Books Here and There

It seems that on a practically daily basis, some author out there in cyberauthorland feels the need to instruct reviewers in the mechanics or ethics of reviewing. From well-known, best-selling authors to the most obscure self-published author who has published one 68 page novella on amazon, many authors seem to feel completely entitled to authorsplain the obligations of reviewing to the people who are doing the reviewing.

(And yes, there are two specific events that have precipitated this post. I don't want to start a war, so I'm not linking directly).

Stop it.

No, really, stop it. Just like the guy who recently tried to mansplain to me how grand juries work (I’m a prosecutor, I know how they work), you need to stop your bloody authorsplaining. Here is an only slightly irrational and/or exaggerated response to the most common demands:

1. If your review isn’t going to be 4 or 5 stars, contact me privately with your complaints:

I’m not your beta reader, your crit partner, or your mommy (unless you’re my child, in which case, we would have already had this conversation face-to-face). Hence, you can assume that I have two audiences in mind for my reviews: myself (to put my thoughts in order) and my readers (who are usually my friends). For that reason, I feel utterly uncompelled to directly address you, your typos, your homonym confusion, and/or your plot holes the size of a friggin’ wormhole. My review isn’t for you.

I will embroider this on a decorative pillow for you, if you like.

Available in multiple colors. Not really, I actually just made it on picmonkey. But, you get the point.

2. Don’t review a book if you haven’t read it to the end. Preferably twice, so I know that you didn’t miss how I explained that plot hole that my beta readers warned me about in one sentence at the bottom of page 232.

Listen. I don’t need to consume an entire plate of feces to determine that it tastes like shit. In the same way, I don’t need to read your entire book to decide I don’t like it. And if I don’t like it, I can talk about the fact that I didn’t like it enough to finish it in public on the internet. The end.

3. Before you criticize my grammar and/or writing skills, make sure your review is perfectly written and formatted.

I’m writing for free, on the internet. You’re not. You don’t have to pay me if my grammar isn’t perfect. Isn’t that awesome? Of course, you don’t have to pay me even if my grammar is perfect, but in any case, only one of us thinks we should profit from the quality of our words. It’s not me. If my grammar is less than perfect, no one will expect a refund.

4. Don’t be mean – this book is my baby.

Think of me like your baby’s employer. She’s all grown up now, you see, and she’s graduated from high school (maybe even college) and you’ve sent her out into the world on her own, to make her fortune. Basically, I’m the person who signs her paycheck. It’s not my job to be nice to your baby. It’s my job to convey to her that she has skills worth paying for – otherwise, she should move back home. Because you sent her out into the world too early, and she isn't ready for a marketplace.

Thank you very much for leaving me alone. To read.

Thank you all in participating in BookLikes' mystery book packages photo contest! It's time to announce the lucky winners! 

The winners are:

 Tu czy Tam?

 Obsidian Blue

Congratulations! We must say we've done a lot of reading by the cup of tea and at the kitchen table during the holiday season too :)

You can view all photos by inserting BookLikes Christmas in the search box and choosing Tags. 

P.S. The mystery packages are nearly ready to go so get ready for the blind dates with new books :)

This is probably one of the single most powerful books I have read in my entire life. It made me want to laugh, to cry, to shake Travis silly. It takes a lot for a book to impact me on that level, most of the books I have read and love didn't even come close to making me feel how this book did. Travis Coates was an incredibly interesting character, a little thick at times, but that made him all the more interesting. His obsession with the past and placement in a future he didn't want made everything he did, no matter how small, something that seemed quite beautiful. He is the kind of guy I'd want in a best friend, honest and courageous, I couldn't look away even when his actions made me internally cringe. If you haven't already, now would be a great time to jump on the Noggin train, just so you know that once you've hopped on you have no chance of returning. 

Definitely worthwhile. Not only is Kyla is a memorable character, her friends and the plot are bound to stick with you. I highly recommend it to lovers of YA and memory loss. (I for one love memory loss stories) Go ahead and read it!

Literally one week earlier...

A month ago...

Oh and let us not forget...

Dear John,

It's not courageous at all. Women in leading roles are a sure thing, we have been for a while. But thanks for perpetrating the sexist myth that films with female leads are a risky venture that require courage in order to complement yourself, and the producers of your film, at the expense of all these other female driven films.

This is like telling a woman "you're so courageous for leaving the house dressed like that." It's not a compliment.

We don't need a "nice guy" to write a story about us, and then pretend like he is championing our cause while completely ignoring and even tries to erase that we've already been doing this for ourselves long before you ever came along. 

As for an indie film adaptation of a YA teen romance...

Unlike TFIOS, Twilight (1st film) did NOT have known actors (like Laura Dern, Sam Trammel and Willem Dafoe). While Shailene Woodley already has an Golden Globe nomination and the successful Divergent franchise under her belt, by comparison Kristen Stewart was a virtual unknown when she took the starring role in the first Twilight film.

PS When Stephenie Meyer published Twilight she didn't have over 2 million YoutTube subscribers to drive the success of her novel and film adaptation.

Through the Tumblr I'm managing about the recent Goodreads policy change, Censored by Goodreads, I've discovered a glitch wherein any links to BookLikes are blocked. I put out a call on Tumblr, and a response told of how the user tried to alert the Tumblr overlords to this situation, and got swatted for her trouble. Links to BookLikes are absolutely vital, given that this is the main destination for the Goodreads diaspora, and there have been a variety of posts here that it's killing me I can't post. 

So, can we social media this situation? Can someone alert BookLikes that they are banned by Tumblr? Or can someone get me contact info for someone on BookLikes that I can talk to? 

And I'm http://ceridwen.booklikes.com/ just in case the reblogging thingy strips out point of origin of post. Reblog at will.

Keep circulating the tapes. 

Out. 

POSSIBLE SPOLIERS

Seraphina is the unique story of a girl cursed, or is it blessed, with the blood and scales of her mother's dragon form. It is a curse because of the uneasy alliance between the dragons and the humans and a blessing because her unique talents could help her to save the two races from going to war.

I really liked this book it is different from every dragon story I have read to date. Although I have read books with dragons with the ability to take on the shape of a human before the stories were nowhere near as compelling.

Seraphina was one of my favorite aspects of the story. She felt more real than most female YA protagonists tend to today. She was not overly brave, had flaws that made sense, and her sob story was sob worthy. I appreciated how she didn't complain about nonexistent flaws throughout the entire book, her scales were the only things she didn't like about herself and that seems to only be because they could easily reveal the secret of her heritage. She was a very likeable and relatable character.

I really feel bad about liking this book now that I know how Kiera Cass has treated negative reviewers of her book. This link is to the reviewhttp://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

So putting it simply although I enjoyed this book, the author is definitely not a nice person. (Or if she is, she has done an amazing job of hiding it)

However this was a very enjoyable book and I liked the monarchy system.

Honestly I liked the movie better. Katniss annoyed me greatly.

Katniss: LETS GO KILL PEOPLE! Killing people has become boring. :( Hmm...Let's break someone's heart. And then we can ponder over which guy we like. Haha Katniss smart.

Me: No Katniss you just killed a bunch of people! Why doesn't this bother you?

Katniss: BOYS!!!

Something about Keegan really got on my nerves. Maybe it had to do with how perfect she was or how self-centered she acted. Or maybe it was both that combined with how she was a love struck idiot who couldn't do anything for herself. So pitiful. Keegan ruined this story for me, without her I might have liked it a bit better. Maybe

For starters I'd like to say thank you to the Goodreads first reads program for providing me with a free copy of this book. But unfortunately I also have to say that I didn't really enjoy it. The main characters's personalities seemed forced and I didn't connect with any of them very well. They also seemed a bit too capable to handle the challenges they faced so that they weren't really challenges. I really wanted to like this book but it just fell a little short to me.

I enjoyed this book but to me it had a few problems. I felt that Ana's "soulmate" and new family but the soulmate Athen in particular was too perfect for my liking. Don't get me wrong here I enjoy a little perfect now and then but I couldn't find anything wrong with these people. They are excellent fighters, get along perfectly, are completely loyal, have excellent manners and don't hold any serious grudges against their enemies. It's just not natural!

I feel like this book had a lot of potential. Jessica Warren is a witch who has a problem. She loves casting spells too much to use it in small doses and her Mom is addicted to it as well on a level that could be potentially deadly.

Although I enjoyed the concept of this story it drove me a little crazy. The grammar made it hard to read and annoyed me to no end. Putting "I" instead of "me" or vice verse is hard to over look.

If not for the grammar I would give this book at least three stars, maybe even four. But its hard to over look such obvious mistakes while reading.

ARRGH!!!!! 

The idea that was put forth for this book was a good one. I didn't like how Lilly accepted the idea that she could shape shift into either a cat or raven or both. Although her 'mother' and father weren't there for her and didn't show her love I don't think something of that nature would make her except that her fake mother was a witch. More explanation would have helped this story overall. 
Also the author neglected the element of showing how the characters grew to care for each other and instead just stated her evidence. I also feel that Lilly's new family excepted her too quickly - right away actually. They took no time at all to get to know her either they just sort of knew. I found that quite annoying

I probably would have enjoyed this more if the dialogue didn't seem so forced, it also seemed to me that the author was forcing Honor and Ethan together. I mean come on Ethan goes from creepy, to friend, to the love of Honor's life in the course of a few days. That really doesn't ring true to me. I also noticed that for one sentence it changed from first to third person! Editing is useful. Use it!