Just Contemporary Guest Post! Asheley from Into the Hall of Books!

Today on the blog, I have Asheley from Into the Hall of Books. Asheley is seriously one of my favorite people right now and I absolutely love chatting with her on Twitter and her blog makes me happy. For realz guys, if you don't know her, you definitely should. I was absolutely thrilled when Asheley agreed to write this guest post for me. I LOVED it and you totally will too! :)

Why I (am learning to) Love Contemporary

I shrugged off the YA Contemporary genre for years...

both young adult and adult fiction. Why? 

Because I have a mortgage. I have bills and children and friends that have 

 crumbling marriages. 

Also, I've been through high school and never cared to read about 

backstabbing, 

teen pregnancy, 

drug abuse, 

rape, 

or any of those other awful things that I remember about my younger days. 

After all, who wants to revisit high school? Not me.

When I graduated, I wanted to try and walk away from that stuff forever. 

I never imagined that I would want to voluntarily read about it. 

More importantly, 

I HAVE TWO DAUGHTERS and A SON. 

When I think about some of the subject matter of the YA Contemps, 

I absolutely panic and freak out for their future. I don't want to go there. 

(But I need to get over that.) 

A few things have happened recently that have caused me to rethink my 

"No-Contemp" personal policy!

• I realized that John Green writes contemporary. As I am one of his biggest fans, I stand in violation of my "no-contemp" rule!  
• I traded recommendations with Ashley and read my first verse novel, which also happened to be contemporary: Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder. And I fell in love...beautiful, twirling, dancing-on-clouds love...
• I started actually reading the blogposts/reviews of trusted bloggers who love the contemps and you know what? Some of their recommendations kinda-sorta interested me a little bit. 
• I realized that as a reader of plenty of adult fiction, I already do read some contemporary. 
• Not all contemporary is sad or hard-to-read, right? 

All of this being said, I've always read to escape. 

I use stories to go to faraway places, places that aren't real. 

I want to read about dragons or faeries, vampires or zombies. 

I want to read about mythology and fairy tales. 

I want to visit a crazy post-apocalyptic or dystopian society 

where civilization is on the brink of crumbling (or maybe it already has!) 

and only one person can save mankind. 

These are the books that make me 

hold my breath

turn the pages fast

gasp

nearly die freak out when something awesome happens.

So I don't see myself rearranging my favorite genres anytime soon. 

HOWEVER:

I am incorporating more contemporary into my already-eclectic mix. 

This way, I can truly be more eclectic
~and~ 

I am so happy about this! 

In the past few months, 

I've read some amazing adult fiction contemporary books 

that have changed me and opened dialogue in my heart and in my house. 

(Isn't that one of the great things about contemporary?)

More recently, I've started reading some YA contemporary books, 

and I am really proud of this. 

I haven't read that many yet, but I'm really thinking that 

2012 is my year for contemporary.

*I would have never made the leap into this genre if it wasn't for Ashley, Jacinda, and some other incredible awesome wonderful bloggers. The recommendations are amazing for people like myself -- new to the genre -- and the conversations afterward on Twitter or via email or blog comments are meaningful and inspiring. From the bottom of my heart, Ashley, thank you so much for the push nudge, and not giving up on me! I really AM learning to love contemporary, and I never EVER would have thought that possible!