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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: featured title, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 11 of 11
1. Featured Title: TRUE GRIT, by Charles Portis
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By: Micol Ostow, on 3/28/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  True Grit, Charles Portis, featured title, risk-taking, Add a tag


Hey readergirlz:
Happy Monday and welcome to another Featured Title that perfectly exemplifies this month's theme, Risk-taking: True Grit by Charles Portis. 
This cult favorite novel has had a resurgence of popularity of late, due to the equally-riveting Coen brothers' remake of the movie of the same name. In case you've managed to miss both the book and the movie, here's the synopsis via Amazon: 


True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash money. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory. 

True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. 


The Wall Street Journal had this to say about the book: 
"Charles Portis details the savagery of the 1870s frontier through an astonishing narrative voice: that of the 14-year-old Mattie Ross, a flinty, skeptical, Bible-thumping scourge."


If you haven't guessed by now, Mattie would have fit right in among the readergirlz - she's a fearless character who faces risk and danger without flinching, even when men twice her size - not to mention her age - falter. 


Now, we divas would never suggest watching the movie instead of reading the book, but it's nice to

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2. Featured Title: HARMONIC FEEDBACK, by Tara Kelly
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By: Micol Ostow, on 3/14/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  featured title, risk-taking, Tara Kelly, Add a tag

Hello and Happy Monday, readergirlz! 
Today, we're featuring Tara Kelly's pitch-perfect (pun fully intended) Harmonic Feedback. 





"Since early childhood, Drea has received diagnoses that vary from ADHD to mild Asperger's syndrome. “All I know is I make sense to me—it's other people who seem complicated,” she says. Yet after she and her single mom move from San Francisco to Bellingham, Washington, to live with Drea's cranky grandmother, Drea, a talented musician and aspiring “sound designer” who “had never even felt what could be considered a crush,” forms a band with wild, purple-haired Naomi and fellow new kid Justin, with whom she begins her first romance. Without overexplanation, debut novelist Kelly offers readers a strong, authentic sense of Drea's inner life and daily struggles."
--Booklist


I loved this book, and how authentically and sensitively Drea's character is portrayed. Despite her "condition" (which is never fully clarified, which I suspect is deliberate), she's relatable to all readers, and her willingness to open herself up despite fear of rejection is very inspiring. This month's theme is Risk-taking, and it seems to me, as a writer, that writing about a character with any form of disability is inherently risky; one fears that the book will become "about" the disability rather than the character. 


Can you think of another book that takes risks with a physically or emotionally challenged protagonist, successfully? 



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3. Featured Title: BROKEN SOUP, by Jenny Valentine
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By: Micol Ostow, on 2/21/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  loyalty, Broken Soup, Jenny Valentine, featured title, Add a tag

Happy Presidents' Day, readergirlz! We hope you're getting some good reading in over the long weekend! 


If you're looking for a recommendation, how about today's Featured Title, Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine? 




Positive.
Negative.
It's how you look at it. . . .
Someone shoves a photo negative into Rowan's hands. She is distracted but, frankly, she has larger problems to worry about. Her brother is dead. Her father has left. Her mother won't get out of bed. She has to take care of her younger sister. And keep it all together . . .
But Rowan is curious about the mysterious boy and the negative. Who is he? Why did he give it to her? The mystery only deepens when the photo is developed and the inconceivable appears.
Everything is about to change for Rowan. . . . Finally, something positive is in her life.
Award-winning author Jenny Valentine delivers a powerful and life-affirming story of grief, friendship, and healing that will resonate long after the last page.

This month's theme here at the blog is Loyalty, and Broken Soup is a complex matrix of relationships both friendly and familial alike. In the aftermath of her brother's death, Rowan finds loyalty and love from some unexpected new friends; in the end, she learns to rely on these newcomers as a sort of makeshift extended family itself. 

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4. Featured Title: THE TRUE MEANING OF CLEAVAGE, by Mariah Fredericks
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By: Micol Ostow, on 2/14/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Valentine's Day, loyalty, featured title, Mariah Fredericks, Add a tag

Hello, readergirlz, and happy Valentine's Day! This is the perfect day to spotlight Mariah Fredericks' wonderful friendship tale, The True Meaning of Cleavage, because I absolutely loved this one!



*A little bit of background: I was working as a very junior level editor at the publishing house that released this book, and I remember very clearly seeing the cover at an early positioning meeting. I was immediately hooked. A great cover for a fantastic book!



Sari and Jess are best friends and total opposites. They've liked each other ever since they discovered that they are the only two normal people at Eldridge Alternative. As they prepare to face the trials of ninth grade, Sari is psyched. Jess is not. How can she face the Prada Mafia, the most evil clique in school? Or Mr. McGuiness's unnervingly long nose hair? What if something really interesting happens to Sari and nothing whatsoever happens to Jess?


But not even Jess can predict the mayhem that erupts when Sari falls madly in love with David Cole. David is a senior. He's been dating Thea Melendez for forever. So he couldn't possibly be interested in Sari. Or could he? And if he is, where does that leave Jess?


Fredericks writes with confidence and authenticity about the very real complications of even the deepest friendships. I'm so excited to welcome her to the blog today! Here's what she had to say about Loyalty: 


Loyalty. That promise we make to friends and family to be on their side. To never hurt them. Never betray them. Loyalty is what makes friendship a refuge, a place in this world where you can reveal yourself without fear. (That is, until one friend spreads the other friend's business all over town.)

We get through life with allies, people we trust to be there for us. Always. And in the same way. But of course, people change. And c

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5. Featured Title: A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS, by Megan Whalen Turner
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By: Micol Ostow, on 2/7/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  loyalty, megan whalen turner, featured title, a conspiracy of kings, Add a tag

Hello, readergirlz, and welcome to our first official Featured Title of February! This month's theme is Loyalty, and our trusty postergirlz have done an amazing job, as always, of selecting books that perfectly embody that theme!


Today I'm so happy to shine our spotlight on A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS, by Megan Whalen Turner. 



"Teenaged Sophos is his uncle's heir, but his love of poetry and lack of interest in ruling have caused his father to send him to a remote villa. When it is attacked by the king's enemies, Sophos is sold into slavery, where he begins to mature and develop both physically, from the hard manual labor, and emotionally. He makes the decision to escape slavery and try to resume his place as heir and eventually king of Sounis, traveling to Attolia to try to recruit support from its queen and king, Sophos's friend, Eugenides, the protagonist of The Thief and The King of Attolia. Layers of intrigue follow Sophos as he tries to protect Sounis from various groups of enemies, leading to a surprising twist at the conclusion."
--School Library Journal


Here's what Megan Whalen Turner has to say to us about Loyalty: 



When I was younger, I had an idea that virtues like patience, honesty and loyalty were pretty simple and always for the good. (That’s what it meant to be a virtue. Duh.) They might not be easy to practice, but the concepts involved didn’t seem particularly convoluted. That lasted right up until I

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6. Featured Series: MATH DOESN'T SUCK, by Danica McKellar
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By: Micol Ostow, on 1/31/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  hope, danica mckellar, featured title, Add a tag

Happy Monday, readergirlz! Today, instead of a Featured Title, we've got a whole entire SERIES as our nonfiction pick for the month. And boy, do I wish these books had been around when I was in school.

It's no secret that historically, the perception was that math and science were "boy" subjects, while girls obviously gravitated to the social sciences and the arts. As a theory, it had, um, a few flaws. Sexist? Yep. Unfair? Sure. Self-fulfilling? Definitely. I can tell you from personal experience that after a few less-than-stellar experiences with math, I decided I was a hopeless case, and wrote it off. If only I'd had a role model to encourage me, and to push me to rethink my attitude toward math!

If only I'd had someone like Danica McKellar.
Here's what she has to say about her books, the MATH DOESN'T SUCK series, and her own experiences in school:


Let's get a few things straight: Acne sucks. Mean people suck. Finding out that your boyfriend kissed another girl? That would totally suck. Too much homework, broken promises, detention, divorce, insecurities: suck, suck, suck, suck, suck.
But math is actually a good thing. Here are a few reasons why: Math builds confidence, keeps you from getting ripped off, makes you better at adjusting cookie recipes, understanding sports scores, budgeting and planning parties and vacations, interpreting how good a sale really is, and spending your allowance. It makes you feel smart when you walk in a room, prepares you for better-paying jobs, and helps you to think more logically.
Most of all, working on math sharpens your brain, actually making you smarter in all areas. Intelligence is real, it's lasting, and no one can take it away from you. Ever.
And take it from me, nothing can take the place of the confidence that comes from developing your intelligence—not beauty, or fame, or anything else "superficial."


The MATH series is a perfect fit for this month's theme, as McKellar gives girls everywhere hope that with a little patience, we can conquer anything, even those school subjects that seem scary and overwhelming. 
And it's no surprise that McKellar makes such a poised spokesperson; some of you may know her as the teen star of the tv show,"The Wonder Years." Check out this video, where she talks about her own experiences with math!
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7. Featured Title: POSITIVELY, by Courtney Sheinmel
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By: Micol Ostow, on 1/10/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  featured title, hope, courtney sheinmel, Add a tag

I'm so excited to welcome Courtney Sheinmel to readergirlz today! I've seen her out and about at various NYC author functions but hadn't "met" her until her fantastic, moving, and oh-so-HOPEful book, Positively, was chosen as postergirlz pick this month. I loved it when I first read it, so I was glad to have the chance to tell her so in "person."


"Emmy is infected with the HIV virus, and her mother, infected before she married Emmy's father, dies of AIDS at the beginning of the book. Angry and alone, the 13-year-old moves in with her semi-estranged father and newly pregnant stepmother. At a loss for how to help Emmy recover from her grief and alienation, they send her to a summer camp for girls with HIV and AIDS. There she realizes that she is not alone, not the only person to take handfuls of pills on a daily basis, not the only girl who worries about the complications of dating with the virus. She returns home with a new perspective, welcoming her half sister into her life and admitting her newfound desire for a happier, more "positive" existence...  Emmy's situation is compelling and underrepresented in YA fiction." -- School Library Journal

Compelling is definitely the right word! Here's what Courtney has to say about hope:

Once when I was fifteen years old I was babysitting for three kids, two girls and a boy.  The boy had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and back then, in the early 1990s, that diagnosis was often a death sentence.  The conversation turned to what the kids wanted to be when they grew up.  The boy said he planned to be a baseball player.  I always had hopes his future, and at that moment I truly concentrated on it:  Please, PLEASE let him grow up.

Eighteen years have passed, and he’s a grown up now.  A few weeks ago I had lunch with another friend.  She’s a college freshman and she also happens to have HIV.  We were talking about what she wanted to do with her life.  I was throwing out suggestions and thinking, Oh, please, let her find her way.  Hours later I realized her being HIV-positive didn’t occur to me when we were talking about her future – not once, during the entire conversation.  There was just no doubt in my mind that she does have a future – a long and glorious one – ahead of her.&nb

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8. Featured Title: LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW, by David Levithan
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By: Micol Ostow, on 12/13/2010
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  david levithan, featured title, Love is the Higher Law, Add a tag

Happy Monday, and happy holiday season, readergirlz! It seems to me that our theme for December, Compassion, is perfectly suited for this time of year, and more than that, this week's featured title, Love Is the Higher Law, is a book that perfectly embodies that theme.



First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption as his characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever.



Some readers who come to LITHL may not have actually lived through 9/11, which makes this book important in how it communicates the ways that the powers of kindness and compassion helped New Yorkers -- and those who weren't physically here on that day -- move beyond the terror and incomprehension of the attacks. For those of us who were here, and who recall the aftershocks all too vivdly, Levithan's testament to human generosity feels refreshingly -- and reaffirmingly -- accurate. 


"This, I think, is how people survive: Even when horrible things have been done to us, we can still find gratitude in one another." 


That's a quote from Claire, one of the three protagonists of the novel. Last week, when I put out the question of other examples of compassion in the book, our own divas had this to say: 


There's compassion (and shock, and sympathy, and empathy, and disbelief) in Love is a Higher Law from the beginning. For example, flip through just the first chapter and look at that scene where Marisol grabs Claire's hand. (Little Willow)
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9. Featured Title: WHITE CAT (The Curse Workers, Book One), by Holly Black
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By: Micol Ostow, on 12/6/2010
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Holly Black, White Cat, featured title, Add a tag

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.


Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.


With White Cat, Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Holly Black, bestselling author of Tithe, Ironside, and The Spiderwick Chronicles (to name a very few), has a reputation which precedes her in the best possible way. My most-respected grad-school colleagues and aficionados of urban fantasy have had nothing but lavish praise for her work, and likewise her original acquiring editor at my old stomping grounds of Simon & Schuster. When she came to speak at my Vermont College Alumni Mini-Residency this past July on the subject of world-building, I knew I was in for a treat. 

Holly's opening words of wis

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10. Featured Title: HOLD STILL, by Nina LaCour
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By: Micol Ostow, on 11/8/2010
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  featured title, nina lacour, hold still, Add a tag

This week, our featured title is one that deals with how we move forward in the face of grief. HOLD STILL, just out in paperback, would be a beautiful, worthy pick no matter what, but we think it particularly dovetails with this month's theme of resilience.

The book has received rave reviews from trade journals and readers alike, and with good reason - steady pacing, authenticity, and wonderfully-rounded characters make for a compelling read. Don't believe me? Here's what School Library Journal had to say:

After losing her best friend, Ingrid, to suicide, Caitlin is completely immobilized. Unable to function, and refusing to visit a therapist, she begins the long journey to wellness alone. During this year of heart-wrenching, raw emotion, Caitlin finds Ingrid's journal, which not only reveals her descent into irreversible depression, but also serves as Caitlin's vehicle for renewed hope in the future. The book is written with honesty, revealing one's pain after the loss of a loved one. Caitlin learns, with the help of new friends and her parents, that there is life after Ingrid.


I'm thrilled to welcome Nina LaCour to readergirlz!


Recently I did a Q&A on my blog, and a woman named Melissa wrote in to ask if I found it difficult to write about grief. This is what I told her:



"Yes, Melissa, it was really hard. On one hand, it was difficult because I wanted Caitlin’s emotional state to be believable–I wanted her to be appropriately stunned and confused and sad–but I also had to keep in mind that people would (hopefully) be reading this, and that most readers (myself included) can only take so much angst. Angst is a good thing, but it can only take you so far."
My novel, Hold Still, is about a 16-year-old girl named Caitlin who has to face life—and high school—after her best friend’s suicide. It wasn’t easy to put myself in that situation and imagine what it would feel like to be her. But the novel isn’t as sad as you might think, and the joyful parts, when Caitlin is discovering the wonders of life again, feeling things

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11. NOVEMBER Featured Title: BEFORE I FALL, by Lauren Oliver
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By: Micol Ostow, on 11/1/2010
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  featured title, before i fall, Lauren Oliver, resilience, Add a tag

Hello! Welcome to November at readergirlz!


The new month brings with it a new format for all of our amazing featured titles; with this new approach, we'll be able to spotlight more books than ever. So please help me celebrate our first title - which was one of my absolute favorites of last year: BEFORE I FALL, by Lauren Oliver!



Here's what School Library Journal had to say about this breathtaking book: 

Samantha Kingston has worked her way up the popularity ladder; now a senior, she and her three best friends rule their school. On Cupid Day, Sam expects to receive Valentine roses, to party with her friends, and to finally (maybe) have sex with her equally popular boyfriend. The last thing she expects is that she will die, but in the final moments of her life, as she hears "a horrible, screeching sound—metal on metal, glass shattering, a car folding in two," everything turns to nothing. Only, it is not the end for Sam. She wakes up to start the same day over again, and again; in fact, she relives it seven times....Moving and cathartic.

Just reading the book description gives me the chills! 
Lauren was kind enough to offer up some thoughts on this month's theme, "resilience." Here's Lauren: 

Hey hey! Lauren Oliver here, author of BEFORE I FALL and the forthcoming DELIRIUM. I’m so psyched to be featured on the awesomeness that is readergirlz. I’m particularly honored to have been selected to participate during a month in which resilience is being celebrated. Resilience—the ability to recover from being wounded, to pick yourself up after stumbling, and to strive constantly for betterment and happiness, no matter how often you are confronted by difficulty and pain—is such a critical quality to cultivate, both in a general Life-Sense and, in particular, for a writer.

Writers, of course, need to be tremendously re

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