Mrs. Magoo's Third Edition

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Books to Review

Kiss Me Kill Me
Impulse
The Squad: Perfect Cover
The Outsiders
Glass
Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty
Drama! The Four Dorothys
Drama! Everyone's a Critic
Poison Ink
The Adoration of Jenna Fox

I also need to send interview questions to Diana Rodriguez Wallach and Stephanie Kuehnert.

Contests on my blog...

August:
ARC of Farworld: Water Keep
Fun shirt

September:
1st prize: Copy of She's So Money
2nd prize: Family Guy shirt
Fun shirt

October:
Copy of Amor and Summer Secrets

I also introduced a new feature to my blog, Movie Monday. Head on over to see what it's all about! :)

DEPARTMENT OF CRAP, I FORGOT IT'S TUESDAY!

I'd just like to take a moment to celebrate the fact that I am now MORE THAN HALFWAY THROUGH EAST OF EDEN!

I love you John Steinbeck, but why must you make every other main character a whore? I am just saying...

Now, this is gonna be real quick, seeing as I am already late for volleyball practice, and when you are the coach, this is not a good thing.

DEPARTMENT OF AWESOMENESS

Elizabeth Scott. Living Dead Girl. Whoa. She came and knocked me off my feet. AND she did it in half the amount of pages as everyone else. Go Elizabeth!

DEPARTMENT OF WHAT ARE YOU READING NOW?

Savvy Girl by Lynn Messina. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. And East of Eden, of course.

DEPARTMENT OF COVER COOLNESS

I want to read this book. I dunno what it's about, or if it's YA, or who publishes it, but the cover is kick butt.

DEPARTMENT OF YA TRENDS

Faeries. Or Fairies. Or Feries? Either way, there's gonna be a LOT of them soon, if The Story Siren's snazzy list in any indication.

DEPARTMENT OF REASONS WHY THE UK IS WAY COOLER THAN THE US

Here. Need I say more? I think not. You are welcome, my Hamburger-a-go-go friends.

DEPARTMENT OF AUTHORLY AWESOMENESS

Susan Juby. Have I mentioned her? And her awesome new book, Getting the Girl? Yes? Hm, oh well....


Read on my, my friends. I'm off to go hit balls at middle school girls--I mean coach volleyball.

TCR

Chelsea's Reading Week

TuesdayTuesdayTuesday! I love Tuesdays. For one thing, it's Teen Tuesday (duh.) And then for another, it's the day new Shockwave games come out (Yes, I'm a dork. Shut up.) Oh, and there are two new shows coming out on Tuesdays this coming week. And hopefully, I'll like them. So in my book, Tuesdays are something to look forward to.

Except when school starts the next day. -smacks forehead- I really hope I'll be able to keep up with my reading...

Speaking of which, this week I read...

-1/2 of The Orpheus Obsession by Dakota Lane
-Remembering Raquel by Vivian Vande Velde
-The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
-Death by Latte by Linda Gerber
-1/2 of The Host by Stephenie Meyer

I was trying to finish The Host by the end of today, so I wouldn't have to post the "1/2"s, but I had stuff to do today and I just didn't make it (plus, the 600-page length probably contributed to that, too...) Every single one of these books I enjoyed. Maybe I'm in a happy mood, or maybe I'm just easy to please - but truthfully, I think I've just gotten some good karma. Hallelujah, because I needed some. Until next week...

Chelsea
thepageflipper.com

Reading is Becoming Hard to do with School (Vanessa)

Blog URL: whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

Message Board URL: likeomgteensread.com (click Here where it says "Looking for the Message Board? Click here".

E-mail: whatvanessareads@hotmail.com

Salve! (Or hello. I'm learning Italian in school).

So I should be doing homework, but I rather post on Teen Tuesday. Today is August 26 I believe. I've been in school for almost a week and because of this my reading is much less. 

I started The Luxe by Anna Godbersen last week. It's a 400-page book. No, I'm not done with it yet. I'm about halfway done. As I've said on my blog, I think its one of those gooood books that you just have to savor slowly. I really like it. It's so different from anything I've read. Horses, huge dresses, yet the drama is still clearly there. It must have been so hard to live back in the early 1900s. Anyway, I'm halfway done with that.

Two, I read I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder about a day ago?

 It took me an hour to read. It was a good book. The review will come up shortly, I have to fix some things. Other than that I've read nothing more.

I went into Barnes & Noble today to buy an Italian-English dictionary and came out with the dictionary and a copy of Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. Don't ask me why I went in that bookstore with the intent to buy ONE book (dictionary) and came out with TWO. I think one of the reasons why I bought Impulse is because its free verse. I Heart You, You Haunt Me is a free verse and I'd never read one of those before. I liked the concept of free verse and want to read more books like that.

Hopefully I end up reading more books. There's a surprise for all you readers out there coming up but I won't say what yet. Also, the Like OMG Teens Read Newsletter (likeomgteensread.wordpress.com) will debut very very soon. August 31 is the day. So wait around for that.

Keep reading,

Vanessa

I didn't get a lot of reading in...(Meaghan)

Hey guys! I'm new here, as you can probably guess. Well, my name is Meaghan, and I'm 13. I just started eight grade. Today, actually. :D Anyway, I was enjoing my last week of summer, so I only got a little reading in this week. Most of it was by the pool, but we'll go into that later. :D

The only book I actually finished was Marthe Jocelyn's Would You. It was a short read, around 150 pages, but it was a very good read. I enjoyed the writing style of it a lot. I was just looking through the book to find stuff to write about it and I actually just noticed that it's not written in past tense. It's written in present tense. I quite like that, actually. :D

So...more about Would You. Nat's life is thrown into chaos when her best friend and sister, Claire, is hit by a car. Claire enters a coma. While Nat is waiting for her sister to wake up, she dosen't know what to do. She can't help to think about Claire. Will Natalie's praying work? Will Claire ever wake up?

Then I read parts of Peeps by Scott Westerfeld and The Book Theif by Markus Zusak. I quite like Peeps and I'm starting to get into The Book Theif, but I don't really have much to say about them. I'm only on page 80 out of 550 of The Book Theif, and 139 out of 312 of Peeps. Expect reviews in another post. :D

I'm going to the library later today. What should I check out?

I Need More Reading Material!!!! (Kelsey)

So, I've read a bit this week, better then last week I think. Although, this whole weekend was busy, I had to get up at six in the morning to have a Yard Sale, that went from eight in the morning to one in the afternoon. So I was pretty busy that Friday morning, and extremely tired. I stayed up to like twelve-thirty that night, so I didn't get much sleep. Then I had to wake up again Saturday morning at six, but the weather was really cold, like October/November cold. So we put the stuff out and then put it back in, all before seven in the morning, and I again the night before, went to bed at eleven-thirty or so. So yeah, I didn't get much reading done those two days, but I did finish one book that I started on Thursday, Saturday night. So the books I read this week are:

1. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
2. Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart
3. House of Dance by Beth Kephart
4. The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson
   
5. 1/4 of Peeled by Joan Bauer

I have come up with a name for the little awards thing I do here every week. It will now be called The Little Bestie Awards! So now for The Little Bestie Awards:

• Best Character: Charlie in The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson
  
• Best Plot: Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart
  
• Best Setting: House of Dance by Beth Kephart & The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
  
• Best Writing: House of Dance by Beth Kephart

Winning Book(s): House of Dance by Beth Kephart.

Now, the books I plan to read. Well pretty much the same as last week. Unless I miraculously get a book in the mail or find a new book in the library when I return House of Dance by Beth Kephart, which as of today, is overdue, so, yeah, not much else. But today is my last week before school starts exactly a week from today. Yippee! Not. So probably when school starts I'll be reading about two maybe three books a week. But when school starts I can get this book that i realized was at my school library this summer, Pretty Things by Sarra Manning, which I am so pysched to read! I *heart* Sarra Manning. Otherwise, I think I might start rereading Sarah Dessen's books if I don't find any other books to read. Which will be alright since the only book I've reviewed of Sarah's on my blog was Just Listen, and even then that was me rereading it.

One think that i am really excited for is Book Swim, which my grandmother is giving me six months on it! So that'll be six months of unlimited books to read. But, I'll have to wait until November 17th, my birthday, for it. Which is okay, 'cause I have just got addicted to Polyvore.com, so that'll pass my time. (If you have an account on Polyvore, tell me! My screen names KelseyBee.)

Okay, I just found out I won a book contest! Yippee, there's two books one and a teaser for a new book! Woohoo!!!!

*Me doing a little dance.

So now I can add Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra and Sleepless by Terri Clark (Did you know there is actually a singer named Terri Clark? She has a hilarious video with Johnny Depp, or a guy who looks extremely close to Johnny Depp, in his Pirates of the Caribbean role, and John Wayne, I think his name is. And just because i'm bored, I'll post the video below. ) So, yay! I'm really excited. Oh, and maybe the school library got a ton of new books this year? that would be awesome. But, yeah, I think that's about it for this edition of Teen Tuesday.

Here's the video: (They didn't let me embed it....)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESMIQLvKZ7A

P.S. I'm having a huge contest on my blog! Check it out! Oh, and sorry, I know I keep complaining about me not getting much reading material. Sorry!

Quick, Hyde! [Megan]

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of ten novels and many short stories. She also happens to have three books in my to read pile. I decided that with my current interest in her, I wanted to find out a little more about her and her experiences as a writer. She has done some guest blogs for other Teen Tuesday members on their main blogs and various other interviews and commentary can be found online.

A while ago I blogged about starting Chasing Windmills and how much I was enjoying reading it. The content matter is a little difficult for me to read, so I have been slow with continuing it. So many aspects of the book and the writing style really struck a cord with me. When I was contacted regarding reading another Hyde book, I quickly jumped at the chance to own a copy of Love in the Present Tense. And the last time I was at the library I went ahead and picked up the only novel they have of hers, Pay It Forward.

Catherine Ryan Hyde was born in 1955 (you can do the math on that if you really care!) Interestingly, Pay It Forward was not originally intended to be a young adult publication but it became a crossover success and Hyde decided to publish more book in the young adult classification. She is an avid hiker and greatly enjoys the outdoors. This interest has even brought her to my home state of Utah. I found these pictures of her visiting some of the beautiful rock formations on her website.

In a California Readers interview conducted early this summer Hyde shares the pieces of writing that influenced her the most growing up.

People think I'm joking, but my first really influential author was Dr. Suess. There was a message behind his words. He was always stressing equanimity, dignity. Individual worth. Plus he was entertaining. I still enjoy Dr. Suess to this very day. Later, as a young adult, I read BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN. FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. OF MICE AND MEN. The plays TWELVE ANGRY MEN and A RAISIN IN THE SUN. I think this is when I began to know that my own writing would be in defense of the social underdog.

She continues (on a Story Siren guest post) that she likes these books "because they were about character I could understand. People who felt 'other.' People who almost nobody wanted to know in real life. But exploring them in fiction brings out their humanity."

Here is Catherin Ryan Hyde on the Today show talking about her books in general and Love in the Present Tense specifically.


Anne Curry says to Hyde, "You tend to write what people don't expect to read." I think this comment connects on a very deep level with Hyde's interest in marginal characters and her understanding of humanity.

Visit me on my main blog to find out what else I am reading!

Very First Guest Blog!

Instead of posting my own Teen Tuesday blog, I invited someone else to post a guest blog, just for fun. So, to keep my rambling short, here is Kathryn Williams, the author of The Debutante!

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Chelsie’s asked me to write a blog post for Teen Tuesday, and I feel really bad because it’s super late -- like two weeks late. If this were a school assignment, I would have gotten a big, fat, red ‘F.’ (Sorry, Chelsie!)

In my defense, the last two weeks have been occupied with revisions on my second YA novel, The Lost Summer, before it goes to the printer for ARC’s (advance reading copies). Which brings me to my point for this post… I HATE REVISING!!!!!!

Which kinda stinks, because it’s the most important part of the writing process. Seriously, revising is absolutely essential and what separates okay writers from really good writers. First drafts are never good. Never. (Here’s a great essay by one of my favorite authors on that topic.) Usually second drafts aren’t all that hot either. I’ve been working on my fourth draft (my first book, The Debutante, took six), which means I’ve read the book what feels like a thousand times. (So has my editor -- thanks, Liz!) Sometimes I’m just plain tired of reading the same words over and over.

And it’s hard to take a red pen to your own work. It’s hard to hack away at it, take out parts that you really love but that just don’t fit, and to add scenes here or figure out where just one more line might change the whole tone of a scene. It’s not easy. Sometimes my eyes glaze over as I’m looking at the page, and I’m thinking, “I’m never gonna get this right. Maybe I should go to cullinary school…”

I also feel like I could revise FOREVER. There are always words I would change or dialogue I might add. Even now as I read The Debutante, I want to call up my editor and ask, “Can we change ‘neglect’ on page 145 to ‘abandon?’” We can’t. The book is on shelves, where it’s supposed to be, and you have to know when to let it go. Which is part of why I hate revising -- it’s the song that never ends.

Still, as I slog through revisions, marking up my manuscript with a colored pencil yet again, creating a rainbow of colors with the notes already made by my (amazing) editor and copyeditor (it looks something kind of like this), I know that I’m making progress, even if I don’t feel like it. (If I were revising this blog, I would note that that was a run-on sentence.) I’m earning my readers. And while the book will never feel Done with a capital ‘D’, when I finally hold a finished copy in my hand, all those revisions will have paid off.

Which leads me to say, woefully, that while I hate revising, sometimes a writer’s gotta do what a writer’s gotta do. It’s totally worth it.

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Thanks Kathryn!!