As I mentioned last week, recently I went back to re-read one of my all-time, hands-down, favorite books of all time, LORD OF THE FLIES. Reconnecting with this novel has been amazing…not only is it as good as I remembered, it’s better. Though I knew the horrors coming my way, I still couldn’t peel my eyes from the kindle. Again, I cringed as Simon crawled out of the jungle into the circle of dancers. I pleaded with Piggy to move from under Roger’s boulders. Finally, I held my breath with Ralph as he hid from the savages as a wildfire burned the island to the ground.

A book this classic gets dissected to the point that you’d think it was a dissertation piece about the root of evil. And, in a way, it is. But what we forget is that it’s a rockin’ story too.

The first time I read LOTF, I was 13 and devoured the sucker in a day (remember when we had a whole day to do nothing but read? Me neither, but people assure me that did happen). Back then, I had no idea – or interest – in William Golding’s perception of war or civilization or rationalism. I wanted nail-biting suspense, complex characters, and impossible situations. LOTF gave all of that and more – this time, last time, and I suspect, any time.

Before we talk favorite childhood books, I'd like to share some exciting news with you. Today I revealed the cover to my second book, THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT, over at my website. Please come by and let me know what you think!

Now, to subject du jour. Our favorite reads growing up. Here are a few titles that spring to mind.

Authors I read over and over:
Judy Blume
Susan Cooper
J R Tolkien
Jane Austen
Charles Bukowski
Stephen King

(I just want to pause here because I noticed how terribly eclectic this list is. This has to be the first time Charles Bukowski and Jane Austen are on any list together in the history of history... right?)

More books I loved:
THE GIVER
ENDER'S GAME*
THE CRYSTAL CAVE
THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO*

*Still some of my favorite books

Books I read that meant something to me even if I didn't necessarily enjoy them (Sorry, but I'm just trying to be honest):
Lord of the Flies (scared the crap out of me)
A Separate Peace (saddest book ever)
The Dubliners (in particular, The Dead) (blew my mind on all fronts)

Books I read that I am reluctantly sharing but I remember enjoying:
Sweet Valley High series (the original gossip girls)
FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC (because everyone was reading that series. Also, in retrospect: ew)

I'm going to stop now before I embarrass myself further.

The thing I've noticed in compiling these lists is how influential books are in shaping the way we think. I learned about human nature in LORD OF THE FLIES. Judy Blume taught me that it was okay to be afraid of growing up. The COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO taught me that nothing on this planet is sweeter than well-orchestrated revenge... kidding. But seriously. Books are magic, caught on paper.

I think these lists just became my re-read pile.

This week we're writing about our favorite books from childhood and I took a little trip down memory lane.  I was a voracious reader, working my way through stacks of library books in record setting time, but I haven't thought about the books I loved as a child for awhile.

I decided to do some research (and was procrastinating).  I googled all the popular, best selling books from my childhood years.  It was so fun to remember books I absolutely adored and had completely forgotten. I made a list of some of my top choices and tried to see if there were any themes or insights to be gained.

My first realization was that I had some interesting inconsistencies.  I didn't think I liked to read certain genres, yet there they were on my list.  I don't like much science fiction, but there was A WRINKLE IN TIME.  I don't read fantasy, but I loved the Arthurian legend series (THE CRYSTAL CAVE, THE HOLLOW HILLS) by Mary Stewart and, of course, CS Lewis' CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.  I'm not much into historical settings, right? But then I devoured every single one of the LITTLE HOUSE books and, later, was a huge of fan of WUTHERING HEIGHTS.  Horror?  Not so much.  Yet I was obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe.  Especially (for some reason) ANNABELLE LEE.

I also saw a lot of books on the list that had strong, opinionated, quirky main characters.  Remember HARRIET THE SPY by Louise Fitzhugh, FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsburg, and PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by Astrid Lindgren?  I loved Harriet so much I immediately began keeping a spy journal on all my friends and I dressed up like Pippi for Halloween.


I think there's something to be learned.  There's a reason I loved these books and perhaps it can inform my own writing.  I need to tell a great story with wonderful, flawed main characters.  If I'm able to do that, I will reach across genres and preconceived notions.  And who knows, maybe someday someone will remember one of my books with fond memories.

Here's a few others from my list.  Do you remember any of them?  What would be on your list?

Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls 
Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell 
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare 
The Pigman, Paul Zindel
The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton 
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

It's book blog week again, and I'm so glad Talia started us off so well with all the new books coming out in the next few months (top of my list?  SKINNY and SILVER, of course.)  But our theme for this week's book blog is our favorite books from when we were younger.

Right up until I was about fourteen, I hated books with unhappy endings.  The Outsiders.  The Red Pony.  We read these books for school, and they made me so unhappy I would throw the book across the room.

But then, suddenly, things changed.  I read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and I still threw the book across the room, but I loved it.  I read it again.  And again.  And I knew that this book didn't need a happy ending for me to love it.  Because the conclusion of the book was true - in an emotional sense - as well as unhappy.  It was satisfying.  It seemed meant to be.  So I went on to read many more unhappy yet deeply satisfying endings.  Gone With the Wind.  Of Mice and Men.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  And I loved every single one.

And then I read E.M. Forster's A ROOM WITH A VIEW.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for romance.  And even more of a sucker for Italy.  And the absolute worst sucker for handsome English men.

The first half of the novel is set in Florence, where Lucy Honeychurch has gone on "tour" with her spinster cousin, Charlotte.  The room in question is the one they acquire after complaining that they don't have view promised them by the pensione in which they're staying, and a philosopher and his son trade with them -- not the done thing in Edwardian England, where Victorian morals were still firmly ingrained.  Lucy surprises herself by falling in love not just with Italy, but with George Emerson, the philosopher's son, but manages to convince herself otherwise, returning to England and her middle-class family.

The ending of the book is a happy one - romantically.  At the age of 17, I thought it the most romantic book I had ever read.  And then I saw the Merchant/Ivory film and swooned afresh.  I even pretended to wander the streets of new towns without my Baedecker - the guidebook with which Lucy and all good English people traveled.

Several years later, I moved to England.  Wanting to revisit some of my old literary haunts, I checked Forster's book out of the Tonbridge public library.

And discovered an epilogue.

All of the American editions I'd read (and I'd read a few) did not include this epilogue.  But the hardbound copy I discovered in Tonbridge did.

In it, Lucy returns to Florence after World War I, and rents for herself the room with the view.  She stays there alone.  Because George was killed in the war.

I threw the book across the room.  But I understood.  Because it was true.  So many young Englishmen died in the war.  Sometimes, I prefer to believe that Lucy and George's story ends before the war.  When we can suspend them in amber, in their happiness.  But statistically, George was doomed, and Forster's epilogue illustrates this.

At 17, I may not have seen the epilogue in the same way I do now.  Sure, I read books with unhappy endings.  But the romantic in me desperately wanted Lucy and George, there in the window, the Arno and Florence behind them, forever.

So on the heels of Donna's amazing BEA experience, I got to spend the weekend in Anaheim with the lovely folks at Flux books for the American Librarian Association annual conference.  I don't even know where to start, except to say the entire experience was overwhelming and wonderful.  There is nothing quite like being surrounded by books and the people who love them, and I enjoyed every second.  Forgive the name droppy blog post, but I want to try to mention all the folks who made the weekend so special.

The highlight for me was a quiet moment that happened early, before the official conference began.  On Friday afternoon, I couldn't check into my hotel room yet, so I headed over to the conference to register and get my bearings.  I walked into the nearly empty exhibit hall which was all set up for the opening night, and sought out the Flux booth.  I was blown away when I saw this:

There was Silver!  It was a thrill to see Silver on display.  Then I walked around and the quiet hall on a mission to track down Donna, Katherine and Veronica's books, because this journey was not completed alone.  And I got a thrill each time I found one of our books prominently displayed:

 Here is Never Sky- note the 3 stars on the top- designating the starred reviews!

 Gilt had prime shelf space at eye level with Bitterblue and Born Wicked!

Skinny had it's own corner and poster!

We were all there.  Just thinking of how far we have come from that critique group in December 2009, when we all nervously read from our unpublished manuscripts to having all of our debut books at ALA 2012- it gave me chills. That quiet scavenger hunt in the empty exhibit hall was a thrill.  I just wished the Muses were all there to share it.

On Saturday, I had my first ever author signing.  It went by so quickly, but it was so much fun too.  There were a lot of familiar faces with local bloggers making a point to come by and support me.  I was thrilled when people told me they were excited for the book, and I loved meeting so many enthusiastic readers!  I hope they love the book as much as I do.  Here I am with Suzanne Lazear, fellow Flux author of Innocent Darkness (steampunk faeries!).  Don't you love her steampunk outfit?  I also saw Flux authors, Linda Joy Singleton, Nick James and Kristin Cronn-Mills.

Then I got to go to some signings as a fan!  I met Maggie Stiefvater, who was signing Raven Boys.  She was so nice and gracious. I met her again on Sunday in the Egmont booth and she was very sweet even though I nearly cried while telling her how much her journey had inspired me when I made my first foray into the Verla Kay Blueboards.

I got books signed by Rae Carson, David Levithan, Brian Selsnick, Miranda Kennealy, Janet Gurtler, Cindy Pon, Mike Jung, Jenn Reese, Mike Mullin, Nick James and Kristin Cronn-Mills.  I got ARCs from Tamara Ireland Stone, Victoria Schwab, Ilsa Bick (SHADOWS!), Trinity Faegen, Sarah J. Maas, and even Donna Cooner's Skinny!  I saw E.M. Kokie signing Personal Effects, which I've already read and loved.

On Saturday night, there was a meet up with the Apocalypsies and I got to meet and hang out with some amazing authors, including Jessie Kirby, Shannon Messenger, Gretchen McNeil, and Debra Driza.  Then I had a few quiet moments to chat with Corrine Jackson and Tamera Stone to talk book launches and publishing craziness (and the awesomeness that is their books).

I got to chat with writer Amaris Glass who I knew from the Blueboard and met at LA SCBWI in 2010. And I met Lisa and Laura Roecker, who wrote The Liar Society.  They were just as gorgeous and funny as you would think, and so, so nice.

I saw so many NorCal bloggers, and they were all so, so supportive and friendly.  Jaime and Patricia from 2chicksonbooks, Becky from stories and sweeties, Debbie from Deb's world of books, Lisa from Bound by Books, Nancy from Ravenous Reader, and I met the entire YA Sisterhood (Brittany, Amy and Jennifer).  There were many others, along with new friends.

I had coffee with my Egmont editor, Elizabeth Law, during which we debated classic literature and the joys of big conferences.  I saw my Flux editor Brian Farrey, who was at the conference as an author for his award winning book With or Without You.

It cost me $75 to ship home all the books, and I have been reading since I got on the plane.  I can't wait to share these great reads with you on the blog in the months to come. I wish you all could have been there.  It was such a joy!