November Giveaway Hop

With the end of 2011 approaching way to fast, I decided to make this giveaway to give you the chance to win one of my favourite books from 2010- just incase you missed out the first time around. The winner will be able to pick between Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This is an international giveaway assuming that the Book Depository ships to you for free. This is also my first time testing out Rafflecopter so hopefully it works as awesomely as it seems to for most people.

Author Interview with Caragh M. O'Brien

The title of the first book in the series, Birthmarked, is both literal and highly symbolic, is the meaning of Prized also so complex? Are there any hints you can give about its origin?

Let me first say, Zoe, you’re so nice to have me by for a visit during my blog tour. Thank you for such an interesting variety of questions. They’ve really encouraged me to ponder.

As for titles, I struggle with them, so I’m glad you think these work. The best titles invite someone to read the book and then take on resonance once the reader is further into the story. A member of the art team at Macmillan, Anne Diebel, came up with “Birthmarked” after I’d already suggested two hundred possibilities that didn’t work, like “The Baby Quota” and “The Freckle Code.” For “Prized,” I tried for a concept at the center of the novel, where girls are valued because of their scarcity. If you’re a girl, that might sound like a good thing, but there is a lot of unfairness when one group of people is prized over another, and the title matches how complicated things get for Gaia.

Did you always want to be a writer or was it something you discovered later in life?

This question is surprisingly difficult to answer because “be a writer” means two different things to me. I started keeping a journal in 7th grade and read everything I could get my hands on, so I was a writer in the real sense of the word long before it occurred to me that I could try to be a writer for my job. That discovery happened my senior year in college. Then life continued, you know. I’ve always written regardless of what other jobs I’ve had, and now with the Birthmarked trilogy, I’m a writer for my job, too.

How did teaching high school impact the kind of young adult book you decided to write?

Teaching undoubtedly helped my writing because I witnessed my students first-hand when they grappled with issues of injustice, so I knew they’d be drawn to complex moral stakes in a novel. I also gained a clear sense of how quickly readers can become bored, and how unforgiving they are once that happens, so I wanted to write a book that would be fun to read with a fast pace, adventure, and unexpected twists. Being with teens daily convinced me I never have to hold back in any way just because some of my readers are chronologically younger than I am. I hope Gaia captures a little of the bravery and resourcefulness I knew in so many of my students.

How would you describe Prized in ten words or less?

Ha! Here goes:
Gaia fights a matriarchy, guys, the environment, and her heart.

Any hints about what we can expect in Promised? (I had to ask!)

I’m deep into the 7th draft of Promised right now, and it goes to copy edits at the end of October, so it’s very much on my mind. You’re the first one who’s asked about it online, actually. I suppose the third book is what happens when the first two books collide. Yes. That’s what it is. It’s pretty intense, with some heartache and a bit of gore. My favorite things.

 
Prized Code #12: O


Caragh M. O'Brien is the author of BIRTHMARKED and PRIZED, two novels in a dystopia trilogy which will end in 2012 with PROMISED. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Ms. O'Brien was educated at Williams College and earned her MA from Johns Hopkins University. She has resigned from teaching high school English in order to write full-time.

Thanks so much to Caragh for stopping by In The Next Room! To learn more about her dystopia trilogy, stop by her website. To visit the rest of the stops on this book tour, click here.

Practical Jean by Trevor Cole

Practical Jean by Trevor Cole

Release Date: September 21st, 2010
Pages: 320
Format: Advance Reader Copy
Publisher: HarperCollins 
Source: TLC Book Tours
Buy It: Book Depository

Jean is an ordinary, small-town woman with the usual challenges of middle age who sees her mother go through the final devastating months of cancer, and realizes that her fondest wish is to protect her dearest friends from the indignities of aging and illness. And that's when she decides to kill them . . .

Unfortunately this book wasn't quite for me. The satire was well done, not the over-the-top kind that gets on my nerves like Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, but although I found moments entertaining I never quite bought into the initial premise. It seemed that perhaps Cole didn't spend enough time setting up the story, and I never really believed that Jean would kill all these people without thinking twice. While Cole gave her an interesting (and entertaining) reason for doing so, her progression into crazy wasn't quite believable and so it was hard to fathom that she would be okay with murder, even if she didn't want her friends to have to age. Perhaps if she was murdering somebody else she would potentially have to care for in their old age, like her husband, it would make more sense than killing off her closest friends, who she wouldn't have been responsible for, just because she loved them.

Another problem I had with the book was that I didn't care about Jean in the first place- her whole sob story about how her mom treated her and how nobody understands her art, none of it was expressed in a way that garnered any sympathy for me so I spent most of Practical Jean more frustrated with her than anything. I didn't even dislike her necessarily, she just annoyed me. There was also a strategically given speech by Jean that felt contrived instead of letting the story unfold naturally. Ultimately, Practical Jean is a novel with an interesting premise, but its execution and main character failed to capture my interest.

Waiting For Robert Capa by Susana Fortes

Waiting For Robert Capa by Susana Fortes

Release Date: September 27th 2011 (Published in Spanish June 2009)
Pages: 208
Format: Advance Reader Copy
Publisher: HarperCollins 
Translator: Adriana V. Lopez
Source: TLC Book Tours
Buy It: Book Depository

A novel of love, war, and art, based on the turbulent real-life romance of legendary photojournalists Gerda Taro and Robert Capa who documented the Spanish Civil War.

Love, war and photography, now those are topics that got me excited for this novel based on true events, but unfortunately they didn't quite add up the way I hoped. The first quarter or so of Waiting For Robert Capa moved slowly, but the language itself was so lovely that even if Fortes wasn't quite catching my interest, I was enjoying the lyricalness of her storytelling. However, once the novelty wore off, I found myself often bored and frustrated with the story. There was a lot of name-dropping, and that included mentions of individuals that while real, aren't incredibly well-known these days and that I regularly had to look up. The annoying part of this was that often names were used when it would have sufficed to say 'the man' or 'the woman' because the individual only appears in one sentence of the entire novel.

By around midway through Waiting For Robert Capa had come to a conclusion: novels about real people aren't quite my thing, as I was having many of the same issues I had earlier this year with The Paris Wife by Paula McLain occur again and perhaps they are a symptom of this type of book? What I am referring to is a lovely but detached writing, so that I never connect to the story. Both books also felt alternatively very slow, or very rushed, depending on which events they lingered on or hurried over. I wonder if I was more familiar with the history behind the these stories I would understand better why the authors did this, but ultimately I found that often things I found most interesting were hardly touched on. In Waiting For Robert Capa this included Gerda's history before coming to France, and Robert's experiences after the war as well as his relationship with his Jewish identity.

Ultimately Waiting For Robert Capa was written with lovely language, but those words told a story that I had difficulty connecting to and which often bored me, however a reader who enjoys novels from the perspectives of real people may find more to appreciate in Fortes' storytelling than I did.

It's Monday, what are you reading? (14)

Hosted by The Book Journey

I actually loved all of the books I read this week, which was a refreshing change as I seem to be picking up quite a few that aren't quite as delicious as I would have hoped lately. Not sure exactly how much reading I'll manage this week as I have an insane amount to do and I think I might try doing NaNoWriMo, but I'll manage my best.

Last week I finished reading:

Liesel and Po by Lauren Oliver

Loved loved loved this, incredibly whimsical and of course Lauren Oliver's writing is amazing. I know it's intended as a middle grade, but it's appropriate for anybody because it's so wonderful. I definitely need to purchase a hardcopy in the future.

Lark by Tracey Porter

I didn't realize this had the fantastical element it did (ghost girl) but it worked in a spooky and heartbreaking way. This is a little slip of a book but it definitely left an impact, I just wanted a little more from the ending.

Love Alone by Emmanuel Kattan

Just finished this earlier tonight,  so many quotable bits. It was kinda Milan Kundera meets Simon Van Booy and the result is an incredibly beautiful but slightly twisted love child. I may have to test my rusty French and pick up Kattan's other novel in its original language.

What I plan to read this week:

Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill

I didn't get a chance to start this memoir about tree planting yet but perhaps this will be its lucky week?

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

I was insanely excited when the latest Levithan- with pictures!- showed up in my mailbox so of course I am totally skipping ahead on my reading list to dig into this dark and creepy tale; not quite classic Levithan from Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Boy Meets Boy but I am certainly intrigued.

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead

I was really looking forward to this historical fiction set during WW2, and then two copies showed up in the past week, so now I have double the reason to read it! Plus, it's for an upcoming book tour.

What are you reading this Monday?

P.S. It's officially my 23rd birthday now. EEEK.