WTF Did I Miss This Week? #32 (w/c 08/05/17)

The publishing world:

I can't believe there are still more new releases coming. Stop, I need a chance to catch up on the ones that have already come out!:

There were two beautiful cover reveals, which brought tears to my eyes:

I'm so excited to read both of these books. 

In other news:

• The shortlist for the 2017 Branford Boase Award was released...
• ...while the winners of the Nibbies (The British Book Awards, if you want their official title) were announced! 
• Marieke Nijkamp is editing an anthology! It's going to feature a bunch of #ownvoices disabled authors and will be released in 2018. 
• Andy Weir's next novel, 'Artemis', is being released in November. 
• Patrick Ness revealed that the Chaos Walking movie is officially happening. Shooting starts this summer, which gives me plenty of time to actually read the trilogy... 
• Rae Earl has announced her next project: she's releasing a YA non-fiction title called 'It's All In Your Head' on the 10th of August. 
• There have been two huge YALC announcements in the past week, and it's not over yet: another batch of authors are being announced on Tuesday. 

The music world:

It was a huge week for new releases:

After the excitement of last week, the new music isn't stopping:

Milk Teeth releasing 'Owning Your Okayness', their first single on Roadrunner Records:

Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive teamed up with Australian rapper Illy for 'Oh My': 

I Prevail want you to 'Come and Get It': 

Miley Cyrus really loves living in 'Malibu':

Courage My Love 'Need Someone' to watch their new video:

There were also new releases from MGK, Papa Roach, blink-182, Katy Perry, Linkin Park, Hundredth, Miss May I, Broadside, Fleet Foxes, k.flay, Louise Distras, Bleachers, Obey The Brave, Greywind, Eighteen Visions, Tigers Jaw, Third Eye Blind, and HAIM, while Patent Pending covered 'Livin' La Vida Loca', The Summer Set's Brian Logan Dales released his first solo song under the name DALES, and The Maine released a live version of 'Raining in Paris'.  

Can I get a WHAT WHAT for these amazing tour announcements?: 

• For the love of nostalgia, Dashboard Confessional and The All-American Rejects have announced a co-headline tour! With dates running from July to August, there's plenty of opportunity to catch these two. Support comes from The Maine and Social Animals. 
• This Wild Life have announced an extensive headline tour throughout July and August, playing across North America and Canada. 
• As well as signing to Roadrunner Records and announcing their new EP, 'Be Nice', Milk Teeth also treated us to tour dates this week. They're headlining shows across the UK during July and August, following their appearances at Slam Dunk and 2000 Trees. 
• Trivium are headlining shows across Europe in August. Support comes from Obituary and Bury Tomorrow.
• With Confidence are playing shows in their home country of Australia in August, and they're taking Seaway and WSTR along for the ride. 
• Korn have announced a UK warm-up show for Reading and Leeds festival. They're headlining Brixton O2 Academy on August 23rd. 
• The Who and Guns n' Roses are playing some shows together in South America at the end of the year. It looks like more information is still to come... 
• Rise Against are headlining shows across North America in September and October. Support comes from Pierce the Veil and White Lung. 
• Against Me are playing across North America during September and October. Support comes from Bleached and The Dirty Nil.  
• Waterparks have announced their first UK headline tour. They're returning to our shores in September, and playing two headline shows in Germany at the start of October. 
• Things are getting heavy in November: Counterparts will be touring the UK with Polar and Napoleon. 

The album announcements just aren't stopping:

• Evanescence have announced their first album in six years, but 'Synthesis' will only feature two new songs.
• Having been a band for four years, Fort Hope are finally releasing their debut album, 'The Flood Flowers: Volume 1', on June 16th.
• Imagine Dragons are releasing their third album, 'Evolve', on June 23rd...
• ...the same date that The White Noise are releasing their debut album, 'AM/PM'...
• ...and Captain We're Sinking's 'The King of No Man' comes out, too. 
• 88 Finger Louie are releasing their first album in over 19 years - 'Thank You For Being a Friend' - on June 30th...
• ...which also heralds the release of the new Calvin Harris album, 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1.'  
• Sheer Mag's new album, 'Need To Feel Your Love', is arriving on July 10th. 
• In This Moment's 'Ritual' is hitting the shelves on July 21st. 
• Die Antwoord are releasing 'The Book of Zef' in September, and it might signal the end of the band. 

In other news:

• Linkin Park announced that Snoop Dogg will be opening their October shows. Just me that's thinking this is a weird mix? 
• Meanwhile, vocalist Chester Bennington told fans to "move the fuck on" from 'Hybrid Theory', and Slipknot/Stone Sour's Corey Taylor admonished him. Beef? 
• Korn had to cancel their appearance at Pointfest after Jonathan Davis was ordered by doctors to go on vocal rest...
• ...while Avenged Sevenfold dropped out of supporting Metallica so guitarist Synyster Gates' could get home for the birth of his first child. Bloody good excuse, and they've already announced the rescheduled date!
• Another cause for celebration: Issues' bassist, Skyler Acord, got married! 
• After five years, Chasing Cadence have called it a day. They're playing their final shows throughout May and July, with their last performance happening on August 11th at The Black Heart in Camden: ticket information is being released soon. 
• Sexual assault allegations have surfaced regarding Ben from PWR BTTM. It's likely that this story will develop further...
• ...as will the saga surrounding Pentagram, whose vocalist Bobby Liebling appears to have been fired after being arrested for assault. Oopsies. 
• It's been a big week for Paramore: they've announced that Parahoy! will be setting sail in 2018, and have settled their lawsuit with ex-bassist Jeremy Davis.
• Taking Back Sunday are taking their fans to Jamaica for their first ever 'destination event'. Their Island Adventure Fun Time Jamboree runs from January 4th to January 8th 2018.  
• All of the members of My Chemical Romance hung out, and the world exploded.  
• The Offspring's frontman, Dexter Holland, casually got a PhD in molecular biology, because why not?
• Tyler Joseph of twenty one pilots uses his time off to perform his own songs at karaoke bars. Of course!
• The last three bands have been added to Slam Dunk Festival. 
• Rock Sound were named International Publication of the Year. They deserve it. 

TRAVEL THURSDAY: The Great Reef of Australia

It's time for AJ to tell you about another one of his wonderful adventures. After visiting the stinky heights of Rotorua last week, this week he's sailing across the deep blue sea...

Rotorua wasn't the first tourist venue I visited. Late last year I enjoyed a trip across the Tasman Sea to Cairns, a Queenstown city closer to the Solomon Islands than to the state capital, Brisbane. Surrounded by jungle views and beautiful shimmering water, Cairns is the only place in the world where two UNESCO World Heritage sites are found side by side and - while I sadly missed out on a chance to stand between Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef - I did get to visit the latter. 

I woke early in the morning and waited for a lift from my hostel, which would take me to the docks at Cairns. There, me and sixty other people boarded a Tusa Diving boat.

Some of me fellow passengers, taken on the brand new GoPro I purchased exclusively for this trip

As I was travelling alone I felt inclined to mingle as we headed to the reef; make friends with strangers and get to learn the stories of others. There was an old Californian couple who had recently retired and wanted to get away from the States for a bit (at least until the whole "Donald Trump" thing subsided), a stocky German lad named Paul, an English couple who were more than happy to discuss football, and two gorgeous Canadian girls - Emily and Lanette - who were in Australia for a work holiday. My experience with Cairns, having lived near there previously, is that the locals rarely visit the reef unless it's literally their job, and this seemed to be backed up with not a single Australian on-board. 

As we were approaching Hastings Reef, our dive spot of the day, I was pulled aside with Paul and another man, and we were given a crash course on diving. I had never done it before, and I figured I might as well lose my virginity at the world's most famous reef, right? 

The view as we approached Hastings Reef

However, I am a naturally anxious person, so in hindsight diving was probably not a good investment. The instructor took us down 20 meters below water, and already I was starting to feel incredibly claustrophobic and trapped. All my instincts were telling me to float to the top, but with the extra weights they'd put on me I couldn't. I started freaking out. Anxiety attacks are bad enough when they happen above water: that far underwater they are potentially lethal. Desperately I pointed up and my instructor inflated the emergency floater bags on my diving suit, and in no time at all I was back in the open. I gasped for air and got out of the water, shaking and breathing jagged. Diving was no longer as exciting as I thought it would be. 

Sadly this is a fact with anxiety. Sometimes it tampers with beautiful experiences. I wasn't going to let it suck my fun away, though. I grabbed a snorkel and joined the members of my travel team who had decided not to dive, and I just swam. I'd never been snorkeling before either, and it took awhile for me to get past my natural instinct of bobbing my head out of the water every second stroke. Once I conquered that, it was absolutely beautiful. 

Hastings Reef is one of the most pristine parts of the Great Barrier Reef system, and it shows. My eyes were treated to a beautiful array of colours in the coral, with schools of clown fish bobbing up every so often. Not only did I find Nemo, I also found sea turtles, parrot fish and a gorgeously yellow butterfly fish. I even got up close to a shark (albeit a harmless reef shark!). I got lost in this new world I was discovering, and just as I was getting into it we had to leave. 

The way home was the most fun I've ever had on a boat. I sat at the front of the boat, outside, with the English couple and the Canadians, and the conversations we were having about the reef, what we saw and how we need to help save it were compelling. While we were snorkeling the wind had picked up significantly, meaning that the waves were way choppier than they were coming in. After twenty minutes, once we hit speed, we started to feel the effects of that. The boat was getting some good air every 20 seconds, like being on your own rollercoaster. Our conversation stopped and we focused on the upcoming waves as we got good air between our buttocks and the seats every time we hit a massive one. The g-force and general excitement of what was happening was incredibly fun and exhilarating - not least because Emily decided to cling to me, as I was the closest thing to grab on to! After some time it became too dangerous to stay outside and the weather started to look upsetting, so we adjourned back inside and played a round of cards while we waited to arrive in Cairns. 

All credit to Tusa Dives, they were more than happy to refund me for not doing a dive and they were fantastic assistance through my anxiety attack. My decision not to go head with the dive is not one I regret. I still got to see a beautiful wonder of the world without spending an insubordinate amount of funds, and I've got stories to tell. As we arrived in Cairns we heard the news of two people suffering heart attacks while diving at another reef just moments before, so perhaps I felt a little less guilty about pulling out at that point. While I do hold some regret for not getting past my fears on that day, I am incredibly pleased with what I did do. Perhaps one day in the future, now that I know what to expect, I will return to the reef and dive properly. I just hope the conservation efforts work, and this beautiful world can survive. 

Donate here to help save the Great Barrier Reef. 

This is the best picture you get of the reef: the GoPro died before I went in the water! 

A big thank you to AJ, for sharing another of his travel stories with us. I've always wanted to visit the Great Barrier Reef, so I'm definitely going to donate to the conservation efforts.

TOP FIVE WEDNESDAY: Top five books to use as themes

(Top Five Wednesday was created by GingerReadsLainey. Find out more at the Goodreads group!)

Sometimes people use films or TV shows as themes for parties, but it's not often that books are used (unless it's Harry Potter related!). These five books would make brilliant themes for parties, and I'm tempted to organise some of them myself...

5) 'The Selection' by Kiera Cass

I'm not suggesting you organise a party in which all of your friends compete for the same guy, but hosting a party with 'The Selection' as a theme is a great excuse for everyone to wear their fancy clothing. Everything is huge, poofy dresses and tuxedos, and everyone looks dapper as heck. 

4) 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth

You start the night with a quiz which gets you sorted into a faction, then you compete in games against each other to see which team wins. This also works with Harry Potter houses, The Hunger Games districts, and probably thousands more... 

3) 'Red Rising' by Pierce Brown

I don't want people to take this suggestion literally - don't start oppressing people at parties, that's rude! 

A 'Red Rising' theme could work if you were arranging a bigger party which had hired staff. Because the staff are the workers they can wear red, a bright and vibrant colour that makes it easy to seek them out if any problems arise. 

If this theme was used at a birthday party, the person being celebrated could be the only one wearing gold. 

The rest of the guests can choose which colour they feel they most relate to (I'd definitely be in purple, as I think of myself as a creative type!). 

2) 'Am I Normal Yet?' by Holly Bourne

Make your own Spinster Club! Get a group of people together to talk about feminism. Bring along your favourite sexist news article from the previous week so that you can mock the uneducated journalist who wrote it, and the ridiculousness of the publication that would feature such an idiotic piece. Just be awesome. 

1) 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' by Jenny Han

Has one of your friends recently had a bad break up? Know someone going through a divorce? Well, a 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before' themed party would be perfect for you!

Lara Jean writes letters to the boys she loves, but she never gives them over. It's a way of getting her feelings out on paper, and it makes it easier for her to deal with her emotions. Everyone at the party gets a piece of paper, a pen and an envelope, and once they've written and sealed their letters they all go into a fire. It's cathartic!

I hope you enjoyed this Top Five Wednesday! Do you think you're going to try to host any of the parties I've suggested?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Ten things on my reading wishlist

(Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish!)

We all have things we really like reading. Whether it's a specific type of character, a plot point or a setting, it's something that you like so much that you want to read it more.

I'd like to see more of all ten of these things in YA. 

10) Standalones 

I love standalones, but I feel they're much more common in contemporary YA than SFF. I guess it's because authors don't want to craft entire new worlds for just one release! I'd definitely like it if there were more, though - I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy, but sometimes I don't want the commitment of starting a new series. 

9) Contemporary trilogies

As well as wanting more standalones from other branches of YA, I'd love it if there were more contemporary trilogies. The only other contemporary series I can think of are either companion novels or hundreds of thousands of books long (*cough* Pretty Little Liars *cough* Gossip Girl *cough cough cough*), but I love being able to revisit characters and see how their lives are getting on. 

8) YA from other countries

I read UKYA and USYA, and sometimes dive down under for AusYA, but it's difficult to find YA books written and set in other countries. I'd love to be able to read YA from places all across the world.

7) Non-fiction for teenagers

I'm a huge fan of non-fiction (hence the fact I'm currently slogging my way through Simone de Beauvoir's tome, 'The Second Sex') but I often find it difficult to talk about on the blog because not many young adult readers enjoy the density of adult non-fiction titles.
That's why I love these three, and hope that more like them are released in the future. They're informative, educational and - most importantly - fun, which makes it easy to remember the vital information they contain. 

6) Summer soundtracks

Image found on Pinterest

If you couldn't guess by the fact that this is both a music- and book-related blog, music is my second love. I adore it when the two cross over, but they don't often come together in a brilliant way: either the band's music isn't described AT ALL, so you have no idea what they sound like, or the book is awful and taints the music mentioned with bad memories.

More casual references to songs played through novels, please! 

5) Quest plots

Credit to Eleganthack

I LOVE a classic quest plot. Characters go on a journey to do a thing, then return home at the end of the novel. The only time I've recently encountered a quest plot was in Alex Wheatle's 'Crongton Knights', which I absolutely ADORED. More please! 

4) Bisexual characters

Being bisexual, I'm often frustrated by the lack of bisexual representation. Bisexual people are not easy, and they're not sluts: just because they're attracted to people of both genders, it doesn't mean they're necessarily going to sleep with everyone they meet!

All I want is a book with a bisexual protagonist that feels like a welcoming space. Not like 'Run' by Kody Keplinger, which was attacked by professional reviewers; not like 'Ramona Blue' by Julie Murphy, which is being attacked by lesbians for erasure of their sexuality (who are directly erasing mine with their hurtful comments).

3) Polyamorous relationships

I can only think of one example of a polyamorous relationship in YA, and I didn't really enjoy the representation of it. It might have been because the book is general was flat, and the author was also attempting to explore asexuality in one of the members of the trio, but it was a huge disappointment. 

Polyamory is a feasible alternative relationship model, and it would be good for teenagers to be able to read about it in YA and see how it works. 

2) Asexuality 

I'm not asexual, but because I have asexual friends I think it would be great if they could find themselves represented in YA easily. There's a lot of confusion and misconceptions surrounding asexuality, and it would be nice if authors were willing to tackle that.

1) #ownvoices

This links into most of my other choices, but I can't get enough of #ownvoices authors. They deserve a special shout out, and I can't wait to see which new #ownvoices authors get signed by publishers in the coming months - it's exciting to read stories written by people who really know what they're talking about. 

I hope you enjoyed this Top Ten Tuesday! What would you have on your reading wishlist?