Hello, one and all! 2015 may have had a sad ending, but I hope you are all welcoming in the new year with hope and renewal. I spent the day re-organizing my bookshelves. Still not done--not by a long shot!--but progress has been made. Speaking of progress, if you want to win some books, make sure you read all the way to the end of the post!

Ok! It took some doing, but YA is now moved to the home office. I had it in the bedroom, but I really wasn't reading there. Now it's right next to the reading nook Jason made for me. #readnowsleeplater #bookstagram #newyearcleaning #bookshelves

A photo posted by Read Now Sleep Later (@readnowsleeplater) on Jan 2, 2016 at 9:55pm PST

Here's what I'm looking forward to this year:

Books: You guys, a new Maria V. Snyder book comes out in February! We'll be part of the Night Study book tour, so stay tuned for that. And there are so many other things coming out, too many to name at this point with the whole year ahead of us!

Events: Ruta Sepetys is coming to SoCal! and Thuy has handily updated the calendar for the next few weeks. I will likely be at this next week.

Movies: Oh, OH so much to look forward to. Captain America: Civil War will be out soon (I have already requested the day off) and there will be a slew of Tom Hiddleston things coming up, including High Rise (March 18, alongside Elisabeth Moss and Luke Evans, and based on the J.G. Ballard novel), The Night Manager (April on AMC, based on the John Le Carré novel, co-starring Hugh Laurie), and I Saw the Light, (March 25, based on the life of country legend Hank Williams, co-starring Elizabeth Olsen, who will almost certainly make me weep my face off in this movie). 

“@twhiddleston: Here's a little invitation to the High-Rise. https://t.co/zQb9UJHLAn” I cannot WAIT for this film!!!!!!!!

— James Corden (@JKCorden) December 14, 2015

Chills. I don't care if it's probably going to be a hot mess; I'm going to watch it anyway.

I can't even with the movie lists. I may be more excited about movies in 2016 than books in 2016.

Here's a pretty good PopSugar list of 100 books to read before they're movies* and a New Republic list of highly anticipated 2016 movies, with which I mostly agree (don't know about that Mel Gibson one, srsly).

* for the record, I don't think you should read the book before the movie if you haven't read it by the time you know the movie is happening. Read it after, if you like (the book is almost always better), but reading it before is just like spoiling yourself on purpose.

Comedy: David Cross, one of my most favorite comedians ever, is on tour for the next 6 months, and the husband bought us tickets. Much excitement.

Music: School of Seven Bells has a posthumous (RIP Benjamin Curtis) album launching in a few weeks. I must have it. New Animal Collective too! Cautiously trying not to think too hard about the previously unreleased originals and covers by the late Jeff Buckley in March. 

Things to do: Universal Studios Hollywood's Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens in April. OH MY.

So close I can almost touch it #hogwarts #wizardingworldofharrypotter #universalstudioshollywood

A photo posted by Read Now Sleep Later (@readnowsleeplater) on Dec 20, 2015 at 12:10pm PST

I don't have resolutions, but I do have a couple of simple, and I think, doable goals this year:

1. Organize and declutter my apartment--really, I was good at this once! And can be again.
2. Finish knitting this thing I promised my friend I'd knit (sorry, Christina)
3. Get A's in my next 4 business classes--I just started my first one of the year!
4. Find a home for this kitty:

Yep, that's our sweet, nameless foster kitty who I will be very sad to let go, but let go we must--once we find her a good forever home. So if you're in the Los Angeles area and in the market for a young, well-behaved, formerly feral cat, please email me! She really is a stellar kitty... we'd very nearly trade one of our existing cats for her, except that would be really cruel (I'm just glad John Carter & Mars can't read!)

The rest of her cat colony (3 other cats) is still out there in the rain and cold :( I wish we could take them all in! If you would like to help them, please check out this fundraiser by my friend Esmeralda (who is saving up to get the remaining cats placed in a no-kill shelter).

What are you excited about or looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments!

If you're in the US, you can enter to win two of our favorite books from 2015, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

1. Open to the US only, ends 1/31/2015.
2. No purchase is necessary to enter a giveaway. Void where prohibited.
3. We are not responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged items.
4. One set of entries per household please.
5. If you are under 13, please get a parent or guardian's permission to enter, as you will be sharing personal info such as an email address. 
6. Winner will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter widget a day or two after the contest ends.
7. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to to the email, otherwise we will pick a new winner.
8. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at [email protected]
9. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY PERSONAL INFO IN THE COMMENTS. Sorry for the caps, but we always get people leaving their email in the comments. Rafflecopter will collect all that without having personal info in the comments for all the world (and spambots) to find.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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In May 2010, Cynthia Jaynes-Omololu, author of the YA novel Dirty Little Secrets, stopped by my Borders store in Glendale to sign copies of her book. I had read and loved her book, and sent her an email to let her know how much I enjoyed reading it. She was so gracious and thankful that she offered to stop by on her way down to Disneyland with her husband and sons for their annual trip. My store was in Southern California and she lived in Northern California with her family. It was incredibly generous of her to take time out of her vacation to meet me. We hugged warmly, and I got them all treats from our cafe. It was a short but unforgettable visit. I stayed in touch with her online afterwards. 

She was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago, and today her family and friends mourn her passing. I hope she is free from pain and suffering. My heart goes out to her loved ones. She embodied kindness, beauty, and love, and will be greatly missed.

She also leaves behind her books, Dirty Little Secrets, Intuition, Transcendence, and The Third Twin. You can find links to her work on her website at www.cjomololu.com.

Rest in peace, Cyn.

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I have lost count of how many times I have read and re-read POISON STUDY by Maria V. Snyder. It has been a few years since the last re-read, because I've been reading Maria's other books--there are so many! So while it's not quite like reading it for the first time, it's been refreshing in many ways. I love how it draws me in even after so many re-runs! (By the way, don't you totally want that new cover on a paperback to add to your MVS collection? I know I do!)

Thoughts on Chapters 1-8

I decided to start my read-along as a re-listen. The audiobook, read by Gabra Zackman, transports me back to 7 years ago when Fire Study came out. We sold out of the new book so fast, I had to wonder why I'd never heard of Poison Study before. I took it home and read all night. I don't think I moved from my bed until the last page was turned and the last tear wiped away.

Yelena, our main character, is sympathetic from the start, but not in a sorry way. I feel trepidation for her--I mean, she's evidently killed someone, she's paying with her life, and she's "set free" just to be poisoned? The first few chapters are a rollercoaster of hope and despair. The first time, I already knew I would enjoy the ride all the way to the end, because while she's down, she's not out. When she's offered a hand up, a glimmer of hope, she grabs it. She may not know yet what she's doing--there's a lot of self-discovery to come--but she's acting on instinct and a will to survive, and that made me love her at first sight.

Valek is a tricky one in many ways. Sure, he's in a position of power, and he's just poisoned the new poison-taster he hired out of the dungeon (so she won't run away, because she gets the antidote daily as long as she shows up for duty). He doesn't exactly inspire immediate thoughts of white-knight heroism... and that might be a good thing. He did offer her a chance to not wither away in the dungeon, but there's a lot of trust to be built if he and Yelena are going to be on the same team. 

Again, already knowing what will happen, I'm reminded how the changes in perspective really kept me hooked throughout the series. On the one hand you have the close-ups. It's Yelena and her personal troubles, trying to stay alive, trying to come to terms with the past that haunts her, and trying to gain control of her life. On the other hand you have the big picture, the Commander and his state, cleansed of magicians (mostly by Valek), trying to keep orderly peace and erase a bloody history of Ixia which had been overrun by cruel and power-hungry people.

It's going to be an epic adventure, and this is just the beginning.

---

There's still plenty of time to join the 10th Anniversary read-along! You can also check out thoughts on Chapters 1-8 at the other read-along hosts.

Two Chicks on Books
Fiktshun
Parajunkee
Mundie Moms
Read Now Sleep Later

The read-along schedule:
October 4th-10th: Chapters 1-8
October 11th-17th: Chapters 9-17
October 18th-24th: Chapters 18-25
October 25th-31st: Chapters 26-32 and closing post

Please tag your tweets and Instagram pics #PoisonStudyReadAlong! Link your read-along posts here:

The Giveaway

10 winners to celebrate 10 years!
Grand Prize is a signed hardcover first edition of Poison Study and Magic Study (both books).
First Place a signed hardcover first edition of Poison Study
5 winners will get a signed cover flat of the original cover of Poison Study
3 winners will get a signed original bookmark for Poison Study

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A weekly post about writing and life in general

You may have noticed (or not, I don't know, really) that I haven't been posting much YA lately. There was a recent online kerfuffle that really put me off of YA for a long while, just couldn't even stomach it at all. (I don't want to talk about it.)

I'd either start listening to an audio book and find that I'd drifted off for 30 minutes and had no clue what was going on (I've since switched to podcasts like Twisted Stitches and Joy Sandwich) or read a few chapters of a new (and popular, and best-selling) book and find myself scoffing at every sentence. Normally, I enjoy a good scoff, and will read a train wreck of a book to the end just to see what happens, but I couldn't be bothered this time.

It's been so negative and so annoying for me that I actually quit my YA book club and gave away hundreds of my books. I still have a few hundred to go through that I'll be selling, and a few that I held back for friends but forgot to give to them. I made a few exceptions for reading books I'd already committed to blogging/promoting before I got all grrr/arrgh.

So what have I been doing post-kerfuffle?

• Went to school. I have had to take the summer off because of Comic-Con and many things I signed up for before I knew I would be in school this year.
• Read middle grade like Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave and The Incredible Three and a Half Superheroes
• Visited my cousin in upstate New York. I was trying to help her clean her mom's house to prepare for her coming home from her first round of chemo, but then my aunt passed away while in hospital. More on that later this week when I write about Me and Earl and The Dying Girl. Also, I watched Me and Earl and The Dying Girl. You should, too.
• Reading picture books like Kate Beaton's The Princess and the Pony and Paley-Phillips & Deppe's Little Bell and the Moon. More on those later this week, too.
• Knitting and sewing. I am switching back and forth between an Aerea shawl and a Moone Boy hat (will be posting the chart for that when I finish it!). I have a few sewing projects too but I haven't worked on them recently.
• Buying fabric. I blame Thuy.
• Watching The Jinx on HBO. So creepy, I actually want to watch it again.
• Playing Fallout Shelter. Tip: Women and pregnant children are invincible, so kick all the men and non-preggie ladies out into the Wasteland then Rush all your rooms multiple times to rack up some Caps. It's time-consuming, but no one dies and you can really max out your resources if you're patient.

So how am I feeling about YA now?

Previous obligations: I had some commitments to fulfill in terms of posting blog tours, which I did even though I was really struggling to write about YA books without writing about it. I went to a signing for Undertow where Michael Buckley begged me to come back to the community (I said I'd think about it!) and a Fierce Reads event so Thuy wouldn't have to go by herself. Undertow was the last YA book I bought, by the way. I also still had to help run the Pasadena Loves YA festival (which went really well, but I haven't had the urge to blog about it--maybe Thuy will come through for you with a recap ;)

Social media: I think as long as I stay off of most social media, I can handle it without getting all GRRR again. It's tricky since I have so many online friends who are very involved with YA. The recent John Green Tumblr debacle did not help, but I was able to walk away from that one after reading just one post (of the rational variety, which I think helped a lot). So, yeah. Social media filter is on high alert.

Audiobooks are OK: I have "read" a couple of YA books this week that didn't make me feel ill or make me roll my eyes--they were actually quite good and didn't trigger the aversion I had from a couple of months ago. One was Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu, which you can enter to win here until 6/29/2015. I don't know if I would have gotten through it without a plane ride and the audiobook version. The other was The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson, also on audiobook, which I listened to on the plane coming back from NY. I'm a little lukewarm with the book itself, but I really enjoy the reader (and the 30 different accents she has to use for the various characters) and can't wait to start The Shadow Cabinet.

Enthusiasm is contagious: I also recorded a Tagalog tutorial for Leigh Bardugo to introduce her to some words for her Philippines tour. So if she told you "Maraming salamat!" and pronounced it correctly, then I say "Walang anuman!" I am having so much fun reading the PHYAbloggers recaps and looking at their photos, so if you saw her in Cebu or Manila, please leave a link in the comments so I don't miss your post. I love her so much, and I am waiting on tenterhooks for Six of Crows to appear in my mailbox.

Me and Earl and The Dying Girl: I cannot emphasize this enough. If you love cinema, this Sundance Grand Jury prize winner is a must-see. I am preparing to go on about it at length.

So yeah. I have not forsaken all things YA. I joked to a friend of mine that I'm making exceptions for YA written by white male authors and personal friends of any gender. But beyond taking photos of our incoming mail, I'm leaving the reviews to others on the RNSL team. It still takes so little to set off my ire, annoyance, and frustration--I think I'm going to stick with the picture books and middle grade novels for the moment.

I found that post-kerfuffle, I'm not as jealous of people going to BEA and ALA as I have been for the last couple of years. It's also been nice to have some of my personal time back. Do you have any idea how much time I spent per week reading, writing, and promoting about YA? A lot! Going to signings was especially time-consuming. Fun, but I don't miss it as much as I first thought I would.

I'm also going to be moving to a new apartment next month, so I don't anticipate getting much reading done until August when that's all over. But I did start moving some "white male/personal friend" books to my office bookshelf so I can try to get back into the reading groove in short bursts on my lunch breaks and 10s at work. Baby steps.

So, how's your reading life going? I genuinely want to know.

---

If you're reading this reasonably close to June 20th, you can see my Instagram stream of the past few weeks here: You can also check out our blog's Instagram @readnowsleeplater.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL #arclight Q&A with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and Thomas Mann #arclightpasadena #medg #meandearlmovie Bring tissues (for crying into, not the other thing you're thinking of, which is disgusting.) Got a sweet card from a happy fund-raising readathoner. Thanks, Z! @sudabaki #thankyou My peonies opened on this beautiful, sad morning. My aunt Elenita Allarey Cruz has gone to meet the Maker of all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. May she rest in God's love, free from pain and worry. #peonies #beautifulmorning #restinpeace I wonder if this walkway gives people seizures #airport #lights #detroit Just one more cabinet to assemble! Then it's up to the residents to keep organized. #cleanup #organization Long way to go. But we are getting there! #cleanup #organization And nearly infinite patience for flat pack furniture assembly #cleanup #organization Needs a little wipe, but #vintage #hellokitty. So that's where that went. #treasures #buriedtreasure #cleanup #organization Treasures so far: Chuckie Finster #nickelodeon #cleanup #organization #treasures #buriedtreasure This will all be off to tomorrow's tag sale! #organization #cleanup #before

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On Saturday, February 21, 2015, the inaugural SCIBA Children's Literacy Day took place at the Hilton Long Beach conference rooms. A diverse group of speakers including authors and publisher representatives addressed an audience of teachers, librarians, and other supporters of children's literacy, alongside a host of children's book experts from our local independent bookstores. I carpooled down with my friend Alyson from Kid Lit Frenzy, excited about seeing old friends from the our bookloving community, and seeing all the great new books coming out for the season.

The day began at 9 am with a continental breakfast and a special guest, former teacher and Mexican-American author Pam Muñoz Ryan, who presented about her career as a children's author and provided background about her latest novel, Echo, which all of the breakfast attendees received. The book grew from her research into the school desegregation case commonly known as the Lemon Grove Incident (Roberto Alvarez vs. Lemon Grove School District) and evolved into a story of several children from different times and places connected by an unlikely item: a harmonica.

Pam Muñoz Ryan and the children's booksellers of Vroman's Bookstore (Pasadena, CA) show off Echo

After breakfast, the children's representatives from several publishers--Penguin, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Scholastic--recommended their best picks from the new spring/summer crop of books. I won't go into that in too much depth during this post, as I'll be posting throughout the week about books from each publisher in a separate post.

Our luncheon speakers included 5th grade teacher and debut author Dan Gemeinhart (The Honest Truth), YA author and screenwriter Andrea Portes (Anatomy of a Misfit), and living legend Jane O'Connor--yes, the author of Fancy Nancy herself--who spoke mostly in her capacity as an editor of children's nonfiction at Random House. Attendees received the aforementioned books, along with intermediate nonfiction title Who Was King Tut?, penned by O'Connor under one of her pseudonyms, Roberta Edwards. This was followed by two talks, one with Ingram representative Beverly Fisher talking about services to libraries. Author Stacey Lee (Under a Painted Sky), one of the founding members of the We Need Diverse Books movement, moderated a Diversity in YA panel with Ayize Jama-Everett (The Liminal People, The Entropy of Bones), Cynthia Kadohata (Half a World Away), and Sherri L. Smith (Orleans).

To round out the panels for the day, attendees chose between one on children's nonfiction with Jane O'Connor and our friend Alyson Beecher from Kid Lit Frenzy, and another featuring debut YA authors Leah Thomas (Because You'll Never Meet Me), Sarah Tomp (My Best Everything), and Henry Turner (Ask the Dark). Courtney Saldana, the librarian behind the Ontario Teen Book Fest, moderated. I really wish I could have been in two places at once, as I was interested in the nonfiction panel too, but I'd signed up for the YA one. I also wish I could have brought a photographer along, as I was having issues with my phone that day (so many blurry, dark photos!). Maybe next year. (You can search for other people's photos on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #scibakidlit and #scibakidlit2015.)

Clockwise from top left: Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Penguin, Random House exhibits showed new and upcoming releases from each publisher

The exhibits area featured our children's publishing representatives, Roz Hilden from Scholastic, Kelly Stidham from Simon & Schuster, Nicole White from Penguin, and Nicole DuFort from Random House, as well as booksellers Mrs. Nelson's Book Fair and Library Services (Pomona, CA) and Once Upon a Time Bookstore (Montrose, CA). Rounding out the event was a cocktail hour including signings and book with yet still more authors, including MG/YA author Shannon Messenger with Keeper of the Lost Cities: Everblaze, YA author Elana K. Arnold with her middle grade debut The Question of Miracles, debut YA author Elissa Sussman, and author/illustrator Dan Krall with his new picture book Sick Simon. I'll be featuring more of these titles later in the week!

I can't decide which of the books I picked up yesterday is the most exciting, but also I feel like it's going to take me a solid year to work through all of these titles. Do you know what I was even more excited about though? The people! It was wall-to-wall book people, my favorite kind. Author Salina Yoon (Stormy Night) attended, and I really have to remember to get my photo taken with her next time. I love her so much! I had breakfast with Book Beastie (you should follow her on Tumblr :) Teachers and librarians were everywhere, including my teaching idol and Nerdy Book Club member Cathy Blackler and my book club buddy Emily Aaronson. I also met Lana and Erin from Chaucer's Bookstore in Santa Barbara (where my good friend Colleen worked during college), and Susie from Once Upon a Storybook in Tustin. I had a chance to catch up with Kim and her daughters (who run a school book club in Upland) while waiting in line for author signings. I even carpooled home with Carolyn, the YA reviewer from Kid Lit Frenzy. I'm probably forgetting a ton of names... some I'm not entirely sure if they want to be mentioned, so if I met you yesterday and you want to be mentioned by name, hey, leave a comment!

I really had a ton of fun at the first SCIBA Children's Literacy Day! I was so tired afterwards, but happy, too. If you are a teacher, librarian, or other school or literacy professional, you can sign up for annual membership in SCIBA on their website, www.scibabooks.org (though at this point, I'd wait until the end of the school year so your membership is valid for the next big children's events--fall and spring). The way the event is priced usually varies (I purchased tickets for every meal of the day, plus membership, which totaled $170), but trust me, it's completely worth it, whether your goal is to network, meet authors, learn about upcoming releases, or gather up books for your classroom or library. I also hope educators and librarians will continue to come and interact with their book industry representatives, to find out the ways in which publishers and independent bookstores can support literacy and programming in classrooms and libraries.

Thanks to the Andrea Vuleta and the rest of the awesome folks at SCIBA for welcoming us to their event, and may there be many more!

Follow SCIBA on Facebook and Twitter. For more info, go to www.scibabooks.org.

Find your local indie bookseller at www.indiebound.org.
Bookstore Links:
Once Upon a Time
Vroman's Bookstore
Mrs. Nelson's Book Fair
Chaucer's Bookstore
Once Upon a Storybook

More info on featured books and authors coming soon!

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This week is Banned Books Week!

I almost forgot to post about it, but I saw my friend Yukari had changed her profile pic to the CBLDF logo with Bone, and that was a great reminder. 

Banned Books Week is an annual event to celebrate the freedom to read. I am eternally grateful to my parents for trusting me to be able to make my own reading choices and not policing my reading. I understand if parents want to be involved with their kids' reading choices, but to then try to impose those restrictions on other people's children? Whoa, nellie. I'm so glad that there are people out there creating awareness to combat those who would seek to censor ideas just because they don't agree with them.

You can find more info at www.bannedbooksweek.org and banned comics at www.cbldf.org.

Here are some of my favorite banned or challenged books. Are you surprised at some of them? What are your favorites?

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As most regular readers here (ie, at least 2 of the trio!), Press 53 is publishing an anthology this fall entitled Visiting Hours that I edited.  A blog has been set up for the collection and while I'll surely be posting about Visiting Hours at this site, much more will be written about it over there.  I hope you'll venture over a few times between now and November.

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