Championing Contemporary YA & more

Yes, I can explain being MIA: Finals. That should sum it up, shouldn't it?
Good thing is, they ended today. And I'm back and I promise to be a good blogger for a while. So, thank you, for sticking with me and as a reward I'm going to little giveaway for you guys, sometime soon.


Now that the apologies are out of the way, here are two things that happened while I've been away. And I'm sure you guys know all about them, but I'll add them nevertheless so that my blog looks pretty.

Yeah, that's Jennifer Lawrence's 'first look' as Katniss. I admit I was apprehensive when they first cast her, but now that I see her with that dyed hair and the bow and arrow..I have to say, that's close. And it's made me wonder what they are going to do about the guys now, because Josh Hutcherson? No, he isn't exactly my Peeta. But I now have hopes.


And then this happened. (Actually this happened before Katniss)

And while I'm truly excited about Deathly Hallows 2, that trailer made me so sad. It's gonna be a bittersweet goodbye really. Harry Potter was my childhood and so much more. After the books, the movies have been something to hold on to that magical world, but that saga's gonna come to an end soon.

All I hope is that the Narnia movies don't end at the same time. That would mean an epic butchery of my soul.

Meanwhile, there's the blog topic to consider.

About half a month back, my Contemporary WiP hit a wall and I had to put that on the back-burner. And instead I had a new non-contemporary that had sudden taken over my mind. And while I have been totally in love with this new idea, I missed my contemp. I don't know, there's just something about the contemporary genre that pulls me back each time I go a different way. I adore this new idea, but I mist finish the first one first. Which takes me to Lisa Schroeder's post at The Contemps.

And I'm going to rip the exact same thing she quoted. An excerpt from Mandy Hubbard's blog, which is: 

Another thing I heard all day, every day? Realistic/Contemporary YA is a tough sell, but almost every editor really, really wants it to rally and come back in a huge way. Some editors joked that they are going to force it to come back by buying some killer Realistic/Contemp. Successful books like ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS By Stephanie Perkins and PERFECT CHEMISTRY by Simone Elkeles make everyone very hopeful that this trend continues. The more contemps that break out, the more likely this trend can actually pan out. So if you’re a contemp lover, get thee to the bookstore. If the readers don’t buy it, the editors can’t buy it. 

See, that's the thing. Contemporary YA's a gem of a genre, yet more often than not, it is so underrated. Mostly, all you get to hear about are the big names, the one trending with what's 'in'. And it's a weird thing, but I've never heard of Contemporary trending and that's really sad. There are so many great contemporary novels out there, and so many of them raise such important issues. They talk about the world as it is. In the moment. Yet, the trouble is, sales are low. They don't sell like hot cakes as the other more popular genres do. And like Mandy Hubbard said, unless readers actually buy them, a lot of good books-in-the-making won't be seeing the light of day.

So, I'm going to champion contemporary YA for a week, between the 3rd to the 10th of June. Each day, I shall talk about a contemporary book I've recently read, I'm going to 'champion' it (of course, providing that it deserves championing). The cause I'm hoping to achieve? Make people aware of some of the contemporary YAs out there. You can join in too, if you'd like, and maybe then, we can turn this into a blogfest, and then, atleast for a week, we can make contemporary rule! What do you say? Are you in?

I've designed two badges you can put up if you'd like. 

 Speaking of which, what's the latest contemporary YA you've read? I'd like to hear your thoughts on it :)