International YA Blogger Celebration: Lauren & Alex from Canada

Name: Lauren and ALex
Country: Canada
Blog: A Flight of Minds

Your Favourite YA Title:
Alex: Oh god. Always such a tough question which I can never answer. Can I got the easy way out/cheat and say Harry Potter? The whole series? :P Also anything by John Green and Sarah Dessen. Also The Mortal Instruments, The Hunger Games, Dairy Queen. Also... Really, the list could go on forever. Can I just point you to a list we did about favourite books, authors, characters, covers, and pairings?

Lauren: Well, I'm going to go with one book instead of the encyclopedia Alex just provided. My all time favorite book is The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I found it stunning. For the first time, I dog-eared pages with my favorite quotes because there were just so many that I absolutely adored. I've read a lot of books, but this one is a definite stand-out for me.

Favourite New Find:
Alex: Ballads of Suburbia, Fire, and The Demon's Lexicon are three books I've read recently and absolutely adored.

Lauren: Fire by Kristin Cashore. I loved it even more than Graceling. I've just started Ballads of Suburbia so we'll see how that one turns out too.

Bookstore of Choice:
Alex: Chapters. :) Which in Canada is equivalent to say, a Borders or Barnes & Noble.
Lauren: Well Chapters is pretty much the only option here. But I love it.

Author blog you are most likely to be found stalking:
We follow a lot of different authors on both Blogger and Livejournal, but the most likely to be found stalking... E. Lockhart, Libba Bray, Bree Despain, and Cassandra Clare are just a few of many.

Book Blogging in Canada
Best thing about being from Canada:
Alex: Being able to be proud to be Canadian. And also beavertails. (Picture One and Picture Two)
Lauren: Beavertails are pretty Ottawa-specific. But sooo good - they're a crepe-like pasty with sugar and other various toppings. I like our money too.

What is the state of YA literature in Canada?
Alex: I'd say it's pretty good actually. Influence from books like Twilight have buffed up sales a lot. I'd like to say I also contribute a little bit in spreading the YA love. :-)
Lauren: I'm always trying to push books on my friends. I'd say it's pretty much the same as the U.S.

How accessible are international YA titles in Canada:
Very good. Being so close to the US, we get all of their titles. Other places are getting pretty accessible too, which is excellent.

Authors that you would recommend:
Lesley Livingston, author of Wondrous Strange. CK Kelly Martin, author of I Know It's Over and One Lonely Degree. Tim Wynne-Jones, author of several books, the only one either of us have read being The Uninvited. All are great books! Wondrous Strange is an interesting faerie novel with a sequel soon to be out. I Know It's Over deals with pregnancy from the male perspective so of course it's wonderful. The Uninvited is a thriller with lots of family drama. The Uninvited and both novels by CK Kelly Martin are both set in Ontario which makes them even better!

Most popular YA author in Canada:
Alex: Well, of course Stephenie Meyer at the moment is huge. But we're hoping other great books will catch on too. It seems a lot of people love Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, all for good reason.
Lauren: Aside from us cool bloggers, the most that most people have read is Twilight.

Best thing about YA blogging:
Getting to meet other bloggers just as into reading as us and of course learning about all those great books out there that otherwise, I may never have read.

YA blogs that you would recommend from your Canada:
Today's Adventure,and B.A.M. Book Reviews (well, one of the reviewers is Canadian). I'm sure there has to be more Canadians though! And if you are from Canada, high five! ;)

Thanks Sweetpeas! Tomorrow get all the book goss from Jo, one of my fine British friends.