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Wow! We received so many excellent entries in our first ever T-shirt design contest! We had a great time going through them all, but a VERY difficult time choosing the winning entry. But a big congratulations goes out to... (drumroll)... Kristine F.! Look at that happy book! We'll be printing Kristine's winning design, and they'll … Continue reading T-shirt Contest Winner!
Have you ever read a new series and been annoyed that it takes a year for each of the new books to come out? I know I have. Well, apparently the folks over at Dial (an imprint of Penguin) have also felt this way. They are putting out Catherine Fisher's entire new Relic Masters Series … Continue reading Teen Review: The Relic Master
Over at Salon.com, Laura Miller wrote an interesting article about the gender gap in literature. Her article is a wonderful mix of hard data and educated guesses, with just a touch of well-informed opinion to get the juices flowing. You should read the article yourself, but, if you don’t have the time, I’ll try to explain it quickly: women are underrepresented in the world of literature. Fewer books are reviewed by women, fewer female authors get their books reviewed, and fewer female authors get their books published, and all of this despite the fact that women read more books than men. Those are the facts as put forth by Miller, and those facts have remained true for as long as anyone has thought to ask those questions.
Congrats to Amber Deitrich, winner of our Valentine's Day Story Contest. Amber's entry, which I can only guess is a true-life email/craigslist exchange between possible paramours, encapsulates the essence of being young and living in Austin in the 21st century. Plus, it mentions BookPeople, so we love it. Thanks to everyone who entered.
Valentine's Day is on Monday, and we're in the mood for a good story. Any bookstore-related tales of love out there? Wandering amongst the stacks, you and a certain someone reach for the same book at the same time, bumping hands and then making eye contact... you stare deeply into each other's soul. Now you're married and have a bajillion kids...something like that.
2011 is well under way, and I for one think it’s gonna be great. I’m a sucker for the beginning of a new year. I make resolutions, take inventory of my accomplishments, acknowledge and forget my shortcomings, and then I start looking forward to all the great books I’ll be reading over the next twelve months. It’s a great time, and I’m blessed, thanks to advanced readers from incredible publisher rep’s, to get a little head start on my 2011 reading. I’ve compiled a short list of what has caught my eye so far. I should be clear that, with the exception of Open City: A Novel, Galore, and The Tiger’s Wife I haven’t read any of these books, this is simply a list of anticipation. My Pavlovian juices are flowing even thinking about them. Here are some of the titles I’ll be looking forward to in 2011:
Just a few days until Christmas! After you set out the milk and cookies for that lovable home intruder, gather the family together and read a holiday storybook. Here's four classic favorites suggested by our Kids Books Buyer, Meghan Goel:
I’ve written here before about my love of book snobs. I love em’, and you should too. They do all that bookish research, helping their friends find those obscure gems of literature that are, sometimes, less likely to make the ever present ‘top 10 of 2010’ lists. Even though they act like you’re a waste of space if you’ve never heard of the newest Nobel Prize recipient, they’re still glad to point you to that new novel by the 8 year old prodigy who wrote an 8oo page novel without vowels. That’s a service I appreciate, but the one time of year they get a little less lovable is during the holiday season. Snobs are incredibly hard people to buy books for.
We're gonna milk this birthday thing for all it's worth. Another fine top 40 list by BookPeople's Clint Carroll. Enjoy. These are in no particular order. And I had to leave some of my favorites out, obviously --Clint Carroll.
No 'Top 40' project would be complete without Kester Smith's two cents. Kester, probably the friendliest member of our staff, is always there with a kind word and interesting recommendation. For more Kester-approved picks, check out his blog: What's Kester Reading?
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