Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Lies We Tell Ourselves
by Robin Talley

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website
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Twitter @robin_talley

Published: 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Genre: LGBTQ, YA
Hardback: 384 pages
Rating: 5

In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept "separate but equal."

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

My two-bits:
This was a painful read as it dealt with the ugly side of a lot of ism's - racism, classism, sexism as well as sexual orientation. However, it was good to see how the characters handled their situations despite all the hardships and torment.

This also was a good book for introducing the topics and realities of things that happenend in the past for a middle grade and YA crowd who are not already aware.

The main topic was racism and the start of the integration process in school. Reading this made me appreciate how far we have come in promoting and embracing diversity in schools.

The LGBT part was handled well and with a subtle touch of two girls starting to accept and go forward with their new and different kind of relationship.

~*~
* let me know in comments if you think this is a book you might want to read

* review copy courtesy of Media Masters Publicity

* added this to my Bookish Bingo challenge - square: LGBT QIA

Bookish Bingo Challenge: Winter

Bookish Bingo Challenge
Winter: January to March 2015
hosted by Great Imaginations (details)
Decided to join this bingo challenge again - third one.

It feels so satisfying being able to check off a square after completing a book.

The Rules:

Sign-ups close on January 15 here

Read read read!

-You may include one DNF.
-Remember, one square per book.
-Books do not have to be reviewed

~*~

~*~
Books read:

Square - Pink Cover
The Vagabond Vicar by Charlotte Brentwood -my review

Square - Middle Grade
A Sudden Light by Garth Stein -my review

Square - Pink Cover
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty -my review

Square - LGBT QIA
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley -my review

Square - Romance
Granted Wishes by Tanya Vought -my review

Square - White Cover
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby -my review

Square - Over 400 pages
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber -my review

Square - 2015 Debut
The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen -my review

Square - 2014 Release I Missed
The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg -my review

Square - Pretty Dress Cover
New Uses for Old Boyfriends by Beth Kendrick -my review

Square - Blue Cover
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr -my review

Square - Super Powers
Miss Stoker - vampire hunter
The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason -my review

Square - Epistolary
The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock -my review

Square - Graphic Novel
Kill My Mother by Jules Feiffer -dnf

Square - Based on Mythology
Touch by Natalia Jaster -my review

Square - Fairy Tale Re-telling
Never by Shay Lynam -my review

Square - Start a Series
Tortured Souls (The Orion Circle #1) by Kimber Leigh Wheaton -my review

Square - Mental Illness
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven -my review

Square - Magical Realism
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami -my review

Square - Mystery or Thriller
Descent: A Novel by Tim Johnston -my review

Square - Gold Lettering
What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey -my review

Square - PoC MC
The Borzoi Killings by Paul Batista -my review

Square - Male POV
Soul Meaning by A.D. Starling -my review

Stacking the Shelves - 11.1.14

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

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Bought:

Etiquette & Espionage
(Finishing School book 1)
by Gail Carrier
Amazon | Goodreads
-----> for Finishing School Read Along

What I Know For Sure
by Oprah Winfrey
-inspirational, memoir
Amazon | Goodreads
-----> for some positive inspiration and feel good moments

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
-dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
-----> the hype and good reviews for this made this irresistible

Doon
by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon
-fantasy, YA
Amazon | Goodreads
-----> after reading book 2, i just HAD to read this one too ;-)

For Review:

Lies We Tell Ourselves
by Robin Talley
-LGBTQ, YA
courtesy of Media Masters Publicity
Thanks Casey!
Amazon | Goodreads

Hunting in Bruges
(Hunters' Guild #1)
by E.J. Stevens
-paranormal, urban fantasy
courtesy of author
Thanks E.J.!
Amazon | Goodreads

Hit
by Lorie Ann Grover
-YA
courtesy of BookSparks Fall Reading Challenge 2014
Thanks Janay!
Amazon | Goodreads
Library:

Shadow of Night
(All Souls Trilogy #2)
by Deborah Harkness
-demons, vampires, witches
Amazon | Goodreads

Book of Life
(All Souls Trilogy #3)
by Deborah Harkness
-demons, vampires, witches
Amazon | Goodreads
-----> HAD to pick up the rest of this trilogy after experiencing A Discovery of Witches which I really loved, listening to the audio versions

Dreaming about getting soon:

Neil Patrick Harris:
Choose Your Own Autobiography
by Neil Patrick Harris
Amazon | Goodreads
Tired of memoirs that only tell you what really happened?

Sick of deeply personal accounts written in the first person? Seeking an exciting, interactive read that puts the “u” back in “aUtobiography”? Then look no further than Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography! In this revolutionary, Joycean experiment in light celebrity narrative, actor/personality/carbon-based-life-form Neil Patrick Harris lets you, the reader, live his life. You will be born to New Mexico. You will get your big break at an acting camp. You will get into a bizarre confrontation outside a nightclub with actor Scott Caan. Even better, at each critical juncture of your life you will choose how to proceed. You will decide whether to try out for Doogie Howser, M.D. You will decide whether to spend years struggling with your sexuality. You will decide what kind of caviar you want to eat on board Elton John’s yacht.

Choose correctly and you’ll find fame, fortune, and true love. Choose incorrectly and you’ll find misery, heartbreak, and a hideous death by piranhas. All this, plus magic tricks, cocktail recipes, embarrassing pictures from your time as a child actor, and even a closing song. Yes, if you buy one book this year, congratulations on being above the American average, and make that book Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography!

-----> really curious to read this format for an autobiography AND really fell for NHP's character, Barney in How I Met Your Mother tv series

OTHER things on my shelf: kinda book-related

Started listening to another book podcast...

I got turned on to this U.K. duo, Adventure With Words, after listening their Gone Girl episode where Simon from The Readers is a guest.

~*~
* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers

Guest post: Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Lies We Tell Ourselves
by Robin Talley
Amazon | Goodreads | Website
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by Robin Talley
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In which Robin provides an introduction to the characters in her book...

I knew before I even started writing it that the main characters’ parents would play a major role in Lies We Tell Ourselves. It’s a story focusing on two high school seniors ― Sarah, who’s black, and Linda, who’s white ― who are both the daughters of activists in the school integration movement, though they serve on opposite sides of the struggle.

Sarah’s parents are very active in the NAACP. When the story starts they’ve recently moved from Chicago, where Sarah’s father wrote for a major African American newspaper, to Virginia, so they could be part of the Civil Rights Movement in the South.

When I was researching the story, I scoured the Internet for photos of Chicago NAACP activists during this period. I came across a huge group photo of a meeting that took place there in the 1940s (sadly, I can’t find it now but it was along the lines of this one from 1929). As I zoomed in and examined the people in the photo, I saw one couple that made me stop and gasp.

This couple.

The photo wasn’t labeled, so I don’t know who these two activists were. But as soon as I saw them, I knew that in my mind, these two people would always be Sarah’s parents, Robert and Irene Dunbar, and I knew that this photo was taken when they were younger, soon after their wedding, before Sarah was born.

That open, idealistic smile on Irene’s face. The shrewd, tired look on Robert’s. Their neat crisp clothes, the bundle of newspapers clasped in Irene’s arms, the crowd of friends and allies clustered around them.

I knew these were the people who would raise Sarah to be a smart, courageous, stronger-than-she-knows young woman who would change the world before she was even old enough to vote.

Parents are often MIA in young adult books. They usually are in the other books I’ve written. But for Lies We Tell Ourselves, the parents were vital to giving the main characters the foundation they needed to make it through the wrenching story that lay ahead of them.

And I can’t imagine Sarah making it through her story without her parents ― these parents ― standing strong behind her.

~end

Guest post created by Robin Talley, author of Lies We Tell Ourselves
© 2014. All rights reserved.

About the author:

I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and escaped to Washington, D.C., at the first opportunity. I now live with my wife, our antisocial cat, and our goofy hound dog on Capitol Hill. I also work for a progressive nonprofit organization.

My first novel, Lies We Tell Ourselves, was released Sept. 30, 2014, by Harlequin Teen. It’s set in 1959 Virginia, and it’s a black girl and a white girl who fall in love in 1959 Virginia while their school is being desegregated for the first time. My next book, Unbreakable, follows a high school couple — Gretchen, who identifies as a lesbian, and Toni, who identifies as genderqueer — whose relationship is tested when they’re separated for their first year of college.

I spend my nights and weekends writing young adult fiction about LGBT characters, reading books, and enjoying The Daenerys Show (you may know it as Game of Thrones). I also read a lot of young adult books and spend an inordinate amount of time getting worked up about things that shouldn’t happen in the world, and yet somehow keep happening.

I was a Lambda Literary Foundation Writers’ Retreat Fellow, and I’m represented by Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich.

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website
Facebook
Tumblr
Twitter @robin_talley

~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
by Robin Talley
~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
--~ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher ~--
READ more about this world...

signup to win this book
~*~
* image source: photo

Giveaway: Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Lies We Tell Ourselves
by Robin Talley
Amazon | Goodreads | Website
In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept "separate but equal."

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

About the author:

I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and escaped to Washington, D.C., at the first opportunity. I now live with my wife, our antisocial cat, and our goofy hound dog on Capitol Hill. I also work for a progressive nonprofit organization.

My first novel, Lies We Tell Ourselves, was released Sept. 30, 2014, by Harlequin Teen. It’s set in 1959 Virginia, and it’s a black girl and a white girl who fall in love in 1959 Virginia while their school is being desegregated for the first time. My next book, Unbreakable, follows a high school couple — Gretchen, who identifies as a lesbian, and Toni, who identifies as genderqueer — whose relationship is tested when they’re separated for their first year of college.

I spend my nights and weekends writing young adult fiction about LGBT characters, reading books, and enjoying The Daenerys Show (you may know it as Game of Thrones). I also read a lot of young adult books and spend an inordinate amount of time getting worked up about things that shouldn’t happen in the world, and yet somehow keep happening.

I was a Lambda Literary Foundation Writers’ Retreat Fellow, and I’m represented by Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich.

--~ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher ~--
To celebrate October as LGBT History Month...

WIN a copy of this book!

Open to US only.

Offer ends: October 31, 2014

TO DO: (2-parts)

DO at least one of the following:

ADD this book to your Want To Read list on Goodreads.

OR

Follow Robin Talley on Twitter: @Robin_Talley

OR

Follow Harlequin Teen on Twitter: @HarlequinTEEN

OR

Like Harlequin Teen on Facebook

2. TELL me what you did in comments.

AND, leave your email OR make sure I have a way to contact you (twitter link, clickable profile, etc).

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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