February 2019 Reading Tracker

Books I Read:

1. Windwitch by Susan Dennard
2. Sightwitch by Susan Dennard
3. Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard
4. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
5. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

February is almost always a bad reading month for me (at least since I started tracking this stuff) so I’m not surprised by these results. Consider the number of things I had going on at work and things that I had to read that weren’t books, I’m not that upset by these results.

Books I Had Planned to Read:

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Books Bought:

1. Uppercase

ARCs Received:

1. Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo (Fierce Reads package which also included 7 other titles but this is the only one I’m definitely reading)
2. The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst (Requested)
3. Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller (Vine)
4. Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez (not requested)

You can also see what I read in January.

Mirage: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

“On a small moon orbiting a large planet, in a small farmhouse in a small village, there was a box, and in this box was a feather.”

The feather is an heirloom, a reminder of when Amani’s grandfather saw a tesleet–a bird sent by the old god Dihya to point his followers toward a sacred calling.

There are no tesleet birds left on the moon called Cadiz or on Amani’s home planet, Andala. The old ways are only memories.

It’s still possible, sometimes, to find small moments of joy even amidst the fear and the bloodshed of the Vathek regime. One such moment comes when Amani receives her daan during a celebration of all the Andalan women turning eighteen. But after her daan is applied, things go horribly wrong.

Amani is whisked away from her friends, her family, and her planet. Taken to the royal palace in secret Amani soon discovers she shares a dangerous connection with the half-Vathek princess and heir to empire Maram: they have the same face. When her family is threatened, Amani has no choice but to agree to act as the princess’s body double–a decoy to appear in public when the princess is most likely to be harmed.

It’s impossible to ignore the luxury and beauty of the palace, or the charm of Maram’s fiance. But beneath that shine there is still violence and danger. Amani will have to navigate both sides of life in the palace if she ever wants to see her family again in Mirage (2018) by Somaiya Daud.

Find it on Bookshop.

Mirage is Daud’s debut novel and the start of a trilogy.

Daud introduces readers to a rich and brutal world inspired by her own Moroccan heritage. Amani’s affection for her home is infectious and immediately obvious with evocative, deliberate descriptions that bring Cadiz to life. The abrupt contrast and tonal shift as Amani is forced into her new life in the palace is jarring and brutal in comparison.

Amani’s first person narration is empowering and heartening as she refuses to be broken down or diminished even as she is held captive. With no one to trust and only herself to rely on, Amani is determined to rescue herself and her family–all while trying to save her people.

Mirage is the nail-biting start to a trilogy that promises even more twists and surprises to come. Recommended for readers looking for a truly unique sci-fi adventure with a fiery heroine who just might change her world.

Possible Pairings: Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhatena, The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig, The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur, Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim, Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid, Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, Impostors by Scott Westerfeld

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

Witchlanders: A Review

Magic is a powerful thing in the Witchlands. The magic and the lands themselves are protected by witches who are mysterious and dangerous, creatures with little time for villages like Ryder’s.

That is if the witches are even real, which Ryder still doubts. After all, he has seen no evidence of them save the relics from her mother’s time as a witch and her addiction to the flowers that she insists will call the witches to her.

When the witches do finally show up to answer his mother’s call Ryder is forced to reconsider everything he thought he believed about the witches, the Witchlands, and his own role in the prophecies his mother has been seeing in Witchlanders (2011) by Lena Coakley.

Witchlanders is classic high fantasy with a unique magic system and detailed world building. It’s also an excellent standalone in a genre that is often over-saturated with trilogies or longer series.

The story follows two boys on opposite sides of a years-long war as they try to understand their growing magic and the bond that seems to be drawing them inexorably together. Chapters alternate between their points of view as they are drawn across the Witchlands to confronting shocking revelations about their pasts, their futures, and their own connections.

While Coakley’s world is fascinating, her characters often suffer in comparison with a lack of dimension. Witchlanders is decidedly free of romance but remains a solid testament to the power of friendship as its own kind of magic.

Possible Pairings: Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow, The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima, The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli, Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, Black Wings Beating by Alex London, The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier

Week in Review: February 23

This week on the blog you can check out:

• Four Dead Queens: A Review
• Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review
• Author Interview: Jeff Zentner on Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee
• #BeatTheBacklist2019 Update: February Reads

I am not sure what I did to February or why it seems to have a personal vendetta against me, but I give up. February wins!

This has been a really busy, hard month. I’ve had lots of meetings, started lots of work projects (which I still need to work on), and have four professional reviews due over a three week period (which has been as fun as you’d expect). I have read almost nothing and because of all the pressure to read, I want to read almost nothing.

BUT February is almost over and no one can take that away from me.

I’ve been trying to standardize and cross link between my social media and also experimenting with instagram backdrops to streamline photos. It’s good but also feels thankless when my engagement is so low–I really need to stop obsessing over stats.

I feel like these weekly recap posts have gotten kind of complainy but I also feel like I’m the only one reading them so maybe that’s okay? I’ll re-frame for next week ;)

Here is my favorite post that I shared on Instagram this week:

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How was your week? What are you reading?

#BeatTheBacklist2019 Update: February Reads

This month I didn’t read a lot in general BUT I did get to Windwitch, Sightwitch, and Truly Devious for Beat the Backlist. I’m happy to have knocked them out (liked them all just a bit more than I expected to!) but most of them were library copies which means my secondary effort to read more books I already own hasn’t been working out as well. Oops.

I previously decided to work on both the standard size card and the supersize card bingo cards but honestly not sure I’ll finish either before the year is out. And I haven’t updated them at all yet. Oops.

Author Interview: Jeff Zentner on Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee

Jeff Zentner’s new novel Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee is  a story about big dreams, big chances, and the mediocre results we sometimes end up with as a result. It is also a laugh-out-loud funny ode to friendship, creativity, and horror movies. This book totally snuck up on me and is fast becoming one of my favorite novels of the year. I’m very excited to have Jeff back today answering some of my questions.

Miss Print (MP): What was the inspiration for Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee?

Jeff Zentner: One night, three years ago, I came home on a Saturday night and turned on the TV and started channel surfing. I never do this because I have a Netflix queue a mile long. I came to the Nashville public access station and it was playing a low budget horror movie. This was very strange. I kept watching, fascinated. The movie then cut to these two young women dressed in horror garb, named Marlena Midnite and Robyn Graves. They were the hosts of a syndicated public access show out of Davenport, Iowa called Midnite Mausoleum. I was fascinated. It was so goofy and fun and sweet. It got me thinking about who hosts these kinds of shows. I immediately started thinking up an idea about two young women who host their own public access creature feature.

MP: This novel alternates between Josie and Delia’s narrations. Who was your favorite character to write? Who was the hardest?

JZ: I loved them equally. I loved writing Josie’s sense of humor, because it’s closest to my own. And I loved writing Delia’s sense of poetry about the world, because it’s closest to my own. I loved writing the relationship between Delia and her mother and the relationship between Josie and Lawson.

MP: Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee is your third novel. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve read and a bit of a departure from your previous novels which were much heavier stories. Did this shift in tone require a shift in your writing process? How did you go about channeling the quirkiness and humor to tell this story?

JZ: It did require a shift. I love very lyrical, poetic writing. But that sort of writing often comes at the cost of humor, so there wasn’t as much room for this kind of writing as in past books. As for channeling the humor, I love to joke around. It was just a matter of storing up humorous observations and insights and putting them in Josie and Delia’s mouths.

MP: How do you fit writing into your daily routine between working full time and other obligations? What does a typical writing day (or writing session) look like for you? Where are your favorite places to write?

JZ: I have a pretty intense and demanding day job, so I really have to fit writing into the cracks. I do 80 percent or so of my drafting on my iPhone with my right thumb on the bus to and from work. It’s not my favorite place to write, but it’s where I do most of my writing. My favorite place to write is my writing studio at home. I have a room devoted to it that’s full of favorite books, letters I’ve gotten from fans, scented candles, cool vintage bookshelves and typewriters, and my vintage pulp paperback collection. It smells like heaven. It’s so cozy and wonderful. I’ve never before lived in a house with a room devoted solely to work and creativity and it’s wonderful.

MP: So far, all of your novels exist in the same world with a few references (and even characters) traveling between books. Can you tell me anything about your next project? Can readers expect more connections between your novels?

JZ: My fourth novel is about two young people from small town East Tennessee who get scholarships to an elite northeastern prep school. As readers may (or may not) recall, Nana Betsy from Goodbye Days is from East Tennessee, and it turns out that my main character in this fourth book is her grandnephew. She has a small, but pivotal role in the new book. Also, if it survives the edit, there’s another really fun cameo from an important figure in the Zentnerverse!

—

Thanks again to Jeff for taking the time to answer my questions.

You can see more about Jeff and his books on his website.

You can also check out my review of Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee.

Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

“Sometimes small and unspectacular things can be a universe.”

For most of high school best friends Delia and Josie have spent every Friday night transforming themselves into Delilah Darkwood and Rayne Ravenscroft, hosts of Midnite Matinee their public access show on TV Six where they show a campy B (or C) horror movie with their own shorts in between.

The movies are never good and Delia and Josie’s segments aren’t much better, but it’s their show that they built up from scratch which counts for a lot. Even if it isn’t enough to ensure the show will continue now that high school is ending.

Josie is eager to pursue her lifelong dream of being on television when she goes to college but isn’t sure what to do when her dreams might be leading her away from her hometown and her best friend.

Delia, meanwhile, is desperate to find a way to help Midnite Matinee grow beyond its current syndication so that Josie can pursue her dream without leaving Delia behind the way her father did.

With one last summer to make it big or call it quits, Delia and Josie’s friendship and their show will be tested as they confront old hurts, embrace new dreams, and take one epic road trip to a horror convention with the potential to change everything in Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee (2019) by Jeff Zentner.

Find it on Bookshop.

Zentner’s latest standalone contemporary is a funny, strange story that explores all of the things that brought Josie and Delia together and all of the things that are starting to pull them in different directions.

Josie and Delia alternate first person narration in this story and by the end of the novel both girls completely won me over. Although Delia and Josie are facing some big decisions, they do it all with levity and obvious affection for each other as well as the other important people in their lives.

Zentner has filled this book with Easter eggs from his earlier novels as well as some amazing jokes–I can’t reveal too much but let’s just say I’m still cracking up about the baby Basset Hounds.

Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee is a story about big dreams, big chances, and the mediocre results we sometimes end up with as a result. Josie and Delia are hilarious, endearing, and some of my favorite characters to date. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo, The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo, Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen, The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta, Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills, Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke, Baby and Solo by Lisabeth Posthuma, How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford, Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

You can also check out my exclusive interview with Jeff about this book!

Four Dead Queens: A Review

Four queens rule Quadara. Together, yet apart just like the country’s four quadrants: Archia, Eonia, Ludia, and Toria.

Keralie is one of the best thieves in all of Toria stealing missives, technology, and  contraband from other quadrants that her employer Mackiel can sell in his black market auctions. It isn’t the life Keralie’s parents’ ever imagined for her, but it is the one she’s been groomed for since she was ten.

Even Keralie’s skills prove insufficient when her latest target–a messenger from Eonia–discovers her theft. If he can’t make his delivery, Varin’s life could be forfeit leaving him with little choice but to follow Keralie to retrieve his stolen goods.

What starts as a simple exchange soon escalates when Keralie and Varin discover a plot to assassinate all of Quadara’s queens. With no one else to trust, Keralie and Varin have to set aside their mutual distrust to form a reluctant alliance if they want to escape Mackiel and capture the assassin in Four Dead Queens (2019) by Astrid Scholte.

Four Dead Queen‘s is a standalone adventure that’s part mystery, part thriller, and part speculative fiction.

Quadara and the individual quadrants have the potential to be fascinating backdrops for this story. Unfortunately Quadara is never situated in a larger world making the tension between the quadrants and outside threats feel forced if not entirely contrived. The politics of succession and Queenly Law (the rules that dictate how the quadrants are divided and ruled) also make very little sense and further underscore the poor development of this world.

Keralie’s first-person narration gives depth to both herself and Varin who is simultaneously her foil and her love interest. Sadly both protagonists stumble through the story without anything resembling agency as they are repeatedly driven from one reactive position to the next. The rest of the characters are exceedingly flat–a problem that is especially obvious with Mackiel the supposedly charming criminal mastermind who never once manages to come across as anything but slimy and manipulative.

Four Dead Queens is suspenseful and well-paced with high action and a deep sense of urgency as Keralie and Varin hunt the assassin. In contrast, the mystery’s resolution is a bitter disappointment as much of the actual intrigue comes more from the author’s deliberate manipulation of the story’s timeline and perspective rather than true plot twists.

It’s no surprise that this story has a body count but it’s both disappointing and problematic that two of the only queer characters characters and two of the only dark-skinned characters (including one raised in secret in two small rooms) are among the first victims. Varin’s position as an Eonian with a premature death date is also troubling and surprising as he comes from a quadrant known for its medical advancements and life-prolonging technologies.

Four Dead Queens is an interesting if sometimes frustrating mystery but the fantasy world framework of Quadara is shoddily built at best. A high-concept story that fails to capitalize on a unique world and instead remains painfully predictable and opaque.

Possible Pairings: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake, The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta, Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Rule by Ellen Goodlett, Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray, Last of Her Name by Jessica Khoury, Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg, Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian, The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah

Week in Review: February 16: Let me tell you about my week of meetings.

This week on the blog you can check out:

• The Wren Hunt: A Review
• Bookish Boyfriends: A Date With Darcy: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review
• Author Interview: Tiffany Schmidt on Bookish Boyfriends: A Date With Darcy

All I did at work this week was go to meetings. I got to see a lot of new branches and traverse much of Brooklyn but it was trying. I am not a great subway traveler and the weather was terrible. Here’s what went down:

On Monday I was in an all day leadership training. I’m the branch rep for a YA Network that was created to improve  services to teens in the library. We are looking into ways to make the library more welcoming to teens with improvements to the library’s mental, physical, and digital spaces for teens. The leadership training is a “perk” for participants. It’s very crunchy and kind of silly but some tips on active listening and identifying project stakeholders were helpful.

On Tuesday I had a meeting in the morning for said network where we continued to hammer out details on our plans. I also carried a succulent across Brooklyn to get it to my desk. And I fell in the branch’s lobby. My knee is super bruised now. Fun.

On Wednesday I had a class visit with a yeshiva school that is so Jewish it is named after the Star of David. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was kind of fun. The final score was me earning 30 points for Ravenclaw, silly sixth grade boys: zero. Then I had a quick lunch and headed to another branch for another training. This year I’m working as a facilitator for an initiative called Everyone Serves Youth where staffers travel to different branches (or in my case different divisions in my giant branch) to lead workshops on serving babies, kids, and teens in the library and how all staff can do that. The workshops are starting at the end of February so this meeting was to get more details, paperwork, and practice.

Thursday was my last day of the week (I worked last Saturday so I had this Friday off, it’s weird) and I ended it with a day filled with . . . more meetings!

The morning started with a meeting for the committee I chair to talk about what we’ll be doing at our next training. I showed everyone the summer reading lists (we’ll be booktalking these titles) shared deadlines, and asked about other ideas moving forward. I always feel like I’m probably the most tiresome person to be in charge but it was a good meeting and people seem to not be sick of me (or my copious emails and files) yet. I am also ridiculous and brought chocolate and punny valentines that were hilarious (and possibly underappreciated) for everyone. And I only shamed one committee member for not being goodreads friends. (We’re friends now. Because of the shaming.)

After that meeting I got lunch with some committee members which was a nice change since I usually eat alone at my desk. THEN I had a meeting with a work friend from my writing group and another work friend to help them start building a mini collection of books for their Cookmobile project (traveling cooking programs for teens) looking at fiction and nonfiction with books. I feel totally superfluous to this project but I did actually end up having a lot of book suggestions and input to share on the ordering process. Yay collection development.

Next I had an hour on the reference desk which was also a mini meeting with one of my interns who shadowed me. We talked about his experiences so far and expectations/plans moving forward and he helped me with a few patrons.

THEN I had my last meeting with two people about those Everyone Serves Youth workshops which I was worried about but the meeting didn’t actually help with worries. Go figure.

So that’s how my week of four big meetings in four different meetings over four days shook out.

Here is my favorite post that I shared on Instagram this week:

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How was your week? What are you reading?

Author Interview: Tiffany Schmidt on Bookish Boyfriends: A Date With Darcy

Bookish Boyfriends is filled with books, humor, and romance all framed around retellings of classic novels. The first installment, A Date With Darcy, follows Merrilee as she starts her sophomore year at Reginald R. Hero High School and discovers that, much to her surprise, the boys at this school might actually be better than her book boyfriends.

I really enjoyed this one and The Boy Next Story is one of my most anticipated sequels coming out in 2019. Today Tiffany Schmidt is here to answer some questions about her new series.

Miss Print (MP): Bookish Boyfriends: A Date With Darcy is the first book in your ongoing series. What was the inspiration for the series in general? What was the inspiration for this specific installment?

Tiffany Schmidt (TS): I’ve always been bookish. Even before I could sound out words and read to myself, I’d lug books to my parents and older sister and beg them to read to me. I’ve always wanted to live in the worlds between covers: the Hundred Acres Woods and Narnia and Hogwarts and Uriel and Klickitat Street. The idea for the Bookish Boyfriends series came from that love of stories and my desire to write myself into them. For A Date with Darcy, I specifically wanted to play around with my mis-reading of Romeo & Juliet as a romance when I was young, and also my deep, deep love of all things Austen and Pride and Prejudice. (Mr. Darcy fangirl forever!)

MP: This series blends contemporary romance with loose retellings of classic stories. A Date With Darcy features elements from Romeo and Juliet as well as Pride and Prejudice while The Boy Next Story promises hints of Little Women. How did you decide which stories to draw from for inspiration?

TS: The mentor texts for each of the Bookish Boyfriends novels was a book that was significant for me during my teenage reading years. As a misguided, quixotic middle schooler, I thought Romeo was dreamy. A year later I met my one true love in Mr. Darcy. And Little Women is a book I’ve returned to so many times over the years—seeing my own sister and myself in the March girls. There are so many books that impacted my life as a reader, and it’s such a joy to play with them within the Bookish Boyfriends world.

MP: Merrilee’s English teacher promises to help students find their story and guides Merrilee in particular to a book with life changing consequences. If you had to pick one book that had that kind of impact on you, which would it be?

TS: One book? Man, you’re asking the tough questions—and since there are MANY books that have impacted me, I’m pretty sure I give a different answer to this question each time I’m asked. Today I’m choosing Superfudge by Judy Blume as well as the Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. I read these in second grade and so identified with young Farley Drexel Hatcher and Ramona Geraldine Quimby and their ability to accidentally get into trouble. The difference between their intentions and the outcomes of their actions resonated so strongly—and it still does. My eight year old twins are reading these books now, and it’s amazing to me how it’s been decades since I read them and I still remember them so vividly. I keep accidentally spoiling things for them. Whoops!

MP: Congratulations on signing on to write more books in this series! Did you always know that you wanted this world to expand to follow multiple characters? How much did you know about the world and the story (or stories) that you wanted to tell when you first started drafting?

TS: I had always hoped to write more Bookish Boyfriends novels, so I’d optimistically planned for it and typed with crossed-fingers. It was never a guarantee, so I am feeling grateful and blessed for the chance to share books three (Eliza’s story- aka, Talk Nerdy to Me) and four (Huck’s story aka Get a Clue). Eliza especially was a character who has demanded her own story from the very first page of book one, so it’s been percolating in my mind for quite a while. Even now, while I’m drafting book four, I’m keeping lists and notes about potential extensions and plots for more characters. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever get sick of writing these books, so as long as they find a readership, I’ll happily keep going

MP: Do you have a favorite character to write in Bookish Boyfriends? Is there any character you are particularly excited for readers to meet?

TS: I’m not going to lie, I had worried that no narrator would top Merrilee because she’s so effervescent and fun to write. But then I started Rory’s story and fell deeply in love with her little sister voice. Rory’s friend Huck was a bit of a surprise. While he has a tiny cameo in book 1 (props if you’ve spotted it!) readers truly meet him early in book two. He was a character that was instantly strong and clear in my head and who would’ve taken over if I hadn’t reined him in. Huck’s become the narrator of book four, Get a Clue, which I’ve only just begun drafting. I’ve got high hopes that he’ll be a reader favorite, because he’s certainly one of mine.

MP: Can you tell me anything about your next project? What can readers expect in The Boy Next Story?

TS: The Boy Next Story is about sisters and first loves and finding your own identity outside of others’ expectations or the roles you’ve been assigned within family dynamics. It’s about unrequited love, and art class, and yoga, and Harry Potter, and kombucha, and fresh starts, and math class. And what happens when you outgrow your first crush, but maybe don’t outgrow the boy. And Little Women.

—

Thanks again to Tiffany for a great interview.

You can see more about Tiffany and her books on her website.

You can also read my review of Bookish Boyfriends: A Date With Darcy here on the blog.