Letting Go of Gravity Blog Tour: Interview with Meg Leder

Thank you to Rockstar Book Tour for this wonderful opportunity to interview Meg Leder, author of Letting Go of Gravity! I am a big fan of Meg Leder's debut novel, The Museum of Heartbreak and I absolutely enjoyed Letting Go of Gravity. Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of the blog post and check out the other tour stops! Also, you can check out my review for the novel here.

Title: Letting Go of Gravity
Author: Meg Leder
Pub. Date: July 17, 2018
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 432
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Synopsis:

Twins Parker and Charlie are polar opposites.
Where Charlie is fearless, Parker is careful.
Charlie is confident while Parker aims to please.
Charlie is outgoing and outspoken; Parker is introverted and reserved.
And of course, there’s the one other major difference: Charlie got leukemia. Parker didn’t.

But now that Charlie is officially in remission, life couldn’t be going better for Parker. She’s landed a prestigious summer internship at the hospital and is headed to Harvard in the fall to study pediatric oncology—which is why the anxiety she’s felt since her Harvard acceptance is so unsettling. And it doesn’t help that her relationship with Charlie has been on the rocks since his diagnosis.

Enter Finn, a boy who’s been leaving strange graffiti messages all over town. Parker can’t stop thinking about those messages, or about Finn, who makes her feel free for the first time: free to doubt, free to make mistakes, and free to confront the truth that Parker has been hiding from for a long time.

That she keeps trying to save Charlie, when the person who really needs saving is herself.

ACCLAIMED PRAISE

“A gorgeous, sad, funny, and wise book about letting go and finding your place in the world. Meg Leder has written a story about a brother and sister that will break your heart and have you whispering 'I got you' long after you've closed the book.” –Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces

“For readers who love and appreciate a good coming-of-age story, a realistic romance, and a novel where every character gets to be a hero.” –Kirkus

“A poignant and carefully crafted story…. A compelling coming-of-age novel sure to appeal to those who love realistic fiction.” –School Library Journal

“Effectively shows how illness affects families and how a person can get stuck acting out a persona and end up knowing very little about herself.” –Publishers Weekly

INTERVIEW WITH MEG LEDER

1. Letting Go of Gravity contains a lot of relatable issues that many teens go through such as anxiety, supporting a seriously ill loved one and even living to society's expectations to do well in life. It's also a heartfelt and emotional novel. How long did it take from conception to final draft to complete the novel? Did it take many drafts to hone in on each character's story and issues they face every day?

Meg: I worked on Letting Go of Gravity for four years, the last three of those in earnest. I have a full-time job as an adult nonfiction editor at Penguin Books, so I don’t write as quickly as I’d like. But I spend every Saturday and Sunday writing for 5-7 hours a day, and use the week to think about my characters, what they’ve done and what they’re going to do next. I don’t remember what exactly sparked the idea for this book—it’s a very personal project, so maybe the spark for it has always been in me! But once I knew I wanted to explore anxiety and expectations and how those play out in families, things started to take shape pretty quickly.

I did a lot of revising on my own before my editors saw the manuscript, and then once they came on board, we did a lot more! I worked with a fantastic team of three editors at Simon Pulse, and they each brought something really magnificent to the table. They pushed me and this manuscript beyond what I knew I was capable of, and as a result, I think the characters really breathe on the page. In particular, Charlie’s arc grew a lot from where I first started—they really encouraged me to go deeper with his character.


2. Your characters are very memorable. Who is your favorite character to write about in Letting Go of Gravity and why? Which character was the most difficult to write about?

Meg: I love all these characters so much, this is harder to answer than I expected! But I really loved writing Parker the most because she’s so much like me, but also because she’s eventually braver than me. She figures out who she is at a much younger age than I ever did, and even though it’s not an easy process, I’m kind of in awe of her for that.

The hardest character for me to write was Charlie. I love Charlie, but when I started this book, I didn’t always like Charlie. In early drafts, he came off as really angry and unlikeable, and I feel so protective about Parker, it was making me mad! But I didn’t want him to be a villain, and for me, the key to opening him up was digging into why he was angry. Once I started exploring that (and introduced him to Ruby, who is able to bring out a better side of Charlie), I started to discover the really wonderful parts of him.

3. When Parker rekindles her friendship with Finn, she ends up discovering her true passion and does some soul searching. When did you find your passion for writing? Also, what are some of your other interests?

Meg: I’ve always been a huge reader, and I’ve spent the last twenty years working in publishing, so I like to think that it all eventually just rubbed off on me! But it wasn’t until I was having lunch with my agent (who was repping me for some nonfiction projects) and he suggested I might have a voice for young adult that I began to consider what it might mean to write a novel. That was about ten years ago, and since then I’ve been hooked. It’s not easy, but I like creating something on the page and seeing where it takes me—I get a lot of joy out of that.

As for other interests, it will not surprise anyone who’s read Letting Go of Gravity to know I’m also a big fan of both pottery and street art. I’ve taken pottery classes on and off throughout the years, and I love the feeling of throwing clay on the wheel, and then pushing that into a finished shape. As for street art, one of my favorite ways to spend time is to wander a city and to discover its street art. Right now, I’m really into Invader, a French artist who posts video game images in tiles all over cities. There’s even an app you can use to record where you find them, sort of like a scavenger hunt.

4. Are you a plotter or panster?

Meg: I fit somewhere in-between. I always compare my writing process to a road trip. I know where I’m starting and I know roughly where I want to go, but I haven’t planned the route just yet. I like to head off and leave room to take side roads and to recalibrate my destination as I go!

5. So far you've written contemporary YA novels. Can you give readers some hints about your current work in progress?

Meg: I’m working on a few different things right now, and I’m not sure if either will bloom into a novel—it’s still too early too tell, I think! One is contemporary YA, one is trying something a little new. It’s like planting seeds—I hope one or both of them takes!

6. What are some of your favorite YA books that you would recommend?

Meg: Oh man, I could go on and on for this one! Some of my absolute favorites in the past few years: Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi, The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood, all of the Charlotte Holmes novels by Brittany Cavallaro, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, anything by VE Schwab (Darker Shade of Magic is so fantastic), the Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir… again, there’s so much stuff I love! I’m a sucker for any book with a romance, and I have a soft spot for fantasy. And I cannot wait to read Janet McNally’s The Looking Glass and Deb Caletti’s A Heart in a Body in the World, because I have heard such amazing things about both books already, and of course, am practically counting down the days for Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas.

Thank you Meg Leder for this splendid interview! 

ABOUT MEG LEDER

Meg Leder is the author of Letting Go of Gravity and The Museum of Heartbreak, and the coauthor of books including The Happy Book and The Book of Me. A former bookseller and teacher, she currently works as a book editor in New York City. She spends her free time reading, looking for street art, and people watching. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat Tim Riggins.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

GIVEAWAY

3 winners will win a finished copy of LETTING GO OF GRAVITY, US Only. Nicole's Novel Reads is not responsible for books lost or damaged in the mail. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

7/23/2018- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt

7/24/2018- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

7/25/2018- The Pages In-Between- Review

7/26/2018- 100 Pages A Day- Review

7/27/2018- Never Too Many To Read- Review

Week Two:

7/30/2018- Book Princess Reviews- Review

7/31/2018- Nicole's Novel Reads- Interview

8/1/2018- The Reading Corner for All- Review

8/2/2018- Do You Dog-ear?- Review

8/3/2018- BookHounds YA- Interview

Letting Go of Gravity Release Day Blitz & Giveaway

I am so excited that Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder is available now for everyone to read! I absolutely enjoyed this book and I hope you get a chance to read it too! Check out my review here. If you haven't had a chance to read Meg's other wonderful YA contemporary, Museum of a Heartbreak, definitely check it out since it's one of my favorite books!

Thank you to Rockstar Book Tours for organizing this wonderful release blitz. This blitz also includes a giveaway for 3 finished copies of the book, courtesy of Simon Pulse and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Title: Letting Go of Gravity
Author: Meg Leder
Pub. Date: July 17, 2018
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 432
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Synopsis:

Twins Parker and Charlie are polar opposites.
Where Charlie is fearless, Parker is careful.
Charlie is confident while Parker aims to please.
Charlie is outgoing and outspoken; Parker is introverted and reserved.
And of course, there’s the one other major difference: Charlie got leukemia. Parker didn’t.

But now that Charlie is officially in remission, life couldn’t be going better for Parker. She’s landed a prestigious summer internship at the hospital and is headed to Harvard in the fall to study pediatric oncology—which is why the anxiety she’s felt since her Harvard acceptance is so unsettling. And it doesn’t help that her relationship with Charlie has been on the rocks since his diagnosis.

Enter Finn, a boy who’s been leaving strange graffiti messages all over town. Parker can’t stop thinking about those messages, or about Finn, who makes her feel free for the first time: free to doubt, free to make mistakes, and free to confront the truth that Parker has been hiding from for a long time.

That she keeps trying to save Charlie, when the person who really needs saving is herself.

ACCLAIMED PRAISE

A gorgeous, sad, funny, and wise book about letting go and finding your place in the world. Meg Leder has written a story about a brother and sister that will break your heart and have you whispering 'I got you' long after you've closed the book." –Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces

“For readers who love and appreciate a good coming-of-age story, a realistic romance, and a novel where every character gets to be a hero.” –Kirkus

“A poignant and carefully crafted story…. A compelling coming-of-age novel sure to appeal to those who love realistic fiction.” –School Library Journal

“Effectively shows how illness affects families and how a person can get stuck acting out a persona and end up knowing very little about herself.” –Publishers Weekly

ABOUT MEG LEDER

Meg Leder is the author of Letting Go of Gravity and The Museum of Heartbreak, and the coauthor of books including The Happy Book and The Book of Me. A former bookseller and teacher, she currently works as a book editor in New York City. She spends her free time reading, looking for street art, and people watching. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat Tim Riggins.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

GIVEAWAY

3 winners will win a finished copy of LETTING GO OF GRAVITY, US Only. Nicole's Novel Reads is not responsible for books lost or damaged in the mail. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Top Ten Books I’ve Read In 2018 (So Far)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and the meme moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. This week's Top Ten Tuesday asks bloggers to list their top ten books they've read in 2018 (so far). The following books are in no particular order. 

1. Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder is a wonderful contemporary novel that occurs during the summertime so of course it's an excellent summer read. The main characters are twins. Parker is trying to figure out who is she is and she battles with anxiety which sometimes prevents her from following her dreams. Charlie, on the other hand, has been in remission with Leukemia and has been battling it for quite awhile. He is sometimes bitter about it and how people treat him.

2. Legendary by Stephanie Garber is the sequel to Caraval. Legendary is all about Tella's story and how she must pay her debt for a favor from the first book. Readers follow Tella as it is her turn to participate in a Caraval game. She becomes very close with Dante and learns more about her mother. There are many twists and turns in this novel which will satiate your appetite for an adventurous yet captivating fantasy.

3. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan is an intoxicating and lush fantasy that comes out this fall. This novel has East Asian elements and cliffhanger that will make you beg for the sequel. Not only are all the personalities of the characters well flushed out, but the novel has a f/f relationship that is kept a secret in order to avoid their demise.

4. Twelve Steps to Normal by Farrah Penn is a contemporary novel that delves into topics such as losing a loved one to a parent recovering from being an alcoholic. Kira is learning how to adjust living with her father after living with her aunt for some time. Her dad is out of rehab and is trying to start a new life. Kira learns to overcome many obstacles and the personal growth is huge from page one to the end.

5. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw is an entrancing novel cursed town. The Swan sisters come back ever year in June to inhabit three local girls, luring males to their death. This is revenge for their own deaths many centuries ago. I highly suggest this novel for those who like Hocus Pocus, How to Hang a Witch and/or Practical Magic.

6. The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo is Goo's latest book and it's perfect for the summer. Clara is a prankster at school and when a prank goes wrong, she is stuck working her father's Brazilian-Korean fusion food truck for the summer with her archenemy. Clara does a lot of soul searching in this book. If you are a big foodie, your mouth will be watering after reading this novel.

7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling is the third installment in the Harry Potter series. This is when the trio explores Hogsmeade and when Hermione stands up to Draco. Of course who can't forget the time turner and meeting characters such as Sirius, Buckbeack, Lupin and Trelawney? But my favorite part of book three is the introduction to The Marauders and the Marauders map!

8. Heart of Ash by Kim Liggett is the sequel to Blood & Salt. You won't regret reading this novel which talks place in Spain instead of Kansas. Ash's twin brother is missing and Ash needs to find him. You're in for a treat if your like a twisty paranormal read and/or if you like The Vampire Diaries.

9. From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon is Menon's second novel. Although I like Menon's debut more, this novel is a good romcom. It's light, humorous and a fast read. This novel also shows how people can be two faces or back stabbers when the truth comes to the surface. It also overthrows societal norms.

10. Shadow Weaver by MarcyKate Connolly is a dark yet whimsical MG novel about Emmeline who can talk her shadow. Emmeline wields a gift of controlling shadows. She ends up befriending another wielder of a power but this time it's a boy who has command with light. Her shadow become overpowering and gets Emmeline in trouble.

What are you favorite books that you've read this year?

Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder

Title: Letting Go of Gravity
Author: Meg Leder
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: July 17, 2018
Pages: 432
Source/format: e-ARC//Publisher

Rating: ☆☆☆☆1/2

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):  Twins Parker and Charlie are polar opposites.

Where Charlie is fearless, Parker is careful.

Charlie is confident while Parker aims to please.

Charlie is outgoing and outspoken; Parker is introverted and reserved.

And of course, there’s the one other major difference: Charlie got leukemia. Parker didn’t.

But now that Charlie is officially in remission, life couldn’t be going better for Parker. She’s landed a prestigious summer internship at the hospital and is headed to Harvard in the fall to study pediatric oncology—which is why the anxiety she’s felt since her Harvard acceptance is so unsettling. And it doesn’t help that her relationship with Charlie has been on the rocks since his diagnosis.

Enter Finn, a boy who’s been leaving strange graffiti messages all over town. Parker can’t stop thinking about those messages, or about Finn, who makes her feel free for the first time: free to doubt, free to make mistakes, and free to confront the truth that Parker has been hiding from for a long time.

That she keeps trying to save Charlie, when the person who really needs saving is herself.

M Y  T H O U G H T S 

"What would it be like to do something not because you had to, but just because you wanted to?"

Letting Go of Gravity starts with a story of a gravity girl and a helium girl that grandma used to tell twins Charlie McCullough and Parker McCullough. This story represented Charlie who wants to fly and Parker who won't let go.

Parker is Harvard bound and she's the valedictorian of her class. After learning Charlie has Leukemia, Parker wants to be a pediatric oncologist. She has a prestigious internship for the summer at a local hospital. Charlie, on the other hand, has to repeat senior year again due to missing school when he was in the hospital for Leukemia. He is currently in remission. However, the sibling relationship between Charlie and Parker has been strained ever since the twins started arguing over everything.

Meg Leder gives a glimpse how a serious illness can impact loved ones. Parker is scared bout Charlie getting sick again and possibly dying. There are a couple of scenes in the book where Parker has a panic attack about whether she can handle what life throws at her. Fortunately, her best friend Em always supports here and is always there for her. When Em moves to college, Parker befriends Ruby Collie from Float and reconnects with former childhood classmate Finn Casper.

I found it refreshing when Parker decides not to attend her internship. Just because she is the valedictorian, she is far from perfect. She can make mistakes or change her mind about stuff and her anxiety takes a form of its own. When she doesn't want to be a doctor anymore, it wasn't until she talks to Finn that she decides she needs to follow her heart. She decides to take Finn's suggestion and applies to a job at Trina's Ceramics. Parker can finally breathe and it feels like a weight is lifted off her shoulders at her new job. Creativity runs in Parker's veins even if she doesn't know it. Finn finds solace in street art as he paints amazing messages around the city. Parker and Finn starts to connect with what makes them happy.

Leder writes with sincerity. Her book is realistic and she knows how teens think to how they act to what they say. The pressure that society has on them can be unbearable and sometimes it's hard to convey what they think and feel to adults. Parker finds meaningful friendships with Ruby and Finn. She needs friends who knows what she was going through. By the end of the book, Parker finds her wings to fly!

Although the novel is fairly long for a contemporary, Letting Go of Gravity is emotionally gripping and relatable. The novel addresses how someone copes with a loved one being ill, how to manage anxiety and how one gains the strength to be honest not only with themselves but with the world. If you enjoy reading books such as The Museum of Heartbreak, The Start of Me and You and Emmy & Oliver, you will love Letting Go of Gravity.

The Unfortunates by Kim Liggett

Title: The Unfortunates
Author: Kim Liggett
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication date: July 10, 2018
Pages: 224
Source/format: ARC//Publisher

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):
When seventeen-year-old senator's son Grant Tavish is involved in a fatal accident, all he wants to do is face the consequences of what he's done, but the consequences never come, even if headlines of "affluenza" do. The truth soon becomes clear: Due to his father's connections, not only will Grant not be held accountable for his actions, he's going to get away with murder.

When a long Tavish tradition approaches, a cave excursion on the Appalachian trail, Grant seizes the opportunity to take justice into his own hands by staging an accident and never coming back. But before he has a chance to enact his plans, the cave system collapses, trapping him miles beneath the surface with four other teens from much less fortunate circumstances. As they struggle to survive, they share their innermost secrets and fears, and just when it seems they might be on track to finding a way out, they realize there's something else down there.

And it's hunting them.

M Y  T H O U G H T S

Grant Franklin Tavish the fifth is the privileged son of a senator. After the accident, Grant was bailed out of jail and didn't have to pay the consequences. However, he lives in guilt of what happened that day in December. Money can't buy everything and Grant conscience gets the best of him.

When Grant decides to embark on a Tavish tradition where the males go on a caving expedition solely, things go array. Grant lives in guilt and was about to end is life until he hears another voice. He ends up being saved by four other teenagers that attend the local high school. Kit, Deryll, Shy and Maria become very good friends with Grant. While the five try to find their way out of the cave, a monster is on the lose killing each teenager one by one.

I appreciate how Kim Liggett writes about each teenager with distinction. It is easy to follow who is who and each character has their own backstory and personality. I feel drawn to know more about the characters. Grant seems to be at ease when he befriends the four students. He even lets his guard down around him. Only one character in the book guessed correctly about what the monster is but unfortunately loses their life.

That twist at the end is perfect. There are hints of what the ending was going to be throughout the novel but the reader has to make sure to read each line carefully. Although short in length, The Unfortunates is a gripping thriller that keeps you on the edge of the seat wanting to know what is going to happen and if the five will make it out alive.

Belles and Brujas Tour Recap

Although this event recap for the Boston stop for the Belles and Brujas Tour is super late, I finally have this out for all of my readers! Thank you to the Brookline Public Library and Brookline Booksmith for making this amazing event happen. The Boston tour stop occurred on Tuesday, June 5th. The Belles and Brujas tour is celebrating Dhonielle Clayton’s The Belles and Zoraida Córdova’s Bruja Born, both books that were released earlier this year. Also joining the duo include special guests Julie C. Dao, author of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, and Sasha Alsberg, co-author of Zenith.

Magic and mayhem are part of the cross-section of books. Dhonielle asks the panelists, what drew them to magic and fantasy? Zoraida mentioned how she is looking for magic to transport into books. If you’re a teen at the age of 14 and you read about a character of the same age doing these incredible things, you have the sense that you can overcome what the character overcomes. Zoraida fell in love with Amelia Atwater’s vampire books when she was a teen. Julie mentions how “fantasy is freedom.” She first fell in love with The Mists of Avalon. Sasha talked about how she always wanted to be an astronomer but she sucks at math. She fell in love with sci-fi and is a big Star Trekkie. Dhonielle said that her dad is a big nerd and loves space opera, comics and that they always went to the bookstore every Saturday. She always loved to read and she escaped reality and things that happened at school through reading. Dhonielle claims, “fantasy is an escape and it’s a place for me find strong women.”

Dhonielle asked the panelists about the strength of their characters. Zoraida describes the Brooklyn Brujas as “Charmed but brown.” Each sister has her own book. The sisters are average girls but they have powers that they don’t know what to do with. Magic comes from them. The magic doesn’t come from romantic love or from others. Magic is inward and it climbs outwards. Dhonielle claims she likes villains more than heroes. Julie always loved fairytales. She rooted for the go-getters for what they want. Julie always wanted to write a story about a woman who has ambition and has a driving force of life. She wanted to write about a woman with agency instead of the pure and the innocent. Sasha and co-author Lindsay Cummings wanted to write about how girls should be in real life. They wanted to break stereotypes of the catty fighting. They both wanted to hone in on close and healthy friendships between females and to turn around the stigma.

In terms of world building, Dhonielle asks, how do you build your world? Sasha wrote three years ago and used a lot of spreadsheets about anything space related. She based it on what is real or what was a theory. Sasha made magic out of them and manipulated concepts. It was a hands on experience creating worlds and she had fun creating a map to figure out how the world will look like. Zoraida made a map in visualize where everything is going to be and worked from there. When Julie was writing book two, Kingdom of a Blazing Phoenix, there is a canon you have to stick to and the world building has to be similar. Dhonielle mentioned that her second book in the Belles series is called Everlasting Rose. Both Dhonielle and Julie agreed world building helps to write the second book. Dhonielle and Sasha often forget something that happened previously in the story during drafting like the spelling of characters' names. Sasha also said that she has dyslexia and spells characters names wrong all the time.

Dhonielle aks the very important question, “do we have the responsibility to tell teens the truth?” Zoraida writes about certain subjects and bridges lines. We should be telling the truth to kids and teens. The difference with kids reading YA compared to adults reading is huge. The teens want to belong to what they read. They want a sense of identity about who they are. Julie agrees with Zoraida and said that teens are going to inherit the world. She doesn’t like how Disney sanitizes fairy tales. Julie wants to show women who are ambitious and power hungry and not wanting a man to save them. Sasha learned a lot from YA and what she read from books when she was in her teens. She wants teens to learn a lot from what she writes as well. Dhonielle wants to “write about teens how they are and not what they should be.” She claims we need to get better telling the truth and not cleaning everything up. Don't give into the pressure and lens to a certain way.

When a question was brought up about whether the authors would want to be a hero or a villain, Sasha and Dhonielle both said villain and Zoraida and Julie answered with hero. There was also a conversation about a Hufflepuff exterior but a Slytherin interior. Sasha asks everyone “would you want your book to be adapted into a play or a musical?” In unison, Julie and Zoraida said musical! They talked about dance numbers and combusting into song. Dhonielle said her books will be dark if it was a musical and opted for the play. Sasha talked about dancing space pirates with a possible Captain Jack Sparrow for her’s. Zoraida then chimes in “ballet?” to Sasha. Another question that was asked was would you be on the always be on the run for seven years or be in jail for years. Julie said jail because she is such a Hufflepuff. Sasha, Dhonielle and Zoraida said on the run. Each author was asked if they would want their book be misspelled or have the cover changed. For some odd reason the conversation shifted to alpacas smiling to corgis. Zoraida even mentioned how Eric Smith is a corgi king!

Back to more serious questions, what has added to help grow the genre in regarding how adults gravitate toward YA. Zoraida writes about death a lot because when you are older, you think more about mortality. Teens often feel immortal. Dhonielle mentioned how lately YA caters to the nostalgic teen experience and that is why we need to write more about the truth. She would like to see more teens at book events and in signing lines. One of the issues is the structure of books. We need to change that. She says that we need to change the structure for teens to get books. Dhonielle hopes YA books will find a way to make it into school and class syllabi. We need fresh voices. Teens want books about drama, kisses, witches and more. She believes that there should be new classics read in school and no more Mice and Men type of books. Julie writes for herself but she writes for teens. She writes about destiny vs. choice. Sasha a in-between. She is not a teen but not quite an adult. At age 18, she was writing for herself. She believes that literature is universal.

In terms of reading, Dhonielle described how Holly Black’s books “creates new experiences.” She loved “following into the woods.” Zoraida hated reading until she was 13. Librarians and teachers always told her to read The House on Mango Street or How the Garcias Lost Their Accents. Zoraida claims, “I love reading myths and I wanted to create my own myths.” A question was asked regarding the research for world building. Dhonielle said she did research on the beauty industry for months before creating a loose outline for The Belles. Zoraida talks about her Brooklyn Brujas series and how there is no handbook for what she is writing about. However, there are superstitions which she researched. She also looked up the Day of the Dead and made sure she doesn’t replicate certain things. She claims, “I figured out what I wanted to avoid when researching in order to create my own world.” Julie is a plotter. When she has enough research to create a book bible, then she writes the book. She read and watched a lot about the Silk Road for Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. Sasha used a spreadsheet and did a lot of research on current Celtic mythology that isn’t quite mainstream. She also did a lot of fact checking. Sasha mentioned how she loves watching documentaries and that “it’s so fascinating and so different.”

I had a great time and the turn out was pretty decent. It was nice to see a variety of different authors and different genres. A lot of book swag was handed out and there were a couple of raffles at the event. I love how the event was taken place in the teen room at the library. There was plenty of time to meet the authors and to chat with them and of course to get books signed.

Top Ten Books on my Summer TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and the meme moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. This week's Top Ten Tuesday asks bloggers to list their top ten books on their summer TBR or their top ten poolside or beach reads. I don't frequent the pool or beach that much so summer TBR it is! I have a lot of books I want to read but I had to limit myself to only ten books. I figured I would have a variety of different genres showcased for this week's TTT. The following books are in no particular order. 

1. Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie A. Dao is the sequel to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. This installment is a retelling Snow White instead of the Evil Queen focusing on Jade instead of Xifeng. Even though Jade doesn't want the crown of Feng Lu, she knows she must do the right thing and she is the only one that can defeat Xifeng. This is one of my most anticipated books coming out the second half of the year!

2. Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman is Bowman's second book. Rumi Seto is very close to her sister Lea until a tragic accident happens and Lea passes. This novel delves in how Rumi deals with grief while her mother sends her away to live with her aunt. I am interested to see how Bowman incorporates music within the novel. I was fortunate enough to be granted an e-ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

3. The Silver Mask by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare is the 4th book in the Magisterium series. I have been behind in this MG fantasy series but I am ready to read this installment before the last book comes out in the fall. If you enjoy reading books about boarding schools with characters welding magic powers, this is a series for you.

4. The Unfortunates by Kim Liggett is a book that I am reading now. If you love thrillers, definitely check this novel out. The novel is about a senator's son who lives a privileged life. Because of Grant's status, he always has someone puling strings for him. However, what if Grant doesn't want people to help him and what if he wants to deal with the consequences? A caving expedition is suppose to be a rite of passage for the men in his family but Grant ends up being something more.

5. Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco is the third installment in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series and this time Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell venture off to the Americas on the RMS Etruria. Little did they know that people start going missing and that there is a killer on the loose. Will everyone meet their destination or will the perish amongst the Atlantic Ocean? I love Maniscalo's writing and this series is one of my favorites. Of course Wadsworth and Cresswell is one of my favorite OTPs.

6. Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova is the second novel in the Brooklyn Brujas series. This novel is centered around sister Lula who feels like an outcast since she has a more passive power of healing compared to her sister's Enchantrix powers. It will be interesting to read all the books in the Brooklyn Brujas series since Córdova is showcasing each sister in a book in the series.

7. The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is pitched as a YA thriller with Scandal meets Veronica Mars. My friend Rachel recommended this book and said I MUST read it. The novel is about a 16-year-old girl who attends an academy who becomes a fixer of high school students' problems. However, things get interesting with secrets being dug up and are is floating on the surface.

8. The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is about Leigh and how she travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents after her mom dies by suicide. I heard great things about this novel. It's is a contemporary with magical realism woven into it. With hope and despair, the novel is about finding oneself through family history, art, grief and love.

9. If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim is an emotionally riveting debut novel about war, family and forbidden love. The novel is about two ill-fated lovers in Korea. Haemi and Kyunghwan have been childhood friends for a long time. But when Heami finishes finishing school, Kyunghwan's cousin is determined to marry Haemi.

10. True Letters From a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan is about James Liddell who is a star athlete, a decent student a kind of boyfriend to Theresa. However, he likes to write letters—letters he never intends to send—which spills the truth about who he really is. This is reminiscent of Lara Jean from To All the Boys I've Loved Before and how Lara Jean write letters to her crushes but never intends to send them. I found this book on a whim at Harvard Book Store with Rachel on Independent Bookstore day and it looks like my kind of read.

What books are on your summer TBR? Do you normally stick with one genre during the warmer months or do you mix it up?