skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Hey guys!
If you haven't already heard, there's an awesome event going on called the 2012 YA Bloggers Book Battle, hosted by Alyssa at The Shady Glade. I've participated as a judge in this event for the last two years, and I'm super excited to be doing it again this summer! This year's theme is retold tales...meaning anything from fairy tales to myths to legends.
As a Round 1 Judge, my goal is to read as many books as possible from the 70 titles that were longlisted for this year's battle, and then submit my top ten titles for consideration for the shortlist. My feedback, along with that of all the other Round 1 Judges, will be combined in order to make the short list, which the Round 2 Judges will work from! For those of you who are interested, here are the books that I've read so far! Images are clickable and go to Goodreads, if you'd like to learn more!
...And these are the books that I'm hoping to read before the Round 1 deadline: July 6th. (Emphasis on the hoping here, guys!).
If you're interested in seeing all of the books on this year's longlist, you can do so by clicking HERE. Also, I've asked around on Twitter about this and haven't gotten much success, but I'll ask again just in case: if anyone has LENDABLE e-books of any of the titles on the longlist and would be willing to share with either myself or another judge, please let me know! Though a lot of us have been purchasing and borrowing books, it's still hard to gain access to all of the titles in such a short time frame, so your help would be deeply appreciated!
Finally, I would love to hear your thoughts on this year's longlist. Are there any titles that aren't on my list that are an absolute MUST read? In an ideal world, I would LOVE to read all 70 books before submitting my top 10, but as you can probably tell...that's just not realistic for an event of this size. But that's also why we have so many judges! Personally, the two titles that I hate to miss out on most are these:
...I've heard SO many great things about Jackson Pearce and these books, but they're on hold at BOTH of the libraries I visit, and my current book budget doesn't have any room for me to purchase them at the moment. Still, I'm sure their popularity will be reflected in other judges' top ten lists!
Speaking of other judges, if you're participating as a judge in this year's Book Battle, be sure to let me know in the comments below (especially if you've posted about your reading experiences so far). Though I know that I've already "met" a lot of you, I could always use a reminder, and I'd love to visit your blogs!
You must, must read Sweetly and Sister's Red as soon as you can! They are great. They don't share the same characters (yet!) but they are part of the same universe and have references to each other/characters. Also Fathomless (the little mermaid) comes out in September and you'll wanna read that one too. I'm gonna go check out that list now!
ReplyDelete~V
They're ALL on my to-read list! I can't wait until I have a chance to read them! :)
DeleteI'm not familiar with this Book Battle, but it sounds fun ! I really enjoyed Just Ella, one of my favorite retellings.
ReplyDeleteI read it over and over when I was in grade school. I LOVED it as a kid. Lol.
Deletei really enjoyed reading Sisters Red=)but the sad thing is I haven't found Jackson Pearce's other books in my place.
ReplyDeleteLove, love the Wondrous strange series! So good. Loving the covers too of all the books in that series. Have fun reading the books you listed. Some of them I want to read too. ;)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of this. Loved The Scorpio Races. I haven't read Touch of Frost, but just read Dark Frost which was good.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Cinder (Marissa Meyer) isn't on the long list - as it's a retelling of Cinderella. There's also Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay, which is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. There's also Tiger Lily (not out until July 3 though!) which is a retelling of Peter Pan, but from Tiger Lily's PoV - I've seen some really amazing ARC reviews so far!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun event - I hope you get to all the books you want!
Yeah, there was a publication cut-off date (I think it was December of last year), so that's probably why Cinder and Tiger Lily aren't on the list. I'm not sure about Juliet Immortal though! Maybe it was just never nominated?
DeleteScorpio Races and Entwined are both good. I loved sisters red ...but i haven't read sweetly. Have fun in the book battle.
ReplyDeleteI very highly recommend anything by Shannon Hale and Jessica Day George! All the book on your list are amazing. If you want more suggestions, I'm full of 'em!
ReplyDeleteDebz @ Debz Bookshelf
Thanks Debz! I haven't actually read anything by either author yet, but I'd like to! :)
DeleteI just finished The Book of Lost Things and really enjoyed it. I too am hoping to read another 7 or so books on the list but I already have some favorites picked out. :) Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited!! There are some good books there.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had some of those to send or share with you! I enjoyed the Jackson Pierce books--you do need to get your hands on them (like I'm telling you something you don't already know). very cool, you judging all those! Sounds like fun. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds incredibly exciting, Natalie! I don't know how I've never heard of this before. I am, selfishly, totally excited about you reading The Scorpio Races. I will keep my fingers crossed the entire time. I can't wait to see your top 10.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like lots of fun. I would love to see Cinder and Tiger Lily on that list. I really enjoyed both. I would be happy to help if you need it!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with reading! I looked through my kindle books for any lendable ones, but unfortunately, none of the ones I have (that are also on the list) are lendable. Hope you manage to get a few from someone else! :)
ReplyDeleteInterlibrary loan! When I can't get it at my library I always go to that. Some good looking books on that list!
ReplyDeleteUgh.. I haven't read any of those. Wish could help you out in the lending department.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Cinder isn't on the long list. It should be for sure.
Oh my WORD. Over 70 books? HOW DO YOU CHOOSE? And how many do you think you're going to fit in? *bows down to your superpowers*
ReplyDeleteI am SUPER excited to read Scorpio Races. Maggie's a terrific writer :D
Lol! I've just been trying to pick the ones I'm most interested in or have been recommended to me the most and then go from there. I'm hoping to finish at least 15 books before the deadline, but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it or not, especially since it seems like I've caught a virus, and all I feel like doing is sleeping and watching TV. Whenever I try to read, I end up passed out again! Haha.
DeleteOh goodness, I'm sick, too. So's husbandman, and I think my BFF's getting sick, too. Ugh :(
DeleteWait... what's the deadline? 15 books?! :OOOO
lol, I just picked up Sweetly off the shelf at my library. Sadly I haven't read any of the other books you've posted except the Jackson Pearce one's. Hope your enjoying the reads!
ReplyDeleteGREAT books! Just Ella is one of my favorite books ever. Entwined was flipping AWESOME! Iced, East, Scorpio Races, Wildwood Dancing, Wondrous Strange, Sweetly...all look fantastic! And unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the first Mythos Academy book because of all the ridiculous amounts of content, but I hope you like it more than I did!
ReplyDeleteAgain, great list - and I hope you get to all of those awesome books! :D
Sierra @ Yearning to Read
Thanks, Sierra! I'm SO glad to hear that you liked so many of the books on the list! I'm sure I'll be reading a lot of them even after the contest ends! :)
DeleteThis sounds like so much fun! Good luck and good for you for participating. :)
ReplyDeleteOf those on your TBR list, I've read Wildwood Dancing and Entwined. I liked Entwined ok, but I wasn't in love with it. For 12 Dancing Princesses retellings, I liked Princess of the Midnight Ball and The Princess Curse MUCH better and so I recommend both of those over Entwined. And, Wildwood Dancing, oh what a beautiful book. I pushed off reading it for so long (why, I have no idea) and Ruby from Ruby's Reads finally sent me a copy and then publicly challenged me to read it. So I did, and I totally kicked myself for waiting so long because it is fabulous.
There were a a few books from the Once Upon a Time series on that last (Violet Eyes and Golden, maybe a few others?) and I've enjoyed a lot of them. The ones written by Cameron Dokey and Debbie Vigoue (sp?) were my favorites. They're also super quick little reads, so you could knock out a few of them in a matter of days.
Thanks for the recommendations, chica! Wildwood Dancing is one of those books that has been recommended to me over and over again, but like you, I just keep pushing off reading it. I am DETERMINED to read it for this contest though! :)
DeleteOh, I almost forgot! I saw My Fair Godmother was on the list and it is hilarious! I can't recommend it highly enough.
ReplyDelete'Wildwood Dancing' is one of my all time favorite books. Love, love, love that book.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Round 2 judge, and I cannot wait to see which books make the cut and which books I get to read! :) Thank you so much for reading all these books! Haha. I've also really been wanting to read 'Sweetly' and 'Sister Red.' Have heard fantastic things about them. :)
I don't have any of these lendable books on my Nook. :(