bookshelves of doom

Lunchtime links.

• Stephen and Tabitha King are paying to transport 150 Maine National Guardsmen home from Indiana for the holidays.
• Reading Rants! presents: 10 Most Underappreciated Teen Books of 2000-2009.  Thoughts?  Additions?  I might have to go wander the stacks for this one.
• 11 Cool Bookcases.  Some of these are new to me, some I've seen before -- unfortunately, it looks like most of the designers favor form over function. 
• Natalie Portman will star in and produce the PPZ adaptation.  Well, we'll see how it goes.  My hopes are not particularly high.  (Granted, it's mostly Star Wars that I'm holding against her.  Which isn't really very fair, as she is certainly not solely responsible.  But, as my co-worker said, it's a LOT to get over.)
• Holiday cheer, Twin Peaks style (via Brian):

On Kirkus.

By now, I'm sure you know that Kirkus will soon be no more. 

And by now, I'm sure that you've seen the plethora of responses to the news.

I'm in the I'm-going-to-miss-it camp.  Not just because I'm pro-negative reviews -- which I am* -- but also because it seemed like they often had a different take on books than the other outlets, and generally, the more varied the responses, the more interested I get.

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*Not because I'm a Super Mean Lady, but because I like it when people are straightforward** and I feel that wearing rose-colored glasses somehow, I don't know, lessens the subject.  Like if a review withholds criticism and pulls punches, somehow it isn't treating the subject seriously.  I don't know if that actually makes any real sense to anyone other than myself.

**If a book drives a reviewer so bananas that s/he throws it at the wall, I WANT TO KNOW, you know?

I need more books on my TBR list Iike I need a hole in the head...

Second half of the sentence #1:  ...SO I'm glad to see that I've already read most of these recommendations, including Sunshine, His Majesty's Dragon, the Earthsea books and Eon: Dragoneye Reborn.  I read a good number of the Pern books back in middle school, but the only part of that series I've been interested in revisiting is the Harper Hall trilogy.  I'm sad that she didn't mention Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, though.

Second half of the sentence #2:  ...BUT what's one more?  After all, it's free.  And a whole pile of people have recommended that I read Charlie Huston.

Things that drive me bananas, #43.

People who use the term "graphic novel" as a catch-all term for any book in comic format, EVEN IF IT'S A MEMOIR.

According to the Wikipedia page, it can be used in that way, but I protest.  Strongly.  On the grounds that IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Upcoming title match.

Due out this month (or next month?):

 

Due out in June 2010:

 

The Fforde is on my RIGHT AFTER THE CYBILS pile (which is achieving epic proportions).  He and I have a pretty hit-or-miss relationship, but I generally always at least give his new ones a try.  I'm not familiar with the Kessler/Kittredge title, though I believe that it's the second in a series.

I love the library booksale: Part II.

As if the title isn't enough:

the first sentence of the back cover copy reads:  "She was to be the filling in a Wizard Sandwich."

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
 

I love the library booksale.

It's the only place where one will find this book:

 

and this book:

 

next to each other.  

Alice McKinley, Nancy Drew, and Wilkie Collins.

Planning some post-Cybil reading:

This review of the new Alice McKinley book made me laugh like a loon AND get all nostalgic.  Now I want to go back and re-read the series.  And then get caught up.

Speaking of books that are maddening AND wonderful... this blogger is running a Nancy Drew challenge next year.  She's challenging people to read all 56 of the original books (well, the yellow versions) in a year.  As the challenge allows for skipping those we've already read, I'd only need to read 46, which sounds so much more do-able than 56.  I'm still debating.

As I didn't run a Big Read this month, I'm thinking about running one in January.  And I'm thinking about making it Wilkie Collins' Woman in White, in honor of its 150th anniversary.  This was the article that inspired me.  Sound fun?

Many, many lookalikes.

A great gallery of art used again and again (and, holy cow, again some more) on book covers.

Thanks to MotherReader...

...we have quite a lot more information about the new FTC guidelines.

See GalleySmithfor a recap of the KidLitCon session with Mary Engle (Associate Director for Advertising Practices), as well as links to responses at other blogs.  More available at GalleyCat and PW.

Good thing I work in a library.

Because I want nothing to do with this FTC nonsense.

Don't forget...

...to nominate your 2008-9 favorites over at the Cybils website!

I was lucky to get a 3/10.

Yowch.

This quiz on exotic words is HARD.

Mark your calendar.

On September 29th (next week!), the Harvard Book Store will unveil their brand new Espresso Book Machine.

I'm going to try and make it down for the event.

And also maybe see what's new in the used department.

Regardless of whether or not I make it down, I think it is SO COOL that they're getting one.

I'm finding lately...

...that a LOT of the books that have caused other people to go completely bananas, jumping up and down and squealing happy squeals... have just NOT been doing it for me.

I'm not sure if it's because my expectations are too high or what.

But it's no fun.

SO.  I'm looking for Wicked Good Book recommendations.  They don't have to be new books, they don't have to be any specific genre.  I just want something that I'll be able to fall into, that has writing that at the very least won't make me roll my eyes, that has characters I can believe in, a story that I haven't read a million times before (unless the writing and the characters make it work), something that I'll remember for more than an hour after reading.

They sound like simple requirements, but lately...

BBAW Shortlists are up.

Voting is thataway!

"But genre fiction is, by definition, generic."

The genre v. literature debate reminds me of a conversation I have had with way too many people:

Random Music Snobby Pants Prone to Making Sweeping Generalizations:  All country music sucks.

Me:  Wow, so you think Johnny Cash sucks?

RMSPPtMSG:  Oh, he doesn't count as country music.

It's kind of like how Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie mysteries are quite often found in the regular fiction section, because, you know, she's literary.  So obviously she doesn't/wouldn't/couldn't-possibly write something as lowly as a mystery.

Along similar lines, Ursula K. Le Guin has an absolutely must-read review of Margaret Atwood's new book over at the Guardian.  As Margaret Atwood has said that she doesn't want her books thought of as science fiction (because, according to the review, "she doesn't want the literary bigots to shove her into the literary ghetto"), Le Guin says:

Who can blame her? I feel obliged to respect her wish, although it forces me, too, into a false position. I could talk about her new book more freely, more truly, if I could talk about it as what it is, using the lively vocabulary of modern science-fiction criticism, giving it the praise it deserves as a work of unusual cautionary imagination and satirical invention. As it is, I must restrict myself to the vocabulary and expectations suitable to a realistic novel, even if forced by those limitations into a less favourable stance.

Lookalikes.

After yesterday's day off, came in to find these two books on my desk:

 

Ah, donations.

We've flipped through, and it's actually less of a how-to and more of a how-to-avoid.

I'm kind of disappointed.

Book vs. Kindle, #3.

See 'em all at the Green Apple Books YouTube page.

Yecch.

The Secret:  For Teens.

I'm visualizing an end to the gd rain and I'm visualizing myself NOT wearing a wool sweater in late July.

I'm visualizing a bucket of gold doubloons sitting on my living room floor.

I'm visualizing all annoying books growing little legs and marching away, away, away.

Added to the feed reader:

Brews and Books.

Be sure not to miss the "most comprehensive list of book-related beer names ever compiled" -- I hope he keeps updating it*!

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*The list, I mean.  That I hope he keeps updating the blog is a given.

Smart Bitches on Bat Segundo.

This interview went up two weeks ago, but I was in a fight with the internet, so I only just discovered its existence.  After reading the intro, I ran around the library asking everyone, "Did you know that Harlequin was founded during the Depression?  Isn't that so cool?  Doesn't that make so much sense?"  (I got a lot of blank looks, as per usual.) 

I haven't listened to it yet (but I'm hoping to later today while I wait for my bread to rise).

An excerpt:

Sarah Wendell: And that’s not the only anatomical inaccuracy we’ve discovered. There’s a few one off inaccuracies we’ve discovered that are just mind-boggling. Like there’s one Gaelen Foley where the heroine’s a bona-fide virgin. And I mean bona-fide. Not is she like a virgin, but she’s like a princess or some shit? They haven’t even had sex yet. This is the first time they’re kissing in the woods. And he tastes her milk. Because, you know, virgins spontaneously lactate. Like a postpartum woman going into Target and hearing a baby cry. Yeah, same thing.

Wow. Go Target.

I had no idea that Target was behind the sudden patron interest in Sarah's Key -- until a few months ago, it hadn't circulated, like, ever.  And now patrons want it on a pretty regular basis.  Enough that I've noticed, at any rate.

ANYWAY.  Obviously, I already knew that they sold books -- I have to pass them on my way to the DVDs, HELLO -- I just didn't know that their book club program is so popular.  Good on them.

I think it's cool that the books are chosen by "a panel of Target employees"*, and that the books aren't generally the bestsellers you'd expect.  Something a little different from a big chain.  (Which I guess fits in with their image.)

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*Though my secret idealistic self sincerely** hopes that isn't code for "a panel of Target marketing executives".

**Because of course my secret idealistic self is sincere...

NPR's 100 Best Beach Books Ever: The 200 Finalists.

War and Peace?  Really?  Huh.  NPR listeners clearly have a very broad definition of "beach read".

The Second Annual BBAW...

...approaches.

Kerfuffles happen so quickly on the internet.

In case you missed it, Alice Hoffman read a lukewarm review of her new book, got mad, posted the reviewer's phone number on Twitter (while encouraging people to "Tell her what u think of snarky critics") which (shocker of shocks) got people all riled up, so she deleted her Twitter account and has since apologized.  Sort of.

Like the folks at GalleyCat...

...I never get tired of new Penguin Classics covers:

 

Robots = Arthropods.

The best sort of chart.

Goodbye, Readerville.

Readerville was what introduced me to the online book community.  For a good year at a miserable job, I kept an eye on the boards, and while I was just a mostly-lurker who never became a part of the Readerville community, it was what inspired me to begin Bookshelves of Doom.

I'm sorry to see it go.

Readygetset...

GO!

Or, well, 'go!' in about ten minutes*.  Which is when I'm beginning the 48-Hour Book Challenge.

I'm starting with Joan Lowery Nixon's The Name of the Game was Murder.  I'm in my pajamas, curled up in a blanket with a cup of tea and surrounded by piles and piles (and piles and piles) of books.  I'M GOING TO READ THEM ALL!!

!!!

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*Just finished writing this post -- down to four minutes...

I have a huge pile of books to review...

...and yet, they just sit there, silently judging me.

A few links.

• Ed asks Sherman Alexie to expand on his comments about the Kindle.
• Are you following the NerdsHeartYA Tournament?
• The Orange Prize now has a teen shadow panel.  They read the same twenty books that the official judges did and came up with a completely different shortlist.  I think this is a cool idea -- a way of involving audiences that might not usually be all that aware of certain awards & books.
• A Wisconsin library board unanimously voted NOT to restrict teen access to certain books.

Awards and finalists.

• The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction.
• ForeWord Magazine's Indie Books of the Year (and finalists).
• Mythopoeic Awards 2009 Finalists.

(Thanks to HBS Steve for the third link.)

4th Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge.

I took this Saturday off.

I think Josh is clearing out for the weekend to go and hang out with the boys.

I've stocked up on Lois Duncan and Joan Lowery Nixon, some Sarah Dessen, and a whole bunch (at least two big piles, and that doesn't count all of my regular piles*) of others I've been wanting to get to.

I AM TOTALLY IN.  Are you?

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*I realize that that is completely pathetic and ridiculous.  Why not just pull from the regular TBR piles?  Why create more?  I have no answer for you.

Links.

• The SBBT rides again!  I wasn't able to get it together to participate this time around*, but I'll very definitely be following along.
• The Guys Lit Wire Book Fair continues.
• I keep meaning to mention that Flux now has a podcast.  So here I am, mentioning it.
• Drama continues in the YA blogosphere.
• Authors respond to bad reviews at The Worst Review Ever.
• Have you been following the AV Club's Nashville or Bust column?  I haven't agreed with everything the author has had to say, but yay him for bringing attention to country music -- and note that I'm talking non-Shania-Twain-pretendy-country.
• There'd better be a bazillion pictures posted online, dammit.  Definitely something I'd love to see in person. 
• Oh, MAKE IT STOP.
• YES.  For all of those readers (myself included) who sometimes get a little paranoid that the excessive reading might be causing carpal tunnel.  What?  Really?  I'm the only one?  Damn.
• Dollhouse was renewed, which means that I will stop being a baby and actually watch the rest of Season One.
• Now that my reading slump is over, all I want to do is read.  So off I go.

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*I have, you know, stuff going on.  Due to ship next week!  YOWZA.

Reading slump and other sadness.

I'm in a reading slump.  In the middle of no less than four books and none of them are doing a whole lot for me.  NO FUN!

In yay news, though, we watched the Fringe season finale last night, and WHOA.  Many crazy things ensued/were revealed.  But this whole following-the-show-as-it-airs-rather-than-waiting-until-there-are-multiple-seasons-on-DVD thing is for the birds.  I need instant gratification, dammit, not three (four?) months of waiting for Season Two.  HA-rumph.

Also, I ran over a chipmunk on the way to work yesterday.  Why did he wait until the car was right in front of him AND THEN dive into the road?  What on the world could cause a chipmunk to become suicidal?

AND we have a staff meeting this morning.  How depressing.

Blame the lack of posting on Good Deed Time and one other (less admirable) thing.

No review -- or much of anything -- this morning, because I was too busy perusing the wishlist at the GuysLitWire/InsideOUTWriters Book Fair for Boys.

I ended up donating copies of Stephen King's On Writing, Graham McNamee's Acceleration and Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story.

If you use guyslitwire@gmail.com at the Powell's Wishlist Lookup page, you can see the full book list, and, if you've got a few spare dollars and the desire, you can very easily donate a book or two.

For a full explanation of the project, as well as complete ordering instructions (like, where to have the books shipped -- very important!) see this post at Guys Lit Wire.

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I will now go back to reading the rumors about a possible Holmes/Cruise divorce. 

Yes, I am ashamed of myself.

But not so ashamed that I will stop.

I need to request a weekend off...

...because it's time, once again, for MotherReader's 48-Hour Book Challenge.

Links.

• A note to authors:  Don't let your curly-haired characters brush their hair.  Thank you, Elizabeth.  It needed to be said.
• The Carnegie Medal shortlist.  Boys, boys, boys.  Man.  I am really behind in my reading.
• The Bridget Zinn Auction is running through this month.  Be sure to stop over and check out the items up for bid.
• The Edgar Award winners were announced last week.  John Green is going to have to buy a bigger mantelpiece.
• The brand-happy Mackenzie Blue makes her debut tomorrow.
• Cecil Castellucci covers the Jane Smiley/S.E. Hinton interview.  (via Liz B., who, as always, has many thoughts on the subject.)

Another great Lookalikes post...

...from Pop Culture Junkie.

I feel that there must be more, but every time I think of one, it's slightly off.

Okay, maybe a little more than slightly.

Book Award Wonderland.

• The LA Times Book Awards were announced.  Terry Pratchett's Nation*won the YA prize.  The YA runners up -- two of which I just added to my TBR list -- are at the bottom of this list.
• The Nebula Award winners, and a YA novel won in the Best Novel category!  Nice.  And Flora's Dare won the Andre Norton.  I can't believe I haven't gotten to that one yet.  I loved the first one.
• One of the winners of the Tiptree Award also a YA book(and another one I haven't read yet, damnit).  Tons of info-- including the full honors list, where there are many more YA titles -- at Gwenda's.
• The Shirley Jackson shortlist has been released, with Tender Morsels in the running for Best Novel.
• Not exactly a book award, but related: Steph Bowe at Hey, Teenager of the Year is going forward with her blog award, so stop by, vote and discover some new feeds for your reader.

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*No, I still haven't read it.  But I'm starting to feel that I should.  It's just that I haven't had a ton of luck with his books**, and I figure that he's already got a bazillion and six cheerleaders, so... you know.  I'd rather read stuff that I'm more likely to enjoy.  But maybe I've just been picking the wrong titles.

**Color of Magic (meh), Mort (really liked it -- I do love his Death character), Good Omens (pretty much loved that one, mostly for Death) and The Amazing Maurice and his What-sit (didn't finish it).

She had to have been in a bad, bad place.

Feds say Pa. postal worker stole 'breakup book'

Just when I thought...

...that due to his recent marriage, Ryan Adams must have grown into less of a huge jackass*, I read this interview.

Clearly I was mistaken.

Unless he's being, you know, funny.  By trying to come off as a caricature of the most pretentious person on the planet.  But I really don't know if I believe that that's what he's doing.

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*I love his music, but wow.  He's always struck me as someone that I'd want to slap in real life. 

Thinking ahead.

The bookcase coffin.

#amazonfail links.

• LATimes:  Rehash & many links.  Similar articles (with less links) at pretty much every major news source.
• The Mike Daisey (former Amazon employee) comment & the French programmer theory.  More on that.
• Commentary on the hacker theory.
• And the conversation continues at Twitter.

Links.

• SLJ's BOB has begun.  Don't miss Matches One and Two.  Oh, and you can keep an eye on it all at Twitter.
• I went out adventuring and found a couple of geocaches yesterday.  Still loving it, and I want to find more, more, more!  Talked about it with my cousin at Easter dinner, and it turns out that she and her family do the letterboxing thing.  There is never enough time to do all of the things I want to do.  Thanks again to JCH for inspiring me.
• Judith Krug, founder of Banned Books Week, died Saturday at the age of 69.
• #amazonfail is the Big Big of the day.  See Gwenda and Ed for much more information and many, many links.
• With only one book under my belt (what does that mean, anyway?), I've finally decided to Go The Easy Way and bow out of the V.C. Andrews Challenge.  I just can't take the pain.  I apologize for being a total weenie.
• I'm still working on picking the last few stories for Issue #1 of TBR Tallboy.  It's TOUGH.  More bulletins as events warrant.

March Madness: The Fun Version(s).

We have:

The Tournament of Books (of course!)

Fug Madness

The Tournament of Genius

Any others I should be following?

Stuff.

Item 1:  We are no longer a one-car family.  Which is awesome.

Item 2:  Due to Item 1, I've been doing the audiobook thing, which I've never really done before.  My first attempt?  The audio version of Hunted.  I made it about two chapters in before switching to the print version, because yelling, "SHUT UP, ZOEY!  JUST.  SHUT.  UP."  at the radio was not making for a very relaxing car ride.  The print version is just as annoying, but it goes much more quickly.

Item 3:  More on that audio.  It was interesting that the reader sounded like a twelve-year-old.  On one hand, the narrator's youthful voice made me less inclined to be annoyed with Zoey's immaturity and idiocy.  On the other, it creeped me out to hear that young voice say the word 'erotic' 57 times in two minutes.

Item 4:  I've had a stiff neck since Wednesday.  So I've been walking like a robot.  Which would be hilarious if it were someone else, but as it's me, is not.

Item 5:  I didn't just freak out and buy the GPS handheld thingie.  Oh, no.  I also bought Battle Royale and the entire Austin series.

Item 6:  We watched the pilot episode of Castle last night.  It was entertaining enough, though if it hadn't featured Nathan Fillion smirking for an hour, I probably wouldn't worry about making time for it in the future.  As it does, though...  I giggled like a freak at the James Patterson cameo.  And the Cannell.  I hope they do more of that. 

Later:

Item 7:  There are only two weeks left in this submission period -- so if you want your piece to be considered for the inaugural issue, send it on in.

I know, I know...

...I've been MIA again.

Partly it's because I've been busy with life stuff.  Also I've been reading instead of posting.  Unwind?  SO GOOD.  Absolutely Maybe?  Okay.  The graphic novel version of Clive Barker's Thief of Always?  Meh.  North of Beautiful?  So far, really liking it.  So much so that rather than posting more this morning I'm going to go and read a bit more before work.

More later.