Showing posts with label kelly link. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kelly link. Show all posts

Friday, May 20, 2016

Review: My True Love Gave to Me - Twelve Holiday Stories

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

I have had this book on my TBR list for over a year and a half.  I wanted to read it over the holidays, but in typical holiday fashion, things came up and I didn't get around to it.  With Summer Days and Summer Nights being released May 17, 2016, I needed to tackle this one before I found myself even further behind.

I downloaded the audio book from the library and listened to the first five or six stories while I trained for my next half marathon.  Each story is about 50 minutes long, which helped push me a little further than the 35 - 40 minutes I had been running each day.  I listened to the last half of the book during my five hour drive to BEA and the time literally flew by.

The stories were all very different and I enjoyed seeing how the various authors expressed their personalities and styles.  I have read several books by Holly Black, Ally Carter, David Levithan, Stephanie Perkins, and Rainbow Rowell, but the rest of the authors were new to me.  Not new to me in the sense that I haven't heard of them, but rather they have been on my TBR list forever and I simply haven't gotten around to reading their books yet.  I was really impressed with  Kiersten White and Gayle Forman's stories and will have to bump their books further up my TBR list.



Overall this was a very entertaining collection of stories that will put anyone in the holiday spirit.  I would, however, recommend taking a break between each story to allow yourself time to process what you have read before moving onto the next.  When I listened to the stories back to back in the car, I found the transitions to be a bit awkward.  It was more enjoyable for me when I started each story with an open mind.  For example, moving from a contemporary romance to a supernatural story involving a mysterious disappearing elf was easier to process when I listened to them independently.  

Thursday, January 1, 2015

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins

Book Summary
If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.

Flo's Review
I was in the library hold queue for this book and literally picked it up on the way to the airport to fly back to my parents' house. I'm really glad I got it! I enjoyed the twelve stories a lot. Some of them had some fantastical elements, and while those were fun, I think I tended to like the straight up contemp stories the best. And now I will try to rank them, starting with my most favoritest. Here goes!

It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins 

Midnights by Rainbow Rowell 

Angels in the Snow by Matt de la Peña 


Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White

What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman

Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter 
Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McEntire 

Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han 

Krampuslauf by Holly Black 
Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan 

The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor 


The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link 

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Shadowhunters and Downworlders edited by Cassandra Clare


Spoiler Alert: May contain spoiler for the Mortal Instruments trilogy. Proceed with caution.

I pretty much love everything that Smart Pop YA does. They're the ones behind The Girl Who Was On Fire, which I simply adored. So when I discovered that they were doing a book about another one of my favorite series, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, I was beyond excited.

A nice collection of essays that covers many different aspects of the series is contained in this collection. Allow me to speak to a few of my favorites ones:

Simon Lewis: Jewish, Vampire Hero by Michelle Hodkin: Okay, part of my love of this essay is simply because I love Michelle. I have had the opportunity to meet her twice and she is just great! I also really did enjoy her book The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. But I think this essay really stuck with me because I am a devoted Catholic. I know it's not Jewish, but my faith is also rich in history and tradition, and I love that Michelle was able to take her faith, which is clearly also very important to her, and relate/apply it in this way. When I was reading The Mortal Instruments, I was able to pick up on some of these ideas, but not all of them, and certainly not with this depth. Also, I love Cassandra Clare's introduction for this essay -- it almost comes off like she is speechless from the awesomeness this essay.

Brotherly Love by Kendare Blake: Because, yes, the brother/sister storyline -- it needed to be addressed. And Kendare did a great job with it! I learned about the Westermarck effect and I see as I'm looking at my book that I actually wrote in the margin by one point: "I never thought of this!" This storyline was definitely an interesting choice by Cassandra Clare and it was nice to read a thoughtful analysis on it.

Immortality and its Discontents by Holly Black and Kelly Link: I like that Cassie and Smart Pop chose to keep this one in an interview/discussion format. This worked so well with this essay because I, as a reader, was able to follow a thought train and see how we got from discussing one thing to something else. Also, the reality of the discussion led them all to get sidetracked sometimes, which was just fun. Kelly makes an interesting point about Magnus: "In terms of audience reaction, his sexual preferences seem much more notable than the fact that he's immortal." Interesting, right?! Good point, Kelly! Oh, and this one, too, which I love:

"...that's a big part of young adult literature, period. It's a literature of discovery and change. You, the protagonist, have to discover the world. And at the same time you have to discover what you are that you didn't know was possible. You are changed. You change the world."

Wow. Bam!

When Laws are Made to Be Broken by Robin Wasserman: I loved reading an analysis of The Clave!

What Does that Deviant Wench Think She's Doing? Or, Shadowhunters Gone Wild by Sarah Rees Brennan: I remember meeting Sarah at the RT convention in Chicago last year. (We had a deep discussion about the merits of being on Team Stefan in The Vampire Diaries.) She entertained me then, and she entertained me with this essay. I was literally laughing out loud and shaking my head and some parts of this one. And putting this one at the end? Nicely played by Cassie and Smart Pop. And this quote here:

"Love is what matters. Love is the song you hear even while you sleep, and you know you are healed, and safe, and where you belong." <3

My random favorite line of the anthology, courtesy of Diana Peterfreund: "See, Jace never learned to flirt properly because he was raised by a murderous sociopath."

If you are a Mortal Instruments fan, I would definitely recommend you picking up a copy of Shadowhunters and Downworlders!