Chronicles of a Book Evangelist

Link Trove #20

The Reader by Maja Lindberg on Etsy

So I know that a little over a month ago I said I wasn't going to participate in any reading challenges or official reading commitments for a while -- and I'm not! not really! -- but there have been quite a few popping up that have really caught my eye.  Also, Flannery from The Readventurer has invited me to participate in a read-along of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest... and I'm doing it!  But it doesn't really count as a challenge or commitment because I make no promises to post a review. Some of the others that have tempted me recently are:

Reading Challenges:

• YALSA’s 2013 Hub Reading Challengebegins at 12:01AM EST on February 3 and ends at 11:59PM EST on June 22.  The goal is to read/listen to 25 of the 83 titles on the list of eligible titles, all of which were either winners or honor titles for various awards.  Considering how few of this years winners I had actually read, this would have been a great challenge to participate in!  Plus, those who complete the challenge are eligible to submit a response for one of the books they've read to be published on The Hub, and are entered to win a grand prize of a YALSA tote bag full of 2012 and 2013 YA lit! 

• Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer is hosting a "Take Control of Your TBR Pile Read-a-Thon" from March 15th to 18th.  I could really use something like this!  I've got scads of new books that I genuinely want/wanted to read piling up, but I can't seem to get myself motivated to actually read them.  Instead, I've reading and rereading (mostly rereading!) sequels to my favorite urban fantasy series, as well as my favorite old gothic novels.  It's fun and unchallenging reading, but it doesn't exactly make for new material for the blog! 

And now for a list of (some of) the cool links I've been finding around the web -- I usually only post about 1/3 or 1/4 of what I've found. Perhaps I should start doing this twice a week!

Interesting Reads:

• Sarah from Clear Eyes, Full Shelves had a great opinion piece on the "rights" and "wrongs" of reading -- or rather, how there isn't a right or wrong way to interpret what you read.  She brought up many good points, and the discussion continues to be engaging into the comments.

• Kelly from Radiant Shadows really caught my attention with her post on the Bechdel Test in YA.  It really surprised me when I thought about how few books I had recently read within the genre would actually pass!  For those who are unfamiliar with the Bechdel Test, it is a test measuring female presence in fictional media.  To pass the test, if must 1) include at least two named women, 2) who have at least one conversation, 3) that is about something other than a man or men.  Kelly does a much better job of talking about it, so check that out!

New to the Online Reading Community:

•  A brand new website just launched called Bookish. From what I've read, it is pretty similar to Goodreads or LibraryThing, with an added component of reader advisory-ish picked book recommendations?  In my experience, computer generated book recommendations are rarely as successful as reader advisory, you know, from a librarian or fellow book lover.  We'll see.  (via Tor)

• I've also recently stumbled upon Books That Changed Me, a tumblr where you can submit a response/review/essay/call-it-what-you-will about a book or books that have changed you in some way.  It is a fascinating look at how different people read books, and what they take away from them.

And Just for Fun:

• Presidential Monsters! Action figures that are a mash-up of the residents of Pennsylvania Ave and our favorite horrific creatures.  I seriously want to buy Wolf Bill for my mother. (via Tor)

Link Trove #19

"Soaked" by Mary Paints

It's been a very busy week out there, so I'm only sharing a fraction of all the links I've accumulated.  (It's times like these that I understand the link-sharing happening on twitter and tumblr!)  First up, free (or really cheap) books, because who doesn't love free books, right?

Free or Reduced Price Books:

• On Sunday, January 27th, THIS SUNDAY, Anna and the French Kiss will be available wherever ebooks are sold for only $2.99.  What's more, (yes! there's more!) Stephanie Perkins will be posting a deleted chapter that was cut from the last part of the book.   

Penguin | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Kobo | iBooks

• Reckless by Cornelia Funke, the first in the German Mirrorworld series translated by Oliver Latsch is available as a free download right now from B&N, and $2.99 elsewhere.  Full disclosure, I haven't yet read this one, but it pops up a lot with quite a few books I really enjoyed and I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Sony | Kobo | iBooks

• Lish McBride has a new original short story set in the Necromancer world entitled Heads Will Roll.  And, naturally, it's FREE.  Go get it.

 Author Interviews:

• Tor had a six-question interview with Sarah Rees Brennan, but wow! were her answers potent.  Her entire response to the question asking for her thoughts on the relationship between YA, fantasy, and gender had me fist pumping, but I thought this bit was particularly funny:

I have heard such dismissals many times! I will never forget being on a panel where I said “People love Twilight” and an unwary guy piped up “GIRLS love Twilight.” At which point I about dived over the table at him, snarling “GIRLS ARE PEOPLE.”

• The Hub has a short but entertaining interview with Rachel Hartman, full of book recs, talk of music, and jokes:

[I]t turns out (to my great astonishment) that no matter how much praise or how many nominations my book garners, I still have to do laundry and get groceries and wait in traffic. I still got the flu. I was like, “Flu virus! Don’t you know who I am? My novel is very popular!” and the bug was like, “Kiss my hemagglutinin, lady!” So that didn’t help at all.

(BTW, if you haven't yet read Seraphina, or her new prequel short story The Audition, do it NOW! Before Drachomachia comes out this fall!)

Literacy Promotion:

• TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO APPLY TO BE A GIVER FOR WORLD BOOK NIGHT!!!  Hurry if you want to take part in a really fun event.  

• Also, February 14 is not just Valentine's Day, but also International Book Giving Day.  It's a lot more low key and the website has tons of easy ways to participate.  Go sign up! (via Seven Impossible Things)

Until next week!

Link Trove #18

Smart Owl by Amy Hamilton

The print above is "Smart Owl" by Amy Hamilton, and the Art Print size is available for only $17.  My bird girl's (whose favorite books include Owl Moon and Owl Babies) has her 4th birthday coming up -- as well as a redo of her big girl room.  I see a framed "Smart Owl" in her future.  Now that I've mostly stopped curling my toes at the cute owl, on to the links!

Censorship:

• Following a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Davis School District has returned "In Our Mothers' House" by Patricia Polacco to school library shelves.  It was removed from shelve after a group of parents petitioned the school for its removal.  You know, because we can't have a book that represents a same-sex household as normal or anything! (That was extreme sarcasm, for the record.)

• The New York Times had an interesting question in their Room for Debate feature, What’s ‘Just Right’ for the Young Reader?  The various perspectives were all interesting to read, though I must admit that I still think Sendak said it best, "I don't believe in children, I don't believe in childhood. I don't believe that there's a demarcation. 'Oh, you mustn't tell them that. You mustn't tell them that.' You tell them anything you want. Just tell them if it's true. If it's true, you tell them."  In all fairness, that is essentially what a few of the debaters, especially Lisa von Drasek, said.  I also found the opinion of Betsy Bird, who wrote "kids are excellent self censors," to be particularly interesting in terms of this next piece:

• Susane Colasanti's When It Happens will stay in the teen section of IL library, despite a parent's attempt to remove it.  The unsuitability of the reading material for her daughters' age group was pointed out to her by -- wait for it -- her daughter.  As Leila from bookshelves of doom responded:

Discounting the whole challenge thing, this story was actually a nice example of a younger reader holding her hand up and saying, "WHOA. THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR ME."  I mean, obviously, the parent took that statement and went a step further to "IF IT'S NOT FOR YOU, IT'S NOT FOR ANYONE YOUR AGE", which is problematic, but still."

• Oddly enough, Maggie Stiefvater was also recently weighing in on the issue of age appropriate content, albeit in a much more light-hearted fashion.  After mentioning that she won't let any of the children in her family read her current books until they are 30, she announced that she will be participating in a middle grade level project with scholastic.  Very cool.

For The Girls:

• Elizabeth Burns of A Fireplace, A Chair & A Tea Cozy raises an interesting question about the importance of (or lack thereof) including menstruation in stories about teen girls with her post It’s That Time of the Month.  I highly recommend reading the comments as well as the post, as there are lots of interesting things being said, and good books being recommended.

• Jezebel managed to scare the crap out of me with their article about teen girls meeting strangers in real life that they met on the internet.  According to a new study released by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 30 percent of teenage girls have met an internet contact without confirming their identity beforehand.  YIKES.

To Lighten Things Up:

• McDonald's in the UK is replacing its Happy Meal toys with books.  How awesome is that?!  Now, if they could just make this an international policy!

• Maureen Johnson is offering up some awesome swag in the form of custom stickers and an autographed bookplate to anyone who preorders Madness Underneath from an indie bookstore.  Check out her website for a view of the stickers and a list of participating bookstores.

• Finally, a lovely quote from Ursula K. Le Guin found via teaching literacy:

"While we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren’t there, we hear their voices… Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed."

Link Trove #17

I fell in love with this image when I saw it.  My children constantly amaze me with all they have learned from books they read for pleasure. I only have a tumblr source, so if you know the artist and title please give me a heads up. 

New Books (and a little cover talk):

• Julia Kagawa discusses the new cover for Immortal Rules on her blog. I confess that, though I don't really think the new cover is particularly spectacular or anything, I think all of her reasons for the change are spot on and that the new cover is much better than the original (and it gets rid of the pesky whitewashing problem.)  Also, yay for The Eternity Cure this year!  I am waiting for entirely too many sequels in 2013.

• Neil Gaiman has a new adult novel ( a  new novel written for adults, as opposed to a novel for people who are new to adulthood) coming out this year!!! The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel will be released this June and I cannot wait!  Not that I don't love all the children's books he's recently been releasing (because I DO love them), I am just excited for the new Gaiman book to be going on my shelf rather than the kids'.

• Gail Carriger (she of the Parasol Protectorate novels) has a new Young Adult novel, Etiquette & Espionage, set to release in February.  You can get the first three chapters for FREE right now.  And if you still need more, io9 has an exclusive excerpt from later in the book.

Giveaway:

• If you haven't had enough talk about exciting 2013 releases, head over to the midnight garden and enter to win a bundle of January 2013 releases worth over $88!

Literacy Promotion:

• It's that time of year again!  Time to apply to be a book giver for World Book Night!  (Even though the little peanut will be a very little peanut, this is one event that my husband and I just can't miss.) Check out their website to see the list of 2013 books, or just to learn more about what they do.

Books in Movie (and TV) Land:

• There are rumors about that JK Rowling will be writing a Doctor Who story...could that really get any better?!

• Finally, Entertainment Weekly has released their latest Hunger Games cover!  I am just not sure if I am sold on Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair; he just looks a little young? small? something?  (Or maybe it's that I'm a 30 something judging a character in a teen book for looking like a teen.  Ahem.) Not that it will stop me from watching Catching Fire as soon as humanly possible!  via Tor

Link Trove #16

Good Company by Dana Ray

I'm slowly trying to wade back into the blogoshere, and I can't help but thinking over and over again, "WOW, have I missed a lot!"  I'm also very surprised at the number of blogs I used to keep up with on bloglines.  Here are a few links to some things that really struck me in my playing catch-up:

• All that laying on the couch and in bed these past few months left plenty of time for light reading...which, or course, quickly led to numerous 99 cent downloads of books that looked interesting but fluffy.  (I mean, really, you can't buy twelve full priced books in one day!)  The unintended result of my bargain nook shopping was a substantial increase in the number of so called "new adult" books I was reading.  Not being active with my usual blog and news sources, I was also doing this reading in a sort of vacuum.  It was very interesting to come back only to have both Stacked (also here) and A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy (followed up here and here with more to come) go into very in depth discussions of the genre and many of the issues I was finding while reading it.

• The Cybils 2012 Finalists were announced on Tuesday; and, again, it was really cool to see how many of the finalists I had read -- even being out of the loop the last third of the year.  I was especially happy to see And All the Stars by Andrea K Höst in the Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction category, and both Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga in the Young Adult Fiction category.

• I was also very excited to see that Rachel Hartman's Seraphina is a finalist for the 2013 Morris Award.  It's always wonderful to see books you love get recognition!

• Finally, bitch magazine compiled a list of 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader.  Though looking for books with strong female leads (or at the very least positive portrayals of females within them) has always been on my radar as a reader, I must admit that it is usually, if not on the back burner, at least on the side burner.  I think it is the natural outcome of being surrounded by a large family of teenage boys and having a knack for finding the books that lure reluctant teen boys to read.  (Part of why I also enjoyed this article that encourages authors writing for teen boys.)  However, as my daughter gets older she also gets persistently more determined in her quest for "girl heroes" in the media she consumes.  It makes me simultaneously swell with pride for her and become comsumed by my feelings of my own inadequacy to guide her.  I was appalled by how few books on the list I had heard of, much less read (only 15!)

Link Trove #15

I don't have as many links backed up as I usually do -- a consequence having been a bit out of touch I guess.  But here are a few things that I have found interesting during my rush to catch up:

• Emma over at Nose in a Book had a great post about Books You Might Like Even If You Hate The Genre.  Many of her recommendations are among my all time favorite books.
• Catie, Flannery and Tatiana at The Readventurer, in their regular series Three Heads Are Better Than One (Or Two), have recently asked the question, "Is there hope for YA fantasy?"  As always, I came away with many new books added to my TBR list.
• Kelly at Stacked takes a look at the recent trend in switching cover styles mid-series.  I still haven't recovered from the Lite-Brite redo of The Curse Workers series.  
• I love graphic novels, but something has made me hold off on reading Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony, despite the pretty colors.  I think Hiedi's review at Bunbury in the Stacks may have changed my mind.
• What kind of world is it without Reading Rainbow or Weekly Reader?  Mourning the loss of another 1980s-90s staple.  via bookshelves of doom
• NPR has a poll on the Best-Ever Teen Novels.
• I know I am probably the last to see this, but this post about the six-year-old daughter of a blogger giving her impressions of what books are about based solely on their covers was just awesome.  I love the way kids think.  via Stacked

And now back to the Olympics. 

 

Link Trove #14

 

It has been a rough month for people I admire -- especially authors and musicians; Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees, Charles "Skip" Pitts, Adam Yauch (MCA) from the Beastie Boys, Donald "Duck" Dunn (believe me, even if you don't know his name you love him -- try finding a good bluesy classic rock band that didn't use his skill with the guitar at least once), aviatrix Evelyn Bryan Johnson, Donna Summer, George Lindsey (better know in our house as Goober Pyle), Maurice Sendak, and also Jean Craighead George.  (It kills me that the only review I have written for her on this blog was from one of my least favorite of her books.)  Below are a few links concerning Jean Craighead George:

• From the New York Times.

• The Cybils blog.

• Open Road media put together a tribute video.

Listomania:

• This Mental Floss list of famous authors who couldn't spell made me feel much better.  My abundance of squiggly red lines and I are in excellent company.  (In fact, two of my favorite authors are on this list.)

• I also loved their list of 15 Vintage Photos of Librarians.

• I really enjoy seeing what books are on other people's shelves, so this Flavorwire article detailing what books were on some famous authors' shelves was right up my alley.

• I own entirely too many of these films released in the summer of 1982.

• What does it say about me that of these 10 YA books that supposedly scarred everyone for life, I've read (and own) nine of them and only found one to be creepy?  (And that was, of course, Lord of the Flies.  Seriously, who wasn't scarred by that one?) 

• I finished this list of 8 Things You Might Not Know About the New York Times Bestseller List and went, "huh."  Now I feel bad about pre-ordering books -- I'm sorry Stacia Kane.  (via Kelly at Stacked)

Interesting Miscellanea:

• Emma from Nose in a Book has a great guide to Vlogbrother Videos for fans of John Green (or those new to the Nerdfighters).

• Today is Towel Day, where Douglas Adams fans "around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honour."

• The rise in popularity of the steampunk genre is giving new life to old names according to the baby name site Nameberry.

• I am not sure if this review of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises was meant to be serious or funny, but I find it funny either way.  Fans of Hemingway MUST love Jerry Springer -- it makes complete sense!

• Take this test to find out how fast you read.

• Would you like to enter a short story contest judged Elizabeth Wein, she who wrote Code Name Verity?  Well hurry fast, the last day to enter is May 5!

• Karen Chance has a sample chapter available from her upcoming Dorina Basarab book, Fury's Kiss, scheduled out this October.

A Mighty Girl: For Your Mighty Reader

Do you know a bright young girl?  A daughter, sister, cousin, niece, neighbor, student, friend?  Does she like to read?  (Or do you want her too?)  Have you heard about A Mighty Girl: The world's largest collection of books and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls?  They are relatively new (launched in March of this year!) but already have a varied and interesting collection of books and movies.  Here's what they have to say about themselves:

After years of seeking out empowering and inspirational books for our four young nieces, we decided to create A Mighty Girl as a resource site to help others equally interested in supporting and celebrating girls. Our labor of love has now come to fruition as the world’s largest collection of books and movies for parents, teachers, and others dedicated to raising smart, confident, and courageous girls.

The site was founded on the belief that all children should have the opportunity to read books and watch movies that offer positive messages about girls and honor their diverse capabilities. We believe that girls do not have to be relegated to the role of sidekick or damsel in distress; they can be the leaders, the heroes, the champions that save the day, find the cure, and go on the adventure. It is our hope that these high-quality children’s products will help a new generation of girls to grow and pursue whatever dreams they choose -- to truly be Mighty Girls!

 I already see a substantial amount of our birthday and winter holidays budgets being spent here!  Just a few products that have caught my eye:

My Lady A is nuts about birds.  She can spend hours watching them out the window, or looking through bird watcher books at all the lifelike pictures.  It took buying bird-bedecked sheets and blankets to get her to make the move to her very own big girl bed.  So, naturally we feel in love with Sara Pennypacker's Sparrow Girl; the story of a girl so entranced by the sparrow that she goes against her family, her community, even her country to save them.  And the illustrations by Yoko Tanaka are just stunning.

From the Website:

Ming-Li looked up and tried to imagine the sky silent, empty of birds. It was a terrible thought. Her country's leader had called sparrows the enemy of the farmers--they were eating too much grain, he said. He announced a great "Sparrow War" to banish them from China, but Ming-Li did not want to chase the birds away. As the people of her village gathered with firecrackers and gongs to scatter the sparrows, Ming-Li held her ears and watched in dismay. The birds were falling from the trees, frightened to death! Ming-Li knew she had to do something--even if she couldn't stop the noise. Quietly, she vowed to save as many sparrows as she could, one by one...

"Opposite the grave historical account, though, is an uplifting image: on a field of white, a small nest with seven eggs promises the hope that springs from the simple actions of one empathetic heart." -- Booklist

 

And, although we own most of the movies in her age range, we did find the Miss Mallard movies.  (How have I never heard of these before?)  I am really excited to give them a try.

From the Website:

Here are stories that stimulate children with simple problem-solving puzzles that increase learning skills. More than that, the stories encourage 5 to 12 year olds to analyze events and scrutinize characters that they can apply to their daily lives. That's why children can't get enough of mysteries and why they love the adventures of Miss Mallard and her nephew, Willard Widgeon of the Swiss Police. The world-famous ducktective and her nephew travel around the world encountering all kinds of fowl play. No detail is overlooked by Miss Mallard. There's never been a case she couldn't "quack." -- Author's Site

This set includes the episodes:Taxi to Intrigue, Cable Car to Catastrophe, Express Train to Trouble, Whistle Stop to Fear, Footbridge to Jitters, Snowmobile to Panic. Miss Mallard's adventures continue in Miss Mallard Meets the Masters of Mischief.

I am really excited to see what A Mighty Girl picks up next!

Just a note: I am in no way being compensated for this!  I just really like the website and wanted to bring it to the attention of other people looking for positive books and movies for girls!

 

Link Trove #13

Listomania:

• This list of Top 10 Most Misunderstood Lines in Literary History is very William Shakespeare and Robert Frost heavy.  

• In light of all the talk about EL James and the 50 Shades of Twilight Fan-Fiction, I found this list of what famous authors think of fanfiction to be really funny.  From Stephenie Meyer:

"I hear so many people arguing about fan-fiction. This one and that one. It seems like they are not as much fun anymore. I don’t know…. People pour out so much energy and talent into them… It makes me frustrated. I’m like, go write your own story. Put them out there and get them published. That’s what you should be doing. You should be working on your own book right now."

Reading in the News:

• This article by Nathan Bransford on cnet has some pretty compelling arguments for Why e-books cost so much.

• Daniel Abraham methodically evicerates the myth that "the Middle Ages really were sexist/racist/filled with sexual violence" in this blog post entitled Concerning Historical Authenticity in Fantasy, or Truth Forgives You Nothing.  Daniel Abraham, I THANK YOU!

• Microsoft and Barnes & Noble are teaming up to take on Amazon and Apple in the fight for dominance of the e-book market.  

Literacy Promotion:

• Okay, so technically a list, this collection of Incredibly Unique Bookmobiles around the World has some seriously unique methods of promoting literacy!  The Project Mobilivre is one of the most aesthetically pleasing mobile libraries I have ever seen!

Armed with approximately 300 books that include everything from small press publications to bigger name titles, the sleek Mobilivre Bookmobile travels across America and Canada annually. The vintage airstream trailer is supported through the help of volunteers — many based in Philadelphia and Montreal, QC — happily and stylishly distributing the written word.

• This New York Times essay from a teacher in a public school in Manhattan was so very sad but also important.  She talks about her struggle to teach great books to her student in amongst all the test preperation required by law:

"I MAY not be able to prove that my literature class makes a difference in my students’ test results, but there is a positive correlation between how much time students spend reading and higher scores." (via bookshelves of doom on twitter)

• With all the whitewashed covers we've been getting in YA, it is nice to see someone taking on the issue of The Ongoing Problem of Race in Y.A.

Books in Movie Land:

• I might have screamed WHAT?!?! (in a happy sort of way) when I read this tweet:

Yes, it's true, I can confirm it! Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) is writing the script for The Knife Of Never Letting Go! I KNOW!!

— Patrick Ness (@Patrick_Ness) April 24, 2012

• In case you haven't picked up on my fangirl devotion to all things Neil Gaiman, I am here to tell you I Adore Him.  So I was also rather happy (read stupid excited) to find out that his The Graveyard Book will be adapted by Henry Selick -- he of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline fame.  The Graveyard Book is absolutely perfect for that sort of film!  (via tor) 

• I also have a thing for John Cusack and Edgar Allan Poe, so I was a bit disapointed to read this movie review by Danny Bowes saying:

So, The Raven isn’t very good. It takes a randomly selective reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and a few bits of triviata from his life and grafts those onto a by-the-numbers serial killer narrative in which the Poe character, the ostensible lead, is completely superfluous.

• The screen rights to Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules was aquired by Palomar Pictures the same week it was released!  Crazyness, I tell you!

That's it for this week!

Link Trove #12

Link Trove will be done just a little differently this week.  Some pretty serious things have come up in the Young Adult Book blogging community that really need to be addressed, and it felt wrong to include my response to something so big in amongst funny lists and videos, so I will refrain.  However, I do want to talk about a few REALLY cool and good things first.

• World Book Night 2012 was a blast.  It was not without its hitches -- but I think it was actually more fun that way.  One local Giver forgot to pick up their box of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, one of my husband's favorite books, so with my The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie we were each able to give out books we love. To keep myself from getting into further trouble, I will only say that there was some miscommunication between day staff and evening security with the first location we chose to give out books, and we were escorted from the premises.  (Yes, we almost got arrested for giving away free books!  Note for next year: get written permission for overzealous security guards.)  We forgot our camera so we could not get any pictures, and it was after 5:00pm when we started giving books away, so most managers were already gone for the day.  BUT, we had a blast hopping from parking lot to theater to fast food joint to coffee shop asking if we could give out books to patrons.  In a way, I think we were able to reach a larger and more diverse group of people because of the mishap -- it was spontanious and fun and we haven't got to just go places like that in years!  To see what other people were doing on World Book Night, check out the Tumblr.

• I know I have been going on and on about Kate Milford's Kickstarter project for The Kairos Mechanism (Arcana #1).  (Seriously, if you haven't yet checked it out, you should!)  However, I recently discovered another really great middle grade novel Kickstarter project: Wollstonecraft.  From author Jordan Stratford's description:

London 1826: The Advent of the Steam Age

11 year old Ada has a problem: her governess, Miss Coverlet, has quit her job to go get married (a dumb idea if ever there was one, if you ask Ada) and her new tutor Percy ("Peebs") is a total drip.  She'd rather be left to her own devices – literally – inventing things and solving math problems and ignoring people altogether.

She's also forced to study alongside the imaginative girlie-girl Mary, who's always going on about romance and exotic travels.  Fortunately, Mary's appetite for adventure leads her to propose the two girls open a detective agency, and when an heiress shows up with a case about a missing diamond, it's the perfect puzzle to coax Ada out of her shell.

This is the made up story about two very real girls – Ada, the world's first computer programmer, and Mary, the world's first science fiction author – caught up in a steampunk world of hot-air balloons and steam engines, jewel thieves and mechanical contraptions.  For readers 8-12.

This is a pro-math, pro-science, pro-history and pro-literature adventure novel for and about girls, who use their education to solve problems and catch a jewel thief.  Ada and Mary encounter real historical characters, such as Percy Shelley, Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, and Charles Dickens – people whom the girls actually knew.  If Jane Austen wrote about zeppelins and brass goggles, this would be the book.

Why "Wollstonecraft"?  Mary names the detective agency after her mother, the famous feminist writer. If this is the kind of book you'd like to see, please support this project.

 Now that is a project I can get behind!  If you are interested, move quickly!  It ends on Monday.

 

Okay, so fun-times are over.  Kat and Stephanie from Cuddlebuggery hesitantly broke the news on Monday that Kristi of The Story Siren had been plagiarizing content from other blogs.  They refrained from naming names because they were still uncertain as to the validity of the accusations, but Sarah from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books shortly thereafter wrote a pretty conclusive piece that left little doubt that the accusations were, in fact, true.  Naturally, the YA blogging community exploded, then promptly divided into sides, and I just really don't want to go into all of the details.  Leila from bookshelves of doom has a really great, reasonably objective outline of what happened with links. Kelly from Stacked, Kat from Cuddlebuggery, and Elizabeth from Gossamer Obsessions do a great job of showing the community's reactions.

Personally, I feel very disappointed and betrayed.  I used "Kristi's" posts to help set up my blog.  I admired her for the way she fostered a sense of community among book bloggers, and that she provided a platform for us to all interact with each other.  However, as I previously noted, I was not completely comfortable with In My Mailbox, and had already changed my format from that of the meme.  I became truly offended by her non-apologies: she made it very clear that her top priority was maintaining contacts within the industry, not the respect of her readers.  Because I do not want to contribute page-views (or anything else) to someone so wholly unwilling to take responsibility for her actions, I will no longer be linking to her meme.  As of this Sunday, I will be participating in Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post Meme in place of In My Mailbox, as it most closely resembles what I was already doing.  (Edited to add: I will link, with credit, to both Kimba's The Sunday Post Meme, and Stacking the Shelves from Tynga's Reviews, on my regular "Weekly Forecast" post.)  I will finish out the Debut Author Challenge of reading 12 debut authors by the end of the year because I was doing it to challenge myself and find new authors.  I will no longer be linking that to The Story Siren either.  

Finally, you should really check out the blogs Beautifully Invisible and Grit and Glamour.  These ladies are smart, write well and with authenticity (and they have way more style than you will find here!)  They have remained classy throughout this entire ordeal.  I learned so much about stats, IP addresses, and responsible blogging from their posts about how they caught Kristi plagiarizing.  (And, of course, they were the original authors of all the wonderful pages that helped me set up this blog!)  These ladies really know what they are doing!

Phew!  Okay, back next week with fun lists, videos, links and pictures!