Fave Reads 2012

That time of year again. At the start of a new year we reflect on the previous and in that sense you don't only get reviews of my baked goods, those I've enjoyed in and around NYC, but also books I read this year that I thoroughly enjoyed. In 2011 my Goodreads goal was to read 50 books and I read 54. This past year my goal was to read 52 and I read 60. For 2013, the aim is 54 at minimum. And I still have about a dozen or so titles from last year's Book Expo to read.

Please note that these books are listed in no particular order.

• Easy Chinese Recipes (2011) - Thanks again to Tuttle Publishing for helping me host a giveaway of one of my new favorite cookbooks! While you don't read a cookbook per se you do experience it and when recipe after recipe is good you know you have a winner. I have made scallion pancakes a good half dozen times since August. Like I said in my review of Bee Yinn Low's book: once you make her recipes you will never go out to buy Chinese food again. It's easy, as the title says, and delicious. Seriously if you have any hesitation don't. You don't need fancy tools or anything but a handful of ingredients and the tenacity to go forth and cook!
• Days of Blood and Starlight (2012) - Pretty much anything Laini Taylor writes I will love. This is guaranteed. Last year the first book in her new series threw me for a loop, and it's sequel, Days, has me chomping at the bit for the final installment next year. I warn you Days is much darker, bloodier, and grittier than Daughter of Smoke and Bone as is the main character of Karou--still reeling with guilt when we left off in the first book. Read a page of Laini's stuff and you'll fall in love, I promise you. Just do it. Do it now!
• Live By Night (2012) - Last year I read two Dennis Lehane books and picked The Given Day as one of my faves read last year. Night is a follow-up, kind of, to that following the youngest brother Joe who was just a kid in Day. We follow Joe into his life of crime, drastically different from that of his dad and older brothers, and how he carves out a life for himself but not after lots of pain and sacrifice. As I said last year Lehane has a way with prose and especially with dialogue (I told him this when I met him at Book Expo). I'd read about the Coughlin family for years to come.
• Where Things Come Back (2011) - John Corey Whaley's debut got heaps of praise and deserved it. He won the Printz Honor, was chosen by Pulitzer Prize winning author Oscar Hijuelos as one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35, an honor not given to a YA book before, and a William Morris Debut Award. This book is heartfelt and well written and has two stories that you're not sure where they're going to go but ultimately see how lives can affect one another adversely or for the better. This was one of those books where I deliberately missed my train stop to keep reading. Can't wait for his next work.
• The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors (2010) - Michelle Young-Stone was at an event at WORD Brooklyn with Heidi Durrow last year and in hearing her and Heidi give such warm advice to aspiring writers I instantly wanted to read her book. I was not disappointed. Lightning Strike Survivors follows the lives of two kids (who grow into adults), and those connected to them, who've been affected by lightning. Young-Stone spent years writing this book and got her big break with her agent and in writing about these characters you feel that she knows them, has lived with them even. This is another book I didn't want to end and was a bit disheartened when I saw I was on the last page.
• The Handmaid's Tale (1985) - Margaret Atwood is a huge name in literature and in dystopian/sci-fi. My friend and critique partner Kim recommended this book to me and it's a classic. Many new tales YA especially are often based on the premise posed by Handmaid's Tale. The prose is straightforward but very visual and colorful. The ending may leave you hopeful or terrified depending if you're an optimist or pessimist (aka realist). I find the ambiguous ending and the steady way the world became something much worse for women and families a spectacular piece of storytelling. A newly released illustrated version was also released this year, kind of pricey but stunning.
• The Fault In Our Stars (2012) - Okay, who didn't love this book? It's great! Automatically hit the best-seller list and captures something devastating with wit and grace. So good. John Green is a major name in YA publishing, especially being a male writer in YA who writes fully fleshed characters, male and female, so well. Many people cried. I didn't  however it doesn't mean I didn't feel anything. When I finished it I was all kinds of choked up.
• Breed (2012) - Chase Novak (aka Scott Spencer) wrote this tale about a couple willing to go the extra mile to have kids and they do in fact losing themselves to carnal urges they cannot explain but are traced back to some shady IVF practices. I've been a fan of Spencer's work reading his NBA nominated A Ship Made of Paper and Endless Love. So when I found out he wrote it I picked it right up at BEA.
• Between Shades of Gray (2011) - Ruta Sepetys has had her book mixed up with that other Shades of Gray book this year. But hers is not a romance at all. It's a heartbreaking tale of young girl watching her family lose everything at the rise of Hitler. This is based on Sepetys' Lithuanian family who was trafficked along Europe and ended up in Siberia for years. The first line is one of the most haunting things you'll ever read in fiction, be it YA or adult focused. It's a tale that doesn't shy away from the bad parts but also gives you hope at every turn even when you're hit again and again with the atrocities. I also read the ARC for her upcoming YA book Out of the Easy. Hard times and well-written. I'd recommend it as well.
• The Night Circus (2011) - Erin Morgenstern was a huge name at Book Expo in 2011 when Night Circus first came out and it was well deserved. Her debut novel provides visual impact on every page is lovely and telling and lyrical. She has a way with description painting a literal portrait. Some may not love it but I think if you enjoy beauty and words than you'll be into this one.
• Cloud Atlas (2004) This was a book club pick and I am glad it was. The film came out in 2012 but the book is just amazing! How David Mitchell kept everything together, created such vast worlds new and old and current and languages whole new languages threw me for a loop. Admittedly the beginning sagged for me but it picked up as we went forward in time and then backwards. Amazingly structured and I learned a lot from the writing and enjoyed the typesetting design as well.
• Swamplandia! (2011) - Shortlisted for the Pulitzer in 2012 (when there was no winner in the Fiction category) Karen Russell built an interesting world. This was another book club pick but on my list since I'd read the interview Poets & Writers did with Russell around the time of publication. This is another tome that has multiple POVs, mainly Ava in first person and her older brother Kiwi in third (and I do enjoy me some multi POV books) but the language, the detail, the growth of these people and revelations they deal with are great and I see why it was shortlisted.

Other books I enjoyed reading in 2012 include Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (I agree that this'll be an American classic), A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins, The Raven Boys (book 1) by Maggie Stiefvater, Blasphemy (story collection) by Sherman Alexie (Check out the story 'Cry, Cry, Cry'), State of Wonder by Anne Patchett, Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Yup, another kick ass female protagonist), Prodigy (sequel to Legend) by Marie Lu, and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin.

Here's to more books in 2013 old and new! My list of what I want to read continues to grow and there's just not enough time. But the time I do spend reading I thoroughly enjoy.

Cover Reveals from Fiction Femme Fatale(rs)

Judge a book by its cover? I know I do, so it's super exciting to hear about and then see the covers of upcoming titles. And two of the super talented ladies of Fiction Femme Fatale have covers to reveal! Krystalyn's book Legesea will be released next year from Curiosity Quills and you can see the cover she sketched and the one that came to fruition on her blog now!

Amy will be doing a cover reveal for Gated (Random House) next Friday (yes, the date slated as the last day on the Mayan calendar) on IceyBooks. While everyone is wondering whether the world will or won't end I'm leaning more towards 'no' as I am really excited about reading Krystalyn and Amy's upcoming books and want to the world to see them as well. So, no Apocalypse, thank you.

IceyBooks will be doing some Gated-themed giveaways along with the cover revelation so stay tuned next Friday.

Congrats Krystalyn & Amy for all your hard work and the upcoming publications!

#NaNoWriMo 2012 comes to an end...

Another year and more goals. Argh. Well, lemme be honest, November sucks for NaNoWriMo. Or in my case NaNoRevMo (National Novel Revision Month). It was tough times all around. So on the word count front I am.... Yup! Technically I won because I wrote over 71,000 words for The Facility. Mind you I wrote this over the course of 18 months in addition to this past November. However, due to deadlines for my Collection and work and other things arising I did not get to revise beyond Part 2 (there are four parts in all). Count in that the piece is 95% complete, meaning that a portion of Part 4 still needs to end (I know the ending just need to scribe it), leaves me a bit bummed.

I did meet my end of November deadlines though so that is high-five worthy! And looking over the goals I wrote like for myself this year, creatively anyways, I met them all. So that makes me happy. Writing my goals for 2013 I feel uplifted and secure in being able to meet them and knowing I'll continue on with revisions and writing for The Facility and Family Album looking forward to their completion.

That being said here's my new goal for The Facility.

New goal: Finish revisions by January 15, 2013 to send to beta reader(s).

So that sums up NaNoWriMo (or NaNoRevMo) for me. We'll see if I pursue either again next November.

Happy Holidays and writing and eating and all that good stuff! 

(Giving) Thanks to my YA Critique Partners!

'Tis the time of year to give thanks for what you have. And many times that translates to who you have in your life. Of course I'm thankful to ALL my friends, family, and fellow foodies for their support through a rough year and rough times ahead. For all the warm fuzzies, well wishes, shoulders to vent and cry on, and baked goods galore. Y'alls are the best. But I did want to take a moment and thank those who have been especially helpful for a writing project I've been tackling. Being NaNoWriMo month and me focusing on a complete revision of my young adult (YA) novel I wanted to take a moment and give HUGE, MAGNANIMOUS thanks to my critique partners for this young adult project, tentatively titled The Facility. Your reading and re-reading (and re-reading) as well as your advice, well wishes, and kindness has been helpful beyond expression. :-)

While I have a growing list of great people and fellow writers to thank for my growth as a writer from the time I started in junior high to now I'm singling out the ladies who have aided me in getting more confidence as I pursue the YA project that had been in my mind since I started undergrad and just never thought I had the chutzpah to pursue. Well, nine years later here it goes.

I met my CPs on WriteOnCon when there was a launch for a kind of blind dating of potential CPs. You posted your project to the forum and looked at what others posted and you inquired with each other and submitted work. If you liked each other's style then you connected and from then on things went very well for me!

Amy Christine Parker

What I admire most about Amy is not only her writing style but her organization and ability to get stuff done. Amy's debut The Silo is coming out next year with Random House and it's a whopper lemme tell you. When I read the first few pages I was thinking to myself "This is so good. I want to read more! Crap, I hope she likes my work!"

Amy hones into her characters and their deepest fears. (If you've read her stuff on Fiction Femme Fatale you'll know what I mean.) Her contemporary work is original and something I'm confident readers will grasp on and relate to. It hits you from the first page and you relate to everyone in some way, the good and the bad.

Amy has been great with helping me think on the bigger picture and connecting the dots on things I may not have seen in my work. We're all pretty critical when we read a book and think "Well why didn't the writer think of that?" Amy is that reader who aids you as writer to zone in on that so the story doesn't go off-kilter at any point and you can enjoy the piece. In my latest revision her advice has been astoundingly helpful and also hit points that I had been questioning myself.

Jenny Coon Peterson

Jenny is a magnificent world builder and has a deep love for the young adult and the fantastical. She's been incredibly helpful in terms of moving things along and also digging deeper into what should urk the reader. Which is totally what I was going for! Jenny has helped me tighten action scenes and push deeper in terms of the larger piece so that it moves faster and doesn't drag.

Jenny is also an idea person. She has amazing premises and thoughts on how to move things along. Every NaNoWriMo I'm amazed and in awe of how much material she produces and how deep she goes into the worlds she creates. The first novel I read of hers reminded me of Harry Potter. When I read it and reread it, I wanted to get lost in it again, but I had to give her critiques asap! Knowing her love for Potter I saw the influence but also her own twist and originality in creating a cool group of people and a multitude of layers for a series that I'm certain will be embraced by readers.

Nicole Settle

Nicole is a phenom when it comes to pacing. Every time I read her work I'm amazed at how much happens in so few pages. Her prose is fast-paced but you get so much in the details of what she adds in. From her work I learn precision. I keep reviewing her stuff in the hopes that it'll seep into my brain by osmosis. She hits the darkside of things in her writing while always maintaining to insert a bit of hope.

Nicole has been great in letting me know what works even if I'm concerned it doesn't while also noting tweaks and changes in details, characters, and scenes. And because of her knowledge of the genre she pinpoints aspects of these characters lives I should consider for later on.

Nicole is also a baking nut like myself. Baking bonds so many people.

I'd also like to give thanks to Carrie Bastyr who read preliminary bits of this work. Her advice has also helped as I revise the series.

These ladies have helped me immensely in the revision stages. Having CPs who are avid readers and detailed critiquers will advance your work by leaps and bounds, I promise you.

So, as I plug away on the 3rd draft and look over the insightful comments from my CPs, I just wanted to extend a very big, interwebz, pre-Thanksgiving THANKS for all your help and support. Your advice, your persistence, your wonderful writing first and foremost, has inspired and helped me grow. And I'm super glad we connected via WriteOnCon. :-)

National Novel Writing Month (#NaNoWriMo) 2012

As NYC and NJ residents begin to heal post-Sandy November begins, holidays approach and well, it's that time again. NaNoWriMo officially begins today and I'm doing it people. I. Am. In!

While I know the goal for NaNoWriMo is to start something new and write at least 50,000 words in 30 days or so I am going to pull an Erin Morgenstern and revise a piece in progress. (Last year, Erin had posted a letter of support to NaNoWriMo participants about how she was revising her best-selling book The Night Circus during NaNoWriMo.)

My goal is to completely revise the latest draft of my young adult (YA) novel in progress tentatively titled The Facility. I received feedback from my critique partners on the near-finished piece at the end of the summer and have yet to really sit down and tackle revisions. Via their helpful comments I believe I have a good sounding board for doing a full revision from start to finish and then hand off the finished product to a beta (avid) reader friend of mine once I'm done. So let's hope I can complete my goal for this year of finishing this book.

My username on NaNoWriMo is jenn.bakerhenry. So feel free to hit me up via the NaNoWriMo board.

Happy Writing!