six years is quite a while

It has been quiet at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia over the past six months.  And that’s okay.  Life (even reading life!) changes.  That said, I’m here.  I’ve been going to book club and checking Twitter and Tumblr for the latest news from my fellow readers and bloggers.  I’ve been thinking about blogging recently, too.  Unfortunately, my reading pace hasn’t picked up much.  Still, Sunday was my six year blogging anniversary, and it seemed like the kind of thing I should write about. 

Six years (whoa. dude.)!  For my five year anniversary I wrote about five authors that blogging introduced me to.  This time around I’ll feature six more.  As I said last year, one of the best parts about blogging is that I’m constantly discovering new favorites.  I may not have read every book in these authors’ backlists yet, but the ones I have, I loved.  And to quote myself, “I trust their stories: for entertainment, wisdom, emotion, and always, always, beautiful writing.”

Merrie Haskell – I always have been (and likely always will be) a soft touch when it comes to fairy tales.  Haskell writes really lovely middle grade retellings of my favorites, and she includes strong doses of history, mysticism and other elements mixed in with the magic.  I liked her debut, The Princess Curse, but I fell irrevocably in love with The Castle Behind Thorns.  I know her books will be auto-buys for years to come.

Frank Cottrell Boyce – I very much appreciate books that are smart, feeling AND funny.  It takes a lot of skill to balance those elements, and if I had to pick one writer for young readers who gets it right every time, I’d point to Frank Cottrell Boyce.  He charmed me with Cosmic, his tale of outer space and family dynamics, and his upcoming The Astounding Broccoli Boy is just as charming.

Sylvia Izzo Hunter – I read a book* this past fall that was 100% a Cecelia book.  Meaning, I fell in love with it immediately, was not disappointed when I finished it, and I keep thinking about it after the fact.  I shall be following Hunter’s career with hungry eyes.

*The book!  Was!  The Midnight Queen!

Kate Elliott – Before I began blogging I had no idea that there were book communities online.  Obviously I learned the error of my ways, and began participating in the bookternet.  I also began noticing that these online communities were finding ways to meet up in person.  What were BEA and ALA?  I researched.  I went to ALA Annual (my first conference!) in 2010.  I was a hot mess, let me tell you.  I was a newbie blogger wandering the exhibit floor, wearing a tiny denim skirt and flip flops, surprised/pleased/terrified to find that booths were just giving away books.  One of those books was Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic.  I had no idea that she’d written previous books, I just liked the look of that one.  And I’ve liked her books (and her fantastic online presence) ever since.

Erin Bow – Dear Lord, does Erin Bow know how to write.  Her book Plain Kate is just… one of the best books I’ve ever read.  Yep, that’s a pretty good description.  I think it’s a mix of really knowing and loving language (Bow’s also a poet) and not shying away from the darkness of life.  I have her Sorrow’s Knot on the shelf, and I know it’ll be just as fantastic (all of my trusted sources say so), and there’s another book coming out soon.  All to say: if you haven’t read Bow yet, you should make the time.

Jonathan Stroud – Real talk time, subject: book acquisition.  I follow bloggers whose opinions I trust, yes.  And sometimes a book just sounds fantastic (aka it ticks all of the Cecelia crack boxes).  And sometimes I pick based on gorgeous cover art.  BUT.  Sometimes it takes an award to get a book on my radar (or in this case, a nomination for the CYBILS).  Stroud’s Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase was one of those.  Once I read it, I became its biggest fan.  I gave it to people for Christmas, I made a point to meet the author when he came on tour, and I haven’t stopped thinking about the fantasy world Stroud created.  That book made me a Stroud fan (for life).  I’m pretty happy about it.

These are some of my blogging author discoveries.  Who are yours?

waiting on wednesday (49)

Today I’m participating in "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Its purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Erin Bow’s debut novel Plain Kate was a masterpiece.  Bow’s wondrous way with words and her story of unthinkable choices wrapped me up in emotion and didn’t let me go. It was the sort of experience that turns you into a rabid fan, scouring Goodreads and/or Amazon for any hint of a new release.  When I looked through the Scholastic catalog last week I struck gold – Bow’s next book comes out this fall.  Sorrow’s Knot will be released by Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic) in November 2013.

From the acclaimed author of Plain Kate, a new novel about what lurks in the shadows, and how to put it to rest... 

In the world of Sorrow’s Knot, the dead do not rest easy. Every patch of shadow might be home to something hungry, something deadly. Most of the people of this world live on the sunlit, treeless prairies. But a few carve out an uneasy living in the forest towns, keeping the dead at bay with wards made from magically knotted cords. The women who tie these knots are called binders. And Otter's mother, Willow, is one of the greatest binders her people have ever known. 

But Willow does not wish for her daughter to lead the lonely, heavy life of a binder, so she chooses another as her apprentice. Otter is devastated by this choice, and what's more, it leaves her untrained when the village falls under attack. In a moment of desperation, Otter casts her first ward, and the results are disastrous. But now Otter may be her people's only hope against the shadows that threaten them. Will the challenge be too great for her? Or will she find a way to put the dead to rest once and for all?

What books are you waiting on?

plain kate

It sometimes takes me a while to ‘catch on’ and read a fantastic book. It might get all of the accolades in the world, but if I haven’t been seduced by the cover art or simply think to myself, “that sounds good, I should read it” and immediately act on the impulse, it can take years to rise to the top of my To Be Read (TBR) pile.

As you may suppose from the title of this post, such was the case with Erin Bow’s Plain Kate. I heard nothing but good things about it, especially from Shelf Elf and bookshelves of doom (two blogs I trust implicitly for recommendations, and you should too. they know their books, yo. yes, i just said yo. i’m ashamed.). Thankfully, I remembered that I wanted to read it as I was perusing Kindle recommendations on the Metro platform. I frequently make impulsive reading decisions during my commute. Good ones, mostly. But let’s get back to Plain Kate!

A knife-sharp debut novel that leaves its mark.

Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. When Kate's village falls on hard times - crops fail, and even Kate's father falls victim to a deadly fever - the townspeople look for someone to blame, and their eyes fall on Kate.

Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: In exchange for her shadow, he'll give Kate the means to escape the town that seems set to burn her, and what's more, he'll grant her heart's wish. It's a chance for her to start over, to find a home, a family, a place to belong. But Kate soon realizes that she can't live shadowless forever – and that Linay's designs are darker than she ever dreamed.

Plain Kate is a woodcarver’s daughter from a tiny village somewhere in the middle of Russia. Her skill with a knife brings her mingled returns: when her father dies, it’s her living, but it is also her curse, for her fellow villagers believe her a witch. When life becomes too dangerous in her birthplace, Kate is forced to make a dark bargain, and sets out into the world, accompanied by her cat Taggle.

Most young adult and middle grade books address the theme of finding a place in the world. What the best of them do is show the reader that that process never ends. Erin Bow not only writes beautifully and evocatively of loss, friendship and choices made in desperation, but she has populated her story with characters who are brave, cowardly, reckless, mad and kind – all of the flavors of humanity.

Added to that, Plain Kate has a storyline that continuously builds tension, that seems both unbearably sad and incredibly hopeful, and that leaves room for both folly and redemption. It is quite simply a lovely book, and it is too good to miss.

Recommended for: fans of Patricia C. Wrede’s Lyra books and Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s The Moorchild, those with a penchant for outcasts, cats and/or gypsies, and anyone looking for a strong, affecting fantasy without a typical romance but imbued with heart.