Author Updates

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd make a quick post with some news about various authors we've featured in the past.

Ally Condie, author of Matched (original post) released the sequel to Matched, called Crossed in November of last year. Check it out on Amazon. This is part of a trilogy. The third book will be called Reached and will be available in November of this year. Check out her blog post about it here.

John Green, author of Looking For Alaska (original post) just released a book called The Fault In Our Stars. It's about a young girl with cancer who falls in love with a boy she meets at a support group. I've heard it is incredibly sad, but very good. Apparently film rights have already been bought for this book! Check it out on Amazon.

Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (original post) will soon release a book called Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past, which is a non fiction book about found postcards. It's due to be released in April. Check it out on Amazon.

I'll try to do posts like this about once a week, maybe more, maybe less depending on the news. Don't be afraid to tell me what you think or tip me off on some new release!

Author Reply: Ransom Riggs

Got an author reply from Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (see original post here). He thanked me for taking the time to write and mentioned that it felt kind of strange to have the book out in the world, since it's been in the works for so long. He also expressed how great it was to get positive feedback from readers. Hear that? Everyone should write to their favorite authors!

See you tomorrow!

"I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen.": Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Amazon) by Ransom Riggs was, at least to me, hyped up quite a bit. Quite a few blogs I read gave it excellent reviews. And I have to say that, in my opinion, it deserved all of the good reviews it could get.

This book is the story of a boy, Jacob, who was told fantastical stories by his grandfather as a child. Stories of a home where "peculiar" children were housed, children who could levitate, or who were invisible, or any other number of strange qualities. He supplemented these stories with photographs. Once Jacob gets older, he stops believing in the stories and his grandfather stops telling them. Then, his grandfather dies, leaving him with some cryptic last words that indicate that he should go to the house his grandfather told him about. While he's there, he makes a number of discoveries, and realizes he's gotten into far more than he bargained for.

I think my favorite part about this book is the fact that every photograph mentioned in the book is also shown in the book (You can see one of them in the cover there. It's a bit hard to see, but the girl is floating above the ground.). It really helps the atmosphere the book creates. Also, the concept itself is fairly unique, and was definitely refreshing. The story itself is exceptionally well told. Basically, anyone interested in fantasy, historical fiction, or just good adventure stories should read this book.

I had better get onto the email, before I just ramble on forever about how much I loved this book. Here it is:
"I just finished reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and I wanted to tell you that I thought it was simply amazing. I've seen a bunch of good reviews and you deserve every one of them. I hope you know that you have created something simply fantastic. I hope you continue to write-I'll certainly be looking for more books from you. Good luck on all of your future projects!"

A few more things: I reached 500 total page views today. It may not be a huge achievement in the grand scheme of things, but I'm really proud, so thank you all for reading. Also, I have another author reply for tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be reading next, so we'll see! See you tomorrow!