The Tourney Part

School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books tournament was a hoot. But it was largely a battle among books already well-known. Tons of great 2008 releases didn’t even get a chance to throw down.

Renay at YA Fabulous thought that was a mighty shame, so she organized the Nerds Heart YA tournament for all the other great YA books of 2008 to duke it out.

Take a look at the pretty bracket, or check out the list of titles and judges at the end of this post.

The Me Part

The first round of the tournament started Monday and lasts through June 21st, and I’m one of the lucky bloggers who get to judge the first round. Yay!

My matchup is between:

• The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
• Leftovers by Laura Wiess

The Free Part

It’s about time we had a give-away ’round these parts, so to celebrate the kickoff of this awesome tournament I’m giving away 5 books to 5 lucky readers! 2 copies each of the 2 titles I’m judging, plus 1 ARC copy of Cracked Up to Be (which is in the bracket judged by Mary Ann at Libr*fiti).

This give-away ends Wednesday, June 10th, so don’t put off entering! You’ll get one entry for each of these things you do. Just be sure to leave one comment here for each separate entry.

• Leave a comment on this post—Tell me how many of the 16 books you’ve read!
• Tweet about it—Tweet about this giveaway, then come back and leave a comment here. (http://bit.ly/Hlkxn is a short link to this post.)
• Post on your blog—Post about the Nerds Heart YA tournament and link to this giveaway, then come back and leave a comment here.

The fine print: This give-away is open only to U.S. residents. Also, I’m hoping if you win you’ll join in the fun of the tournament by reading your free book and chiming in on whether you think the right book won that round!

The Deets

Click the cute little doohickey (») after each name for more info.

16 Books: Alive and Well in Prague, New York » The City in the Lake » Cracked Up To Be » Debbie Harry Sings In French » Feathered » I Know It’s Over » The Last Exit to Normal » The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine » Leftovers » My Most Excellent Year » The Opposite of Invisible » Pretty Monsters » The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second » Shape of Water » Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before » What They Always Tell Us »

20 Judges: 1330v » Becky’s Book Reviews » Book Gazing » Gimme More Books! » Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’ » A High and Hidden Place » Libr*fiti » Linus’s Blanket » Maw Books Blog » My Friend Amy » Presenting Lenore » She’s Too Fond Of Books And It’s Turned Her Brain » Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-Holic » Stuff As Dreams Are Made On » Things Mean A Lot » Valentina’s Room » Worducopia » The Written World » YA Fabulous » YAnnabe »

Grab a piece of scratch paper and see how you stack up when it comes to your to-be-read (TBR) books!

1. How do you keep track of the books you want to read?
   1. In a spreadsheet.
   2. Piled up by my bed in a Leaning Tower of Books that threatens to topple in the middle of the night and bludgeon me into a different sort of posthumous literary fame.
   3. On paper. Paper never killed anyone.
2. How long do books typically stay on your TBR list/pile?
   1. Are you asking for the mean or the mode? I can give you both.
   2. Um, until I read them?
   3. No more than a few months.
3. What sort of relationship do you have with your TBR list/pile?
   1. Pure unadulterated love—The only thing more fun than the upkeep of my list is actually reading.
   2. Overwhelming—I never leave food out after midnight, but I swear they multiply when I’m not looking.
   3. Love/hate—I love it until I accidentally return a library book with my list stuck in the middle of it.

Scoring: For each “a” answer, you get 3 points. Each “b” is 1 point, and each “c” 2 points.

4 Points or Less: Meg from Little Women
TBR the old-fashioned way has a certain charm. But before your spouse/roommate/cat gets fed up that your TBR piles have spread to the bed/bathroom floor/window ledge, and leaves your sorry, old-fashioned butt, maybe you oughta buy one more bookshelf to house your TBRness.

5–7 Points: Goldilocks
Most of the time, your TBR setup is juuust right. Sure, your dog might chew up your list every now and then, and you might have 17 different lists strewn about the house. But overall, you have a healthy, laidback relationship with your TBR. So just get back to reading, already.

8 Points or More: Hermione Granger
If TBR tracking were an Olympic sport, you would so totally medal. Just don’t admit to any of your bookish friends that sometimes, it’s more fun thinking about what you want to read than it is doing the actual reading.

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Photos by Evil Erin and basykes.

We all know adults who read YA have nothing to be ashamed of. But I’m not content to read YA just for my happy little self. You see, I’m a pusher.

Back when I was a manager at my workplace, I asked two of my employees if they’d read Harry Potter. They laughed in my face. So I left the first 3 books on their desks and made it clear we’d discuss the books during their next performance review. Guess what? They loved them!

So obviously, I am an expert on how best to handle friends, family members, and co-workers who won’t read the YA you’re dying to share. But if you don’t happen to supervise the people you’re trying to convince, I put together a list of techniques that have worked for me.

1. Give the gift of YA—When you buy a present for someone, they feel loved. And also guilty, which they will want to alleviate by reading what you gave them. This works even better if you tell them the book made you think of them. (By the way: No need to mention you got the book as a free blog giveaway.)
2. Because I said so—There’s a reason parents say this. When you add the word “because” to your request, even if what comes after it means nada, people are more likely to do what you ask. Some options: Because I asked you to. Because I loved it and think you will to. Because I’m breaking up with you if you don’t.
3. Make a deal—Figure out what the other person loves, and use it. Maybe they keep raving about a TV show or a band or a wine bar. Say you’ll try their fave wine bar if they’ll try your fave YA. I know, I know, the sacrifices we make to spread our love of YA!
4. Everyone’s doing it—Call out any other YA lovers they might know. Talk about how you’re all going to the latest hot YA release party or book-to-movie opening. Your goal is to make them feel left out, and that’s your moment to swoop in for the kill.
5. Whine—If all else fails, channel your inner YA main character. Whine like you’re 16 and your crush since 6th grade is at the Party of the Year, but your mom won’t let you have the keys to the car.

Finally, a bonus not-a-tip: I once tried to convince a co-worker to read YA by telling him that if he didn’t, it would prove his inner child was dead. And here’s what I learned from that experience: People don’t generally like to be told that their inner child is dead. Go figure.

Your turn: How have you convinced your friends to give YA a whirl? Leave a comment with your tips!

Photo by wellohorld.

It’s happened to us all. You love a book and sing its praises to everyone who will listen. To your utter surprise, somebody actually heeds your advice and reads the book. But they don’t like it as much as you did. Or worse, they hate it and suggest you reimburse them financially for their wasted time.

How you respond in that moment could make or break your friendship. So I’ve put together a few tips to help you escape this sticky situation unscathed.

1. The Blatant Denial

Example: “Oh, you thought I recommended that book? No, what I said was don’t read that book! Oh, haha! What a funny misunderstanding…”

Bonus tip: Don’t forget to update any online reviews you posted.

2. The High(brow) Road

Example: “You didn’t like the book? Hmm. You didn’t happen to read the English version did you? Because that translation is absolute crap compared to the original written in 15th century French. Unfortunately, that version is out of print and I sent my only copy off to the Louvre, but I’ll be sure to let you know if I spy it at a library sale.”

3. The Opposites Game

This friend of yours is apparently viewing the world through upside-down glasses. Next time they give you some advice, be sure to do the opposite. Note that this tip doesn’t just apply to the world of books.

Example: Say you find yourself driving while your friend is navigating. If they say to go left, go right.

4. The Dumping

How close could you ever be to someone who is so obviously deluded about what makes for a good book? You might as well cut your losses now, before you end up taking one of their recommendations.

Photo by tinou bao.

I’m picky when it comes to book reviews. I usually have to sneak reading them in 10-minute stints while my 1-year-old daughter entertains herself by pulling everything out of a drawer and spreading it over every square inch of the kitchen floor. Since I have to glance back every minute or so to make sure she hasn’t unearthed a plastic bag or an airplane bottle of liquor, some types of reviews get read by me and others not so much.

I know I’m not alone in this. A lot of us aren’t able to dutifully read every word of every blog we subscribe to. I try to keep this in mind when writing book reviews myself, and in the spirit of D.U.O.A.Y.W.H.T.D.U.Y., I’ve developed a list of guidelines I use to try to meet the needs of the wide range of reading needs.

1. Rate it—I want a quick way to figure out whether you loved, liked, or hated the book. With limited reading time, I’m not going to read about books you didn’t love unless it’s something I’ve already read myself or something I was considering reading already. If your reviews don’t have a rating or an overall verdict no longer than one line, I’ll leave them unread in my RSS reader until I have more time to read. Which is typically once every 3 months when all the chores are done and the bills are paid and the baby is off on a weekend errand with her dad.

   Example: 1morechapter.com

2. Summarize it—I’m just not into certain types of books, so I like to be able to tell that right off the bat before investing my time in a review. Also, if you’re a YA-nnabe like me, it’s good practice to try to sum up an entire book in a sentence or two, as you will have to do that for your own work when writing query letters and talking to editors at conferences.

   Example: Fyrefly’s Book Blog

3. Keep it short—I struggle with this one, especially for the books at either end of the spectrum. I either want to gush on and on, or defend my assertion that a book wasn’t that good so people won’t call me a big ol’ meanie. I try to stick to 5 short paragraphs or less, not counting quotes. And if that’s not possible, I try to keep the paragraphs super short and break them up by using lists, links, and bold or italic formatting to highlight key phrases.

   Example: propernoun.net

But every reader is different. What do you look for in a good book review? What guidelines do you have for yourself when writing a book review?

Photo by tm_lv.

• The Bluestocking Society: Writing a Book Review
• Book Escape: How to write a book review??
• Books on the Brain: To Rate, or Not to Rate
• Critical Mass: Reviewing 101: John Updike’s rules
• The Dark Phantom Review: The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing… to hit the stores this June!
• Problogger: Write a ‘Review’ Post