Rounding the Corner Towards February

WHOOSH!
That’s the sound of a month passing.
Good grief, if the rest of 2008 is this brief, we’ll have a new president before we can get tired of all the campaigning! (Hah. I’m not even in the U.S., and … yeah.)

Busy, busy month ahead, but there are plenty of goodies to anticipate! To begin with, the 28 Days Later promotion at The Brown Bookshelf getting geared to go. Next, there’s Maureen Johnson giving away copies of Suite Scarlett (and sneak chapter previews!) at inside a dog where she’s author in “residence” until the 15th; Ursula K. LeGuin is offering Read By the Author at her site — lovely free MP3’s of her reading chapters from some of her books and her poetry. There’s a review of The Wednesday Wars in this Sunday’s SF Chron, as well as a review of two nonfiction titles for YA: Nic Sheff’s Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines (Ginee Seo Books; 325 pages; $16.99; ages 14-up) and Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s Three Little Words (Atheneum; 312 pages; $17.99; ages 12-up). The three little words weren’t “I love you;” they were “I guess so,” which are very sad words in the case of an adoption. I’m adding those to the TBR list; read more about them and add them to yours.

NPR explores the roots of Pollyanna as a symbol of relentless optimism — and discusses whether there’s any room for that in the modern world. Also, in case you missed their Holden Caulfield retrospective awhile back, it’s well worth hearing.

Finally, over at Shaken & Stirred, we find out that Glenda’s really dying to be a good witch who goes bad (and then gets good again). (I just think she’s warning us all not to piss her off.) As for me: you can find me in the library…

Which Buffy the Vampire Slayer Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

I’m very depressed that my hottie/evil quotient isn’t high enough to make me Spike. *Sigh*

HAPPY WEEK!