tobe-ornottobe-thatisthequestion:

I just read this and I was pretty blown away, consdering that it’s only the first chater of the book. In the words of John Green, I am filled with a kind of ‘evangelical zeal’ to make everyone else read it as well. Give it a try! 

Here’s the sypnosis for the entire book: 

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel is sure to move readers as much as it thrills.

chocolate-labraderp:

Should YA books be censored? Personally, I don’t think so. The number of instances of profanity a book contains has little to no impact on the quality or effect of the book - the article does make a great example of Nic Sheff’s Tweak, a cautionary memoir about Sheff’s experience with drugs that contains over 500 profanities. Something else that makes me wary about rating books is, as Maureen Johnson states via her Twitter account, “the people who want to rate books are usually the very last people you’d want rating books,” and adding that “proponents [of rating children’s books] are generally *UNDER-READ* and strip context to get to ‘dirt.’” I’m totally with you there, Maureen. If the books that are being challenged were read for content and meaning rather than in the interest of finding “dirt,” this would be a different story, but since, according to this article’s vague discussion of how, exactly books will be rated, it seems that profanity will be the only thing taken into consideration, I find this to be an extremely ineffective system of rating a book for content.

“Books can be a safe way for young people to explore edgier, sensitive, or complicated topics, and they provide parents the opportunity to help their teens grow and understand these kinds of sensitive issues,” says Beth Yoke, executive director of the Young Adult Library Services Association, which is associated with the American Library Association (ALA). She raises an excellent point: Books, including YA literature, have always been a way for me to explore darker or more complicated situations than I have faced in my life. Reading about drug use is a hell of a lot safer than going out and using drugs myself, to continue using Tweak as an example, and also much more educational. 

I’d also like to point out that this article mentions books “targeted to kids as young as nine.” I’m sorry, but books targeted to kids as young as nine are NOT YA books, and if your child is nine years old and reading YA books freely, maybe your biggest problem isn’t that those books contain profanity. I’m all for protecting the impressionable minds of children from certain topics until they’re old enough to process and understand those topics, but I think that if parents are going to make such a fuss over books being inappropriate, then they should be more involved with what their children are reading. Additionally, if parents can’t be bothered to simply read a book jacket now to see if it seems appropriate for their child, what makes anyone think that parents will check a book jacket to see a book’s rating? Maybe instead of worrying about books teaching children about unsavory topics, parents should broach those topics with their children instead of writing off quality, meaningful books because they contain a few swearwords.

paperlanternlit:

Only one more day left to enter our Mega Book Giveaway!! The bundle is composed of young adult titles inspired by the classics. The contest runs until 5/31 and is international. Go ahead and like us on Facebook then ENTER TO WIN copies of…

When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle HC (SIGNED!)

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill ARC (Paper Lantern Lit title - SIGNED!)

Joker by Ranulfo

Jane by April Lindner 

Romeo & Juliet & Vampires by Claudia Gabel 

Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray 

julieheartsbooks:

onepagereviews:

Obsessed with the new cover for CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS!!

cindypon:

the fantastic cover for @miriamforster’s debut, City of a Thousand Dolls!

miriamforster:

I can finally post my cover! Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?

*swoons* 

Never heard of this book before but Holy Awesome Cover, Batman!

“

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle-Earth.

” —

- George R.R. Martin (via uvijek)

Cool. Just. Please. I need you to stop using all those colors to describe everyone’s outfits in every single goddamn scene. I get it. Littlebitch wears a mockingbird pin all the time. Cersei has differently jeweled tiaras. The Hound rocks drab metal colors. I don’t need pages and pages to describe them all. I HAVE A GOOD IMAGINATION SO JUST LET ME USE IT BRO.

(via divinethedivine)

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” ― J.D. Salinger.

libraryfangirl:

I remember reading some articles a couple of years back about the blatant whitewashing that publishers inflict on the covers of books, most notably young adult titles. The issue was highlighted at that time by the release of Justine Larbalestier’s new novel, Liar, which featured a black teenage…

geekquality:

This visually exciting and stat fueled post by YA author Kate Hart takes a look at the trends in character diversity in YA literature by analyzing the book covers from the past year. Definitely check out her post!

pageturnersblog:

tatteredcover: Six moving pictures are worth a thousand words.

pageturnersblog:

hollyblack: falling-serenity: The Curse Workers by Holly Black: A lovely comparison of the (current) US covers and the UK ones.  There is something immensely satisfying at seeing all the books in a series and know it’s complete.

I LOVE the first three. Why don’t we have those!?