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Review: Withering Tights
Withering Tights, by Louise Rennison Reviewed by: Lori Twichell Genre: YA/Comedy Publisher: HarperTeen Publication Date: June 26, 2012 Tallulah Casey is ready for the rest of her life to begin. At fourteen and a half she feels she’s stumbled through the opening lines and now she’s on the track to become a brilliant actress, or dancer, or something theatrical. That’s why she’ll be spending six weeks at a performance theater college saying goodbye to Tallulah and hello LULAH! There are some dicey moments when she arrives that lead her to believe it might not be nearly as perfect as she imagined. First, she finds out that she doesn’t have a bed…
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A Wolf in Kid’s Clothing: Upcoming Trends in YA Fiction
This morning I was looking through catalogs of upcoming releases in Young Adult books. I’ve already been pretty vocal around here on the trends that are happening in YA fiction, so people won’t be surprised to learn that I’m bugged about it. But you might be surprised at what some of the new trends are. Not talking about vampires, demons, fallen angels or other supernatural things. This is something new. I was looking specifically for YA books to review, so I was browsing the teens and young adult sections when I came across a cover that looked more like the poster for Magic Mike than a YA novel and I…
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Do you have Klout?
Note: This article originally appeared at Beyond the Buzz Marketing. You may have heard a lot of buzz lately about a new site that supposedly measures your influence and reach on the internet. It’s called Klout. I first heard about it from a client and dissuaded them from signing up since they needed to do it via Facebook or Twitter. (I have issues with giving all of these applications all of my friends information, my pictures…all that stuff. You may have heard me mention this a few times via Christian Work At Home Mom Radio with Jill Hart.) Shortly thereafter though, I started seeing a lot of people on my…
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Why I’m Not a Fan of Twilight Anymore – Part Two
(See Part One here.) Vampires have no choice: The Twilight books started a trend that I find utterly disturbing. You see, the vampires in this series had no choice about whether they should live or die. Many of them don’t want to really be vampires and they live this horrible tortured existence, but they are unable to do anything about it. The choice is out of their hands. They must live this way and for the most part, they’re emo and tortured about it. But Bella makes their lives better. She’s everything that they needed. She rescued them from a difficult and miserable existence. She gave them a baby and peace and hope…
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Why I’m Not a Fan of Twilight Anymore – Part One
Recently, in one of our articles about 50 Shades of Grey, I mentioned in passing that I’m no longer a fan of Twilight. This one sentence got an interesting response with several emails and comments asking me if I’d go into why I made that decision. Before I start, let me say that this was something sent to my heart. I’m not out here beating a drum and telling everyone that they need to heed these words. I’m only sharing what I know and what I’ve learned and asking that people make their own choices once they’ve read what I have to say. A little over a year ago, I was very…
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Review: The Mother Road by Jennifer AlLee
The Mother Road by Jennifer AlLee Reviewed by: Lori Twichell Genre: Fiction/Drama/Humor Publisher: Abingdon Press Publication Date: March 6, 2012 Natalie is a professional on marriage. She’s written several books on how to keep your marriage alive and she has speaking engagements all over her calendar to prove her worth in that arena. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop her from having marital difficulties. When her husband leaves her for another woman, Natalie is devastated. And not only does it destroy her marriage, it takes her career down with it. It’s not exactly what Natalie was planning, but when her father calls to tell her that her mother is slipping further and…