Thursday Themed Booklists: Fashion

I've put together a list of young adult books about fashion - designer clothes, starting trends, modelling - some of them are pretty girly and don't make you think too hard but others aren't so shallow...

So Yesterday - Scott Westerfeld
So Yesterday is a fascinating thriller aggressively questions consumer culture. Seventeen-year-old Hunter lives up to his name. A "cool hunter," he's paid by corporations to comb his native Manhattan in search of street style that could become the next new trend. Hunter meets and falls for fellow teen culture-watcher Jen, just before Hunter's boss mysteriously disappears. Jen and Hunter hold the most clues, and their wild, increasingly dangerous search uncovers a plot to subvert a consumer system that dictates what is cool. (From Booklist via Amazon)

Gossip Girl - Cecily von Ziegesar
At a New York City jet-set private school populated by hard-drinking, bulimic, love-starved poor little rich kids, a clique of horrible people behave badly to one another. An omniscient narrator sees inside the shallow hearts of popular Blair Waldorf, her stoned hottie of a boyfriend, Nate, and her former best friend Serena van der Woodsen, just expelled from boarding school and "gifted with the kind of coolness that you can't acquire by buying the right handbag or the right pair of jeans. She was the girl every boy wants and every girl wants to be." Everyone wears a lot of designer clothes and drinks a lot of expensive booze.... (From Amazon)

The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
Most recent college grads know they have to start at the bottom and work their way up. But not many picture themselves having to pick up their boss's dry cleaning, deliver them hot lattes, land them copies of the newest Harry Potter book before it hits stores and screen potential nannies for their children. Charmingly unfashionable Andrea Sachs, upon graduating from Brown, finds herself in this precarious position: she's an assistant to the most revered-and hated-woman in fashion, Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly. (From Publisher's Weekly via Amazon)

Violet On The Runway - Melissa Walker
A wallflower in the spotlight can do one of two things: wilt, or blossom...
Violet Greenfield's life changes forever when a lady in giant Chanel shades tells her she could be IT, the next Kate Moss-but taller, and without the PR problems. That's how Violet winds up with a business card in the front pocket of her jeans on her first day as a senior in high school. Angela Blythe from Tryst Models in New York City wants to put Violet on a plane and whisk her into the world of high-heeled boots and oversized sunglasses. Tall, skinny Violet, who's been P-L-A-I-N practically forever.
And guess what? She's going. (From Amazon)

Just Listen - Sarah Dessen
Annabel Greene seemingly had everything: cool friends, close family, good grades, and a part-time modeling career in town. But it all came crashing down, and Annabel has spent the summer in shaky, self-imposed exile. She finds herself dreading the new school term and facing, well, everyone again. The last thing she wants to do is revisit old friendships while the losses are painful, the secrets behind the rifts are almost unbearable. Her solid family seems fragile, too. What happened to cause the stiff silences and palpable resentments between her two older sisters? Why is no one in her loving but determinedly cheerful family talking about her middle sister's eating disorder? Annabel's devastating secret is revealed in bits and snatches, as readers see her go to amazing lengths to avoid confrontation. (From School Library Journal via Amazon)

Got anything to add to the list?

Top Teen Books Meme

I've seen lots of other bloggers putting this up on their blogs and thought I'd steal it for myself and join in the fun :)

The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Instructions:
Put an “X” next to the books you’ve read
Put a “+” next to the books you LOVE
Put a “#” next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your “X”s at the bottom
Share with your friends!

1. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams
2. Kit’s Wilderness / David Almond
3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie #
4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson #
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson #
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
7. 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher #
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway #
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block X+
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor
12. Forever / Judy Blume #
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell #
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares X+
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray X
17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot X
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus
19. Ender’s Game / Orson Scott Card
20. Postcards from No Man’s Land / Aidan Chambers
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky #
22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn X
24. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan X+
25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer X
26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins #
27. The Midwife’s Apprentice / Karen Cushman
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen X
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper
32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn
34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman X+
35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going
38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding X
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green #
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse
42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen
43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton
44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins
45 The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause
47. Arrow’s Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan X
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart #
52. The Giver / Lois Lowry
53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler #
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta#
61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr #
62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer X
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix
70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer
74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman X+
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison X+
76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. how i live now / Meg Rosoff #
79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling X+
80. Holes / Louis Sachar X
81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger X
82. Push / Sapphire
83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi #
84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli X
87. Chanda’s Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas
90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien X
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar X
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld X
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin #
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak #
100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak X+

Read: 22

There's a HUGE chunk of books on this list that I haven't even heard of... I think I'll go update my wishlist now! :)

How many have you read?
And also, which ones that I haven't I read, should I read?

I Love A Good Fairy Story

I was very excited yesterday when I got Knife by R J Anderson in the post. It's a story about a slowly dying-out group of faery's living in an oak tree and all the adventures they get up to. The cover pictured is incredibly awesome, I'm not sure what the technical term for it is but the cover looks like a dark blue colour but when the light hits it shines like a rainbow. Metallic-ish. WAY AWESOME!

Knife is actually the UK, Australian and New Zealand marketing for the book. In the US it's being published as Faery Rebels: Spellhunter. Heaps different marketing, I prefer the UK cover to the US cover. They seemed to be geared towards different audiences.

SERIOUSLY - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A 'FAIRY' AND A 'FAERY'?! Somebody tell me! Other than the spelling of course. Is there one?! Knife is about faerys. The next three books are about fairies :)

I love a good fairy story. I thought I'd mention a few young adult books with fairies in them. They're incredibly different books, though. First there's How To Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier is set in a place where everyone has their own personal fairy. And the main character - you guessed it - tries to ditch their fairy!

Then there's Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, about the boy genius, Artemis, who sets out to capture a fairy and hold her ransom for the legendary fairy gold. However, his feisty mark, Holly, turns out to be a member of the "LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police," so a wisecracking team of satyrs, trolls, dwarfs and fellow fairies set out to rescue her.

And then, my favourite, Francesca'a Lia Block's I Was A Teenage Fairy. From Amazon: "In a postmodern fairy tale, a teen model's friendship with a fairy helps her overcome abuse." It's very good :)

What's a good story with fairies in it that you like? Or faerys lol.

Books That Make You Cry

A good cry every now and again can be a great release... I get some perverse pleasure out of watching Titanic, even though I know that I will spend the last half hour of the film bawling my eyes out... and will continue weeping for another half hour after it's finished.

Unless you're particularly emotional, it takes a good book to bring you to tears. You have to be able to really connect with the character's and sympathize with them to become emotionally involved to the point of crying. (I know a lot of people who cried in Harry Potter 7... honestly I think I was a bit confused and emotionally detached when I read that one, didn't shed a tear).

So what are some books that have made me cry?

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
The ending was so tragic, I wept. Granted, I was quite young when I read this for the first time and didn't cry at all on the reread. But oh, it was so sad!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Such a beautiful story... but a very tragic one. It's established right from the onset that it's going to be a sad, teary book. Lots of tears from me!

Through A Glass, Darkly by Jostein Gaarder
When I read this book, I enjoyed the ideas but sometimes found myself a bit bored. I was actually incredibly shocked with myself after reading the final sentence. Suddenly everything just clicked and I cried and cried... and cried :(

Obviously, different things are going to set different people off. What books make you cry? Ever read a book that people have told you is really sad and just didn't feel it?

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!

Happy Australia Day everyone! :) Yay, it's the day to celebrate what's great. Personally, I'll be spending the day at the beach in the sun, listening to Triple J's Hottest 100.

I thought I'd celebrate here by putting together a little profile of some of my favourite Australian YA authors...

JOHN MARSDEN
John Marsden is like a YA Australian author legend. Seriously! :) If you haven't read his Tomorrow series, about these teenage kids who are out in the bush when Australian gets invaded and take it upon themselves to do their bit in the war, you're missing out! I've read most of his books and, especially his earlier works are really something special.

SONYA HARTNETT
I mention Sonya Hartnett a lot here, I think she's the bee's knees! She's written LOADS of great books like Surrender, The Ghost's Child and The Silver Donkey. All are very, very good and totally different from each other. Last year she was the first Australian to win the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. I'm going to work my way through every one of their books and I'm sure I'll love them all.

MARGO LANAGAN
Margo Lanagan is the award-winning author of many YA fiction novels and short stories. Her books include Tender Morsels, Red Spikes and The Best Thing. I read The Best Thing soooo long ago, I remember borrowing it from the teen section of my local library back when there was a poster of the wall of pretty boy Leonardo Dicaprio with ridiculous bangs. And I still remember so many things about the story, the plot, characters names, crazy details and scenes. I can't believe I remember as much as I do. She's good!

EMILY RODDA

Emily Rodda aka Jennifer Rowe, has written many, many different series'... she writes mostly fantasy-adventure type books. Her Deltora series is really good, it looks a little crazy but it is very enjoyable! Also, her series about a character named Rowan who does all sorts of adventurous things is great as well :)

Once again, Happy Australia Day! If you haven't heard of some of these authors before, I seriously recommend them...

Cybils Awards: 2008 Young Adult Fiction Finalists

Since the start of the year the finalists for the 2008 Cybils have been up... there are a range of categories but the one I was most interested in is the young adult fiction finalists.

The books that made the cut are:

• Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
• Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
• Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
• I Know It’s Over by C.K. Kelly Martin
• Thaw by Monica M. Roe
  

I'm ashamed to say I have read not one of these books on the list! I'm desperately trying to hunt them down and read some of them before the winner is announced on February 14th.

How many books have you read off the list? Who do you think deserves to win?

Verse Novels: Where Poetry And Novels Combine

Verse novels are a type of narrative poetry where the story is told in the form of poetry instead of prose. I'm currently reading Psyche In A Dress by Francesca Lia Block and it's a verse novel... I'm not always a huge fan of them but I'm enjoying this one (I'll post a review when I'm finished reading it).

Sometimes I feel verse novels come across as a bit careless, like the author is just adding line breaks and cutting out words so the story takes the form of poetry but it doesn't necessarily read as good poetry.

Some other verse novels I've read are Lonesome Howl by Steven Herrick a suspenseful adventure about two families living in the country, and What Does Blue Feel Like? by Jessica Davidson about a girl's struggle with depression, both Australian authors.

What's your opinion on verse novels? Love them? Hate them? Got a good one to recommend?