Audiobook of the Week

Three Willows- Anne Brashares

Take the summer setting and differing activities from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Take away one girl, make them all younger and less sure of their friendship. Then take away the magical pants but add a different tangible link between them, and you have Three Willows.

As a Reader:

While reading the Sisterhood series, I sometimes wondered if the girls’ friendships ever clashed over their varied interests, other friends, or social standings at school. I may never get to hear those stories, but Three Willows gives us a new set of girls who shared a bond that was blind to their differences in grade school but they drifted apart though middle school then find their way back to each other the summer before high school.

As a Writer:

If I were in charge of writing a motto for Anne Brashares, I’d use, Walk softly and carry no hammer.  Her tone, pace and emotional depth are so delicately handled…She’s never going to hit her readers over the head with anything…and I so appreciate her for that. *spoiler alert* I also loved that one character has growth through failure. An unusual twist and well handled.

If you like this you might also like:

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series- Anne Brashares
Star Girl  and  Love, Star Girl- Jerry Spinelli
Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle series)- Libba Bray
The Heartbreakers-  Pamela Wells
Chicks With Sticks- Elizabeth Lenhard
This Lullaby- Sarah Dessen
How to be Popular- Meg Cabot 

My Crit Buddy- The Near-Published Writer

I got got to hold someone else's baby today. She weighed much less than most newborns but still felt heavy in my hands. It was my crit buddy's ARC (advanced reader's copy).

Denise Jaden's book, LOSING FAITH, is about Brie who finds more questions than closure as she struggles to deal with her sister's mysterious death.

Losing Faith will be released by Simon Pulse on September 7, 2010.

check out her site:
 http://www.denisejaden.com/

BTW, the reason I got to see Denise today is because she's in town for BEA (Book Expo in NYC). And I'm going too!!! This will mean getting lots of interesting info about publishing trends, meeting lots of cool people, and books. Lots and lots of books. Not many audiobooks, but I should have some interesting giveaways in the next few weeks. So, stay tuned!

Audiobook of the week

The Summoning- Darkest Powers Trilogy, Book One

Kelley Armstrong

She sees ghosts, he’s a sorcerer and his foster brother’s a…oops. I’m not giving everything away. Kelley Armstrong brings her world of supernaturals to teens, and as a listener, I’m super glad she did. The adult books have paranormal politics to navigate, relationships to balance and mysteries to solve, but the YA experience takes us back to when a supernatural first learns about her powers and her plight. And what she doesn’t know can definitely hurt her.

As a Listener:

I enjoyed the first person narrator more than the third person multiple POV Kelley Armstrong uses with her adult books, but that’s probably a personal taste issue more than anything else. The protag, Chloe, is a good mix of insecurities and growing strength. She has some terrific movie and movie heroine comments. The show of the various characters trying to manipulate their mental health treatment seemed realistic to me, and there were some decent twists along the way. It’s a to-be-continued ending, so if you don’t like those, you might wait until you have The Awakening on hand too. And The Reckoning, the final in the trilogy.

As a writer:

I totally get why writers of adult fiction do YA too. It’s a growing market, they can draw in future readers for their adult work, and I’m sure a lot of them soon figure out that YA’s a lot of fun to write. For the publishers it’s a no-brainer to give a proven seller a shot at a new market, and it could even bring teen and parent readers together with a shared favorite author. Win, win, win, right? The only problem is, for us would-be authors, it could mean a few less debut spots on the lists each year. But hopefully, the number of adult fans these writers can cross over to YA will make up the difference.

If you like this, you might also like:


Wicked Lovely-Melissa Marr
City of Bones-Cassandra Clare
Graceling-Kristin Cashore
Eternal-Cynthia Leitich-Smith
Soul Enchilada-David Macinnis Gill
Evermore-Alyson Noël
Shiver-Maggie Stiefvater