Saltwater Vampires - Pumped For This

Here is a book with Vampire in the title that is calling out to me! And, I don't really do vampires.

Watch the trailer! You will be into it :)
[1:17]

From the astonishingly good Aussie author of Raw Blue (which is rave- blurbed by YA royalty Melina Marchetta) comes...

..." A distinctly Australian vampire thriller..page-turning and suspenseful"

For Jamie Mackie, summer holidays in the coastal town of Rocky Head mean surfing, making money, and good times at the local music festival. But this year, vampires are on the festival’s line-up … fulfilling a pact made on the wreck of the Batavia, four hundred years ago. If their plans succeed, nobody in Rocky Head will survive to see out the new year. 


Taken from Kirsty's website. Check it out!


Officially pumped for this. I don't see many suspense-thrillers in YA. Plus surfing, a beach setting and a music festival all from a male POV. And... a 400 year old legend. Ooooooh! 


Plus, it's Australian! You know you want to read this :)

My Year So Far in YA - Epic Book Survey

Half-way through the year (!) so here's some reading stats for me. So far this year, I've read 100 books exactly. Whoah, it sounds like a lot...Since working on my own YA MS, I've been reading a lot more YA titles (which are generally quicker to read than Adult Fiction).


My reading breakdown: 76 YA, 18 Adult Fiction and 6 Non-Fiction.


Sometimes, I feel sheepish about how much I read, I've always been a bookaholic and also an insomniac, which happen to work well together :)


I took this Epic Book Survey created by author Kirsten Hubbard and originally posted on the Absolute Write boards and YA Highway. Because my blog is all about YA - I've only used my YA books for the answers.

BOOKS 

• Most imaginative: Dreaming of Amelia (The Ghosts of Ashbury High), Dreamrider (Barry Jonsberg), Elsewhere (Gabrielle Zevin)
• Funniest: Dreaming of Amelia, My Big Birkett, The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind, 
• Scariest: none really, The Devils' Staircase was serial killer fiction, Dead Tossed Waves has some freaky parts.
• Edgiest contemporary: Fade? Living dead Girl
• Creepiest SF/dystopia: The Dead Tossed Waves
• Most evocative historical: The Raging Quiet
• Best love story: The Sky is Everywhere, One Night (Margaret Wild), 

SCENES

• Most hilarious: I loved Chapter One of I Am the Messenger. Loved it :)
• Most disturbing: Dead Tossed Waves - eeew - a really creepy scene involving a religious sect and zombies... 
• Steamiest: the Johnafter finally getting it on with Meg...whoah :)
• Most exciting: Everything Beautiful was pretty wild @ parts, and Audrey, Wait! had lots of fun and excitement.
• Biggest tear-jerker: [only cried in two] Stealing Heaven (I think it was just the mood I was in when I read it) and If I Stay.Didn't cry in these, but felt very moved:  The Only Alien on the Planet, Story of A Girl, Thirteen Reasons Why.
• Best plot twist/revelation (no spoilers!!) : Liar, for sure! Also some cool stuff goes down in the climax of Dreaming of Amelia.

CHARACTERS

• Best couple: Lennie and Joe (The Sky is everywhere), Tom and Tara (The Piper's Son), Seb and Lyd (Jaclyn Moriarty), Adam and Mia (If I Stay), Johnafter and Meg (Going Too far), 
• Who you'd want as your best friend: Lyd, Cass and Em! Hands down! from Dreaming of Amelia.
• Who you fell in love with: Tom Mackee (Piper's son), Raven (Big Birkett), Will (Perfect You), hmm, I have lots of literary crushes - I really don't want to get started :)
• Worst (best?) villain: Living Dead Girl - ooh, creepy. Also, Anna from Some Girls Are (a worthy antagonist)
• Best character twist (who you loved, then hated, or vice versa): Regina (Some Girls Are), Micah (Liar)
• Best character names: I don't really think about character names like that... hmm...
• Worst character names: Po (!), Willow (kept thinking Wallow - which she did a lot. sorry all you fans), Regina (kept thinking of Regina from Mean girls! LOL - was distracting.)
• Favorite all-around kickass female: Riley!!! (Everything Beautiful), Katsa (Graceling), 
• Favorite all-around kickass male: Pete (devil's Staircase), Johnafter (Going Too far), Caleb (Leaving Paradise) and Po <3

MISCELLANEOUS 

• Best book cover: Argh! I really cant choose!
• Best title: The Sky Always hears Me and The Hills Don't MInd, Love You Hate You Miss You, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Living Dead Girl, The Dead Tossed Waves, 
• Most memorable voice: Morgan (The sky always hears), Lia (Wintergirls), Emily and Lydia from Moriarty's books <3, Riley (Everything Beautiful)
• Most memorable first line: Liar! "I was born with a light covering of fur." Everything Beautiful "I am the maniac behind the wheel of a stolen dune buggy."
• Best setting: Life As We Knew It, Dead Tossed Waves, Devil's Staircase (hello? squatting in London!)
• Most beautiful writing: The Sky is Everywhere, Wintergirls, Shiver, Guitar Highway Rose, The Piper's Son, Dreaming of Amelia..

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

• Will any of the books you've read make your life list of Favorite Books? YES!!!! See below.

I find it really hard to rate books - it's all so objective:

• What mood I'm in when I read it
• How I feel when I read it
• How I feel a month after I've read it
• What book I read before and what book I read after
• Books I've read that are similar
• How much hype the book has had before I pick it up (hype is not always a good thing)
• Author crushes I already have
• Etc, etc, etc...

Anyway, on Goodreads, here's the YA books read this year that I gave 5 stars to (I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars) I guess these are my top six YA reads so far this year:

• The Piper's Son - Melina Marchetta
• The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson
• The Only Alien on the Planet - Kristen Randle
• Going Too Far - Jennifer Echols (okay, admitting it, guilty pleasure)
• Dreaming of Amelia - Jaclyn Moriarty
• Stealing Heaven - Elizabeth Scott

Here's my very very close 4 and a half stars (my next ten - in no particular order):

• The Summer I turned Pretty - Jenny Han
• The Sky Always hears Me and the Hills Don't Mind - Kristin Cronn-Mills
• The Dead Tossed Waves - Carrie Ryan
• If I Stay - Gayle Forman
• Leaving Paradise - Simone Elkeles
• My Big Birkett (The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It) - Lisa Shanahan
• Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler
• I Am the Messenger - Marcus Zusac
• What My Girlfriend doesn't know - Sonya Sones
• The Devil's Staircase - Helen Fitgerald

Here's my 4 stars

...joking, joking...

.I would be here all day... as you can maybe tell, I am very bad at choosing favourites. But, even my four star picks are ones that I love and will be re-reads, for sure (like Courtney Summers and Kristin Cashore)

Authors I've first read this year and am now a major fan of:

Courtney Summers, Jennifer Echols, Helen Fitzgerald, Sonya Sones, C K Kelly Martin, Lauren Oliver, Sarah Ockler, Jenny Han, Simmone Howell, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Kristin Cashore, Gayle Forman,

Books I didn't think I'd like as much as I did: 

• Graceling - initially a bit bored, then got so into it in the end. Po also helped ;)
• Going Too far - thought it would be fluff but it was sexy, fun, <3 the dialogue, <3 Johnafter. Was definitely surprised that this kind of book would become a favourite :)
• The Only Alien on The Planet - looked okay-ish but whoah, just whoah. 
• How I Live Now - I was truly surprised how much I fell in love with this book. (mainly as I was bored in another book of hers)

Premises that I loved (wish I'd thought of them first):

• Inside the mind of Gideon Rayburn
• Thirteen Reasons Why
• Jekel Loves Hyde
• Leaving Paradise
• If I Stay
• Stealing Heaven
• The Devil's Staircase

Sigh...

This post has been epic. I was going to add what books I'm looking forward to for the rest of the year...maybe later :)

xx Nomes

EDIT: Sam @ Read, Sam, Read is giving a way a copy of Elizabeth Scott's Stealing Heaven -it's a super cute new blog. Comp open to US only and closes on July 4. 

As you can tell, I <3 this book. Why? I don't know... there's better books on my list but this one is just a personal fave b/c how I felt when I read it and *shrugs* who knows why I happen to love some books?  

The Covers of Before I Die - Jenny Downham

Cover Comparison Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Bailey @ Abyss. Head over there and link to your blog to join in.

I found a huge eighteen different editions (plus more that were slight variations on the one's below)! And, I really like most of them. Why are there so many? 

Obviously this book is a global phenomenon ;) 

UK

(Australian one very similar, different font)

I do like this. I like the model and her expression and I think the black and white is a little bit haunting...I like the atmosphere.

US

I like this too. It has depth in it and I love the scrawled writing in the bottom half. I like the gradient of colour in the background. It has a light, nearly whimsical feel to it. Love the blues.

New Zealand

This one's cool too. It looks like happiness and life. Love the colours, again. The scarf in her hair looks really nice against the grass and the light.

Polish

Same model as the UK. I cant decide whether I prefer her cropped or full? Both work, I think, but to me the UK one is slightly more eerie, this one slightly more luminous.

French

Haha. Trust the French to go for a cover like this (and I mean that in the absolute coolest of ways :). I really actually like it. It feels like being a teenager. It's a little bit sexy, and I love the statement in the purple tights and pink laces.

Swedish

This one feels a little random. it's certainly striking, but not as emotionally evocative as some of the others. What do you think the purple splatters are? I'm wondering if they're like little blood samples - they kinda remind me of the ones Dexter collects from his victims, LOL :)

Swedish #2

Colours in this work well - the outfits and the background. As do the lines on the stairs against the lines in the rails and the dress. Despite the kiss, I think the French one does a better job of capturing that teen-y flirty sexy feel. Still, quite nice :)

German

I find this one to be a little ordinary. I don't think it has much to do with the essence of the book...?

Hungarian

This is simple, but still evocative. I'm looking at this and thinking: hope, wishes, youth. It has that same lightness that some of the others have had.

Italian

This is boring to me. High school mass produced text looking cover. Sorry :)

Spanish

Ahh, love this picture. The girls are so cute! it's fun and I think this would appeal to teens. Oh, yeah, I like this one.

Japanese

Another one going for lightness and life. It works, but doesn't exactly speak to me personally.

Turkish

I don't get this one. I don't even really like the dress... I'm not sure what message this cover is sending to potential buyers. Probably trying to capture those moments where you lie on the grass and ponder life and soak up all the goodness of just being? Hmm...

Finnish

I love this! Love the blues and brown and the touches of red set the whole thing off. plus, she climbs a tree in the book - and I love that scene so much. This one is fun and a little quirky and it's calling out to me.

Icelandic

Love love this one. It's all lightness and energy and good times and it captures all that living in the moment and being young and invincible feeling. This one makes me feel good - and despite the title, makes you feel like you're not in for a depressing read. Love the colours and the contrast of the white curtains against the white bedspread (you know what I mean).

Chinese

At first glance I like the balloons, it gets my attention, but when I look at it for a while, it feels kind of static for some reason. Plus, I get the calendar on the bottom (in relation to the story), but not sure I like the layout of it on the front cover?

Dutch

I don't know. I think the model looks a little old. Plus, it makes me think of a sci-fi - maybe that slightly neutral expression on her face gets me thinking... android! LOL. Actually, it is a nice cover, I'm just getting distracted and overwhelmed from look at so many.

Spanish

I prefer the picture in full on the other Spanish one.

My favourites:

• Icelandic - the bed jumping (I think this one may also be a paperback one in English... somewhere in the world :)
• Finnish - the blue tree, red shoe

Not sure why I started choosing favourites (!). I can see myself sitting here agonising for a while and changing my mind and changing it back again...

• weirdly, I do like the French one, although it doesnt resonate the same way as some others, I like the teen feel about it.
• Spanish is cute...
• Also, argh, I like so many...the US, I just like it and the NZ one too :) And, I do like the one I own - which also features a lovely spine with blue metallic writing.

Which one do you like best?

Australian Book Industry Awards 2010

Last night was the big night for the Australian Book Industry.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey took out Australian Book of the Year ( whoah! impressive) after just missing out on the Miles Franklin. Also mentioned this YA in my post here. Kinda ironically, the winner of the Miles Franklin, lost out on Best Book of the Year to jasper Jones :)

Readings (independent book seller of the year) have rather conveniently listed all the short-listed books and winners with links on their site. Lots of outstanding books to add to my reading list - I haven't read any of the Literary Fiction short-list of the Debut author list.



For Older Readers: both Justine Larbalestier's Liar and Sonya Hartnett's the Ghost Child (one of Hartnett's other books, Butterfly just missed out on the Miles Franklin) were in running. I've read and am in awe of both :)

And, in childrens' books, how cute to see Grug! As well as Jackie French (love love) and Brace Whatleys latest book in The Diary of a Wombat series. Love the author and Bruce Whatley is one of my favourite illustrators!

My husband has read The Life You can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer and recommends it (it's sitting right there on his bookshelf...) He has a few shelves full of poverty/social justice reads (and has been in Uganda now for three weeks, my husband, not the book) - nice to see it short-list for best Non-Fiction Book Of The year.

And, below, a few pics from my husbands trip (sorry, not really book related! Except to the Peter Singer book :) Only another week and a bit until he gets home...

kids @ the orphanage he stayed at - so cute x
although, the food doesn't look all that appetising (!), Pete said it wasn't too bad.

The car crash he was in (!) 

One of the places he stayed @ with orphans from the LRA (child-soldier army)
I know! A Tardis shirt :) Dr Who FTW.

Murchison Falls. STUNNING!

one of the schools he visited

xx Nomes

The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson (best book of the month)

RTW (Road Trip Wednesday): Best Book of the Month - hosted by YA Highway. (go there to check out other YA-er's fave reads this month and participate by writing your own post and linking in.)

How cute is this trailer!!! Love love love :)



I just loved this book so much I don't even know where to begin...

Maybe with the back blurb?:

What's wrong with me? 
What kind of girl wants to kiss every boy at a funeral, wants to maul a guy in a tree after making out with her (dead) sister's boyfriend the previous night? 
Speaking of which, what kind of girl makes out with her sister's boyfriend at all?
Lennie Walker - sisterless, lasagne maker, Heathcliff-obssessed and hopelessly in love...




So I saw a fair few raves about this and, had just come out of a bit of a binge read of grief-type books, so I thought I wasn't in the mood for another one... somehow, (I think partly the cute trailer), I caved.

But this book, IMO, is in a whole league of it's own.

The writing is intensely beautiful. Oh - I did some serious sentence-crushing. Reading this was like being submerged in emotion and love and all things wild and mad and crazy and the grief was just so poignant and the feelings so real that I became completely absorbed.

The love story.

Whoah.

So, there's this kinda love triangle. By that I mean, two guys, both getting some action from Lennie. But it's not an ordinary love triangle or cliché - to the point that even saying triangle somehow feels wrong.... it's like the characters are so fused with emotion that it bubbles over and explodes in love and moments of passion. The complications in this didn't feel like a contrived plot point, but like a real character driven mess of pain and desire and world-crushing love. I also didn't think it was a manipulative device to tear up readers, and there's no choosing of teams, just an ache for Lennie and Joe and Toby.

And the love between Lennie and one of her men. It's intense, and an all the way full-blown connection, more so than most YA I read. However, due to the stunning writing, I was into it the whole way. I believed in it, for sure :) Sigh...

I was so into the love scenes but in the midst of it, a little knot of tension was gnawing away in the pit of my stomach the whole time. Takes a talented author to get to me like that.

Basically, this book hit me hard emotionally.

The book itself? It. Is. Stunning.

The paperback isn't really a paperback, it's like the material on those funky little Bibles - if you know what I mean :) - and the pages are bound, and inter-spliced throughout are little hand-written poems on full colour pages (some carved into tree bark, on music scores, on a takeaway cup). You see some of these pages when you watch the trailer above - all photos from the actual book. Tell me you watched the trailer, yeah?

I haven't said much about the actual plot - it's best if you just get in and read it. I don't know if my review has really done this book justice..?

I was so inspired/wowed/stunned/in love after reading this that I ordered three more copies and sent them out to three of my Aussie buddies - couldn't help but share the love. I haven't told them yet... (unless it's you and you're reading this post...fingers crossed, hey?) And they better love it as much as I do! ;)

What's the best book you read this month?

Loving Author Kaitlin Ward's Aussie YA Pick for this month :)

Oh - and watch the trailer. Seriously.

The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind - Kirstin Cronn-Mills

I borrow the car again from Grandma and drive out to my hill. I scream I AM A BIG FAT ZERO, plus I AM SWEARING OFF KISSING FOREVER, and I HATE BEING A SECRET SEX FIEND, about sixteen times each. Then I sit very still and watch a hawk swirl over the fields. I have to get a new life before I go crazy. (back cover)

Sixteen-year-old Morgan lives in a hick town. Her mom was killed in a car accident when she was two, her dad drinks, and her stepmom is a non-entity. Her boyfriend Derek is boring and she can't stop staring at her coworker Rob's cute butt. Then there's the kiss she shared with her neighbor Tessa . . . But when Morgan discovers a devastating secret about the one person she completely trusted, her entire world crashes and she must redefine her life and herself.

Compelling and complex, The Sky Always Hears Me is a fast-paced narrative with raw humor and a heart-wrenching twist. (goodreads synopsis)

Début Author: 2009

Me: First of all, how awesome is the title! <3 it, plus, love the cover too - the colours in the sky and the text look striking against the girls head. It's calling out to you, isn't it?

I really liked this book. 


It's definitely the kind of book I would have loved as a teenager.  The main thing I loved, was Morgan. She's the coolest of narrators. I connected with her voice on the very first page. I love that feeling of only having read a page and realising, 'I am going to love this book.'

I keep using the word love :)

It's about Morgan and her life in a small town where she works at a grocery store (and perves on 19 year old Rob), is the girlfriend of popular jock-hottie Derek and next door-neighbour to Tessa who kisses her outside in the middle of the night. These three friends complicate all her teen-ish-hormonal feelings and general angst. She also has an alcoholic father and an enviously awesome Grandma, two little brothers who I personally feel proud of and a love of all things literary.

There's no huge inciting incident and, despite the blurb, no majorly huge event occurs (I kept guessing what was going to happen - little weird twists and scenarios that...never happened) although the secret she uncovers would really shatter your world. It's more of a read about Morgan and the cool crazy mad mess that is her life.


I think you just have to settle into a groove and go with the flow. I don't think everyone will be into this book - it's kind of quirky (in the coolest of ways. definitely not dorky) and it definitely has it's moments of tension and conflict - but what mostly kept me turning the pages was the voice and the fact that I have a little bit of a crush on Morgan. She's snarky and fun and ironic and oh-so-confused but just lovely lovely lovely. The humour in this book is definitely my style. I was smiling a lot of the time while reading it :)

Oh, and Morgan? She thinks about sex. A fair bit. Just, you know, a heads up there :) There's also a bit of language and some themes that make it an upper YA kinda read. 

Stuff to Love:

1. Morgan is really into words and writing and she's always writing/thinking up little fortune cookie snippets that are a cute commentary of her life (here's the first few ones I flipped too):

• Be careful of hotties searching for toothpicks. 
• Never hitch your star to someone who will live in a small town for the rest of his life. 
• When in doubt, go to sleep.
• Do not enjoy uninvited kisses.
• For value, buy the creamed corn.

2. I loved the ending - although I'm sure it will annoy some people :)


3. Morgan drives out to the hills and yells random things out (see blurb up the top) - and, I think, that's what being a teen is all about - feeling everything so intensely that you just have to get out in the open and scream your lungs out about it.


4. There's a lot of options in Morgan's life and the path isn't clear cut and the read isn't at all predictable. 


5. I didn't find one character to be cliché - but all beautifully and compellingly flawed. Along the way, most characters surprised me - with sides of their personality. Definitely richly drawn characters - impressive to find that in some of the more minor characters.

If it sounds like your kinda book - go here to look inside and read the first chapter  


I hope I managed to convey somewhere in here just how much this book rocks! 

Here's two very similar YA covers. One a debut that's not released yet (Mermaid's) the other a UK edition of Jaclyn Moriarty's latest. They are a different model, but I like them both :) All three covers have a distinct atmosphere and feel - I think they're all successful. Or maybe I'm just into looking at the backs of peoples heads?

A winner and some cool Aussie links

Thanks for all the cool recommendations :) I wish I could have more than one winner! Maybe in my next give-away...


So I used random.org and it gave me #1 - which is Rachael aka Horserider.Message me with your address and which book you'd like :)

Cool Aussie Linkage:

Okay, okay - so I know the contest I just had was about male protags. But this week I stumbled across this post over @ Fiction Focus - The Top Ten Female Protags in Recent Australian YA and I can't help but link to it. 



In other news, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the 2010 Miles Franklin Award, announced its winner: Truth by Peter Temple (he won $42 000! Whoah). 


I am most excited, however to see two YA's in the short-list of six books (out of all Australian fiction!). One of them being by my own very favourite Sonya Hartnett ( I have crushed on her since I was a teen). She is just the best kind of reading experience and a reminder why books rule the world.

Butterfly already won the Astrid Lindgren Award and here's a mini blurb from here: Butterfly is a gripping, disquieting, beautifully observed novel that confirms Hartnett as one of Australia’s finest writers. 

Agreed! :)

some cover love here. <3

About Sonya Hartnett: she wrote her first novel when she was thirteen and it was published when she was fifteen. Nearly every book she's published has won awards, some multiple. 



The other YA in the short-list was Jasper Jones by Craig Slivey  which has also won other awards. It has been marketed as Australian's own To Kill a Mockingbird. I haven't read it ...yet :)


Speaking of Aussie YA that rules the world - I made a page with some of my favourite reads. I'll keep updating it as I read more awesome stuff from Down Under. You can see I have highlighted Sonya as one of my all-time fave authors :) she also made my Top Ten YA of all time list with Wilful Blue which impacted me greatly as a teen.

xx Nomes