How to Find Books

Reading books is a luxury for most people, even those who love to read. That's why Buzz Books is a great way to find the next book or books on your TBR (to be read) list.  The excerpts are just long enough to let readers get sucked in and just short enough to know that this may not your personal cup of tea, and all without investing anything beyond a few minutes a day.


Some of the books I am excited about:
Romanov by Nadine Brandes, author of Fawkes

The history books say I died.
They don’t know the half of it.
Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.
Nastya’s only chances of saving herself and her family are either to release the spell and deal with the consequences, or to enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s only dabbled in magic, but it doesn’t frighten her half as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .
That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

Update: I was not allowed to view this book so no review upcoming.

William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls by Ian Doescher

Power struggles. Bitter rivalries. Jealousy. Betrayals. Star-crossed lovers. When you consider all these plot points, it’s pretty surprising William Shakespeare didn’t write Mean Girls. But now fans can treat themselves to the epic drama—and heroic hilarity—of the classic teen comedy rendered with the wit, flair, and iambic pentameter of the Bard. Our heroine Cady disguises herself to infiltrate the conniving Plastics, falls for off-limits Aaron, struggles with her allegiance to newfound friends Damian and Janis, and stirs up age-old vendettas among the factions of her high school. Best-selling author Ian Doescher brings his signature Shakespearean wordsmithing to this cult classic beloved by generations of teen girls and other fans. Now, on the 15th anniversary of its release, Mean Girls is a recognized cultural phenomenon, and it’s more than ready for an Elizabethan makeover.

Review here

Descendent of the Crane by Joan He

Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own. Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she's thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father's killer, Hesina does something desperate: she enlists the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who's also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

In this shimmering Chinese-inspired fantasy, debut author Joan He introduces a determined and vulnerable young heroine struggling to do right in a world brimming with deception. 

Creating Bookworms

This is not the first Buzz Books edition I have read, but this is the first one I have talked about. In short Buzz Books is a gathering of soon-to-be-published excerpts of novels chosen by Publishers Lunch. 

I initially thought that I would use this space to talk about my very long history with Young Adult books and how the books that I gravitate towards influences how I choose my own books to read, but this edition has made me think about how book choosing and book reading has changed and how I have to change.

I started writing about my belief in bringing tradebooks into my classroom for pleasure reading and how in 1992 when I started as a high school English teacher, there was a sad lack of used YA books that would appeal to my juniors and seniors in high school. However, that evolution as a teacher with nothing but a class set of Cormier's The Chocolate War and leaving my middle school classroom 20 plus years later with thousands of tradebooks all chosen by me for specific kinds of readers is another long story.

The short story is that I give my students a specific strategy for choosing books. 

1. Look at the cover. If it appeals, keep going, if not, put it back. 
2. Read the little description on the back or the inside cover. Again, yes keep going, no put it back.
3. Read the lead until you lose appeal. If you have gotten through the first one or two chapters by the time you look away, grab it, borrow it, steal it. 

The change in strategy is that the assumption with this strategy is that my classroom is fully stocked, the school library is fully stocked and not being used for testing, or my local bookstore is fully stocked. This is not always the case.

My new strategy relies on me searching out ebooks with readers in mind, and when I come across books through a plethora of means (Buzz Books, other blogs, Net Galley), pass it on. It is no longer possible to stock my shelves. E-books have limited the experience that students have in choosing their own books by touch, by sight, by smell. Students will no longer remember what a brand new book smells like. They won't know what a book with its pages still a little crisp and tacky feels like. This is a new world. Relying on publishers to open up their pages in things like Buzz Books is the new way to choose the next read on the students' readers.