Tuesday 30 April 2013

Hot Books in May 2013

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The books that the UK publishers are bringing out in May to make us drool.
Pan Macmillan
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Bloomsbury
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Atom
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Headline
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Chicken House
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Indigo
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Stripes Publishing
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Penguin
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Mira Ink
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Templar
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Hot Key Books
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Oxford University Press
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Hodder & Stoughton
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Electric Monkey
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Harper Collins
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Simon and Schuster
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Orchard Books
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Gollancz
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Strange Chemistry
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Choc Lit
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Walker Books
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Orion Children’s Books
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Which books are you coveting?

Top Ten Tuesday - Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme organised by The Broke and The Bookish. This week the theme is which top ten words/ topics instantly make me pick up or buy a book.
1) New Adult
With the new craze for New Adult books hitting the blogosphere, I have to admit to being a huge fan. I can’t get enough of these contemporary romance novels. It takes me back to my own journey into adulthood.
2) Abbi Glines
If Abbi’s name is on a book then I want to read it. At the very least own it. She writes the hottest male characters I have ever come across and I can’t resist losing myself in one of her books.
3) Dystopian
When dystopian books first hit the bookshelves I was all over them. Now I don’t tend to read them as much, but I am guaranteed to pick up a book if dystopian is mentioned in the blurb.
4) Ghosts
I love ghost stories. Anything chilling and disturbing and I want to read it. I devour all Susan Hill books as I want to be scared.
5) UKYA
If a UK author has written a Young Adult or children’s novel, then I will happily read it. I avidly support the UKYA authors and it would be lovely to see them all recognised by the world.
6) Fae
There doesn’t seem to be as many faerie books around these days. When YA first hit the scene there were loads of them and I loved reading them. Holly Black was one of my favourite fae writers – I loved Tithe and Valiant. Also let’s not forget Melissa Marr’s Ink Exchange.
7) American Road Trip.
I love road trip books. I think it comes from my deepest desire to travel across America in a winnebago. I didn’t travel a lot when I was young but I always wanted to.  Road trip books awaken the desire to just drive off into the sunset.
8) Mystery
This is a new genre for me, but I am slowly getting into mystery novels. I really like ones aimed at the children’s age bracket. I think that takes me back to my own childhood when  I read Enid Blyton’s mystery novels such as The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.
9) 1980’s
I love books set in the 80’s. I suppose it’s because it the era I remember so well from being young and foolish. I was a Brat Pack girl and loved all the films that came out during that time. Unfortunately there wasn’t may YA books set around that time, so it’s lovely to see YA books appearing now set in the 90’s.
10) Fantasy
I’m slowly picking up more and more books in this genre. I  read quite a few last year including books by Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo and it’s definitely a genre I want to read more of.

Monday 29 April 2013

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

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Mama says no matter how poor folks are, whether you’re a have, a have-not or a break your mama’s back on the crack in between, the world gives away the best stuff on the cheap.  Like the way the white-hot mornin’ light dances in diamonds across the surface of our creek.
Pages – 298
Published by Indigo on the 2nd May 2013
Goodreads Summary
A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey's younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and taken to re-enter the "normal" life of school, clothes and boys.
Now, Carey must come to terms with the truth of why their mother spirited them away ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won't let her go ... a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn't spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.
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It’s hard to put into words, how I feel about this book. It really rocked my emotions to the core. A few days after finishing it, it stills plays heavily with my thoughts. If Carey and Jenessa were real people, I would have to write to them to show how much their story touched me. The characters are that realistic, representing every child who has suffered  some form of abuse in the world. My heart aches when I think about the girls and how many children have been through similar experiences.
I don’t want to go into too much detail about the book because I really think you need to go into with your eyes wide open, your ears ready to listen and your heart ready to welcome these wonderful children into your life.  The harsh reality of this book will take your breath away. The strength of friendships and family bonds will restore it.
Carey’s voice is very authentic from the start, expressing her opinions in  a voice of a neglected child. She has a  hardness about her, that loosely covers the innocent child within. She had to do what was right. She had to make decisions that would keep her six year old sister Jenessa safe. Between them they hide secrets that will affect the rest of their lives and by the end of the book you are aware of what they have really been through. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there is  sequel that will show what happens when the truth is truly free.
Carey and Jenessa have a lot to deal with  as their world changes beyond recognition, yet they face each new situation with courage and honesty. They quickly learn about life and your heart bursts like a proud parent.
The writing is beautiful and poignant. I can’t believe this is Emily Murdoch’s first book. She has created a book that will be passed from hand to hand. Word will quickly spread about the awesomeness of this book.  I will certainly be making the people around me read it. If you read one book this year, make it this one. 
This book has the emotional pull of Wonder by R.J. Palacio and the harsh reality of Room by Emma Donoghue and The Bunker Diaries by Kevin Brooks. A life affirming read that highlights the parallel between the good and the bad in  everyone’s life.

YA From My Youth by R.M. Ivory

While talking to Katy Moran and R.M. Ivory about books that we read when we were teenagers, I came up with the idea for this post. Wouldn’t it be lovely to explore the YA books that authors read while growing up. Katy Moran recently reviewed The Outsiders for me and now R.M. Ivory who you may previously have known as the author Rhian Tracey. Rhian is now writing under her married name –R.M. Ivory. She wrote four books for Bloomsbury and has just finished writing an exciting new YA novel that will hopefully be published very soon.
So here are the books that helped R.M. Ivory get through her teenage years.
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Books have always played a huge role in my life. I learned to read very young and ever since then I’ve never been happier than when a book is in my hand. Whenever I had a problem as a teenager I would turn to fiction and quite often non-fiction too. I’ve always made sense of the world through reading and writing.
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” Philip Pullman
Here are some books that stand out in my memory from when I was a teenager.
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Paula Danzinger – The Pisatchio Prescription
The Pistachio Prescription was one of the first books I knew was written for me just by looking at the cover. A teenage girl sits on her rug surrounded by magazines looking fed up. I knew that pose, I knew that look, that girl could be me. I can picture the bookshop where I found it whilst searching for something…different. It was an independent bookshop with very steep wooden stairs leading to a small carpeted children’s section. I had read most of the titles in there and was looking for something new, something that wasn’t Narnia, that wasn’t Enid Blyton but that was right for me. As strange as it sounds now with such a wealth of wonderful YA titles readily available, back then the choices were children’s titles or adult.  I’d had enough of the children’s titles but the adult ones looked boring, too far away from my world to merit serious consideration. I was searching for something about a thirteen year old and that’s when I discovered Paula Danzinger.
When I picked up the slim volume I’d never heard of a Pistachio. I didn’t know it was a nut until I read the first line of the book.
‘‘Pistachio nuts, the red ones cure any problem.’
I read the novel in one sitting and added Pistachio nuts to my mum’s weekly shopping list. I needed them in my life just like I’d needed the book. I would come to reread this novel and several other Danzinger titles over the years breaking the spines and eventually having to sellotape the pages back together.
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Judy Blume – Tiger Eyes
This wasn’t the first Judy Blume title I read, in fact it might have been one of the later ones but it is the book that has stayed with me the most despite the lure of the sex scene in Forever which was passed around my group of friends with the reverence of a bible.
‘It is the morning of the funeral and I am tearing my room apart, trying to find the right shoes to wear.’
I’d recently been to my first funeral and when I read the first line in the bookshop I knew that this was something I wanted to understand more about. The book came home with me and sat on the shelf next to many other Judy Blume titles, but this one, Tiger Eyes was different.
This one dealt with serious issues and tore off the layers of hidden meaning I had heaped on the word death. For the first time this book taught me to look it in the face, to confront it and ask some big questions of myself and the world around me.
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The Lady in the Tower – Jean Plaidy
I had no idea as a young teen that there were books written about Kings and Queens which were stories too. I was slowly making my way through nonfiction historical titles written by Eric Ives, Antonia Fraser, E.M.Warnicke and other impressively serious sounding people. When my mum introduced me to Jean Plaidy my two favourite topics – history and stories seemed to come together like a match made in heaven. I read everything she had written in fast succession which resulted in my picking C16th History as one of my A-level choices.
When I see that tile on one of my bookshelves I am instantly transported to a summer holiday in Spain. I am sat on an uncomfortable plastic white chair, on a small balcony in the stifling heat that only a pale Celt cannot bear, reading. I opened the book and fell into a world of mystery, murder, courtly love, …… and fell in love with historical fiction. I can picture myself waving off the rest of my family to the pool, or the beach or a day trip out to visit a castle or a monument, all I wanted was to be left alone with Anne Boleyn as she awaited her fate.
‘Here I lie in my dark prison.’
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The Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
I was given this wonderful book at quite a young age, possibly 9 or 10 and devoured it. It is a book I have read so many times and have written about myself in my third novel The Bad Girls Club.* I felt so passionately about it that I wanted to include it in my own writing. It is a book that has strongly shaped my thinking, reading and writing. It is one of the most influential books I read as a young girl and then re-read as a teenager and then again as an adult.
‘On Friday, June 12th, I woke up at six o’clock and no wonder; it was my birthday. But of course I was not allowed to get up at that hour, so I had to control my curiosity until a quarter to seven.’
I can vividly remember the nightmares that followed the first reading of Anne’s diary as the horror of her situation and far too many millions of others hit me.
This had happened.
This was not a made up story full of horror and hate and terror. This was someone’s life, someone my age, a girl just like me. Again I had the same thought as I did when I picked up the Danzinger book – this girl could be me. I can remember crying as I sat and digested what had happened to Anne. I was haunted by the black and white photos of the bookcase that hid the entrance to their secret hiding place in the Annexe. I still am haunted by those pictures; they are the first pages I turn to when I pick up the book as an adult. I’ve since had to replace my original copy of Anne’s diary and am keeping it for my own daughter, when the time is right.
*I write about The Diary of Anne Frank and Forever by Judy Blume in my 3rd novel The Bad Girls Club published by Bloomsbury.
Thank you Rhian for an amazing post. I haven’t read any of these which is really sad because I should have. Especially the Diary of Anne Frank, not to mention Judy Blume!
Books written by R.M Ivory:
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To find out more about R.M. Ivory:
Twitter / Allsorts Website

Any authors or bloggers wishing to take part in YA From My Youth please email me at vivienne_dacosta@hotmail.com.