All Books Considered

This discussion is inspired by my feelings lately when reading and reviewing ARCs versus the feelings I had when I requested those same ARCs: ARC GREED ARC greed -- have we all experienced this?  What I even mean by this term is that I sometimes feel overwhelmed when looking at Netgalley and Edelweiss and  I sometimes over-request, if only because I can!  I get greedy when I see all the new and shiny ARCs available and I will sometimes request things that have even a hint of interest for me, not necessarily focusing only on those books that I really, really want.  The problem with this over-requesting and with getting greedy with requesting (and receiving) ARCs is when it comes time to read and review these ARCs.  Last month and this month, I have looked at my ARCs with a release date in each respective month and I just haven't wanted to read any of them.  I need to start asking myself -- If I was immediately approved for this ARC, ...

This discussion is inspired by conversations I've had recently with a few of my favorite bloggers.  It seems like there are certain authors that aren't criticized honestly or given anything less than stellar reviews.  Without singling out any particular book or author, what I want to know is: Are Certain Authors Sacrosanct? What I mean by this question is: do you find that bloggers are hesitant to give certain authors honest (and possibly bad) reviews?  Also, are there certain authors for whom you couldn't stand to give a negative review?  That is, not that you would write up a dishonest review but that maybe you would skip reviewing a work of theirs formally if it wasn't going to be a good review . . . ? I have found the former to be true with a certain author -- not that maybe everyone doesn't love this author's works and/or is giving dishonest reviews but moreso that it seems like a lot of bloggers are giving this author more favorable ...

This discussion is inspired by two things that happened to me recently. First , I received a comment from an author on my review of her latest book disagreeing with my assessment of the book although not necessarily in a mean way (I don't think?).   Second , I received an email from an author thanking me for my review of his book -- it was very nice but I was surprised by it.  Now, I want to put both of these events into context -- I did not tag either author on twitter or other social media or otherwise try to promote either review (other than the automatic bloglovin tweet that happens with every post) but I did upload feedback to NG/Edelweiss for both books.  Neither review was negative -- both over 3.5 stars but I was definitely surprised and a little startled by both interactions and I wasn't sure how or if to respond.  Now, I know popular bloggers (which I do not proclaim to be) have probably experienced both such events and probably many times over but s...

This discussion is partially inspired by Shannon's recent discussion regarding the " Pickiness of Endings " (a must read).  I was thinking about Shannon's discussion and I feel the same -- endings, especially series endings, disappoint me so often.  And then I thought about the fact that some of my very favorite books don't have a "happy" ending.  Sometimes this works because it feels more authentic for the story, for the characters and particularly, as Shannon pointed out, in a dystopian.  This led me to think about what a "happy" ending even means and so today I ask: How do you define a HEA? I often think of endings in simplest of Shakespeare's terms -- if it ends with a wedding, it's a comedy; if it ends with a funeral, it's a tragedy.  But maybe that is too simple. As you know, I hate spoilers and so I am going to try to talk about endings without referencing any particular books.  As I intimated above, some of...

So if you read my Monday Musts from a few weeks ago, you saw me post about the following segment on NPR regarding unreliable narrators, comparing books written by women and the 'girl' in the title phenomenon of recent thrillers/mysteries.  This segment was also inspired by this really interesting article by Megan Abbott .  I've been thinking about this a lot since I heard this segment so listen to it and read Megan's article then we can discuss: Unreliable Narrators: YAY or NAY? There is nothing I dislike more than a book becoming super popular and then every book that may be even tangentially similar being compared to that book.  First, it was Twilight , and when that was an international phenomenon, there was a drove of YA fantasy love triangles written and released, all of which were touted as the next Twilight .  And then it was Fifty Shades of Gray , and I'm sure we all remember all sorts of erotica being published once that book took off, an...

First of all, thank you SO much for reading my very first "discussion" post .  The response was so amazing and I am so grateful to each and every one of you that took the time to read it.  I would like to preface my next discussion post in the same way -- nothing is new and I'm sure that this topic has been discussed by someone, somewhere but this is what is on my mind: SHOULD THERE BE ARCs? Truly, not everything I think about and write about is regarding Maggie Stiefvater's epic series, The Raven Cycle , but it just so happens that this discussion post will mention this series, too.   Those of us that are obsessed with this series (like me) know that there will not be any ARCs for the highly (HIGHLY) anticipated last book of this series, The Raven King . There will be no ARCs (advanced reader copies). Y'all are just going to have to trust me. https://t.co/xYDv0q1tXN — Maggie Stiefvater (@mstiefvater) December 5, 2015 Oddly, I think this ...

If you can believe it, this is my first "discussion" post. I've always wanted to do a discussion post but I never knew where to start and I could never think of a topic that other bloggers didn't already address brilliantly.  That being said, nothing is new and I'm sure that this topic has been discussed by someone, somewhere but recently I read the latest book by my favorite author and the entire time all I could think was: ARE AUTHORS RUSHING TO PUBLISH TOO QUICKLY? Let me break it down for you.  First of all, I love self-publishing.  I think there are some amazing authors out there that wouldn't otherwise be able to get their books out without self-publishing.  Some of my favorite books in the past five years have been self-published.  I discovered Colleen Hoover, Chelsea Cameron, Emily Snow, Jessica Park, Tarryn Fisher, Autumn Doughton, Jillian Dodd, Rosalind James, Tammara Webber, Tracey Garvis Graves, and Mary Whitney, all through ...