Regarding Doughnuts

JJ: For the longest time I’ve spelled it “doughnut” but everyone said that was archaic and/or wrong. “Donut” still looks weird. WICKED COOL RILEY: I only use “donut” because of Dunkin Donuts. I sort of prefer the archaic spelling. JJ: I’m almost positive all doughnut places spell it “donut”. But I think there was a [...]

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As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Damn, John Green. I mean…damn.

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I don't believe in fashion. I believe in costume. Life is too short to be the same person every day.
Stephanie Perkins, Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola is a girl after my own heart. ♥

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I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

This is why I love Austen so: not the romances, not the manners porn, not the “out of countenance”-ing, but this. Words to live by, Miss Eliza Bennet!

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Best Reads of 2011

It’s that time of year again, as 2011 draws to a close, when JJ picks her Best Reads books. This year’s been a bit of a mixed bag for me, and despite the spate of new and shiny YA titles with attendant romances and cool dystopian/fantasy/sci-fi settings that came out in 2011, the books that [...]

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High Fantasy for Young Adults

Books win their audiences for a reason. Most popular books wear their artlessness on their sleeve: Stephenie Meyer, the author of the “Twilight” series, is an awkward writer with little feeling for construction, but the intensity of emotion with which she imbues her characters is enviable. You never doubt her commitment to the material, which [...]

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A Plague of Perfect Boys

So. Hello, blog. We haven’t spoken in a while. How are you? How are things? How’s life in your corner of the internet? I’m so sorry for treating you like that friend I speak to once every six months only when I have something exciting I want to share, but it’s a little hard to [...]

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Look, let me just say it: He was hot. A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy...well.
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

I won’t lie; I was a teeny bit worried when I heard that John Green’s next novel was going to have a female narrator, mostly because he does the boy narrator so well, but also because the female narrator of his Zombiecorns novella didn’t sound like a girl to me. However, my fears have been [...]

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Slightly Hapless Detective Inspector and His Much More On-The-Nose (And Put Upon) Sergeant

At the moment, I am utterly glutted on commercial YA fiction. I don’t want something high concept (and ultimately soulless), I don’t want some epic, steamy romance (I especially don’t want that), and I don’t want a first-person narrator. I have read so many of these in the past 8 months that I’m about to [...]

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We are the sons of Adam. It is in our nature to turn and face the faceless, to name the nameless thing. It drives us to greatness; it brings us to ruin.
Rick Yancey, The Isle of Blood

I am in love with Dr. Pellinore Warthrop. You know, just saying. I love his crazy, romantic, failed poet, weird, anti-social, socially awkward self. You guys, the level of my fictional crush knows no bounds.

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