When I give a five-star rating.

Since I've been doing book reviews on here, and will continue to do so occasionally, I thought I'd shed some light on my process. Although it might seem I give extremely high ratings, I don't. However, I only post book reviews for books I love and would recommend. My other, not-so-good book reviews, stay on Goodreads. If you really want to read them, you can. But I'd rather only share and encourage the reading of great books, not talk about the ones I hated.

I hardly ever give 5-star ratings. Maybe my top 10 books of all time, and that's about it. To me, five stars means the book is perfect and I can't think of one thing wrong with it. And that's a hard thing to find!

My criteria (I think): 1. It definitely has to stay with me for a long time, not just what happened but the feeling I got when I read it has to come back, even years later.

2. Also, it has to be well-written. I admit, I'm a book snob. I can hardly read books that aren't well written, even if everyone loves them. Bad writing is a deal breaker, no matter if the writer is #1 Best Seller for ten years in a row. I majored in English and read tons of books on writing, so I can smell bad writing from a mile away. Also, beautiful writing that takes my breath away, gives me goosebumps, makes me shiver, whatever, has to be done in a subtle way, not in-your-face gross-out or steamy love scenes (those are for fun, not 5-stars.)

3. The last thing is, everything has to be vivid. I dont have to love the characters, but I have to believe them and feel I know them. I have to see the setting, the world, the people without being bogged down by flowery paragraph-long description. I have to feel the emotion, smell the smells, hear what they hear, ache when they ache.

It's a tough bill, but I'm a tough reader.

Life According to James Blunt (Music Monday!)

Okay, this is just a silly something I found one time, but I like it!

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as 'my life according to (band name)'"

Pick Your Artist: James Blunt

Are you a male or female: I’ll be your man

Describe yourself: I’ll Take Everything

How do you feel: Out of my Mind

How do people feel about you: Give me Some Love

Describe where you currently live: I can’t hear the music

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: 1973

What would you ask for if you had just one wish: I Really Want You

What’s your greatest fear? If Time is All I Have

Your favorite form of transportation: Carry You Home

Your best friend? Billy/Annie

You and your best friends are: High

Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend/lover: So Far Gone

Describe your current boyfriend/girlfriend/lover: Same Mistake

How do you live: Best Laid Plans

How do you love: Calling out your Name

What's the weather like? Tears and Rain

Favorite time of day: Stay the Night

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: These are the Words

Now say goodbye: Goodbye My Lover

Contest Results!

Hi all!

My contest for an advanced hardcopy of The Superiors is closing. LittlePinkStars won by a landslide! Please email or message me with your address and I will send you the ARC. I just got them in yesterday.

I've gained many new followers this week, and I've tried to follow everyone back. If I didnt follow you, please comment on this post and I'll follow your blog if you have one. I hope you enjoy my blog and check back now and then. Thanks for following me and I hope you enjoy my blogs!

Lena

E-books outsell "Real" books on Amazon

I heard this morning that for the first time, e-books have outsold paper copies on Amazon. They now sell 105 ebooks per 100 traditional books. Some of these e-books are self-published indies like me, but most are still traditionally published books available through the regular channels and wide distribution.

However, I think all this will be changing. You can get the Kindle App FREE everywhere--smart phones, laptops, e-readers. It's so easy you can get it and buy a book and read it w/o ever leaving your comfy chair. And that's something all Americans love! I, the lover of turning pages and holding and even smelling real books, downloaded the free Kindle app last night to help in promoting my book. The time is near, my dears. I will never give up my hardbacks, but I have succumbed to Kindle fever (which has now surpassed scarlet fever and Beiber Fever as the most recent ailment sweeping the nation).

What this all means is still to be seen. Will traditional ebooks get cheaper to compete with all us shamefully low-priced self-published books? Maybe. Will tons of self-published, poorly written, unedited books get put out in ebook form? Undoubtedly. Will it be harder for readers to find good stuff amidst the slush? For sure. But at least everyone has a shot now, and that's a little more fair than it's been in the past.

House of the Scorpion (Book Review Tuesday!)

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is quite possibly my favorite science fiction type book of all time. I'm not sure I'd really classify it as sci-fi or young adult, although it is shelved that way. The characters are young people but the themes are universal. Setting is futuristic, post-apocalyptic maybe, or at least post modern.

The book deals with cloning humans, something I've also written about with admittedly less grace. Although the topic makes this book science fiction, it read more like urban fantasy. The characters live in what is present-day Mexico, which has become a kind of opium kingdom. The main character in the book is the clone of a powerful opium lord. He is sheltered until the outside world invades his content, secluded little bubble. As he begins to venture into the world, secrets about his identity become apparent--as well as about his intended purpose.

This book was a chilling, suspenseful, gripping read, without giving in to gimmicky tactics or losing its literary brilliance. I can't think of many other books or authors that deal with important subjects in such an effective way. It is well written (which counts for a lot to my critical eye), it has great plotting and believable, loveable characters who you can't help but root for every second. It has action, and wonderfully done suspense that keeps building throughout the book and never lets you go, but never goes over the top. Descriptions are vivid but never dull, always advancing the plot at a steady pace. The pacing of the entire book is wonderful. I rarely read a book that manages to be gripping and literary at the same time, but Nancy Farmer succeeds with this one. It is one of my favorite books of all time. I highly recommend the audio version if you like audiobooks--the reader does a great job.

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FREE advanced hardcopy of The Superiors (CONTEST)

Okay, well, here's the deal. I got 2 advanced copies of The Superiors, and I only need one for review. So I'm having my first ever blog contest!

You can win a paperback copy of my book before anyone else gets their hands on it. Lucky you! :P

So how do you win? I'm glad you asked. I'm trying to get more blog followers. So whoever gets the most people to follow my blog wins. So tell your friends to click on the link to this post and leave YOUR name in the comments (that's how I know who got them to follow). They also have to follow my blog, not just comment. And yes, I'll check!

So...if Sunny Susan tells Joe Blow to follow my blog, he should click 'follow' and write 'Sunny Susan' in the comments below. That's it. You dont have to like my book, pay for it, review it, or tell anyone about it (although of course you're free to do all those things and I'll love you extra if you do).

The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of McCarthy's southwestern books, but this was my favorite of his works. He can write a sentence that goes on for paragraphs without losing the reader (I don't recommend anyone else try it). This book was so disturbing, and yet so poignant and beautiful it took my breath away. It's grim, and gritty, and dark, depressing... I literally had to stop reading a few times when it got so intense that it overwhelmed me. Surprising to say that about a book in which nothing at all happens except for walking down a post-apocalypic road (or post nuclear fallout?). There are scenes that made me want to vomit, and scream, and shudder for days. I still remember this book with amazing clarity even though I read it several years ago.

Despite the bleak atmosphere, the book is one of the most well-crafted and well-written I've read in a long, long, long time (yes, it does require three 'longs'). The imagery and setting are so clear that I felt like I was IN the book, that world, that cold and bleak nothingness that fills the book with such pervasive gloom. I can't begin to explain how affecting this book is. It is definitely not for the faint of heart, but I can't think of one guy I know who wouldn't love this book (and some girls, too, of course, although it's a very masculine read). It is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. And I've read a lot.

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