The End of the Year Book Survey is hosted by Jamie at Perpetual Page-Turner

1. Best Book You Read In 2011?

So many great books I’m going to go with categories and you can click on the titles for my reviews

YA contemporary – Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Dystopian – A tie between Divergent and Delirium

Paranormal Red Glove by Holly Black

2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?

Leviathan - it’s so popular with young teen boys and I want to like more that they do so I can improve on how I promote reading to them. I just couldn’t get into it.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?

Forever because I was disappointed with Linger and wasn’t sure if I still liked the series but I loved the 3rd book. 

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2011?

The Hunger Games I know it’s very popular but I’m not just jumping on the bandwagon. I think this book has wonderful social commentary everyone should read and that it will appeal to all sorts of people.

5. Best series you discovered in 2011?

This depends on how the other books go, but probably the ones starting with Divergent or The Gathering.

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?

Kenneth Oppel (actually got his autograph and talked to him for a second at a conference),  Lauren Oliver, John Green and David Levithan

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

What Is Real was out of my comfort zone because the narrator is on drugs. I found the book dizzying, and it was almost like being on drugs myself. I’m a little bit too much of a control freak to enjoy anything that messes with my judgment or makes me loose my tiny grip on reality so drugs have always made uncomfortable. I’m weird enough without them, and something about reading this book made me really uncomfortable. On the other hand it was really well written and I can see why others would enjoy it.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?

Delerium or This Dark Endeavor

9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?

Red Glove and Wolfsbane. Both were pretty great. The fact that Holly Black tweeted about my review of red glove also made my year because I’m a huge fan.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2011?

11. Most memorable character in 2011?

I know my blog has suffered a lot this year as other things needed to be a priority. I’m working more, reading things I’m not allowed aloud to blog about for the book award, I’ve moved cities 6 times in the last 5 years and I’m trying to finally set down some roots and make my condo the way I want it. In 2012 I won’t be blogging every day but when I do blog I hope to say things that matter.

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David Farland is a New York Times Bestselling, award-winning author with many books to his credit.  Recently he began his own publishing company, and we’ve asked him about how his book, his company, and the future.

David, what inspired you to write the Nightingale series?

I’ve always believed the everyone should have great books—tots, children, adults.  So I’ve written for every age level, but with young adult novels in particular, I hadn’t done much, just a few tie-ins for Star Wars and Mummy movies.  Back in 2002, when I was teaching at BYU, Stephenie Meyer was one of my students.  She came to me with the glimmering ideas for her first novel, and asked what she needed to do to make it the bestselling young adult novel of all time.  So I talked about some ideas of how to handle it, and got to thinking, “You know, Dave, you really should be doing this with your own young adult novels.”  At the time, I was tied up with so many book contracts, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it right away, but the urge kept growing in me.

Beyond that, I had a lot of basic ideas for a story that intrigued me, things like, “What if there was a separate species of humanoid still living on our planet, hiding among us?” and “If we could transfer memories from one person to another, what effect would it have on the world?”  All of those get bound up into the novel.

At what point did you decide to deliver it in enhanced novel format?

I’ve long been interested in future novel technology.  I was hired by IBM to help develop such technology back in 1989, combining text with sound and images.  But over the years I’ve realized that it can go much further than anyone else imagines.  With this book, I saw that the technology was available on the iPad, but it wasn’t until I was done with the second draft that I decided that this book was good enough to help launch the first step in these new technologies.

What features does Nightingale have that make it an enhanced novel?

We combined illustrations and animations with the text, of course, to make it a more visual experience.  To do that, we brought in six top-notch artists.  We kept the animations very minimalistic.  We didn’t want to have a “movie” competing with the text.

To help create the tone, we brought in a composer, James Guymon, head of the American Composer’s Guild, to create a soundtrack.  This was extremely important, since the story is about a boy who wants to become a great guitarist.  He delivered a phenomenal soundtrack that could well have been produced for a movie.  The music clips at the beginning of each chapter really help set a great tone.

Beyond that, we made it so that you can get author’s notes and interviews in the text by hitting hot-keys.

We could have combined it with a videogame or something more interactive, but we really felt that that would pull the reader out of the story too much.

What effect do you feel this will have on who reads it?

Right now, most people who read it will be those who have access to an iPad or a Kindle Fire.  But you don’t need one of those to read it—the book is available through a web browser at www.nightingalenovel.com.  In other words, you can read it on your computer.  In fact, we’ve put it in a lot of formats—as a hardcover paper novel, as a regular e-book, as an audio book, and the music is available as a soundtrack. It has an interest from filmmakers in turning it into a movie.  So we want the book to be available for everyone who likes stories, no matter how they like them.

How do the special features improve the reading experience?

Our goal was to make the enhanced novel more aural, visual, and emotional.  Instead of me answering that question, one of our first reviewers put it this way: “I devoured the novel.  It was absolutely incredible! . . . I struggled to explain just how much I enjoyed it in my review. . . . After reading Nightingale, I don’t think I will even be able to go back to reading regular e-books again.  Like it says in my review, reading the enhanced Nightingale felt like an ‘experience.’ It didn’t feel quite like a book or a movie. It initiated all of my senses.  . . . enhanced e-books are actually a real deal.’”

Do you feel this technology is suited for all novels?

That’s a surprisingly complex question.  When Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, she never imagined that her reader might hook up to a computer jack and someday have the novel downloaded to his senses.  She wrote it to be read, in other words.  I think that, obviously, trying to move a story like that into enhanced form doesn’t offer a lot of benefits and might even harm the story.

At the same time, not all readers are the same.  Some readers are more visually stimulated than others.  They prefer to watch movies rather than read.  Others are aural.  They want to hear their stories on audio, or listen around a campfire.  Some learn by manipulating objects, and so they might enjoy playing games set in your story’s universe.

So in order to reach all of those potential readers (many of whom don’t read at all), you have to look for ways to make it easier for them to receive the story.  Sixty percent of the people who could read a book this year won’t.  They don’t ever read books.  They’re “reluctant readers” at best.  So to create a truly monster hit, one that everyone will pick up and love, you almost need to combine technologies.  That’s what I’m doing with East India Press.

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Mr. Farland’s new classic series Nightingale tells the story of a young man, Bron, abandoned at birth, and raised in foster care.  He’s kicked out of one home after another for being “strange.”  Finally, at age 16, Bron goes to live with a woman named Olivia who recognizes instantly that he’s special.  He’s what she calls a “Nightingale,” a creature not quite human.

Suddenly epic forces combine to claim Bron, and rip him away from the only home, family, and girl that he has ever cared about.  Bron must risk his life—and the lives of everyone he knows—in order to uncover the mystery of his birth, and answer the questions, “Who am I?” “What am I?” It’s the kind of fantasy series that will enthrall Young Adults and adults alike.

To buy the novel in any format, or to preview the cool new enhanced novel technology by reading the sample chapters, go to www.nightingalenovel.com.  While you’re there, don’t forget to look up the contests, and find out how you can win $1000.

View the trailer and comment about it below for a chance to win free access to the online version of the novel.

Here’s why I think the trailer promises a good movie:

-They aren’t glorifying the fighting. Collins wrote the Hunger Games as a social commentary not just an action packed story and it’s really important to me that the movie makes you think about the fighting. Peeta talking about still being himself when he dies shows that they are going to stay true to the story.

-The people in the Capital look ridiculous and they are doing the whole makeover thing in a way that questions the validity of prettying her up for the slaughter, which is perfect.

-I think the look of horror on Katniss’ face at the reaping when Prim’s name gets called was perfect. I was skeptical about Jennifer Lawrence but I think she’s going to rock this role. Prim’s grief also looks just right.

-They didn’t give away too much for the people who haven’t read the books but they gave those of us who have read them glimpses of  all the key characters.

Overall I think I’m going to love the movie and it will create even more readership for a wonderful trilogy.

This week I got:

• Karma
• Once Every Never
• Schizo
• Pretty Bones
• Just Deserts
• Beyond Blonde
• Disintegrate

I also got an adorable card + stickers from my BFF

my temp tattoo

My library system just updated our catalogue with Bibliocommons. Here are some of the features I enjoy:

Even if you don’t use the advance searched options initially, it’s easy to narrow your search results if you come up with too many hits. Being able to narrow by what branch a book is currently in is a vast improvement in itself compared to the standard catalogue where you had to go into each record to check that.

2.

Just like on Goodreads.com it’s easy to keep track of  and share what you’ve read, what you are currently reading and what you plan to read. This can either be visible publicly or kept private to use as your own records.

3. If you click it, the new online catalogue keeps track of what books you return to the library. People often ask what they borrowed a few weeks ago because they forget the title and want to recommend it to a friend. Now I can give them a solution, where before for privacy reasons we did not keep records of what people borrowed.

4. Lists, now the catalogue allows you to have multiple lists. This is great for sorting books I want to use for displays, recommend to specific groups or just keep track of different genres and such. I like being able to make my own and I love being able to browse other people’s lists.

5. Finally I have a place to share and keep track of book trailers! You can link to video in any record, and this is helpful for marketing books especially to young people.

6. Reading reviews by other readers both in my area and elsewhere is something I always loved about shopping for books online. This takes it one step further by breaking down feedback into helpful sections.

7.

I love being able to give half stars! And I like that when you hold the mouse over a star it describes what that amount of stars means, such as “above average”.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I love rating things. Books, movies, tv shows, games….

8. Tags: Cataloguing rules can be funny, and terminology used in subject heading is not always the most intuitive. I argue that words people are likely to use should be easily searchable, and here is where tags come in. If anyone feels a book’s subject headings aren’t enough to describe it they can add a tag. This just makes everything that much more likely to show up in searches. For example, post-apocalyptic books are popular right now but that’s not one of the subject headings are cataloguers use, so if I add that tag to a bunch of titles I know have that subject when someone searches “post-apocalypitc” they will get results. It’s great because it creates more opportunity for finding read-alikes.

9. “Did you mean?” I confess I’m terrible at spelling. Sometimes I’m searching for something to no avail and then I realize I’ve been misspelling my search terms. Now I’m stubborn and will keep looking or use a dictionary or spell check in word or sometimes even Google to correct my spelling but a lot of people will just assume the library doesn’t have the book and move on.  So I am very happy that the new catalogue suggests alternate spelling when there are no results and it seems to be bang on with the suggestions.

10. Holds! This probably won’t be a big deal for the average user who only has a few holds, but I have a tendency to have hundreds of holds at a time on my office cards because I plan ahead for storytime and SRC and all sorts of displays. The new catalogue lets you sort your holds by what’s suspended or what’s active and is much easier to navigate in terms of finding what I’ve ordered for when.

Does your library have these interactive features for their catalogue? Do you use them? What do you like or dislike about them?

What you’re seeing is mario wall graphics, gumba earrings and a Captain Hammer pair of necklaces. That’s right, I’m wearing Nathan Fillion in cartoon form.

So today I’m off to explore what geeky stores there are in Vernon. I’m basically trying to cheer myself up about missing the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour in Vancouver next week (I have to work).

I know I’ve missed a few weeks in my mailbox posts because I was swamped with moving and company but here is my latest batch of books.

notice my awesome mario themed living room in the background...

I have received lots of submissions for the CLA Young Adult Book Award, including:

• Quiver by Holly Luhning
• Chasing Freedom by Gloria Ann Wesley
• The Whole Truth by Kit Pearson
• This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel
• Dragon Seer’s Gift by Janet McNaughton
• I’ll be Watching by Pamela Porter
• Switch by Tish Cohen
• Money Boy by Paul Yee
• The Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby
• Tempestuous by Lesley Livingston
• All You Get Is Me by Yvonne Prinz
• Empire of Ruins by Arthur Slade
• Catalyst by Matti Mclean
• The Guardian by C.J. Gosling
• Betsy Wickwire’s Dirty Secret by Vicki Grant
• The Fifth Rule by Don Aker

I also bought myself World of Geekcraft because you know I’m going to be crafting like mad now that I have a makeshift craft room. My condo had 2 walk in closets, so one of them became the craft area that is currently taken over by scrapbooking. Right now my scrapbooking project is SRC at SA Branch. I’m also going to be doing one shortly about all the people who come to visit me way out here in BC (2 friends and 2 parents so far). You may notice some complete scrapbooks on the shelf, 3 of those are recent gifts from my mommy who scrapped my life (in the good way haha). I really need to pretty up that ugly chair…

It’s pretty rare that a sequel is better than the original book (although sometimes they are easier to get into because you know the characters) but I loved Ascendent.

Astrid spends much of the novel conflicted about her duties, which I enjoyed because slaughtering unicorn babies is quite different than protecting someone from a giant unicorn about to crush or poison them. I think if Astrid wasn’t torn about how she should use her powers or if she wanted this life I wouldn’t have liked her. Phil manages to play both sides of the unicorn hunting debate with grace, leading the protests about eliminating an endangered species and simultaneously leading the hunters that are doing the killing. She refuses to play the victim after being raped and remains one of the strongest characters.

There are lots of ridiculous jokes about virginity because it’s a requirement for the unicorn magic and “getting out of the business” of unicorn hunting is a euphemism that get’s overused a bit. The thing is that it works for the book, because Peterfreund pokes fun at the purity requirement. She has Astrid’s band of unicorn huntresses be pressured into wearing nun habits as hunting uniforms because the church that sponsors them thinks they are showing too much skin and should be representing themselves in a more civilized manner. The resulting camouflage habits covered in blood create a both hilarious and disturbing image, that plays on the ironies of the “innocent” warrior.

Both Giovonni and Brandt fell short for me in the romance department. Not the most attractive love interests if you ask me, Astrid could do better. I think the lesbian couple were the cutest together.

The roles of the media and the pharmaceutical company are really interesting and I wish there would have been more details about them both.

The section of the book after Astrid is injured in battle is my favourite part, but alas I will avoid spoilers….

I think the truest testament to how engrossed I was in this novel is that I didn’t notice the text was in red ink until about halfway through. When I’m really into a story I forget about the physical object in my hand and the individual words and it all just flows like a movie in my mind, only more intimate, like I’m experiencing it. This is how Forever felt for me, although I have to say after a few hours that red text hurt my eyes.

When I reviewed Linger (the 2nd installment in the trilogy) I expressed some disappointment with how the series was progressing but Stiefvater made up for that disappointment by coming through with a fantastic finish.

“I was a radio tuned to all stations at the same time, so many thoughts inside me that none of them counted” (107)

The characters were incredibly relatable, with genuine reactions to the events in their lives, and distinct voices as the narrative shifted. I never had trouble telling who the narrator of a particular chapter was even though it jumps around and I tend to skip over the name above the chapter when I’m really into the action.

I’d always had trouble with Grace, relating more to Sam but I think Grace’s character development blossomed as she struggled with her new identity in this novel.

It’s funny that Cole and Isabel’s relationship began as purely sexual attraction, and Sam and Grace shared a bed for months without going there, but their sexual chemistry was far more compelling.

“She fisted a handful of my T-shirt; the action woke me up instantly and guiltily made me think of at least four things that were not bedtime stories or selfless ways to comfort a grieving girl” (185)

The tension in Sam’s point of view when he’s having feelings for her despite the horrible circumstances and feeling guilty that when they are in danger he’s distracted by how close he is to touching her was really well written. There’s a section where he’s fantasizing about the life he wishes he could have with her, and I loved the first half where he was imagining her studying next to him as he reads, and the simple joy he gets from being in a room for her.

There was quite a bit of action in the novel, with people being torn apart by wolves and the big hunt looming made it suspenseful, however my favourite parts were the introspective moments. Each of the characters struggles with being defined by their history, there is a beautiful balance of their personalities being shaped by their upbringing, and defying what’s done to them. Sam is suspected of being a terrible person because of how he was abused. Someone asks how he could be anything but a monster having been treated as he was by his biological parents, and he wonders himself if Beck has raised him to be monstrous. Grace’s neglectful parents have instilled in her a sense of independence. Cole’s drug abuse and suicidal tendencies and Isabel’s confrontational, cold nature are equally explored.

Being a bookworm myself I enjoyed the various take’s on Beck’s library. All of the narrators view it differently but I prefered Grace’s interpretation.

“a cave of words that I’d made myself” (170)

If you haven’t read this series or if you’ve only read the first installment, I’d say Forever makes it worth the read.I doubt the movie will do it justice.