Emma Newman's Between Two Thorns and Any Other Name are $1.99 today.

They LOOK intriguing, with cover art that somewhat reminiscent of Cassandra Rose Clarke's Assassin's Curse books, and they deal with magic and faery in the Regency Era, which oooooooooo.

Have you read them? Should I snap them up?

...that Lifetime is going to go ahead and adapt If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, AND My Sweet Audrina. (No word on Garden of Shadows.)

Guess I'd better GET READING.

______________________________

Previously: Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind.

Here's Jeff Bridges, see the rest at Io9:

At this point, the only thing I'm finding remotely exciting about this movie is the size of Jeff Bridges' eyebrows. Because they LOOK AMAZING in this picture.

Previously.

...I wrote about Jennifer Donnelly's Deep Blue, which, well, I hated:

In reading the Prologue to Jennifer Donnelly’s Deep Blue—a description of a group of water witches swimming around, chanting rhyming couplets about six chosen ones with disparate talents who will have to band together to save the world—I got the distinct impression that not only had the book been specifically written with a film adaptation in mind, but that I had already SEEN said movie many, many times before.

It's rare for me to walk away from a book without anything nice to say.

Sadly, this is one of those times.

Teenage assassins are a dime a dozen in fantasy and in dystopia, and they aren't ALL that uncommon in historical fiction, but they appear far less often in contemporaries—even stories about teenage spies usually cast the protagonist in an unquestionably heroic role (like Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series) or focus on less-problematic skills (like Robin Benway's safe-cracking heroine in Also Known As and Going Rogue).

So, let's look at a few slightly more Questionable Characters!

I Am the Weapon (formerly Boy Nobody), by Allen Zadoff

Four years ago, he learned the truth about his parents, and four years ago, The Program took him in. He was trained physically, mentally, and emotionally, and now he works for them. They give him a target, he infiltrates that target's life, gets close enough, and then moves in for the kill. (Literally.) Then he moves on. Always moving, always alone.

He doesn't know it yet, but this next job will be different.

I Am the Weapon will not be a good fit for every reader: If you dislike the present tense, it won't be a good fit, ditto sentence fragments and antiheroes. Me? It was a GREAT fit.

Benjamin (not his real name) has a voice that is strong and distinct, both emotionally distant and emotionally fragile. He reads like someone who has been programmed, but not entirely brainwashed—he feels trapped in his situation, but hasn't entirely reconciled himself to it; sometimes, he reads like a sociopath, but it's always clear that it's a created state, not a natural one—because he remembers his past, remembers how he came to The Program, he doesn't entirely trust them, isn't entirely in their corner. But he doesn't feel that he has any direction to move in OTHER than theirs, so he falls back on the rules of the game again and again as a way of justifying his actions and of convincing himself to keep moving forward, of not giving up. His keepers see him simply as a tool, as an asset, as a weapon to point at their enemies... but he's more than that: he's a survivor.

Because of his emotional and mental conditioning, because of the way he's lived for the past four years, he doesn't entirely understand human connection—even though he craves it. Although he has been programmed to follow orders, to kill without hesitation or regret or guilt, he remembers the warmth and love he knew as a child, and those memories, in tandem with getting to know his target—not to mention his target's beautiful daughter—are making it more and more difficult for him to perform his duty. 

As I read, I found the romance element FAR less interesting and satisfying than in Benjamin's slowly-growing friendship with bullied hacker Howard, but ultimately, Zadoff makes it all work, AND HOW. The sequel is due out in a few weeks (<--Oh, look, it's a Little, Brown title, so Amazon won't let us pre-order it, the jerks), and I'm VERY MUCH looking forward to reading it.

How to Lead a Life of Crime, by Kristin Miller
Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks

While neither one focuses on a teenage assassin—Miller's is about a pickpocket and Jinks' is about a hacker—and while an argument could be made that they're science fiction OR fantasy OR both, really, I'm including them anyway. They're both about schools for the criminally-minded, and both include characters who're being taught to be assassins. While I was a big fan of both books, I felt that How to Lead a Life of Crime, especially, deserved WAY more attention than it got when it came out.

And here are a couple that I haven't read:

Dear Killer, by Katherine Ewell

This one has been promoted as a story about a teenage girl who happens to be a serial killer, but everything I've read about it suggests that she's actually an assassin with little-to-no conscience. Which is different. Judging by reader reviews at Amazon and GoodReads, response has been EXTREMELY VARIED, so I just ordered a copy so I can make up my own mind.

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, and Perry's Killer Playlist, by Joe Schreiber

Boy is forced by his mother to take their Lithuanian exchange student to the prom, it turns out she's an assassin. Hijinks ensue! In the sequel, Perry runs into Gobi in Venice, and there are MOAR HIJINKS. These sound like big, action-movie-esque fun, and I'm going to make a point of reading them soon.

So, I'm sure you've got others to recommend, right? Right?

Related articles

I Hunt Killers -- Barry Lyga

Today @KirkusReviews...

...has been announced.

The prize went to The Madman's Daughter, by Megan Shepherd.

Which I LOOOOOOVED:

I really, really enjoyed this one: it works as historical fiction, as science fiction, as a horror story, a romance, a coming of age, and as a retelling of H.G. Wells' original. The changes that Shepherd makes, the twists she introduces, they all feel organic and they play off the original and change it, but in ways that complement the Wells, if that makes sense. It changes it without trying to replace it or diminish it, maybe? Whatever it is I'm trying to say (YEESH), it's TOTALLY engrossing, and I TOTALLY DUG IT.

Click on through for the middle grade winner, both full lists of nominees, AND a list of the 2014-15 contenders (<--you'll have to scroll down at that last link).

See also: Madness, Tortured Romance, and a Heck of a Lot of Castles: Megan Shepherd's Love Affair with Gothic Literature; Or, Megan Shepherd's Eight Favorite Gothics.

New hardcovers:

While We Run, by Karen Healey

We Are the Goldens, by Dana Reinhardt

Take Me On (Pushing the Limits), by Katie McGarry

Surrounded By Sharks, by Michael Northrop

One Man Guy, by Michael Barakiva

Oblivion, by Sasha Dawn

Meridian (Arclight), by Josin L. McQuein

Guy in Real Life, by Steve Brezenoff

Girls Like Us, by Gail Giles

The Girl with the Windup Heart (The Steampunk Chronicles), by Kady Cross

Divided (Dualed Sequel), by Elsie Chapman

Allies & Assassins, by Justin Somper

Bad Luck Girl: The American Fairy Trilogy Book 3, by Sarah Zettel

City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments), by Cassandra Clare

Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii, by Vicky Alvear Shecter

The Dark World (A Dark World Novel), by Cara Lynn Shultz

Guardian (Proxy), by Alex London

New paperbacks (that I've read):

Dualed, by Elsie Chapman:

I give Chapman huge points for writing a dystopian set in a brutal kill-or-be-killed world...and just letting it be. Unlike every other YA dystopian I’ve read, Dualed never turns into a story about Standing Up To The Man or Fighting For Freedom. It’s purely a survival story, and it was a nice change to read about a protagonist who wasn’t a special snowflake* or a focal point for a rebellion.

The Good Braider, by Terry Farish:

It's got a fantastic sense of place and Farish conveys long periods of time spent waiting without ever slowing the pace of the story, both of which are quite impressive considering how few words she uses. The contrast between cultures is striking, and it's especially nice that the book portrays Viola attempting to understand and fit into American (and even more specifically, Maine**) culture, but never uses the somewhat-tired "I renounce my former culture/this new culture is so horrible and wrong; oh wait, now I'm proud to be a part of both cultures" storyline. She's drawn towards both worlds, but she just... keeps on keeping on, and eventually finds her place in both.

The Lucy Variations, by Sara Zarr:

It's about music; about art; about beauty; about snobbery and elitism; about grief; about trust and manipulation and spite; about how a clash between two stubborn people can ultimately result in both sides losing; about economic class and using people to further your own ends and living THROUGH other people and about CHOOSING YOURSELF. All of the relationships are so complex—Lucy and her mother, her father, her grandfather, her brother, her best friend, her teacher, and, of course, Will—that I really don't think it would be possible for me to praise it highly enough. 

Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family, by Aaron Hartzler:

There’s plenty of humor—the official Kirkus review called it “hilarious,” though I found it more subdued than that—but I had a lump in my throat for almost the entire 400 pages. It’s written with such emotional honesty that it’s impossible not to empathize with Hartzler’s young self: regardless of whether he’s writing about his Big Questions about God and religion or getting caught in a lie about buying the Pretty Woman soundtrack.

Related articles

Today @KirkusReviews...

YA Tickles the Ivories: Seven Stories about Piano Prodigies.

New YA: February 22-28.

New YA: June 22-30.

New YA: May 22-31.

New YA: March 22-31.

New YA: February 8-14.

More Silverstein videos compiled over at Open Culture.

While there are DEFINITELY some titles I'd swap out for other picks, it's a much more eclectic list than I expected to see—and there were even some (three) that were completely new to me.

So click on through to see what you think.

...I wrote about Shannon Hale's Dangerous:

Shannon Hale has written nuanced, complex re-imaginings of fairy tales, she has written hilarious adult romance, she has written original fantasy, and with Dangerous, she has proved that she’s perfectly capable of writing a cracking SF yarn as well. It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s emotionally complex, it’s super-ultra-action-packed, and it features a cast of characters that is diverse ethnically, culturally, physically, experientially, and economically.

At Open Culture: Read the First Children’s Picture Book, 1658′s Orbis Sensualium Pictus:

Frankly, I'm surprised I couldn't come up with more.

Zombie Baseball Beatdown, by Paolo Bacigalupi

If you've got readers clamoring for the gruesome, then look no further: This book is so gross! SO GROSS! Lots of gore, lots of poop, lots of hideous goings-on at the local slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few young omnivores go vegetarian after reading it.

What would you do if the zombie apocalypse started in your own town? Middle school baseball players Rabi, Miguel, and Joe don't just fight for their lives, they try to follow in the footsteps of their hero Spider Jerusalem—the fact that they were Transmetropolitan fans made me shriek with joy—to reveal the corruption and greed that caused it, as well as the people who are still trying to cover it up.

Holy cow, for a small book, it deals with a LOT of stuff, and it deals with it in depth. The banter between the boys is excellent and funny, as are the dynamics of their friendship: they always have each others' backs, there's complete trust and affection there, and they all know how to play to each others' strengths.

They all have large issues to contend with—Rabi is the main target of a racist bully on their team, Miguel's parents have been deported due to their immigration status and lives in fear of the rest of his family being picked up next, and Joe's father is a mean drunk—but while the issues certainly have a bearing on the storyline and on their worldviews, they're dealt with in a pretty matter-of-fact, non-preachy
way. The immigration storyline, especially, was well-handled: Bacigalupi doesn't get into the politics, he just tells a story in which a kid has to deal with a situation that is (and has always been) completely out of his hands, but that has a direct impact on his future. Basically, Bacigalupi focuses on people, rather than on policy. Interwoven into all of it is a dark thread about money equaling power, but it does end on a hopeful note that suggests that information, knowledge, and—this is so awesome—STORY will eventually punch through it all.

It won't be for everyone—like I said, SO GROSS—but I really enjoyed it.

My Boyfriend is a Monster #1: I Love Him to Pieces, by Evonne Tsang and Janina Görrissen

These books are new to me: according to the website, it's a series of stand-alone horror/romance graphic novels. In this first one, high school softball star Dicey Bell and science geek/gamer Jack get paired up for a class project, sparks fly, and then they have to team up to fight a zombie uprising. So it looks like it's the old Opposites Attract And Have To Find A Way To Contend With Their Differences Amid Unrelated Chaos storyline. Of which I am a fan, so I'm going to pick it up soon. 

Can you think of any others?

I had so much fun putting together yesterday's list about Norse mythology—and, to those who have asked, I'm planning on reading Icefall and West of the Moon ASAP—that I'm doing another one today. This time, as you've likely gathered from the title, I'm focusing on young pianists.

I chose the topic largely because I recently—FINALLY—read the first book on the list. 

The Lucy Variations, by Sara Zarr

I've come to the conclusion that Sara Zarr is incapable of writing a flawed book. If you're a fan of contemporaries and she's NOT on your radar, WELL. I think said radar might need some recalibrating.

Lucy Beck-Moreau is a child of privilege, a piano prodigy who was on the fast track to fame and fortune, when, in a moment of grief and rage, she quit. It's been eight months since that day, and she hasn't played since. Now, all of the family's expectations—along with the resulting pressure—is on her younger brother's shoulders. Due to the unexpected death of his instructor, the family hires young Will R. Devi, and his influence sparks Lucy's reevaluation of her life choices, her relationship with music and with her family, and her future.

It's about music; about art; about beauty; about snobbery and elitism; about grief; about trust and manipulation and spite; about how a clash between two stubborn people can ultimately result in both sides losing; about economic class and using people to further your own ends and living THROUGH other people and about CHOOSING YOURSELF. All of the relationships are so complex—Lucy and her mother, her father, her grandfather, her brother, her best friend, her teacher, and, of course, Will—that I really don't think it would be possible for me to praise it highly enough. Lucy's various relationships with adult males are particularly interesting (and in two cases, HUGELY UNCOMFORTABLE, so much so that I moaned, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO DON'T GO THERE DON'T GO THERE more than once while reading, but I should have had trust, because GO THERE ZARR DID, and it was SO WELL DONE) and, yeah. SUCH A GOOD BOOK.

Ahem.

Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse

The Ultimate Dust Bowl Sobfest. I very clearly remember reading this one on my lunchbreak at the bookstore, and crying so much that the manager sent me away to go and take a SECOND LUNCH BREAK. Beautifully written.

And now for a few that I haven't read!

Fingers, by William Sleator

The plot of this one—child piano prodigy grows up and is no longer interesting to the public, so his mother decides that they will market him as a MUSICAL MEDIUM WHO IS CHANNELING A LONG-DEAD GYPSY COMPOSER, WHAAAAAAAT but then his older brother starts to suspect that his little brother is ACTUALLY BEING POSSESSED, DOUBLE WHAAAAAAAT—immediately makes me think of Lois Duncan's Down a Dark Hall, what with Franz Schubert possessing Kit and all. And now I just want to read Lois Duncan all day long.

Chopsticks, by Jessica Anthony

Actually, I know that I read this one, but I can't remember a thing about it beyond the format—it's a collage-style story told mostly in photos, IMs, drawings, and ephemera—and that it's about a pianist. I should probably revisit it, because the more I think about it, the more I remember, and I'm suddenly suspecting that it's one that's worth a re-read or two.

The Gathering Dark, by Christine Johnson

A Maine girl wants nothing more than to play her piano, escape her hometown, and go to Julliard. Then, a MYSTERIOUS NEW TATTOOED BOY arrives in town, and paranormal complications ensue. Despite the Maine connection, I'm inclined to skip this one—I'm a little bit MYSTERIOUS NEW BOYed out.

Broken Chords, by Barbara Gilbert
Four Seasons, by Jane Breskin Zalben

Two books about young prodigies reevaluating their respective futures: one has a wrist injury that allows her to take a few weeks off and explore ballet (really?), and the other weighs her life of never-ending practice, pressure, performance against first love, friendship, and free time.

There are plenty of others where the prodigies are secondary characters—Geoff Herbach's Stupid Fast, for one—but these are the major ones ABOUT pianists that I came up with. Did I miss anything super?

At mental_floss: 12 Charming Tidbits About Beverly Cleary

There's a lot to love there (I didn't know that she eloped! Or that she wrote Leave it to Beaver tie-ins.), but I especially liked this bit:

WHEN ASKED “WHY DO YOU THINK THAT CHILDREN LOVE RAMONA QUIMBY SO MUCH?” SHE GAVE THIS WONDERFUL ANSWER:

“Because [Ramona] does not learn to be a better girl. I was so annoyed with the books in my childhood, because children always learned to be ‘better’ children and, in my experience, they didn’t. They just grew, and so I started Ramona… and she has never reformed. [She’s] really not a naughty child, in spite of the title Ramona the Pest. Her intentions are good, but she has a lot of imagination, and things sometimes don’t turn out the way she expected.”

I really need to read her memoirs.

From GalleyCat:

Random House Children’s Books has acquired actress Amanda Peet’s new children’s book Dear Santa, Love Rachel Rosenstein. Peet co-wrote the title with her friend Andrea Troyer.

The book is about a  young Jewish girl who doesn’t quite understand why Santa Claus never brings her gifts. “When my two children, Frankie and Molly, started asking me why we don’t have a Christmas tree and colored lights on the roof and a plate of cookies for Santa, it was hard to come up with an appealing answer,” explained Peet in a statement. “The book came out of a desire to capture the feeling of being left out during the Christmas holidays and to explain how you can’t always get what you want—and how sorting that out, for Jews and Gentiles alike, is part of what the holiday spirit is all about.”

Does anyone have a BACA Bingo Card out there? Because, based on this short description, this one would pretty dang close to winning;

Co-written with a friend? Check.

Book written "for her own children"? Check.

Book that is slated to pub during the holiday season? Check.

Book that teaches a lesson? Check.

I wonder who's going to illustrate it. THAT COULD GIVE ME THE WINNING SQUARE!

I have a soft spot for Norse mythology, and believe it or not, said affection DOES predate Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston's respective portrayals of Thor and Loki. Maybe it's because our childhood dog was named Loki? Or because of all of the shenanigans in Douglas Adams' Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul?

Wherever and whenever the affection stems from, it's made me happy to see more and more of it trickle into the YA section.

So, here are a few that are on my radar, some that I've read, some that I'd like to read:

Loki's Wolves and Odin's Ravens, by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

These—or at least Loki's Wolves, I haven't read Odin's Ravens yet—are geared more middle-grade, but they're totally crossovers, so I'm including them. Despite being natural enemies, a descendant of Thor teams up with two descendants of Loki to roadtrip around South Dakota, looking for other young descendants of the gods in order to prevent Ragnarok. Understandably, Loki's Wolves gets cited as a Percy Jackson readalike pretty often, though it's worth mentioning that it doesn't have nearly as much humor as the Riordan books. While I found Matt's Must Protect Laurie Because She's A Girl mentality grating, it was in keeping with his personality and upbringing and worldview. (Less explicable was this line—He supposed if a girl that pretty was checking Baldwin out, the guy must be good-looking.—because, come on. Just because someone is straight doesn't mean that he is incapable of gauging whether or not another dude is conventionally attractive.)

There's lots of action, though, the full-page black-and-white illustrations complement the text well, and I loved how Armstrong and Marr incorporated historic spots (Deadwood) and other landmarks (Mount Rushmore). I'll be reading the second one at some point.

The Lost Sun, by Tessa Gratton

If this book hadn't been by Tessa Gratton, I'd have never picked it up due to the atrocious cover art. So here's hoping it gets redesigned at some point. (Oh, look, I got my wish. Still not great, and the model is either at a really weird angle or the image was created by just Photoshopping Matt Bomer's disembodied head onto someone else's shoulders, but it's an improvement over straight-up Skeet Ulrich. I think?-->)

Fan of Gratton's work—if you haven't discovered her yet, you're in for a treat—have probably already read this one. It's another roadtrip story, this one about a berserker and a prophetess searching for Baldur, who's gone missing. While the relationship dynamics and the family secrets are totally compelling, and while Gratton does a great job of integrating familiar myths but keeping the plotting unpredictable, for me, this one was all about the worldbuilding, which was FANTASTIC. I'm really looking forward to the sequel.

And that does it for the ones I've actually read! But there are so many more...

Starling and Descendant, by Lesley Livingston

A young fencing champion teams up with her new love interest, the Fennrys Wolf, and discovers that her family has ties to the Norse gods.

Black Helicopters, by Blythe Woolston

Despite having bought it ages ago, I'd been putting this one off because I'm a little bit afraid of it—I've heard that it's gut-wrenching—but no one told me that the faith system of the characters is based on Norse myths! So that, combined with my love of Catch & Release, means I'm bumping it waaaay up the TBR pile.

Stork, Frost, and Flock, by Wendy Delsol

This trilogy sounds pretty light-hearted, which is understandably unusual in books dealing with Norse mythology. A girl moves from LA to Minnesota and discovers that she's a 'stork': a woman who pairs unborn souls up with their mothers-to-be. Bonus: In addition to the Norse stuff, there's some Snow Queen action!

Runemarks and Runelight, by Joanne Harris
Sea of Trolls, Land of the Silver Apples, and Islands of the Blessed, by Nancy Farmer

I know, I know. I can't believe I haven't read these, either. I FEEL LIKE SUCH A FAILURE.

From The World:

NORTH BEND — Students in a North Bend High AP history and literature class are frustrated and confused after school administrators pulled Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from their classroom last week.

On May 9, Dustin Hood and Scott Peters’ American Connections class started learning about post-World War II America. The class pairs history with literature, following literary movements in different eras. Peters complemented the history lesson with an assignment in postmodern literature: Read the first 30 pages of “The Bluest Eye” over the weekend.

...

Peters prefaced the assignment by telling his class of 40 students about the controversial content. If they didn’t want to read it, they didn’t have to, he said. Six opted out and chose to read a different book.

But the following Monday, Principal Bill Lucero came to the class with a box and asked the rest of the students to hand over their copies of “The Bluest Eye.”

There's a lot of great quotes in the article—it's well worth clicking through for the whole story.

...I rounded up some Deserted(ish) Island stories, some that I've read, some that I'm planning to read.

Feel free to suggest more, either in the comments here or there!

Related articles

Yesterday @KirkusReviews...

Yesterday @KirkusReviews...

Yesterday @KirkusReviews...

Today @KirkusReviews...

Yesterday @KirkusReviews...

...here's YALSA's list of 2014 Teens’ Top Ten Nominations:

The Nightmare Affair, by Mindee Arnett

Of Triton, by Anna Banks

Siege and Storm, by Leigh Bardugo

Love In The Time Of Global Warming, by Francesca Lia Block

The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau

The Eye of Minds, by James Dashner: 

Like the Maze Runner series—especially the sequels and prequel—the focus is far heavier on the action and the plotting than on characterization, and the third-person narrator tends to tell readers what our hero is feeling, rather than showing us (Michael knew his friends could see the anxiety on his face). For the most part*, though, it’s a solid techno-action adventure and I have no doubt that the Dashner Army will not only be super happy with it, but will immediately start clamoring for the inevitable sequel.

Earth Girl, by Janet Edwards

The Clockwork Scarab, by Colleen Gleason:

It’s fun, it’s smart, and despite the familiar components, it’s a solidly entertaining steampunk adventure. Most notably, it has a much stronger focus on the relationship between the girls than on any of the various romantic entanglements, and there’s a thought-provoking thread about feminism, and about cultural assumptions about gender roles: how “appropriate” conduct is defined by worldview.

Maybe I Will, by Laurie Gray

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die, by April Henry

Splintered, by A.G. Howard:

Like Carroll's Alice, much of the time that Alyssa is in Wonderland, things are out of her control. Unlike Carroll's Alice, though—and this is where my major difficulty with the book lies—Alyssa's loss of control can almost always be chalked up to one of the two guys in her life: Morpheus, a Wonderland denizen who has a penchant for fancy hats and a hookah, and Jeb, the aforementioned crush. She is bossed around, held against her will, lied to, and argued about as if she A) wasn't standing right there and B) someone with, you know, AN OPINION ABOUT HER OWN WELFARE.

Teardrop, by Lauren Kate

Openly Straight, by Bill Konigsberg

Monument 14: Sky on Fire, by Emmy Laybourne

Six Months Later, by Natalie D. Richards

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell

This Song Will Save Your Life, by Leila Sales

Steelheart, by Brandon Sanderson

The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson

This is What Happy Looks Like, by Jennifer E. Smith

Winger, by Andrew Smith

A Midsummer Night’s Scream, by R.L. Stine

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by April Tucholke: I read this one, though I haven't written about it at length. I had issues.

In The Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters: Ditto.

The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey: I read this one as well, and for the most part, enjoyed it hugely.

Click on through for information about getting involved.

Related articles

By the catalog: Abrams, Spring 2014.

The 2013 Whitney Awards...

The New York Times has released...

Madness, Tortured Romance, and a Heck of a Lot of Castles: Megan Shepherd's Love Affair with Gothic LiteratureOr, Megan Shepherd's Eight Favorite Gothics.

Splintered -- A.G. Howard

SYNC's 2014 Summer Schedule has been announced, so get to downloading!

...have been announced.

The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy went to:

Sister Mine, by Nalo Hopkinson

I haven't read this one, but it sounds so awesome that I just ordered myself a copy. It's about twin sisters, born conjoined, now separated. One of them who has magical abilities, one of them who doesn't.

From an excerpt at Tor:

“Abby, I’d swear it really did talk. A crab apple tree in that park at Queen and Sherbourne. I think it asked me where Dad was. Said it hadn’t seen him in a long time.”

Abby whipped her head around from the window to glare at me. “Stop it. Just stop it. Why are you always saying things like this? You’re embarrassing yourself. And me.”

“But—” Why did I say things like that? Because I couldn’t help myself. Because I craved more than anything else to have a little mojo of my own.

Click on through for the other category winners and nominees.

Related articles

The 2012 Nebula Awards nominees have been announced...

The 2014 Lambda Literary Award Finalists...

The 2013 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards...

New hardbacks:

Dangerous Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

End Times, by Anna Schumacher

Infinite Sky, by C. J. Flood

Now and Forever, by Susane Colasanti

Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark), by C. C. Hunter

The Rules for Breaking, by Ashley Elston

The Summer Invitation, by Charlotte Silver

V is for Villain, by Peter Moore

Biggest Flirts (The Superlatives), by Jennifer Echols

New paperbacks (that I've read):

School Spirits (A Hex Hall Novel), by Rachel Hawkins:

Fans of Buffy will love that Izzy’s relationship with her mother is complex and believable, that she almost immediately aligns herself with the school outcasts (who are all awesome), and that Hawkins turns the usual P.E. dodge-ball scene on its head when Izzy gets ticked off and accidentally dislocates a bully’s shoulder.