Showing posts with label top 10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label top 10. Show all posts

Oct 31, 2016

Saving Hamlet by Molly Booth




Top 10 things or places that remind you of your book

  1. Shakespeare’s Globe! The recreated theatre in London. It’s magical.
  2. Pretty much any well-worn high school theatre auditorium.
  3. Trapdoors. I see any trapdoor now and automatically assume it’s a time travel portal.
  4. All black, high top sneakers! Emma’s favorite shoes. Theatre tehcies wear all black, so you can’t seeing them moving and working backstage.
  5. Skulls. Alas, poor Yorick.
  6. Cannons. The Globe playhouse caught on fire in 1613 because of a special effects cannon misfiring during a production of Henry VIII. Then it had to be rebuilt! There’s a reference to this fire in SAVING HAMLET.
  7. Pixie hair cuts. Emma’s story starts with a super short hair cut.
  8. Outer space themed cafes. There’s a special spot in the fictional town of Belleport, MA, where my main SAVING HAMLET characters go to rehearse and gossip about their play.
  9. The smell of garlic. Elizabethan England really smelled.
10. Hamlet. There are two productions of Hamlet happening in SAVING HAMLET, but in two different time periods!

ABOUT SAVING HAMLET:
Emma Allen couldn't be more excited to start her sophomore year. Not only is she the assistant stage manager for the drama club's production of Hamlet, but her crush Brandon is directing, and she's rocking a new haircut that's sure to get his attention. But soon after school starts, everything goes haywire. Emma's promoted to stage manager with zero experience, her best friend Lulu stops talking to her, and Josh--the adorable soccer boy who's cast as the lead--turns out to be a disaster. It's up to Emma to fix it all, but she has no clue where to start.

One night after rehearsal, Emma stays behind to think through her life's latest crises and distractedly falls through the stage's trap door . . . landing in the basement of the Globe Theater.

It's London, 1601, and with her awesome new pixie cut, everyone thinks Emma's a boy--even Will Shakespeare himself. With no clue how to get home, Emma gamely plays her role as backstage assistant to the original production of Hamlet, learning a thing or two about the theater, and meeting an incredibly hot actor named Alex who finds Emma as intriguing as she finds him. But once Emma starts traveling back and forth through time, things get really confusing. Which boy is the one for her? In which reality does she belong? Will Lulu ever forgive her? And can she possibly save two disastrous productions ofHamlet before time runs out?

LINKS: Amazon | B&N


ABOUT MOLLY BOOTH:
Molly Booth grew up homeschooled in Massachusetts with her four boisterous siblings. She stage managed for three different community theatres in high school. Her first college was Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown, MA; she then went on to study writing, literature, and Elizabethan history on a very cold hill at Marlboro College in Vermont. There, she wrote the first drafts of Saving Hamlet, her debut novel, coming 11/1/16 from Disney Hyperion. Her second book, Nothing Happened, will be coming spring 2018.
Molly also writes for The Mary Sue, and sometimes other sites like HelloGiggles, The Tempest, and McSweeney’s.  She spends most of her time snuggling her adorable dog Suzie, pet rats Meg and Marigold, and Harriet the queen cat.
She’s represented by Alex Slater at Trident Media Group, and edited by Kieran Viola at Disney Hyperion.


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
10/24: Fiery Reads - Review
10/25: That Artsy Reader Girl - Guest Post
10/26: The Young Folks - Review
10/27: No BS Book Reviews - Q&A
10/28: The Book Cellar - Review

Week 2:
10/31: The Irish Banana Review - Top 10
11/1: The Plot Bunny - Review
11/2: Adventures of a Book Junkie - Q&A
11/3: Betwixt the Pages - Review
11/4: Princessica of Books - Guest Post
Giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of SAVING HAMLET (US Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by Hannah at 1:19 PM 4 comments
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Oct 27, 2016

The Gauntlet by Eoin Colfer

And now for some of Eoin Colfer's top 10 favorites:


1. Top 10 fictional characters you would have over for dinner: Mycroft Holmes. Doctor Jeckyll (not Mister Hyde.  Harley Quinn. Commissioner Gordon. Aunt May. Doctor Watson. Caesar (Planet of the Apes) Tony Stark, The Wizard of Oz, The wicked Witch of the West.

2. Top 10 things you can’t live without: Macbook, beard trimmer, nice trainers, anti-magnetic field bracelet, electric toothbrush, water bottle, Barocca, white t-shirts, comic book, novel.

3. Top 10 things or places that remind you of your book: Dublin, Wexford, Saltee Islands, Malibu, Sam Beckett Bridge, bookstores, inside my head, my office, in the the car on the sidelines of my son’s training pitch.

4. Top 10 favorite reasons to be an author - own boss, meeting the fans, travel, meet cool writers, never growing up, book gifts, collaborations with other writers, taking over franchises, merchandise of your own characters, book people.

5. Top 10 must-haves while writing: Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Rush, Queen, David Bowie, Bond soundtracks, Apple computer, cinema screen, privacy, coffee.
ABOUT THE GAUNTLET:
Tony Stark is known throughout the world as many things: billionaire, inventor, Avenger. But mainly for being the Invincible Iron Man.

Just when Tony is about to add his pizzazz to an international eco-summit in Ireland, someone close to him forces him to question his role in making the world a more dangerous place with his high-tech weaponry. But Stark doesn't have much time to reflect before an old enemy presents him with an even greater challenge: the assassination of all the eco-ministers, and Iron Man himself. Just how invincible Iron Man is when he is stripped of everything remains to be seen in this breathless adventure by the bestselling author of Artemis Fowl.

LINKS: Amazon | B&N


ABOUT EOIN COLFER:
Eoin Colfer (pronounced Owen) was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland in 1965, where he and his four brothers were brought up by his father and mother, who were both educators.

He received his degree from Dublin University and began teaching primary school in Wexford. He has lived and worked all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Italy. After the publication of the Artemis Fowl novels, Eoin retired from teaching and now writes full time. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.

LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
10/17: Mundie Kids - Review
10/18: Take Me Away to a Great Read - Mood Board
10/19: Reading Is Better With Cupcakes - Review
10/20: Swoony Boys Podcast - Character Interview
10/21: Bookish Escapes - Review

Week 2:
10/24: YA Booknerd - Review
10/25: Red House Books - Q&A
10/26: Big Books and Grande Lattes - Review
10/27: The Irish Banana Review - Top 10
10/28: Seeing Double in Neverland - Review
Giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of THE GAUNTLET (US Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by Hannah at 12:00 AM 5 comments
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Oct 24, 2016

Blog Tour: Pushing Perfect

Top 10 fictional characters you would have over for dinner



1.            Turtle Wexler from The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (I know, she’s T.R. Wexler now, but she’d still be fun to talk to)
2.            Mrs. de Winter from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (and maybe she’ll finally tell me her actual name!)
3.            Sula from Sula by Toni Morrison (she would definitely stir things up)
4.            Merricat Blackwood from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (but I’d definitely have a food taster handy)
5.            Meg O’Keefe nee Wallace from A Wrinkle in Time, etc. by Madeleine L’Engle (I’d take her at any age, really)
6.            Will Stanton from The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper (I basically wanted to be him for my whole childhood)
7.            Hermione Granger from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (I would have wanted to be her for my whole childhood, had she existed in my childhood)
8.            Sherlock Holmes (because I’m not sure you can really love mysteries and not want to meet Sherlock Holmes. But I wouldn’t mind having the Benedict Cumberbatch version at the dinner party…)
9.            Charles Kinbote from Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (I have a lot of questions for him…)
10.          Merlyn from The Once and Future King by T.H. White (because magic. But I’d take Merriman Lyon from The Dark Is Rising too. Any version of Merlin would work)
ABOUT PUSHING PERFECT:
A girl’s quest for perfection results in dangerous consequences in this layered, suspenseful YA novel by the author of Playlist for the Dead.

How far would you go to be perfect?

Kara has the perfect life. She gets perfect grades. She never messes up. Until now. Because perfection is an illusion, and Kara has been struggling to maintain it for as long as she can remember. With so much pressure to succeed, it’s hard not to do whatever it takes. 

But when Kara takes a new underground drug to help her ace the SATs, she doesn’t expect to get a text from a blocked sender, telling her to follow a set of mysterious instructions—or risk her dark secret getting out. Soon she finds herself part of a group of teens with secrets of their own, who are all under the thumb of the same anonymous texter. And if they don’t find a way to stop the blackmailer, their perfect futures will go up in flames.

This dark, emotionally resonant contemporary YA novel is perfect for fans of We Were Liars and The Secret History.

LINKS: Amazon | B&N


ABOUT MICHELLE FALKOFF:
Michelle Falkoff's fiction and reviews have been published in ZYZZYVA, DoubleTake and the Harvard Review, among other places. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently serves as Director of Communication and Legal Reasoning at Northwestern University School of Law.

LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
10/17: Lost in Lit - Review
10/18: Books, TV, and More ... Oh My! - Mood Board
10/19: Girl vs. Books - Review
10/20: Resch Reads and Reviews - Guest Post
10/21: He Said Books or Me - Review

Week 2:
10/24: The Irish Banana Review - Top 10
10/25: In Wonderland - Review
10/26: Quest Reviews - Playlist 
10/27: The Book Return - Review
10/28: The Alchemy of Ink - Review
Giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of PUSHING PERFECT (US Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by Hannah at 12:00 AM 3 comments
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Sep 9, 2016

Blog Tour: AS I DESCENDED by Robin Talley


I'm so excited to welcome Robin Talley, fellow YADCer and an all around phenomenal woman and author to chat about what she considered the most important LGBTQ books for teens!
Top 10 LGBTQ Books Every Teen Should Read

This list was incredibly difficult to put together. I recommend my personal favorite LGBTQ YA titles all the time, but to make a list of books every teen should read? That’s a lot of pressure!

But, after much debate, I narrowed it down to the titles below. In addition to YA books, I’ve included two classic adult titles as well as two middle grade books, but I think all of the books listed will appeal to teen readers. Here we go, in alphabetical order:

·         5, 6, 7, Nate by Tim Federle. This middle-grade title is the sequel to Better Nate Than Ever, and really, you should read them both. But 5, 6, 7, Nate is the book that starts to explore the romantic life of 13-year-old aspiring Broadway sensation Nate, and it’s hilarious as well as touching. I recommend this for all readers ages 10 to 100.

·         Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. A modern classic, this story of two Mexican-American boys who slowly become one another’s world in 1980s Texas is captivating as a coming-of-age story, a romance, and a portrait of a beautifully specific time and place.

·         Far From You by Tess Sharpe. A murder mystery about a bisexual girl recovering from a drug addiction who sets out to find the killer of the girl she loved, this is a story packed with unforgettable characters that sucks you in and leaves you sobbing at the end. Or it did me, at least.

·         George by Alex Gino. This middle-grade story centers around a fourth-grade girl named Melissa who is struggling to figure out where she fits in a world that incorrectly sees her as a boy named George. It’s essential reading for all ages, with a lovely story at its heart.

·         If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan. Two girls in love in Tehran face incredible obstacles, including a strictly enforced legal ban on same-sex relationships. Another piece of essential reading, including for teens living in more progressive areas who may not be familiar with the intense opposition LGBTQ people face in many parts of the world.

·         The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth. This coming-of-age story of a lesbian teen growing up in 1990s Montana is the book I wish I’d had when I was a teen myself. From first crushes to conversion therapy to small-town politics, this novel is packed with themes that will resonate with all readers.

·         More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera. This coming-of-age sci-fi-ish story made me laugh, cry, and nod slowly in recognition more times than I can count. Set in the Bronx and focused on the incredible power of memory and how it shapes our identities, Aaron’s story is a new YA classic.

·         Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. I nearly referred to this one as an “old classic,” but it actually came out in 1998 ― not that long ago, really, but that’s about a million years when it comes to LGBTQ publishing. Tipping the Velvet is an adult title about a young woman (18 when the story begins) in 1890s London who falls in love with another girl ― and that’s just the beginning of her adventures. A tip, from personal experience: If you’re ever reading this book on public transportation, it’s a real conversation-starter.
·         When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. Coming out in October 2016, this love story between a bi cis girl and a straight trans boy is packed with magic and emotion. If you read McLemore’s first book, The Weight of Feathers, you already know exactly what I mean. Put this one high on your TBR.

·         You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan. With alternating POVs following two queer teens in contemporary San Francisco during Pride Week, this story is possibly the most breathtaking depiction I’ve read in YA of a genuine and supportive community of queer folks of all stripes.

·         Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, by Audre Lorde. Another classic adult title, this is part-memoir, part-fiction, part-myth, all written by a groundbreaking poet. Released in 1982, the story focuses on Lorde’s childhood and young adulthood. Modern teen readers will be fascinated to learn about what life was like for an out lesbian in 1950s Greenwich Village, as well as about Lorde’s complicated relationship with her mother, an immigrant from the Caribbean. 

ABOUT AS I DESCENDED:

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.
Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.
Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.
But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.
Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.
But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.
From acclaimed author Robin Talley comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair.




ABOUT ROBIN TALLEY:

I live in Washington, D.C., with my wife, our baby daughter, an antisocial cat and a goofy hound dog. Whenever the baby's sleeping, I'm probably busy writing young adult fiction about queer characters, reading books, and having in-depth conversations with friends and family about things like whether Jasmine's character motivation was sufficiently established in Aladdin.
LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:

Week 2:
Giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of AS I DESCENDED (US Only)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by Hannah at 12:00 AM 4 comments
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Sep 7, 2016

Blog Tour: Phantom Limbs by Paula Garner


Top 10 things or places that remind you of your book

1.       Magnolias. The magnolia tree on what used to be Meg’s property (but drops all its blossoms onto Otis’s) is a recurring motif in Phantom Limbs and a reminder of Meg and how much he loved—and still loves—her. Their first kiss happened beneath the magnolia tree, and each spring when it blooms, it leaves him with more feelings than he can comfortably manage. “On the branches above me, I could just make out the fat magnolia buds. Any day now they would explode into a fucking carnival of white and pink flowers—a spectacle that had kicked me in the nuts for the last three years. But now? Now I didn’t know how to feel about it.”
2.       Swimming pools. Swimming factors heavily into Phantom Limbs—it is just an everyday fact of life for both Otis and Dara. Dara, whose arm amputation means she can never be the Olympian she aspired to be, and Otis, whom Dara expects to carry that torch for her.
3.       Rhubarb—and rhubarb pie. Otis’s mom grows rhubarb and bakes rhubarb pies—something Otis and Meg loved as kids. Rhubarb pie also features in one of Meg’s memories from when she first met Otis. As she teasingly recounts it to him when they see each other again years later, “When we first moved in, you and your mom brought one over and I asked you what rhubarb was. You said it was a plant in your yard that was, and I’m quoting here, ‘really sour, with poisonous leaves.’”
4.       Caramel. Meg always loved everything caramel, and Otis never forgot it. She is moved almost to tears when they reconnect after years apart to learn the countless things about her he still remembers.
5.       Paw Paw, Michigan, aka “Silver Lake.” An actual place that the entirety of the Michigan vacation house/town in Phantom Limbs is modeled after. Like Otis’s family, my family used to vacation there in the summers.
6.       Water lilies. Meg loved water lilies, and even in the face of seeing Meg with her boyfriend, Otis makes the most heartbreaking romantic gesture imaginable with them.
7.       Peaches. Meg had a bit of an emotional meltdown once during the years they were apart over the smell of peaches, and it sort of symbolizes the agony of all the things Otis and Meg were unable to share with each other after their families were driven apart.
8.       Toy dump trucks. These are a terrible reminder of Otis’s little brother Mason, who died when Meg still lived next door. Mason mispronounced nearly everything, but the way he pronounced his favorite toy (“dumbfuck”) was a source of particular glee and hilarity for Otis and Meg as kids.
9.       Sriracha sauce. Meg is obsessed with it and thinks Otis should be, too.

10.   Navigation lady voice. Which goes both to Meg’s strengths (impersonations) and weaknesses (zero sense of direction).

ABOUT PHANTOM LIMBS:
How do you move on from an irreplaceable loss? In a poignant debut, a sixteen-year-old boy must learn to swim against an undercurrent of grief—or be swept away by it.

Otis and Meg were inseparable until her family abruptly moved away after the terrible accident that left Otis’s little brother dead and both of their families changed forever. Since then, it’s been three years of radio silence, during which time Otis has become the unlikely protégé of eighteen-year-old Dara—part drill sergeant, part friend—who’s hell-bent on transforming Otis into the Olympic swimmer she can no longer be. But when Otis learns that Meg is coming back to town, he must face some difficult truths about the girl he’s never forgotten and the brother he’s never stopped grieving. As it becomes achingly clear that he and Meg are not the same people they were, Otis must decide what to hold on to and what to leave behind. Quietly affecting, this compulsively readable debut novel captures all the confusion, heartbreak, and fragile hope of three teens struggling to accept profound absences in their lives.
LINKS: Amazon | B&N


ABOUT PAULA GARNER:
Paula Garner spends most of her time making food, drinks, and narratives, despite being surrounded by an alarming TBR pile and a very bad cat. Her debut YA novel, Phantom Limbs, comes out from Candlewick in 2016. Paula is represented by Molly Jaffa of Folio Lit, and lives in the Chicago area with her family.
LINKS: Website | Twitter


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:

Week 2:
Giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of PHANTOM LIMBS (US Only)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by Hannah at 12:00 AM 3 comments
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