Ally Condie has hit Twitter to thank her German fans for the huge success of REACHED– aka DIE ANKUNFT– in their nation!
Die Ankunft is currently #3 on Der Spiegel’s German Bestseller List. This includes all hardcover books, not just Young Adult series! Last week it was at #2!
To show just how hyped up the books were right now, German Matched Trilogy fan Emmy Neal sent Ally this picture from her local train station:
If you’ve not read Reached yet, this post contains minor spoilers!
Ally Condie posted a picture of her own “mud bird”, as created by her friend Brook Andreoli:
On her blog, Allysaid:
I’ll keep this quite spoiler-free, but basically it’s a scene where a girl makes a bird out of some materials (one of those materials is mud, and one is glass). It’s a scene about creation and making something out of what you have.
I’m working on a new mud bird right now. Several of them, actually, and boy, are my hands dirty. And I am certainly getting lots of little cuts as I work with what I have and try to repurpose new things. I’m not just talking about writing projects (though I do have some of those!). Creation can be exhilarating. It can also be painful.
Ally Condie is the subject of a fun new profile in The Washington Examiner written by the Associated Press that discussed the success of the Matched Trilogy, but also pays homage to how the best-selling author made her way into the business:
So, with three best-selling books in three years, it appears that Condie, 34, has just suddenly hit the jackpot. In an interview before a recent program for teens in Bethesda, however, Condie is quick to correct the record, noting that she earlier had published five novels for teens with a small, religious-focused publisher, Deseret Book Company in her home state of Utah, before even beginning “Matched.”
In fact, Condie now credits those early novels as a type of apprenticeship that gave her the skills to eventually write her best-selling trilogy.
“The editors there [at Deseret Book] were the first ones to see some promise in me, and I’m grateful,” Condie added.
Ally Condie recently spoke to Amazon.com’s book blog Omnivoracious all about the Matched Trilogy, writing, and reading! Check it out!
Check out these fun graphics based on the covers for Matched, Crossed, and Reached created by holidayhaloway!
MTV’s Hollywood Crush recently posted a poll asking you to pick your favorite book of the year and Reached happens to be an option!
From series enders (Ally Condie’s “Reached;” Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s “Beautiful Redemption”) to debut efforts (Kiera Cass’ “The Selection,” Julie Cross’ “Tempest”) to the book that left us all quivering in a puddle of our own snot and tears (John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars”), it’s been another great year to read young adult. Though it may be tough to play favorites, that is the task before you. Cast your vote for the best YA novel of 2012 after the jump (or else we’ll send a hydra demon after you!).
Make sure to cast your vote here!
Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog has posted its top holiday picks for Young Adult readers, which includes the Matched Trilogy Box Set!
Matched Trilogy Box Set: This is a series tailor-made for Hunger Games readers. Romance and action in a Big Brother society, and I’m not giving anything away to tell you that it starts with a teen girl, Cassia, who is shown her expected marriage match–but for a brief second another boy’s face appears on the screen. Hmmm… The story builds from there, each book adding a new layer and new voices to the narrative. Addictive reading.
The rest of the list consists of the John Green Box Set, Lauren Conrad Beauty, Not Exactly A Love Story, The Hobbit (Deluxe Collector’s Edition), and Star Wars: A Galatic Pop-up Adventure. You can see the reasons for each pick here.
If you didn’t know, REACHED has been doing increasingly well since being released just about 2 weeks ago. Ally Condie, our awesome author, took to her blog to post some links to articles, reviews, etc. Check them out below!
In case you missed it MTV.com posted the official Reached playlist!
Amazon has named REACHED as one of the best books of 2012 for Kids and Teens. It’s currently #1 on the list!
Entertainment Weekly posted a review of Reached.
“There’s no shame in crying at the end.”
There will also be an interview with Ally in the November 23rd issue of the magazine (the one with Star Wars on the cover).
USA Today featured an article on the series.
Author Ally Condie says a “casual conversation about marriage” with her husband, an economics professor at Brigham Young University, triggered the most popular series of books for teens since The Hunger Games.
John Green, author of The Fault In Our Stars, mentioned Reached in a tweet and on a Tumblr blog post (Ally mentioned that she’s a fan of his work).
Seventeen and Just Jared Jr. both chose REACHED as their book club pick.
We could never imagine our free will being taken away or having our lives pre-planned for us or having arranged marriages come back into style.
-JJJ
Penguin Teen (publisher of the series) did an author spotlight of Ally.
What’s your favorite thing about your book? I like the endings of each of the books in the series. It’s fun to take a character to a specific point in their journey and have that sense of arrival…and also that something new might be on the horizon for them.
Also, just a reminder, Ally is on a book tour for REACHED right now. Check out the schedule here to see if she’ll be in your city soon.
Make sure to check out Ally’s blog posts here for her personal and book-related updates!
Ally Condie posted a great Thanksgiving message on her blog along with a lovely photo from her tour stop at Anderson’s in Naperville, Illinois!
Photo credit: Cayt O’Neal.
I want to thank all of you wonderful readers for your supportive emails, comments, tweets, etc., this past week. They are always great, but this week they’ve been especially supportive, and I am so grateful. Being in the public eye is not an easy thing for me and you make it easier/less scary. You make it possible. I know it is a big investment of time to read a book/series, and I appreciate it more than I can say that you would be willing to give your time to these books and characters.
And for those of you taking the time to post reviews on your blogs, or on Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.–that’s an additional amount of time taken, and I am VERY grateful for that too.
Also, word-of-mouth cannot be overestimated–when you take the time to tell someone about a book you love (whether it’s mine or not!) that does the reading community and us as a culture a great deal of good. You’re letting people know that books and stories are worth their time.
THANK YOU.
Thank you for your wonderful stories and inspired writing, Ally! We hope you’re enjoying your book tour!
The Art of YA sketches tons of great fan art for her favorite young adult fandoms and it looks like the Matched Trilogy is no exception! Check out her take on Cassia at the Matching Ceremony:
By ArtOfYA
