Summer Reading, Part Deux

Ah, summertime and I am in-love with books again. I have kept true to my promise of a reading frenzy, as I marinate the plot of my next book in my head. (Former child star, Harper Danzig, gets a job playing "Cinderella" on a Disney cruise ship. For reals. I went on a Disney Cruise last year and was fascinated. My imagination went into overdrive.)

In the past week or so I've read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, Divergent  by Veronica Roth and I'm in the middle of reading the first book in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series (for The InbeTWEEN Pages Book Club. This Wednesday!)

It's a good thing that Harkness' second installment of the All Soul's Trilogy, Shadow of Night,  is coming out tomorrow, and that Roth's Insurgent is already out.

I wasn't too keen on the romance angle of Discovery of Witches at first, and I laughed out loud when "they" (the vampire and the reluctant witch) started doing yoga together, but I read on, intrigued by Harkness' sense of not only history, but philosophical history; intrigued that our heroine, Diana, is not only brilliant and tough, but really has no idea who she is. And I loved that Harkness' main characters are deeply flawed and that the folks who raise Diana are lesbians. By the end I was thoroughly engrossed and I can't wait to read the next one. Perfect summer reading!

I read Divergent very quickly, yet savored every word. What took me so long to take this out of the library? This author is so young, yet so masterful at suspense. And I LOVED the romantic tension in this one - it wasn't cheesy at all. (I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of The Hunger Games.) Roth does an excellent job of having our main character, Beatrice/Tris develop a moral consciousness.

Yes, there is a "fantasy" theme, but I have quite a variety of other genres waiting to be read on my night table as well!

Next up: (besides Shadow of Night and Insurgent)

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (for my adult book group)
Summer and Bird - Katherine Catmull (book not out yet peeps - I am friends with the author's editor so she sent me an ARC.)
Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
Every Day - David Levithan (also an ARC - book not out yet.)
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
Awakening the Actor Within - C. Stephen Foster
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - Susan Cain (otherwise known as Suzy - the woman who set me up with Writopia Lab!)

I also have on order from the library: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rivka Brunt.

So . . . what are y'all reading? Will you tempt me to abandon my list?

Spring into Summer with Lila Castle

Spring fever anyone? I am raising up both hands! I am supposed to be cleaning, but blogging is begging to come first. A new YA book called The Star Shack has done me in. The weather here in NYC is simply gorgeous, my windows are wide open and the birds are chirping - and I have just come back home from a lovely walk and coffee with the author of Star Shack, Lila Castle. I had the good fortune of getting my hands on an ARC (Advance Reader's Copy) and tore through this fun and sassy romp in one sitting. Perfect for springing into summer, which is when it will be widely available! I am a sucker for well-paced love stories, and Lila kept me guessing and rooting for our hero and heroine until the end. Written in the first person and in alternate points of view, we get inside the heads of both Annabelle and Pete, who spend summers together on Gingerbread Beach. But this summer, their feelings for each other have changed - or so they think! Annabelle dares Pete to set up a summer horoscope business with her - thus the title, The Star Shack.

Lila and I sat on the beautiful campus of Columbia University, drinking coffee, talking about writing. I love alternate points of view - indeed EDGES is structured by two POV's. (My road to publication post reveals that my first draft had nine POV's!) Lila and I have talked in the past about writing in the first person vs. third person. My fiction writing is almost always in the third person, while Lila feels more "at home" narrating as "I".

I feel shored up after this morning, ready for whatever comes my way! We also talked about our mutual friend Daphne Grab, whose beautiful book Alive and Well in Prague, New York is on our top ten list of YA books. Another first person narrative!

Currently, I am being blown away by Barry Lyga's Boy Toy. I need to get off the internet at night and read more - maybe if I blog about my reading list, it will help me! After Boy Toy, I will delve into the world of adult literature with The Radiant City, by Lauren B. Davis, then today Lila lent me If I Stay by YA novelist Gayle Forman, (which I had read about on Courtney Sheinmel's blog yesterday)! I'm also really excited to read Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble, by Stefan Fatsis.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you soon!