Fall is finally here, which means cozy reading time and also Boston Teen Author Festival!

First, I decided to start with a classic that I’ve never read before.

Fahrenheit 451 was a lot shorter than I expected – the 60th anniversary edition was half full of lengthy introductions and additional material.  I have to say, this wasn’t as powerful as I thought it would be, and there were many, many flaws.  Still, the story has value and I don’t regret reading it.

I downloaded The Soulkeepers a while back, and finally got around to reading it.  It was surprisingly readable (I know, I shouldn’t be prejudiced against self-pubbed authors given that I am one…) and as a bonus, it has a two non-white leads.

I saw All the Birds in the Sky on Instagram and had completely forgotten about it by the time it came in at the library (I stagger my holds so I don’t get all the books at once, and so sometimes months pass).  On top of having a cool tree design on the pages, the story was a wonderful fantasy.

On to Boston Teen Author Festival!  I was so excited about the different authors who would be there and the panels.  I already had signed copies of Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince (as well as The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and The Iron Trial) and Adrienne Young’s Sky in the Deep, both courtesy of OwlCrate.  I bought Contagion by Erin Bowman, because she’s a New Hampshire author and I haven’t read anything of hers, and Everless by Sara Holland, because it sounded cool.

I finished Contagion so fast.  It’s zombies in space, so yeah, it was pretty dang awesome.

Everless was interesting because I’ve read a few fantasy books that feature time lately (like The Raging Ones, where everyone knows the date they’ll die), but this one literally has time as a currency, and you can buy or sell years off your life.

My favorite panel at BTAF was the Publishing Journey panel.  It’s crazy to learn that some authors might only send out 8 queries (in the case of Malinda Lo) and others are over 100 (as with Rachel Lynn Solomon).  The panel talked about how much YA has changed over the years, and overall made me feel hopeful about my own publishing journey.

Haha, so BTAF involved a lot of waiting around time, and so I managed to finish Everless, and get most of the way through Christopher Pike’s Scavenger Hunt which I had brought along mostly because it was super small and could fit in my purse.  I hadn’t read this book since high school, and somehow I had forgotten the ending, which is absolutely crazy.  This book was a big dose of WTF and I loved it.

On the other end of the spectrum, I finally got the audiobook of The Woman in the Window.  This book has a super long hold list and it’s being compared to books like The Girl on the Train, but unfortunately for me, it failed to live up to the hype.  The formula that makes it similar to so many other thrillers is tired, and it took too long to get anywhere.  It ended up on my DNF shelf.

• Best Cover: The One Memory of Flora Banks (it’s sparkly!)
• Best Audiobook Narration: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
• Best Concept: Contagion
• Trippiest: Neverwake
• Fastest Read*: Scavenger Hunt (1 day)
• Slowest Read: The Soulkeepers (24 days)

*I’ve decided to not include graphic novels in the “Fastest Read” category, and audiobooks in the “Slowest Read” category.

The full list (links take you to my Goodreads reviews):

1. 1. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (audiobook)
   2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
   3. Contagion by Erin Bowman
   4. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (audiobook)
   5. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
   6. The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
   7. Runaways Volume 6: Parental Guidance by Brian K. Vaughan (graphic novel)
   8. The Soulkeepers by G.P. Ching (ebook)
   9. Everless by Sara Holland
   10. Scavenger Hunt by Christopher Pike
   11. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (audiobook)
   12. Neverwake (Dreamfall #2) by Amy Plum
   13. Runaways the Complete Collection v. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan et al. (graphic novel)