YA2U--or Why Authors Deserve Some Drumrolls

Now this. This is something awesome. Something absolutely sparkling and spectacular and also I'll just stop rambling now and let you get on to it.

Have you ever wished that a big YA book tour would make a stop in your hometown? Well, here's your chance for that wish to come true! YA2U is a program that features five award-winning and best-selling authors who are holding a contest to see what city they should visit in an exclusive tour stop!

The authors are collecting votes from January 1 to February 15, and any city in the continental US or any Canadian city that has an international airport can win an exclusive visit from all five authors, including an author panel and book signing! Entering is super easy--and if you help spread the word about the contest, you can also enter win a signed copy of all of their books (TEN signed books in total!)--and the book contest is open internationally!

The authors in the program are:

• Marie Lu, the New York Times best-selling author of Legend and the upcoming Prodigy
• Marissa Meyer, the New York Times best-selling author of Cinder and the upcoming Scarlet
• Beth Revis, the New York Times best-selling author of Across the Universe, A Million Suns, and the upcoming Shades of Earth
• Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch and the highly-anticipated upcoming The Archived
• Megan Shepherd, author of the debut novel The Madman's Daughter

And they want to have an event in your home town! To participate, just got to the YA2U website and let them know what city you want them to come to. And while you're there, help spread the word about the contest and you can be entered to win all of their books--TEN signed books in total! 

Here's why the YA2U Team should come to MY hometown!

Look. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE Beth Revis and Marie Lu and Victoria Schwab. I'll admit that I haven't read anything by Marissa Meyer (I met her once and almost faceplanted at her awesomeness. No joke. Just ask my friend who was watching on, completely mortified at my flailing, flabbergasted self) and Megan Shepherd yet, but I'm really excited to. I, however, happen to live in the Los Angeles area.

"BUT THE WEST COAST ALWAYS GETS THE EVENTS!" You say.

Which is not necessarily true, but it does have a point. But here's the thing: California is the most populated state. If there's an event here, more people would be able to go to it. Besides, then, if you come over here for vacation as a grand scheme for the event, then you can also visit a plethora of cool places like Disneyland, Legoland, Hollywood, Universal Studios, etc., that you can't visit in the middle of, say, Montana (though nothing again Montana. Y'all have Hanklerfish). And my local indie bookstore, Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop, has some of the friendliest and most knowledgeable employees/friends I've ever met. I think you'd like them a lot, and I think this whole shebang would be really awesome if you voted for LA.

Why should the YA2U Team come to your hometown? Why not join in the fun today and share with others about this program and your hometown. The more votes your town gets, the closer you are to having your very own personal tour stop! Vote for YOUR town here!

And if you help spread the word, you can also participate in the book giveaway. Tell them that you learned about YA2U from me and we both get extra entries in the contest!

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Top 10 Week #3: Best Dual POVs of 2012

Top 10 of 2012 is one week of bookish goodness hosted by the fantastic peeps at Two Chicks on Books, Fiktshun, Confessions of a Bookaholic, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads! Every day from December 24th to December 28th, I'll have a Top 10 list up regarding to the day's topic. Today's topic is:

Best Dual POVs of 2012

In case you don't know what a Dual POV is: basically, it's when a story is told by two different people, typically the male and female protagonists.

Here are my top 10, in no particular order (once again, the book covers lead to the Goodreads pages):

Breathless

1) I'm so sorry you guys. I've been MIA all week. :( It looks like my schedule must be altered! Well, make sure you check back here on Mondays and Fridays. I will have a new post up then by sure. :)

2)

You're welcome.

3) I went to the Los Angeles stop of the Breathless Reads tour tonight at Once Upon a Time. I met Beth Revis, Marie Lu, Andrea Cremer, and Jessica Spotswood, and got their fantastic signatures. SO. AWESOME. Everyone there was hilarious, and I promise I'll do a more in depth post on this soon with PICTURES (because imagery just needs to be in existence, right?)! But, hey, pssst, did you know that ANDREA CREMER AND BETH REVIS ARE SISTERS?!?!?

Yeah. I know. I didn't either. But, man, check out their face structures. Total resemblance. They claimed it themselves, too. Wow.

4) I'm going to meet Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder (which is about a cyborg Cinderella--SO COOL) tomorrow at my FAVORITE BOOK STORE EVA, Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop! Maybe I'll see you there? *Edited to add: NOOOO!!! I remembered wrong! The event was actually on the same day as #3. T.T Well, this sucks...*

How was YOUR week while I was off in homework-land?

Silence and Stars

A Million Suns
By: Beth Revis
Reported by: Julianna Helms

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. 

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

-Summary from Goodreads

Barnes&Noble||Amazon||The Book Depository

Reading A Million Suns was like hugging the entire universe in its aggregated starry glory. Like soaring into the sky, the wind whipping past your entire body, the land billowing beneath you in ripples of satiny cloth. Like the sound of tinkling glass ricocheting forever in your ears, of sunlight feeding your eyes, of elixirs revitalizing your body.

How do you write the review for a book like that?

I am lost, but perhaps a game of would-you-rather would fit our purposes.

***

Would you rather read an 1) amazing second-book-in-a-trilogy or 2) a terribly hideous one?

If you chose 1... This book is exactly it. Beth Revis rips apart the genre boundaries and blows it up with her own masterpiece. The phrases and plot twists and characters and themes in this book work in complete synchronization, advancing not too quickly nor too slowly. The pace forces you to turn page after page. It is unstoppable, unbelievable, unprecedented. It is the sequel you dream of.

If you chose 2... I would hate to make comparisons nor name names, so you may want to check out my Goodreads account for the 1 or 2 star reviews.

Would you rather 1) fall in love with a completely realistic and stunning boy or 2) a user/jerk/creeper?

If you chose 1... I liked Elder in Across the Universe. I loved Elder in A Million Suns. He is intelligent, frustrated... he's real. Elder cares for Amy--he yearns for her. There is so much wanting and needing in this book, so much please and just let it go, it tore my heart apart. Elder has so much expected of him, but he's so young, and without Phydus, the responsibilities he must take on, the things he must do and rise above to accomplish struck my heart like a knife. I was going through something similar--dissent among leadership, chaos among expectation--at the time I was reading this book, and it was Elder who kept me hopeful and strong. It was Elder who saved me. It was he who made me love again.

If you chose 2... You probably thought I'd name Twilight, and you are right. Not because I dislike Stephenie Meyer. Simply because I refuse to name any names, but that book is probably what 99% of the population would think of when reading the word "creeper", so I felt that it was not something particularly bashing.

Would you rather 1) die a little bit and love with all of your heart or 2) love a little bit and die with all of your brain and being?

If you chose 1... Read this book. I cannot reiterate this enough. Correction: If you haven't yet, read this entire series. A Million Suns was even better than Across the Universe. This book makes you laugh. It makes you smile, want to cry, it makes you this little kid surrounded by field after field of endless enigma, and watching all the lies rain down around you, you, too, will race to find the truth.


You, too, will race for silence and the stars. And that is it, really. Silence and stars.

If you chose 2... I hope for both your sake and mine that you did not choose this option, but a little curiosity goes a long way, does it not? So if you did, my Goodreads account is as accesible as they come. I hope you find something satisfactory.

***

I thought time wore away love. Wore away patience, skill, understanding, hope, humbleness. But I was wrong.

Time is a tool, and Beth Revis is its master. For her, it did not wear away any of the above.

It ignited them.

Top 10 Settings in 2011

Today's topic was characters, and I chose settings. Though some people might say that a setting isn't a real, animate thing, it can't be a character (and you're right), here is the definition for character (from dictionary.com):

Character: Noun. One of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish the individual.

A setting is an attribute that distinguish the characters in a story, and it usually plays a major role as well. Without the claustrophobic environment of Godspeed, would Across the Universe be as horrifying as it is? Without the Shifted world of Shade, Aura's story would have been exponentially different. So, here it is, my top 10 settings of 2011 (in no particular order):

Thankful for... Amelia Bedelia

New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis (whose debut Across the Universe I loved--see my review of it here) is hosting a giant and completely awesome giveaway during the month of November. All you have to do is include a link to the contest and share a book you're thankful for and why!

I'm thankful for...

AMELIA BEDELIA by Peggy Parish

The thing is, you guys, that I grew up in China. I read books in Mandarin. I really had no connection with the U.S. except for that one teacher who dared to attempt teaching my first grade class English (also--she quit. We were a lousy class.)

So imagine my surprise when, after a trip to the U.S., my mom came home with a stack of Amelia Bedelia books for me to read. IN ENGLISH.

You see, my mother is an awesome-blossom woman. She and my dad traveled back-and-forth between the U.S. and China, while my grandparents (who are the BEST grandparents EVER) raised me. In fact, my brother was born here in the U.S.

I digress. So. She brought me Amelia Bedelia. I had no idea how she expected me to read them and understand them. I mean, come on, I was in first grade and my English teacher just quit her job. So my mother started to take time out of her very very busy schedule and read the books to me, me trying to understand them through the pictures and my mom translating.

The point of all this? That was the first English book I have ever read, at least from what I remember. And I have to be forever thankful because now I'm reading so many English books that I may have never started without Amelia (okay, that's a lie--I love reading too much to ever let language become a problem. But still!). So basically, while everyone else who come to the U.S. look forward to trying out cheeseburgers and what-not, I was obsessed about lemon meringue pie.

What book(s) are YOU thankful?

Waiting On Wednesday

 *Don't forget to enter this contest to win lots of awesome books!*

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine.

This week, I'm waiting on...

A MILLION SUNS

By: Beth Revis 

When Elder learns harrowing news about the space ship Godspeed, he and Amy must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, all the while dealing with the romance that’s growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart. It all boils down to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

Release date: January 10th, 2012

Beth Revis's stunning debut, Across the Universe (see my review here), just completely shocked me out of my seat. I can't wait for this book! Yeep!

What book are you waiting for?