Disqus - Latest Comments for jess_silverstein

Re: 2014 YA Superlative Blogfest: Elements of Fiction

jess_silverstein — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:45:03 -0000

Oh man, the award for Best Sales Pitch For A Book You Haven't Read goes to you--those opening lines of I'll Give You The Sun are so good! I really can't wait to read that one!

Re: Words On Paper: 2014 YA Superlatives: Popularity Contest

jess_silverstein — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 21:32:17 -0000

I have read zero of these books. WHY ISN'T THERE AN EIGHTH DAY OF THE WEEK JUST FOR READING.

Re: Words On Paper: 2014 YA Superlatives Blogfest: Head of the Class

jess_silverstein — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 23:43:44 -0000

I've got The Kiss of Deception on my Amazon wishlist...we'll see what Santa brings! I may have to add Stolen Songbird, too...thanks for the rec! And I'm already planning to read To All the Boys...over break, at the strong urging of one of my students!

Re: YA on Netflix

jess_silverstein — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:17:18 -0000

Ooh, didn't realize How I Live Now was available to stream! I'll definitely have to check that out--I loved the book.

That R&J is so good it even made my students forget to hate my guts for a week or two during my first year of teaching. The only good memories I have from that year are watching and talking about that movie.

Re: Book Review: The Fire Wish by Amber Lough

jess_silverstein — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 16:13:55 -0000

Ooh, I'm so excited to read this one! One of my students raved about it, and this review just adds to my excitement!

Re: In the Afterlight Giveaway: Win ‘The Darkest Minds’ Trilogy & $25 VISA Gift Card!

jess_silverstein — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 16:11:43 -0000

I read the first book and met Alexandra Bracken at the Rochester Teen Book Festival--I loved the book and she was fabulous! I'm dying to read the rest of the series!

Re: YA Confidential: From the Vault

jess_silverstein — Mon, 19 May 2014 19:46:52 -0000

Ok, I know this is a little to young to completely count, but: Matilda. It perfectly captured the things I loved about the book, so the changes that were made never bothered me. It's rare that I love an adaptation of a book I am that crazy about. Ooh, also the first two parts of the Anne of Green Gables miniseries (which get into Anne's teen years, so they totally count!) AND!!! How could I forget the 1990s version of Little Women? Almost definitely on my desert island movies list.

Re: Words On Paper: My New Hangout

jess_silverstein — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:57:02 -0000

Congrats! That's a totally fab picture!

Re: YA Confidential: From the Vault - Comfort Books

jess_silverstein — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 15:42:01 -0000

I have a trio of comfort reads: Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and A Little Princess. These are books I've been reading and re-reading since I was a kid and I never, ever get sick of them. (And then I usually wind up also re-reading Little Men--not such a Jo's Boys fan--or the other seven Anne books.)

Re: Words On Paper: I'm a Terrible Finisher

jess_silverstein — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 16:30:34 -0000

I loved Untold--I think it developed the relationships really well and pushed the plot to places I never expected it to go. I'm really looking forward to the third one. I'm teaching it as part of a class I've titled "Expressions of Femininity in Lit and Pop Culture"--basically to address all the weird ideas about how female characters (and by extension, women) SHOULD be. I think SRB does a great job populating her books with female characters who don't fit neatly into molds or stereotypes. Holly is one of my favorite girl characters ever--I think the girl who's more comfortable around guys than girls can be very, very tricky and I think she's so well done.

Re: Words On Paper: I'm a Terrible Finisher

jess_silverstein — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:13:35 -0000

I'm a procrastinator in general (for example: I've been meaning to respond to this post for a week!) but I've gotten really terrible with series books! I only just read the sequel to Unspoken (because I'm teaching Unspoken so I had to re-read it anyway) even though it was one of my very very favorite reads last year. I totally fall into the trap of "But I have to re-read the other ones first!" I am JUST NOW going back through Divergent and Insurgent to get to Allegiant (even though I was wild to get at it when it came out.) I am still waiting to do the same for Lauren Oliver's Requiem. I think at this point, if I haven't read the second book and it is a trilogy (or longer!) my game plan is just to wait for the series to be complete before going back in. Of ongoing series, I'm current on Raven Boys, Lunar Chronicles, and now the Lynburn Legacy. I imagine most of the other ones will have to wait for summer (Divergent got bumped up because it's HARD to avoid spoilers, and also because I wanted to re-read the first one before the movie anyway.)

But THANK YOU for this post--at least I know I'm not alone :)

Re: Words On Paper: Class of 2013 YA Superlative Blogfest: Day 3 & Giveaway Details

jess_silverstein — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 19:33:52 -0000

How To Love is getting...well, a lot of love! But OMG The Year of Secret Assignments sounds so wonderful and up my alley. Always trust an Aussie, indeed!

Re: Words On Paper: Class of 2013 YA Superlative Blogfest: Day 2

jess_silverstein — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 20:39:38 -0000

Somehow I don't think I have even HEARD OF Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea--and its cover is not one I would naturally gravitate toward, but your descriptions make it sound so good! Yay for the blogfest, sad for all the other books on my shelves that want to be read.

Re: Thoughts On Life and GOLDEN

jess_silverstein — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 11:59:25 -0000

Ok, I'm trying to be good about buying new books--discretionary funds are shorter over the summer when I'm not working, and I have something like thirty books stacked on my dresser waiting to be read. But...if I happen to find myself in a bookstore...like the one I'll pass on the way home from a meeting today...I might not be able to resist this one. You've totally sold me :)

Re: Bookshelvers Anonymous: Writing: The Great Mystery

jess_silverstein — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 11:23:46 -0000

So, for NaNo 2011, I started a futuristic story about how the world would change as resources became extremely scarce. I liked my characters, and I'd read enough dystopian to have the structure down cold. But the worldbuilding stymied me, and that project died after about 5K words. This past November, I started a contemporary MS, and actually did "win" NaNo--but at around 60K, I took a step back and saw that I wanted to change EVERYTHING. So, now I'm about that far into what I'm calling NaNo Project V. 2.1 (I think 2.0 might be like, 500 words in a Google Doc I've forgotten about) and I can actually see the end. There's been a vague outline all along, but when I hit about 50K I stopped and revamped the outline into something actually useful--a list of the scenes I thought I needed to get from point A to point B. I've discovered that if I make myself "BICHOK" (butt in chair, hands on keyboard) until I hit a certain number of words each day, I'll figure stuff out...and I can always go back and make changes later. (I have a lot of comments running down the edge of my doc telling me to go back and add/change/delete XYZ when I get to revisions, which lets me just make the change where I need it and keep going.)

The most valuable thing, though, has been sending words each day to my CP. They're first-drafty, crummy, words, many of which I know I'll get rid of later, but I'm accountable for actually writing them each day and sending them off, so she knows I've written. She does the same. The accountability is huge, and it's also been really nice to have someone else rooting for my story/characters at such an early stage. It's really easy to get pretty far in and then throw up your hands and say "this isn't working," but having someone else invested makes me want to stick it out until the end. I might eventually conclude that it doesn't work, but I'm in the stage right now where I learn from everything I do, and right now I need to learn how to finish a book.

Re: Introducing YA Buccaneers

jess_silverstein — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 00:09:21 -0000

Wow, the site looks great! I can't wait to see what you ladies have in store--I'm sure it will be a blast! Congrats on the maiden voyage!

Re: Words On Paper: A Snippet From My Story

jess_silverstein — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:48:19 -0000

Oh my goodness, I love this. The humor and adorableness reminds me of Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. I. Want. More.

Re: Words On Paper: Bookanistas Review: Where the Stars Still Shine

jess_silverstein — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:05:39 -0000

Aww, I love good parent-kid relationships. I've been hearing about this one but you really sold me!

Re: the notes - This Mix Is Trying To Break Your Heart

jess_silverstein — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:45:12 -0000

This...this may be the first time you've ever mentioned a song I know on your blog (not counting the entire Pure Moods commercial--which, thanks for that, btw). For the record, the song in question is "Have You Forgotten."

Re: Hemidemisemiquavery - (via booktumbling)

jess_silverstein — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:47:40 -0000

Mikey and I read the entire text of this book aloud, in turns, at our wedding. It was sort of our pre-vow. Have you read it? It's online, if you google.

Re: Quick Word On "Get A Life, Holden Caufield"

jess_silverstein — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:22:28 -0000

I saw that article too--and of course, I have considerable "anecdata" (and none of the actual kind) that goes against it. My CT last fall, in an East Harlem public school, taught Catcher to a class of 10th grade girls, and they got really into it. In most of my teacher-classes, my colleagues reported similar experiences, all within the last two school years and mostly in public schools here in the city. As far as I can tell, I have about as much information as she does, which means that neither of us has enough to declare a trend--but, since she writes for the Times, a trend is born.