Two Little Dicky Birds

I don't normally pimp anything on this site that isn't a book...I am making an exception today. Way back when I was at college and lived in a residential hall, I met a girl called Kate. Now Kate was sweet, bubbly and undeniably talented. She is as beautiful inside as she is on the outside. I haven't spoken to her since college but have loosely kept track of her on facebook (no stalking, I promise). So this isn't me pushing my bosom buddy onto you. I just believe she's a talent to be reckoned with.

Of late, Kate has been experiencing a lot of success with her music. She's won some awards and scholarships and is collaborating with some awesome musicians. The thing is...she's applying for the Shure Creative Award so that she can then get a scholarship for the Professional Diploma in Songwriting course at The Institute of Contemporary Performance, in London.

She needs votes and I am asking, that should you love her jazzish sound, that you might drop by the site and vote for her:)

You can vote here.

Persnickety Snark April Wrap Up

Well another month has zoomed by here at Persnickety Snark. I have officially been snarking it up for 4 months. (A blip on the radar for some of you.)

I have 100 followers and 149 subscribers.

I have reviewed 21 titles:
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone / Stephanie Kuehnert
Guyaholic / Carolyn Mackler
All We Know of Love / Nora Raleigh Baskin
Perfect You / Elizabeth Scott
Evernight / Claudia Gray
The Lucky Ones / Tohby Riddle
The Forest of Hands and Teeth / Carrie Ryan
Tattoo / Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Top 8 / Katie Finn
Evermore / Alyson Noel
The Good Daughter / Amra Pajalic
Cindy Ella / Robin Palmer
Fate / Jennifer Lynn Barnes
13 Little Blue Envelopes / Maureen Johnson
Sisters in Sanity / Gayle Forman
Crime Time: Australians Behaving Badly / Sue Bursz...
Operation RR: Beach House (RL Stine)
Operation RR: Ten Idol (Meg Cabot)
Skim / Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
What Would Emma Do / Eileen Cook
Shrinking Violet / Danielle Joseph

I have written 3 rants:
Rory Gilmore Envy
Too Old for YA?
YA = Adult Goodliness

Made a Mini-challenge:
Operation Retirement Rescue

Initiated a charge against EW's crummy reviewing:
An Insult to YA Reviewers Everywhere

Interviews:
Interview - Courtney Summers
Reader's Snapshot - Jennifer Echols
Guest Blog: Jennifer Echols
Interview - Jennifer Echols
Interview - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Reader's Snapshot - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I haven't been posting that much the past few days as I am working on something special for my other blog, The Sarah Dessen Diarist. A big event will start on May 6 and run for an entire month. Yes, that's correct, there will be something each day of May in honour of someone all of us love. AND it will be freaking awesome!

During May, Persnickety Snark will be a largely Aussie space. I have decided to focus on Australian works for this month so be on the look out for Australian YA reviews, Aussie debut author interviews, Australian publisher interviews and other bits and pieces. Everything Down Under will be right here on PSnark.

Operation RR: Ten Idol (Meg Cabot)

Summary - High school junior Jenny Greenley is good at solving problems ... so good she's the school newspaper's anonymous advice columnist. Even if solving other people's problems doesn't make her own—like not having a boyfriend—go away, it's still fun. But when nineteen-year-old screen sensation Luke Striker comes to Jenny's small town to research a role, he creates havoc that even levelheaded Jenny isn't sure she can repair ... especially since she's right in the middle of it.

Can Jenny, who always manages to be there for everybody else, learn to take her own advice, and find true love at last?

Review - This was my first official Meg Cabot novel and it's still my favourite of all her YA titles. I couldn't even find it in Australia at the time so having been hooked on the description, I went book hunting on eBay.

What I love about this book is it didn't go the typical route of the girl falling in love with the undercover Hollywood star, appreciating him for his true self. Instead there are some couplings that surprise a little. That being said, there is a fair chunk of predictability in place but I enjoyed every second of it. Turns out that her crush is still into her and is totally hating the thought that she and Luke might be an item.

While Luke comes to town to learn how to be a typical teen, it's actually Jenny who learns to be her true self. Luke, it turns out, is pretty grounded and doesn't buy into all the star hype. I like that this goes against type and that they become friends instead of romantic interests.

If you haven't read Teen Idol, you totally need to give it a whirl. It's a modern day classic :)

Skim / Mariko & Jillian Tamaki

Summary - After a boy at school takes his own life, teen-witch Skim's fragile world seems to topple and turn upside down too. In witty, moving and painfully honest diary entries Skim confides the frenzy of grief that surrounds her, while deep down she struggles with her own loneliness and the secret inner stirrings she feels when falling in love for the first time. (Graphic Novel)

Review - Skim is a humorous read about teenage disillusionment with adults, the middle class and one another. The narrative is witty and entertaining with a dead-panned edge. The illustrations compliment Mariko's snarky words with their detail alternating between soft and hard lines. The minimalism of the drawings compliments the spartan words. The writing is tight and utilises equations to demonstrate Skim's thoughts with great humour (eg my parents = serious issues.)

Published: 2009

Format: Graphic Novel

Publisher: Walker Books Aust.

Origin: USA

_ _ _

Marika Tamaki's website

Jillian Tamaki's website and blog

Waiting on Wednesday (12)

Slept Away by Julie Kraut

May 26

What's this city girl's worst nightmare? Summer camp.Laney Parker's a city girl through and through. For her, summertime means stepping out of her itchy gray school uniform and into a season of tanning at rooftop swimming pools, sidewalk dining in the Meatpacking District, and - as soon as the parents leave for the Hamptons - parties at her classmates' apartments.

But this summer Laney's mother has her own plan for Laney - Camp Timber Tops - and faster than a girl can pack her eye cream, she's shipped off. Now, splattered with tie-dye fallout, stripped of her cell, and going through Diet Coke withdrawals, Laney is barely hanging on. But when she realizes her summer crush is untouchably uncrushable in the real world, she has to start asking herself some serious questions. Can camp cool possibly translate to cool cool?

Sleepaway camp might just turn this city girl's world upside down.

I have had a full blown crush on this book for at least a month or two. At one point I thought I might receive a copy but alas the Book Gods had other plans. (Like I haven't already cleared out my local Borders of all MTV and Simon Pulse's anyway).

I have an obsession with camp stories, in film and book form. Chalk it up to being Australian and idealising the American custom (all those fantastic Babysitter's Club special editions didn't help) but I always loved the idea of camp. I always like seeing a character completely out of their comfort zone and this book sounds like a blast!

What Would Emma Do / Eileen Cook

Summary - While juggling friendship issues (her best friend isn't speaking to her), a love triangle-turned-square (okay, maybe she shouldn't have kissed her best friend's boyfriend...but it was totally an accident!...sort of), and escalating mayhem in her small religious town (uh-oh...what would Jesus do?), Emma realizes she has to stop trying to please everyone around her and figure out what she wants for herself. It's time to start asking, "What would Emma do?"

Review - This title was everywhere when I decided to enter the blogosphere. Its cover was on every blog, reviewed nearly daily and yet I was so preoccupied with the start up of PSnark that I didn't really absorb the reviews. Thank goodness.

Though the title mimics the question of 'what would Jesus do?' and openly questions Christianity, I didn't feel it was disrespectful or had an ulterior motive. I was dense enough not to realise this would be a book with heavy emphasis on the exploration of religion but immediately picked up illusions to The Crucible. While I would imagine some readers of a more religious bent could take issue with the tone, I think it was incredibly funny, accurate and in touch with teens. If anything, Cook has expertly used a lighter tone to ask some really deep questions about organised religion, hypocrisy and peer pressure. In some ways it reminded me of an amazing indie film, Saved.

Emma is the driving force of this story. She's strong, willful, passionate and more important, questioning of her life and those around her. Emma's stuck in a town of pod people who feel the need to relive the lives of their parents. I could feel the frustration of this character strongly, wanted her to break free from the town's clutches and start afresh. This town was equally as frustrating as the town from Footloose and shared many rules but unfortunately no toe tapping Kevin Bacon. Her decision making leaves much to be desired but I always understood what motivated her actions. Cook allowed me to empathise, a skill many authors need to develop more with their protagonists.

That being said there were a few elements that annoyed me. In particular the running subplot that's results in a cliched decision by her mother. I don't want to give too many details but it ruined the sprint to the finish line for me. Most of the secondary characters possess interesting dimension but I really believe they could have been fleshed out more. Colin (the boyfriend in the summary), a character who's a catalyst to the events of this book is predominantly left hanging for the second half. He's a character who comes across as largely inconsistent. I did enjoy the fact that those who prefer to have a predictable lifestyle, one that Emma chooses to reject, are allowed to justify their life choices. That Emma's jaded perspective of the town isn't shared by everyone and that they have valid reasons of their own to stay. It provided a nice counterpoint to Emma's strong opinions and I never felt that Cook was judging them for wanting to settle.

What Would Emma Do was a vastly entertaining read which tread the tightrope of addressing alternative perspectives of Christianity in a light but questioning manner. More importantly it makes the reader question their stance whilst relating to many of the characters.

Published: 2008
Format: Paperback, 307 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Origin: USA
_ _ _
Eileen Cook's Website

Teaser Tuesday (11)

The concept? - To pick a random page, find a quote and tempt others with it's tastiness.

Title: The Brief History Of Montmaray
Author: Michelle Cooper
Random House - 2008

"I do love visiting Alice - I wish she'd been the one, rather than Rebecca, to come up to the castle to take care of us after my parents were killed."

Shrinking Violet / Danielle Joseph

Summary - High school senior Teresa Adams is so painfully shy that she dreads speaking to anyone in the hallways or getting called on in class. But in the privacy of her bedroom with her iPod in hand, she rocks out -- doing mock broadcasts for Miami's hottest FM radio station, which happens to be owned by her stepfather. When a slot opens up at The SLAM, Tere surprises herself by blossoming behind the mike into confident, sexy Sweet T -- and to everyone's shock, she's a hit! Even Gavin, the only guy in school who she dares to talk to, raves about the mysterious DJ's awesome taste in music. But when The SLAM announces a songwriting contest -- and a prom date with Sweet T is the grand prize -- Sweet T's dream could turn into Tere's worst nightmare....

Review - How many of us have read books about shy girls who are about as shy as a Pussycat Doll? Wow look at that sea of hands. In the case of Tere, she really is a shy girl, so much so that her teachers and classmates don't expect her to speak at all. At one point someone even assumes she's deaf and dumb. Numbed and closeted by her mother's need to show her love through an onslaught of criticism, Tere avoids life...with an exception to her friend, Audrey, and her pretend hosting gigs on SLAM.

I had high expectations from this novel and I think in many points it achieved them. The characters are well established but the storyline was fairly predictable. I could see the end a mile off but really enjoyed that some elements, like that of Tere's relationship with her mother weren't tied up with a shiny red bow. Gavin is a different sort of romantic lead - friendly, affable and a little ambiguous (for awhile anyway). He's definitely not the typical "guy" and I liked him for that, I would have liked to know a little bit more about him though. Other characters like the charming Jason, the sexist Derek and the insightful Pop-Tart were all fantastic individuals that facilitated the protagonist's growth without being heavy handed.

Some people might question why Tere, who suffers chronic shyness in answering questions in class (she compares it to having a mouthful of peanut butter) would be interested in hosting a radio program. If you think about it, it makes complete sense. Radio is a largely anonymous format where the music and your voice are your way of reaching out to people. Tere's passion for new music and her need to share it allow this plot development to flow somewhat naturally. Unfortunately I just don't see how a high school girl, even with a step-father who owns a radio station, would end up hosting her own show. The circumstances allow the chips to fall in Tere's favour but you need to make the leap with her. What I really enjoyed about this story was that Tere's success as Sweet T did improve her ability to relate to others but it was the support of a few select people that had a larger role in this growth. She slowly transcends out of crippling shyness at a realistic pace, though the finale circumstances did diminish this evolution to a degree.

As a podcaster, I can attest to that great rush you feel when someone likes you for your voice and opinions. It's very similar to getting great feedback on a special post in your blog. Recognition and approval is something we all strive for in life. Tere may have found an avenue to get it from society but her mother's is a tougher fish to fry. I found their interactions to be the most compelling element of the story, it struck very close to home for me. Though the consistent use of light humour allowed the book to not become bogged down by heavier subject matter.

I really enjoyed Danielle Joseph's take on shyness, difficult mothers, body image, group assignments and feeling confident. Shrinking Violet is sure to entertain and promote some thought about how you choose to relate with others. Thumbs up.

Published: May 5, 2009
Format: Paperback,
Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA
Origin: USA
_ _ _
Danielle Joseph's Official Website - definitely worth checking out
Danielle Joseph's Blog
Shrinking Violet Playlist

*****************
Competition:
You have two days from the moment of this post to win my copy of Shrinking Violet. To enter share one of your shy moments (the funnier, the better) in the comments section along with your email address.

This is open to all corners of the globe and my decision will be final (I've always wanted to say that). Entertain me, people!

In My Mailbox - 26 April

IMM is the brainwave from two of my favourite book brains - Story Siren and Pop Culture Junkie.

To Review:
Shrinking Violet / Danielle Joseph
High school senior Teresa Adams is so painfully shy that she dreads speaking to anyone in the hallways or getting called on in class. But in the privacy of her bedroom with her iPod in hand, she rocks out -- doing mock broadcasts for Miami's hottest FM radio station, which happens to be owned by her stepfather. When a slot opens up at The SLAM, Tere surprises herself by blossoming behind the mike into confident, sexy Sweet T -- and to everyone's shock, she's a hit! Even Gavin, the only guy in school who she dares to talk to, raves about the mysterious DJ's awesome taste in music. But when The SLAM announces a songwriting contest -- and a prom date with Sweet T is the grand prize -- Sweet T's dream could turn into Tere's worst nightmare....

Fairest of Them All / Jan Blazanin
If life were a fairy tale, Oribella Bettencourt would have a "happily ever after" kind of future ahead of her. A Hollywood producer has come to Des Moines in search of a perfectly modern Princess Rapunzel, and Ori -- a model, dancer, and star of the beauty pageant circuit -- lands the part. And why shouldn't she? With her hardworking, self-sacrifi cing mother guiding her career, Ori is stunning, dedicated, poised...and then there's her hair. Breathtakingly lustrous blond hair that sets her apart from all the other girls at school. So what if she doesn't have any friends her age, or anyone to talk to other than her mother? She's on the verge of having everything she's ever dreamed of.

But in this fairy tale, the beautiful princess wakes up to her worst nightmare -- when almost overnight, Ori begins to lose her hair....

Outside In / Chrissy Kalghery
The cool group at school is not as luminous as it seems.

Beautiful Jordan is struggling to cope with her newly divorced parents, Meredith covers her past by playing the clown, Cecilia hides a shameful secret, Sam is growing up, and Jack is caught off-guard when he falls in love for the first time.

And then there's someone who's not part of the group. The others have no idea she's there. But she knows there are cracks. She watches from the inside, out. From the outside, in. (Australian)

Posse / Kate Welshman
Amy is smart and sassy and she’s not afraid to go her own way. She and her best friends Clare, Jo, Patricia and Deborah – the Posse – are at year 12 camp and they’re bored. In the scorching summer heat, sparks start to fly. Clare and Amy might be best friends, but they’re sniping as if they’re enemies. Camp leader Bevan has started to single Amy out for attention, and Clare’s jealous. Amy’s feeling reckless. Anything could happen . . .In one night everything will change. Friendships will be tested and broken; careers will hang in the balance; and everything Amy knows will be ripped away. What really happened when Clare disappeared that night? Who’s telling the truth? And when things go too far, should you save your friends – or save yourself? (Australian)

What I bought in response to Jen Echols' thought provoking guest blog on the plight of the bookstore...well I wanted them too AND found a new bookstore with lots of the new imports from the US. What can I say, I think it's time for Book Shopper Anonymous.

Suite Scarlett / Maureen Johnson - hoping I enjoy more than 13LBE
Golden Girl /Micol Ostow - really eager to delve into this one
So Lyrical / Trish Cook
Marked / PC & Kristin Cast
The Book of Luke / Jenny O'Connell
Kissing Kate / Lauren Myracle - my first LM
What Would Emma Do / Eileen Cook - wanted to read this BAD
Sweethearts / Sara Zarr -squealed when I saw it, not pictured

BIG REMINDER that there is less than a week to post your entries for the Operation Retirement Rescue Challenge. I have posted an entry on RL Stine's Beach House and shall post another in the next few days. What about you?

Interview - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the author behind novels such as Fate and Tattoo, Golden and Platinum and The Squad Series. She has graciously allowed me to interview her about her writing process and the chances of another title in the series.

Where did the idea for Tattoo come from?
With Tattoo, I knew that I wanted to write a book about four best friends who all had psychic powers. I had the girls' names, personalities, and powers down long before I actually had a concept for the book, but I knew that I wanted the powers to be acquired during the course of the book, so I set everything aside until I could think of a good way to give the girls a power boost. I was a sophomore in college at the time, and a few months later, my roommate and I were getting ready to go out dancing, and we found these really sparkly green tattoos. As we were applying them, I made a joke about how they totally looked like they could be magic tattoos. The light in my head went off, and I realized that temporary tattoos would be perfect for Bailey and the gang, and that's how the story was born.

I love that each of the four girls could very much be cliched in differentiating themselves from one another but they weren't. Where did you find your inspiration for these friends?
I wrote and revised Tattoo while I was living with MY five best friends, during our sophomore and junior years in college, and I definitely think that influenced the way that the girls' friendship turned out and the way they respond to each other in the book. None of the characters were actually based on real people, but the way they joke with each other and interact is very similar to the kind of relationship my suitemates and I had while I was writing the book.

If I were to pinpoint what I loved the most about the Tattoo series, it would be the humour. There are some particularly snarky cheerleading comments that I adored. How difficult is it to make humour seem natural?
I can't imagine writing these books without the goofiness and snark, because I'm a pretty goofy and (occasionally) snarky person, especially when I'm with my closest friends, so writing a book about close friends that didn't include humour would have felt really unnatural to me. Probably the most difficult thing about writing humour is convincing your audience that a character can be funny/silly/occasionally over the top, and still be a person who deserves to be taken seriously, too. I consider Delia- the one who makes a lot of the cheerleader comments- to be responsible for a large percentage of the comic relief in the books, but she's also (at least in my eyes) a pretty formidable opponent.

I usually see plot twists in advance but you seem particularly good at springing them on your audience. How much of a part does plotting play in this?
For first drafts, I'm not much of a planner, so part of the reason readers might not always see twists coming is that a lot of times, *I* don't see them coming at first either. I let the story build naturally as I write it, so it's not unusual for me to "discover" a twist before it's actually revealed, but after clues have started turning up. When it clicks in my head, I think something along the lines of "that makes so much sense," but a lot of the twists fall naturally out of the plot while I write, rather than being planned per se.

I would imagine there is a humongous amount of research to be done with books that incorporate myths. What kind of research did you find yourself doing?
I used to say that I don't really do much research, but one of my writer friends pointed out that I actually do research, I just do it differently from a lot of other authors who write about the same kinds of things I do. I rarely sit down and say "I'm going to research X" and look things up. I didn't read a single book on mythology for the purpose of writing this series- but I'm the kind of person who finds a ton of different things really fascinating and will read up on them and learn about them at random times, just for the heck of it. Tattoo and Fate ended up being a mish-mash of a ton of things that I was interested in (and had looked up) long before I wrote a book about them. I love Celtic and Greek mythology, and I've collected bits and pieces of them in my head since I was about eleven or twelve- so the only research I did while writing involved double checking what I already knew.

Which YA author makes you green with envy?
Oh, wow! Hard question. The thing about the YA community is that it's so open and so friendly, and I've met and become friends with so many amazing YA writers that it's kind of hard to think of seriously envying anyone who writes YA, because they're just all SO NICE. In terms of less serious envy, though, I envy my buddy Sarah Cross, whose novel DULL BOY comes out this spring, because she knows way more about superheroes than I do and has a much more extensive comic book collection, and I envy Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon) because she lives in Ireland, where writers don't pay taxes, plus she can do truly magnificent (and only partially ridiculous) re-enactments of any book she's ever read. And also, I get pet-envy a lot, because it seems like a lot of YA authors have really cute cats and dogs, and my apartment doesn't allow pets. John Green and Melissa Marr both have really, REALLY awesome puppies...

Fate has just been released in Australia. How does it feel to know your book is available in various countries overseas?
Knowing your books are available anywhere is amazing- knowing they're available in other countries is mind-blowing. I'd love to have an excuse to visit Australia some day!

Are there any plans to revisit Bailey and her adventures with the Sidhe?
There's nothing currently in the works, but when I wrote Tattoo, I didn't actually know there was going to be sequel- which is just to say that I've been wrong before, so you never know.

What are you presently working on?
Right now, I'm working on a new YA called RAISED BY WOLVES (due out Summer 2010 in the U.S.) about a human girl who was adopted and raised by a pack of werewolves after her human family was killed by a rogue wolf when she was five. The story picks up when Bryn (the main character) is fifteen and discovers a secret at the center of the pack- lots of snark, lots of adventure, and tons of werewolf politics and teenage rebellion. It's a ton of fun to write!

A big thank you to Jen for taking the time to answer my questions of the eve of her trip. I appreciate it greatly. These books are definitely something I think all readers should check out. Jen's website and blog are also great founts of information. This week I have also been avidly reading her tweets from the Romantic Times Booklovers Conference which are pretty darn entertaining. Follow her now:)

Reader's Snapshot - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I was lucky enough to be provided with copies of Jennifer Lynn Barnes' Tattoo and Fate last month. They were a wonderful read, full of friendship, mysticism and humour. In a time where many YA books are focused upon solemn subject matter, it's great to read about a supportive group of friends who could laugh and battle dark forces.

It's with great pleasure that I have Jen undertake the Persnickety Snark - Reader's Snapshot!

Which book is memorable from your teen years?
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of my teen reads is Tamora Pierce, who I discovered when I was about fourteen. Her Song of the Lionness and Immortals quartets were some of my absolute favorites. WILD MAGIC, the first in Pierce's high fantasy series about a girl with an affinity for animals, was a book that I read and then immediately re-read, cover to cover, again. I still read it every time I go to my parents' house. I'm not sure exactly what it was that struck me so much about the book- the awesome world, the mix of humor and adventure, the fact that the protagonist had wild, unruly hair (as do I), or the way that all of Pierce's books seem to really resonate with my definition of family as extending beyond the people you're related to by blood- but I was absolutely captivated.

Describe your high school English teacher in three words...
Amazing. Funny. Irreverent.

Your book of the moment?
Do I really have to choose just one? Of the books I've read in the past month, the ones I'm *most* obsessed with are THE HOLLOW KINGDOM by Clare Dunkle, MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC by Gabrielle Zevin, and PEACE, LOVE, AND BABY DUCKS by Lauren Myracle. And also, I really loved Sarah Ockler's debut 20 BOY SUMMER, which I think is due out this spring/summer, and for adult books, MAGIC STRIKES by Ilona Andrews and THE IRON HUNT by Marjorie Liu.

I know. I should have just picked one and said more about it, but I read constantly, and all of these were a cut above the rest.

What do you use to mark your page when reading?
I dog-ear the corners. All of my books are very well-loved, and they look it, much the way a child's stuffed animal of choice might.

Favourite place to read?
People always think this is incredibly weird, but I love reading in the shower. After years of practice, I can totally wash my hair and read at the same time, without getting the pages wet.

Favourite word?
Spatula. In seventh grade, I thought it was immeasurably fun to say, and I've never really outgrown it enough to officially change its 'favorite word' status.

Favourite book store?
I don't actually have a favorite bookstore- I try to visit all three in my area at least once every couple of weeks.

Character you wish you had created?
This is another very long list, but I'll be good and pick just one- Boots from Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Overlander series. If you'd told me before I read the books that one of my favorite fictional characters of all time would be the two year old sibling in a middle grade novel, I never would have believed you, but Collins manages to balance a lot of humor and wisdom in Boots- while at the same time, making her a completely believable (and most remarkably, AVERAGE) toddler. All of which is much, much harder than it sounds.

Bonus Question - Favourite god of Greek or Roman myth?
I've always been partial to Artemis- she's the goddess of the hunt, but also of child birth, and I'm really fond in general of characters and people who are girly AND kick butt.

Make sure to drop by tomorrow to read Jen's interview about both Fate and Tattoo.