Why I Don't Care About the Female to Male Ratio in YA

Having been a part of the YA blogging community for almost three and a half years, I've seen a lot of stuff happen and read a lot of different opinions. One thing that I have seen often repeated is that people want more male protagonists in YA. People celebrate and cheer when they discover a new book told from a male's point of view, and I have to admit, I used to be one of those people. Discovering a new book told from a male's point of view would fill me with joy, because in the YA Bookosphere these books are pretty much an endangered species. 

I haven't conducted any research myself, but you can tell just from browsing your own bookshelves that the amount of female protagonists compared to male in YA is staggering. Anyone could tell you that the scales are certainly tipped in favour of women. And I'm here to tell you why I don't care.

Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry

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Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry

Was this topic made specifically for me or what? I love reading books that make me cry, and I'm sure everyone knows it by now. It's not just because I like to torture myself, although that's part of the reason why. It's because I feel like if I cry over a book, it means that I've connected with the characters or the story on some deep emotional level. And that's the mark of a good book, in my opinion. This is why most of the books on my 2013 favourites list were ones that made me sob into my pillow.

New Releases: February 4 - 10, 2014

Cress is finally out this week! YAY! I've already had the chance to read it, and it's fantastic. You can check out my review if you like. I also quite liked Alienated, and I'm so, so excited to try Something Real. It sounds great! Which releases are you looking forward to this week? Have you read any of them already? Let me know!

Epic Recs: February 2014

A few months ago, Judith and I started up an impromptu book club called Epic Recs. The aim of this was to force each other to read books that we have previously loved. You know, because Judith is a self proclaimed book pusher, and I just like forcing people to do things.

A couple of months ago, we opened Epic Recs up to the public, and in December a hell of a lot of people signed up, either to be paired by us or after pairing themselves. Judith and I are so pleased at Epic Rec's success. We truly hope everyone enjoys this as much as we do!

This month we're doing the same thing, there's a form you can fill in if you want to be paired with another person, or you can sign up right away with someone of your choosing using the Linky.

Debut Showcase: February 2014

The purpose of this feature is to show you guys which YA debuts I'm most looking forward to, and which ones I've enjoyed. Hopefully it'll also help build some buzz around some of these debuts. There will be one post at the beginning of each month, this time showing all the debuts that are being released in that month. I'll also be linking to my reviews of debuts from the previous month so you can see which ones were a hit!