In Which I Devote the Very Last of My Energy to Plugging Some Books More People Need to Know About

[rockinlibrarian]

I have finally succumbed to the threatening-to-develop-into-a-cold that has been hanging out in my nose all week, and yet somehow managed to lug two small children to the Other Library and the grocery store through the pouring rain all morning. I would have liked to put this off until tomorrow, when there is preschool, making me only have to lug ONE small child with me, and also when it might not be raining anymore perhaps, and also I might possibly be feeling better, but the lack of milk, and the overdue book and the due-today movies-which-I-can-not-renew-because-I-had-an-overdue-book (this is why I specify that it was the Other Library-- I can't twist the records to my whims there), insisted otherwise.

So now I am quite blah here at naptime, when I could either be doing something productive like the dishes, or writing One Book, or taking a nap myself, but I shan't because once again I FEEL COMPELLED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING IMPORTANT.

Last week Leila at Bookshelves of Doom posted about the Importance of Campaigning for Great (Recent) Books That Don't Get Enough Buzz, so I'd been thinking what books I ought to push more, but I wasn't sure I was going to say anything until she went and did it for one of the books I was thinking about in the FIRST place, Elizabeth C Bunce's Thief Errant series. And of course when I MENTIONED that I'd thought of that series, she said I TOTALLY SHOULD write about it.

And then it turned out this is apparently Random Acts of Publicity Week! Which means the universe is FORCING ME TO WRITE THIS POST! TODAY! RIGHT NOW!

So let me point out some books in which we truly need to spread the love. PASS THEM ON TO YOUR FRIENDS.

Let's get back to Leila's post about the Thief Errant books. Me not having access to ARCs (and not really trusting them anyway-- somehow I nearly never like a book I read at the ARC stage, except for R.L. LaFevers' third Nathaniel Fludd book, which I won in a giveaway last year), I have not READ Liar's Moon yet, but I LOVED StarCrossed. More importantly, I loved it when I TOTALLY DIDN'T THINK I WAS IN THE MOOD TO LOVE IT. It swept me up and pulled me in with the action, the intricate characters, the witty voice, the remarkable worldbuilding, and I immediately THOUGHT, WHY aren't fans of all the other authors mentioned in Leila's post (although they hadn't been mentioned YET, it's just I thought of all the same authors) GOBBLING THIS BOOK UP?! It is craziness. So here I am telling you to go gobble it up. StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Read it. Tell your friends.

The other series with two books out now that immediately came to mind I know I've mentioned before, but I REALLY need to insist that you all give it much more attention: The Montmaray Journals by Michelle Cooper. I am not just saying this because Michelle Cooper thinks I'm hilarious. Although come on, MICHELLE COOPER THINKS I'M HILARIOUS. Also, Elizabeth C. Bunce wrote a really nice response to me on the SCBWI boards once. BUT I DON'T CALL AUTHORS' BOOKS AWESOME JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE NICE TO ME ON THE INTERNET. THEY REALLY DO HAVE TO BE AWESOME FIRST. *

And seriously, Montmaray. I said before how incredibly like the inside of my 15-year-old imagination the first book was, and the second book is just as much delightful. Anybody who loves a good... oh honestly, these books are so hard to categorize... alt-history intriguey melodrama? ... anyway, SEEK THESE OUT NOW. That's the problem, I suppose-- I don't know how many people would CONSIDER themselves fans of alt-history intriguely melodrama. THERE ARE CASTLES, NAZIS, REVOLUTIONARIES, MADMEN AND -WOMEN, DESTITUTE ROYALS, POSSIBLE GHOSTS, ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTEMPTS THEREOF, COMPLICATED AND NON-OBVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS, FAMILY SECRETS, AND A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER STUFF THAT OUGHT TO BE TYPED IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Do you want to read it now? Please say you want to read it now. Then go tell your friends, etc, etc.

*This makes me want to mention katecoombs now. Kate Coombs is also someone whose books do not get enough attention whom you ought to read. She also is nice to me on the Internet rather regularly. But you should read her books anyway.

So now, just to prove I am not being bribed into this, I am going to mention an author I have had ABSOLUTELY NO PERSONAL CONTACT WITH WHATSOEVER. These books are not quite as recent, but I still can't figure out why they haven't gotten huge yet: Kenneth Oppel's Airborn books. It was YA Steampunk before YA Steampunk was COOL! Except that it WAS cool! In these books! I am really hoping the rise in Steampunk is going to bring more people back to this series, because otherwise they don't know what they're missing. Breathtaking fun adventure for all!

There. Now I've officially done some Random Acts of Publicity, as random as something CAN be when one has been thinking about it for a week or so. Now do your part and spread the word or I will feel like a useless excuse for a librarian and this will make me cry. Unless that's just the head cold.

Comments

[elouise82.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading the first Montmaray book, and am eagerly waiting for my next trip to the library to get the next. I found the ending of the first one a little anticlimactic (odd, I know, since it was packed so full of action - I just expected there to be more BIG REVEALS), but I'm guessing that's because it was only the first in the series. And for the most part, I loved it.

Runaway Princess and Runaway Dragon are two books I am going to buy for my girls as soon as they are old enough to enjoy them - I LOVE the spunky characters in Kate Coombs' books, and the clever twists on fairy tales.

And now I really, really am going to have to read Elizabeth C Bunce.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well, it DOES kind of-- okay, I can't think of any way to say this without being spoilerish-- so, yeah, Montmaray 1 does end kind of oddly in ways that I can't say without basically saying how it ends, but it is kind of just cliffhangering for the next book, in which many things established in book 1 are pursued further and more things come up... yay, vagueness. I think when I first read it I didn't even know there was going to be a second book, though...

[kim aippersbach (from livejournal.com)]

Kenneth Oppel: yeayyy! He is all kinds of awesomeness. His first series (Silverwing, Sunwing, Firewing) is about a bat who's the runt of the litter and he gets lost while they're migrating, and it's completely true to bat behaviour but it also has scary Mexican vampire bat gods and cross-species romance and serious hero-journeys. (Think Watership Down for bats.) Definitely one to read for yourself and to recommend to middle-grade readers. I loved the Airborn series. And he wrote a couple of my favourite picture books: Peg and the Whale and Peg and the Yeti (great kick-butt heroine if you're looking for one). I'm so excited to get my copy of his latest: His Dark Endeavour, about the childhood of Victor Frankenstein!

I'm going to run to my library and get Curse Dark as Gold, which I remember seeing and thinking it was a great title, but now I know I should pick it up. Ooh, and the library also has the first Montmaray book. Thanks!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

We just got His Dark Endeavour in at our library, and one of my coworkers has snatched it up first. But he leaves it behind the desk sometimes and I keep looking at it and getting tempted to snatch it away, but then remember that he already has it checked out.

So glad you've found some great new stuff to try from this!

[charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Oh goodness, I have been meaning to read Montmaray for ages and ages...and Kenneth Oppel. Thank goodness winter is coming; winter meaning less work outside, and more time to read inside!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Yay! Judging from your reviews, I have a feeling you'll really like Montmaray.

[charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

And I totally agree-- Kate Coombs' books are great!