We have decided to dedicate this week’s Inspired By to Justina Chen,in honor of her recent publication of A Blind Spot For Boys.

 

A Camera, Two Kids, and A Camel: My Journey in Photographs
National Geographic: Simply Beautiful Photographs
both by Annie Griffiths

“An incredible 3-hour long interview with the first female photographer for National Geographic, Annie Griffiths, shaped the way I approached Shana, the protagonist in my novel who yearns to be a photographer. Annie very generously shared the story of her journey, her sometimes scary adventures in the field, interesting minutiae about the logistics of being a photographer on the go, and most of all, her long, abiding love for this art form.”

Betsy and Joe by Maud Hart Lovelace

“I grew up devouring the wonderful Betsy-Tacy series, but it was Betsy and Joe that stole my heart. Their great repartee, chemistry, and love for writing turned me into a lover of YA.”

The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye

“This big, sweeping, epic romance made me yearn to travel when I first read it in middle school. This same wanderlust powered my novel. I knew that Shana would have to journey to an exotic locale where she would be rearranged–not just by the right guy, but by the land itself.”

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

“I love stories of the human spirit. While Unbroken is an entirely different genre with almost unfathomable and truly horrific events that battered a man but did not break him, the flinging of a hero into the unknown intrigued me. I especially celebrated how this man’s arduous journey made him better, not bitter.”

The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Divakaruni

“This author’s writing does something for me–the evocativeness of her language, the sweep of her stories, the specificity of her details. Reading even a short passage from one of her novels pries open my senses and makes me run to my desk to capture what I see and smell and hear in my imagination.”