Here are this week's top books according to The New York Times. Lauren Conrad still has two books on the lists, but no longer in the No. 1 spot. New to the list this week is Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, at No. 8. And Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth is its week on... Continue Reading →

We try to be really positive here at Novel Novice, but I recently visited a couple chain bookstores in person (gasp! They DO exist!) and noticed some ... worrisome things. I won't name the bookstores; just know that they're both major chain stores. I was looking for Carrie Ryan's new book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, which came out... Continue Reading →

Acoording to The New York Times, it looks like Lauren Conrad has been knocked off the No. 1 spot in chapter books this week by an "old" standard: The Hunger Games, which has been on the list for a whopping 77 weeks. Not a bad run, with no end in sight. Not suprisingly, Lewis Caroll's... Continue Reading →

Anastasia's Secret by Susanne Dunlap Available March 2 Synopsis: The youngest grand duchess in the Russian imperial family comes of age during the  revolution. Her family is imprisoned, conditions become worse and worse. But Anastasia has a secret that she keeps from her family, a love that endures through the horrors of war and the... Continue Reading →

Is Lauren Conrad still No. 1 on The New York Times best sellers list? Yep. See who else made the cut: CHAPTER BOOKS This Week   Weeks on List 1 SWEET LITTLE LIES, by Lauren Conrad. (Harper/HarperCollins, $17.99.) The heroines of "L.A. Candy" in a new Hollywood story. (Ages 14 and up) 3 2 PERCY JACKSON AND... Continue Reading →

In our final post regarding Common Sense Media, we have two teens' reactions to the postings on http://www.barnesandnoble.com. The first is from one of our teen contributors, Marina: When I first read over the “Common Sense Media” summary for the novel Unwind by Neil Shusterman (which, by the way, is a fantastic read), I was... Continue Reading →

In Part II of our series on Common Sense Media's reviews on http://www.barnesandnoble.com, we presented both sides of the argument -- what they are doing right and what needs tweaking. Today we bring you reactions from the authors themselves-- a LiveJournal comment and several Tweets. Please understand that some of the Tweets from authors were responses to questions... Continue Reading →

In Part I of this story, we told you the basics about the controversy surrounding reviews of YA books by Common Sense Media, which are now posted on http://www.barnesandnoble.com. In Part II, we'll take a look at some of the reactions and opinions about the reviews. On her Web site, author Meg Cabot (Princess Diaries, among... Continue Reading →

For the past few days, Twitter has been ON FIRE with news and comments about Common Sense Media, and its teen book reviews posted on http://www.barnesandnoble.com. It all started with a blog post by author Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride, Lock and Key) who wrote: Finally, I will admit that I check out my BN.com and... Continue Reading →