Claire Again. 

Okay y’all, Melissa here and we have something extremely important to discuss today.  I just finished reading the third book in the Winner’s Curse trilogy, so let me give you the spoiler-free lowdown on...

The Winner’s Kiss

First off, I’ll just say that I hate the title.  Like, YES there is considerably more kissing in this book than in Crime (LOLLLLL ‘cause there was none in Crime), but kissing wasn’t the point of this finale??? I personally think that The Winner’s CROWN would have been a much better title (also would have kept the “C” trend.  It’s actually perfect. ugh no one consults me.)

BUT I will TOTALLY take a dumb title over the AWFUL NEW COVERS they were proposing! For those of you who somehow missed that whole debacle, Macmillan announced back in November that they were going to do a complete overhaul of the covers.  Before the series was even finished.  After releasing the original cover for the new book (as seen above).  COMPLETE MAYHEM ENSUED.

UGH. I physically cannot look at them.  The best part, though, is that... Don’t these covers look familiar? Hmmmm... Like, super familiar.

WAIT. I KNOW.

Look at that.  It’s uncanny.  And so unfortunate.  ‘Cause unlike Celaena of Throne of Glass, Kestral is not an assassin. IN FACT she can barely throw a knife. No, Kestral uses her wit and smarts to tear you down.  As soon as you show any weakness, she will destroy you with her words and war tactics.  She’s very Sherlockian at times.  So these new covers make no sense.

But this rant has a happy ending!  Macmillan heard our cries! They listened!  Over Christmas they announced that they were throwing out the new covers and going back to the originals.  Which is HUGE.  I have been lamenting various cover changes since the dawn of time and no one has ever listened. It is so heart-warming.

Anyway, the point of all of that is that I would take a title like The Winner’s Poop Bucket if it meant I didn’t have to look at those covers on my book shelf.  REJOICE.

So let me get back to my thoughts on the actual content of the final book, haha.

The Winner’s Kiss (foreal this time)

Ugh, guys, it was SO. GOOD.  You will not be disappointed in this last installment.  I will admit that I had been extremely hesitant about starting this book because I just couldn’t see how everything would be resolved in a way that I wanted.

First, the ending of Crime was BRUTAL. Like tear my heart out, throw it on the ground, and jump on it repeatedly brutal.  Let’s just recap the ending real quick (if you don’t want to be spoiled because FOR WHATEVER REASON you haven’t read Crime, don’t read):

Kestral gets shipped off to a prison camp in the north

Arin sails away for his home in Heran

They both said some pretty gross things to each other beforehand

My babies, come back! Love each other! 

So how was Kiss going to fix everything?!  Even if Arin and Kestral somehow made their way back to one another, how could they reconcile all the things that were said??? Needless to say, I was emotionally distraught before I even started this book.

BUT WORRY NOT. Marie is badass, and she throws some completely unexpected twists at you from the very beginning. And, between you and me, she COMPLETELY makes up for the lack of kissing in Crime.  And then some. (I’m wiggling my eyebrows right now).  Girlfriend totally got my back.

And, some might say more importantly, she wraps up the major conflict with the emperor of Valoria in a way that I greatly enjoyed, but didn’t guess at all.  You go, Marie.  Like, I had a couple guesses for how everything would end, but even when I only had 50 pages left to read, I still had no idea.  So HOLLER.

The Winner’s Kiss is definitely worth the wait and all of the drama over covers.  Honestly, I’m going to go back and read it again ‘cause I sort of inhaled it this time around lolllll

The book doesn’t actually come out for another month (March 29), but GUYS IT’S SO WORTH IT. Just hold out a bit longer!  And then come back here and discuss it with me, obvs.

Peace, Melissa

[Publishing] is a world where writers of color are damned if they do and damned if they don’t—we often find ourselves either being asked to “emphasize” (read: exoticize) our identities (“I love your writing about race,” one editor told me. “Do you have anything else like that?”) or pretend our difference doesn’t exist, to pretend our trauma doesn’t exist, to pretend that the audience we’re looking back at isn’t 90 percent made of white men. We’re pulled in so many directions, it’s a wonder we still have the energy to produce creative work. “Indict us!” the white audience shouts. “Comfort us! Teach us!” It’s an enormous amount of pressure. Sometimes, it can be embarrassing. In the words of Jay Z, “Can I live?”

Morgan Parker in Equity in Publishing: What Should Editors Be Doing? (via richincolor)

A look at recent YA books by Latino authors, providing “much-needed windows for all readers.” @schoollibraryjournal

Hello!

I’m Claire. I am 25, still shelving away at the bookstore, and hopefully a librarian someday. A little about me: My favorite things in the whole wide world are reading, movies, popcorn, tiny towns on Lake Erie, music, art and making art, and British panel shows. And also my fellow booksellers. I will love them forever.

I tend to be a bit of a reading odd-ball. I adore children’s books, especially middle-grade, picture books, and YA. And pretty much in that order. I read a possibly unhealthy amount of romance novels, fair number of graphic novels, the occasional literary memoir, and fiction. I will probably post a lot about illustrators, book covers, and picture books. Because they are pretty much my favorite things about the book industry.

This year I am attempting to branch myself back out into grown-up people lit. Because, like Tori, I don’t usually have the attention span for an adult book that takes me longer than a week to read.

My favorite books of all time are the Queens Thief middle grade series by Megan Whalen Turner. I will probably be writing at least one entire post about my love for her and her books. I have a very strong belief that absolutely everyone needs to read her books. They are wonderful and hilarious and Eugenides is just the bomb-diggity and holy-crap Attolia and Eddis are badasses and I could go on and on. -> Like that sentence, WHAT!

I can’t wait to get started!

A Diverse Reading List For The Holidays: Because representation matters. We’ve gathered some of our favorite authors and characters from 2015 who speak from just a few of the myriad perspectives humanity has to offer. (Don’t see what you’re looking for here? Send us a chat!)

Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates

Negroland by Margo Jefferson

City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcón & Sheila Alvarado

Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older (@danieljose)

The Book of Phoenix by @nnedi Okorafor

Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial by Kenji Yoshino

Everything, Everything by @nicolayoon

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (@rahdieh)

The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak

The Girl at the Center of the World by Austin Aslan

Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt

Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin

A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk

All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu

The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

Peruse all of our holiday lists here!

H! Alia here.

I’m holding an OMG-I’m-going-to-TRY-to-read-all-these-books-this-weekend reading party by myself for these books in time for the American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards on Monday morning! These are just a few of the books being considered RIGHT NOW in secret meetings by the Newbery Committee…

Follow this link for a live webcast of the awards on Monday (8am) and info about every award up for grabs!  

These awards are where they announce the Newbery, Caldecott, Geisel, Pura Belpré, Printz, Sibert, Odyssey, Stonewall, Coretta Scott King, Schneider Awards and more…That’s a lot!! And I’m SO EXCITED for it.

Also, the ALA Midwinter Conference is underway in Boston. Ah a land of Book Talk, ARCs, F&Gs and cool people…

Teachers! Holding Mock Caldecotts and Mock Newberys are GREAT ways to get your kids excited about reading. Woo!

Yay for books! Yay for book awards!

Hello! :) Bookwench #2 reporting in. Here’s a little about me...I’m Alia, I’m 27 years old and I love books, cake and Korean food.  I used to be an elementary school teacher in Daegu, South Korea for about four years. Daegu is famous for being hot (it’s in a valley), has lots of great food and people there have the best Korean accent ( it’s like a tough southern accent). With a background in teaching and experience in children’s bookselling, my contributions to The Bookwenches will mostly be children’s literature related.  I specialize in Picture Books. You have questions? I have answers. Need a suggestion? You got it. You like looking at pretty pictures?...WELL ME TOO! I also read quite a bit of middle grade and some YA. I like a little bit of everything; fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi, fairy tale, realistic fiction, romance, coming of age novels, graphic novels etc.  One of my favorite books of all time is Zel by Donna Jo Napoli. Like Tori, I like that medieval, princessy but AWESOME story stuff!  In 2016, I’m looking forward to Sherman Alexie and Yuyi Morales’ new book Thunder Boy Jr. It’ll be Alexie’s first picture book!! If you don’t know him, just check out The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. You won’t regret it. I’m also looking forward to Pugs of the Frozen North by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre!  You can also check me out at my blog readitrealgood.com and I have a twitter @readitrealgood. On my blog I share diverse and excellent reads. It’s intended to be a resource for people looking for great kids books, especially ones focusing on diversity. I also discuss diversity in literature and publishing and share my thoughts from time to time. 

Nice to meet you...만나서 반갑습니다! 촣은 하루 되세요! ^_^

This is just to say that there’s a number of ways Rowling could’ve made her Magical North America work without causing real harm to a lot of real people. That would be for her to have treated American peoples — all of us — with the same respect that she did European. Pretty sure she would never have dreamt of reducing all of Europe’s cultures to “European wizarding tradition”; instead she created Durmstrang and Beauxbatons and so on to capture the unique flavor of each of those cultures. It would’ve taken some work for her to research Navajo stories and pick (or request) some elements from that tradition that weren’t stereotypical or sacred — and then for her to do it again with the Paiutes and again with the Iroquois and so on. But that is work she should’ve done — for the sake of her readers who live those traditions, if not for her own edification as a writer. And how much more delightful could Magic in North America have been if she’d put an ancient, still-thriving Macchu Picchu magic school alongside a brash, newer New York school? How much richer could her history have been if she’d mentioned the ruins of a “lost” school at Cahokia, full of dangerous magical artifacts and the signs of mysterious, hasty abandonment? Or a New Orleanian school founded by Marie Laveau, that practiced real vodoun and was open/known to the locals as a temple — and in the old days as a safe place to plan slave rebellions, a la Congo Square? Or what if she’d mentioned that ancient Death Eater-ish wizards deliberately destroyed the magical school of Hawai’i — but native Hawai’ians are rebuilding it now as Liliuokalani Institute, better than before and open to all?

N. K. Jemisin

http://nkjemisin.com/2016/03/it-couldve-been-great/#sthash.YYqbnjzj.dpuf

(via absintheabsence)

Waiting on Wednesday

A weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that people are eagerly anticipating.

My choice for Waiting on Wednesday this week is:

The Land of 10,000 Madonnas by Kate Hattemer

Publication: April 19th 2016 by Knopf, 352 pages

Five teens backpack through Europe to fulfill the mysterious dying wish of their friend in this heartwarming novel from the author of The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy. Jesse lives with his history professor dad in a house covered with postcards of images of the Madonna from all over the world. They’re gotten used to this life: two motherless dudes living among thousands of Madonnas. But Jesse has a heart condition that will ultimately cut his life tragically short. Before he dies, he arranges a mysterious trip to Europe for his three cousins, his best friend, and his girlfriend to take after he passes away. It’s a trip that will forever change the lives of these young teens and one that will help them come to terms with Jesse’s death. With vivid writing, poignant themes, and abundant doses of humor throughout, Kate Hattemer’s second novel is a satisfying journey about looking for someone else’s answers only to find yourself.

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Publication: March 22nd 2016 by Dial Books, 352 pages

The intrigue of The Virgin Suicides and the “supernatural or not” question of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer coalesce in this young adult mystery, where nothing is quite as it seems, no one is quite who you think, and everything can change on a dime. Every story needs a hero. Every story needs a villain. Every story needs a secret. Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous. What really happened? Someone knows. Someone is lying. For fans of Holly Black, We Were Liars, and The Raven Boys, this mysterious tale full of intrigue, dread, beauty, and a whiff of something strange will leave you utterly entranced.

YAAAAAASSSS! Well Read Black Girl is awesome. Check out this great interview and get with it. <3 Also Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The Biggest Problem in Publishing? The Invisibility of Black Women Writers

And how #WellReadBlackGirl is changing the game.

MC: What do you hope people will get from following WRBG?

GE: Whenever I read a book that speaks to me, I immediately want to tell the world about it. Every post [on Instagram] is about a writer I admire, a book I’ve read, or a title I’m adding to my “To Be Read” pile. When people use the hashtag #WellReadBlackGirl, it suddenly transforms the solitary experience of reading into a social activity.  

People are constantly looking for diverse reading recommendations. I spend a lot of time finding compelling content produced by Black women: new book releases, essays, poetry, culture writing, etc. I want WRBG to give these extraordinary writers a voice and introduce them to new audiences. Publishers need to fully acknowledge the role Black women play in literary culture. We’re creators, as well as consumers. We deserve that recognition.