Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Guest Blog: The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst

UFI welcomes Sarah Beth Durst Author of The Lost. Thanks for Joining us!!


One of the best things about living in the town of Lost is that you can always find books.
Lost is the desert town at the heart of my new book, THE LOST. It's a town full of only lost things and lost people. Feral dogs roam the alleys. Keys, wallets, and umbrellas clog the gutters. Suitcases litter the parking lots. It's easy to find half-eaten sandwiches but much harder to find fresh food. You have to scavenge and barter for anything you need. 

But finding books is easy. People are always losing library books, or leaving paperbacks on trains and planes. You might be stuck with nothing but soggy potato chips for breakfast, but you can always have a library full of amazing books. 

So I thought this made for a good excuse to talk about what books I'd look for to fill my shelves in Lost: 

Favorites that I've read ten thousand times but still must own:
THE BLUE SWORD by Robin McKinley
BEAUTY by Robin McKinley
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
THE BELGARIAD by David Eddings
JACK THE GIANT-KILLER by Charles de Lint
ALANNA by Tamora Pierce
DEEP WIZARDY by Diane Duane
A FISTFUL OF SKY by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
THE DARK IS RISING by Susan Cooper
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE by J.K. Rowling
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE by Diana Wynne Jones
DEALING WITH DRAGONS by Patricia C. Wrede
DRAGONSINGER by Anne McCaffrey
ARROWS OF THE QUEEN by Mercedes Lackey
DREAMS UNDERFOOT by Charles de Lint 

Recent reads that I'd like to reread:
MAGIC RISES by Ilona Andrews
HALF-OFF RAGNAROK by Seanan McGuire
A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS by Marie Brennan
THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY by Mur Lafferty
CHRISTMAS ON 4TH STREET by Susan Mallery
THE WINNER'S CURSE by Marie Rutkoski
STAR WARS: JEDY ACADEMY by Jeffrey Brown
SEVEN WILD SISTERS by Charles de Lint
HERO by Alethea Kontis 

What books would you look for, if you were in Lost?
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Sarah was born in Northboro, Massachusetts, a small town that later became the setting for her debut novel. At the age of ten, she decided she wanted to be a writer. (Before that, she wanted to be Wonder Woman, except with real flying ability instead of an invisible jet. She also would have accepted a career as a unicorn princess.) And she began writing fantasy stories. She attended Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her two children, and her ill-mannered cat.

Find Sarah and her books
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 The Lost
Award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst has been praised for her captivating novels that merge the darkly imagined with very real themes of self-discovery and destiny. In The Lost, we'll discover just what it means to lose one's way.

It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassible dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again. The residents she meets there tell her she's going to have to figure out just what she's missing and what she's running from before she can leave. So now Lauren's on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, she'll be found.

Against the backdrop of this desolate and mystical town, Sarah Beth Durst writes an arresting, fantastical novel of one woman's impossible journey and her quest to find her fate.

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New Releases: 5/25-5/31


Tue May 27th

 Blur (Blur Trilogy #1) by Steven James
 The Dark World (Dark World #1) by Cara Lynn Shultz
 Divided (Dualed #2) by Elsie Chapman
 The Given (Celestial Blues #3) by Vicki Pettersson

Happy Reading!