2015 Hub Reading Challenge Check-In #7

It was a light week for the Hub reading Challenge, mostly because I finished 4 books for the Morris award. But I can’t tell you about those.

The only book I actually finished was The Young Elites  by Marie Lu. The first in a fantasy series.

I have to be honest, if I weren’t reading it for the Challenge, I probably would have abandoned it. Lu has certainly created a rich fantasy world, and yet, it smacks a lot of the dystopian world she created in The Legend  series, which I liked more, though I didn’t love it.

Both series have a disease. Both are narrated in alternating voices. Both have a characters on both sides of power and one of these characters goes over to the other side.

As much as I love things foreign and exotic, the names in this book drove me crazy. It is as though Lu sat down and asked her self, “What are the most pretentious sounding names I can think of for the characters in my new book?”

I’m reading All the Light We Cannot See now, a much better book. But more n that next Sunday.

2015 Hub Reading Challenge Check-in #1

It was a busy week that saw me out almost every evening. UGH. So, I only finished one book for the Challenge. My goal during the 2015 Hub Reading Challenge is to read all the Alex Award winners, ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. Since I can count the books I read for the Morris/Nonfiction Challenge towards this challenge,reading the Alex list will get me to the 25 required to “complete” the challenge. Everything else after that is icing on the cake.

Confessions,  by Kanae Minato, is a book I really wouldn’t have read if not for the challenge. It is dark and shows the worst side of human nature. The prose seems simple and unadorned, but the story os very dark and twisted. It opens on the last day of school with a teacher proving a last lecture to her class, a class in which sit the two students responsible for her daughter’s murder. From there is spins out, explaining what happened, how the teacher takes her revenge, and the consequences of everyone’s actions. The story is narrated in different voices, each shedding more light on the events, adding new perspectives and horrifying the reader. It is not a horror story, just horrific to think people could treat each other so.

I am not a big reader of crime fiction, but if you enjoy it, this one is worth picking up.

YALSA’s 2015 Hub Reading Challenge Begins!

It’s one of my favorite times of the year: YALSA’s  Hub Reading Challenge time.

Challenge objective Read/listen to 25 of the titles on the list of eligible titles to finish the challenge. The list includes YA novels, audiobooks, graphic novels, and books for adults, so there’s plenty to choose from. Bonus objective: read/listen to all eligible titles to conquer the challenge!

Challenge rewards Beyond experiencing the best of the best that YA lit has to offer, everyone who finishes the challenge will be invited to submit a response to a book they read for the challenge. The response can be text, graphics, audio, video and will be published on The Hub. Furthermore, everyone who finishes the challenge will be entered into a random drawing for our grand prize: a YALSA tote bag full of 2014 and 2015 YA lit! (If the winner is a teacher or librarian or something similar, they’ll also include a few professional development titles.)

For more details, including the list of books, or to jump in and take part visit The Hub’s blog post about the challenge.

For my part, I am challenging myself to read all the Alex winners. I get to count the books I read for the  Morris/Nonfiction challenge. Then I will cherry pick from what is left on the list.

Are you in?

YALSA’s 2015 Morris/Nonfiction Reading Challenge Begins!

It’s that time of year again. Besides being the holiday season it is the season  for  YALSA’s Morris/Nonfiction Reading Challenge. I posted the finalists last week, when their were announced so you can look back there at the titles or read ahead for the official links to them. Here’s what the challenge entails in a nutshell:

Challenge objective Read all of the finalists for the   2015 Morris Award  debut YA authors, all of the finalists for  YALSA’s 2015 Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, or both between now and the Youth Media Awards on February 2.

Challenge rewards Beyond experiencing the best of the best that new YA authors and YA nonfiction have to offer, everyone who finishes the challenge may use what they read toward our 2015 Hub Reading Challenge. The Hub Reading Challenge includes prizes (!!!), so by participating in the Morris/Nonfiction Reading Challenge, you’re getting a head start on reading some of the best books published this year and you’re giving yourself an advantage in trying to win those prizes. 

Challenge guidelines

• The challenge begins at 8:00AM Eastern Time on Monday, December 8 and ends at 7:45AM Central Time on Monday, February 2. (And in case you’re wondering, the challenge ends on Central Time because the awards will be announced live at the 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago– which is on Central Time.)
• Participants may count the reading they have done since the finalists for each award was announced last week (December 3rd for the Morris and December 4th for the Nonfiction Award, to be exact). If you read one of the finalists before the announcement of the shortlist for that award, you must re-read it for it to count.
• Participants may read either all of the finalists for the Morris Award, all of the finalists for the Nonfiction Award, or both. The challenge cannot be completed simply by picking five titles between the two lists; participants must read the entire list of finalists for one or both awards.

For more info or to sign up, check out The Hub’s announcement of the reading challenge.

I have a bit of rereading to do and some new books to meet. I’m in and I hope you are too.