Happy International Women’s Day! Here’s a few must-reads (in no particular order) from our YA collection.
1) Rejected princesses : tales of history’s boldest heroines, hellions, and heretics, Jason Porath.
2) Being Jazz : my life as a (transgender) teen, Jazz Jennings.
3)Here we are : feminism for the real world, edited by Kelly Jensen.
4)Fight like a girl : 50 feminists who changed the world, by Laura Barcella and with illustrations by Summer Pierre.
Man, there’s still so much non-fiction coming in. Pretty sweet if you enjoy facts, am I right? Rather than describe them all – the titles give away enough clues as far as the content goes – here they are in list form.
Waves: great stories from the surf – Tim Baker
The Twilight saga: the official illustrated guide
101 things I learned in fashion school – Alfredo Cabrera and Matthew Frederick
Cat on a hot tin roof – Tennesse Williams
Let’s get this staright: the ultimate handbook for youth with LGBTQ parents – Tina Fakhrid-Deen
Indie craft – Jo Waterhouse
Tees: the art of the t-shirt – Maki
The complete book of drawing manga – Peter Gray
Weirdo noir: gothic and dark lowbrow art – Matt Dukes Jordan
Illustration now – Gregoire Noyelle and Katy Lee
Rock gods: 40 years of rock photography – Robert M. Knight
Glee: the official annual 2011
DC Comics: year by year visual chronicle
There you go. Lots of interesting topics covered. Reserve them if you would like.
Pocket fantasy art: the very best in contemporary fantasy art and illustration. Full of pictures that would be equally at home in a White Dwarf magazine or on the cover of a badass metal album. Here are some of the sections to give you an overview; Brawny Barbarians and Hulky Heroes, Sirens and Seductresses, Myths and Monsters.
101 things I learned in film school by Neil Landau with Matthew Frederick. Handy hints for every stages of making a film, be it script-writing, filming, editing or even pitching an idea. An indispensible guide for budding filmakers and screenwriters from an accomplished industry veteran.
From sometimes love Beth: An adventure in postcards by Beth Sometimes. Beth Sometimes wrote a postcard (and drew on the front side too) to someone every day for a year and compiled them as she did so. This is the result. It’s kind of like I zine I guess. Funny and cute images and some postcard facts at the beginning as well.
Ready made: how to make (almost) everything. Chairs, bathmats, aprons, chandeliers – with this book you can make all of these things relatively easily and out of mostly recycled materials. Crazy, right? Fill your house with all of these things and it will make you seem like you are a quirky indie-comedy film character.
D.I.Y. Fashion: Customize & Personalize by Selena Francis-Bryden. Do you have some old pants that you don’t like anymore? Just turn it into a skirt, dummy! Do you need a new dress? Cut up your Dad’s old t-shirts and make one yourself, idiot! Turn those old jeans into a tie, or a cushion. Why didn’t you think of that?
Top Gear: Top drives, road trips of a lifetime in the world’s most dramatic locations. If you are a car enthusiast, maybe this is your bucket list? Photos of fancy cars driving all over the world along with words that describe the photos. Sometimes the cars are themed for the country they are in, like a ute in Australia (lol), sometimes they aren’t, like a Ford Mondeo in Russia.
Kelly Slater: for the love by Kelly Slater with Phil Jarratt. Kelly Slater’s real first name is Robert, but Kelly sounds a bit “cooler” and “chill”, so therefore more ideally suited to surfing. That is just one of many Kelly Slater facts in this book. There are lots of nice photos of beaches and other nice photos of Kelly Slater moodily staring off into the middle distance.
Now here are some books that list things. The titles are self-explanatory, so I need not elaborate. 101 Cult movies you must see before you die, 101 Sc-fi movies you must see before you die, 501 Great artists, 1001 Albums you must hear before you die and 1001 Songs you must hear before you die. That’s an awful lot of things to get through before you die, best get to it.
Here is some more of the new non-fiction, hurrah!
The big book of Top Gear 2010. I am sure you have seen the television show and therefore have a pretty good idea of what to expect. The cover says that this time they are slightly on fire, so there is sure to be at least one dangerous mishap. At least.
What on earth are you wearing? A Michipedia of fashion by Chloe Quigley. Before thumbing through this book I was uncertain as to what exactly a “Michipedia” was. I now see that it is like an encyclopedia, but more fashion-y, water colour illustrated and with a humorous intent. Nothing like some fashion lolz.
Graffiti Planet 2 compiled and introduced by KET. It’s a book of graffiti from all over the planet and is the second volume in its’ particular series. More than a hundred images from a bevy of artists. That’s right, a bevy.
How to rap: The art and science of the hip-hop MC by Paul Edwards. Rappers explaining how they go about their rapping so that you too can be a rapper. Which is nice of them. Tip: pay closer attention to what the likes of Pharoahe Monch and the Wu-Tang kids have to say than Will.I.Am, you’ll be better off.
How to talk to boys by Dianne Todaro and How to talk to girls by Jonathan Toussaint. Two books filled with tips on how to talk to the opposite sex. Then what to do once you’ve used your new-found flirting skills to enter into a meaningful relaish. Also there are authentic real life stories inside.
Even more coming soon!
As promised, here is more of the new non-fiction. Today music, art and fashion.
Live: Gigs that rocked New Zealand by Bruce Jarvis & Josh Easby. A nice visual history of some of the landmark concerts staged in New Zealand with along with interesting anecdotes. If you look very closely at the crowd photos you may just spot your parents, you never know.
Japanese animation: From painted scrolls to Pokemon by Brigitte Koyama-Rickard. A wonderfully detailed history of Japanese animation. Includes plenty of interviews with famous animators discussing their craft. Interesting to see the development of different trends in Manga and Anime over the years.
Banksy: Wall and Piece. If you are unfamiliar with the work of provocative graffiti artist, Banksy, this is well worth an issue. Page after page of his always humorous and frequently audacious work covering every corner of the globe. Here’s a Banksy Simpsons intro.
Outsiders: Art by people compiled by Steve Lazarides. This a a companion piece to Wall and Piece, with outsider art compiled by Banksy’s manager. Taking the same sort of intelligent, witty and subversive approach, none of these artists have ever been formally trained, yet produce some amazing work.
Juxtapoz: Car Culture. A collection of car and car related illustrations and photgraphs from cutting edge design magazine, Juxtapoz. Filled with the sorts of things you’d see on the walls in American diners and the things you’d see on the black t-shirts inside those same diners. Worth a look for art fans and car enthusiasts alike.
The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman. It’s a sign of blog success when your blog gets a book deal*, The Sartorialist has done just that. If you’ve never been to the site (and for some reason have chosen not to click on the link in the previous sentence) it’s basically a series of very well-dressed people photgraphed in their natural environments. Bookmark it, then reserve this book.
Fashion Box: The immortal icons of style by Antonio Mancinelli. If Friday is your favourite day because you enjoy look forward all week to Le Chic Librarian’s posts, perhaps this can help bridge the gap inbetween? Includes sections like “The little black dress”, “The trench coat”, “Jeans” and “The mini skirt” all worn by good looking famous people.
There are still more books yet to blog. Coming tomorrow; Cars, Surfing and a whole lot of other things that have just arrived since I took my lunch break.
*One day there will be a Teen Blog book. We hope.
The Central Library has recently expanded its’ YA non-fiction collection – just today actually – but because it has expanded so much I cannot possibly cover all of the new material in a single post. So for now, here are the newest sport titles.
Mana by James Kerr, photographs by Nick Danziger. This features page after page of black and white photos of the All Blacks playing, practicing the haka, listening quietly in meetings, relaxing (they seem pretty like pretty chill bros in these ones), eating, working out and showing off their sweet tats. Kind of “a day in the life” deal. Also there are photos of kids playing rugby, just like the real All Blacks, but smaller!
Golden Girls: Celebrating New Zealand’s six female Olympic gold medalists by Margot Butcher. The title of this book sparked quite some debate at Teen Blog HQ, is it “medallist” or “medalist”? Spellcheck, the Oxford Dictionary and we say “medalist”, but this book and the MacMillan UK Dictionary say “medallist”. All confusion aside, you can expect six stories about six champion female athletes.
Dan Carter: A tribute to the All Black’s perfect 10 by John Matheson. Like a biography, but in coffee table book form and with more photos. Follow his story from precocious youngster to the hyperbolic quote generating machine (eg. “… is the ‘Koh-i-Noor’ diamond of his time”) he is today. Not sure if it mentions his clothing chain or not.
All White Fever: New Zealand’s road to the World Cup by John Matheson. Remember that time the All Whites made it to the Football World Cup in South Africa? It was pretty sweet. If you’ve forgotten some of the glorious details (tsk) or just want to relive it in text with photos form, now you can. It still makes me feel proud to see a photo of Tim Brown tackling Cesc Fabregas.
WWE Encyclopedia: The definitive guide to World Wrestling Entertainment by Brian Shields and Kevin Sullivan. All the information you could possibly fit into a coffee table sized book on wrestling! From Abe “knuckleball” Schwartz to Zeus and all the Honkytonk Men and Ric Flairs in between. Pro wrestling in the 1980’s was hi-larious btw.
Fight by Eugene S. Robinson. Covers pretty much everything you could think of about fighting. From the greatest boxing matches to knife techniques, there is even mention of my favourite ‘so terrible it’s fantastic’ martial arts movie, Gymkata. If that isn’t exhaustive enough, then I don’t know what to tell you.
If these new titles prove popular (and really, why wouldn’t they?) there will be more YA non-fiction popping up at branches too. Fashion and arts coming tomorrow.
A box of chocolates: horror, angels, love triangles, the origins of a New York icon, memoirs of addiction, high fantasy, gritty realism, dramas, and short stories, oh and chimpanzees again!
Non-fiction
We All Fall Down: Living With Addiction, and Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines, by Nic Sheff – Two memoirs with rave reviews on the subject of drug addiction, and companions to the book Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff. On Tweak: “The author details his immersion in a world of hardcore drugs, revealing the mental and physical depths of addiction, and the violent relapse one summer in California that forever changed his life, leading him down the road to recovery.” (Library catalogue)
Fiction
Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel (377 pages) – Oh fab! Ben’s father is a behavioural scientist, and on Ben’s 13th birthday, Zan comes to live with the family, as an experiment: Zan is a chimpanzee. Cool, you’d think. Well yes indeed!, although having a chimpanzee for a half-brother can have its hairy moments, and then when things start going wrong can Ben save Zan? (From what, I want to know, hoping it’s not horrible, and that it has a happy ending like the Chimpanzee movie.)
First sentence: This is how we got Zan.
Angry Young Man, Chris Lynch (167 pages) – Xan (not to be confused with Zan) is an angry young man, becoming increasingly involved in hard-core activism and groups of anarchists. Robert, his older brother, is completely different, steady and together. But when Xan appears to spiral out of control will Robert be able to rescue him, and is Robert such a solid, dependable hero anyway?
First sentence: I want you to understand my brother.
Huntress, Malinda Lo (371 pages) – High fantasy (complete with map) inspired by the I Ching, and prequel (by several centuries) to Ash, in Huntress the human kingdom is suffering: the sun never shines and strange creatures have begun appearing. Two seventeen year old girls are chosen to go on a dangerous journey to save the kingdom. Along the way they fall in love, but then it becomes clear that there should only be one Huntress saviour: will they be torn apart?
First sentence: She saw a beach made of ice, and she felt her heart breaking.
Summer and the City, Candace Bushnell (409 pages) – sequel to The Carrie Diaries and therefore also prequel to Sex and the City. Carrie’s having a good summer, enjoying the shopping, the parties, and the men the Big Apple provide, plus she’s in a writing class learning what will become her trade. During the summer she will meet two of her BFFs, Samantha and Miranda, and become more Carrie Bradshaw-ish.
First sentence: First Samantha asks me to find her shoe.
Dramarama, E Lockhart (305 pages) – Sadye (Sarah) and Demi (Douglas) become instant best friends when they meet at the auditions for a prestigious drama camp. When they both get in things look exciting – the chance to study under one of New York’s leading directors, for example, but it’s drama camp in more ways than one: can their friendship survive?
First sentence: Transcript of a microcassette recording: Demi: Is it on?
We’ll Always Have Summer, Jenny Han (291 pages) – the conclusion to the trilogy that began with The Summer I Turned Pretty. Belly and Jeremiah have been together for two years. Things should be happily ever after, but they aren’t really. Belly has unresolved feelings for Conrad, and when Jeremiah proposes marriage she must choose between the two, possibly breaking one of their hearts in the process. Obviously you must read this if you’ve read the others! And bring a hankie!
First sentence: On Wednesday nights when I was little, my mom and I would watch old musicals.
The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Ocean of Blood, Darren Shan (247 pages) – The prequel to Cirque Du Freak, where you get to learn more about Larten: what he was like as a teenager, rebelling against vampire authorities and hitting the road with his brother, leaving a trail of human destruction behind them. But are there dangers for him in this wanton, destructive lifestyle?
First sentence: The vampire known as Quicksilver threw a knife high into the smoke-clogged air of the tavern.
Fallen Angel, Heather Terrell (310 pages) – Ellie is shy and withdrawn around everyone except her friend Ruth, until she meets Michael. Together, she and Michael discover they have a similar secret: otherworldly powers, which will come in handy when they’re pitched into the eternal conflict, the battle between good and evil.
First sentence: I watched my curtains billow in the early autumn wind that wafted through my opened bedroom window.
Virgin Territory, Jame Lecesne (218 pages) – Set around the time of September 11 2001. Dylan’s father moves the family from New York to a small Florida town after the death of his mother. Dylan finds himself drifting through summer, losing a sense of his future while his past – and memories of his mother – appears to fade. When the Blessed Virgin Mary is sighted in town, interesting new arrivals bring a new perspective for Dylan: can he forge ahead and carve out a new future for himself?
First sentence: I’m staring out the passenger window of Doug’s banged-up Ford Explorer as we speed along I-95.
The Kissing Game: Short Stories, Aidan Chambers (215 pages) – including several pieces of flash fiction, which we like as a concept. The cover says, “In these sixteen short stories, acclaimed author Aidan Chambers examines moments of truth in which a conversation or an event suddenly reveals a surprising, sometimes life-altering meaning.”
First sentence (‘Cindy’s Day Out’): Enough! she said to herself.
Non-fiction
The Girl Who Was On Fire, edited by Leah Wilson (210 pages) – young adult authors write about the Hunger Games phenomenon, including Jennifer Lynn Barnes on Team Katniss (i.e. Katniss is a character quite apart from which team she chooses); Blythe Woolston on trauma, PTSD, what it’s all about and how it works in the Hunger Games trilogy; Terri Clark on the fashion genius that is Cinna; Carrie Ryan on reality TV’s relationship with fiction, and much more!
Skin: The Bare Facts, Lori Bergamotto (97 pages) – learn about your skin! What makes it tick, what’s good for it, what really really isn’t, how to keep it healthy and much more!
Teen Cuisine, Matthew Lcrocchio (207 pages) – pages and pages of recipes, from New York style pizza dough to Grits and cheddar cheese souffles, with pulled pork sandwiches in between: cook like an American chef! There’s also a section on fondue parties, and much more!
Fiction
The Haunting of Charles Dickens, Lewis Buzbee (350 pages) – Charles Dickens, stricken with writer’s block, takes to roaming the streets of London. Meg’s brother, Orion, has disappeared, and she goes out looking for him, and in her lookings bumps into Mr Dickens. Together they must try to solve the msytery of what happened to Orion; hopefully a byproduct being a cure for Mr Dickens’ writer’s block.
First sentences: London. Mid-summer night nearly upon us.
So Shelly, Ty Roth (325 pages) – John Keats and Gordon Byron are both friends with Michelle “Shelly” Shelley (see here for some info), but not each other. When Shelly is killed in a sailing accident, Byron and Keats steal her ashes and go on the sailing equivalent of a road trip, to lay her to rest.
First sentence: Most of us like to believe that we are born to do great things, maybe even to be famous.
Illegal, Bettina Restrepo (251 pages) – After her father disappears in Texas, Nora and her mother must leave Mexico to search for him, crossing the border illegally.
First sentence: “When will you be back?” I asked, holding Papa’s hand at the bus stop.
The Water Wars, Cameron Stracher (240 pages) – in a dystopian future water is scarce and people are dying, but Kai flies in the face of this, letting drops of water spill from his cup, and claiming he knows a government secret. And then he disappears.
First sentence: The year before he joined the Reclamation, when he was still seventeen, my brother Will set a new high score at the YouToo! booth at the gaming centre.
Hothouse, Chris Lynch (198 pages) – When DJ and Russell’s fathers are both killed in a firefighting accident they must come to terms with their loss, and also being minor macabre celebrities in their town, as sons of heroes.
First sentence: “Are ya winnin’?”
Babe in Boyland, Jody Gehrman (292 pages) – Natalie’s love relationship advice at school is rubbish, so she does the only thing you can do: enrols herself in a private boys’ boarding school, as a boy. That way she can learn how boys think, see, but things get a bit tricky when she falls for her hot roommate.
First sentence: My name is Natalie Rowan.
The Gathering, Kelley Armstrong (359 pages) – Maya has a paw-print birthmark on her hip. This is the only clue to her background, and who her birth parents were. Now strange things are happening in her town: unexplained deaths, and mountain lions are approaching her, plus there’s a sexy new guy in town complicating things. The first book in a new trilogy!
First sentence: Serena stood on the rock ledge twenty feet above the lake, singing in a voice known to bring tears to the eyes of everyone who heard it.
Sam Stern has written three cookbooks for teens – and he is only 17. His recipes are fairly easy to make, and (if the photos in his books are any indication) are always delicious. We have all three books in the library: Cooking Up A Storm – The Teen Survival Cookbook; Real Food, Real Fast; and Get Cooking. His website is full of recipes from his books, new recipes, and even video recipes.
Another handy site for recipes, by the way, is Cuisine magazine’s recipe finder. Enter in up to four ingredients and it will recommend something delicious and extravagant to cook.
“Real girls make the best role models for real girls” – that’s the philosophy behind the bestselling and award-winning Girlosophy series of books. Through her travels around the world, author and photographer Anthea Paul has met many young women. She shares their inspirational stories in the Girlosophy books, and offers practical advice for young women around the world. The latest Girlosophy installment, The Girlo Travel Survival Kit is essential reading for young women considering overseas travel. For more information check out the Girlosophy website.
