Funny you should ask – humorous fiction favorites

Jul19

Searching for some light-hearted summer reading at your local library or independent bookstore?

Take along this BooksYALove list of favorite funny books, and cool off with a good laugh! Click any title to see my full recommendation of the book. Review copies and cover images courtesy of their respective publishers.
**kmm

book cover of Pantalones TX Don't Chicken Out by Yehudi Mercado published by Archaia book cover of Who's on First? by Abbott & Costello published by Quirk BooksClassic baseball comedy routine teammates are just wild in Who’s On First? by Abbott & Costello.

Pantalones, TX: Don’t Chicken Out! – can Chico Bustamante stay ahead of the chicken-shack-driving sheriff and conquer the giant bucking chicken?

book cover of Astronaut Academy Zero Gravity by Dave Roman published by First Second book cover of Astronaut Academy Reentry by Dave Roman published by First Second BooksEnjoy Hakata Soy’s first middle school term in space as he enrolls in Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity – time for dinosaur riding lessons and fireball tournaments!

Then return to Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry for another semester of fireball tournaments and missing extra hearts – and mystery to solve.

 

book cover of Teen Boat by Dave Roman and John Greenbook cover of Year Zero by Rob Reid published by Del Rey Books

More Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy) as he teams up with John Green (the artist one) to create TeenBoat!  Imagine “the angst of being a teen, the thrill of being a boat!” – yes, it’s that funny.

When music-loving aliens realize they’re violating Earth copyright laws and have run up a bill bigger than the universe, things get a bit out of hand in Year Zero.

 

book cover of Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal published by Simon Schusterbook cover of Tempestuous by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes published by Merit PressAn orbiting maternity home for unwed mothers is attacked by aliens (really cute aliens!) and things aboard the Mothership  get all kinds of crazy.

Set Shakespeare’s comedy The Tempest  in a modern shopping mall during a blizzard, add some memorable characters and a robbery, and you have a most Tempestuous  and wacky tale.

 

book cover of The Candymakers by Wendy Mass published by Little Brownbook cover of Also Known As by Robin Benway published by Walker Books Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to create a new candy for the world’s sweetest contest? But The Candymakers   must solve a mystery before everything goes sour.

As a teen spy goes undercover in a ritzy private school to keep the organization’s cover from being blown, she doesn’t anticipate love among the complications in Also Known As.

 

book cover of Lias Guide to Winning the Lottery by Keren David published by Frances Lincoln Booksbook cover of Cat Girls Day Off by Kimberly Pauley published by Tu BooksYes, you can enter the lottery at 16 in Great Britain, but Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery  is more of a how-not-to than a financial guide!

Being able to hear cats talk seems like such a boring talent until Nat uses it to capture a kidnapper and snag a movie part after all in Cat Girl’s Day Off.

 

FTC, publishers, and me – expectations and requirements for book bloggers

Jul17
etching of woman's hand holding 5 old playing cards by Dover Publications

courtesy of Dover Publications

So, whose rules do I have to follow as I post book recommendations for y’all – the Library of Congress? the publishers? the authors?

Nope, the Federal Trade Commission! That’s right, the government agency that watches over advertisers so their promises don’t make you buy something bogus also has guidelines for social media so that consumers know when someone is Tweeting an advertisement or has been paid to review a product and so on.

There’s been some worry in the book blogging community about whether we’re notifying y’all properly as to how books land in our hands or if receiving free advance reader copies makes us unduly biased toward various titles.

And discussion goes round and round about what is the book blogger’s responsibility to the publisher or author who gave them the book…

Lately, I’ve seen reviewers splash an “FTC required disclaimer” on their book review (when there is no specific wording required by the FTC) or state that they received a book “in exchange for my fair and honest review” when most publishers don’t require that a review be written at all.

In fact, the graphic novel publisher First Second even blogged about that “in exchange” wording, saying that when they send out a book, they know that some folks will love it, some be on the fence, some even stop reading it because it’s not their thing, and that First Second would rather have a strong review (positive or negative) than one that says “this book is sort of okay.”

What does all this mean for BooksYALove readers?

While I’ve always noted whether I received the book I’m recommending from the publisher or have purchased it myself, I moved that disclaimer into the Book Info section so you know that before you read the full Book Talk which gives you the no-spoilers synopsis of the book. FTC guidelines satisfied, without bombarding you with lots of irrelevant text.

Of course, if I can’t give a book an A or B+ “grade” for its particular category (science fiction, adventure, etc.) and for fans of Young Adult books, then it never appears here at all. I don’t want you to waste your time or money on poorly written books when there are so many wonderful titles out there!

**kmm

Something peculiar to your ears – free SYNC audiobooks

Jul16

Time to download this week’s free audiobooks from SYNC!

Hurry to download this pair of books about British orphans in very odd situations by Wednesday July 17. Then you’ll have free use of them as long as you keep them on your computer or electronic device

CD cover of The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann read by Peter Altschuler published by HarperAudioThe Peculiar
By Stefan Bachmann
Read by Peter Altschuler
Published by HarperAudio

 

 

Oliver TwistCD cover of Oliver Twist by Charles DIckens read by Simon Vance published by Tantor Media
By Charles Dickens
Read by Simon Vance
Published by Tantor Media

What can lift these unfortunate children from the life in the slums? Listen to find out!
**kmm

Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis (book review) – psychic to young chef: change is coming

Jul12

book cover of The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis published by DelacorteTwo food-obsessed dads,
One music-mad brother,
The world’s best best friend,
and a long-ignored question bubbling up, demanding an answer.

Maybe the psychic’s unsought observation is true, and every decision that Olivia makes this summer will be connected. Maybe she’ll find cute Theo again, too.

A movie version is already in the works for this June 2013 book, but it’s set in Birmingham instead of LA.  The Secret Ingredient‘s  SoCal setting is plot-essential, as Ollie gets a summer job with a Hollywood casting agency, counts the palm trees as she passes each one on her bus ride, and harbors a lingering fear of the ocean’s depths. I’ve always said that the book is better than the movie –  just try to imagine two gay men adopting children 17 years ago in Alabama…

In the book, Ollie shares several recipes with her own secret ingredient added – any recipes with your special touch?
**kmm

Book info: The Secret Ingredient / Stewart Lewis. Delacorte Press, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: This summer should be relaxed for Olivia, but the unexpected jumps in. With a psychic’s warning and a vintage cookbook in hand, Ollie decides to help her dads save their restaurant and finally search for her birth mother.

Bell and Enrique have put everything they have into FOOD, and mortgage payments are coming due too soon. Ollie cooks the special on Saturday nights, always adding a secret ingredient for her own signature touch. Her big brother is totally obsessed with his guitar playing, but his huge talent isn’t exactly paying his bills yet.

They’ve had never been particularly bothered about being adopted by their gay dads (LA is pretty laid-back that way), but Ollie begins to wonder about her own mother when she hears that her best friend Lola’s mother has cancer.

Riding up the elevator to her summer job at a casting agency, a psychic suddenly tells the sixteen year old that her choices will be pivotal and connected, including a young man, guidance from the past, and food, too.

Maybe Theo from last summer will come back?
Perhaps her birth mother is the past part?
And food is always with Ollie – but will FOOD survive, too?

As she supports Jeremy breaking into the music business, creates a backstory for the handwritten notes found in an old cookbook, and stands by Lola during her mother’s treatments, Ollie has to figure out whether the secret ingredient for her own life might be finding her birth mother…or not.

Enjoy the recipes this brilliant young chef shares as she finds her own way in the world during an intense high school summer. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Nix Minus One, by Jill MacLean (book review) – save his sister, a dog, himself?

Jul10

book cover of Nix Minus One by Jill MacLean published by Pajama PressA dog, beaten and ignored.
A girl, risking and reckless.
A boy who must step out of his safe-place to save them…

I lived in Newfoundland in early grade school (on a now-closed Air Force base), so I have a strong mental picture of the isolated small coastal town that Roxy longs to escape, where Nix’s solitary ways are known to everyone, where a story can never be untold.

Request this novel-in-verse from your local library or independent bookstore; they might have to order it (Pajama Press is a small Canadian firm, not one of the “Big 5”), but it’s so worth waiting for!

Have you ever felt like the only person who could fix a situation?
**kmm

Book info: Nix Minus One / Jill MacLean. Pajama Press, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Nix helps hide Roxy’s wild nightlife from their parents, like he wants to help the mistreated dog he meets, but the consequences may be too much for the quiet teen to handle.

Now that cod fishing is done for good, coastal Newfoundland towns are shrinking fast, but there are still enough bullies at the regional high school to taunt Nix about his weight and red hair. All the ninth grader wants to do is be left alone to play video games and work in Dad’s furniture workshop, pretending that beautiful Loren will pay attention to him some day.

Just by chance, he sees a beaten and half-starved dog at a neighbor’s house and wishes yet again that Mom would have let them have one instead of worrying about clean floors. Maybe the old grump will let Nix walk the dog, just to get her out of that poop-strewn yard full of junk.

Big sister Roxy decides to party with a senior and expects Nix to cover for her when she misses curfew. Their conservative parents warily respect his smooth manners and rich family, but have no idea that he’s the area go-to-guy for drugs. Everyone at school knows Bryan will dump her after a few weeks… everyone but Roxy.

Nix finally coaxes the dog into walking up into the hills with him, occasionally meeting classmate Blue when she’s birdwatching, both laughing about how they’ll never be popular at school with these hobbies.

And then that rainy night, when Roxy doesn’t come home, when silence becomes the fourth person at their dinner table…

Why couldn’t Nix keep his sister safe?
Why can’t he get Twig away from the master who mistreats her?
Why can’t he make Mom and Dad happy?

This powerful novel-in-verse echoes with the rhythms of family life, school tensions, unexpressed dreams and desires, and a long-hidden story that suddenly re-orients everything that Nix ever knew. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Splintered, by A. G. Howard (book review) – Alyssa in Wonderland, forever?

Jul8

book cover of Splintered by AG Howard published by Amulet Books“Off with her head!”
Red Queen and White Queen,
Wonderland was never as benign as the animated Disney movie version led us to believe!

Even the newer movie of Alice’s return to Wonderland isn’t as life-and-death gritty as what Alyssa finds when she goes down the rabbit hole, trying to break the Liddell family curse of madness.

Texas author A.G. Howard compiled a playlist of songs to keep her in the Splintered  mood – alternative rock, dark, experimental. Wonder what she’s listening to now as she writes book 2, Unhinged…

Got a favorite Wonderland character to share?
**kmm

Book info: Splintered / A.G. Howard. Amulet Books, 2013.   [author blog]   [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: If hearing plants means you’re crazy, then soon Alyssa will be as insane as her mother, unless she can make the treacherous journey to a forbidden place that could save them both or doom her forever.

It was her great-great-great-grandmother whose dreams inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland,  and the Liddell women have been cursed with madness ever since. Dad had to put Alison in a psychiatric home when he found her snipping at little Alyssa’s hands with garden shears. Of course, he couldn’t hear the flowers whispering or know that Alyssa was just trying to protect them. A car wreck is the convenient explanation for her scars, for Mom’s crazy talk at Soul’s Asylum.

Alyssa can ignore the everyday whispers of flowers and bugs, but not the enormous moth in her dreams who promises release from their madness. Too bad her best friend Jeb won’t keep his promise to go with her to England, preferring the company of beautiful, rich Taelor.

Her long-ago memories include dreams of a little boy in a strange land, who has grown up to become that moth in her dreams! Morpheus says that Alyssa can break the curse and save her mother, if she’ll just bring back what Alice Lidell took from Wonderland, things that Alison hid in their house.

If Alyssa can get to England and find the rabbit hole into Wonderland…
If she can let Jeb help her when she’s afraid he’ll be trapped, too…
If they can fix what went wrong when Alice escaped carrying Wonderland objects…
even when nothing is as it appears and not everyone wants the wrongs made right!

A journey into madness to break insanity’s curse, the solid friendship of a good human guy against the enchanting promises of Morpheus, secrets and sacrifices – this is no cutesy fairy tale, but a gritty, dark-angel quest that will take everything Alyssa’s got and perhaps more! Followed by Unhinged.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

SYNC audiobooks – humorous reads!

Jul5

So, hopefully you’ve been downloading the free SYNC audiobook pair each week when I remind you. But are you secretly thinking, “audiobooks aren’t really reading”?

Nay, my friends! Research has shown that ‘reading with your ears’ actively engages your brain in much the same way that reading text does. And of course, we all know that some of us are visual learners and others are auditory learners.

Over on The BookRiot blog, Rachel recently debunked “‘Listening to Books is Cheating’ and 7 More Myths About Audiobooks” so what are you waiting for? You only have until Wednesday to download either or both audiobooks, then you can listen as long as you keep them on your electronic device.

Ready, set, read — with your ears!

CD cover of Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford read by Nick Podehl published by Brilliance AudioCarter Finally Gets It
By Brent Crawford
Read by Nick Podehl
Published by Brilliance Audio

 

 

 

CD cover of She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith read by full cast at LA Theatre WorksShe Stoops to Conquer
By Oliver Goldsmith
Read by Rosalind Ayres, Adam Godley, Julian Holloway, James Marsters, Christopher Neame, Paula Jane Newman, Ian Ogilvy, Moira Quirk, Darren Richardson, Joanne Whalley, Matthew Wolf
Published by L.A. Theatre Works
Two different comedies, two different settings, just too funny!
**kmm

Maid of Secrets, by Jennifer McGowan (book review) – spying for the Queen, perilous times

Jul3

book cover of Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan published by Simon and SchusterWorld Wednesday takes us to the early days of Queen Elizabeth I’s court amid intrigue and international turmoil.

Her Majesty is protected quite visibly by her trusted royal guards and oh-so-secretly by 5 young maids-in-waiting chosen by her for their very special talents.

Read an excerpt here to meet Meg during her pickpocketing days with the theater troupe, before the Queen’s spymaster makes her an offer she cannot refuse.

Get this first book in the Maids of Honor series today at your local library or independent bookstore, and follow Meg’s journey from sticky-fingered orphan to secret-storing spy.

Jennifer says she’s working on Maid of Deception  now, so we’ll read more about the lovely and cunning Beatrice next.

What royal secret would you most like to know?
**kmm

Book info:  Maid of Secrets / Jennifer McGowan.  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Arrested by the Queen’s men for pickpocketing, Meg has a choice: die or become a spy! Queen Elizabeth’s most-special Maids of Honor must solve a murder before danger reaches Her Majesty – and must ignore love they can never have.

Her ear for dialogue and quick memorizing served Meg well as she traveled with the theater troupe. Now she’ll become a listener without seeming to listen, approaching her assigned target as a mere lady-in-waiting. But first she must learn a well-bred lady’s manners, plus spycraft skills like silent strangulation and reading.

The young ladies hand-picked as spies by the Queen herself have been training together for several months: Jane, a Welsh girl with masterful knife skills; Sophia, who has visions and reads portents; Beatrice, whose beauty bewitches any man to do her bidding; and Anna, who knows many languages. Meg is replacing Maria, who was brutally murdered because someone in Windsor Castle knew she was a spy.

Now the Spanish ambassador and his courtiers are arriving, and for all their elaborate speeches, they do not wish Her Majesty well. It’s up to Meg to hear their private conversations and report them back verbatim to Sir William – and to report treachery anywhere in the court directly to the Queen alone, at her express command.

Dancing and flirting, listening for conversations in Spanish and storing them perfectly in her memory, trying not to make an obvious social error in the palace (and to resist stealing anything), Meg is on edge during the ball and the days after. She finds handsome Rafe of the Spanish delegation distracting (he’s Beatrice’s assignment), then uncovers messages plotting to overthrow the Queen!

Can Meg and the Queen’s spymaster identify the traitor quickly and quietly?
Can she avoid Maria’s fate as she continues to listen in on Spanish courtiers?
Can she guard her own heart as Rafe begins to woo her?

In the earliest days of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the safety of her royal person and the fate of the country may rest in the hands of these five Maids of Honor in Her Majesty’s secret service.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Blogathon & TBR wrapup = busy month of June!

Jul1

The WordCount Blogathon I Did It 2013 participant badge
Whew! June just raced by, and we’re done with WordCount Blogathon for another year.

We had guest bloggers (hi, Alison!) and theme days for 5 favorites and haiku and word cloud  (I skipped the video day; it just wasn’t working out).

I found lots of interesting blogs to follow and tried to be supportive for those whose subjects aren’t on my current interest radar.

And I can’t wait to do it again next year! If you’re a blogger or want to start blogging, mark your calendar for the May sign-up for next year’s Blogathon. The community of support is great, and we keep sustaining one another through the next 11 months of blogging (although not posting every single day, thank goodness!).

Since I was concentrating on the many NetGalley electronic-format ARCs with upcoming expiration dates during Blogathon, I only recommended 3 books with publication dates of 2012 or earlier for the ongoing TBR2012 Challenge this month:

Ghost Knight,  by Cornelia Funke

Spy School,  by Stuart Gibbs

Stealing Kevin’s Heart,  by M. Scott Carter

So with my 46 TBR2012 titles read during the first five months of the year, that brings my total to 49, just under 2 “older” books a week recommended on BooksYALove… not too bad.

How’s your TBR shelf looking these days?
**kmm

WordCloud Day – I see a theme here…

Jun30

wordcloud of BooksYALove terms in heart shapeWordCount Blogathon 2013 is complete – 30 posts in 30 days, theme days, guest blogger, and all that good stuff.

For our final day is my favorite theme day: Word Cloud Day.

I just love Tagxedo – easy to use, lots of color and font choices, nifty shapes (and free)!

Many thanks to Michelle Rafter for starting Blogathon and to Jan Udlock for assisting this year.

I already have “Blogathon Sign-up” on my May 2014 calendar!

Did you add a favorite from this month’s recommendations on BooksYALove to your To-Be-Read shelf?
*kmm