tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004Wed, 23 May 2012 01:38:54 +0000ethicsfirst pagesjohn scalzifamous seriespep talksjulie bertagnaVeronica rothcritique partnerssparkle projectparentPhilip Reeveinvincible summerguest postrelationshipsWingscharacter creationfan fictionrealistic books2011 releasesself publishingtrendsbooks from canadadark insideauthorsdystopiantopics of discussionbeta readingnovelcontemporary YApc castangelfantasyrecommendedfandomj.k. rowlingyouthpop culturescience fictionLGBTreviewworth the hypeV for Vendettasexismalexandra adornettobath literature festivalromanceharry potterracismalice walkerthe fault in our starsreviewshalofeminismalexander mccall smitharcbad boycory doctorowgay yashinegenre fiction101foreign booksMPDGchemistryobjectificationaustraliaableismbook overloadtoni morrisonheroinestrue gritinterviewcoverstokenismpublishing industrysequel syndromeMoira YoungLA Weatherlystorms in a teacupdesigndecieving coversracemary suesparanormalawesome heroineshannah moskowitzsarah brownmarketabilitystereotypeshannah moscowitzbloggersmediainciting incidentscotlandScott Traceycinderhooksdouble standardslove triangles2011heaboys and girlslistscassandra clarecourtney summerstop 5screenplayrebuttalpost-apocalypticbook coverscall on armsinspirationvampire academymarissa meyerfriend-zonedsexpopular girlsn00bsheroine tournamentcheatingprisonerjohn greenshort storiestwilightgood bookssexualitygender dividechimeyoung adultdark tonehypeteen boys50 shades of greycoveragecell block hjeyn robertsetiquettetutorialstephanie meyervampiresreincarnationlaura goodelauren destefanowolfsbaneWitch Eyesrachel m. brownhistorical YAopinionsthe hunger gamessherwood smithnanowrimogordon brownliteraturedpsparentsyahighwaycriticismself-publishingage prejudiceaprilynne pikeplagiarismrape culturedomestic abuseya sisterhoodthe mortal instrumentslauren myraclepubrantsedinburgh book festivalfailsupporting castteensfree speechwritingmoralityhttp://www.thebooklantern.com/noreply@blogger.com (Cory)Blogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-2866339705204728901Wed, 23 May 2012 01:38:00 +00002012-05-22T19:38:54.328-06:00cassandra clareopinionsrebuttalrape culturetopics of discussionthe mortal instrumentsparanormal In between making some of the most influential zombie movies of our time, film-marker George A. Romero made an underrated cult classic vampire movie called “Martin”. The film follows the eponymous protagonist, a cripplingly shy teenage boy who declares himself to be an 84 year old immortal who needs to drink blood to survive. The ambiguity of the film is chilling, with Martin’s gothic visions http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/05/cassandra-clare-rape-culture-oft.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-4465102886740756219Sat, 05 May 2012 21:51:00 +00002012-05-05T15:53:33.431-06:00character creationgender divideawesome heroinesj.k. rowlingcoversyoung adultfeminism Cover debates. Here are two words that should be enough to make your hair stand on end. Whether it’s whitewashing, or slimming up, or putting women in anatomically impossible poses, we can all agree that covers are one of the most frustrating parts about a book. The line between good representation and good marketing is a slim one, and more often than not, it is completely missed. But as much http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/05/what-i-want-to-read-more-of-smart.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-2642708269096298351Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:59:00 +00002012-04-25T16:59:28.400-06:00bloggersdouble standardsethicsplagiarism I’m sure you’re all sick of me going on about this but there are still questions that need to be answered, real apologies to be made and a serious discussion about the blogging hierarchy that needs to be had in the wake of this story. For those of you who unaware of the events, Kristi Diehm, a.k.a. The Story Siren, was caught plagiarising content from other blogs. There is no ‘apparently’ http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/04/what-story-siren-can-teach-story-siren.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-1225915856451114776Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:58:00 +00002012-04-06T14:09:21.922-06:00contemporary YAthe fault in our starsjohn greenBy: Meghan from Coffee and Wizards(Warning: Minor spoilers for John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" might be present) Heroism can take many forms, but only a few of them are recognized as such. The Fault in our Stars by John Green's August Waters wants to be the recognized kind of hero, but that's kind of difficult when you only have one leg and are only seventeen years old. What Augustus http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/04/augustus-waters-hero-or-zero.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-1261417080041844797Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:31:00 +00002012-04-01T12:43:26.221-06:00V for VendettaMPDGcontemporary YAthe fault in our starsjohn greenfriend-zoned“The Fault in Our Stars” has been causing a stir among YA readers long before it came out. At first the talk was about how John Green was finally writing from a female perspective, and that this was a serious cancer book, and zomg, ANOTHER JOHN GREEN NOVEL! Then the early shipping thing happened and tumblr was full of passionate pledges by fans to hold back reading until the release date.I admit,http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/04/is-fault-truly-in-our-stars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-4643590707327664492Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:02:00 +00002012-03-26T18:11:37.099-06:00cassandra claretwilightcontemporary YAjohn greenparanormalthe hunger gamesAh, the friend zone! Is there a worse place for a guy (or girl) to be?So let me explain what’s happening. A few weeks ago the phrase “friend-zoned” had its five minutes of glory on the interwebs, which caused quite a few people to weigh in on it. Incidentally, I had recently finished reading a book which had a male character rather brutally taking his friendship with a girl to the next level… by http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/03/congratulations-you-have-now-been.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-8289851175105895355Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:16:00 +00002012-03-22T19:40:02.617-06:00fandom50 shades of greyfan fictionethicsfailtopics of discussionpop culturemediaself publishingThings are getting weird in publishing. With the printed page repeatedly being declared dead and e-books dominating the market in an unprecedented manner, publishers have had to work especially hard to stay alive, often harnessing the online market or crossing over with the self-publishing scene. The first sign of this major change came when Amanda Hocking, the first person to sell one million http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/03/curious-case-of-50-shades-of-grey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-4727778394734770899Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:28:00 +00002012-03-17T13:44:46.571-06:00awesome heroinesSo last month, I read “The Fault In Our Stars”. *audience gasps, squeals, or groans respectively*Yeah. While my experience with it wasn’t entirely like that of others, it was a well-written book and it raised some interesting discussions, and most notably (for me), the question on what is heroism and what constitutes as a heroic action. Which got me thinking about ladies in YA – specifically, it http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/03/whats-in-heroine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-4278100869975989585Tue, 13 Mar 2012 02:10:00 +00002012-03-13T19:22:42.442-06:00bloggerstopics of discussiondomestic abuseauthorsAt the beginning of the year, I read the self published novel "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire. My opinion was less than enthusiastic. In fact, it overtook "Hush Hush" as the most abhorrent book I have ever read it terms of problematic content masquerading as romance or "bad boy sexy". You can read my review here. The reason I never posted my review onto the Sparkle Project, my oft-neglectedhttp://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/03/beautiful-disaster-ya-classification.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-7714641618607806537Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:06:00 +00002012-02-14T06:16:27.009-07:00gender dividebad boycriticismdomestic abusemediayoung adultfeminismThis Buzzfeed link has been circulating the web pretty constantly for the past 24 hours in the wake of musician and convicted felon Chris Brown performing at the Grammy Awards and going on to win the award for Best R&B Album. I can only hope that these women are joking, although that does nothing to dispel my ever growing belief that we’re screwing over women time and time again. I’m not okay http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/02/chris-brown-and-bad-boys-how-our-media.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-6773787162804941987Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:02:00 +00002012-01-05T20:08:01.305-07:00ya sisterhoodheroine tournamentheroinesfeminismI'm sure some of you YA readers and book bloggers have likely come across the Twitter hashtag #HeroineTourney sometime in the past few weeks. The reason for it: the blog YA Sisterhood began a Heroine Tournament in November, and blog feedback led to the choosing of thirty-two heroines from various MG and YA series to "fight" against each other in a tournament to determine the strongest female http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/01/heroine-tournament-some-questions-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jillian Spiridon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-1896259278763156334Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +00002012-01-03T10:20:50.810-07:00tutorialdesignbook covers Click Here for Full Sized Image http://www.thebooklantern.com/2012/01/how-to-make-basic-book-cover.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cory)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-7679870747674049184Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:45:00 +00002011-12-16T15:50:33.986-07:00storms in a teacuplauren myracle2011contemporary YAshinechimeThis was a big year for YA. Actually, many years were big for YA, but I cannot in good memory recall a time when there were so many storms in a teacup surrounding one genre. One of these events started this blog, and since we didn’t have a time to give our readers a front row view of everything, we’re taking this opportunity to highlight some of the events this year.On October the twelfth, the http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/12/highlights-of-year-how-did-shine-become.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-4665129956238222513Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:18:00 +00002011-12-14T02:37:46.272-07:00contemporary YA2011 releaseshistorical YALGBTlaura goodescience fictionlistsIt’s been one hell of a year. Big changes happened, some growing up occurred, a few Goodreads friends got together and started a YA blog, and many many books were read. With Katya offering you all her choices for the year, I thought I’d contribute with my own. I must admit, there have been few true YA standouts for me that were released this year, but the ones that did grab my interest did so in http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/12/ceilidhs-top-ya-reads-of-2011.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-8990180219490966580Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:31:00 +00002011-12-13T13:33:52.273-07:00top 5gay ya2011 releasesrecommendedSo, December is nigh, holidays are around the corner, and soon we shall be handing in our last pieces of coursework for the semester. Very soon, people will start churning out their favourite things for the year, New Years Resolutions and all sorts of lovely things. And since we at The Book Lantern are always ahead of the curve, I only thought it nice to put out my top five favourite books this http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/12/my-top-five-favorite-releases-this-year.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-4673953106959540750Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:28:00 +00002011-12-08T20:32:14.846-07:00double standardspc castauthorsableismparanormalA few months ago, I wrote a piece in relation to House of Night author P.C. Cast's defence of her repeated use of the word 'retard' in her series after a commenter on her website confronted her about it. I had many things to say about the issue regarding the use of incendiary language, its play in our literature and so on. In particular, it was Cast's attitude towards the commenter and the issue http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/12/r-word-part-2-or-why-authors-should.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-1281638236254338973Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +00002011-12-06T08:00:04.028-07:00by Yael Itamar I don’t have to tell you dystopia is big. Look at the hype surrounding Divergent, Legend, and Shatter Me, three books that spawned movie deals before they hit the shelves. And that doesn’t account for the countless other dystopias like Wither, Delirium, and Enclave. Teenagers are rebellious creatures, so it’s no surprise that dystopia is popular. Star-crossed love is so much http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/12/dystopias-that-work.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cory)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-8699912640247878487Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:51:00 +00002011-11-21T14:52:56.948-07:00pep talksnanowrimowritingThis pep talk is inspired both by NaNo, my GR friend Jillian, and Kat Kennedy's recent post onWaif-Fu. Random? Not really.Dear Writer,By now you are probably sick and tired about hearing how your novel can't be perfect on the very first go. I beg to differ - your novel will be perfect. It will be amazing. In fact, it'll be so good you'll want to query it on Dec 1, and become famous for having http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/11/kick-books-and-how-you-write-them.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-2931782874454682163Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:40:00 +00002011-11-17T17:46:07.629-07:00writingThe other day, a friend on Goodreads mentioned they didn't quite enjoy the pep talks from the staff of the NaNoWriMo website (for those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is when we all come out of the closet as writers, make sweeping declarations to conquer the publishing world, and churn out 50,000 word drafts). The idea with NaNoWriMo is that it is not the quality, but the http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/11/schadenfreude-or-nano-pep-talk-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-9152140837644512748Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:53:00 +00002011-11-01T08:54:47.611-06:00short storiespost-apocalypticscience fictionMy short story, "Fireflies," is online and ready to read at Underground Voices. I don't normally write speculative fiction, but check it out! And, yes, this is shameless self-promotion.  http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/11/fireflies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cory)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-5896971143123130546Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:43:00 +00002011-10-26T05:55:06.141-06:00boys and girlsstereotypesgender dividecall on armsYou know the attitude: pink for girls, blue for boys. Cooking sets and cars are two very different toys for two very different groups. Same goes for books: There is no way a boy would be caught dead reading a book that has a girl on the cover (unless that book is Playboy magazine, in which case the boy should display his reading preferences for all to see, staring at it with his mates on a http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/10/please-do-step-over-gender-divide.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-5305917589337262322Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:30:00 +00002011-10-20T14:47:02.009-06:00Philip Reeveangeldystopianbath literature festivalLA Weatherlyyoung adultMoira YoungThe city of Bath is known for several things: The Roman Baths, Jane Austen, and its universities. And while students make up the majority of the population, it’s the city’s cultural heritage, and its festivals, that attract people. This year, this blogger was lucky enough to secure some tickets for the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature, a truly wonderful event which promoted some really http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/10/student-at-bath-festival-of-childrens.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-1876190231771962404Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:56:00 +00002011-10-14T10:29:59.834-06:00worth the hypeawesome heroinesmarissa meyerarcreviewcinderscience fictionrecommendedfeminismLinh Cinder is a cyborg - part girl, part machine. Her unique make-up, combined with her adoptive father's inventions in cybernetics, allowed her to become the best mechanic in New Beijing at the tender age of sixteen. Her talents become so widely known that one day the crown prince himself brings an android for her to fix, and while he tries to make light of the subject, it's apparent that it's http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/10/worth-hype-cinder-by-marissa-meyer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Katya)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-6399569796304135029Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:53:00 +00002011-10-05T16:57:21.645-06:00reviewstopics of discussionLike almost every book blogger I know, I use GoodReads. In fact, it's the place where I met my fellow Torch Bearers, bonding over our love and frequent criticisms of YA. It's arguably become the most popular book review related website but with that fame has come a noticeable degree of infamy with many. Criticisms of the critic are nothing new. We're certainly no strangers to that here! However, http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/10/objectivity-of-critic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ceilidh)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049288307484253004.post-5511852572456782817Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:00:00 +00002011-09-29T08:00:01.181-06:00dystopianjeyn robertsdark insidescience fiction Hi everyone! I’m Jeyn Roberts and I’m the author of Dark Inside. I’m here today to talk about the rise of dystopian fiction in today’s YA market and why it’s become so popular. Dystopian fiction isn’t exactly new. I remember reading Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World back in high school. There’s also The Handmaid’s Tale which is still one of my favourite books today. Dystopian http://www.thebooklantern.com/2011/09/jeyn-roberts-on-popularity-of-dystopian.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Cory)0