Guest Post: Books Joshua David Bellin Lost Sleep Over
I feel
as if the tagline “Who needs sleep when you have books?” was written with me in
mind! I’ve been a compulsive reader since I was, well, able to read, and that
hasn’t changed. In fact, now that I’m writing novels myself, I find myself
reading even more, mostly Middle Grade and Young Adult, to the tune of about
100 novels per year.
To give
you an idea of what I like to read, here’s a list of six books I’ve stayed up
until the wee hours reading in the first half of this year.
1.
Dianne Salerni, The Morrigan’s Curse. This is the third book in a Middle Grade
series about a special eighth day of the week accessible only to certain
people. It combines fantasy, science fiction, time travel, Arthurian legend, and
contemporary crime in an utterly unique mix. The first two books, The Eighth Day and The Inquisitor’s Mark, are pretty awesome too.
2.
Parker Peevyhouse, Where Futures End. I’m not entirely sure what to call this book.
It’s YA science fiction/fantasy, but it’s so original the labels don’t tell you
much. It’s also narrated in a series of linked short stories, which gives it a
really distinctive structure. All I can say is that I stayed up through the
night reading it during a family vacation, and I didn’t even realize until the
next morning how uncomfortable the bed was!
3.
Chris Howard, Night Speed. Howard’s one of my favorite YA science fiction
authors, the twisted genius behind the Rootless
trilogy, about a future Earth without trees. Night Speed is about an elite crime unit that tracks criminals who
use an illegal street drug to give themselves superhuman speed and strength—but
to catch them, the “good guys” have to use the same addictive drug. I felt as
if I was racing along with the main character as I devoured this book.
4.
Eliot Schrefer, Rescued. I’ve loved apes since I was a child, so when I discovered
YA author Schrefer’s “ape quartet,” four books featuring a young person’s
relationship with each of the four great apes, I knew the series was for me! The
first two books, Endangered and Threatened, focus on bonobos and
chimpanzees; Rescued is about
orangutans. A fourth book will be about my favorite apes, gorillas. Can’t wait!
5.
Amy Allgeyer, Dig Too Deep. For whatever reason, I don’t read a lot of YA contemporary;
I prefer science fiction and fantasy. But Allgeyer’s book, about the effects of
mountaintop coal mining on a small West Virginia community, was absolutely
gripping—neither too downbeat nor too preachy, but as heartbreakingly real as
can be.
6.
Kat Ross, The
Midnight Sea. The first book in a planned YA trilogy, this Arabian
Nights-flavored fantasy uses actual history concerning the Persian Empire and
Alexander the Great to weave a spellbinding story about supernatural creatures
and the warriors who both hunt them and bond with them. It’s one of those books
that feels utterly imaginative and utterly real at the same time, and needless
to say, I couldn’t put it down!
That’s
just a sampling, and I’d love to hear from readers about what books you lose sleep
over! Who knows, maybe one of my books will make your list!
About Scavenger of Souls:
Querry and the members of Survival
Colony 9 have defeated a whole nest of the creatures called Skaldi, who can
impersonate humans even as they destroy them. But now the colony is dangerously
low in numbers and supplies. Querry’s mother is in command, and is definitely
taking them somewhere—but where? Some secret from her past seems to be driving
her relentlessly forward.
When they do finally reach their
destination, Querry is amazed to discover a whole compound of humans—organized,
with plenty of food and equipment. But the colonists are not welcomed.
Everything about them is questioned, especially by Mercy, the granddaughter of
the compound’s leader. Mercy is as tough a fighter as Querry has ever seen—and
a girl as impetuous as Querry is careful. But the more Querry learns about
Mercy and the others, the more he realizes that nothing around him is as it
seems. There are gruesome secrets haunting this place and its people. And it’s
up to Querry to unearth the past and try to save the future in this gripping conclusion
to the Survival Colony novels.
Goodreads | Preorder: Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Indiebound
About Joshua David Bellin:
Short bio: Joshua David
Bellin is the author of Survival Colony 9
and Scavenger of Souls. His next
book, Freefall, releases in 2017. He
loves monsters. Really scary monsters.
What books have you lost sleep over? Let me know in the comments or tweet me or Joshua and we can chat!
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