Weblog Love on Wednesdays

Here are this week's goodies for your perusal:

Fun and General Bookishness

This article, highlighted on Omnivoracious, is worth reading for the title alone: Blood Energy Drink Surprisingly Not Comprised of Bottled Twilight Fangirl Angst.

Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for reminding us that the 2009 Cybils (Children and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards) have opened up for nominations.

Book Reviews/Features

This article on The Rumpus is from a while back, but I just got around to reading it. Read "Mourning the Book," and then come back and tell me that you don't want to read Angle of Repose. Go ahead. I dare you.

Holly at 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews did a review of The Promised World by Lisa Tucker, and I really, really want to read this book now. Two key sections that got my attention: 1) From the book summary, "On a March afternoon, while Lila Cole is working in her quiet office, her twin brother Billy points an unloaded rifle out of a hotel window..."; and 2) From the review, "I honestly can't say that I liked the book. It isn't an uplifting book by any means. However, it is one that could stay with you..." Exactly my cup of tea.

Other Books to Check Out: Books on the Nightstand's Podcast #45 featured both The Magicians by Lev Grossman and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. Check both of those out because they sound simply fantastic! (Also, they tell an interesting story about how reluctant readers are getting engaged in reading by connecting with authors via the internet.)

And in Podcast #46 they talk about some ridiculously-addictive sounding books about "dedicated parents." And then they pimped two upcoming books: New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro and The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt that are fantastical-sounding as well. ("New World Monkeys, which is the story of Manhattanites Duncan and Lily and the quirky and odd events that befall them after they inherit a house in a small Upstate New York town... The Children's Book, the new, Booker-nominated novel by A.S. Byatt. The book concerns Olive Wellwood, a children's book author whose son finds a homeless boy living in the Victoria and Albert Museum.")

100 Scope Notes did a "Where the Wild Things Are" (Movie) Round-up, and one feature was about permanent Where the Wild Things Are tattoos. I'm saddened to report that I am personally aware of a girl (18 y.o.) who got a tattoo of this very nature on her upper thigh. What is the world coming to?

Publishing Industry Tid-Bits

I truly (heart) Eric at PMN, and this week he gave us a fantastic visionary future of publishing. He writes that in the year 2029, "...A few young fogeys might think 'p-books' [print books] are cool and retro or whatever, but most will view them as archaic and hard to use. (There's no search function on a paperback.)" However, in response, one commenter wrote, "...300 bucks buys a nice start on a teacher's classroom library, 50-100 books that all the students can pass around and read. It buys one e-book reader. So the e-book revolution is coming. Fine, whatever. What I want to know is: what should (can?) the publishing industry, authors and book retailers do to shape this change and insure that it's one that improves the society we share?" Interesting thoughts there.

In other digital publishing news: Booksquare, a fantastic "industry" blog, had some thoughts on the idiocy of Harper (of HarperCollins) holding back the eBook release of Sarah Palin's forth-coming memoir (which I'm sure everyone and their dog will be reading) for more than a month behind the hardcover book release. Publishing industry execs, please stop being retarded.

Last week, in a bit of don't-shoot-the-messenger news, Michael tipped us off to the news that the production "genuises" behind the Twilight movies have optioned Lauren Conrad's Book L.A. Candy. You know our thoughts on that.

Book Blogger Highlights

In last week's "Fresh Face Friday" feature on The Story Siren, she featured a new blog: Stacked. This blog, which is maintained by two librarians--young adult and children's--and a soon-to-be graduate of an MLS program, the reviews are thorough, the insights are, well, insightful, and there are some fantastic suggestions for how reading can be found in unlikely places.

Eva's Book Addiction posted an interesting article, from a librarian's POV, about what is children's versus YA fiction. Worth reading (even if you're not a librarian, but are looking for great books because you might find that you need to be looking in the "other" section).