Angieville

Today I'm over at Fantasy Cafe doing a guest post for Kristen's Women in SF&F Month . I'm delighted to be taking part in this awesome event, and I do hope you stop by to say hi . I've got a few female-authored, under-the-radar sci fi and fantasy recommendations to throw your way (shocking, I know).

Are you getting a certain vibe from the covers of the books I'm reading lately? Yeah, me too. Though it's purely by chance, I think it's worth noting that after I read the books themselves, I often feel their covers are somewhat of a mismatch. Not that I don't like them. In fact, I quite like the cover for  Something Like Normal . It's part of what made me investigate the book further. But I do think they lead you to believe there's going to be more . . . shenanigans . . . going on inside than there really are. Make of that what you will. This is Trish Doller 's debut novel, and I had to smile when I looked up her GoodReads profile and she had listed her influences as Kirsty Eagar , Cath Crowley , and Melina Marchetta . Point to you, Ms. Doller. Way to reel in us Aussie YA-obsessed fangirls with just a few well-chosen strokes on your keyboard. But the thing that really drove me to read it was that it is part of the growing New Adult genre. Protagonist

When You Were Mine   came and went across my radar after I took a brief glance at its cover and mentally relegated it to the Jennifer Echols realm of contemporary YA romance. I enjoyed Going Too Far , but haven't loved her others or found myself in the mood for more of the same since. But that judgement was admittedly based entirely on the cover, font, tagline, etc. Then I read Carla's review over at The Crooked Shelf , and I took a second gander. Shakespeare, you say? Retelling? This is all exceedingly promising. Oh. Romeo and Juliet? Hm. Not sure I want to go there. Not that I don't enjoy R&J (I once saw it on stage, and Romeo's death scene was positively EPIC in scope. My brother-in-law and I were crying tears of mirth long before the poor boy let loose his final gasp and put us all out of our misery). And, as is so often the case, I was powerless to resist the call of a possibly excellent retelling. It was when I realized that it was told from Rosaline's

. . . that is the question. All right. I realize I may be asking for it here, but I'm gonna go ahead and, well, ask for it. I have never seen The Notebook. I've never read it either, for that matter. Truthfully, I'm not all that interested in losing my Nicholas Sparks virginity. And I've always sort of scoffed at the movie for being over-the-top sappy and whatnot . . . with the kiss . . . in the rain . . . and that beard . But I recently watched this little clip: And it kind of makes me want to run out and watch the source material, yeah? So give it to me straight. The Notebook (the movie): yay or nay?

It's National Library Week , you guys! Time to get to your library, take part in events going on around the nation, and support your local libraries and reading in general. It's also time for the ALA to release the list of Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books of 2011 . And here they are: 1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r  (series), by Lauren Myracle 2.  The Color of Earth  (series), by Kim Dong Hwa 3.  The Hunger Games  trilogy, by Suzanne Collins 4.  My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy , by Dori Hillestad Butler 5.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , by Sherman Alexie 6.  Alice  (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 7.  Brave New World , by Aldous Huxley  8.  What My Mother Doesn't Know , by Sonya Sones 9.  Gossip Girl  (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar 10.  To Kill a Mockingbird , by Harper Lee I've read 6 of the ten (yay me!) and have my usual pfft! to say in response to their being challenged. I also find it

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out-of-print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! So this is a book I've spent a lot of time talking about. Chances are, if you've hung around these parts, you've heard me push it. But I actually read it for the first time way back in the olden days before the blog was, well, what it is now. I read it shortly after it was first published, back in 2007, when I was writing monthly posts, mere collections of mini-reviews. So Song of the Sparrow  got shortchanged. I decided to address that situation today. The fun thing is lots of friends have read (and reviewed) it since, and so I was able to trip through their lovely thoughts and remember my own. When I heard about a retelling of Tennyson's " Lady of Shalott ," I was so in. I mean, I'

The great thing about reading is that books always surprise you no matter how long you've been reading them. You think you know an author or a genre or a style, and then they go and rip the rug right out from under your feet. Sometimes I'm going along, doing my thing, reading my books, and then I pick one up and realize it's what I've been starving for. I love a good urban fantasy. Ever since Sunshine . Ever since I made the acquaintance of Mercy Thompson. I've loved the real deal. And when I fall, I fall loyally . I look forward to the new Mercy and the new Kate religiously each year. But it's been kind of awhile since I sank into a brand, spankin' new one that really did it for me, you know? In fact, I'm pretty sure it's been a couple of years. Gah. There's so much paranormal stuff out there (some of it excellent, some of it not so much) that I often find myself longing for some true urban fantasy. So I was kind of surprised and kind of excit