2011 Inky Awards Long List Announced

The long list for the 2011 Inky Awards was announced yesterday. They make me want to be a teenager again because to be eligible to vote, you must be a teen!

From Inside A Dog:
The Inkys are international awards for teenage literature that are voted for online by the readers of insideadog.com.au. It recognises the fantastic home grown writing talent from Australia with the Gold Inky and also titles that come from across the ocean with the Silver Inky.


I'm really excited about this list because a lot of the books are absolute favourite's of mine! And other's are currently contributing to my insanely massive TBR pile :)

GOLD INKY LONG LIST
(Australian titles)

Pigboy by JC Burke
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Just a Girl by Jane Caro
The FitzOsbourne’s in Exile by Michelle Cooper
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
This is Shyness by Leanne Hall
Black Painted Fingernails by Steven Herrick
Silvermay by James Moloney
The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling
All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

As always, my vote goes to Graffiti Moon because I am such a Cath Crowley fan-girl. I would also be happy with Black Painted Fingernails, Good Oil or The Comet Box which are all titles I have read and enjoyed. I'm dying to get my hands on All I Ever Wanted and This is Shyness.





SILVER INKY LONG LIST
(International titles)

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
The Agency: The Body in the Tower by YS Lee
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
First Light by Rebecca Stead
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
Violence 101 by Denis Wright

It's a really tough call for me between Where She Went and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. I loved both of them so, so much and really would not like to have to pick between them. I would also be happy if Anna and the French Kiss won because , well, le *sigh*. I have both Violence 101 and Clockwork Angel taking up space in my TBR too.




Congratulations to all the long-listed nominees!

The short list will be announced on September 1st and then the voting is open until October 18th. The award winners will be announced September 25th when we celebrate all things inky!

2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Short-list

Today here in Australia, the 2011 short-listed titles for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced.


In the Young Adult Fiction category the titles are:
About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds

I have read three of the five titles (click on the title for my review) and while I really liked all three, my vote goes to Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon.

In the Children's Fiction category the titles are:
April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Now by Morris Gleitzman
Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod
Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

I have only read Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, although Morris Gleitzman's Now has been on my TBR list for a long time.

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The winners will be announced in the first week of July. To view the adult short-listed books click here.

Good Oil by Laura Buzo

Title: Good Oil
Author: Laura Buzo

Release Date: 1st August 2010

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
'Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to The Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei, and I will give you the good oil. Right? And just so you know, I'm open to all kinds of bribery.'

From the moment 15-year-old Amelia starts working on the checkout at Woolworths, she is sunk, gone, lost, head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies. But he's 21, and the six-year gap in their ages may as well be a hundred. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien, but will he ever look at her the way she wants him to? And if he does, will it be everything she hopes?

My Review:
Reminiscent of Melina Marchetta, Laura Buzo's debut novel is a funny, witty story about a girl who experiences her first major crush.

The witty banter between Chris and Amelia is entertaining and the story itself is a funny and realistic image of young love. Amelia's favourite subject at school is English and it is one of the underlying themes in Good Oil. She and Chris are always discussing classic stories that Amelia is studying and I love how Amelia often uses certain characters situations to tell Chris how she is feeling as it can be taken at face value but it also allows her to tell him how she feels if he chooses to read into it. I like this as it is something I know I have been guilty of doing.

The main focus of Good Oil is Amelia's fixation on Chris. I think that most teenage girls will be able to identify with Amelia over her feelings towards him. Buzo is spot on with Amelia's obsessive behaviour. For a 15-year-old girl who thinks she has fallen in love for the first time, all she wants is to be around him and tell everyone how wonderful he is. She counts down the moments until she gets to see him again. Unfortunately, this means she is a bit self-absorbed and doesn't really think to ask her best friend Penny what's happening in her life and then resents Penny because she doesn't know something or isn't part of something that Penny is doing.

Amelia is a great character. I love that she can be so naive in one area of her life but then so opinionated and wise beyond her years in others. This is one of the things that draws Chris to her and why I like her too because I like that a 15-year-old can have so many important and interesting thoughts amongst all the other teen angst. I especially love the rants and tangents she goes off on, particularly Amelia's issues with her parent's smoking and her thoughts concerning feminism, how she believes it has ruined her mum's life. Amelia's father frustrates me so much and I feel bad for her mum. To experience this would be quite foreign to me as my own parents have always equally shared the raising of my sister and I and the household duties.

The story is told in alternative points of view between Amelia and Chris. Amelia's part is told in first person and so is Chris's, but his is in diary format. It is interesting as, while the story is mainly Amelia's, we still get to find out what Chris is thinking and his reasons for acting the way he does. My only annoyance with this is that these perspectives are told in large chunks so after reading Chris' thoughts, I had to try and remember back to how Amelia perceived his actions.

Anyone who has ever worked in customer service will be able to relate to the first paragraph...

'I'm writing a play,' says Chris, leaning over the counter of my cash register. 'It's called Death of a Customer. Needless to say, it's set here.' He jerks his head towards the aisles lined with groceries and lit with harsh fluorescent bars.

...and the clichéd staff are also easily recognisable as the different character types I'm sure almost everyone has had the pleasure of working with at some point.

My favourite thing about the book is actually the ending. It's not a fairytale ending. I feel it is realistic. I think the most powerful part of Good Oil is that it is a story which teenage girls can relate to as it is based around a huge part of being a teenager: the first crush.

I recommend this for ages 14+ as it does have some adult content.