In case you missed it (somehow), our very own Veronica's UNDER THE NEVER SKY has this awesome, amazing trailer! If you like it, please tweet and facebook it and share the link and...just generally fill up the internet tubes as much as possible. Go UNS!!

If you'd like to see behind-the-scenes photos of the trailer, head over to the UNS Facebook Page.

P.S. A better quality version can be found on Veronica's website: 

http://veronicarossivideos.blogspot.com/ 

When you click on TRAILER. 

This week’s book blog was easy for me since a fair majority of the books I read feature male leads. But before I get there, I’d like to take a moment to tell y’all about an awesome resource for boy-friendly reading of all ages, the appropriately titled GuysRead.com. Anyhow, take a look and enjoy hours of monsters, superheroes, and fart jokes (kidding – boy books are so, so much more).

One fantastic example of this is Paolo Bacigalupi’s SHIP BREAKER, winner of the 2011  Michael L. Printz Award and 2010 National Book Award finalist. A quick synopsis from GoodReads:

In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life...

In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.

I think that last line sums up my feelings about this book: action-packed and high-stakes in a grimy, detailed world. The characters are flawed, funny, and freaky-at-times. The descriptions are hauntingly cool – for instance, there’s a scene early on where Nailer is about to drown in crude oil which is such a nail-biter that it turns out I have a new fear. Although, it’s one that I’ll be happy to face again if it comes up in Bacigalupi’s companion book (set in the same future world), THE DROWNED CITIES, arriving May 1^st. 

We’re talking about books written from boy POVs this week. 

I want to echo Talia’s suggestion: SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL by Trish Doller. It’s incredible—gritty, touching and realistic. One of the best contemporaries I’ve read in a long time, so make sure to pick it up in June.

Here are a few other suggestions for boy POV books:

Anything by Andrew Smith, author of MARBURY LENS, STICK, and GHOST MEDICINE.

Smith has a gift for creating dark, suspenseful, utterly unique and moving stories. He’s the type of writer who makes me want to take notes as I read—he’s that good. 

A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS, by Dave Eggers. This is one of my all-time favorite books. Truly well-titled, in my opinion. Eggers’ memoir follows his experience when, at the age of 22, he became his younger brother’s guardian/parent after the deaths of his parents. Utterly moving, this is a window into the mind of a brilliant young man who was forced to grow up far too soon.

Another favorite is MY MOST EXCELLENT YEAR by Steve Kluger. This is actually told from 3 POVs, two of which are boys. This is a difficult story to describe, but it’s a little bit GLEE, with a dash of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (except for baseball), throw in some completely lovable characters, fabulous writing, and there you go. This novel is a total delight and I’m astounded that more people haven’t read it.


Other YA Books with great boy POVs: The BEAUTIFUL CREATURES books by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, LEGEND by Marie Lu, and Simone Elkeles' books are told from a boy POV, or feature a boy POV in the story. And, um... There's also a book called UNDER THE NEVER SKY also has a boy POV :) (Little known fact: UTNS was originally written entirely in Perry's POV.)

Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts on the boy POV? What are some of your favorite Boy POV Books? Also, I'm super curious: do you know any real YA boys who read, and if so, what are they reading? Have they made the jump to adult books? Are they reading genre fiction, like sci-fi and fantasy? Leave your comments below - I'd love to know!

This week we’re blogging about books told from a boy’s point of view. I recently read an amazing book from a boy’s point of view.

In the meantime, I thought I’d mention a couple of boy POV books that haven’t come out yet that I’m dying to read.
　
SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL by Trish Doller
In fact, it’s narrated by one of my favorite secondary characters from all of my 2011 reads.  BUT, I’ve been sworn to secrecy on this one for a few more months.  I promise to blog about the book when I can.

When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

Everyone lucky enough to get an advance copy has been buzzing about Travis. This is a must read for me when it comes out on June 19, 2012.




THE VICIOUS DEEP by Zoraida Cordova  

When an unnatural riptide sweeps lifeguard Tristan Hart out to sea for three days and then dumps him back on the shore of Coney Island, it’s the start of the Sea Court claiming its own. Suddenly, Tristan’s girlfriend dramas and swimming championship seem like distant worries as he discovers the truth: he’s a Merman. Now Tristan must fight for his life, the lives of his friends, and his humanity (if he still wants it), while competing in a race for a throne as ancient as the gods.

Seductive, duplicitous, and with an agenda of their own, these are not the mermaids you know.

Okay, lifeguard fighting for his life and humanity while competing in a race for an ancient merman throne?
Seriously? SIGN ME UP.

This week we take a look at books written from a boy's perspective. READY PLAYER ONE is a perfect example. The story is complicated and multi layered. It's something of a mix between Inception and The Matrix, but each layered world is real in detail and experience. Award winning, it's full of humor and adventure. The book moves at a different pace than most "girl" books - lots of action and excitement here. I can definitely see why it appeals to boys and girls alike. And although young adults will certainly enjoy this book, the 1980's memorabilia is fun for the older crowd, too.

Check it out!


From Readyplayerone.com:

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.

A quest for the ultimate prize.

Are you ready?

I'm taking over for Donna today -- she's on her way home from a mini-retreat working on her follow-up to SKINNY.

This week, we’re focusing on boys.  Specifically, books written from a boy’s point of view.  Some people say these are hard to find.  That boys stop reading, so the books stop selling.  But there are some true gems out there and  K.M. Walton’s CRACKED is one of them.  It is told through the voice of not just one boy, but two.

Victor comes from privilege.  His parents are wealthy and drive new cars.  He wears clean clothes and name brands.  He’s a loner at school, brilliant with numbers and gets a perfect score on the math portion of his SAT.  For which his cold, class-conscious parents punish him because he didn’t get a perfect score on the rest.

Bull is his nemesis.  A bully who has tormented and embarrassed Victor for years.  A boy who wears second-hand clothes and lives with his drunken mother and abusive grandfather.  A boy who escapes into books and work and mindlessness until he can escape for real, chafed by the rich and class-conscious society that treats him like a hoodlum.

A series of startlingly tragic events push these two boys into the same place at the same time, where they must learn to cope with the hopelessness they both feel while learning how to cope with the hopelessness of others.  And through that, perhaps, find hope.

I love that CRACKED isn’t an easy story.  And it isn’t a fairy tale.  Both the characters and the paths they follow are real and unenviable – even painfully misguided at times. Separate and sharply individual, and both necessary to tell the whole story.

The strength of Walton’s writing lies in her ability to create two radically different voices and perceptions.  To take two profoundly different stories and entwine them to form a single, masterful novel.  And to show the humanity and humility on both sides of that story.