Blog Tour: The Sharp Time - Mary O'Connell - Into the Past

Mary O'Connell is here today with an Into the Past post courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her new release, The Sharp Time. Thank you for being here today, Mary! You can follow along with the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!

I’ve always loved books—like you, I’m guessing!—so it’s a treat to take the time to remember the books that were special to me.

Age 5: Are You My Mother? My own mother read this book to me, a long, long time ago, in a room with red shag carpeting and curtains with interlocking black and white squares and triangles. Yes, it was the seventies.

Age 11: Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. I still remember sitting in my pink bedroom and closing this book, thinking: My God, there’s a writer who understands what the world is like. The genius of Judy Blume cannot be overstated.

Age 16: Catcher in the Rye—The 16-year-old me can’t believe how brilliant Holden Caulfield is! I read this book on a snow day, and still remember the feeling of looking out at the winter world and feeling so understood.

Age 20: The World According to Garp. I read this novel in my freshman dorm room—probably in lieu of doing my biology homework--and loved it so dearly. But I would come to love John Irving’s later book, A Prayer for Owen Meany, even more.

Thank you! It has been great to remember my favorite books, and the rooms where I read them…

Thank you for supplying us with this fantastic book list from your past, Mary, and thank you for being here today! 

Mary O'Connell can be found on her website, and on twitter. 

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Sandinista Jones is a high school senior with a punk rock name and a broken heart. The death of her single mother has left Sandinista alone in the world, subject to the random vulnerability of everyday life. When the school system lets her down, her grief and instability intensify, and she ponders a violent act of revenge.

Still, in the midst of her crisis, she gets a job at The Pale Circus, a funky vintage clothing shop, and finds friendship and camaraderie with her coworker, a boy struggling with his own secrets.

Even as Sandinista sees the failures of those with power and authority, she's offered the chance to survive through the redemptive power of friendship. Now she must choose between faith and forgiveness or violence and vengeance.

Synopsis taken from goodreads.

Blog Tour: Henrietta the Dragon Slayer - Beth Barany - Into the Past

Beth Barany is here today with an Into the Past post courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her book, Henrietta the Dragon Slayer. Thank you for being here today, Beth! You can follow along with the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!

Into The Past: Favorite Books From Childhood & Youth

By Beth Barany

At age 5, I'd recommend In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak.

I love the illustrations in this book, and the creativity of the story. It's so imaginative. I love the pictures of the sky. My parents read it to us a lot when I was little.

And age 11, I’d recommend A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

I recently reread this book, one I so enjoyed as kid, and was struck how much it was about love. As a kid I loved the science of it. I love the time and space travel!

And: The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Adventure! Two friends traveling across Europe to restore the rightful prince. At thirteen, I read this book while recovering from a surgery. It was a great escape. I could have read it at age 11.

At age 16, I'd recommend Dune by Frank Herbert.

I read this book while in college, but wished I'd found it sooner. I think it was finals week and I needed a break. I got a great education in political science -- better than any university course -- and quickly gobbled up the rest of the series.

At that age, I also wish I'd found So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane.

This is the first in a nine-book series for teens by Diana Duane. It was such a delight to discover a sophisticated wizardry world that's complex and doesn't talk down to kids. Science plays a strong role in this book and all the books in this series.

At age 20, I wish I'd know about Tamora Pierce's The Song of the Lioness series. The last book in this four-book series was released when I was 20.

From Wikipedia, "Alanna of Trebond wants to be a knight. Therefore she, disguised as the boy "Alan", swaps places with her twin brother Thom, to go to the royal palace in the city of Corus to try for knighthood."

I love how real Alanna feels and how complex the story is. Alanna is really someone I can root for. I also like the story was unexpected in many ways.

Though I've read many, many books in my live, the ones in this list are definite keepers.

What is the top keeper book on your list? I'd love to know!

Comment to enter to win a copy of Henrietta The Dragon Slayer. If you comment, you also enter to the Grand Giveaway for the necklace featured on the cover of Henrietta The Dragon Slayer. Winners will be chosen at the end of August. Giveaway rules here: http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/beth-barany-novelist/blog-tour/#rules

For more about Beth Barany, and her latest novel, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, go here: http://

www.writersfunzone.com/blog/beth-barany-novelist/

Thank you for this awesome book list, Beth, and thank you for being here today!

Beth Barany can be found on her website, her blog, and on twitter.

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Henrietta, the legendary Dragon Slayer of the Kingdom of Bleuve, can't stomach the thought of one more kill. Yet, in order to save her dying mentor, she must go on one last quest. But will misfit companions, seasickness, and an ego maniacal king derail the quest for the healing stone? And will she be able to cut past her conscience and kill the dragon?

Synopsis taken from goodreads.

Blog Tour: Songbird - Angela Fristoe - Into the Past

Angela Fristoe is here today with an Into the Past post courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her book, Songbird. Thank you for being here today, Angela! You can follow along with the rest of the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!

I've always loved the smell and feel for books. When I was a teen, I would go to the library practically every day after school and on the weekends. For me, there was nothing greater then getting a stack of books and reading through all of them in a couple of days. By the time I hit college I could make it through 2 or 3 books a day.

Age 5: As boring as they are, I loved the Dick and Jane books. Reading wasn't easy for me when I was younger, and these books gave me the confidence to keep trying.

Age 11: Ahh, the days of Babysitter's Club, and Sweet Valley High. They dominated my bookshelf, but my true favorite was Anne of Green Gables. Anne with an 'e' was so spunky and I was convinced that I needed to dye my hair bright red and marry Gilbert.

Age 15: This is when I discovered VC Andrews. I spent spring break that year lying on the couch, reading through two of her seven series. After that I bought every other series published under her name. About a year later, I discovered the pattern to her stories and moved on before I grew to hate the repetitiveness.

Age 20: At this age I had immersed myself in the romance category, and it's still my favorite genre. There's something to be said about love and happy endings. My shelf was filled with a variety of romance novels, although it was, and still is, heavily dominated by Diana Palmer, Linda Howard, and Lori Foster. If Twilight and The Hunger Games series had been around I'm sure they would have been on my shelf as well.

Thank you for this book list! I remember the days of the BSC well. =) 

Thank you for being here today, Angela! 

Angela can be found on her website. 

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There are defining moments in life when everything changes. For Dani Mays, it was the day she witnessed her father kill her brother. Now seventeen years-old, she still hasn't put it behind her.

After Jace's death, she bounced between her alcoholic mother and foster homes, until she found a permanent place. And a reason to stay: Reece Tyler. He's her best friend, yet Dani wants more from Reece.

Faced with possibly losing Reece, Dani struggles to define his place in her life and escape the memories of her brother's death and the influence it has over her choices. Even as she weaves the pieces of her heart back together, the past becomes more than a memory when a former foster brother reappears and Dani begins receiving threatening phone calls.

Synopsis taken from goodreads.

Blog Tour: Breath of Angel - Karyn Henley - Into the Past & Giveaway

Today, Karyn Henley is here with an Into the Past post courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her recent release, Breath of Angel. Thank you for being here, Karyn! You can follow along with the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!

When I was five, I loved fairy tales. So I’m sure I would have recommended Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, and Peter Pan. I also loved Rudyard Kipling’s Just So stories. I adored a book of poetry by Margaret Wise Brown, Nibble Nibble. My favorite poems were “The Fish With the Deep Sea Smile” and “The Sad Sliced Onion.” Other favorites: The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, and Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. All these books gave me a love for lyrical, picturesque language and a sense of delight in the realm of story.

By age eleven, I had been through all the Nancy Drew books, which gave me a love of mystery and suspense, which I try to incorporate into my fantasy writing. What would I recommend at age eleven? The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkein, and Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton.

At age sixteen, I would have been reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin and The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. But I was also very much interested in language and was studying French in school. My father gave me a nonfiction book called Eternal France, which I devoured. And I found a book called The Mother Tongue on my parents’ book shelf and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Around twenty? The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier, Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, ‘Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, and his trilogy Out of the Lonely Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

I consider all these books to be classics. At least they are classics to me. I place them in age categories here, but they really transcend categories. I still read and enjoy them. As the saying wistfully says, “So many books, so little time.” I expect that the day I die, a book will lie beside my bed with a bookmark showing where I stopped reading.

Thank you for this awesome book list! I'm with you there on Nancy Drew! Thank you so much for being here today, Karyn! 

Karyn can be found on her website, her blog, and on twitter. 

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The stranger’s cloak had fallen back, and with it, a long, white, blood-stained wing.

When Melaia, a young priestess, witnesses the gruesome murder of a stranger in the temple courtyard, age-old legends recited in song suddenly come to life. She discovers wings on the stranger, and the murderer takes the shape of both a hawk and a man.

Angels. Shape-shifters. Myths and stories—until now.

Melaia finds herself in the middle of a blood feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, stranding angels in the earthly realm. When the feud turns violent and Melaia becomes a target, she finds refuge with a band of angels attempting to restore the stairway. But the restoration is impossible without the repayment of an ancient debt—the “breath of angel, blood of man,” a payment that involves Melaia’s heart, soul, and destiny.

Synopsis taken from goodreads.

Giveaway

Karyn Henley and her publicist are graciously providing Lost For Words with a bookmark for giveaway. 

Thank you, Karyn! 

Giveaway is open to US only. 

Giveaway will end June 30, 2011. 

Please fill out this FORM to enter. Comments, while appreciated, will not be counted as entries.

Thank you! =)

Blog Tour: I'm Not Her - Janet Gurtler - Into the Past

Janet Gurtler is here today talking about the books that she would recommend at different intervals throughout her past. Thank you for being here, Janet! You can follow along with the Teen Book Scene blog tour for I'm Not Her here, or by clicking the banner. Enjoy!

Into the Past: What books would your past self recommend at ages 6, 11, 16 and 20? 

Like most of us who love to read, books were like treasure to me at every age. Here’s a look at books I’d recommend at different ages.

Age Six- Harriet the Spy. I loved her so much that I think I convinced myself for awhile that I was her.

Age 11- A Wrinkle in Time. Again. This book had such a huge impact on me. We read it as a class when I was in grade 6 and I was completely absolutely hooked. The teacher would read a chapter at a time and we’d do projects and talk about the characters and I was living in Meg’s world and obsessed.

Age 16- SE Hinton books ruled my world. My favourite book was That Was Then, This is Now.

Age 20- This was a brief period in my life where I didn’t read as much because I was going to college and most of my free time I was studying. One book that was assigned in my Canadian Literature class was Lady Oracle and I can remember that having a big impact on me (and leading to a ghostly encounter that still spooks me to this day and I`ll tell you about some time if you ask).

Great books! I am intrigued by the ghostly encounter. Consider this as me asking about it! ;)
Thank you for this awesome post, Janet! :) 

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Brainy Tess Smith is the younger sibling of the beautiful, popular, volleyball-scholarship-bound Kristina. When Kristina is diagnosed with bone cancer, it drastically changes both sisters' lives. Sometimes the things that annoy us the most about our siblings are the ones we'd miss the most if we lost them.

In this YA literary coming-of-age novel that will appeal to readers who love Jodi Picoult and Sarah Dessen, sisters Tess and Kristina discover not only who they are, but who they can become.

Synopsis taken from goodreads.