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Book Review: A Crack in the Line by Michael Lawrence (Series, #1) (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)
Summary:
Alaric lives in the crumbling Withern Rise house with his widowed father. Nothing has been the same since his mother’s death in a train accident two years ago. Now his dad is off helping his girlfriend get ready to move in with them, and his crazy Aunt Liney is there to keep an eye on him. Miserable, he touches a carving his mother made of the house from wood from the family tree years ago and finds himself transported to a parallel universe where a girl, Naia, is living his life–only with their mother still alive.
Review:
This may be one of those YA books that only someone in the midst of teen angst can truly appreciate, or perhaps an adult with a strong fear of losing their mother.
Alaric is an angsty teen, perhaps with good reason, but he’s annoying nonetheless. Thankfully, his Aunt Liney is present, and she is a breath of fresh air. The long-suffering, quirky aunt who was almost aborted and does not exist in the alternate reality is clearly important, but we never find out why. Probably this is key later in the trilogy, but I doubt I’ll struggle through simply to find out just how she’s a key factor. I also must admit that I find the obvious pro-life slant in Aunt Liney’s storyline annoying.
Although Alaric’s motivation for coming to and continually returning to the Naia’s parallel universe is clear, her motivations are not. Her world seems quite ideal, and Alaric is an unwelcome intrusion into it. She does not seem to possess a naturally curious or quizzical nature. This leaves half of the plot, Naia’s part in it, unclear.
The parallel worlds are interesting, but not nearly as creative as, say, Stephen King’s. The differences are all incredibly minor, based off of decisions and chances playing out in two different scenarios. A baby could be a boy or a girl. A mother could live or die. A sister could be aborted or kept. Yet how Lawrence draws the line on what counts as a chance or a decision is very unclear. Is every single choice and instance a decision? That would make the universes go on forever, which just seems highly illogical and improbable. I simply could not sustain my disbelief quite enough to get into it.
All of that said, I could see a teenager enjoying this story. Particularly one upset with his parents or wishing his life was minutely different in some way. I thus recommend it to a teen into fantasy and the concept of parallel universes.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
Friday Fun! (Reading Goals for 2012)
It’s that time of year again! Time to think about my reading goals for the year. Reading is one of my main passions in life (I’d say the others are writing, fitness, and animal rights). I love it, but I also like to see how I change and grow and provide myself with a bit of direction, especially now that I’m out of school. (YAY). To that end, let’s first take a glance at my goals from January 2011 and see how I did.
Successful:
- Read 100 books. I am so freaking HAPPY to say that I not only met this goal but surpassed it! Yay me!
- Frugality. I had a hard time deciding if this was actually a success or not, after all I DID purchase a kindle. However, buying my kindle opened up a whole world of cheaper books for me, including eARCs and the land of 99cent kindle sales. I also completely stopped using PaperBackSwap and found a library branch convenient to my lifestyle. By some odd combination of all three of those, I’d definitely say I drastically improved in this area, so I’m counting it a success.
Unsuccessful:
- Travel the seven continents. HAHAHAHA. This wasn’t just a fail. It was an epic fail. My first book for this goal set me off on a Chinese lit tangent and then getting to know Amy and Kinna got me onto Nigerian lit and Ghanaian lit and then The Real Help Project got me onto black lit and um….yeah. One thing I realized about my reading style is I get into things and read everything I can get my hands on in one fell swoop. That means these challenges that cover large areas are just not for me. I’m still happy with the new places I visited via my reading though.
Goals for 2012:
- TBR Pile Challenge with Amy. Amy was doing a challenge with her roommate, and I elbowed my way in. (Thanks, sweety!) As of January 1st, I had 47 books that I acquired before 2011 still unread. My goal is to finish them all this year and hopefully faster than Amy can finish hers (47 from before 2009). Whichever one of us finishes first gets a kindle book courtesy of the other. I obviously wanted to read these books at some point, so I may as well do so sooner rather than later! I mean, goodness, they were on my shelf over a year without being read? Oh dear. See the whole list here.
- Diet for a New America Reading Project. My passion for health and a reversion of the American health crisis and obesity epidemic led me to create this project. Every month (we hope) on the third Saturday I’ll be reviewing a pre-determined book and hopefully at some point each month at least one fitness book or cookbook. See the list of planned books and more details about the project here.
- One historic nonfiction book a month. Memoirs do not count, unless they are written by critical figures. Biographies do count. Preferably about: time periods I know very little about, history of non-whites in the US, socialism, animal rights, etc….
- Read 110 books. 100 books was such a challenge that I’m just going to push myself a tiny bit, haha.
- Finish catching up with my accepted ARCs. This was a goal in December, and I did a pretty good job with it. I’m almost caught up, but not quite yet.
- Read six environmental nonfiction books. The count last year was kind of sad for someone whose life goals involve minimalist living, positive or at least neutral impact on the environment, etc… Vegetarian/vegan/animal liberation books do not count in this category. Preservation of endangered species does.
Phew! I think that’s more than enough goals for me for the year! What do you guys think of them? Any plans for your reading for this year?
How to Successfully and Respectfully Pitch Your Book to Book Bloggers
So! You’re an author or publisher who has discovered the world of book blogging and says, “Hey! That’s a cool new way to market my book!” Excellent. We book bloggers love books and most of us view accepting ARCs as a mutually beneficial experience. We love books, and trust me, if we love yours we will yak about it ad nauseum. But! There are basic guidelines to submitting your book to book bloggers that you really need to follow or you’ll start the relationship off on a bad foot. Since I’m in the interesting position of being a book blogger and an indie author, I thought I’d put together a convenient set of guidelines for all those authors and publishers out there seeking to develop some book blog based marketing of their book(s).
- View marketing your book(s) via book blogs as developing professional relationships. Book bloggers are people too. Most of us do this as a hobby due to our love of reading. We can tell when an author or publisher views us as a tool. Take some time to get to know us by browsing our blogs, clicking through to our twitter or facebook or flickr, etc… Friend us on GoodReads or LibraryThing. Trust me. I can tell from the pitch email if the author/publisher has taken the time to do this or not.
- Read the review polices before submitting and obey them. Most established book bloggers have a set of review policies somewhere on their site, either under contact information or on a dedicated page. Take the time to look at and read these. We post them to make everything smoother for everybody. For instance, on mine I say I do not accept YA. You may read this and think, “Oh, but mine isn’t like other YA books, I’ll submit it anyway and tell her that.” No. Do not do that. Trust me when I say, I do not like YA. I avoid it. Yours is not special. You are not a unique snowflake. And besides, why are you wasting your time submitting to someone who already has an aversion to your genre? The beauty of book blogs is they let you seek out and find your own niche audiences. The review policies help with that.
- Do not pitch a book to us in the comments unless the blogger specifically states she prefers that. Most established book bloggers have a blog email or a submission form that they use to sort out the ARC pitches, since we really do get a lot of them. Comments are for interacting with our own readers, not for you to pitch your book.
- Find out our name we go by on our blog and use it in the pitch email. The only thing more insulting than getting pitched a book that we obviously wouldn’t want if the person had read our review policies is if they start the email by saying “Dear blogger.” Unless my name on the site is “blogger,” don’t call me that! Our names are usually pretty obvious if you take five seconds to browse our blogs. For instance, on mine on the right-hand sidebar there is both a Creative Commons license with my name on it and my twitter handle, which is my name. If you can’t take the time to address us by name, why should we take the time to read your book?
- Do not contact bloggers until you have the final copy that you want reviewed ready to send out. I encountered this problem multiple times in 2011 when reviewing ARCs. Either the author would send me a copy then send me another copy months later saying, “Oh, this is the newly edited version” or when I posted my review the author would say, “But it’s different now!” We agree to review the copy you send us. That’s it. It is not our obligation to seek out new edits. Do not submit a book to us that you are not 100% positive is the absolutely positively best you can do. I know it’s exciting to have finished the first draft of your book, but editing is your friend. Nothing puts a reviewer in a worse frame of mind than a book badly in need of editing and no amount of you saying “But it’s different now” will entice us to change your review. This is viral, indie marketing. Use it to your advantage and don’t send out ARCs until you are positive it is the best you can offer.
- State in your pitch email exactly what format of ARCs you can offer. This again is a time-saving technique that shows respect for the book blogger. I personally primarily accept kindle-compatible ebooks, but I hate having to email back to a pitch and ask exactly what format is being offered, especially since I don’t like giving out my mailing address unless it’s for a reason. It will take you a few seconds to type out a sentence saying what formats you have to offer. Doing this will generate more positivity between you and the blogger.
- Provide the book jacket blurb of the book in the pitch email and do not include praise for your work unless someone super famous has said it. Really. We just want to know what the book is about. We do not care how much praise your work has gotten unless one of our own favorite authors has said so. (For instance, I instantly accept anything Stephen King has praised). I know that it’s awesome your first book got a lot of praise, and that’s great for you! But we don’t care. This again goes back to respecting that the book blogger knows what she likes. Tell us the genre and give us the blurb and maybe throw in one or two really awesome praises you’ve received, but that’s it. Seriously.
- Compare your work (if it’s true and applicable) to other books the reviewer has read and loved. This shows us that you paid attention to our blog and creates a positive association in our minds between you and a favorite book or author.
- Include links in your email signature to your blog, GoodReads/LibraryThing presence, twitter, etc… Not all bloggers will look at this, but some of us will and sometimes it will lead to an acceptance of an ARC that otherwise might not have been accepted. It’s smart marketing for you and convenient for the blogger.
- Once the blogger accepts an ARC, send the copy immediately and thank them for their time. If you are mailing a print copy, email them telling them exactly when you put it in the mail and thank them. If you are sending a coupon code or a file attachment, also be sure to thank them in the email.
- When the review goes live, do not disagree with it in public. This all comes down to being mature. Everyone gets bad reviews, even the famous authors. It’s gonna happen if you market your book. But responding aggressively to a negative review either in the comments or via email just makes you look like a childish jerk. Every time. Be graceful and thank the blogger for her time. That’s it. If your work is good, one or two negative reviews are not going to kill it. Now, if the blogger got a detail wrong, like a character’s name or who published the book, by all means politely correct her, but do so via email. You clearly have it, and it shows respect for the blogger by not embarrassing her in public. Most of us will be grateful to you for pointing out the mistake!
- If the blogger liked your book, maintain the rapport and relationship. I honestly hate it when I love a first book in the series and the author doesn’t offer me ARCs of the rest of them. You have found a reader who likes you and has an audience to spread that love of your work to. Why wouldn’t you offer more ARCs to her in the future? Some of my best professional book blogging relationships are with authors or agents whose first pitch I loved who then proceeded to continue to offer me more books. I want to like the books I read and review just as much as you want me to. After one positive experience, why wouldn’t you keep that positive rapport going?
Before I close I just want to give a few examples of the types of pitches and interactions that worked really well on me as a blogger in 2011:
- “In addition to the obvious wolf connection, judging by what you discuss on your blog, I think you would enjoy it.”
- ” I would be happy to add you to the list to receive a review copy once they are available.”
- “It’s great to meet you. I just read your review, and thank you so much for all the kind words.”
- “Let me know if you’d like to review the sequels. I’ll be happy to send them to you.”
- “Thanks again for your honest and evenhanded review.” (in response to a negative review)
- “I’m not ‘technically’ self-pubbed, but the publisher I work with consists of about 3 people on staff and have released a total of 5 books which mine is the only one released by them that isn’t written by people who work there.” (I accidentally said a book was self-pubbed when it was indie pubbed)
- “Thanks again for reviewing. YOU ROCK MY SOCKS OFF! SERIOUSLY!”
You can see from these samples that all of these authors and publishers treated me like a person, thanked me for my work, and were personable themselves.
I really hope you find the tips helpful in your endeavors to market your books! Viva la reading!
Book Review: Y: The Last Man: Safeword by Brian K. Vaughan (Series, #4) (Graphic Novel)
Summary:
Agent 355 and Dr. Mann drop Yorick off at another agent’s house while they bring the monkey, Ampersand, to an animal hospital to see after his cut. The agent forces Yorick to confront his own inner demons. Then the band continues on toward California, having to take a side-trip through Arizona where they run into a band of militant, anti-federal women.
Review:
The two plots contained in this entry in the series don’t flow together as well as other entries do. Although the two plots are equally interesting, they feel odd being packaged together.
The first half features an…unconventional therapy method to get Yorick to confront his inner demons. This section is excellently done and necessary to better understanding him. So far, we’ve only seen him within the situations, but really have no idea what’s going on in his head. That’s one of the interesting virtues of this particular graphic novel. We see Yorick interacting and hear him speak, but we only rarely glimpse inside his mind. Better understanding what is up with the, surprisingly abstinent, last man is key to continuing the plot.
The second half is far more humorous. There’s something eloquent and smart about the Arizona state militia of women who even go so far as to call themselves “The Sons of Arizona.” The strong reaction in the southwest to the plague with the idea that it was all arranged by the federal government is a very astute observation of the mentality of that area of the country.
So, although the two individual storylines were good, the plot just didn’t flow as smoothly this time around. It feels like that classic in-between book syndrome. It’s there to set things up for the next one. We’ll see with the next entry if I’m right.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Public Library
Previous Books in Series
Y: The Last Man: Unmanned
Y: The Last Man: Cycles
Y: The Last Man: One Small Step
Book Review: The Cause by Clint Stoker
Summary:
In an overpopulated future, a city stands where there are not familial or close relationships, but everyone celebrates every night. Air was recently relocated to a new position as a purger, and he slowly discovers the sinister side of the city.
Review:
This is an interesting concept that is poorly executed, badly edited, and takes a turn for the worse at the end.
Anyone who follows this blog knows that I love an overpopulation scifi story. Stoker has an interesting take on it–the world is overpopulated so constantly at war. A city arises where the residents can stay young forever but must follow a series of articles that removes the true joy of living from them. The problem is that I just stated that more succinctly than Stoker does at any point in the novel.
What we have here is the classic example of a good idea poorly executed. The basic concept is great. But the main character’s flashbacks and current thoughts are difficult to read. I found myself constantly skimming the flashbacks, because they were so confusing to read and lent so little to the story.
More upsetting though were the constant errors that had less to do with typos or difficult grammar and more to do with poor understanding of the English language. Examples:
A golden metal sat at the top of his desk. (location 2879)
Won’t even know your there (location 3148)
I thought we we’re in this together (location 4225)
He put Air to sleep so he could remain innocent in the cities eyes (location 4509)
A transport past by (location 4588)
You can’t bring people back once their dead. (location 5050)
I am ti sro and you are the villain. (location 5083)
Anybody, understandably, would be frustrated with this amount of errors.
Perhaps more distressing is the “surprise” ending, which to me was just confusing. Essentially, five infants are killed every 50 years to keep the city of 30 million people alive, yet the science of that is never explained. The key to scifi is plausible science, yet Stoker ignores that entirely. It’s a good idea, but without plausible explanations and good writing, it falls flat. I’d recommend he gets a solid editor before his next attempt.
2 out of 5 stars
Source: Kindle copy from the author in exchange for my honest review
Book Review: Fourth Degree Freedom by Libby Heily
Summary:
A collection of five widely varied short stories.
“Thank You For Calling”–A day in the life of a woman working for a call center during the Recession.
“The Event”–A dystopian future where once a year male teens and young adults go out and shoot the elderly.
“Fourth Degree Freedom”–A post nuclear war future where some children are born as different degrees of “monsters.”
“The Last Six Miles”–A woman gets over her divorce by becoming a runner.
“She Floats”–A woman wakes up in a tank with limited oxygen left and a man observing.
Review:
It’s difficult to talk about this collection as a whole, since the stories range so vastly, not only over different genres, but also in quality of writing. Thus, I must address them individually.
“Thank You For Calling”
I don’t usually do contemporary literary, but this one made me smile and sad almost simultaneously. The main character is struggling during the recession, but she also must listen to other people’s problems all day. A bit of a typical storyline? Yes. But still relatable and well-written. 3 stars
“The Event”
The best story in the collection. I recommend to Heily that she turn this one into a novel. A future with no violence and thus overpopulation is typical is dystopian fiction, but Heily takes it in a fun direction. The final scene leaves the reader doubting that the main character knows the truth about his own society. There were also no obvious flaws in the writing itself. 5 stars
“Fourth Degree Freedom”
This personally didn’t hit any of my own hot buttons, but it is well written. The idea of chemicals from war affecting different pregnancies in different ways is an interesting one. Having a sibling see the humanity in the monster child where others do not is rather typical, but still touching. 4 stars
“The Last Six Miles”
Being the fitness nut that I am, I really enjoyed seeing the main character go from a depressed over-eater to a marathon runner. The content of this story is uplifting, even if the ending is a bit predictable. 4 stars
“She Floats”
I was so incredibly disappointed in this one. I had the feeling from the first few sentences that this was basically going to be a Saw rip-off, and it was. There’s nothing wrong with having a psycho kidnap a person and put them in a trap to get out of, but it must have something else in it that makes it different from the well-known series. 1 star
Overall, this collection starts out average, strengthens, then crashes at the end. I also believe Heily may have trouble finding an audience due to the variance from literary to dystopian and then to horror. I would advise her to take the two strong dystopian stories and either make them into novels or write more scifi short stories and repackage them together. Similarly, the literary fiction I believe would strongly appeal to many modern women during this current recession. If she adds more literary stories to these two and packages it as a type of collection for the modern woman, she could have great success with them. The last story must be re-done or trashed, however. It sours the rest.
Essentially, if any of the short stories above appeals to you, I would encourage you to get this book. It is only 99cents, and a good short story is definitely worth that.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Kindle copy from the author in exchange for my honest review
Book Review: Timeless Trilogy, Book One, Fate by Tallulah Grace (Series, #1)
Summary:
Kris is a successful video editor in Charleston, South Carolina with two best friends she’s made her own family with. She has a beautiful beach house and a loving fluffy cat named Pegasus. She also just so happens to be precognitive. Her visions have never been about herself until she starts sensing that she is being watched, receiving late night phone calls, and finding flowers left at her house and on her car. Increasingly, she realizes she is in danger, and right then her old college flame moves in next door.
Review:
This is an interesting mix of suspense, romance, and paranormal that keeps the reader guessing and interested and shows promise in the writer.
Kris’s life prior to the stalking is relatable to the modern female reader. She has a core group of good friends, a pet she loves, a career that is solid but not yet stellar, and her dream home. All that she is missing is the man. The added touch of her visions gives her that extra something special, but her visions are not over the top. She can’t control when they come or what they’ll show her, so she treats them more as an odd talent. This keeps the heroine from being over-inflated, which is nice. The love interest, Nick, is cute without being a god and kind without being perfect. He’s a good guy with flaws, ie, the ideal love interest in a romance that we’ve, alas, been seeing less and less of lately.
The plot is this book’s strong point. It is scary and suspenseful, but still believable. No characters make obvious stupid mistakes that would make the reader scream at them, and let’s just say, Kris is no Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but she also isn’t a weak, quivering Disney princess. Kris is neither a super-hero nor incredibly weak, which is just the kind of heroine we need more of in literature.
All of that said, Grace shows promise as a writer, but she still needs to work on her craft. Her plot structure is excellent, but she frequently shows instead of tells. Similarly, she struggles a bit when first introducing a character, often falling back on the beginner writer’s method of explaining hair and eye color before anything else. Similarly, the book needs more editing for simple grammar, spelling, and typos. The book does not read like a strong author’s work, but it also is still enjoyable. I am left wanting to find out about the romances of Kris’s friends Cassie and Roni, but I am also hoping that the writing that goes along with creative plots improves in the next two books.
Overall, if you are a fan of suspenseful romance with a dash of the paranormal and don’t mind a bit of showing instead of telling, this book is a fun way to pass a few hours, particularly for the low cost of 99cents.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Kindle copy from author in exchange for my honest review
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This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Opinions of a Wolf 