I haven’t done a links post in a while, occupied as I’ve been with catching up on book reviews (I’m still not done, by the way…that’s a threat AND a promise!). So here are a few news stories and whatnot that have caught my attention:
First, a worthy cause for your consideration–Guys Lit Wire is doing another short holiday book fair for Ballou High School, which now has an impressive new library facility. But guess what? No room in that facilities budget for books. So: let’s help them get there. They started with less than one book per student, and now they’re up to a ratio of five books per student, which is fantastic but still considerably less than the recommendation of (if I remember correctly) 11 books per student. The book fair’s still running for two more days, and I’ve made my donation–Allegiant by Veronica Roth, A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty, and Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina. Go read about it here, and buy a few books off the Powell’s wishlist!
Today via the New Yorker‘s Twitter feed, a story about the big Literary Feuds of 2013. A few of these were familiar, such as the “Claire Messud and likeability” kerfuffle and the Booker Prize business, but a lot of them were new to me. Quite an intriguing recap of the past year’s Privileged People Problems…
Latinos in Kid Lit is doing their own 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway, raffling off 12 fabulous kids’ books by Latino/a authors between Christmas and Three Kings Day. Go enter!
Last but not least, another recap for 2013, this time of NPR’s Best Books. But instead of a list, this year they’ve done a “Book Concierge”–a recommendation engine based on what you’re into reading right now. It’s interesting, for sure…filtering by genre does have its advantages, and combining various tags makes for some unexpected results. I’d be interested to hear what others think, if you’ve given it a try…
