Me on This Week's Book Week (52)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

The Canadian YA Lit Event is over. Sad. :( But it'll be back next year with authors and fun. :)

I see the doctor next week to see if I get the line out and to talk about how my finger's doing. It's been slowly getting better these past 5/6 weeks, but it's still full of gross infection-y crud and it still looks wrong. My guess is they'll look at my bloodwork, maybe get me to go get another x-ray or bone scan, and maybe stick me on more antibiotics. We'll see.

I was looking through the books I have left from ALA that I haven't read yet and at my review schedule and I thought to myself, I really don't know what's coming out in July or August. My brain's still in this weird space of spring releases and 30 books I still haven't read that I picked up in January so I'm not necessarily aware of what's coming out this summer. So, give me your suggestions of books to check out that come out in July and August. :)

We're back to a regular review schedule now. Reviews going up this week are for Absent by Katie Williams (Monday), Doll Bones by Holly Black (Wednesday), and The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (Friday.) :)

Received:
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley)
Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith (from HarperCollins Canada)
Black Spring by Alison Croggon (from Candlewick Press through NetGalley)

Me on Coda

Title: Coda
Author: Emma Trevayne
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Running Press (Perseus imprint)

Ever since he was a young boy, music has coursed through the veins of eighteen-year-old Anthem. The Corp has certainly seen to that. By encoding music with addictive and mind-altering elements, the Corp holds control over all citizens, particularly conduits like Anthem, whose life energy feeds the main power in the Grid. Anthem finds hope and comfort in the twin siblings he cares for, even as he watches the life drain slowly and painfully from his father. Escape is found in his underground rock band, where music sounds free, clear, and unencoded deep in an abandoned basement. But when a band member dies suspiciously from a tracking overdose, Anthem knows that his time has suddenly become limited. Revolution all but sings in the air, and Anthem cannot help but answer the call with the chords of choice and free will. But will the girl he loves help or hinder him?

Coda is an extremely inventive and thrilling story, one young man's journey towards revolution and towards freedom. This book is ripe with danger and suspicion, and it highlights the key points of a dystopian setting. The horrors of an oppressive corporation and their corrupt goals, the dreary and dismal setting, the unflinching desire to keep those you care about most safe from harm, the overwhelming search for identity in a world where everyone is forced to be the same, and the discovery of limits, of how far we will go to stay alive. Of how much we will fight back.

Anthem has simple hopes, simple dreams. Keeping his siblings safe is paramount. Keeping them safe from the Corp, from tracking, from addiction. Keeping his father alive. He knows the Corp is dangerous, that it controls everyone, and that there's nothing he can do about it. But whispers are always in the underground, always in dark corners, and Anthem plays music in secret to keep the Corp from gaining complete control over him.

In Anthem's world, music is a drug. Tracking keeps you under the Corp's control, keeps you compliant, and alters your mind. Currently, music is a drug to some. There are songs we can't escape that make us sing along, make us dance, but this in mind control on a new level. This is dangerous and twisted, combining sound and rhythm and something else in order to control the population. Music is no longer seen as an enjoyable form of expression, as freedom, as communication, as art. Except for those willing to go underground.

Addiction is also dangerous, but that's what the Corp does, it uses music to control and keeps the population coming back for more. Then people are always chasing after that next high, that next track, working for the credits to purchase the next track that will send their mind to a different place. Drug addicts doing it to themselves in frightening enough, but when the government does it, when the people in charge does it to their own subjects, it's especially horrifying. And the sad thing is that, even while they cry out for a stop to it, they can't help but go back for another track.

I want more books where sexuality is a non-issue, where characters are who they are and no one questions the gender of their crush or romantic partner. Recent books like The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson and The Culling by Steven dos Santos also have this. Anthem is drawn to Haven, there's something between them, but he has some history with Scope, something that goes beyond friendship. This is part of Anthem, part of who he is as the unlikeliest of heroes and the most caring brother ever. Straight people, gay people, they're still people, it doesn't make them any less human.

The Corp is deadly, everything they do is done under the guide of help while it's actually population control. Tracking keeps them happy, keeps them quiet. Technology keeps everyone under watch. This makes Anthem's situation, his mission, that much more important. And also life-threatening. The Corp's power is seemingly absolute.

Those pushed down by the Corporation, those under its control, are crying out for revolution, but will Anthem be brave enough to pick up the mic and be its voice?

(I received an advance copy of this title at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (128)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Shadow
Author: Amanda Sun
Release Date: June 1, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

From Goodreads:

Meet two teens whose worlds are about to change forever in this paranormal Young Adult novella, a prequel to Ink by debut author Amanda Sun…

Katie Greene’s worst nightmare comes true when her mother dies, and she’s devastated to learn that she will have to leave the only home she’s ever known. Desperate to find where she belongs, she must decide if she has what it takes to start a new life across the ocean.

For Yuu Tomohiro, every day is a nightmare. He struggles to control his strange ability, and keeps everyone at a distance so they won’t get hurt—even his girlfriend, Myu. At night, a shadow haunts his dreams, and a mysterious woman torments him with omens of death and destruction. But these haunting premonitions are only the beginning…

Sometimes, I'm intrigued by prequel novellas or between books 1 and 2 novellas. Sometimes you want to know more about what's happening, more about certain characters, and possibly the little bits that led to the start of book 1. I've read Ink multiple times already, but I'm so curious as to what this will reveal about both Katie and Tomo. :)

Day 14 - Me on YA and Canada

Day 14. It's the last day of the event. And we were having so much fun, too. :)

I think in Canada we're more well-known for our contributions to literary fiction, 'novelists' like Mordecai Richler, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow, Yann Martel, and Carol Shields. Books that highlight our perseverance and tenacity and openness as Canadians are discussed more often, I feel, than picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels. We seem a little high-brow at times, a little polite and classy. I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying we can lighten up when it comes to the novels we write. (I'm not going to get into genre fiction, although I do love Margaret Atwood and her love of zombies.)

In April and in May, I took a trip to a couple of Chapters bookstores. It's our big chain bookstore here. I wanted to see if they had any kind of set up or section just for Canadian authors and their books. The best I found at one seemed to be a section titled "Local Interest." It consisted a few bookcases filled with non-fiction books detailing the different sights, sounds, flora, and fauna of the Lower Mainland area, plus an additional bookcase all about traveling in Canada.

I'll admit, I was a little put out. It's possible there was another section featuring books written by Canadians because I didn't look at every shelf in every corner of the bookstore, but I didn't think I'd need to hunt around.

When Canada Day rolls around on July 1st, I imagine there will be more of a focus on Canadian books and Canadian content, but I don't think a year-round table near the front or the middle of the store would hurt. Maybe highlight a few standards of Canadian lit plus a few new releases, mix it up to include non-fiction and genre fiction. We write it all.

I also wanted to take a trip down to the nearby library, look around there, but I couldn't (my recent health issues screwed up a lot of things recently). But I remember some things. Quite often, the library will add this extra red maple leaf to the spine of the book, letting readers know the author is Canadian. I love that. I sort of wish they could do this in bookstores. Not a sticker, but perhaps a tucked-in card or note on the edge of the shelf. Last January when John Green's The Fault in Our Stars came out, I saw some teenage girls tucking little 'Who the Eff is Hank?' notes with the link to their YouTube channel into his books. I thought it was genius. (Also, yay Nerdfighters. :))

I like what I've read in the past few years by Canadian YA authors. I want more of it. I want Canadians to feel they can write children's books and middle grade and young adult. Not everyone has to write the next great Canadian novel.

I want more of what's out there now, more big publishers taking on books by Canadian authors, more small publishers still publishing short stories and novels by Canadians that are often read in schools. I love what's out there now, unique stories and complex characters and intricate world-building, and I want to keep reading it.

And I don't want authors to be afraid to set their books in Canada, in the far north of the territories, across the flat plains that go on for miles in the Prairies, on East Vancouver's weird and eclectic Main Street, up high in the snow-capped Rockies of the BC Interior, in the hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto, in the memories of Old Québec, or near the 1000 year old Norse/viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland. I know we're seen as a more polite and possibly boring version of America, but it can be fun and exciting here, too. It's a big, weird, wild, amazing country. Just check out this video. :) (If you can, watch it in full screen.) (Also, check out Amy McCulloch's post from Day 12.)

Since Me on Books started back in 2010, I've read close to 60 books written by Canadians and reviewed approximately 35 of them. In 2012 alone, 23 of the 208 books I read (that's 11%) were by Canadians, 20 of which were reviewed. So far this year, it's currently 8 written by Canadians out of 68 books read total (almost 12%). 4 more are part of my current to-read/to-review list.

60 in about 2 and a half years. I wish I could read 60 books by Canadian YA authors EVERY YEAR. Some of that's on me for not as actively searching out books written by Canadians (I know a good chunk of that on me, put away your pointing fingers), but I understand that sometimes it's hard for small publishers to get the word out about their authors and their books. There are some wonderful but small Canadian publishers up here that are fairly regional.

The reason I'm holding this event, the reason why I going to keep hold it every year, is to spread the word, to share books with people who love reading. If I lived somewhere else, in the USA or in the UK or who knows where, I imagine I'd try and feature more authors from that part of the world. But I live in Canada, where we can get over-excited about hockey, where we serve fries covered in cheese and warm gravy so the cheese melts and it's all gooey, where winter happens (but not always in my part, thank you temperate rain forest climate). I want to share these authors with you because you might find their books interesting.

So, those are my thoughts on Canadian YA. I want more of it, I'm going to try and read more of it, and I'll be sharing it with all who come to read about it. Deal?

What are your thoughts on YA in Canada? Is what you see different from what I see? Do you also want more Canada in your Canadian YA?

Thank you so much to everyone who dropped by over the past two weeks, who commented on guest posts and Q&As, and to all the authors who took part and answered my silly questions. Without you, this event wouldn't exist. :)

Day 13 - Amanda Sun

Day 13. :) You all know of my love and undying support of debut Canadian YA authors, and if you're a reader of my weekly recap posts (where I babble on about my week and if I happened to get any books), you might remember last year's rediscovered love of anime and manga. When I first heard about this book and this author, I freaked out a little. Okay, maybe a lot. ;)

Amanda Sun currently lives in Ontario with her husband and daughter. When she's not busy writing YA, she's either reading YA, watching Japanese dramas, making fun geek crafts like a knit Companion Cube from Portal, or sewing costumes for anime and fantasy conventions. Her Twitter profile pic currently claims she's Fluttershy from My Little Pony (but I've seen pictures of her without the pink hair). Previous short stories have been published in the anthologies Playthings of the Gods and Tesseracts Fifteen. Her debut YA novel, Ink, is set to be released on June 25, 2013 by Harlequin Teen, the publisher's teen fiction imprint. The prequel novella Shadow will be available in e-book form on June 1, 2013. You can find her at her blog and on Twitter (@Amanda_Sun). :)

Q: Since it's an event featuring Canadian authors, I figured I'd ask all the authors who chose the Q&A to say how they would count as a Canadian author, be it they were born here, lived here, or moved here. So, how Canadian are you?

A: I'm Canadian through and through! I was born in Deep River, Ontario, a small town surrounded by forest on the banks of the Ottawa River. Stranger safety there is comprised of what to do if you meet a skunk or bear on the walk to school. One time I did meet a bear, by the way. He was on his hind legs scratching his claws against the tree bark. I just backed up quietly and went a different path to school. Never met a skunk, but I did meet the occasional fox. :)

We only had one traffic light, no buses, and everyone knows everyone--and their business. Since then I've lived in Toronto, then B.C. for a few years, and then back to Toronto. My dad was born in Calgary, and my mum was born in England.

Q: You said in the Q&A at the back of the ARC for Ink that your experience as a high school exchange student inspired Katie's trip to Japan. What first brought on your decision to go to Japan as an exchange student?

A: I started a fascination with Japan early on, thanks to a Hello Kitty doll I had. My interest in Japan really took off, though, when I saw my first anime, Sailor Moon. I started teaching myself Japanese writing, carefully comparing Sailor Moon character names with their Japanese counterparts. The more I learned of the language and culture, the more I wanted the chance to try it out. I think part of being a reader and writer is wanting to experience living a completely different life. All I did was take it off the page and into real life :D

There's an obscure New Zealand movie called Bonjour Timothy, about a girl from Montreal who goes to NZ on exchange. When I watched that, I knew for sure that I had to live on exchange. I wanted that to be me. I needed it to be me! That's when I looked seriously into exchange programs and ended up living in Osaka with a wonderful host family.

Q: With Katie, she's very much a stranger in a strange world, going from New York to Shizuoka. There's a lot she has to overcome in terms of change, such as the different foods, social customs, and the language. How much of Katie's 'first time' experiences were based off your own?

A: Quite a lot, actually, but only in the subtle details. I kept a daily journal of my time in Japan, which I referred to while writing INK. Most of Katie's cultural blunders are her own, but her reactions to Japanese sights, sounds, and smells are often borrowed from my own experiences. Katie forgetting to switch her school slippers with her outdoor shoes is her mistake, but walking through Sunpu Park as the cherry petals brush against her skin and tangle in her hair is from my experience walking through the park myself. Or, take the fact that Katie joins Tea Ceremony Club at school. My host grandmother was a Tea Ceremony teacher, and taught me the basics. So many parts of INK are real, but distorted in a way to fit to Katie's own life there.

Q: How much research did you have to do for the Kami and their abilities? Was it always your intention to write a book with this mysterious paranormal/mythological element?

A: INK actually started out as a contemporary YA. Can you believe it? :D I wanted to write about Tomohiro, this Japanese teen who wanted more out of life. I pictured him sketching in his notebook, surrounded by trees and wagtail birds. I kept seeing it over and over in my head, as he hunched over his drawings. He wanted to be an artist, but his dad wanted him to be a doctor or banker. I thought through meeting Katie, the two of them could find themselves in life. And then one day, while I was daydreaming about Tomo sketching, I saw his drawing move on the page. I was as shocked as Katie was, and I started to pursue him in my mind. He slowly revealed everything to me about himself.

When I was little, I had a beautiful children's encyclopedia of myths, including the story of the kami Izanagi and Izanami, and of Amaterasu. The idea of non-western mythologies was also fresh in my mind after books like Cindy Pon's SILVER PHOENIX. And in university I'd taken Asian History, and knew a bit about the kami and the story of how they saved Japan from the invasion of Mongols by sending a divine storm. So I started to research more, and everything fit with what Tomo was telling me about himself.

And kami means both "spirit/god" and "paper," which is how The Paper Gods came about, and provided the final connection between the moving ink and the mythology. ^_^

Q: The prequel novella, Shadow, comes out on June 1st. Where did the idea of the novella come from? Was it your idea, your agent's, your editor's or publisher's? Do you like the growing trend of prequel novellas?

A: The novella was my editor's idea, but I was so glad he approached me with it because I'd be hoping to write one too. I was surprised when he suggested a prequel, though--I'd been thinking a bridge novella. INK starts with Katie very newly in Japan--what could happen in the prequel? But the more I thought about it, the more I saw there was an opportunity to dig deeper into what Katie and Tomohiro were dealing with before INK. What did Katie do in those months leading up to Japan? How did she cope with her mom's death and the news of being sent across the world to live with an aunt she barely knows? And for Tomo, the precarious life his abilities force him into--what happened to him before INK that shaped him into the person he is now? I wanted to write SHADOW from two POVs, and I'm glad my editor agreed! It was really exciting for me to delve into Tomohiro's mind and see what he's really thinking, and what kinds of nightmares are haunting him every night.

I've really enjoyed some of the novellas out there. Not only are they a helpful series fix in between release dates (sometimes it's too long to wait for the next book!), but I always feel like I'm in on some kind of secret information, that I have a more intimate friendship with the characters because I've seen past what's provided in the books. And I hope that's what SHADOW will be for readers. A lot of the novella refers back to subtle comments in INK, and vice versa. I think readers will get a lot more out of INK from reading SHADOW, and will enjoy the secret nods and handshakes hidden in both of them to provide a wider view of The Paper Gods world. ^_^

Q: You're a debut author, Ink is your first published book. Are you feeling any kind of pressure as a debut author, or has it been fairly easy going so far with Ink's release date near the end of June? Is there anything specific on or after Ink's release that you're looking forward to, like being referred to as a 'published author' or seeing your book in a bookstore and racing over to take pictures?

A: Haha, yes, you could say there's a lot of pressure! I really hope everyone enjoys INK. I don't want to let readers down. But my agent, editor, and Harlequin TEEN have been FANTASTIC about the whole experience. TS Ferguson, my editor, is a total genius, and Harlequin TEEN has put so much care into the details of my book, from the flip animations in the corner to the beautiful covers that made me flail. I'm just so grateful for the experience and attention, watching everything come together with people who really care about INK the way I care about it.

I'm really mostly concerned about one thing--connecting. I so badly want to connect with the reader, to share that quiet moment where we both feel understood and validated as human beings. I love that moment when I'm lost in a book and I read something that I thought only I felt, and realize that I'm not alone in the world. So it's that connection that I'm really hoping for, and already I've found it happening with the ARCs of INK circulating. I'm finding and connecting with wonderful people--yourself included!--and I'm so grateful for that.

And yes, I can't wait until I see INK in bookstores. I already grab my author friends' books and flail them at everyone in the stores, so I can't wait until it's my own book I'm flailing wildly with! Haha :D

Q: Is there anything you can share about the next book, or is everything (apart from the sneak peek in the back of the ARC) being kept a secret until after Ink comes out?

A: Hmm...well, most of that is still top secret. ^_~ But I can tell you that we'll find out more about why the ink plagues Tomo and Katie the way it does. There will be more out-of-control ink and more kissing. And LOTS more Japanese food. ^_^

Q: And finally, what could be the hardest question. What is your favourite Japanese food that you miss the most, be it a meal or snack food?

A: Ooh, great question! First and foremost, okonomiyaki. Oh my gosh, that stuff tastes like magic. You start with pancake-type batter and add all the ingredients you like--for example cabbage, bacon, eggs, noodles, onions, or anything else. And then you fry it up into a giant tasty pancake/pizza thing. I miss it so much! I miss curry rice too, but I can make it easily at home.

The other thing I really miss is all the drinks in the vending machines and convenience stores. They have so many delightful combinations of iced coffee, iced tea, fruit drinks, etc. Every time I visit Japan, the first question I ask the locals is "Where is the closest convenience store?" Haha!

Thank you so much for having me on Me on Books. I really appreciate it! Yay Canadian authors! :D

Thanks so much to Amanda for taking part. Go check out Ink when it comes out next month! :) (Also, the weird thing? The movie Amanda mentions near the beginning of the Q&A... I totally know what movie that is. O_o Spooky.)