Hey folks! As it’s officially the beginning of summer and we’re halfway through the year, we decided that it was time to start keeping score – of our favorite books of the year, that is.

Without further ado, we present you with our Best of 2010 Lists – So Far.

Thea’s Best of 2010:

So far, 2010 has been running a little below average as a reading year – why do I say this? Because when reflecting upon the reviews I’ve written this year and the books I’ve read so far, only a very select few jump out at me as truly memorable. I couldn’t even fill out an honest Top 10 for 2010, unfortunately. BUT. While many of the highly anticipated debuts or sequels of the year have failed to live up to expectations and I’ve read a lot of rather ho-hum/decently entertaining but ultimately mediocre books published in 2010, there are always a few diamonds in the rough that make it all worthwhile. And I’m hoping for a STELLAR second half of the year – given the number of titles I’m ridiculously excited for, I think 2010 will, in the end, be just fine. I’m breaking out my picks in three lists: 1. Best books read, reviewed and published in 2010; 2. Best books read & reviewed in 2010 (regardless of publication year); and 3. Honorable Mentions.

Best Books Read, Reviewed and Published in 2010

1. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, 9 (Dystopia/Speculative Fiction)
2. Lies by Michael Grant, 8 (YA, horror/SF)
3. Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey, 8 (Fantasy)
4. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, 8 (YA, dystopia/post-apocalyse, SF)
5. Silver Bourne by Patricia Briggs, 8 (UF)

Best Books Read & Reviewed in 2010 (regardless of publication year)

1. Hero by Perry Moore, 10 (YA, Superhero/SF)
2. Heart of Veridon by Tim Akers, 9 (Steampunk, SF)
3. Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter, 8 (Steampunk, SF)
4. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, 8 (YA, Steampunk/SF)
5. Titan by Stephen Baxter, 8 (Science Fiction)
6. The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, 7 (Steampunk, SF)

Honorable Mentions:

1. Girl with the Mermaid Hair by Delia Ephron, 9 (YA, contemporary)
2. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, 8 (YA, dystopia/SF)
3. Veracity by Laura Bynum, 8 (Dystopia/SF)
4. The Enemy by Charlie Higson, 7 (YA, Post-Apocalypse/SF/Horror)
5. Spellwright by Blake Charlton, 7 (Fantasy)

As you can see, young adult and dystopian/apocalyptic novels still dominate my lists, with a few steampunk books thrown in there too. And wouldja look at that, my New Year’s Resolution to read more science fiction is totally paying off. Here’s to an awesome back end of 2010!

Ana’s Best of 2010:

Things are quite different, at my side of the Smuggliverse – 2010 has been a fabulous reading year so far for me. I read 65 books and the majority of them were pretty good reads to the point where I had a problem trying to come up with ONLY a top 10 of the year especially taking into consideration we are only half way through 2010. If things keep up like that – and chances are they will, with so many books I am looking forward to reading – 2010 might well be one of my best reading years ever. I will break my picks in three lists as well only slightly different: 1. Best books read, reviewed and published in 2010; 2.Hororable mentions; 3. John Green (because his books were my favourite discovery of the year).

Best Books Read, Reviewed and Published in 2010

1. Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, 10 (YA, Fantasy)
2. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K.Jemisin, 9 (Fantasy)
3. In For a Penny by Rose Lerner, 8 (Romance, Historical)
4. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, 8 (YA, Contemporary)
5. Irredeemable Vol.1 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, 9 (Graphic Novel, Superheroes)
6. Irredeemable Vol.2 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, 9 (Graphic Novel, Superheroes)
7. White Cat by Holly Black, 8 (YA, UF)
8. The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan, 9 (YA, UF)
9. Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey, 8 (YA, Fantasy)
10. A Conspirary of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner, 9 (YA, Fantasy)

Honorable Mentions:

1. The Girl With the Mermaid Hair by Delia Ephron, 8 (YA, Contemporary)
2. Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken, 8 (YA, Fantasy)
3. A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, 8 (UF)
4. Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson, 8 (YA, Contemporary)
5. Mind Games by Carolyn Crane, 8 (UF)
6. Here There Be Monsters by Meljean Brook, 8 (Novella, Steampunk)
7. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, 8, (YA, Fantasy)
8. The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M Campbell, 7, (YA, Fantasy/Superheroes)
9. Shades of Gray by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, 8 (Fantasy, Superheroes)

John Green AKA Best Discovery of 2010:

1. An Abundance of Katherines, 8 (YA, Contemporary)
2. Paper Towns, 8 (YA, Contemporary)
3. Looking For Alaska, 8 (YA, Contemporary)
4. Will Grayson, Will Grayson (co-authored by David Levithan), 7 (YA, Contemporary)

Ok, tons of YA as you can see, which is where the good stuff seems to be at the moment, especially of the Fantasy variety. I plan to read more straight Fantasy, Romance and Anthologies, on this second half of the year. Let’s see how it goes.

What about you, what are your favourite reads of the year so far?

This is our final report for Book Expo America 2010, go HERE for Days 0/1 and HERE for Day 2

DAY THREE: Book Blogger Convention, Tour of Hachette, and AWESOME Japanese food

Ana: I have always wanted to attend BEA but what really made me take the plunge was the Book Blogger Convention and the fact that Thea was invited to be in one of the panels. For those who not know, the Book Blogger Convention (henceforth “BBC”) is the first, organised Book Blogger er, Convention which became a part of BEA when the organisers actually got a room at the Javits for it. I don’t know how they managed that and I don’t know what I was expecting but oh boy: I was mighty impressed by it all. For starters it was extremely well organised, the panels were really interesting and none of them ran overtime and hey, all the equipment worked; there were both breakfast and lunch included and even they weren’t the best food in the planet, it was all included in the fee and abundant; there was a pretty awesome tote bag as well, full of goodies like:

What I mean to say is: this was not a last-minute, thrown together deal. We could see that the organisers put a lot of work and effort into it and what can I say? It was a huge success, 250 people attended, amongst bloggers, authors and publishers (when we visited the good people at Tor, they all KNEW about it!) and since this is only the first year, I think the BBC has a bright future ahead.

We got there at around 8am for registration and breakfast:

Thea attacking the bagels

The Keynote Speaker: Maureen Johnson rules

After breakfast we moved on to the room to hear the Keynote Speaker, who happened to be Maureen Johnson, one of my favourite contemporary YA authors. I am not the first to say this, but this speech? It was MADE OF WIN. Not only Ms Johnson is articulate and interesting, she is also incredibly funny. Her session lasted for 1h30m including a Q&A and it was a great event all the way through. Amongst the points she made, I think the ones I liked the most were:

- The Internet is a natural extension of writing and therefore an organic phenomenon;
- There is still a lot to learn about the Internet and blogging as there are no real experts and a lot can be learnt on the go;
- Book Bloggers are Activists for Books (how cool is that?) and we can make a difference; I like the phrase “bring back books from the abyss” referring to banned books and older books;
- She likes Twitter so much (and seriously, you need to follow her, her tweets are so funny) her goal is to be the first person to Tweet from the grave;
- We are in the “Golden Age of Screw-Ups”.

After her session ended, I had to dash out to meet Miriam Parker, our contact at the Hachette Group for a tour of their offices. The building itself is amazing and I had a few problems with the elevator (you have to pick your floor BEFORE getting inside, which by the way, I DID NOT KNOW) but made it safely to their floor. Miriam then showed me around all departments (including the Art and Publicity) and we ended up at the Orbit’s floor where we chatted to several editors, one of them was actually petting a book we simply can’t wait to read:

Then they made the mistake of not only introducing me to the storage room but also uttering the words: you can get anything you want. BIG MISTAKE, ORBIT DUDES! With another 5 books in tow, I said goodbye to Miriam and dashed back to the Javits for lunch. Because I am the luckiest biatch in the world, Maureen Johnson was leaving as I arrived and I basically jumped in front of her (sorry if I scared you, Maureen) and squeed like the fangirl that I am.

I got in line for lunch and that was when I finally was able to actually chat a little bit with Amy from My Friend Amy who updated me on the upcoming BBAW. I can’t wait. Then, we sat with Thea and Kenda for lunch and they told me all about the talk I missed while I was at Hachette:

Ron Hogan on Professionalism and Ethics

Thea: While Ana took off to meet with the awesome folks at Hachette, I stuck around to listen to Ron Hogan’s piece on “Professionalism and Ethics.” Ron Hogan’s speech started out strong, highlighting that there is a big difference between print journalism and bloggers – and thus, different standards and definitions of “professionalism” and “ethics” apply. He then proceeded to apply seven qualities from Seth Godin’s Linchpin (how to make oneself “indispensable”) to bloggers…most of which felt a bit dry, repetitive, and had little to do with the theme of “professionalism.” Rather, these seven qualities seemed to have more to do with developing a focus and creating a successful book blog. The “ethics” segment also was loose and fast, focusing on the idea that blogging ethics are of a different set than professional journalism.

What I took away from Mr. Hogan’s presentation, riddled with that awful company team-building stock art, was the vague notion that bloggers should be trustworthy and conduct themselves with “moral intentions.” While I agree that the FTC Revised Guidelines aren’t necessarily applicable to book bloggers, his second “example” – comparing the myriad unpaid bloggers for the Huffington Post to a blogger asking someone to do a guest post – felt a tad disingenuous. We are dealing with massive differences of scale and frequency, after all. And, for the most part, book blogs receive little to no income from posts – so the monetary compensation angle doesn’t quite fit.

I suppose it doesn’t help that all throughout the presentation, all I could think of was Billy Madison. You know, the Academic Decathlon “Business Ethics” part.

After that, it was time for lunch!

Writing and Building Content:

Thea: This next panel featured some very, very smart bloggers – the lovely moderator Rebecca (The Book Lady’s Blog), and panelists Amanda (The Zen Leaf), Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness), Betsy (A Fuse 8 Production), and Christina (Stacked). Each of these women talked about their own methods of writing and creating content for their blogs – a rather extensive process, if I may say! After listening to how many outlines, detailed notes, schedules, etc these ladies create to keep their blogs running, I felt like a bit of a slacker! All in all, a very informative session – although I do wish that there was some variety on the panel. Everyone seemed to generally agree with each other, and also seem to write the same lengthy style of reviews. I wish there could have been a brief review writer, or an ebook reviewer, for example, to change things up a bit.

That said, very informative, eloquent, intelligent women with some great advice.

Ana:

Marketing: This panel featured Heather of Age 30+ Books who was the moderator, Gayle of Everyday I Write the Book, Yen of The Book Publicity Blog, Ann of Books on the Nightstand, and our own Thea

Next was the Marketing panel – the one Thea was part of – and I have to say I was so anxious for Thea , I had butterflies in my belly. The panel went well and they talked about issues such as how to put your name out there like, comment on other people’s blogs, always reply to comments on your own, join social media sites like Twitter/Facebook – but don’t overdo it so that you don’t stretch yourself too thin. I thought all panellists had interesting things to say and for the most part they were all in agreement expect when it came to stats and what they mean to publishers or whether to disclose them or not. The majority of panellists agreed that people shouldn’t obsess over stats—and that publicists might not care too much about the number of followers or readers as much as they care about a sense of community. Thea was the sole dissenting voice saying that we do think stats are important not only to us and she outed me as the stats “whore” –in those exact words – of the duo and I was so embarrassed but hey, I OWN it, I check our stats all the time and I LIKE to see them grow. We also have our stats counter open in our webpage to everyone to see – just click on the sitemeter logo- and it has been like that since day one when we had the grand total of zero visits; but to publicists as well, and that they have all the right to ask for a blog’s stats before agreeing to send books – numbers are important in our opinion, but obviously only as a RESULT of good content and good reviews and of building community. It is possible to have good content, to have a good community and rapport with readers who leave comments and linkage love AND good stats and we don’t see anything wrong with that. We completely understand that to some bloggers the issue is NOT important though, which is totally fine, but we sort of feel that sometimes the mere use of the words “Marketing” and “Stats” is a no-no and vilified and we don’t think that is fair at all.

Thea had to dash out after the panel to go to the post office to ship her books back home, which is a shame because LOADS of people came looking for her (including a couple of publicists) to say that they actually agreed with her opinion. In the few minutes before the next panel, I also had the chance to chat briefly with the awesome Alex Lencicki, marketing and publicity director for Orbit books, to geekout over Sarah Rees Brennan’s books with Aja Romano of Bookshop and to form the Alliance for World Domination via Book Blogging (AfWDvBB) with the wonderful and totally cool ladies, Rebecca (The Book Lady’s Blog) and Christina (Stacked) .

Blogging with Social Responsibility: This panel was moderated by Maria of The Boston Bibliophile and the panellists were Zetta Elliott at Fledgling, Stephen at Band of Thebes, Wendy at Caribousmom, and Terry at The Reading Tub

This was a fascinating and educative panel. Each of the panellists had interesting things to say about their experience with blogging –they all touch on important issues like LGBT reading, addressing racism in publishing, blogging for a cause. The main point is that bloggers can make a difference and you never know who is listening in the background and even a small post about an important issue can touch someone and make a difference. The Q&A was pretty good on this one as well. After the panel, I made sure to introduce myself to Zetta Elliott which is an author I totally respect and admire (and on a shallow note: she is freaking gorgeous!).

Impact of the Relationship Between Author and Blogger: This one was moderated by Nicole of Linus’s Blanket and with
Amy of My Friend Amy, Bethanne of The Book Studio, Kristi of The Story Siren, author Beth Kephart of Beth Kephart Books and author
Caridad Pineiro of Caridad Pineiro’s Blog as panellists.

I have to say, this was my least favourite panel. Most of what was said was useful and to the point such as authors can contact bloggers directly but most bloggers seem to prefer to deal directly with publicists; or how having a relationship with an author outside the confines of the blog (email, twitter, etc) does not imply a biased review, in fact both authors and bloggers were very clear on this (and the authors present even said they don’t mind negative reviews if they are written carefully and tastefully) but ultimately I thought that the authors had more to say and contribute than the bloggers in this panel.

All in all though, a VERY good day and the BBC has a lot of potential for growth. I have to give MAJOR kudos to the organisers and wish them all the best for next year:

* Amy at My Friend Amy
* Michelle at Galleysmith
* Natasha at Maw Books
* Nicole at Linus’s Blanket
* Pam at MotherReader
* Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog
* Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?

After this panel, some of us decided to have dinner together: Janice, Kristen, Angie, Thea and I went to this fabulous Japanese restaurant, Ippudo. For some reason, we decided it was a good idea to walk from the Javits, and after about half an hour, we quit (FAIL!) and took a taxi. We had the wrong address by the way, but we found the place. We “only” had to wait about 1h30m for our table but this was definitely the best meal Thea and I had in NY.

From L. to R.: Janice, Kristen, Angie, Thea and Ana

The BEA People:

Thea: BEA was also invaluable because of all the incredible people we got to meet. Waiting for a cab, standing in line (I saw the same wonderful librarian in almost EVERY LINE I queued up for!), randomly walking through Javits…BEA was a gold mine for connection building. Here are a few of the bloggers we got to meet:

- Alea Adou of Pop Culture Junkie
- Amy of Amy Reads
- April of Good Books and Wine
- Cindy Smith of Cindy’s Love of Books
- Eleni of La Femme Readers
- Gayle of Everyday I Write The Book
- Linda Nguyen of Better With Books
- Taschima of Bloody Bookaholic
- The lovely JL (and her sister) of An Avid Reader’s Musings (for some reason, we kept bumping into each other by the bathroom!)
- The Story Siren

And this is in addition to all the other lovely ladies we’ve already mentioned – Angie of Angieville, Janice of Janicu’s Book Blog, Kristen of Fantasy Cafe, Kenda of Lurv ala Mode, Amy of My Friend Amy, Michelle of Galleysmith, Trish of Hey Lady!, Charlotte of Lusty Reader, Heather of Age 30+ Books, Lenore of Presenting Lenore, Rebecca of The Book Lady’s Blog, Christina of Stacked, Mandi of Smexy Books, Christine of The Happily Ever After, and so many more…it was AWESOME. Pure awesome. We loved meeting everyone and cannot wait to see everyone again, once our bank accounts have recovered!

Visiting The Strand Bookstore – an Exposé

We stayed in NY over the weekend to do some touristy things and naturally our path led us to The Strand which was rumoured to be Book Store To Rule Them All. The reports were right. With shelf after shelf of all possible genres and a YA section to die for with most books (new, recently released) for around 8 bucks, The Strand proved to be one of those awesome…mistakes. Because even though we got more books we could possible carry (or read) at BEA we still ended up buying loads more and had to painfully rule out several books we really, really wanted.

And now for the expose part: when we were at The Strand we overheard a conversation between a patron and bookseller where the attendant said something along these lines:

Have you looked at the galleys section?

Thea and I literally jumped. A galleys section??? For reals? We looked for it and right there, next to the Children’s section; there were a couple of shelves LABELED “Galleys and Proofs” where the same were being SOLD. For those who do not know: every single galley or Advanced Reading Copy comes with a sign, right there on the cover and it says: NOT FOR SALE.

And yet, The Strand, this NY hallmark sells them! We even saw one who still had the publicist’s contact details on the cover. We were completely horrified by it.

We wonder: How is this possible, world? Does The Strand have a special deal with publishers where they are the exception to the rule? Or are they breaking the taboo? Does anyone know? …Bueller? Bueller?

*An Aside*: We woke up on Sunday morning, our last day in NY and the first thing Thea says to me, in a very serious voice is: “Dude. I think I have a serious problem. I am sitting here thinking about how we could go back to The Strand to get MORE books. Help.” I was tempted, Internets. REALLY tempted. But I simply did not have any room left for more books in my suitcase.

We forgot!

Also, following up on a few comments left in the previous reports, we wanted to add a couple of things we didn’t mention (there is so much to talk about!)

- The BEA is open to EVERYBODY. You don’t have to be part of the publishing industry, an author or a blogger. The convention is open to the public and you can just buy your ticket for one day, if you want. The BEA has a website where they post all (or at least, the majority of) the authors and publishers attending so that you can organise yourself accordingly;

-Bags: someone asked about how we carried the books we picked up. A lot of the booths were distributing tote bags. For example, as soon as we arrived, we picked up a Little,Brown one with loads of ARCs inside and then just added on top of it. By far, our favourite tote bag was this one:

- With regards to BEA more specifically: we were very surprised that Scholastic had no booth and that Macmillan’s was so small. We also thought that genre representation was not all-inclusive. We hardly saw any Sci-fi, Fantasy and Romance books and authors but we understand that since these genres have their own conventions (like Comic Con, RWA and RT) it would make more sense for publishers to invest in those. Otherwise, the show is a gold mine for YA, Literary and Historical Fiction and non-fiction.

To Conclude:

All in all, this was a tremendous experience that we highly recommend to anyone who can afford it. Yes, NY is MUCHO expensive – you don’t have to tell us that, our bank accounts are bleeding as we speak – but it is well worth the investment at least once.

I mean, fantastic free books? Loads of signings with awesome authors? Meeting all these people we love in person? It’s PRICELESS.

This is our report for Day 2 of Book Expo America 2010, go HERE for Days 0/1

DAY TWO: The Lack of Will Power, Alchoholic Pasta, Geeking Out and a Smugglerific Party

Ana: Armed with the strong resolve of not getting as many books as the day before, on Thursday morning we decided to arrive at the Javits earlier in order to be prepared for the Block of Doom – Part 2 (between 9am and 11am) and so that we could check some of the publishers we hadn’t seen the day before (like Disney Hyperion and Flux). We met up with Kenda to share a taxi at around 8am but our plan was twarped by the evil BEA organisers who decided not to open the hall before 9am. I immediately started whining at how “We could have slept another hour!” and then we sat down to wait. As members of the press (yeah, bloggers can get their BEA passes as members of the press – for FREE) we were allowed to enter the Press Room just before 9am and I attempted to drink their godawful coffee but couldn’t drink more than a couple of sips. We met Janice at the room and I took a picture of the group being all press-y:

At 9, the rush began and people were running (myself included – any attempts of playing cool and just strolling away were crushed by my own cursed competitiveness) to the Simon & Schuster booth in order to get an ARC of Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel. I am pleased to report we all got copies. We then ran to see Deanna Raybourn who was signing The Dead Travels Fast. We had a pretty cool moment here when she recognised our blog’s name and told Thea how much she loved her extremely well-written review of Silent in the Grave. Thea was delighted and I was mucho proud.

Carrying on with the Block of Doom – Part 2, we got in line to signed copies Adam Rex’s Fat Vampire, Larry Doyle’s Go, Mutants!, Gena Showalter’s Unraveled, Eric Luper’s Seth Baumgartners Love Manifesto and since most of these lines were short, we ended up getting into other lines and as you can see we completely failed to keep our resolve – we ended up collecting 30 books each, especially after doing impromptu visits to the Harper Collins’, Penguin’s and Flux’s booth (where I basically begged the nice lady for a copy of A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler and since I do begging so well, she actually gave me one of the display copies) which means that by 11am, we were already carrying way too much weight and dead tired on our feet.

That was when we collapsed (I had a horrible headache at this point) and decided to take a REAL break. We went back to the hotel to drop the bags off (making resolve number 2 of NOT GETTING MORE BOOKS but guess what, we didn’t keep it) and then have our first real meal since Monday night. We went to an Italian restaurant close to the hotel and had the most …. interesting pasta ever. It was supposed to be a regular tomato pasta but we are 100% convinced that someone must have dropped a bottle of pure, undiluted alchohol in it. It had the weirdest alcoholic taste but we were so hungry that we just ate the whole thing anyway.

Making our way back to the Javits (this time braving the subway system) , we made it back just in time to see the YA Authors of YA Editor’s Buzz panel with Ally Condie (MATCHED); Rebecca Maizel (INFINITE DAYS); Kody Keplinger (THE DUFF); Sophie Jordan (FIRELIGHT); Erin Bow (PLAIN KATE). The authors talked about their upcoming novels, about writing them and then read excerpts from the novels. This was actually a surprising panel because the two books we most wanted to read before we attented it (FIRELIGHT AND INFINITE DAYS) seemed to be the least interesting and we came out really interested in MATCHED and THE DUFF and positively salivating over PLAIN KATE. They didn’t have any copies to giveaway there but I ended up getting a copy of FIRELIGHT (see? no will power).

We then went back to get a copy of more signed books – Thea really wanted Pariah by Bob Fingerman and wouldn’t you know, Erin Bow was signing Plain Kate just there so we whooped and squeed and got ourselves copies.

At 4pm, we made our way to The Book Bloggler Convention Reception and that was another surprise. Extremely well organised, with food and drinks, the room was absolutely packed not only with bloggers but also industry professionals from major publishing houses and imprints such as Tor, Little,Brown, Harper Collins and Big Honcho Media. The best part of it though was meeting two authors we are friendly with: historical fiction writer Susan Holloway Scott and YA writer Diana Peterfreund whom we spent a good hour chatting to and geeking over Halloween, books and blogging.

You can’t see in the picture but I am wearing the BEST T-SHIRT EVER CREATED which Angie (thank you Angie!) presented me with and it reads:

What Would Eugenides Do. (if you don’t know who Eugenides is and why would anyone be interested in knowing what he would do, go here.)

We were one of the last ones at the reception and we had to madly dash back because we were throwing our own BEA party: A Smugglerific Party at a bar called the Volstead. Unfortunately, NY conspired against us and it was raining buckets when we left the hotel and we were finally able to observe and experience the phenomenon of NOT BEING ABLE TO GET A TAXI. Up until that point we thought all the TV Shows and Movies lied to us because we had no problems getting taxis till then.

We were the last ones to arrive at the party (bad, bad hostesses) but once we settled down, it was an absolute blast. On top of some of the bloggers we had already met like Angie, Kenda (with her husband in tow), Kristen, Janice and Heather, we finally got to meet two of our favorite bloggers in the world. The wonderful Christine of The Happily Ever After, someone we had been exchaging emails with since the start of our book smuggling careers and the lovely LR of Lusty Reader.

The bar was a little bit too loud and we did have to shout our conversations a little bit but the food was delicious (thanks Heather, for letting me share the most awesome steak sub) and very affordable (key word here, people). The party ended at around half past ten and we made our wobbly way back to the hotel, where we once more collapsed in exhaustion.

Thus, Day 2 endeth. Report of The Book Blogger Convention and the conclusion of our NY adventure including “The Strand – An Exposee” will be up on Wednesday! We promise.

For the past few weeks, there has been only one thing on our minds. Three tiny little initials, that encompassed the pinnacle (thus far) of our Book Smuggling careers:

In the two years that we have been running The Book Smugglers, we had yet to attend a United States-side formal book event in the Smuggler capacity. Sure, we’d been to other book festivals (such as the LA Times Festival of Books), but we’d been to those events basically as mere spectators/book lovers. This year, we decided to take the plunge (literally – just look at our poor bank statements!), and made the trek out to New York City for the single biggest publishing event of the year.

And wouldn’t you know it? BookExpo America was everything we had dreamed of, and then some. We knew it would be BIG (and believe us, Javits is a huge, cavernous – and fittingly, frigidly air conditioned – building), and we knew that every major publisher under the sun would be there – but never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we’d be making off with some of the awesome galleys/ARCs/final copies of books that we received. We never thought that we’d actually get to spend time chatting/geeking/fangirling-out with some of the coolest authors (Diana Peterfreund!) and publisher contacts EVER.

We do have to admit that after the first day at BEA (approximately 50 pounds of books in tow) we were a bit worried about the logistics of the thing. How on earth would we get all of these books home, especially given stringent airline policies regarding overweight bags? We decided that we needed to exercise restraint for Day 2, making a solemn vow NOT to repeat the madness of Day 1…but as you can see, “restraint” isn’t exactly one of our strong suits:

Hence, the title of this piece. As the Borg would say, Resistance Is Futile, so we abandoned our fears and in true Doctor Strangelove style, embraced the full, book-greed-fueled madness that is BEA.

Of course, now looking at how our TBR piles have grown exponentially over the course of a single week, we may be in over our heads…but, hold, we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Allow us to present our Day-by-Day report of the coolest freakin’ book event of 2010.

Day One

Actually, we are still getting ahead of ourselves, because our BEA fun began even before we set foot in the Javits Center. Let’s try this again.

Day One Day Zero: Tor, Jackie Kessler & DC Comics

Thea: By some harmonious universal resonance, Ana and I had somehow managed to arrange our arrivals in JFK at the SAME TIME – both of us were about 45 minutes early – and after lugging my already massive luggage to Ana’s terminal and meeting up (for only the second time!), we got ourselves into a taxi and headed out to our Midtown hotel. If our smooth, serendipitously early flight arrivals weren’t enough of a good omen for the days to come at BEA, our cab driver certainly was. As you may or may not know, Ana and I are enormous LOST Geeks – I’m talking hours on forums and message boards, fifty-plus page long theories, screencap trailer-freezing, spoiler-whoring LOST Geeks – and we spent the cab ride talking about the series finale (rest in peace, dear losties). And then, Awesome Cab Driver (forthwith “ACD”) joins in the conversation. Not only was he a fellow LOST watcher, but a full-on LOST geek (he knew his episode titles, mythology minutiae, etc). When we finally finished arguing the merits and fallbacks of the finale and got around to the reason we were in New York, explaining that we are genre fiction book reviewers, ACD whips out his worn copy of Robert Jordan’s The Dragon Reborn. Coolest. Cabbie. EVER.

After our experience with ACD, we made our way to the historic Flatiron Building to meet up with the good folks at Tor Books- Dot Linn, Cassie Ammerman, Justin Golenbock, and Amber Hopkins. We got the grand tour of the floor, meeting editors (including the editor of the highly anticipated Passion Play), the awesome art department, the new head of Tor.com (for which we are also bloggers), and the pièce de résistance – we got to meet and chat with Tom Doherty himself, Founder of Tor (President and Publisher of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, publishing under the Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen imprints).

Afterwards, we got to grab a drink with a few of the publicists, and got to chatting about upcoming Tor/Forge titles, cover art, speculative fiction fandom, more LOST (of course), and other assorted topics of geeky goodness. Justin Golenbock got us even more excited for the release of Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings – apparently, it is the best thing Sanderson has ever written. We cannot wait. It was wonderful meeting these rad people face-to-face, and even cooler to learn that they are just as passionate about their books as we are about reading them.

Following our meeting with Tor, we met up with the lovely, exuberant Jackie Kessler, author of dark paranormal/Urban Fantasy series Hell on Earth, the superhero/villain series The Icarus Project co-authored with Caitlin Kitteredge, and highly anticipated Young Adult novel Hunger (the first book in the new Riders series). With Jackie in tow, we made our way to the Foundation Room to hobnob with folks at the DC Entertainment/Image Comics BEA Party (in conjunction with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund).

Needless to say, it was a night full of pure, unfiltered, unadulterated AWESOME.

**Note: I still say it was full of awesome, even after Jackie Kessler made us walk the long walk back to where she thought our hotel was – wrong address – and after a certain “earring incident” – in which my flats were run through by a rogue fishhook earring. We blame Jackie Kessler for it all.**

After a long night, Ana and I made our way back to our hotel room to rest up for the *official* start to our trip – BEA, Day 1. Well, actually, that’s not all – in addition to all the books we would pick up at BEA, Ana and I had the “genius” idea to bring with us a haul of books that we had been meaning to send to each other, i.e. we went into BEA ALREADY weighed down by thirty or so books per person. What seemed like a good, fast, cheap way to get our books to each other in person turned out to be one of the worst ideas we have ever had. Seriously. These were the books we had for each other, before even setting foot in the Javits Center:

Ay.

DAY ONE: The Myth of the BEA Shuttle, Press Passes, The Madness (and Block of Doom)

Thea: We began Wednesday a little tired after our marathon walking session from the night before (damn you, Jackie Kessler!), but otherwise well-rested and ready to see what this BEA thing was all about. We awoke early (to an alarm that seriously sounded like the Swan hatch’s 108 minute warning alarm from LOST – which caused me to awake in a cold sweat every morning), got our coffee and tried to figure out where the hell the shuttle bus to Javits was supposed to pick us up. After waiting an hour for the damn shuttle, we shared a cab with an author we met whilst waiting for the imaginary shuttle bus, got to Javits, and began the arduous task of registering/checking in. And then…it was all officially underway. With dear iPhone, itemized calendar and signing map in hand, we made our way around the floor – meeting up with some truly cool folks along the way (Kristen of Fantasy Cafe, Angie of Angieville, and Kenda of Lurve ala Mode).

And here’s exactly what we did:

- 9:30 AM: Met with Alice Morley of Little, Brown (and picked up a heap of books in the process, including but not limited to: Room, I am J, Bloodthirsty & The Candymakers)

- 10:30 AM: Felix Gilman signing of The Half-Made World, after meeting up with Kristen of Fantasy Cafe

- 10:35 AM: Dystopian Fiction Author Panel, with Ally Condie, MATCHED (Dutton); Adam Dunn, RIVERS OF GOLD (Bloomsbury); Lesley Hague, NOMANSLAND (Macmillan); Sigrid Nunez, SALVATION CITY (Riverhead) – this was actually a fascinating panel, in which interesting questions were posed. What makes a dystopia? Must a dystopian novel have a glimmer of hope in order to work (Ms. Condie, Hague and Nunez said yes, while Mr. Dunn thought otherwise). Interesting stuff, truly.

- 11:30 AM: Cherie Priest signing of Dreadnought – Cherie’s hair was awesome in true Steampunk style, and the ARC cover of Dreadnought is wicked cool in its Calamity Jane sort of feel. Bonus, Cherie’s publicist was the lovely Amber, whom we had met the night before!

- 12:00 PM: We attempted to get in line at the Harlequin Booth for YA Hour with Gena Showalter, Rachel Vincent and Maria Snyder…but were too late, and the line too long. Sadly, I missed out on meeting Maria and getting a copy of Inside Out (Dammit! *shakes fist dramatically*)

- 1:30 PM – 5:00PM, aka, THE BLOCK OF DOOM #1 After a brief (overpriced!) lunch of coffee and crisps and sitdown break, we made our way to two signings. While Ana picked up Maryrose Wood’s signing of The Poison Diaries and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, I greedily scooped up Charlie Higson’s YA post-apocalyptic zombie novel, The Enemy (which I have started and am already loving)

- 2:30 PM: Waited in line for about an hour to meet Lauren Oliver and scooped up a copy of Delirium AND Before I Fall (sweeeeet!), meanwhile Ana got in the formidable line for…

- 3:00 PM: Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier, signing coveted ARCs for their anthology Zombies versus Unicorns. Naturally, Ana was team Unicorn (Holly Black) while I was firmly Team Zombie (Justine Larbalestier). To make this signing EVEN COOLER, Scott freakin’ Westerfeld was there (Ana had a moment and cried out, “Barking Spiders!” to which Scott Westerfeld laughed and said, “Great accent!”), and to the right of this signing line? None other than the beautiful, wicked-smart, killer unicorn novelist Diana Peterfreund. I believe my exact words at this gathering of authors was something along the lines of “OHMIGOD AWESOMENESS-HEAD-EXPLOSION!”

- 4:00 PM: We ran over to get in line for Diana Peterfreund’s signing of Ascendant, book 2 in her superb Killer Unicorn series. There was squee-ing.

Keep in mind, this list is just for the author signings and doesn’t cover the books that we picked up along the way at various publisher booths. After the Diana signing and doing a quick once over of the booths, we made our way – exhausted, weighed down by about 50 pounds of books apiece – back to the hotel to grab a beer (one of the best beers I have ever had, if I may say), a quick bite to eat, and then it was get ready for the Harper Collins Celebration of Book Bloggers event at the Algonquin Hotel.

To get to the venue, Ana and I decided that instead of walking, we’d take one of those rickshaw guys – I mean, why not? It had to be cheaper than a taxi, and even though it was a sweltering 90 degrees out, it was only a few blocks away. So, we climbed on this rickety bike with this sweaty dude at the helm and had something of a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to the historic Algonquin Hotel. It was awesome…except when it came time to pay, the sweaty bike dude informed us that it would cost us $15. PER PERSON.

Our wallets lighter, and now wise to the ways of those wiley bike taxis, Ana and I made our way up to the event and had an awesome time with fellow bloggers:

Free wine, good people, fun times all around. Afterwards, we decided we weren’t quite tired enough to go back to the hotel, so we decided to grab a whiskey at the bar downstairs (it’s the Algonquin! We had to have a whiskey in true writerly fashion!)…and ended up making friends with Christian (the Romanian bartender), and fellow blogger Carey Anderson of The Tome Traveller’s Weblog, and her husband.

And, that brings Day 1 (and Day 0) to a close. Phew. Report of Day 2 will be up, from Ana’s perspective, shortly.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! You know what Tuesdays mean: a new episode of LOST, and glorious book releases. Along with Michael Grant’s Lies and Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade, also hitting stores today in the United Kingdom is the third and final book in Patrick Ness’s excellent dystopian YA Chaos Walking trilogy, Monsters of Men.

Here’s a little bit about the book:

In the riveting conclusion to the acclaimed dystopian series, a boy and girl caught in the chaos of war face devastating choices that will decide the fate of a world.

As a world-ending war surges around them, Todd and Viola face monstrous decisions. The indigenous Spackle, thinking and acting as one, have mobilized to avenge their murdered people. Ruthless human leaders prepare to defend their factions at all costs, even as a convoy of new settlers approaches. And as the ceaseless Noise lays all thoughts bare, the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many. The consequences of each action, each word, are unspeakably vast: To follow a tyrant or a terrorist? To save the life of the one you love most, or thousands of strangers? To believe in redemption, or assume it is lost? Becoming adults amid the turmoil, Todd and Viola question all they have known, racing through horror and outrage toward a shocking finale.

And check out the awesome, brand new book trailer for the novel:

The Chaos Walking books are among some of Thea’s personal favorites (you can read her reviews of The Knife of Never Letting Go here and The Ask and the Answer here). We highly recommend you go forth and check out the series.

Our giveaway of Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten has officially come to a close, and we’ve got THREE lucky giveaway winners to announce.

Nina was beautiful, wild, and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But, one day, Nina disappeared. Two years later, everyone has given up home that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look. Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she’s got a chance—her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way, Ellie finds a few things she wasn’t planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

And the lucky winners are:

Congratulations to the winners! Now, you know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we will get your winnings out to you as soon as possible!

Thank you to all that entered!

Yesterday was the official release date of Black Magic Sanction, the eighth book in Kim Harrison’s ongoing Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series.

In New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison’s most complex and nuanced adventure yet, bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan fights a deadly battle—mind, body, and soul

Black Magic Sanction

Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter—and lived to tell the tale. But she’s never faced off against her own kind . . . until now. Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment—at worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery. Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom, but trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and an ex-boyfriend turned thief.

It takes a witch to catch a witch, but survival bears a heavy price.

If you’re a fellow Hollows addict (as Thea is), you’ll be interested in learning that io9 has the first TWO chapters up for your reading pleasure. You can read the i09 article and excerpt online HERE.

And once you’re good and hungry for more Black Magic Sanction, check out Harper Collins’ awesome Browse Inside feature, where you can read the first SEVEN chapters of the book:

We’ll be having our own review of Black Magic Sanction very, very soon – so make sure to stay tuned.

Howdy folks! We’ve been seeing a number of surveys and questionnaires pop up around the blogosphere – and we want to join in the self-improvement sentiment. We’ve put together a little survey about our site, and we are dying to hear YOUR answers and suggestions. After all, you awesome folks are the reason we do what we do, and we want to keep you happy! The survey is completely anonymous, and will only take a few minutes of your time. You can fill out as few or as many questions as you like – we are thrilled to hear from each and every one of you.

(If you have any problems with the embedded survey below, you can access the form online HERE)

Thanks, and here’s to an awesome 2010!

Format is as follows: Title, Author, Rating, Genre

* Denotes JOINT REVIEW

** Denotes GUEST DARE

RED denotes favorite of 2009

BLUE denotes honorable mention of 2009

JANUARY:

Thea:

1. Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James, 7, Romance (Contemporary)
2. Titan by Stephen Baxter, 8, Science Fiction
3. Moonseed by Stephen Baxter, 8, Science Fiction
4. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, 10, Science Fiction (Fantasy)
5. Three Days to Dead by Kelley Meding, 7, Urban Fantasy
6. Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs* by Molly Harper, 7, Chick lit (PNR)
7. Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett, 6, Horror
8. Need* by Carrie Jones, 6, YA (Fantasy)
9. Captivate by Carrie Jones, 7, YA (Fantasy)
10. Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh, 7, Romance (Paranormal)

Ana:

1. Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey, 7, Fantasy
2. The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg, 7, YA (Chick-lit)
3. An Abundance of Katherines by John Greene, 8, YA
4. Irredeemable by Mark Waid, 9, Graphic Novel
5. Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs* by Molly Harper, 7, Chick lit (PNR)
6. Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men by Molly Harper, 7, Chick lit (PNR)
7. Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever by Molly Harper, 7, Chick lit (PNR)
8. Need* by Carrie Jones, 6, YA (Fantasy)
9. Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, 10, YA (UF)
10. Archangel’s Kiss* by Nalini Singh, 8, Romance (Paranormal)

FEBRUARY:

Thea:

1. Veracity by Laura Bynum, 8, Speculative Fiction (Dystopian)
2. Impact by Douglas Preston, 6, Science Fiction
3. Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer* by Laini Taylor, 8, YA (Fantasy)
4. Fade by Lisa McMann, 7, YA (Speculative Fiction)
5. Gone by Lisa McMann, 8, YA (Speculative Fiction)
6. A Dark Matter by Peter Straub, 7, Horror
7. Except the Queen by Jane Yolen & Midori Snyder, 8, Fantasy (Contemporary)
8. The Mark by Jen Nadol, 7, YA (Speculative Fiction)
9. Unknown by Rachel Caine, 8, UF
10. The Girl with the Mermaid Hair* by Delia Ephron, 9, YA (Contemporary)

Ana:

1. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jemisin, 9, Fantasy
2. The Bride and the Buccaneer by Darlene Marshall, 6, Romance (Historical)
3. Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer* by Laini Taylor, 8, YA (Fantasy)
4. A Tale of Two Demon Slayers by Angie Fox, 7, Romance (Paranormal)
5. Lex Trent Versus the Gods by Alex Bell, 8, YA (Fantasy)
6. The Girl with the Mermaid Hair* by Delia Ephron, 8, YA (Contemporary)
7. Blood of the Demon by Diana Rowland, 7, UF
8. In for a Penny by Rose Lerner, 8, Romance (Historical)

MARCH:

Thea:

1. NUM8ERS by Rachel Ward, 7, YA, Speculative Fiction
2. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, 8, YA, Speculative Fiction (Dystopia)
3. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, 9, Speculative Fiction (Dystopia)
4. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, 7, Speculative Fiction (Dystopia)
5. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, 8, YA (Steampunk)
6. Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium by Robert C. Rodgers, 7, YA (Steampunk)
7. Boneshaker* by Cherie Priest, 7, Speculative Fiction
8. Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison, 8, UF
9. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan, 8, YA (Horror/Apocalypse)
10. A Local Habitation* by Seanan McGuire, 7, UF
11. Hourglass by Claudia Gray, 7, YA (UF)
12. Mind Games* by Carolyn Crane, 8, UF
13. The New Brighton Archeological Society by Mark Andrew Smith, 8, Graphic Novel (YA)
14. Tome of the Undergates* by Sam Sykes, 5, Fantasy
15. This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 8, YA (SF)

Ana:

1. Something About You by Julie James, 7, Romance, Contemporary
2. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, 8, YA, Contemporary
3. New Blood by Gail Dayton, 4, Romance (Paranormal)
4. The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock, 7, Steampunk
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, 8, Graphic Novel
6. The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling, 8/6, Science Fiction (Steampunk)
7. Boneshaker* by Cherie Priest, 7, Speculative Fiction
8. The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott, 6, YA (Romance)
9. Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson, 8, YA (Contemporary)
10. A Local Habitation* by Seanan McGuire, 8, UF
11. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, 7, YA (Fantasy)
12. Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken, 8, YA (Romance)
13. Mind Games* by Carolyn Crane, 8, UF
14. Tome of the Undergates* by Sam Sykes, 6, Fantasy
15. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner, 9, YA (Fantasy)

APRIL:

Thea:

1. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs, 8, UF
2. Guardian of the Dead* by Karen Healey, 8, YA (Fantasy)
3. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong, 8, YA (UF)
4. The Poison Throne** by Celine Kiernan, 6, Fantasy
5. The Returners by Gemma Malley, 7, YA (SF)
6. The Year of the Horse* by Justin Allen, 5, YA (Western/Fantasy)
7. Heart of Veridon by Tim Akers, 9, Steampunk
8. The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, 7, Steampunk
9. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio, 8, Steampunk (Comics)
10. Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter, 8, Steampunk
11. The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia, 8, Steampunk
12. Master of None by Sonya Bateman, 6, UF
13. Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr, 7, YA (UF)
14. Epitaph Road by David Patneaude, 6, YA (Dystopia)
15. Spellwright by Blake Charlton, 7, Fantasy
16. The World Inside by Robert Silverberg, 7, Sci Fi (Dystopia)
17. White Cat by Holly Black, 7, YA (UF)

Ana:

1. Guardian of the Dead* by Karen Healey, 8, YA (Fantasy)
2. Kick-Ass by Mark Millar, 8, Graphic Novel (Superhero)
3. The Poison Throne** by Celine Kiernan, 8, Fantasy
4. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan, 7, YA (Contemporary)
5. The Year of the Horse* by Justin Allen, 4, YA (Western/Fantasy)
6. The Summer of You by Kate Noble, 8, Romance (Historical)
7. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, 8, Fantasy
8. Steampunk by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer, 5, Steampunk
9. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio, 8, Steampunk (Comics)
10. Here There Be Monsters by Meljean Brook, 8, Steampunk (novella)
11. Irredeemable vol.2 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, 9, Graphic Novel
12. Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr, 7, YA (UF)
13. The King of the Crags by Stephen Deas, 6, Fantasy
14. Wicked Becomes You by Meredith Duran, 5, Romance (Historical)
15. White Cat by Holly Black, 8, YA (UF)

MAY:

Thea:

1. Lies by Michael Grant, 8, YA (SF)
2. Feed by MIra Grant, 7, YA (Horror)
3. First Contact by Michael Hicks, 6, Sci Fi
4. Mistwood by Leah Cypess, 7, YA (Fantasy)
5. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, 8, YA (Dystopia/SF)
6. God Stalk & Dark of the Moon by P.C. Hodgell, 6 & 7, Fantasy
7. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, 6, YA (Fantasy)
8. Hero by Perry Moore, 10, YA (Superheroes/SF)

Ana:

1. The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 7, YA (Horror)
2. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, 8, YA (SF)
3. First Contact by Michael Hicks, 6, Sci Fi
4. Paper Towns by John Green, 8, YA (Contemporary)
5. Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson, 4, YA (UF)
6. The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan, 9, YA (UF)
7. Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep, 6, UF/PNR
8. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn, 6, Romance (Historical)

JUNE:

Thea:

1. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon, 6, YA (Fantasy)
2. Sapphique by Catherine Fisher, 8, YA (SF/Dystopia)
3. The Enemy by Charlie Higson, 7, YA (SF/Horror/Dystopia)
4. Go, Mutants!* by Larry Doyle, 7, YA (SF)
5. Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey, 8, Fantasy
6. The Line by Teri Hall, 4, YA (SF/Dystopia)
7. Crossing Over* by Anna Kendall, 5, YA (Fantasy)
8. The End League Vol. 1 by Rick Remender & Mat Broome, 5, Graphic Novel (Superheroes)
9. The Passage by Justin Cronin, 9, SF/Horror (Post-Apocalypse)

Ana:

1. Looking for Alaska by John Green, 8, YA (Contemporary)
2. Seth Baumgartner’s Love Manifesto by Eric Luper, 6, YA (Contemporary)
3. Friend Is Not A Verb by Daniel Ehrenhaft
4. Go, Mutants!* by Larry Doyle, 7, YA (SF)
5. The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell, 7, YA (Superheroes/SF)
6. A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler, 6, YA (Contemporary)
7. Crossing Over* by Anna Kendall, 5, YA (Fantasy)
8. Shades of Gray by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, 8, UF (Superheroes)
9. Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding, 4, SF

Format is as follows: Title, Author, Rating, Genre

* Denotes JOINT REVIEW

** Denotes GUEST DARE

RED denotes favorite of 2009

BLUE denotes honorable mention of 2009

JANUARY:

Thea:

1. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 8, Mystery
2. Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James, 6, Romance (Historical)
3. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, 8, YA (SF)
4. Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba, 8, Manga (Horror)
5. Goth by Otsuichi, 9, Horror (Lightbook)
6. The Tarot Café* by Chandra Rooney, 6, Fantasy (Lightbook)
7. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, 8, YA (SF)
8. Impossible by Nancy Werlin, 7, YA (Fantasy)
9. The Inferior by Peadar O’Guilin, 8, YA (SF)
10. The Briar King** by Greg Keyes, 8, Fantasy
11. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs, 8, UF

Ana:

1. The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub, 6, Fantasy (Horror)
2. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, 10, Fantasy
3. What a Pirate Desires by Michelle Beattie, 2, Romance (Historical)
4. Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino, 7, Manga
5. Demon Diary by Kara & Lee Chi Hyong, 1, Manhwa
6. The Tarot Café (series volumes 1-7) by Park Sang-Sun, 8, Manhwa
7. The Tarot Café* by Chandra Rooney, 7, Fantasy (Lightbook)
8. At The Bride Hunt Ball by Olivia Parker, 6, Romance (Historical)
9. Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole, 7, Romance (Paranormal)
10. Caliber by Sam Sarkar & Gary Gastonny, 6, Graphic Novel (Fantasy)
11. Talk Me Down by Victoria Dahl, 7, Romance (Contemporary)
12. The Magic Knot by Helen Scott Taylor, 6, Romance (Paranormal)
13. The Briar King** by Greg Keyes, 8, Fantasy

FEBRUARY:

Thea:

1. Little Brother by Corey Doctorow, 7, YA (SF)
2. Undone by Rachel Caine, 6, UF
3. Lament* by Maggie Stiefvater, 4, YA (Fantasy)
4. In Her Name* by Michael Hicks, 8, Science Fiction
5. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman, 8, YA (Fantasy)
6. White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison, 7, UF
7. Melusine** by Sarah Monette, 7, Fantasy
8. The Suicide Collectors by David Oppegaard, 7, Horror
9. Generation Dead by Daniel Waters, 8, YA (Horror)
10. Zombie Haiku* by Ryan Mecum, 7, Horror
11. Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry, 7, UF

Ana:

1. Scandal by Carolyn Jewel, 9, Romance (Historical)
2. Like no Other Lover by Julie Anne Long, 8, Romance (Historical)
3. Lament* by Maggie Stiefvater, 4, YA (Fantasy)
4. In Her Name* by Michael Hicks, 8, Science Fiction
5. The Walking Dead (vol. 1) by Robert Kirkman & Tony Moore, 10, Graphic Novel (Horror)
6. Road Trip of the Living Dead by Mark Henry, 8, UF

MARCH:

Thea:

1. Stone Masters: A Vampire’s Reckoning by VMK Fewings, 6, Horror
2. Angels’ Blood* by Nalini Singh, 8, Romance (Paranormal)
3. Drood by Dan Simmons, 8, Mystery
4. Into the Forest by Jean Hegland, 7, Literature
5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, 9, YA (SF/Horror)
6. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, 7, YA (Fantasy)

Ana:

1. Angel’s Blood* by Nalini Singh, 10, Romance (Paranormal)
2. Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James, 8, Romance (Contemporary)
3. Revealed by Kate Noble, 9, Romance (Historical)
4. A Taste of Magic by Tracey Madison, 6, Romance (Paranormal)
5. Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas, 5, Romance (Contemporary)
6. A Perfect Darkness by Jaime Rush, 5, Romance (Paranormal)

APRIL:

Thea:

1. Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman, 8, Fantasy
2. Blue Diablo* by Ann Aguirre, 6, UF
3. Fragile Eternity* by Melissa Marr, 9, YA (Fantasy)
4. Graceling by Kristin Cashore, 8, YA (Fantasy)
5. Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund, 7, Literature (Contemporary)
6. The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett, 9, Fantasy
7. Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews, 9, UF
8. The Trouble With Demons by Lisa Shearin, 7, Fantasy

Ana:

1. Rewriting Monday by Jodi Thomas, 8, Romance (Contemporary/Suspense)
2. Blue Diablo* by Ann Aguirre, 8, UF
3. The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett, 6, Fantasy
4. The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox, 7, UF (Paranormal)
5. Fragile Eternity* by Melissa Marr, 9, YA (Fantasy)
6. The Secret Wedding by Jo Beverley, 7, Romance (Historical)
7. Dayhunter by Jocelynn Drake, 7, UF
8. The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee, 7, Fantasy (Romance)

MAY:

Thea:

1. Keeper of Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert, 7, SF
2. Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn, 7, Mystery
3. Starfinder* by John Marco, 6, YA
4. Diamond Star by Catharine Asaro, 7, Science Fiction
5. Strange Angels* by Lili St. Crow, 5, YA (UF)
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies* by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith, 7, Horror (Comedy)
7. The Black Act by Louise Bohmer, 5, Fantasy
8. Don’t Look Twice by Andrew Gross, 6, Thriller
9. Flood by Stephen Baxter, 8, SF
10. Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey, 8, Fantasy (UF)

Ana:

1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, 10, Fantasy
2. Starfinder* by John Marco, 6, YA (Fantasy)
3. To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt, 5, Romance (Historical)
4. Always a Scoundrel by Suzanne Enoch, 7, Romance (Historical)
5. Strange Angels* by Lili St. Crow, 7, YA (UF)
6. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies* by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith, 5, Horror (Comedy)
7. A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore, 6, Romance (Historical)
8. The Black Act* by Louise Bohmer, 4, Fantasy
9. Compromised by Kate Noble, 8, Romance (Historical)
10. This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James, 8, Romance (Historical)
11. Black and White by Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge, 7, UF
12. Frederica by Georgette Heyer, 7, Romance (Historical)

JUNE:

Thea:

1. Street Magic by Caitlin Kitteredge, 7, UF
2. You Are SO Undead to Me by Stacey Jay, 6, YA
3. Night’s Rose by Annaliese Evans, DNF, Romance (Paranormal)
4. Gone by Michael Grant, 8, YA (SF/Horror)
5. Hunger by Michael Grant, 8, YA (SF/Horror)
6. Jasmyn by Alex Bell, 8, Fantasy
7. Slights by Kaaron Warren, 9, Horror
8. Consorts of Heaven by Jaine Fenn, 6, Science Fiction
9. Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey, 9, Fantasy
10. The Once and Future King** by T.H. White, 6, Fantasy

Ana:

1. The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, 8, YA (UF)
2. Darkborn by Alison Sinclair, 6, Fantasy
3. Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine, 7, Romance (Paranormal/UF)
4. The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas, 6, Fantasy
5. Night’s Rose* by Annaliese Evans, DNF, Romance (Paranormal)
6. Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland, 7, UF
7. The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns by Elizabeth Lieknes, 8, Fiction (Paranormal/UF)
8. Don’t Tempt Me by Loretta Chase, 8, Romance (Historical)
9. Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran, 8, Romance (Historical)
10. What Happens in London by Julia Quinn, 8, Romance (Historical)
11. Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh, 9, Romance (Paranormal)
12. The Once and Future King** by T.H. White, 6, Fantasy

JULY:

Thea:

1. Strange Brew Anthology: “Seeing Eye” by Patricia Briggs, 8, “Death Warmed Over” by Rachel Caine, 7, UF
2. Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu, 7, UF
3. The French Mistress by Susan Holloway Scott, 7, Literary Fiction (Historical)
4. Apocalypse 2012 by Gary Jennings, Robert Gleason & Julius Podrug, 4, SF (Historical, Thriller)
5. The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong, 8, YA (UF)
6. Wings by Aprilynne Pike, 7, YA (Fantasy)
7. Evernight by Claudia Gray, 7, YA (UF)
8. Stargazer by Claudia Gray, 8, YA (UF)
9. Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison, 8, YA (UF)
10. Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters, 8, YA (Horror, SF)
11. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, 9, YA (Fantasy)
12. Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marilleier, 9, YA (Fantasy)
13. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, 5, YA (Paranormal Romance)

Ana:

1. Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev, 8, YA (Fantasy)
2. The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 5, Fiction (Mystery)
3. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, 8, Fantasy

4. Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin, 6, Crime
5. Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran, 8, Romance (historical)
6. One Week As Lovers by Victoria Dahl, 7, Romance (historical)
7. Wicked Lovely, Desert Tales vol.1 by Melissa Marr, 7, Manga (Young Adult)
8. Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, 7, Young Adult (Contemporary)
9. The Queen’s Thief series (The Thief, Queen of Attolia, King of Attolia) by Megan Whalen Turner, 10, YA (Fantasy)
10. The Eternal Kiss Anthology, 7, YA

AUGUST:

Thea:

1. Prophecy of the Sisters* by Michelle Zink, 5, YA (Horror, Gothic)
2. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, 9, YA (Fantasy)
3. Enna Burning by Shannon Hale, 8, YA (Fantasy)
4. River Secrets by Shannon Hale, 7, YA (Fantasy)
5. Zombie Blondes by Brian James, 8, YA (Horror)
6. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, 7, YA (SF)
7. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld, 7, YA (SF)
8. Specials by Scott Westerfeld, 8, YA (SF)
9. Exodus by Julie Bertagna, 8, YA (SF)
10. Genesis by Bernard Beckett, 8, YA (SF)
11. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden, 8, YA (SF)
12. Dull Boy by Sarah Cross, 8, YA (SF)
13. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, 4/8, YA (Fantasy)
14. The Devouring by Simon Holt, 7, YA (Horror)
15. Soulstice by Simon Holt, 6, YA (Horror)
16. Rampant* by Diana Peterfreund, 8, YA (Fantasy)
17. A Countess Below Stairs* by Eva Ibbotson, 7, YA (Romance)
18. Newes From the Dead by Mary Hooper, 6, YA (Historical)
19. Libyrinth by Pearl North, 6, YA (SF)
20. Feed by M.T. Anderson, 9, YA (SF)
21. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody, 8, YA (Fantasy/SF)
22. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, 8, YA (Fantasy/SF)
23. Ruined by Paula Morris, 7, YA (Horror)
24. A Certain Slant of Lightb y Laura Whitcomb, 8, YA (Horror)
25. Wake* by Lisa McMann, 6, YA (SF/Horror)
26. Rapunzel’s Revenge* by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & Nathan Hale, 8, YA (Graphic Novel)
27. Skinned by Robin Wasserman, 7, YA (SF)
28. The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan, 5, Horror (Thriller)

Ana:

1. Prophecy of the Sisters* by Michelle Zink, 5, YA (Horror, Gothic)
2. Everything Beautiful by Simone Howell, 8, YA (Contemporary)
3. Furnace: Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith, 8, YA (Horror)
4. Intertwined by Gena Showalter, 8, YA (Paranormal Romance)
5. Monster by Christopher Pike, 7, YA (Horror)
6. Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols, 9, YA (Romance)
7. The Poison Garden by Sarah Singleton, 6, YA (Fantasy)
8. My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent, 7, YA (Paranormal Romance)
9. Rampant* by Diana Peterfreund, 8, YA (Fantasy)
10. A Countess Below Stairs* by Eva Ibbotson, 8, YA (Romance)
11. The Giver by Lois Lowry, 8, YA (SF)
12. Everlost by Neal Shusterman, 8, YA (Horror)
13. Wake* by Lisa McMann, 7, YA (SF/Horror)
14. Rapunzel’s Revenge* by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale, 8, YA (Graphic Novel)
15. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Ms. Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber, 6, Romance (Paranormal/Gothic)
16. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer, 5, Romance (Historical)
17. Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare, 7, Romance (Historical)

SEPTEMBER:

Thea:

1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, 8, YA (SF)
2. The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, 7, YA (UF)
3. Succubus Heat by Richelle Mead, 7, UF
4. Mistborn: The Final Empire* by Brandon Sanderson, 8, Fantasy
5. Heroes at Risk by Moira J. Moore, 7, Fantasy
6. Rosemary and Rue* by Seanan McGuire, 7, UF
7. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs, 8, UF
8. The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden* by Catherynne Valente, 9, Fantasy
9. Give Up the Ghost* by Megan Crewe, 7, YA (UF)
10. Forest Born by Shannon Hale, 8, YA (Fantasy)
11. Murder Mysteries* by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell, 8, Graphic Novel
12. Cape Storm by Rachel Caine, 8, UF
13. Perfume by Patrick Suskind, 8, Fiction
14. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, 9, YA (Historical)
15. Ariel by Stephen Boyett, 7, SF (Fantasy)
16. The Declaration* by Gemma Malley, 7, YA (SF)
17. Fire by Kristin Cashore, 9, YA (Fantasy)

Ana:

1. Jasmyn by Alex Bell, 8, Fantasy
2. The Hollow by Jessica Verday, 5, YA (UF)
3. Mistborn: The Final Empire* by Brandon Sanderson, 9, Fantasy
4. The Infinite Instant by Danielle L. Parker, 6, Science Fiction (Thriller)
5. Rosemary and Rue* by Seanan McGuire, 8, UF
6. The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden* by Catherynne Valente, NA, Fantasy
7. Give Up the Ghost* by Megan Crewe, 7, YA (UF)
8. Murder Mysteries* by Neil Gaiman, 8, Graphic Novel (Fantasy)
9. Liar by Justine Larbalestier, 9, YA (Thriller)
10. The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King, 7, Fantasy

11. Tempt Me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas, 7, Romance (Historical)
12. The Declaration* by Gemma Malley, 6, YA (SF)
13. Demon Forged by Meljean Brook, 10, Romance (Paranormal)
14. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, 9, YA (SF)

OCTOBER:

Thea:

1. Ark by Stephen Baxter, 10, Science Fiction
2. Soulless* by Gail Carriger, 4/6, Romance (Paranormal)
3. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, 8, YA (SF)
4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 10, Science Fiction
5. On the Edge by Ilona Andrews, 7, Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
6. The Well of Ascension* by Brandon Sanderson, 7, Fantasy
7. The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip, 8, Fantasy
8. Prospero Lost* by L. Jagi Lamplighter, 8, Fantasy (Contemporary)
9. According to Jane by Marilyn Brant, 6, Chick Lit
10. Firethorn by Sarah Micklem, 5/8, Fantasy
11. Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier, 9, Fantasy
12. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, 9, Fantasy
13. The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey, 8, YA (Horror)
14. The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff, 6, Horror
15. Hater by David Moody, 7, Horror
16. Dying to Live: Life Sentence by Kim Paffenroth, 8, Horror
17. Malpractice, Anthology, 7, Horror
18. Fifty-Two Stitches, Anthology, 7, Horror

Ana:

1. Soulless* by Gail Carriger, DNF, Romance (Paranormal)
2. Triumff by Dan Abnett, 6, Fantasy
3. Ash by Malinda Lo, 9, YA (Fantasy)
4. Pastworld by Ian Beck, 7, YA (Fantasy)
5. The Well of Ascension* by Brandon Sanderson, 8, Fantasy
6. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, 2, YA (UF)
7. Prospero Lost* by L. Jagi Lamplighter, 8, Fantasy (Contemporary)
8. Austenland by Shannon Hale, 1, Chick Lit
9. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, 7, YA (Romance)
10. Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier, 10, Fantasy
11. Little Black Lies by Tish Cohen, 6, YA (Contemporary)
12. Never Slow Dance With A Zombie by E. Van Lowe, 4, YA (Horror)

NOVEMBER:

Thea:

1. Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett, 8, Fantasy
2. Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover, 7, UF
3. Unconventional* by Matt Springer, 6, Fiction
4. One Con Glory* by Sarah Kuhn, 8, Chick-lit
5. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, 8, YA (UF)
6. The Maze Runner by James Dashner, 8, YA (SF)
7. The Hero of Ages* by Brandon Sanderson, 8, Fantasy
8. The Road Home * by Ellen Emerson Whie, 8, YA (Fiction)
9. Darker Angels by M.L.N. Hanover, 7, UF
10. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderon, 8, Fantasy
11. The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory, 6, Horror
12. Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, 7, YA
13. Tainted by Julie Kenner, 7, UF

Ana:

1. Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh, 8, Romance (Paranormal)
2. The Dragon Book anthology, 8, Fantasy
3. Unconventional* by Matt Springer, 6, Fiction
4. One Con Glory* by Sarah Kuhn, 8, Chick-lit
5. “Blind Spot” in Must Love Hellhounds by Meljean Brook, 8, Romance (Paranormal, Anthology)
6. The Hero of Ages* by Brandon Sanderson, 8, Fantasy
7. The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White *, 9, YA (Fiction)
8. The Last Will of Moira Healy by Therese Walsh, 7, Fiction (Fantasy)
9. Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore, 7, Fantasy
10. The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines, 7, Fantasy
11. The Mermaid’s Madness by Jim C. Hines, 7, Fantasy
12. Madame Xanadu by Matt Wagner, 8, Graphic Novel
13. The Magicians by Lev Grossman, 4, Fantasy

DECEMBER:

Thea:

1. Gateway by Sharon Shinn, 6, YA (Fantasy)
2. Spellspam by Alma Alexander, 6, YA (SF)
3. Cybermage by Alma Alexander, 7, YA (SF)
4. Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines, 9, YA (SF)
5. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima, 8, YA (Fantasy)
6. Going Bovine* by Libba Bray, 9, YA (SF)
7. Vampire Haiku by Ryan Mecum, 6, Humor (Horror)
8. I am Scrooge by Adam Roberts, 6, Humor (Horror)
9. Beautiful Creatures* by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, 6, YA (SF)
10. Raiders’ Ransom by Emily Diamand, 8, YA (SF)
11. Witch & Wizard by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet, 5, YA (Fantasy)
12. A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix, 6, UF
13. In the Blood by Adrian Phoenix, 7, UF
14. Deadtown by Nancy Holzner, 7, UF

Ana:

1. The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick, 7, Fantasy
2. Going Bovine* by Libba Bray, 8, YA (SF)
3. Beautiful Creatures* by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, 6, YA (SF)