It’s like being in love, discovering your best friend.
“
| — | Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein |
What I Read in 2012
1. No More Us for You by David Hernandez
2. The Au Pairs by Melissa De La Cruz
3. Beastly by Alex Flinn
4. Invisble by Pete Hautman
5. Fat Cat by Robin Brande
6. One Night that Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt
7. Alt Ed by Catherine Atkins
8. Trapped by Michael Northrop
9. Angry Young Man by Chris Lynch
10. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
11. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
12. Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott
13. Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies) by Justina Chen Headley
14. In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker
15. 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody
16. Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams
17. Sailor Twain, Or The Mermaid in the Hudson by Mark Siegel
18. The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder
19. One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper
20. Envy (The Luxe, #3) by Anna Godbersen
21. Easy by Kerry Cohen Hoffmann
22. Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan
23. Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Gehrman
24. My Cup Runneth Over: The Life of Angelica Cookson Potts by Cherry Whytock
25. In Too Deep by Amanda Grace
26. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
27. Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
28. The Story of Us by Deb Caletti
29. Dare Me by Megan Abbott
30. Leftovers by Heather Waldorf
31. Artichoke’s Heart by Suzanne Supplee
32. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
33. North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
34. Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
35. Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1) by Laini Taylor
36. Matched (Matched, #1) by Ally Condie
37. Mira, Mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison
38. Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson
39. Don’t Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala
40. Speechless by Hannah Harrington
41. Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman
42. How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
43. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
44. The Death Cure (Maze Runner, #3) by James Dashner
45. The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner
46. Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen
47. Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Veronica Roth
48. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
49. Rumors (The Luxe, #2) by Anna Godbersen
50. What Every Girl (Except Me) Knows by Nora Raleigh Baskin
51. A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry
52. Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price
53. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
54. Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
55. Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
56. Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles, #1) by Jessica Spotswood
57. Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
58. Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti
59. Dealing with Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #1) by Patricia C. Wrede
60. The Luxe (Luxe, #1) by Anna Godbersen
61. Bound by Donna Jo Napoli
62. Legend (Legend, #1) by Marie Lu
63. Breath by Donna Jo Napoli
64. Holding on to Zoe by George Ella Lyon
65. The List by Siobhan Vivian
66. All These Lives by Sarah Wylie
67. Pandemonium (Delirium, #2) by Lauren Oliver
68. Hana (Delirium, #1.5) by Lauren Oliver
69. Free Four: Tobias Tells the Divergent Tale (Divergent, #1.1) by Veronica Roth
70. The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan
71. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare
72. Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdoch
73. Folly by Marthe Jocelyn
74. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
75. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
76. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
77. The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern, #1) by Shannon Hale
78. Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson
79. Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
80. Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian
81. Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking, #3) by Patrick Ness
82. Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1) by Beth Revis
83. Plain Kate by Erin Bow
84. Fever (The Chemical Garden, #2) by Lauren DeStefano
85. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
86. Aurelia by Anne Osterlund
87. The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
88. A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson
89. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
90. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
91. The Rotten Beast (Jenna Fox, 1.5) by Mary E. Pearson
92. A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by E.L. Konigsburg
93. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
94. Divergent (Divergent, #1) by Veronica Roth
95. Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame
96. The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner, #2) by James Dashner
97. The New World (Chaos Walking, #0.5) by Patrick Ness
98. The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2) by Patrick Ness
99. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
100. Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
101. Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha VanLeer
102. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
103. The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1) by James Dashner
104. A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
105. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) by Patrick Ness
106. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
107. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
108. Sorcery & Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Cecilia & Kate, #1) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
109. Stay by Deb Caletti
110. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
111. The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
112. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
113. The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn Beer
114. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
115. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
116. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
117. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
118. The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin
119. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
120. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
121. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
122. Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
123. Wither (The Chemical Garden, #1) by Lauren DeStefano
124. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
125. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
126. The Selection (The Selection, #1) by Kiera Cass
127. The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy
128. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
129. A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison
130. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
131. Night by Elie Wiesel
132. Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
133. Room by Emma Donoghue
134. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
135. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
136. Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
137. Mockingjay (Hunger Games, #3) by Suzanne Collins
138. Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2) by Suzanne Collins
139. The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1) by Suzanne Collins
140. Take Me There by Susane Colasanti
141. Two Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt
The way I see it, if you try to study your emotions on a microscopic level, the best you can do is understand how it feels to hold the magnifying glass.
“
| — | Bruiser by Neal Shusterman |
livid, adj.
Fuck You for cheating on me. Fuck you for reducing it to the word cheating. As if this were a card game, and you sneaked a look at my hand. Who came up with the term cheating, anyway? A cheater, I imagine. Someone who thought liar was too harsh. Someone who thought devastator was too emotional. The same person who thought, oops, he’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Fuck you. This isn’t about slipping yourself an extra twenty dollars of Monopoly money. These are our lives. You went and broke our lives. You are so much worse than a cheater. You killed something. And you killed it when its back was turned.
“
| — | The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan |
10 New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
- Make time to write every day.
- Create an online presence as an author.
- Complete one piece of writing at a time.
- Read more.
- Find a place to write and make it your own.
- Set deadlines and submit your work.
- If you’re stuck, try a new genre
- Take a course to help you with your writing.
- Connect with other authors and find your community.
- Learn about ePublishing, learn how to market, and sell, your books and yourself as an author.
by Amanda Patterson From Writers Write
nanowrimo
So…I decided to participate in the National Writing Month Challenge. Just now. On the 19th. Now that I’ve signed up, I feel more than a little silly. I have just challenged myself to write 175 pages in 11 days, in case no one grasped the idiocy of this decision yet. If I can actually do this, I will be so proud of myself that it’ll be worth all the crazy I make myself. I’ll be updating my tumblr to keep myself on track. Should anyone actually be reading this, please send luck my way!
Devour v. Savor
Do I want to devour this, or savor it? This question can be applied to pretty much anything consumable, from alcohol to food to pop culture. Yes, it might be tempting to swallow a slice of cake in fifteen seconds like you’re a friggin’ python (wait…that may just be me), but there’s also the option of lingering over each bite and allowing yourself to truly taste the symphony of ingredients (or some frou-frou pretentious thing like that). Which is better? Or does it depend on the cake? Do you really want to taste that processed snack cake wrapped in cellophane, or do you just want to fill your stomach and get a sugar high? Do you want to swallow a chocolate torte with raspberry glace without it hitting your tongue, or do you want to let it melt slowly? Those same questions can apply to books, though the classification is a bit trickier.
Some books are best to spend days digesting, letting each reference sink in before moving on, examining the text for foreshadowing and historical context. Odds are, you’re going to read something like Les Miserables or The Mayor of Casterbridge with your eye out for detail. Those texts have layers (really—enough with the food references) that should be analyzed. Conversely, some books shouldn’t be looked at too closely because a thorough examination only reveals empty holes, not hidden treasures. Twilight (and it’s frightening bastard child 50 Shades of Grey) and City of Bones are fun reads, but reading them is like eating a bucket of movie theater popcorn. It’s tasty, but it’s best not to think too much about what exactly you’re consuming (that buttery spread is frightening); after too much, your tongue burns, and you still haven’t gotten any real nutrition. Most books, however, are somewhere in between, forcing you to answer the question of whether to savor or devour them.
I’ve just started reading Dare Me by Megan Abbott, and I’m hooked after only fifty pages. On the one hand, I want to rush home and finish it tonight. On the other, I’d really like to let it marinate. There are some truly disturbing aspects rearing their heads already, and I feel like a must-know-the-outcome-NOW reading will somehow lessen the impact of these issues. What to do?
This same conundrum appears every time I pick up a new book (or a new snack). The obvious solution, to me, is to read everything twice: the first time at break-neck speed to learn all the answers and the second time at a lower space to reveal all the secrets. With so many books I want to read, however, reading one twice seems like a less-than-valuable use of time. It’s a hard question to answer.
Augustus Waters was a self-aggrandizing bastard. But we forgive him. We forgive him not because he had a heart as figuratively good as his literal one sucked, or because he knew more about how to hold a cigarette than any nonsmoker in history, or because he got eighteen years when he should’ve gotten more.’
‘Seventeen,’ Gus corrected.
‘I’m assuming you’ve got some time, you interrupting bastard.
‘I’m telling you,’ Isaac continued, ‘Augustus Waters talked so much that he’d interrupt you at his own funeral. And he was pretentious: Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonances of human waste production. And he was vain: I do not believe I have ever met a more physically attractive person who was more acutely aware of his own physical attractiveness.
‘But I will say this: When the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and they tell me to try them on, I will tell the scientists to screw off, because I do not want to see a world without him.’
I was kind of crying by then.
“
| — |
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green I want to be a YA novelist so badly, but reading this quote just makes me feel silly. How could I hope to write something like that? Amazing. Completely and utterly amazing. The funeral scene kills me. Whoa. Bad pun. |
