Thursday, March 5, 2009

Well Worth Watching Blogger Profile (3) Persnickety Snark

For my third Well Worth Watching profile, I chose the amazing Adele of Persnickety Snark. Adele is also the brains behind the Read Carpet podcast for YA books, The Aussie YA Alliance to promote Australian authors, and the Sarah Dessen Diarist. She's a busy, busy blogging bee and I am always excited to see what she'll take on next!

If someone were to blurb your blog in 25 words or less, what would he or she say?
Persnickety Snark is the cornea melting, green blog of all things YA related, especially anything Australian. It is infused with a special combination of snark, humour and a sprinkling of the ridiculous.

What kinds of books do you read and review on your blog?
I review anything that gets thrown at me. Even though I am self-confessed sci fi snob I will read them (and am learning they aren't all bad.) I focus on YA novels from all genres and all countries. I am working to spotlight on Australian YA authors that foreign audiences might not be familiar with. I am definitely flying the Aussie flag, although there is no complimentary Vegemite toast upon entry .

What were a couple of your favorite books recently and which ones are you most looking forward to reading soon?
I absolutely adored Jennifer Echols Going Too Far, it really built upon what I liked about her style and become much more emotionally resonant. I really enjoyed Boofheads, a novel by Scottish/Australian Mo Johnson who's story was told from an Australian teen male's perspective. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on all these books on my wishlist!

What are some of your favorite posts or reviews in your blog archive and why?
I run an Author's Spotlight feature where I post author's reading habits, an interview on their newest release and a guest blog. I think they are always great posts, I try and ask meaningful questions related to the text and I think I get great answers because of it. Melina Marchetta's guest blog about processing her Printz win was great fun because she was still in the buzz stage where it didn't seem real.

In terms of reviews, any time I write about Jennifer Echols it is bound to get gushy. My favourite line of any review is calling her the "YA equivalent of crack", she seemed to appreciate that too :)

My favourite interview hasn't been posted yet. It's with Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay, it is also what I consider to be my best review. Reviewing can be difficult at times, I try to be constructive but that proves difficult if it's a tough read or simply wonderful.

I have If I Stay coming up and I'm super excited. What are some posts or reviews on other blogs that have caught your attention as being well worth reading?
Reviewer X's review of Kiss My Blog was an absolute doozy and I loved it. I had suffered through that piece of rubbish as well and I laughed as I read her snarky take as I completely agreed with everything she said. Except, you know, I finished it.

I thought Jocelyn's review of Going Too Far was really well written. I think she writes the best reviews bar none and it made me want to read the book more (if that was possible).

I have a few blogs that I haunt religiously - Teen Book Reviews, Reviewer X, Presenting Lenore (snerk), The Chick Manifesto, Pop Culture Junkie, Story Siren and a whole host of others. I read everything that pops up on my blogroll but if I need to prioritise, the previous list is my go-to gang.

In terms of author blogs I always hit Sarah Dessen, Alexa Young, Karen Mahoney, Gayle Forman, Melissa Walker, Meg Cabot, John Green, Margo Lanagan, Simmone Howell and this list could go on forever.

Aww...Glad to be on your shortlist! Complete this sentence: "If I didn't have my blog..."...I would be procrastinating on marking my year eight's assignments for larger slices of time.

On a serious note though, I would have never encountered great individuals (and authors) like Gayle Forman, Alexa Young, Melina Marchetta or Beth Fantaskey or the multitude of bloggers that I have become friends with.

Thanks for playing along, Adele!

The Well Worth Watching Award was created and designed by Joanne of The Book Zombie. I'm just passing it along to other bloggers!

16 comments:

Kelly said...

Wonderful interview! Thanks for posting it!!

Alea said...

I <3 Adele! I love everything she does and this was a great interview! And OMG at her mentioning me! *BLUSH*

Christina Farley said...

Great list of blogs too.

Unknown said...

Adele is the greatest -and not just because she mentioned me. Adele, I had no idea you were into sci-fi. We must discuss this!

BinkiesandFlops said...

Oh! Very nice! Excellent interview, Miss Lenore!

Liviania said...

Great interview! I have Going too Far on my TBR and cannot wait to read it.

H said...

Cornea melting, yes. But I you've got to love her =) I have Going Too Far coming and this just makes me want to read it more!

wrigleyfield said...

Fun interview! I like your Author Spotlight feature, too, Adele.

Marie said...

The picture for that award is just about the cutest thing ever!!

the story siren said...

Fantastic interview! Adele is an awesome addition to the ya blog community! I loved learning a little bit more about Adele too!

Khy said...

Yay Adele! Love her.

Beth Kephart said...

I really enjoyed this. Thank you.

Adele said...

While I was reading the lovely comments, I was giggling because you are all so unbelievably lovely and it's sometimes embarrassing to read positive things said about yourself.

Thanks to Lenore for giving me this opportunity and thank you all for warming my diet coke infused heart with loveliness (and extra bubbles.)

Carolina said...

I love these blogger profiles!

Adele is so cool. :)

Ladytink_534 said...

Sounds like an interesting person Lenore! I'll have to go by and check out her blog soon.

S. Krishna said...

Nice interview!