Stars and Rave Reviews… Oh My!

Stars and Rave Reviews… Oh My!

Friends, today we're sharing stars and rave reviews for THE LAND ACROSS by Gene Wolfe and DUPLEX by Katherine Davis. 

The full-page New York Times Book Review (9/22 issue) had this to say about DUPLEX, the coming-of-age love story where time, place, and mind all bend in extraordinary ways:  

"[I fell] in love with Davis's writing, what it did to me, that combination of horror and excitement that spilled out of the book, into my past, into the now, into everything around me. Few books have given me this sort of real-time thrill.... [DUPLEX] wormholes through the real and unreal in a way that is always compelling even if it doesn't make immediate sense to the top of the mind, the human experience always recognizable even in a world that feels like a much-needed nightmare version of 'Brigadoon.' When you are lost in the uncanny woods of this astonishing, double-hinged book, just keep reading, and remember to look up. Kathryn Davis knows right where you are." (Lynda Barry, author of CRUDDY)

DUPLEX is available now from Graywolf Press.

And... Hitting your shelves in November is Gene Wolfe's latest standalone novel, THE LAND ACROSS.

Wolfe is generally known as one of the greatest living writers of science fiction and fantasy. He's won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and just this year he received the SFWA Grand Master award. 

With all that acclaim, we're very excited for THE LAND ACROSS, a new fantasy that seamlessly blends mystery, travelogue, authoritarianism and the supernatural. Set in the present in an imagined Eastern European country, an American travel guide writer is trapped the moment he crosses the border. At first it seems like pure bureaucracy--only later it's evident that there are supernatural agencies at work. But why? Is our hero a spy or is he an innocent citizen caught in a Kafkaesque trap?

THE LAND ACROSS has already received two starred pre-publication reviews: 

"Wolfe, in masterful mood, builds his characters, explores the puzzles, links the elements together and contrives to render the backdrop both intriguingly attractive and creepily sinister. Sheer enjoyment." --Library Journal, starred review

"Wolfe evokes Kafka, Bradbury, and The Twilight Zone in combining the implausible, creepy, and culturally alien to create a world where every action is motivated by its own internal logic, driving the story forward through the unexplored and incomprehensible." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

**And let’s not forget that Ali Fisher had her eye on this gem for a while now... Check out her review on Uncharted Pages.  
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To Omaha, Paris, & an Alternate Eastern Europe: Uncharted Pages #4!

To Omaha, Paris, & an Alternate Eastern Europe: Uncharted Pages #4!

opens in a new windowUP 4 gifGreetings, reading wizards!

A new set of transportive speculative fiction recommendations is up on Uncharted Pages, our readers' advisory page hosted on EarlyWord.com. Read "To Omaha, Paris, and an Alternate Eastern Europe" now!

All three of these titles are available to download now from Edelweiss! Get whitelisted and then head to the "Uncharted Pages: SF/F Readers' Advisory" collection for access to the e-galleys.

The Fourth Seasonal Uncharted Pages Sweepstakes:

We pulled a mighty fine stack of finished books and galleys including an iPhone cover for the 4/4S for one lucky librarian.

To Enter:

UPDATE: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to winner Fran Juergensmeyer, Collection Manager at the Waukegan Public Library, who wants to see Gilgamesh Wulfenbach and Tarvek Sturmvoraus from the Girl Genius series fall in looove!

Head over to Uncharted Pages, click the pale blue envelope icon under my picture, and send me an e-mail with your mailing address, your title, and two characters from any series who are nemeses, but you'd rather see fall in love by Friday, July 12th.

The Loot:

UP gieaway Stack 4

This sweepstakes is open to librarians in the United States. More eligibility details below.

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Monday Fun Day! (3/25/2013 Edition)

Monday Fun Day! (3/25/2013 Edition)

Happy new week, librarians!

- Congratulations to Brad Parks, author of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR which won the 2013 Lefty Award for the best humorous mystery! AND congratulations to Catrona McPherson, author of DANDY GILVER AND AN UNSUITABLE DAY FOR MURDER which won the 2013 Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award! Both of these honors were awarded at the Left Coast Crime convention in Colorado Springs. See all of the 2013 Crime Fiction Award-winners

- Graywolf Press, one of our excellent distribution clients, has a gorgeous new website: GraywolfPress.org. I'll admit that I miss the trio of wolves that used to walk on screen in the upper right hand corner, but I'm sure they've been released into the digital wilds to roam free.

Uncharted Pages is now updated with another season's worth of fantastic books featuring totally rad preternatural stuff. Find out more about the books and the giveaways here

- We posted our schedule for the Texas Library Association Annual Conference! Please join us in the booth (#1137) and at all of our fine events.

- If you missed Library Journal's "Editors' Picks" webinar, find out which four summer titles our editors were raving about here. UPDATE: You can now watch the full archived webinar! (Macmillan titles begin at the 18 minute mark.) 

- And finally, this puppy:

 

 

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Magic, Monsters, & Myths: Uncharted Pages #3!

Magic, Monsters, & Myths: Uncharted Pages #3!

Fellow speculative fiction readers,

My latest selections from Macmillan's Adult publishers are now live on our EarlyWord-hosted Readers' Advisory blog, Uncharted Pages! It's tough to express how enchanted I am by the three books I picked this season; take a look.

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The list covers magic, monsters, and myths, but also alternative social movements, reconciliation with the darkest parts of the self, and multi-generational demons. If your literary adventures take you between the covers of these featured titles, I would love to hear from you.

The Uncharted Pages Sweepstakes:

We have a curated stack of finished books and galleys as well as an iPhone 4/4S cover for one lucky Uncharted Pages reader.

UPDATE 4/12/13: Congratulations to winner Monica McAbee, Selection Librarian at Prince George's County Memorial Library System, whose favorite mythical character is Atalanta ("the Pippi Longstocking of the Greek Mythological set")!

uncharted pages prize 3

To Enter:

Head over to Uncharted Pages, click the pale blue envelope icon under my picture, and send me an e-mail with your mailing address, your title, and your favorite mythical character by Friday, April 12th. CONTEST NOW CLOSED.

This sweepstakes is open to librarians in the United States. More eligibility details below.

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Wednesday Fun Day! (1/2/2013 Edition)

Wednesday Fun Day! (1/2/2013 Edition)

Hello again, blog friends! Happy New Year!

Talia and I have officially decided that 2013 is going to be the BEST EVER. It has been decided, so kick back and enjoy the adventures.

I hope you all managed to fit in both exciting events and some stellar naps this holiday season. I know I did. When I wasn't asleep, I got in some urban and extra-urban exploring. Here's a pic of me hiking (read: walking on a flat trail) in a sequined fox sweater, as you do:

fox sweater

Talia was rockin' the neon bling this break as per the twitter evidence:

 

 

And finally, here's a pic of some Seattle wizard signage because I love it so much (click to cast embiggen):

opens in a new windowwizard sign

Speaking of nerdy stuff, you still have time to enter our Featured Creatures book stack giveaway celebrating the second installment on our EarlyWord-hosted SF/F blog, Uncharted Pages! Contest ends Friday. Details here.

opens in a new windowfeatured creatures gif

And speaking of EarlyWord, if you're still saying your final farewells to 2012, you should definitely head over to their site for a compiled list of librarian favorites from last year. They included some helpful information about which other year-end lists each title made. See which titles were library champions

And speaking of champions, don't forget to take a look at our full ALA Midwinter conference schedule of events including the third great Book Battle showdown between Talia and Chris Vaccari of Sterling! Many of the events we're hosting and participating in require an RSVP, so please don't miss out. Take a look now.

And speaking of not missing out, be sure to like FSG's community site on Facebook, Book Keeping, where you'll get the scoop on all sorts of fun stuff (ie: my top FSG picks from 2012).

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Uncharted Pages #2: It’s Liiiiiive!

Uncharted Pages #2: It’s Liiiiiive!

The second installment of Uncharted Pages, my Speculative Fiction recommendation page, is now live! Go check it out!

To celebrate all of the "featured creatures" recommendations, we're giving away a stack of Macmillan books featuring all sorts of bizarre beings and brutish beasts:

giveaway!

UPDATE: This contest is now over. Congratulations to the winner, Debra Wischmeyer in the Readers' Services/Reference Department of Morton Grove Public Library!

Enter to win a copy of all of the titles pictured above:

Head over to Uncharted Pages, click the pale blue envelope icon under my picture, and send me an e-mail with your mailing address and your favorite monster by Friday, January 4th. [CONTEST CLOSED]

This sweepstakes is open to librarians in the United States. More eligibility details below.

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Tuesday Fun Day! (9/4/2012 Edition)

Tuesday Fun Day! (9/4/2012 Edition)

Happy Tuesday, librarian cats! I hope your long weekend involved many adventures and much napping in the sun!

We have some winners to congratulate this week, so let's get on with the applause:

The big news from the weekend is that AMONG OTHERS by Jo Walton (a title that I just won't shut up about) won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel! Huzzah! Earlier this year it won the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

See the full list of Hugo Award-winners here

And now on to our recent contest winners:

The winner of the final Grammar Girl signed-books giveaway is: 

Betty H. Lee
Adult and Young Adult Librarian
Rockville Memorial Library

The winner of the A MEMORY OF LIGHT stuffed backpack giveaway celebrating our new SF/F blog, Uncharted Pages, is:

Brianna Glenn
Library Director 
De Soto Public Library 

Congratulations, Betty and Brianna! Your prizes are in the mail.

And finally, the winner for Best App Ever according to us: CatWang!! Major thanks to Peter from Academic for the recommendation. Here's CatTalia holding a balloon in her office and CatAli holding AMONG OTHERS while wearing wings:

opens in a new windowCatWang Collage

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This is Not a Test is Nominated for 2013 Quick Picks!

This is Not a Test is Nominated for 2013 Quick Picks!

Courtney Summers' apocalyptic emotional thriller, THIS IS NOT A TEST—which you may recognize as one of the inaugural recommendations on our new SF/F blog, Uncharted Pages—has been officially nominated for YALSA’s 2013 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers List! We wholeheartedly approve!

Four other Griffin titles were previously nominated: THE HUNT by Andrew Fukuda, BAD BOY by Dream Jordan, GLOW by Amy Kathleen Ryan, and I AM A SEAL TEAM SIX WARRIOR by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin.

Again YALSA says, "The Quick Picks list [...] suggests books that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure; it is geared to the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read."

We're running a giveaway to celebrate Uncharted Pages and there's a copy of THIS IS NOT A TEST in the prize pack. Details here!

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Uncharted Pages: SF/F From Macmillan’s Adult Publishers!

Uncharted Pages: SF/F From Macmillan’s Adult Publishers!

When Talia told me that the brilliant minds at EarlyWord approached her about setting up a blog for Readers' Advisory librarians to learn more about the Science Fiction and Fantasy books coming out of Macmillan I whispered, "mine."

Finally! A place to highlight some of our fantastic fiction for the curious minded!

Each season I'll pick a few titles that I love and tell you a little bit about why I think they're so special. Uncharted Pages will cover a wide range of genres under the speculative fiction umbrella written for teens, adults, and immortals. 

Ready to take a peek? Hop on your unicorn/magic carpet/transport zombie and head over to Uncharted Pages!

opens in a new windowUP ad

To celebrate we're giving away one slick, single-shouldered A MEMORY OF LIGHT backpack that we crammed full of finished books!

opens in a new windowUP giveaway

UPDATE:

This contest has ended. Congratulations to our winner: Brianna Glenn, Library Director at De Soto Public Library!

To Enter:

Head over to Uncharted Pages, click the pale blue envelope icon under my picture, and send me an e-mail introducing yourself. Tell me one thing that you or your patrons love about speculative fiction and I'll enter you in the drawing! 

This sweepstakes is open to librarians in the United States. More eligibility details below.

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