Random Musings of a Bibliophile

I was utterly enchanted by Lauren Morrill's debut novel, Meant to Be   ( my thoughts ) . When the synopsis for her second novel, Being Sloane Jacobs , was released I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It has such an intriguing concept and I knew that if Morrill brought the same magic she brought to Meant to Be, it would be very good indeed. I was excited when I was approved for the book on NetGalley. It is different from Meant to Be  in many ways, but completely enjoyable and excellent in its own right. Synopsis: Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life. Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’...

"They’re all first-rate, but for its humour, its poignancy, for its serious heart and lightness of touch, above all for the continual joy it gave me, my choice for this year’s winning book is Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay For Now ." Long Live the Zombie! You should really read Jonathan's Stroud's entire decision .  He did a beautiful job analyzing the strengths of all three books.

Round Three Winners   My favorite line from Judge Maggie Stiefvater's decision : "But the idea seemed simple. You read two books, and you like one of them better. You explain your thoughts in a coherent way, and then you retreat to your kitchen to make cookie dough." This is pretty much where Maggie and I split ways on this one.  My favorite line from Judge Ron Koertge's decision : "I like to really know the characters in books. I like to ride around in cars with them, eat dinner with them, sleep in their spare rooms and poke around in their medicine cabinets." I completely agree with this sentiment, but had no desire to do any of those things with the characters to whom he was referring. The Undead Winner   I didn't vote for Okay For Now , but I almost did. I'm extremely satisfied that it won the Undead. My Thoughts on the Finals When the list of books in this year's battle was announced four of my Favorite Reads of...

Round Two Winners   Between Shades of Gray I applaud Marc Aronson in his decision from beginning to end. He did a marvelous job analyzing and comparing both books. His is probably my favorite judge's decision to read so far. Even if I would have chosen the other book if I were in his place. Despite my personal preference for Amelia Lost , Between Shades of Gray is an important and heart wrenching book and well deserving of its place in Round Three. My favorite quote from Aronson's decision: "We have fiction whose largest claim is nonfiction, and nonfiction whose power comes from its resemblance to fiction. I feel like a hapless kid in dance class, whose feet keep getting tangled up."   Chime Oh joyous day. I was becoming concerned that, in a battle where I had so many favorites, none of them were going to make it to the final four. so many people seemed to think Daughter of Smoke and Bone would take this one and I couldn't begin to guess what E. Lockh...

The Rest of Round One   Drawing From Memory So many of my picks making it to the next round this year. So strange. Maybe reading all the books helps! I am excited to see Drawing From Memory joining them. This is a unique and wonderful autobiography. My favorite line from Judge Barbara O'Connor's decision : " And the experience felt personal, intimate, and casual, as if Say might whip out a napkin and draw a sketch while talking, or pull out a few paintings tucked lovingly in a box from long ago." This is exactly what is so appealing about this book.   Inside Out and Back Again The alphabet made this first round really hard on me. Again, two books I really enjoyed were pitted against each other. This time the books in question weren't favorites though, just two I found a great deal of merit in. I would have liked to see Heart and Soul get some love since Inside Out and Back Again has gotten so much already, but I did enjoy Inside Out and Back Again m...

The first week of Battle of the Books has come to an end. We now know four of the titles that will be moving on to compete in Round 2. Here they are (with my reactions): Amelia Lost I am so excited that Amelia Lost is moving on to round two. I can't remember the last time a non-fiction book has excited me so much. I am happy to see it getting some love as it completely deserves it. My favorite quote from Judge Matt Phalen in his decision : "Now that I think about it, Anya’s Ghost and Amelia Lost have more in common than their striking covers. Both books are constructed with precision, paced perfectly, and designed to lead you through these stories with confidence and invisible skill. Each book has moments of beauty and terror..." He also gets bonus points for the awesome "punk rock research" microfilm comment. Between Shades of Gray This is a battle it was hard for me to choose a favorite in, but in the end this is the one I chose and I'm ha...

Tomorrow, March 13, it begins. 16 books.15 Author Judges. Only 1 winner. The eliminations are about to begin. This would make an awesome reality TV show. (I would watch.) Until that happens you can follow the action here . Here are my thoughts (I read all the books this year-I have lots of these.) and hopes. I don't do predictions because I'm really bad at the. I will be commenting on the site and tweeting ( @brandymuses ) daily, but I will only post reactions here on Friday and again next Thursday when Round One ends. Here are the brackets if you haven't seen them. Tuesday, March 13 The Contenders: Amelia Lost ( my Goodreads review )vs. Anya's Ghost ( my Goodreads review ) My Thoughts: Amelia Lost is the most well plotted non-fiction book I have ever read. It has excellent characterization and, against all expectations, is suspenseful. It was one of my top reads of 2011. Anya's Ghost is an interesting and engaging graphic novel about a young Russian-Am...

Today over at BoBs you can find a guest post written by yours truly on What the Battle of the Books means to me. I was honored to be asked to write this, but it feels kind of weird knowing its out there now. Why? Maybe I'm just weird. (This is probably it.) If you meander on over there to read it, also remember to vote in the Undead Poll if you haven't yet. Every vote counts! (Remember: Chime is awesome. You want to vote for Chime .)

The Undead Poll for the 2012 SLJ Battle of the Books is open! What does this mean to you? It means that you can now vote for the book you would like to see most in the final round, in case by some misguided judging strange twist of fate it should be defeated in an earlier round and not be able to go on. Let us say  you are a fan and you really want to see a certain book win. Like this one:  What do you do? First go to this page of the SLJ site. Second, click where it says "enter voting page here". It will take you to a survey site with a list of all 16 books with little circles next to them like bubbles on a multiple choice test. Third, click on the circle next to Chime by Franny Billingsley. Be sure you don't click on any of the other circles. That would mean you were voting for the wrong book. Finally, click on the submit button on the bottom of the page and it will take you to another page assuring you your vote has been counted. You must trust this assurance an...

I don't normally write posts on books that I don't finish completely but am making an exception for Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet. As it is a 2012 BoB contender I want to have a place to link to my thoughts when it is up for competition. Also I thought it might be helpful to some to know why I put it aside and decided to not read it entirely. Synopsis (from Goodreads): Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside--just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive.  I was really excited about this when it was first listed as a contender in the Battle of the Kid's Books. A YA book about the Cuban Missile Crisis from a British perspective? I was...

I don't know the last time I  was so torn in writing a review as I am for Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I have never before enjoyed a book so much that I didn't really enjoy. Synopsis (from Goodreads): Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes o...