So What is New Adult?

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I just finished reading A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas and it was good but I’m holding off posting my review until closer to it’s May 5 released date as request of the publisher. (If anyone is interested in, you can download the first four chapters on your Nook, Kindle or other devices for free. I would recommend it) However, that hasn’t stopped me from reading what other people are saying about it.  In some of the few reviews I have read, I was surprised to read that many people are calling this book a New Adult title instead of Young Adult.  I mean what’s the difference. According to good old Wikipedia.

New Adult (NA) fiction is a developing genre of fiction with protagonists in the 18–25 age bracket. St. Martin’s Press first coined the term in 2009, when they held a special call for “…fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an ‘older YA’ or ‘new adult’.” New Adult fiction tends to focus on issues such as leaving home, developing sexuality, and negotiating education and career choices

Well that clears things up.  So, it’s YA but marketing to adults.  As for focus of issues of home, developing sexuality and education seem to be pretty normal topics for YA to me.  I’ll give them career choices though.  So is this a marketing ploy?  Is it an easier way for parents, librarians and booksellers to recommend books that are age appropriate?  For readers to find more books they like? Or just another way to put books into catergory?

As for A Court of Thorns and Roses the only difference between it and other YA fantasy novels is well sex.  This book contained some of the most detailed sex scenes I’ve read for a novel directed for young readers.  That being said, it also leaves a lot to the readers imagination but goes much farther then other authors have.  If I was still a bookseller, I wouldn’t recommend it for tweens or younger teens not because I don’t think they could handle it but I would be afraid of the parents reaction.  As for me, I’m also an adult who is not at least bit embarrassed to read YA or even children’s lit. It doesn’t bother me if people see me browsing the Teen aisle or reading Cassandra Clare on the train.  Let them think of me what they want.  I’ll read what I want, whether I was target audience or not. I guess that not many people feel the same about it as I do as there articles and articles about whether or not it’s ok for Adults to read YA or not.  I guess New Adult, might assuage some of the fears of people looking down on them because while New Adult may have my cover many of the same themes as YA is supposedly more sophisticated then YA.  RIght?

So I guess I go back to my original question, what really is New Adult Literature? Is it just YA for the college years and older? A new way for publishers to make money? A guilt free pass for adults to read YA? A legitimate new genre?  Sound off in the comments and tell me what you think.

Update: Mime Order

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The Mime Order

So, I have finished The Mime Order. And, everything, everything, everything in this post is going to be full of spoilers for both The Mime Order and the first book in the series The Bone Season.

If you have read the books, please join us for discussion and wild speculation in the comments! Some of my thoughts about the book after the cut.

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Review: Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

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Under Heaven

This was a really different tale than I typically read. Set in what is a fantasy-version of Medieval China, it follows the lives of a number different people who have a huge impact on the course of the empire. The tale starts with Shen Dai who is spending his official mourning period following the death of his father at the site of his father’s worst memory, a battle field at the edge of the empire which was so devastating that many of the slain weren’t even able to be buried. He spends the mourning period burying as many of the dead as he can. This ends up having tremendous consequences for him because he is honored for his work with a gift of 200 of the strongest and most beautiful horses. This is cause for some alarm. He’ll probably be killed for these horses. So, he has to figure out how to navigate the world he’s been out of for two years without getting killed.

Meanwhile, his lover in the capitol has been taken as a concubine by a rival. That rival has moved up in the Palace ranks and is a hugely influential adviser to the king and his brother is that rival’s most trusted adviser. Additionally, his sister has been raised to a princess and has been sent to marry a border tribe leader to cement a treaty.

And, that’s not even half of it. The story follows the lives of Shen Dai, the rival, his brother, his sister, the concubine, an assassin, the heir to the throne, army leaders, border leaders and outcasts and the Emperor’s favorite wife. All of these threads weave in and out of each other in a personal tale about a crisis within the whole empire.

This was an immensely fun listen and I am happy to have read it. Although, it is full of an incredible amount of detail so I ended up listening to some parts of it more than once. (As it turns out, when it snows heavily during your evening commute, you have a lot of time for listening and re-listening to audio books.) If you’re looking for a break from teen romance, I recommend this!

This Month in Reality…and the Oscar Goes to…

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When Beth and I talked about what to do for this month, I got really excited about travel memoirs. But, then, everyone in the Northeast is probably dreaming of warm beaches and sunny locales. (Although, it has been sunny this week. I love the look of the sun on clean, white snow. It makes the world so bright and beautiful. Of course, this beauty has also been accompanied by dangerously cold temperatures and wind. Win some, lose some.) But, then we got to talking about something that has always been a fun night for us: The Oscars. It is fun to watch people win, the speculate and to discuss the films that we saw (and didn’t see). We’ve been known in the past to drink a lot of wine, make and eat a lot of food and be pretty irreverent in our cheering and jeering (which, this year, we’ll be doing over FaceTime.)

In honor of this glorious night of fancy dresses and finger food, I give you the low-down on three books that inspired Oscar-nominated films. All of these books I listened to rather than read and all of them came from the Buffalo and Erie County Public libraries. Go, Library Card!

12 Years a Slave

This is the tale of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Written by Northup after he was rescued and returned home this memoir is a painful inside look into the institution of slavery. It is every bit as harrowing as you expect it to be but that is what makes this such an important piece of history. Slavery was very real and it destroyed many, many lives and we still live with its legacy. The audio book was read by Louis Gossett, Jr. Northup’s strength and courage are inspiring but the situation that he finds himself in is utterly despicable. This book is totally worth the read.

A Beautiful Mind

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this when I picked it up because I remember being only a little into the film. This biography follows the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr., a brilliant mathematician who had a promising career ahead of him until he fell ill with schizophrenia. The first part of the book details his early life and schooling. He’s great at math, he gets scholarships and it becomes apparent that he’s good enough that he has a serious shot at a prestigious academic career in mathematics full of groundbreaking research and accolades. He works for the Rand corporation. He fathers a child. He has homosexual encounters that cause some upset in McCarthy era America. He gets married and fathers a second child. He holds a position and almost receives tenure at MIT. He is, like most geniuses, a lot a bit arrogant and kind of a dick. He’s a possible candidate for the Fields medal ( which is like the Nobel of math). And then his illness strikes. Much of the rest of the book chronicles the harrowing struggle that is schizophrenia and how he, and the people around him, worked to manage it, manage him, or sometimes, failed to manage either. This was a terrible tale of losing ground, gaining ground and then losing it again. Towards the end of the book, when Nash’s work in game theory was being considered for a Nobel prize, it was also a tale of how people tried to use his illness as an excuse to not give him the prize. This was a harrowing picture of mental illness and how the mentally ill are perceived. It did have a small light at the end of the tunnel, though. Nash seems to have had a long remission from schizophrenia later in life which allowed him to return to his work and he did receive the Nobel memorial prize for Economics in 1994. This is an important book for how it sheds light on schizophrenia and perceptions of the mentally ill.

Wild

This book broke me open put me back together and then broke me again. A memoir of Cheryl Strayed’s 20s in which she gets married, loses her mother, graduates from college, does a lot of drugs, gets a divorce and hikes the Pacific Crest Trail had me laughing and sobbing and laughing again. I spent a lot of time texting and calling my mother after reading this book, so grateful I was to have that opportunity. I like hiking memoirs (and travel books in general) so I enjoyed the descriptions of the hike and her monster backpack. This story was beautiful and poignant and I’m so happy to have read it. Unlike the two previous books, I feel like I can say that I enjoyed this one. (The other two I’m happy to have read but I can’t really say that I enjoyed them.)

We hope that if you have Oscar plans that they are enjoyable and that your favorites win!

I used to work in a Bookstore. I don’t anymore

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I’ve talked about my job as a bookseller.  Well, I don’t work for that bookstore anymore.  For the last three years, I had a second job at a museum as well.  New York City is an expensive city to live in, especially if you don’t make a livable wage.  A couple of weeks ago, I got a new job at the museum that made it possible for me to have one job.  So what does this all mean.  Well, I’m no longer going to be surrounded by books all the time.  Also, means, I’m going to have to buy more books and use my library card more too.  I already miss that employee discount and check out program.  Oh well.  That’s life.  I’ll definitely miss working there and all the great people I worked with.

A little history for you.  Kate was the first one to work for the bookstore.  She started working there her senior year in high school.  When she started college, they were opening a branch in her college’s town so she transferred and worked there during her college years.  Our Mom would often visit her at work and one day the manager asked if she wanted a job.  At the time, I was planning on going on a class trip to Europe so Mom decided she would work a couple of hours, so she could give me some more spending money for Europe.  Little did she know, she would eventually be promoted and start working there full time.  After I graduated high school and I also got a job there.  So there was a time that Mom, Kate and I all worked at the same store at the same time.  People joked it was the Family bookstore.  Over the last 17 years, Kate has come and gone and is now only works during the Holidays.  I transferred to a store here in New York but Mom has stayed at the same store.  You could say she has come full circle because she is back to only part time.

It’s weird not working there because it has been a huge part of my adult life but also my family’s life too.  I guess it still is since Mom still works there and Kate does occasionally too but I’m happy with my new job. I’ve been wanting something different for a while now and the two job thing was killing me.  So thank you to all my coworkers over the years.  Many are my friends and will remain so.  And Books will always be apart of my life, even if it is no longer my vocation.

What I’m Reading: Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

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Featured imageIn an older post, I talked about the trend of YA authors who write novellas as an add on to their series.  Last year Cassandra Clare took it to a whole another level with The Bane Chronicles. With the help of fellow authors Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson. Clare wrote a series of ten novellas about everyone favorite Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane.  Over the 10 stories, they wrote about Magnus’ past that is often hinted out in both of Clare’s The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments series.  It was fun to read about Magnus adventures before he met Tessa, Will, Jem and later Clary, Jace and Alec.  Of course the series also served as a introducing characters of upcoming series and fill in gaps between series as well.

This year she is doing the same thing but with another fan favorite, Simon Lewis in the Tales from Shadowhunter Academy. This time she is joined again by Breenan and Johnson and also Robin Wasserman. Now the following is sort of a spoiler to those who have not finished City of Heavenly Fire, the last book in the The Mortal Instruments series.  Simon is attending the newly reopened Shadowhunter Academy as the Clave tries to add new Shadowhunters to their numbers after the loss of life in the last war.  Those who have finished City of Heavenly Fire will know why Simon can attend the academy in hopes of becoming a Shadowhunter himself and for those who haven’t finished will want to before reading.  Personally, I thought the last three books of The Mortal Instruments were three too many but I am looking forward to several Simon centric stories since he was easily my favorite character from that series.  Also it gives us something to read while we wait for Clare’s next shadowhunter series, The Dark Artifaces about Shadowhunters in LA.