#diversiverse (in which i challenge myself to read diversely)

I’m sure my fellow bloggers will agree that one of the most wonderful things about blogging about books is that you discover new worlds and authors every day.  But even if you’re immersed in the world of books, it’s easy to continue with blinders on.  Whenever I catch myself thinking that I read widely, I give myself a thorough shake.  I don’t.  I try (sometimes), but mostly I stick to familiar categories, authors, and suggestions by a few select reading friends.   That’s why I was so glad to see that Aarti at Book Lust is hosting A More Diverse Universe (#diversiverse for short) challenge for the last two weeks in September.

So what’s all this about then?  The challenge:

• Read and review one book

• Written by a person of color

• During the last two weeks of September (September 14th - 27th)

It’s so simple.  It’s simple, unless you (like me) don’t pay much attention to authors while reading unless they’re FAMOUS (imagine that all in lights!).  And I should be paying attention to the authors I’m reading, because, to quote Aarti, “[T]he media we consume does not accurately reflect the diversity of our society.  And books are such a massive part of the media we consume that we should demand and fight for those that do represent minorities and those that do present the world from a different perspective than the one we are used to.”  Basically, I know I should be doing better, I should be finding new voices and broadening my horizons, and this is my chance to begin.  I’m also excited (as always) to find that new story or character that will change my life.

If you’d like to sign up to join the fun, check out this post.  And if you’re interested in resources for reading more diversely (i.e. how do I find the books?!), Aarti has covered that too.  Keep an eye out here from September 14-27 – I’ll post a couple of reviews (and maybe even a giveaway).

jenna starborn

It’s January, and one of the things I resolved to do in the New Year was participate in Long-Awaited Reads Month.  I’m sure any avid reader will agree with me – sometimes you buy a book that looks absolutely wonderful, and then for one reason or another, you don’t read it for YEARS.  It sits on the shelf (or e-reader) gathering dust, and though you know it’s probably wonderful, you keep putting it off.  Well, I’m finally reading a few of those books.  Sharon Shinn's Jenna Starborn was up first.  Shinn writes beautiful, deep, heart-wrecking books, including Archangel from the Samaria series, and Troubled Waters from the Elemental Blessings series.  Jenna Starborn is a sci-fi standalone, and perhaps even more relevant to a potential reader, it’s a retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Jenna Starborn was created out of frozen embryonic tissue, a child unloved and unwanted. Yet she has grown up with a singularly sharp mind—and a heart that warms to those she sees as less fortunate than herself. This novel takes us into Jenna Starborn's life, to a planet called Fieldstar, and to a property called Thorrastone—whose enigmatic lord will test the strength of that tender and compassionate heart.

In this science fiction future, there are five levels of citizenship, and one’s place in the hierarchy determines everything (or almost everything) in life.  Jenna Starborn is a half-citizen – she was commissioned, ‘grown’ in a gen tank, harvested, and then raised by a citizen, but never formally adopted by her ‘creator.’  As a half-cit, her future is precarious at best.  In the beginning she must face it alone – but Jenna is quietly extraordinary, and she wins friends and family for herself.  While working at Thorrastone Park on the terraformed planet of Fieldstar she finds love, but there are mysteries, complications and machinations to maneuver before the tale comes to a (satisfying) conclusion.

The plot of Jenna Starborn is, of course, well-known to anyone who has read Jane Eyre, or seen the film versions (Michael Fassbender as Rochester in the latest incarnation = hello, dreamy!).  When I first read Brontë’s classic in the 9^th grade I mooned over it for several months – reread it and identified with it and thought it enormously romantic.  I am a different person now, and I’ve had many years to consider whether or not I’d like a Mr. Rochester of my own.  The answer has changed to an emphatic ‘NO.’  I can still see the romance in the tale, but I would not want to live it… and I think that knowledge kept me from sinking completely into Shinn’s web of words.

Like the original Jane, Jenna is a private, quiet person.  She prefers quiet environments and smart, purposeful people.  She’s guided by strong moral principles and believes in justice, equality and kindness, though she knows that in practice the world around her is unfair.  Unlike in the original, she’s a highly proficient nuclear technician, and she is no one’s governess.  Jenna is also a member of the PanEquist belief system, and what one gathers of this religion and its adherents fits in nicely with her ideals and uprightness (and also makes for a satisfactory differentiation from the 19^th century Christianity that was Jane Eyre’s faith).

The most interesting part of the book, for me, was seeing the ways in which Shinn was faithful to the original tale, but still made it her own, and made it sci-fi.  An unapologetically brilliant and scientific heroine is a lovely rarity in my reading life.  At the same time, Jenna doesn’t discard her feminine side or lack for emotion – she feels deeply, but organizes her hopes quite strictly according to her inner moral compass. This combination adds to generally practical, rational Jenna’s humanity and empathy.  She’s a character that the privileged modern reader can access. 

I’d say Shinn has done a marvelous job of evoking the classic in Jenna’s character.  I can also tell that Jane Eyre must be a huge influence on everything Shinn writes, because it contains her standards: a heroine who knows herself, and a hero who has made (or is still making) dubious choices, even though he means well.  Shinn writes the most beautiful, shattering romantic moments, and though I’m not as partial to Jenna Starborn as I am to other of her works, I can’t say I escaped unscathed – I cried! 

Jenna Starborn is a noteworthy tribute to a classic, and at the same time a delightfully deep sci-fi romance, with wrenching emotion and difficult choices that make up real life, and the requisite happy conclusion.

Recommended for: fans of Jane Eyre, and anyone looking for sci-fi, romance, or beautiful, emotion-filled writing.

horns and halos finale

In 2010 Aimee of (now defunct) my fluttering heart hosted the Horns and Halos reading challenge. There were several levels, and participants pledged to read a certain number of novels featuring angels, demons, or both. I said I’d read seven (it being a perfect number and all), and I got pretty close to that goal over the course of the year. One thing I always find quite interesting: the ‘before’ and ‘after’ lists – and by that I mean the list of books I thought I’d read, and the books I actually did read. Have a gander yourself…

Books on the original list:

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors

The Ninth Circle by Alex Bell

The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) by James Patterson

The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Books I did read:

Archangel by Sharon Shinn

Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh

Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds

Demon’s Fall by Karalynn Lee

A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

Mirrorscape by Mike Wilks

Lucky me, one of these challenge books ended up on my best of 2010 list! And I read quite a bit out of my comfort zone with a couple of these picks, so I’d count the whole experience a success. That said, of the books on that original list, I now only plan to check out The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan. Which isn’t to say I won’t ever pick the others up, but I’m on a bit of a break from angels (sorry, dears). I enjoyed our time together!

Do you have any favorite angel and/or demon books that I should pick up?

delirium

If you are looking for the best thing since sliced bread, try making yourself a grilled cheese sandwich. Or if you don’t do dairy, perhaps a hummus pita bread hybrid. But, you know, don’t count on Delirium. That’s not to say it’s drivel or that it won’t be passionately loved by someone out there. It will. Probably several someones, actually. But it’s just not, you know, whipped cream in a can. Which is pretty much one of the best inventions ever, for obvious reasons.

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that one love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

To succeed with me, a dystopian (or any genre, really) novel must have a couple of key elements: a character or two that I absolutely fall in love with, a certain level of trust in/for the world they live in, and a tense or mysterious unveiling of events. I can give or take one element if you hand me beautiful writing on a platter. But you must want an example! Here, I have one all ready: The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Todd (main character in aforementioned novel) is young, but he’s already been through a lot. For most of the book he is confused, but he’s 100% about doing the right thing. Or what he thinks is the right thing. And when he gets it wrong, his guilt is palpable. You literally HAVE to feel for him. I didn’t understand his whole society/world at first, but the gradual reveal was both sinister and awesome. I never once ‘popped out’ of the story and told myself it was unrealistic. And as for the plot: nonstop action, danger, tension. No space for doubt or disbelief. Now, go read that book!

Delirium disappointed me on all three counts. 1) I never invested in any one character. Although all of them have some redeeming qualities, I didn’t see enough change, growth, or any really deep human emotions to cause me to root for someone. I saw some ugliness, I saw awful memories, and I saw bad friendship. I did not find a connection with anyone because of those. The most interesting characters (to me) were the ones not present: Lena’s mother and sister. The ones with the most face time didn’t exactly change my world.

2) This dystopian-thing. I may just be a born skeptic, but I didn’t buy it. There were a couple of creepy people dedicated to the cause and keeping order. Not so much actual violence. But the main problem: even though love is a powerful emotion, it is not the ONLY emotion. And the world that Oliver painted was definitely grayscale without love. I am not convinced that society would have worked the way it was described given the parameters the author laid out. I found myself putting the book down to ponder what would have made it more believable, and to analyze which elements rang false.

And finally, 3) the plot. It’s a slow starter, but that in and of itself isn’t always a bad thing. I will admit to reading Delirium compulsively up until page 120, about which time I realized that nothing spectacular was going to jump out and grab me. It’s not that nothing happens. It’s just that I knew what was going to happen. I felt let down.

Now, lest you get all up in my face and say that this is/was/will be your favorite book ever, and I’m a horrible person for hating it, let’s review. I may be a horrible person. But I did not say that I hated the book. Just that it disappointed me. And every reason I used to substantiate that claim was an opinion and personal experience thing. This book can work for you, you can love it, and we can still be friends. I’m just not joining the fan club.

My question coming out of this: can you be spoiled for dystopian novels? Because this one read like Uglies to me. Uglies for girls who wouldn’t usually touch dystopian lit. I begin to wonder if I’ve read so much end-of-the-world goodness that I won’t find anything new under the sun. If that’s the case, I’m very sad.

Also sad? This snippet of text:

“He left me a note. He left me a note. For me. The idea – the fact of it, the fact that he even noticed and thought about me for more than one second – is huge and overwhelming, makes my legs go tingly and my hands feel numb.” -page 142 (ARC, subject to change)

Let’s hope it gets cut from the final version. That’s all. Really.

Are you still looking forward to Delirium?

Delirium releases February 1, 2011 from HarperTeen. I received a review copy through Traveling ARC Tours. Delirium also counts for the 2010 Dystopia Reading Challenge.

fairy tale plus graphic novel equals…what, exactly?

The other day I proclaimed on twitter that Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love was my “first foray into graphic novels.” Well, it’s not. I mean, it’s the first one I finished, but it’s not the first one I’ve tried. I got about three quarters of the way through Persepolis, and I’ve read pages here and there of several others. But this one I bought (as opposed to borrowed from the library) and made an effort to read through. You know what? It was pretty cool. Illustrated twist on fairy tale: what’s not to love?

When supernatural artifacts from the Homelands begin surfacing in the modern world, it falls to Cinderella, Fabletown's best-kept (and best dressed) secret agent to stop the illegal trafficking. But can Cindy foil the dark plot before Fabletown and its hidden, exiled inhabitants are exposed once and for all? And how does her long lost Fairy Godmother factor into the equation?

Whether she's soaring through clouds, deep-sea diving, or cracking jaws, Cindy travels from Manhattan to Dubai and hooks up with a handsome, familiar accomplice who may be harboring secret motives of his own. Meanwhile, trouble brews back home in Fabletown when Cindy's overworked, underappreciated assistant decides to seize control of The Glass Slipper, Cindy's exclusive shoe boutique.

Now, the first thing I would wonder if I read that summary is ‘what the heck is Fabletown?’ And I think that’s a valid question. Answer: Bill Willingham created an original series and world where the Fables, creatures from the traditional tales, are in hiding in our world. He wrote (and is still writing?) this series, as well as the novel Peter & Max (which I LOVED so hard!). And Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love is a spin-off by a different author, but set in that same universe. So it’s got history if you want to go looking, but it’s a complete tale in its own right as well.

Protagonist Cinderella is a tough lady living the life of a spy, after she the happily-ever-after she was promised doesn’t work out as planned. It’s a cool set-up, and Cindy’s adventures are exciting. It isn’t on the same level of dark violence or genius that Peter & Max was, but it’s satisfying and fun. Best description I can think of: it feels comfortable and yet still interesting. As a kid I read Archie comics. This is obviously on a whole different level – a more nuanced, grown-up one. But it still appeals in some way to the kid inside me. I’ll be trying many more graphic novels in the future!

Recommended for: existing comic and graphic novel aficionados, the curious, and the fairy tale addicted. A pleasant surprise and a very quick read in the bargain.

Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love counts for the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge.

here there be dragons

Last year I discovered steampunk. For those of you new to that term, check out this post. Firstly, I was intrigued by the corsets and parasols and sci-fi. I mean, that combination practically screams awesome. Then I discovered the Victorian/industrial world building, and the joys of brass goggles and gears. I’ve happily read many steampunk books I’ve found since then, and others not quite as happily (sigh. no genre is perfect!). But the point is that they’re out there, they’re so hot right now, and whenever I hear of another author joining the party I’m excited and pleased.

Enter the Iron Seas Challenge, hosted by Velvet at vvb32reads. To start, author Meljean Brook sent out copies of Burning Up, the anthology in which her novella ‘Here There Be Dragons’ is featured. It’s the first entry in The Iron Seas series, which promises steampunky goodness with a romantic bent. Thank you, I’ll have twelve. Seriously.

I was introduced to romantic hilarity, steampunk style via Gail Carriger’s Soulless, and I’ve gladly added Meljean Brook to my go-to list. SIDE NOTE: I know the cover will turn some people off. It's classic paranormal romance marketing. But if you can find it in yourself to look past it, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And, you know, there are these things called e-books. No embarrassing half-naked men in public, unless you want there to be!

Meljean Brook launches a bold new steampunk series as a desperate woman strikes a provocative — and terrifying — bargain to gain overseas passage.

You can read an excerpt at the author's website [here].

As both a short romantic story and an introduction to a new steampunk world, ‘Here There Be Dragons’ gets high marks. I was impressed from the start at the story’s full immersion in danger and alternate reality. The world in which the Iron Seas series takes place is caught between poles of power. No one is sure if and when and where the evil has gone, so there’s constant peril, scheming and adventuring afoot. Add in the steam age and creative blacksmithing, pirating and airships, and you’ve got a steampunk romp of the first order.

Our main character, Ivy, is resilient, resourceful and clever, even though she’s put in several untenable situations. Her nemesis, Mad Machen, is also fascinating – I kept expecting one thing and getting another. I like that in a romance. It’s one test of a good storyteller – will she be able to take familiar plot devices and forge something original, all the while keeping in mind that the characters must be believable and sympathetic? This tale succeeds in that respect. It is a satisfying little novella on its own, and it also whets the appetite for more. I’ll definitely be looking forward to additional steampunk romance with The Iron Duke!

Recommended for: fans of steampunk, historical romance, pirates, and light sci-fi. I imagine that the series will be very popular among fans of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, though in this case the action is more prominent than the dialogue. Pick it up if you’re in the mood for romantic adventure!

I received a copy of Burning Up directly from the author as part of the Iron Seas Challenge.

dissuasion

The Everything Austen II Challenge officially started on July 1, and this is my first contribution. You might say I’m a bit behind. It’s not that there aren’t a lot of great books and films to choose from, because there are plenty. But I think anyone who has been book blogging for a while will agree: our to-be-read (TBR) piles are enormous, and even the thought of tackling them for a challenge can be daunting.

Luckily this challenge allows for films. Or maybe not so luckily?

Jane Austen's last novel provides the plot for this earlier Granada miniseries. Set in pre-Victorian England, this movie tells the story of Anne Elliot, who now having lost her "bloom" is re-united with the dashing Captain Frederick Wentworth, whose advances she had refused seven years earlier.

Now that he has gained both connections and fortune in the Napoleonic Wars, she regrets that her neighbor, the meddling Lady Russell, persuaded her to refuse his proposal of marriage. She watches him woo the young Louisa Musgrove, suffering terribly while he appears to have forgotten entirely his earlier attraction to her. Manners and mores often thwart her strong desire to tell her true feelings, but his emotions are masked too by fear and the lasting pain of her rejection.

I’m a time-tested fan of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I read it for the first time as a freshman in college, and I’ve been an evangelist for it ever since. And though I’ve found small faults with the previous Persuasion film adaptations, I liked both of them well enough to buy them for my home DVD collection. All that to say, I had high hopes for this mini-series, even though it was made in 1971. Over ten years before my birth. So…how can I say this?

Persuasion, the 1971 BBC mini-series version, is an absolute failure. There, that wasn’t so bad, was it? I ripped off the band-aid, we all know how I feel…except that this is supposed to be a review. *le sigh* One thing I can say about myself: I whine like a champ. So, what was it that turned me off about this DVD experience?

First of all, the hair. I have an irrational prejudice against hair poufs. I KNOW. Weird. Well, the hair is high in this adaptation, and it made my eyeballs hurt. Number two: the actors, but especially Anne. I haven’t seen someone’s face this frozen since…the last time I watched a Nicole Kidman movie. I thought they didn’t have Botox back then?! The one decent (and incredibly pompous, as he’s supposed to be) portrayal? Sir Walter Elliot.

Three – (and yes, I know I’m starting a new paragraph in the middle of ONE topic. The text needed it, trust me.) it took almost an hour for Captain Wentworth to show up on screen. I know that the whole thing runs around four hours, but that’s taking things pretty far… And four, with which I will end my rant: the whole thing reminds me VERY strongly of a soap opera. There are good classic movies and dismal classic movies. There were stellar made-for-television programs back then. This isn’t one of them. The level of production, the failure of the actors, the length of the script – it could have been tightened, shined to a high gloss, and been so much BETTER, you know? It hurts my soul (but only a little bit – don’t worry).

In sum, I’d recommend this only to the die-hardest of all BBC Austen series die-hards. I’m fairly sure no one else will be able to sit through it. Again, *sigh*. If you want a different take (5 stars!) on this one, look no farther than Velvet's review. Different strokes, eh?

I watched this film for the Everything Austen II Challenge, which is hosted by the awesome Stephanie of Stephanie's Written Word.

había una vez

That’s “Once Upon a Time” in Spanish. I hope. Unless I messed up the spelling. *sigh* It was a long and wonderful weekend. And it’s been a long time since my last Spanish grammar lesson, come to think of it. Eeek! But enough of that. This post is a wrap-up/summation/endnote for the Once Upon a Time IV Challenge, hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings, which officially ended on June 20.

I said I’d read five books that fit into the category of fantasy, myths, or fairy tales. Not all of these books are classic ‘fairy tales,’ but all of them contain elements of the fantastic, and thus count for the contest. Click on the titles to see my reviews.

White Cat by Holly Black

Sleepless by Cyn Balog

The Moorchild by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

The Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey

No worries that I’m going to drop fantasy any time soon…I’ll continue to read fairy tales for the rest of the year because I’m also taking part in the Once Upon a Time 2010 Reading Challenge. Do you have any recent fairy tale reads to recommend?

second helpings of everything austen, please!

The Everything Austen challenge is back! Last year Stephanie of Stephanie’s Written Word hosted a fabulous challenge called Everything Austen. How much fun was that?! I watched the BBC and Masterpiece Theater Austen films that I’d never gotten around to before, and I learned about a whole new world of literary Austen adaptations. This year the challenge goal remains the same: read, watch, craft, or do six Jane Austen-related items in the next six months.

Last time I was an overachiever and committed to twelve items. I won’t be so foolhardy again. I mean, I love Jane Austen (show me someone – aside from Mark Twain – who has read her books and doesn’t). But TWELVE items! That’s pressure. And since I am not reliable under pressure (shine the light on my character failings, why don’t you?), I try not to push the envelope. However, I do happen to have six films and books in mind for reading, watching and reviewing by December 31, 2010. They are…

Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard (this was on my list last year and I never finished it…oh, the shame!)

I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend by Cora Harrison

Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange (another hold-over from the good old days)

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

Miss Austen Regrets (2008)

The official challenge start date is July 1, so there’s plenty of time to get involved and decide on items. And something useful I discovered last time: it’s perfectly fine (and even normal) to substitute your choices if one or a few turn out to be really tedious. So to sum up: it’s flexible, it’s Jane Austen, it is whatever you want it to be. What’s not to like? Oh, you like? Sign up here! Will you be taking part?

the moorchild

I love the blogosphere. I professed my lifelong love of Eloise Jarvis McGraw in this post, and Jenny asked if I’d read Greensleeves, one of her lesser-known titles. I hadn’t even heard of it. I did some investigation, and found that it wasn’t in print, my library doesn’t have it, and copies are going for $40 or more online (a bit beyond my price range). But while looking around I discovered that McGraw had written MANY books that I didn’t know about, one of which was The Moorchild, an award-winner. Take a great author, add a fairy story, and then price the paperback at under $5, and I’m sold. And I just happened to win a Book Depository gift card in a blog contest at the right time, so…yay! Did I mention that I love the blogosphere? Yeah, that.

Half moorfolk and half human, and unable to shape-shift or disappear at will, Moql threatens the safety of the Band. So the Folk send her to live among humans as a changeling. Named Saaski by the couple for whose real baby she was swapped, she grows up taunted and feared by the villagers for being different, and is comfortable only on the moor, playing strange music on her bagpipes.

As Saaski grows up, memories from her forgotten past with the Folk slowly emerge. When mystery of her past is revealed, Saaski must make hard choices and face danger in many forms.

The Moorchild is Saaski’s story. Saaski is a changeling, though she doesn’t know it. The story of her eventual knowledge and recollection of how she came to be a changeling form the bulk of the story. I think the summary tells you most of what you need to know about the plot. What I can add are comments on the beauty of the language, the varied context of the story (which gives you enough detail, but not too much to ruin any surprises or wonderings) and the absolute suck-you-into-the-tale quality that McGraw books seem to have as a trademark.

The story is set in an indeterminate village on the edge of the moor. That doesn’t sound exciting, does it? Well, it might you have a thing for ‘the moor’ like I did after reading The Secret Garden one too many times as a child. But say you don’t have an over-developed sense of romance about the moor already. McGraw’s description will inspire a sense of longing to see it, to feel it and to hear it. The prose is effortless and yet holds deep emotion.

That’s what I can say about The Moorchild. It’s fraught: with confusion, with sorrow, with loveliness and just a touch of mischief.

Best of all? It’s a story suitable for all ages. I’d recommend The Moorchild to those interested in: ridiculously good children’s fiction, myths and legends, fairy tales, family dynamics and a taste of the wildness that lives in all of us.

This book qualifies for both Once Upon a Time reading challenges.

2010 dystopia challenge

Rhiannon is one of those people in the blogosphere who I just ‘click’ with. Not that we’ve had a long correspondence or anything (because we haven’t), and not because it’s necessarily mutual (is it creepy to have a one-way ‘I admire you’ thing? don’t answer that!), but just because I read her reviews and say to myself, “That’s EXACTLY how I feel!” Of course after the high of feeling completely understood, I realize that there’s nothing more to say about such and such a book, so I give up and go on. *grin*

What I meant to say in that last paragraph is that Rhiannon has fantastic taste, and I was inspired to go on a dystopian reading kick by the dystopia challenge she set last year. And this year she’s doing it again, so I’m taking part as well. In her words, “The challenge is to read, ponder and review as many dystopian books as I can before spring. The coldest and darkest months of the year are to be stuffed full of zombies, hazmat suits and oppressive ideologies. What could be cozier?”

Indeed. Part of that, if you didn’t catch it, corresponds to the fact that she lives in the Southern Hemisphere, where they’re just now heading towards winter. I’m taking the easy road and reading my dystopian novels in the bright light of summer. I know, I’m a wimp. But there you have it. Check out her reading list here.

My longlist (which I won’t get through, but sounds good):

Ariel by Steven R. Boyett

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien

Genesis by Bernard Beckett (I've been trying to finish this title for 6 months!)

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Matched by Ally Condie

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

The Line by Teri Hall

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau (sequel to The City of Ember, which I loved)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Wish me luck!