No time for a full blog post today, but I didn't think anyone would object to a bunch of adorable covers. Also, am I crazy, or does that bear need a big ol' hug?
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Deep Thoughts
Monday Fun Day! (7/18/2011 Edition)
Happy Monday, librarians!
First of all: congrats to all five winners of the Great ALA Signed Books Sweepstakes! We had hundreds of enthusiastic entries and so much positive feedback that we'll definitely be holding more contests like this in the future. In case you missed it, the winners are as follows:
The three (3) runners-up for a signed copy of IRON HOUSE are:
Nancy Vigezzi, Merrimack Public Library
Lisa Hullett, Wallace State Community College Library
Jeff Bailey, Arkansas State University-JonesboroThe 1st runner-up for three (3) signed paperbacks is:
Lisa Cosgrove-Davies, Arlington Public LibraryThe Grand Prize Winner for six (6) signed hardcovers is:
Shana Hitt, Brooklyn Public Library
Last week EarlyWord put up a list of great new reads, "New Title Radar – Week of July 18," and marked Colin Cotterill's KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT as the Rising Star! And did you see Colin as Book Brahmin in Shelf Awareness last week? He's a riot.
If you've fallen head over, ehem, heels for the sassy kicks on the cover of third-in-series THIRD GRAVE DEAD AHEAD, you can buy them here on heels.com! NOTE: This is this Little, Brown UK version of this cover, so keep your eyes peels for our steamy US version.
DRAGON'S OATH, the first novella in a House of Night mini-series, released last week so we can finally share with you some rad early versions of the illustrations by Kim Doner.
"These characters may be nearly immortal, but they are at the beginning of such immortality and, therefore, they are like any other young couple.
These are a few of the sketches I made: him approaching from behind her, sword down; her handing him a sunflower; her beginning to lift the face of a sunflower up towards him." -illustrator Kim Doner
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Monday Fun Day! (7/11/2011 Edition)
Happy Monday, everyone!
Let's start by congratulating Chevy Stevens whose chilling debut, STILL MISSING, won the 2011 Thriller Award for Best First Novel. Well done, Chevy! You can see all the 2011 Thriller Award-winners here.
Congrats are also in order for a second exceptional debut, THE POACHER'S SON by Paul Doiron, which just won the 2010 Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel!
In response to a flood of requests, we posted the full text of the fabulous BEA panel, "The Great Readalike. If You Like This…You’ll LOVE That!" The recommendations are spot on; I've already found two new favorites.
Barbara Hoffert shared some of her personal panel highlights from ALA 2011 in Authors at ALA: My Final Word. Her list includes “Tales from the Heart: Literary Memoirs” with Margaux Fragoso (TIGER, TIGER), “Celebrating Southern Writers" with John Hart (IRON HOUSE), and “Mystery and Horror @ Your Library” with Bill Loehfelm (THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS) and Erica Spindler (WATCH ME DIE). Barbara also included her Best Suggestion for a Book Club Read: THE TRANSFORMATION OF BARTHOLOMEW FORTUNO by Ellen Bryson and says,
"Both touching and absorbing, this First Author title reminds us that we’re none of us geeks—we share our humanity, whatever our 'curiosities.'"
Speaking of TIGER, TIGER, IRON HOUSE, and THE TRANSFORMATION OF BARTHOLOMEW FORTUNO, our Great ALA Signed Books Sweepstakes is only open until Friday, so get your entry in now!
And if you're in the mood to enter another rad contest, FSG is giving away 50 copies of THE HYPNOTIST here: http://us.macmillan.com/FSGadult/promo/hypnotistjuly.
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Hey there Unshelved readers,
Welcome to MacmillanLibrary.com where all of your bookish dreams come true! Well, all the ones with kittens, magic, and silly hats, that is.
Why don't you take a minute to see what we're all about in the About Us tab or give us a shout on Twitter? Check in with us every weekday for news, recommendations, announcements, and giveaways; or make it easy on yourself and add us to your RSS feed.
Thanks for stopping by and we hope to hear from you soon!
yours, Talia & Ali
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The Great Readalike. If You Like This…You’ll LOVE That!
Listen to the full presentation here at BookExpoCast.com
Kaite Stover, Kansas City Public Library
If you like:
The American Heiress, Daisy Goodwin
Then try:
The
Golden Prince, Rebecca Dean
Ragtime,
E.L. Doctorow
Consuelo
and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age,
Amanda Mackenzie Stuart
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Tuesday Fun Day! (7/5/2011 Edition)
I know, I know; "Tuesday Fun Day" doesn't exactly rhyme, but we were out of the office on Monday and I simply refuse to skip Fun Day, so you're just going to have to deal.
First of all, I have to tell you that I spent the long weekend completely wrapped up in Nebula-nominee SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY. My only question: why did I wait so long to pick it up?! This book is 100% swoon-worthy. It's no surprise that The Salt Lake County Library System selected it as a Reader's Choice-nominee! In response to the news, author Mary Robinette Kowal's said,
"I adore libraries, so to be on this list is a real honor."
A big round of applause to the 2011 RWA Librarian of the Year, Wendy Crutcher! This honor is awarded to a librarian who demonstrates outstanding support of romance authors and the romance genre. Read her acceptance speech on her blog.
Vogue weighs in on this Summer's Best Beach Reads, including Deborah Kay Davies’ TRUE THINGS ABOUT ME and Daisy Goodwin’s THE AMERICAN HEIRESS.
Fans of Alyson Noël can enter to win an MP3 player with the EVERMORE (The Immortals Series, Book 1) audio book already uploaded!
Finally, as the library marketing world starts to say our farewells to Marcie Purcell of Random House who is retiring after 20 years of service to libraries, Talia is introducing a new Marcie into her life.
Librarians, meet Marcie, Talia's new scruff ball:
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Back in New York After ALA, Giveaways to Come!
To say that ALA Annual was hectic this year is a bit of an understatement.
We had 17(!) marvelous authors signing books, chatting at the Pop Top stage, reading excerpts on panels, and grabbing meals (or a spot of tea!) with you lovely librarians*. We also gave away thousands of galleys. Thousands.
A huge thanks to everyone who joined us for all of our events and signings. We had a blast and we hope you did, too!
*To the librarians who stayed home and held down the fort: we have a very special giveaway for you in our next e-newsletter! Sign up and keep your eyes peeled.
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ALA OR BUST!
Well, we're off to New Orleans in the morning and not everyone is happy about it. But Talia and I are! In fact, we couldn't be more excited.
We hope to see both new and familiar faces down in New Orleans, so stop on by booth #1126 for hot galleys and good conversation. Also join us for author signings, mystery panels, and more.
Our full schedule is posted here and at http://bit.ly/MacmillanALA11.
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Monday Fun Day!
Thanks to the sage adage of our ancestors, we know that Monday is, in fact, Fun Day, and it's high time we began treating it that way! Today we've got a veritable* smörgåsbord of library and literary goodness for you. Enjoy!
First and foremost, get up out of that rolly chair and join us in a standing ovation for the King County Library System, winner of the Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year Award.
"The innovations and programs, the creative management of KCLS resources, the ability to stretch but still serve the principles and core values of librarianship, the strong public support, and the vision for the system’s future make it clear that KCLS is more deserving than ever to be named Library of the Year." —Library Journal
Hear, hear! I am particularly giddy about this announcement seeing as KCLS is the library system I grew up on. Way to go, KCLS.
In other super-awesome awards news, THE WAY OF KINGS by Brandon Sanderson won the 2010 DGLA Legend Award for Best Novel! And Simon Winder's travel romp, GERMANIA, was shortlisted for the 2011 Dolman Travel Book of the Year!
In getting-pumped-for-ALA-Annual news, Library Journal's Barbara Hoffert made a super convenient, printable PDF for this year's author signings and hot galley giveaways. View and print Barbara Hoffert's ALA Galley & Signing Guide 2011 here! Here's a sneak peek:
Oh, and a reminder for all you sci-fi fans: io9 is holding a book club discussion for THE QUANTUM THIEF on June 28th. I'll definitely be dropping by. Need convincing? Read the reviews!
And finally, this weekend I waited in line for a scrumptious burrito and morita lunch combo behind this brilliant fellow:
Seriously good taste, my friend.
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On #YASaves: Darkness in YA More Help Than Harm
I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who logged into Twitter over the weekend to find a new trend dominating the bookish conversations: #YASaves. I don't read many Young Adult novels, but I went ahead and read the desputed article on how YA has become too dark, I also read a rebuttal or two, then I decided to read some YA.
Back when I was reading YA regularly, I'll admit, it wasn't contemporary. I was reading YA of the wizards, knights, and spaceships variety. But this time I picked up something from 21st Century Earth, Courtney Summers' FALL FOR ANYTHING, in which our protagonist, Eddie, is coping (and sometimes not coping) with her father's suicide. Is this story dark? Yes. Is it written with care, sensitivity, honesty, and confidence that things can get better for Eddie? Absolutely.
As I read, three things became very clear to me very fast:
1. It's easy to forget that the day-to-day life of a teenager is erratic, immediate, frustrating, and thrilling without additional adversity.
2. Tragedy and abuse are isolating. Only fellow teenagers can truly empathize with highly-visceral reactions to difficulty, but they may not know how to empathize with tragedy. Books offer a non confrontational form of support, normality, and a way to see past the confusion to the healing.
3. YA books dealing with issues like grief, self-harm, substance abuse, domestic violence, bullying and so on are invaluable tools for adults trying to understand someone younger dealing with difficult issues.
Sure, sometimes in YA the death of a parent is replaced with the death of a wizard guardian or substance abuse is told as addiction to time-traveling, but regardless of genre, the issues and the emotions are the same. These stories offer empathy, compassion, understanding, and shed light on difficult issues.
If you feel inspired to do some reading and decide for yourself whether dark issues in YA are helpful or harmful, I have a few authors to suggest:
Courtney Summers (FALL FOR ANYTHING, SOME GIRLS ARE, CRACKED UP TO BE)
Carol Lynch Williams (THE CHOSEN ONE, MILES FROM ORDINARY)
Rachel DeWoskin (BIG GIRL SMALL)
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