Book Blogger Con Update!

Well, because we got lost in the madness that is the BEA, I did not make it to the reception last night in NYC as planned. ='( However, I DID get to explore New York City a little bit.  No pictures uploaded yet, but I went to the top of the Empire State Building right before the thunderstorms hit (the wind wasn't particularly kind to the knee-length silk skirt I was wearing), saw Grand Central Station, Times Square, and all kinds of wonderful things I've wanted to see FOREVER, especially since I read Gregor the Overlander and Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  What can I say?  I'm a geek.  I also ate really yummy Indian food and got a taste of city life when it was pouring outside, I didn't have a coat or an umbrella, and it took us 20 minutes to get a cab.

Getting ready to head off to the actual convention as I write this - see you in a half an hour!  =)

Book Blogger Con Pre-Game

As I informed you all already in this post, I will be attending the Book Blogger Con reception tomorrow as well as the actual convention on Friday, meaning I have to leave at 7:30 tomorrow morning and fly in, flying out sometime late Friday afternoon.  I'm thrilled!

This means that, while I could schedule posts, I figured I'd just not post tomorrow or Friday (to give it that ring of authenticity, you know), and wait for Saturday to share photos and stories.  I'm not bringing my laptop, but I am most definitely bringing my camera (along with extra batteries!).  Anyway, I'm so excited, and I can't wait to see many of you there!

Waiting on Wednesdays #9

The Waiting on Wednesday meme is hosted  by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, so I suggest you go over there and check it out!  Good stuff.  This Wednesday I'll pick...

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.
Sometimes life-ending.
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Beautiful Creatures wasn't my favorite story-wise - I wasn't hugely digging the characters (though they were better than most), and I'm not really into the idea of the Casters - but holy cow, was it well-written.  It was long, but it was 100% DEVOURABLE.  And if you haven't read it, you really should.  So of course I'm excited for its sequel, Beautiful Darkness!

I'm not as crazy about the cover of this one - it looks a little tacky to me, unlike the cover of the first novel - and I don't know how the plot is going to hold up without the suspense of "Who is Lena?" going on.  So...crossed fingers that it's as good as the first one!

What are you waiting on this Wednesday?  Leave the titles and/or links in the comments!

Middle Grade Monday - Girls of Many Lands

I have a 10-year-old sister who is passionately in love with middle grade lit, not to mention a 5-year-old little brother who's into more of the same, so I thought I'd share some of their favorites (and my old favorites) with you guys!  This week I thought I'd talk about...

The Girls of Many Lands series, published by American Girl.

Now, "Girls of Many Lands published by American Girl" might sound like an oxymoron - and hey, one of those "Many Lands" is actually only Alaska, which is in fact part of America - but I actually adore this entire series.  I've read every single one (there are eight), most more than once.  I've doodled fan art, started whole love affairs with authors, and even toyed with the idea of going on eBay for the dolls over these books. 

Cecile: Gates of Gold, set in France and written by Mary Casanova, is probably my favorite.  Mary Casanova is a Minnesota author, which I knew, but imagine my delight when I actually found myself in her hometown at age 11 or 12.  (I didn't know it was her hometown at the time.)  After spotting a bunch of her books in the local indie bookstore, I asked the store owner if Mary Casanova happened to actually live there.  Of course, she did, and I got to visit her house and get her to sign copies and see her studio, etc., etc. 

She was then kind enough to keep up correspondence with me for years - in fact, we're still more or less in touch.  She is part of the reason I want to be a writer, part of the reason I started this blog, you name it.  My first published piece ever was a review of her book The Klipfish Code in New Moon Magazine!  So, you could say I owe a lot to this series for introducing me in a roundabout way to one of the kindest and most generous human beings on the planet.

I also love this book because I've always wanted to live in a giant palace with tons of clothes and food and gardens, and as far as opulence goes, you can't get much better than Versailles.  What can I say?  Childhood dreams.

Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway (Yup'ik Alaska) and Leyla: The Black Tulip (Turkey) are two of my other favorites.  Minuk is probably the most well-written, though the plot is occasionally slow, and I loved Leyla's exotic world, which turned me on to Middle Eastern lit in general. 


This series has also introduced me to the work of many other excellent writers, such as Laurence Yep (Spring Pearl: The Last Flower, China) and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Neela: Victory Song, India).  Neela itself was something of a disappointment at my last re-read, but The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an incredible (and curry craving-inducing) magical realism novel.  I can't wait to read the rest of her work.  (As a side note, notice that many of these authors have cultural and/or genetic ties to the places they're writing about, which is always good.)

I can't really name a book in this series I don't like.  They're all meticulously researched, well-written, and diverse - I like how Europe was not hugely over-represented as it is in most series along these lines.  I wish American Girl would head back in this direction instead of the contemporary stuff they're putting out now.  (By the way, two of those contemporary books were written by Mary Casanova - Jess and Chrissa - and they rocked and are well-loved by my sister, who has the Chrissa doll, but I'm still a historial fiction junkie.)  The "Life in _____ in ___ year" sections at the back are excellent, as well.

All in all, even if you're a teen or adult and not in middle school anymore, you could definitely do worse than this series.  Trust me - they are incredible!