Day One: A lead female character ; Kami Glass (The Lynburn Legacy)
“You’re crazy,” said her best friend, Angela, as the bell rang to signal five minutes before the first class on the first day back at school.
“They said that about all the great visionaries.”.
“You know who else they said it about?” Angela demanded. “All the actual crazy people.” ― Sarah Rees Brennan, Unspoken
Kami art from http://sarahreesbrennan.com
Lovely Actress Is: Erika Sawajiri
What a cutie. ;) Love it.
The cover of the next of the Bane Chronicles: The Runaway Queen! Enjoy, my lovelies! Magnus, what a distinguished ring you have.
Fancy right? All this, and George Blagden to narrate it to you. ;)
My beautimous Maureen and Cassie have penned AN AMAZING TALE. I can’t wait for y’all to read it.
When you play the game of Brennan, you win or your heart breaks. You will not win.
My photo entry for Sarah Rees Brennan’s Untold ARC contest.
Perfect picture, perfect caption. So much perfection, I hardly know how to cope…
pain pain pain pain pain
it hurts so bad what is life
pain pain pain pain pain
*sniffs* That’s so beautiful. ;)
Sorry-in-the-Vale looked different now, with blood in its past…
She’d thought she knew every shadow and corner of this town, but now the shadows were moving, and behind every corner waited another secret.
There was nowhere safe left…
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
How amazirrific is this entry for the Untold contest? I looooove the superimposed creepiness: the ordinary and beautiful places made unsafe. So in keeping with le novel!
Also: hello, London! I am heeeeeeere.
Untold is indeed the book in which Jared Lynburn, ticking time bomb of issues and pure maidenly untouched flower, receives his first kiss.
Is it with the beauteous Holly Prescott, sunny of hair and nature? Well a boy could do much worse. ;)
But that is a Gothic mystery that will be solved in Untold.
I am glad you guys are concerned though!
That’s how I like you. Concerned.
I am glad I have not been boring people! Deadline cave, and a topic I feel strongly about = many posts. Many, many posts.
I am very glad my books have thus far pleased you! I and my writing = very imperfect, trying to improve, but I love my ladies, I like writing the books and I am glad people like reading them. ;)
I think we could definitely use more amazing ladies, and many more amazing ladies of color. And you give me a fine opportunity to end my Feminist Speeches for the Day with a list of a few awesome female protagonists of colour who spring to mind. (LIST NOT EXHAUSTIVE.)
Y.S. Lee’s A Spy In The House
Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix
Malinda Lo’s Huntress
Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover
Kimberly Reid’s My Own Worst Frenemy
Diana Peterfreund’s Across A Star-Swept Sea (coming soon!)
BASICALLY i’m really angry because it seems that nowadays a lot more young adult books are geared toward girls rather than guys which is fine but i’m a guy and while guys *can* read about girls falling in love with the perfect guy while trying to save the world… it’s not really…
I don’t really see how the original post was telling women to be “silent.” Sure, there are absolutely people out there who are trying to put us down and all, but this guy was just asking for book recommendations. He says he “can read about girls falling in love” but it’s just hard for him to relate to. I totally get that. I’ve read books where a guy was describing his attraction to some girl, and I think, “Well that’s cool, but she doesn’t really do it for me. I’d rather be reading a lengthy description of the many fine physical and mental attributes of Jace Wayland through Clary’s eyes.” Girls want to read romance from a girl’s point of view, and guys want to read romance from a guy’s point of view. I don’t think that’s sexist.
He is in luck: the majority of books are still written from a guy’s point of view.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110503151607.htm
http://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/38016.html
‘half of YA award winners in the past twelve years had male protagonists, 15% had both male and female protagonists, and 36% had female protagonists’
The fact that people are saying they are ANGRY because there are now more books written about girls than there used to be (ignoring the fact there are still many about guys, and more attention is given to them) seems rather silencing of women to me.
I’m not saying it was meant that way. I’m not saying that people can’t have personal preferences, because all people do.
But think about how the world informs those personal preferences, and about the world you want to live in.
To the anonymous poster of this ask: thank you for the book recommendation! It sounds excellent.
However, I disagree with your implication that all that’s needed for critical attention to be paid is ‘quality of literature.’
Oh, if only the ladies would write more better books!
I do not think that is true. There are statistically more traditionally published male critics, writing more about men.
http://www.vidaweb.org/three-years-to-stump-and-stack-and-stem
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/82930/VIDA-women-writers-magazines-book-reviews#
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/04/research-male-writers-dominate-books-world
http://www.damemagazine.com/2013/03/05/major-literary-journals-still-publish-more-men
Yes, excellent critical books and articles about female-centric stories exist. This does not change the statistical fact that overall, stories about women are massively undervalued and not given critical attention.
If the conclusion drawn from these facts is ‘Well, a specific half of the world is just not producing work as excellent as the other half… the talented, brilliant, throbbingly genius half’… I think said conclusion says more about the person making it than about the overall quality of women’s work.
Yes, there are exceptions to the rules. That doesn’t mean the rules don’t exist.
A motto for our time… perhaps for ALL time.
