Feature & Follow Friday #46: Reading slump cure

Happy Friday, fellow book lovers! Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The goal of Feature & Follow is to meet new bloggers, make friends, and gain readers.

This Week's Question: 

How do you cure a reading slump?

Today I'm going to do something a little out of the ordinary. Instead of answering this question I'm asking because I honestly have no answer. I'm in the hugest slump right now! Between my husband coming home after four months away and trying to make it through finals I've been down in the reading dumps!! Help!!! 

Waiting on Wednesday #47: The Shadow Revolution by Clay & Susan Griffith

Happy Wednesday, fellow book lovers! This week's "can't wait to read" is:

The Shadow Revolution
Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith Publication Date: June 2, 2015

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr.

They are the realm’s last, best defense against supernatural evil. But they’re going to need a lot more silver.

As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield.

After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined.

I'll admit that this is a little outside of my reading comfort zone, but between the synopsis and the cover, I think I definitely have to read this one!

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"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Top Ten Tuesday #42: Characters with mad fighting skills

Today's Topic: 

 Top Ten Books Which Feature Characters 
Who Have Mad Fighting Skills

It's no secret that I love a good dystopian or survival story, but when it comes right down to it I really just love any story with a badass hero or heroine! These are some of my favorites that have mad fighting skills.

        

Acheron from... Acheron

Achilles from The Song of Achilles

Deuce from Enclave

Katniss from The Hunger Games

Kestrel from The Winner's Curse

        

Mara from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Penryn from Angelfall

Tarver from These Broken Stars

Tris from Divergent

Wolf from Scarlet

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Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish -  a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers. Each week they post a new Top Ten list and everyone is welcome to join. Click here to get involved!

Book Review: Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Title: Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman's Daughter #2)
Author: Megan Shepherd
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: Balzer+Bray
Pages: 420
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Review for books 1 & 3

To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

It took awhile to pick back up with book two in The Madman's Daughter series. While book one was quite entertaining, the end of it did not necessarily leave me dying to find out what happened next. Book one seemed to drag, just a bit, and the ending made me just the tiniest bit irritated. Alas, I finally picked up book two, two months later, and I'm so glad I did!

Her Dark Curiosity picks up several months after Juliet is abruptly pushed off of the Island (literally) after she has made it back to London. Juliet is now living with the Professor, the man who apparently turned her father in to the police once he began his experiments. Of course, she isn't entirely content with the rich, fluffy life the Professor gives her and, of course, she can't stop thinking about Montgomery - or Edward Prince.

This book really gave me a chance to get to know some of the characters a lot better than The Madman's Daughter did. Juliet is just as dark and twisted in book two as she was in the first, although she spends much of the book trying to overcome it. I was really surprised by some of the things that happened, especially some of Juliet's decisions, but her imperfections are really what make me love her as a character. I felt like I was inside her mind at times. Megan Shepherd has done a fantastic job with Juliet! I also loved getting to know Edward even better than I already did. He is such a fascinating character - especially after everything that was revealed towards the end of book one!

The one absolutely useless character in Her Dark Curiosity is Lucy, who we get to know a little better since Juliet is back in good social standing and thus good enough to be around her. She got on my nerves so many times throughout this book and one idiot move she made near the end sealed the deal for me - she's useless. Other than her, I loved most of the characters including the new ones. The good guys weren't entirely good and the bad guys were deliciously evil! The love triangle continued throughout the book, but it was done in a way that really did work for me and was mostly believable.

Megan Shepherd continues her fantastic world building with Her Dark Curiosity, although this one is set entirely in London. I felt like I could see the city and almost see Juliet moving through it. Her attic was perfectly dark and dingy in my mind and the Island-like botanical gardens seemed spectacular. The entirety of London took on a creepy air with the exception of Lucy's house, which always seemed very Downton Abby-esque.

The story that continued in book two really was better than that of book one, which was really surprising to me since I've always been a huge fan of The Island of Doctor Moreau. I'm pretty impartial to the Jekyll/Hyde story, but I am totally in love with the way it was used here! I loved that everything was wrapped up in a big conspiracy (What can I say? I'm a sucker for conspiracies) and I loved that the list of people involved was shocking and seemingly endless. All of it made everything seem more urgent and exciting!

Her Dark Curiosity definitely kicked the series up a notch in my book! I would have grabbed book three immediately after finishing except I already had something else on the agenda. I definitely have plans to read A Cold Legacy as soon as possible! I would definitely recommend picking this one up even if you weren't totally in love with The Madman's Daughter. This one is awesome!

One Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

Holy crap! I can't believe it's been a whole year already! I really can't express how grateful I am that all of you wonderful people have allowed me to become a part of your book blogging universe! I feel like I've learned so much about SO MUCH in the short time I've been here. I'm so much more in the know than I was before about new publications and I've even discovered some new favorite series that have been around forever!

THANK YOU!

To show my gratitude I'm hosting a giveaway to celebrate! You can gain entries in the rafflecopter below!

Giveaway Rules:

• Three winners will receive one of the following prizes:
• Paranormal romance bundle: Twilight, Immortal Beloved, and Book of Shadows/The Coven
• Bound by Duty (or Bound by Spells if you've already read Duty!) eBook 
• Bound by Duty audiobook 
• Paranormal romance bundle is open to US only because of shipping.
• eBook is international.
• Audiobook is US or UK only.
• Giveaway is open from April 26th - May 9th!
• An email will be sent to the winners, who will have 48 hours to reply. 
• If there is no reply in 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. 

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DNF Reviews: The Martian by Andy Weir & Nil by Lynne Matson

Title: The Martian

Author: Andy Weir
Publication Date: February 11, 2014
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 384
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Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

The Martian has a premise that really caught my attention when I first read the description! I'm not huge into sci-fi, but I am a HUGE fan of the Twilight Zone and half those episodes are related to astronauts being stuck on Mars. How could I resist?!

I started this audiobook for the first time last year and only made it through maybe thirty minutes of audio before I had to shut it off and go to something else. I feel bad every time I stop that quickly, but not quite so bad when it's an audiobook... In any case, when I found out it was being made into a movie I gave it another shot. This time I made it several hours in before calling it quits.

While I feel like there is probably a really good story in The Martian, the writing style just wasn't what I prefer. I have a hard time when humor is mixed into another genre and it really didn't work in this situation. The main character was really unrealistic and unlikable, in my opinion. He seemed like the kind of person who would get on my nerves very quickly. Not to mention, he felt the need to constantly throw in his botany jargon, which I obviously don't get any use from as a non-botanist.

The setting of Mars really didn't seem all that terrifying either, which is really unfortunate. It had really great potential and maybe it got better as it went on! I'm assuming there were aliens later?

I'm really sorry that I didn't get further into this book because I really wanted to love it! I will definitely go see the movie and I honestly feel like it will translate better in that medium, at least for me.

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Title: Nil
Author: Lynne Matson
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 374
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On the mysterious island of Nil, the rules are set. You have exactly 365 days to escape—or you die.

Seventeen-year-old Charley doesn’t know the rules. She doesn’t even know where she is. The last thing she remembers is blacking out, and when she wakes up, she’s naked in an empty rock field.

Lost and alone, Charley finds no sign of other people until she meets Thad, the gorgeous leader of a clan of teenage refugees. Soon Charley learns that leaving the island is harder than she thought . . . and so is falling in love. With Thad’s time running out, Charley realizes that she has to find a way to beat the clock, and quickly.

Nil is the kind of book that should be right up my alley. I am totally in love with the survival genre (is that a genre?) in general and when I read that blurb and saw the bit about the island that didn't exist, I knew this was the book for me! When I saw a copy at a great price on BookOutlet.com I grabbed it up immediately and dug in when it got here.

The main characters on Nil are Charlie and Thad. Thad has been there for quite awhile with not much time left and Charlie is the noob. Both characters were likable and their romance seemed believable, if a little rushed. Thad was a fantastic leader and Charlie really jumped right into the island dynamic and made herself immediately useful. I also really enjoyed the rest of the cast of characters (except for Bart - what a jerk)!

The action begins at the beginning of the book and continues while these two get to know each other. There is constantly something going on, whether it's crazy animal attacks or crazy conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, this book just didn't hold my attention.

I think my problem with Nil was that it dragged on and on and on. While the idea was interesting, I just don't think it was executed well - or at least well enough to keep me reading. I really did try! I trudged through this book for two whole weeks before I finally gave up with 100 pages left (yes, it took me two weeks to make it just over 250 pages). While there is always something happening in the book, it really gets repetitive quickly: new people come, old people search for escape, they eat pineapple, Thad and Charlie kiss, repeat.

I feel like if I'd stuck it out I might have liked the ending - maybe. But there comes a point when you just have to cut your losses and move on. Better luck next time!

Feature & Follow Friday #45: What's in [my] name?

Happy Friday, fellow book lovers! Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The goal of Feature & Follow is to meet new bloggers, make friends, and gain readers.

This Week's Question: 

How did you come up with your blog title and address? 
Does it have a special meaning for you? 

Well... I guess I'm about to give away my secret. I didn't come up with my blog name. So there I was, trying to come up with something super cute and creative to call my brand spankin' new blog and I was coming up empty. I knew that I wanted it to be in some way related to dog eared pages because that was how my mom taught me how to bookmark a page. It makes me cringe a little now, but that was what she told me and that was what I did until I actually started paying for my own books! Unfortunately, every name I could think of was already taken! My friend was helping me brainstorm and threw out "Cornerfolds" as a suggestion and it was available!

Book Tour Excerpt & Giveaway: Wolf's-own:Ghost by Carole Cummings

Title: Wolf's-own:Ghost
Author: Carole Cummings
Publication Date: November 4th 2014
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 350
Add to Goodreads

Dwelling in the land of Ada and defending magic users called the Jin, Fen Jacin-rei is a trained assassin and an Untouchable, one whose mind hosts the Voices of the Ancestors, spirits of long-dead magicians. His fate should be one of madness and solitude, yet Fen Jacin-rei desperately clings to his sanity and ferociously protects the family he loves. But how does Fen do it? Kamen Malick has every intention of finding out.

When Malick and his own small band of assassins ambush Fen in an alley, Malick offers Fen one choice: join us or die. Determined to decode the intrigue that surrounds Fen—and to have the Untouchable for himself—Malick sets to unraveling Fen’s past while Fen delves into the mysteries surrounding Malick.

As Fen’s secrets slowly unfold, Malick is drawn into a crusade that isn’t his, one surprisingly similar to his own quest for vengeance. Yet irony is a bitter reward when Malick discovers the one he wants is already hopelessly entangled with the one he hunts. 

Purchase

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Excerpt

“Nice attack,” Malick panted as he spun, swept the sword down on a forward feint then followed with a cross with the knife for a compound attack. 



The Ghost didn’t answer, didn’t even seem to hear, merely whirled back in a counter-defense, whipped yet another of those cursed little knives. Advanced again with a sweeping cut of the long knife that nearly took Malick’s nose off as he spun out of his dodge of the damned throwing knife. 

Little shit was really trying to kill him. 



“You’re—” Malick ducked under a press with the long knife, feinted to his right, watching for another of the little knives to come whistling at his head. “You’re very skilled.” He just managed to keep the wheeze out of his voice. 



Again, the Ghost was silent, concentrating, entirely focused on what his body was doing and what Malick’s was doing in response. 



Focus, purpose—all smooth economy and lethal drive, this pretty man with the hard glare and soft braid. Compact corded muscle and sinewy-sleek limbs; hard lines and angles; sculpted, silky masculinity, and every last ounce of it was out to part Malick very decisively from his life. Too focused, perhaps, too driven. Fast and seamless, but foreseeable, if one paid attention. No personal little flourishes to the moves, no stepping outside the lines of that perfection of skill. Malick could almost count out the steps himself, trace the shapes of the positions in his own head just before the man made them. Like he was performing for a trainer, or reciting the instructions in his head as he followed the steps. The technique was nearly faultless, every move in perfect form, every parry and advance styled and structured—a flawless copy. 



“Let’s see what you do with this,” Malick muttered under his breath as he lunged in with the knife and followed with an indirect attack with the sword. His eyes narrowed when the knife was smoothly parried and the sword deflected with a forward press.

Malick smirked. 


Control—that was the key, and Malick had never seen a body so completely under the control of the mind that inhabited it. Control was generally a good thing. Except when it equaled predictability. 



No surprises from this man, none but the deadly drive behind his attacks and the apparent conviction that the only way this could end was with one of their corpses cooling on the damp, dirty stone of the alley. He could beat Malick with his speed and determination—he was more skilled, and more focused in his attention to it—but Malick had to wonder what would happen if he changed the rules. 


Grinning now, Malick lunged again, forced an opening when the man parried, and caught him in a spinning counterattack with a hard shove of his boot to the solar-plexus. A thin whoof huffed from the man’s chest, and his eyes went wide before they narrowed down to slits, nostrils flaring and lips pressing tight. Malick could almost hear the, Hey, that’s cheating! that was all too obvious in the man’s indignant glower. 



Malick broadened his grin, waggled his eyebrows. With a deep breath he was all too aware might be his last, Malick turned to his right, left himself open—clear invitation—then swept the sword under his own arm. He caught the man in the momentum of his own spin to turn the offensive, putting them in positions opposite of where they’d been just a second ago. Lunged in again with a sideswipe of his foot toward the backs of the man’s knees. Turned it into a spinning kick to the thigh when the man dodged backward. Malick drove in right up close at the resulting stumble, one long knife tangled with Malick’s sword, the other grinding at the hilt of Malick’s knife. 



“Figures you’d fight dirty,” the man growled, glaring directly into Malick’s eyes like it was the lowest form of insult he could imagine. 



Malick’s brain went a little wobbly. 



Almonds. He smells of almonds. 



Sweat and leather and metal polish, too, but mostly almonds. 



Right. And so does cyanide. 



Pressing in close, so close they were chest to chest for a heady half second, Malick backed the man another two steps toward the wall of the building. Brick to his back and his left, Samin to his right and Malick in front of him. Two more steps and he’d be neatly cornered. 



“C’mon, love.” Malick kept his smile and let his eyelids droop halfway. “Everyone likes it dirty now and again.”


Author Bio

Carole lives with her husband and family in Pennsylvania, USA, where she spends her time trying to find time to write. Recipient of various amateur writing awards, several of her short stories have been translated into Spanish, German, Chinese and Polish.

Author Links

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway

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Waiting on Wednesday #46: Undertow by Michael Buckley

Happy Wednesday, fellow book lovers! This week's "can't wait to read" is:

Undertow
Michael Buckley Publication Date: May 5, 2015

Sixteen-year-old Lyric Walker’s life is forever changed when she witnesses the arrival of 30,000 Alpha, a five-nation race of ocean-dwelling warriors, on her beach in Coney Island. The world’s initial wonder and awe over the Alpha quickly turns ugly and paranoid and violent, and Lyric’s small town transforms into a military zone with humans on one side and Alpha on the other. When Lyric is recruited to help the crown prince, a boy named Fathom, assimilate, she begins to fall for him. But their love is a dangerous one, and there are forces on both sides working to keep them apart. Only, what if the Alpha are not actually the enemy? What if they are in fact humanity’s only hope of survival? Because the real enemy is coming. And it’s more terrifying than anything the world has ever seen.

Action, suspense, and romance whirlpool dangerously in this cinematic saga, a blend of District 9 and The Outsiders.

A what?! Ocean-dwelling warriors? Like Atlantis warriors? Mermaid warriors? WHAT?! I have to know what's going on here!!!

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"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Top Ten Tuesday #41: Favorite NA Romance Authors

Today's Topic: 

 Top Ten Five ALL TIME 
Favorite (New Adult Romance) Authors

This weeks topic actually felt a little repetitive... I feel like we've had this talk before. Not to worry! I've slightly tweaked this week's prompt in an attempt to make it not exactly the same as everyone else's post! No Rowling here this week!! Here are my top five new adult romance authors of all time and the book that won me over! (And by all time I really mean of the last two years because that's when I discovered NA...)

        

Abbi Glines, Fallen Too Far

H.M. Ward, The Arrangement

Layla Hagen, Withering Hope

M. Leighton, There's Wild, Then There's You

Stormy Smith, Bound by Duty

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Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish -  a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers. Each week they post a new Top Ten list and everyone is welcome to join. Click here to get involved!

Audiobook Review: This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Title: This Shattered World (Starbound #2)
Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner 
Publication Date: December 23, 2014
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 390
Add to Goodreads
Reviews for book 1 & book 3

The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

It took me a really long time to finally get around to reading This Shattered World. I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with These Broken Stars, so I was a little devastated when I found out that book two centered around two new characters. So... I protested it for awhile, but I couldn't hold out forever. Especially not when everyone was telling me how fantastic it was! I took the plunge.

This is probably the first time I haven't been able to say that book two picks up where book one left off and it's kind of a weird feeling. I still haven't gotten over it! Anyway... This Shattered World tells the story of Jubilee and Flynn, two people on the planet Avon, but on very different sides. It's made clear from the get go that Jubilee is a big ball of badass. Everyone respects here and many fear her. Flynn, on the other hand, is an unknown on her side of the tracks, which is why it's so easy for him to capture the big bad Jubilee Chase. Almost from the beginning these two are going at it in a not great way.

Both the main characters of This Shattered World really intrigued me. It's almost immediately clear that there's something not quite right about Jubilee and I was really interested to find out what the heck it was. Flynn, on the other hand, just didn't seem as ruthless as he tried to act in the beginning. My point is that I wanted to know more about them from the very beginning and I was not disappointed. If there's one thing Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner know how to do, it's create great characters! I loved watching them bicker and grow closer, although I have to admit the romance seemed a little strange in the beginning, though it worked itself out.

Of course, my favorite part of the book was how Tarver and Lilac were incorporated! Everyone told me it would happen and that it would be great. They didn't disappoint! My only complaint is that they didn't hang around longer.

The world of Avon, while totally different than what was created for These Broken Stars, was almost as fascinating (almost). I loved the uncharted feeling of the world in book one, but this one still had its own mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed! The descriptions certainly made me feel like I could clearly see the different locations of the base and the swamps. I especially loved the caves that the rebels hid out in! Ahhh, the rebels...

Plot is something else these authors do amazingly well. The tension between the rebels and the military force was tangible and kept me on the edge of my seat. The atmosphere felt real (as cheesy as that sounds) and I never got bored for a second. Something I enjoyed here was that there was more than one "big bad" and that made it even better! When all the pieces began to fall into place I wasn't totally surprised, but it still made for a fantastic story and left it wide open for book three! The one thing that was really weird for me (and maybe it's because I listened to this on audiobook) was the "voice" in between chapters that told the story of the little girl. I really didn't get it and the voice actor was a little annoying and weird.

While I initially boycotted this book, I'm really glad I gave it a chance because it ended up being almost as awesome as its predecessor (almost). I can't wait for book three since it seems like it's supposed to focus on all four characters from the first two books! I'm so excited to see where they go from here!

Notes on the Audiobook

Like I've already said, the thing I didn't like about this book was the person they chose to do the flashbacks in between chapters. It was weird and annoying. Other than that, I loved both the actors that played Jubilee and Flynn! I'd definitely listen to them again!

Weekly Recap: 4/12 - 4/18

My Super Exciting Life 

This week was back to the super boring. I went to class and came home. Rinse and repeat! Okay, that's not entirely true. On Thursday night my husband bought us tickets to an event at our local science museum called Cocktails and Cosmos. We tried a ton of great drinks (one with sweet potato!) and played with all the space-themed attractions. I also saw a presentation by one of the 33 US candidates to be a part of the first human settlement on Mars in 2027! How exciting!! We had dinner with my parents on Friday night and then on Saturday I made an awesome discovery... It's called Game for Dogs on the app store. And my dog loves it. And it's hilarious!! You can see a clip of the video on my Instagram page!

New Books

Only a couple for review this week!!

  

In Case You Missed It

Monday book review of The Raft

Tuesday book blitz & giveaway for Inhuman Interest

I featured Secret Brother for Waiting on Wednesday
Thursday book blitz & giveaway for The Ark
The topic was what I'd do with $100,000 for Feature & Follow Friday
On Saturday I discussed confusion over YA categorization

This Week I Read

Upcoming Review

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I'm linking up to Stacking the Shelves and Sunday Post

I don't think I know what YA is

A couple weeks ago I posted what has become one of my most popular discussions to date: YA Shaming. What I discovered is that this is not just an issue at my university. There are readers around the world and spanning age groups who feel embarrassed because of their enjoyment of YA books.

This week I came across a couple Young Adult book lists on TIME.com that really surprised me. They surprised me because I'm really not sure what YA is after reading them. Now I really think one of the reasons readers of YA feel embarrassed is because people think we must be stupid (or at least stuck at an elementary school reading level).

Let's take a look at some of the selections on TIME's list of 100 Best Young-Adult Books...

        

         

Maybe, like me, you're thinking that this must be a combo list of Young Adult AND Children's books. Well, you'd be wrong. Here is TIME's list of 100 best Children's books. I'm honestly not sure who was responsible for compiling this top 100 list, but it's a little disconcerting. I feel like lists like this is why YA and its readers get a bad rap. 

You know, maybe I'm totally off base. Maybe "Young Adult" doesn't mean what I -think- it means. But I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the subject. Isn't this why there are separate categories for "children," "middle grade," and "young adults," for example? 

But then I came across another list that confused me even more. This time 17 famous YA authors were asked what their favorite YA book was and the answers were, again, not what I thought they'd be. Some of them include: 

        

Am I to assume that these authors of YA fiction really think picture books fit into the Young Adult category? I don't know what is going on with these TIME Magazine articles. 

Maybe I just don't know what YA actually is.