Aussie YA Book Challenge 2011

Nic at Irresistable Reads and Nomes at Inkcrush have created the Aussie YA Reading 

Challenge 2011.  I'm very excited to be participating in this challenge, because a) I'm Australian, b) I heart YA and c) I love a challenge. 

Some of my favourite YA books have been written by Australian authors. I've probably read Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta about 100 times (Yes, I love it that much). Other books that I grew up reading and adored are,  


1.The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody (Next book in the series comes out in September, which I've only been waiting for for about oh-THREE YEARS)  
2.The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 
3.Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty 
4.Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
5. Tomorrow When The War Began Series by John Marsden 


Not surprisingly there are still a lot of Aussie YA books that I haven't read; some books that I'm hoping to get to read for the challenge are: 

Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta 

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar  

Notes From the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Girl Next Door by Alyssa Brugman

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

My Big Birkett by Lisa Shanahan

Burn Bright  by Marianne de Pierres  

Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell

Waiting On Wednesday: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Waiting on Wednesday is weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that aims to showcase upcoming releases.  

What's it all about, Alfie?: Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.

Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming. (Description from Amazon here) 


Release The Hounds On: September 5th 2011. Seems so far away. 

Reasons To Get Excited:  

1. Football and Soccer!!! (Or Football and Football depending on which part of the world you inhabit).

2. School rivalry. Don't you know a rumble, aint a rumble without me? 
3. From the author of The DUFF, which although I STILL haven't read I've heard nothing but good things about. 
4. Based on the ancient Greek play Lysistrata. 
5. Description clearly states that there will be sexual tension. And sweaty boys. :) 

My First Blog Posting!

So this is me. Sarah. YA fiction enthusiast. I have always been a bit of a bookworm growing up; Babysitters Club and Selby the Wonder Dog being some of my favourites during my younger years. Then,  as I grew a bit older it was the Fearless series, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Saving Francesca  and absolutely any Buffy book I could get my hands on. Some of my fondest memories as a kid are of browsing the shelves in the young adult room at my local library. After 3 or so years reading nothing but psychology textbooks and journal articles at university I've come back to reading the things I love.

My aim with this blog is to explore a wide range of the YA books out there (and believe you me I've got a lot to catch up on) and to hone my reviewing and writing skills. But most of all I'm starting this blog to have some fun.

Let's do this thing.