill! Can’t the author find a better way of setting the scene? Straight away I know it’s out of character before I even know the character. (I completely made that particular opening up as I’m sure you can tell. I’ve read too many books that start similarly though).

I'm sure there are lots more, but I can't think of any right now and I don't want to carry on finding fault. Without exception, all of these were taken from books that I've enjoyed, (even with the more general problems, I've liked books that are guilty of them) some directly from books that I've loved. Please authors, you've written a wonderful book, don't let me get distracted by little things like those! I want to carry on loving your work, not feeling critical.

Rant over =)

Any specific problems you've run into recently? (please don't turn this into a shooting match though. I don't want to know the name of every book you hate, just any problems that have stopped a good book being a great book for you)

It's a happy monday to yoooouuuuu

I'm in a kind of fantasy shlump at the moment. Everything I've been reading is contemporary and while I love that, I need some magic to balance it out! I don't know what to read next though, any suggestions? I have City of Ashes, which I can't wait to read. Or I could try A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer, Black Powder War by Naomi Novik or Seven Sorcerers by Caro King. Does anyone know if any of them are good? Or have any different books to recommend?

On a random note, there have been lots of helicopters flying over here all day. It makes me wonder what's going on, especially as the building I'm in shakes every time!

Also, to celebrate the release of Something, Maybe, Elizabeth Scott is having a countdown celebration. I'm definitely going to be celebrating because I'm looking forward to reading it!

Contests!

It's often really annoying that most book contests are only open to people in the states, but I've found a couple of great contests you lovely UK (or other not-from-America) people can enter:

My Favourite Books is holding an amazing contest to give away boxes of books to schools and libraries as well as individual books to UK school children, so if you happen to be a teacher/librarian/school child in the UK, go and check it out! And if you're not, go and give Liz and Mark some love anyway for doing something so cool. This contest ends 28th February, so get any entries in fast!

Chicklish is giving away sets of Sophie McKenzie novels. Again, I'm sorry this is only open to UK people. It ends, uh, today, so you'd better be fast!

The last is a contest open worldwide, and this is hosted by Amy from Addicted to Books. She's giving one lucky person five books so get over there and enter! (Please mention in your entry that I sent you guys). This one lasts until the end of March.

In other news

The Hunger Games has won the Cybils YA fantasy and science-fiction award! I loved this book, and think it deserves all it gets. So well done to Suzanne Collins!



Other winners include Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.



Congratulations to all authors and let's hope this introduces more readers to some of the amazing books released last year.

Books by their covers...

Sorry for the lack of actual reviews recently, but I've been suffering from a horrible cold. Good result - more time to read, bad result - can't actually gather my thoughts together to review what I've read. They will be written eventually though.

A post about Aurelia at Em’s Bookshelf got me thinking about book covers and how influenced I am by them. (Aurelia was one of those books where the cover influenced me a lot) Usually if I’m buying over the internet they don’t have so much influence over me, but if I’m in a bookstore the cover is the reason that I’ll pick a book up. Then I flick to a random page and read a bit to see if I like the style. Sometimes though, I see a cover I can’t resist.
Be warned! The book covers featured below are utterly irresistible and may well make you unable to withstand their beauty! But you must! For sometimes, books are simply not as beautiful as their covers! (Although sometimes they are and this will make you very happy) For some of these books I know practically nothing about them – I’m not endorsing the books, just the beautiful, mesmerising covers.

Books I have bought solely (yes, I’m not proud of it) for the cover:

Aurelia by Anne Osterlund. The cover promises so much; intrigue, masks, disguises, court, take your pick. There is something about masks that I just can’t resist! If I’m honest, I was disappointed by this one. It didn’t live up to the cover for me (which is a bizarre way of measuring a book as other people will like the cover more or less, but there you go)

The Secret Countess (aka The Countess Below Stairs) by Eva Ibbotson. I loved this, but then I was in the right mood to love it. Now that I’m more initiated to Ibbotson, I know her formula much better. But this was my first Ibbotson book and I enjoyed it a lot.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. The pic here doesn’t do it too much credit – trust me, it’s sparkly and beautiful. You can read my thoughts on Ella Enchanted in my Fairest review – once again I was slightly disappointed.

Books that the cover made me pick up, but I knew a bit about before I bought them:

The Lady in the Tower by Marie-Louise Jensen. I like that the head isn’t cut off. And you can see the Tudor French Hood. And it’s got a shiny red title (although it looks pink here) and shiny letter writing down one side. And the girl looks like she has a secret.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. The contrast of colours is so pretty. It pretty much sums up the whole book – urban, faeries, mystery.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. I love the title and the cover, especially the drawn-in headphones, which just fits the book so well. (Strange but true fact – I don’t like the photo of the girl if you turn it upside down. I can foresee a lot of people twisting their heads in an effort to see the picture on the screen upside down right now! It surprised me a lot how different the cover looked the other way around. But there you go!)

Books I want to buy solely for the cover (I hardly know anything about these books, but they are so pretty!):

Faerie Rebels by R J Anderson. I don’t really like the UK cover at all (or the UK title, which is Knife) but this US cover makes me want to read the book so much. I think it’s the white hair on a young person – eye-catching and intriguing. Plus the beautiful illustrative style.
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. Look at the dress. Look at it! The motion of the dress as she moves is so gorgeous. That is the sort of princess dress that’s probably very uncomfortable, but most girls would like to march through a castle in, swishing dramatically, at least once. Ok, maybe not for real, but the idea is appealing...
Taken by storm –byAngela Morrison. I know nothing about this one at all, but I just love the cover so much! The colours, the watercolour paint effect, the clouds, I love it!
Undercover by Beth Kephart. The colour contrast between the leaf and background is so striking. And is that ice I see? Ice with a skate mark? I love ice-skating!

What about you? Are there any books that you have bought or want to buy just because of the cover? Any that you haven't bought because of the cover?

Random stuff

I’m a FOOB! (ok, technically I’m only mentioned in a post that’s called the FOOBS, but I prefer to call myself a FOOB) It makes me happy to be a foob because it is so very cool a word. Also because the lovely people over at chicklish called my blog excellent. Thanks Luisa!

I’ve been reading books like a crazy person. This is because I went to the library and they had loads of books I wanted/sounded interesting. I'm reading them faster than I am able to write reviews though.

If you are in the UK you should check out the giveaway over at dragonfly reviews, where Sara is giving away a free copy of Shrapnel. Email her by Friday for a chance to win.

What I should be doing:
1.Researching a history essay
2.Writing a history essay
3.Writing that review about The Goldsmith's Daughter that I keep putting off

What I am doing instead:
1.Eating an orange
2.Writing this
3.Surfing the web for still more ways of wasting time in an educated and literary way.

As said in the About Me section at the top of the page, I put off work. I am a natural last-minute kind of person. I have perfected it into an art form. At least, this is what I tell myself.

Five reasons why I am very happy today

1. The world outside is full of white snowy goodness. There will be snowball fights, there will be snow angels, and there will be much crazy snow-related running around. It hasn’t stopped snowing yet today and the sky is grey so maybe we will actually get the promised amount of snow for once.
2. New information on the Hunger Games sequel has been posted over at The Book Reader. I’m not sure that it can be as good as the first book, but I’m excited for this one all the same.
3. Cracked up to be is finally out here in the UK. I’ve heard good things about this one and can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
4. I got ahead with lots of work last night. Don’t you love the feeling after you’ve been really productive? Plus this means that I am free this evening to run around like a crazy person in the snow.
5. This is a February post which means I am technically into my second month on my blog archive. A small achievement, but fun anyway. Everyone has been so lovely and supportive to me, especially Em, so thankyou everyone!