To be published week of May 21 – May 27, 2012
MONDAY NONFICTION
TUESDAY NONFICTION
TUESDAY NONFICTION
THURSDAY NONFICTION
Bookmark to:
New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer
May 17th, 2012RA Run Down
May 13th, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
GRAPHIC BOOKS
To Be Published Week of May 14, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Summer Books of 2012
Time to start thinking summer (vacation)! We’re compiling a list of articles profiling this year’s crop of Summer Books–look to the righthand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
Hot Titles and Trends
Fifty Shades of Grey pulled from Florida libraries
Literary agent charges that the Department of Justice has a “bizarre misunderstanding of ebooks”
The most read books in the world
Here’s a new take in reality TV: America’s next top writer!
Nearly two-thirds of Americans are using their smartphones for “just in time” information
Fictional characters and their influence on “real life”
Thank goodness for the Internet when it comes to book reviewing
Marvel has a new X-Men product in the works
Are you ready for the “new Bing”?
Library and Bookstore News
A new model for library ebook buying? (Meanwhile, Houston Libraries are experiencing explosive ebook use growth)
A new role for libraries: genius bars?
How much does the library save its users?
ALA offers new service to text advocacy alerts to librarians
MobyLives investigates the reinvention of libraries
Some big names are not best pleased about the New York Public Library revamp
A closer look at bookstore book blogs
Fly the friendly skies: Tattered Cover may be opening bookstores in the Denver Airport
Publishing and EBook Headlines
New trends in publishing: agile methodology
Revenues are down at Harlequin
Simon & Schuster relaunches imprint dedicated to ebooks
Fodor’s updates its City Guides for iPhones and iPads
Ebooks as credit card loyalty rewards
Marvel opens new Digital Comics
Shop
Christian literary agency to launch own e-publishing concern
Amazon’s creative global ebook pricing
Sourcebooks has had a good year
Facebook now in the app-selling business
Amazon getting ready to release color Kindle?
Harry Potter books to be included in Amazon’s Kindle Lending program
Ebooks are going strong in Russia
Will Amazon grow bored with publishing?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is restructuring its debt
Professional Development Opportunities:
Call for papers: Internet Reference Services Quarterly
RUSA Webinars: Proposals sought
PLA will host three preconferences for public librarians at ALA Annual
Books on Screen
The Avengers hits a billion dollars at the box office
Chelsea Cain’s books may soon be coming to a TV near you
On the Road movie scheduled for this fall
The top 10 grossing comic book movies of all time
Ender’s Game launches film blog
Sean Bean: a man who likes appearing in literary adaptations
Awards
Ondaatje Prize: Shortlist
Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction: Shortlist
National Magazine Awards: Winners
2012 James Beard Awards: Winners
Best Translated Book Award for Fiction winner: Wieslaw Mysliwski
Wolfson History Prizes: Winners
Blogging the 2012 Caine Prize: bloggers read through the shortlist
Midland Authors Awards: Winners
Macmillan Prize to incorporate digital category
The New York Times tries to award its own Pulitzer for fiction
Authors
Memoirist Angelica Garnett: Obituary
Maurice Sendak: Obituary (and you can watch uncensored clips from his last Colbert Report interview‘ visit The Millions page about remembering Sendak)
Jacquelyn Mitchard to head new young adult fiction imprint
New title expected from Bernhard Schlink
Erotica author E. L. James is enjoying her newfound success
Read the first chapter of Ed Falco’s Godfather prequel at Publishers’ Weekly
Glenn Beck launches ebook series
James Joyce’s handwritten manuscripts now available online
Rick Riordan to work on new series about the Norse gods
Max Allan Collins defines “hardboiled” for you
Ann Coulter will have a new book out in October
Lists
Look inside Toni Morrison’s 10 novels
Maurice Sendak: Essential quotes
Ten books that should be challenged instead of Fifty Shades of Grey
The Summer 2012 Kids’ Indie list
Lighthearted Links of the Week
Want to know who’s reading what, where, right now?
Advice columns from famous authors that we’d love to read
Extremely silly photos of extremely serious authors
Bookmark to:
Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012
May 8th, 2012Children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who won the 1964 Caldecott Medal for the picture book Where the Wild Things Are (and who wrote numerous other picture books and works), has died at age 83.
Bookmark to:
RA Run Down
May 6th, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
GRAPHIC BOOKS
To Be Published Week of May 6, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Summer Books of 2012
Time to start thinking summer (vacation)! We’re compiling a list of articles profiling this year’s crop of Summer Books–look to the righthand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
Hot Titles and Trends
Just finding the book can land you in shades of grey: meet the book being mistaken for the erotica phenomenon
How young is too young for the Hunger Games?
DC Comics debuts “Second Wave”
Books-A-Million chairman and family owners make a bid to buy up all the public stock in the company
The New York Times wants you to get young readers into reading nonfiction
What the death of print newspapers means for writers
Amazon to develop original TV programming
The public library as community center
Newspaper paywalls are starting to pay off
Where are today’s literary nomads?
When cover design includes ads
Is “trust the new black” when it comes to regulating social networks?
May is Short Story Month
Ebook and Publishing News
Microsoft’s investment in the Nook, by the numbers (or this one: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/04/barnes-noble-spins-off-nook-ereader-300-million-from-microsoft.html)
Sesame Street ebook subscription service for libraries now available from Ingram
Tablets: more popular than e-readers?
Another content source for ebooks: screenplays
Storytime app an e-bookstore for kids?
Amazon’s latest petty salvo in the war on ebook pricing
A new look for Ebsco’s ebook platform
Rising ebook sales make up for lagging paperback sales
Frommer to offer interactive travel ebooks
Target at odds with Amazon over Kindle
Ebook borrowing surging in Florida libraries
Library tries to reason with publishers…through its website
Everyone wants in on the e-publishing action: Booktango service offers authors 100% of the royalties on books they publish before July 4
Now being offered to schools: Nooks loaded with educational content
Pottermore on track to have a $60 million year
Are ebooks driving revenue for print books?
The newest ebook market set to boom: Taiwan
Professional Development Opportunities:
Free library continuing education resources, in a list provided by the Texas State Library
Free webcast: Christian Fiction Spring Book Buzz (Thursday, May 10)
Mediabistro to host literary festival: entirely online!
Going to BEA? Consider speed dating for book club picks
Going to ALA Annual? Consider joining Nancy Pearl for the Andrew Carnegie Medal Awards Ceremony
Booklist is looking for crime fiction book reviewers
Call for authors: for book titled Time Organization for Librarians
Call for authors: for book titled Handling Job Stress: Tips By Librarians
Books on Screen
HBO has passed on a small-screen adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections
Literary adaptations did well in the MTV Movie Award nominations
Amazing Spider-Man: Trailer
The Wolf of Wall Street: more casting news
The Avengers has a record-breaking opening weekend
Awards
Caine Prize: Shortlist
Elizabeth Longford Prize winner: Frances Wilson (for her book How to Survive the Titanic or The Sinking of Bruce J. Ismay)
Ben Lerner: wins the Believer Book Award
Neal Wyatt: wins the Monroe Award for Adult Library Services!
David Graeber wins the 2012 Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing
Arthur C. Clarke Award winner: Jane Rogers
Kansas City librarians step up to fill the Pulitzer Prize for fiction void
Authors
Horror author Michael Louis Calvillo: Obituary
Norman Fruman (biographer of Samuel Taylor Coleridge): Obituary
Journalist and novelist Bill Granger: Obituary
Perseus Books Founder Frank Pearl: Obituary
Journalist and novelist Tom Wicker: Obituary
Harper Lee: gets Harper Lee Award
His charity got some money back, but his readers won’t: judge dismisses civil lawsuit against Greg Mortenson
Stephen King okay with taxing the rich, himself included (and, he’s got a few words–some of them swear words–to say on the subject in an essay at The Daily Beast)
Jeanette Winterson: on the Bat Segundo show
Sale on Paulo Coelho! Many of his ebooks now priced at .99
Neil Gaiman shares his reading habits
Who are the newest members of the author’s Millionaire’s Club?
Lists
25 books for a child’s library
Books written by celebrity animals
Ten of the best memoirs about mothers
Five award-winning mystery novels for young adults
New York Times: Editors’ Choices for the week
A beginner’s guide to crime fiction
Lighthearted Links of the Week
Literary favorites illustrated, Muppet-style!
Ellen Degeneres reads 50 Shades of Grey
How to write a Booker Prize-winning novel
Bookmark to:
RA Run Down
April 29th, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
GRAPHIC BOOKS
To Be Published Week of April 30, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Summer Books of 2012
Time to start thinking summer (vacation)! We’re compiling a list of articles profiling this year’s crop of Summer Books–look to the righthand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
Ebook and Publishing News
DOJ copycat lawsuits (Summary of the case thus far)
What does it really cost to make an ebook?
Ebooks and apps a big part of tablet business
When old meets new: Historical romance trending in ebooks
Can’t wait for your new Barnes and Noble “Read in the Dark” Nook? You won’t have to; they’re shipping early
Foreign language Harry Potter ebooks now for sale
Best of apps and enhanced books: April edition
Can literary fiction survive the ebook age?
New erotic romance ebook imprint coming from Harper Collins
A Few Amazon News Snippets
Is Amazon morally wrong but legally right?
Consumers’ favorite book recommender: Amazon?
Trends and Talking Points
Open content and school libraries
Teach the books, touch the heart
Even the Internet is getting its own novel book deal
Titanic anniversary is driving book sales
Mein Kampf being published in Germany…seventy years after it first appeared there
Trending: social reading
New York Public Library changes
Coming in May: books by celebrities galore!
Anniversaries
Little, Brown turns 175!
Spider-Man turns fifty
Professional Development Opportunities:
ALA asks librarians to oppose CISPA
Leverage yourself as an expert using social media
Pinterest Webinar (from the Ohio Library Council) to be held on May 22
Books on Screen
Hemingway and Gellhorn trailer (to air on HBO May 28)
Charlie Kaufman to adapt new “Hunger Games-esque” films
True Blood Season 5: teaser trailer
Lawless, based on the novel The Wettest Country in the World: Trailer
Baz Luhrman’s cinematic take on The Great Gatsby
Report from CinemaCon: Will Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit be disappointing?
The Avengers does well overseas
Awards
Free samples of the LA Times Book Award winners
Orwell Prize: Shortlist
Commonwealth Book Prize: Shortlist
Did fiction NOT winning a Pulitzer help book sales?
CrimeFest Awards: Shortlist
2012 Edgar Awards: Winners
Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards (Australia): to cease in 2012
Authors
Children’s author Leila Berg: Obituary
Ernest “Chick” Callenbach: Obituary
Biographer Virginia Spencer Carr: Obituary
Science fiction author Kathy (“K.D.”) Wentworth: Obituary
Scottish crime writer Shona MacLean becomes S.G. MacLean–to appeal more to men readers
Jonah Lehrer: On the Bat Segundo Show
A Henry David Thoreau video game? There’s a grant for that
How do you get to know Edgar Allan Poe? Read his stuff
What is Dave Eggers up to now?
Tom Hanks to narrate Stephen Colbert audiobook
Alison Bechdel: Interview (with Maud Newton)
Maya Angelou: named Presidential Medal of Freedom Honoree
Milan Kundera: fifteen new audiobooks to be published
Larry McMurtry: hosting a book auction this August at his bookstore
Lists
Indie Science Fiction and Fantasy bestseller list
Ten great books about young women
Read everything by Roberto Bolano? Consider ” Other Great Latino Authors”
Ten best self-help books of all time
Lighthearted Links of the Week
67 books every geek should read to their kid
Is that a poem in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Ten gorgeous buildings made out of books
Bookmark to:
RA Run Down
April 22nd, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
GRAPHIC BOOKS
To Be Published Week of April 23, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Forthcoming Books of 2012
We’re still compiling lists of 2012 book previews. Look to the right hand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
Ebook and Publishing News
The Department of Justice (DOJ) ebook/price-fixing story continues: how involved was Amazon in the instigation of the suit? (Elsewhere, MobyLives wonders, is Amazon a monopoly?)
Still not quite sure what the DOJ/ebook price-fixing/lawsuit story is all about? MobyLives recaps for you
Confused about all the ebook pricing debates? So are consumers
Ebook pricing lawsuit mania strikes Canada!
In other Amazon ebook news, the company might have an ebook impostor problem
How is cutting off Amazon working out for EDC?
Amazon acquires rights to Ian Fleming’s Bond books; will release them as ebooks this summer–what will Barnes and Noble do about it?
What is the Amazon recommendation engine really suggesting?
What’s the ceiling on ebook adoption?
Is distributing books through libraries good for sales? ebrary says yes
Technology and Reading
For parents who want to know what their kids are reading: there’s an app for that!
Read It Later app now called Pocket
What city buys the most Kindles?
Trends and Talking Points
New site for LA Review of Books
New York Public Library director is taking reader questions
Do all bestsellers share twelve attributes?
Worldly titles for book groups
Fifty Shades of Grey is officially mainstream
Volunteers are getting ready for World Book Night (April 23)
American poets on forever stamps
Professional Development Opportunities:
Take part in public library ebook research (in conjunction with Pew Internet)!
Check out the Historical Novel Society’s new website!
Webinars and books and reviews, oh my! May is Mystery Books Month at Booklist Online
Books on Screen
The Hunger Games sequel has found a director!
James Patterson’s “Private” series coming soon to a television near you
Film version of “The Wolf of Wall Street” to star Leonardo DiCaprio
Novelist sues video game company
Awards
Wow, a busy (and somewhat contentious) week in award news.
Big news: no Pulitzer is awarded for fiction this year (Here, The Morning News weighs in on the “Great Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Brouhaha of 2012″)
Speaking of, here’s the full list of 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners (for books); (The Huffington Post has won its first Pulitzer Prize)
Independent Foreign Fiction Award: shortlist
2012 Hugo nominee short stories: available online!
Orange Prize: shortlist
Orion Book Award: Finalists
Spring 2012 New Voices titles announced
New young person’s book award sponsored by The Guardian
Going to ALA in June? Stop in to see the new Andrew Carnegie Awards awarded for fiction and nonfiction
Vote for your favorite book bloggers!
Authors
Doris Betts: Obituary
Lewis Nordan: Obituary
Dora Saint (Miss Read): Obituary
J.K. Rowling’s next project: a Harry Potter encyclopedia
Metallica is getting a two-volume biography!
The Girl with the Dragon Tatto: the graphic novel!
Pippa Middleton’s book is coming out in October (will it be #1 with a bullet?–couldn’t resist)
Pseudonymous Bosch lands new book deal
A match made in literary heaven? Dickens descendant reads audio version of story by Tolkien descendant
E.L. James makes Time 100 list
New novel coming from Jonathan Safran Foer
Greg Mortenson’s legal troubles aren’t over yet
“S*** Girls Say” gets book deal
Stephenie Meyer: film producer
Cassandra Clare and Holly Black to collaborate on new series
Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) to write novel
Lists
Ten of the most hilarious memoirs you’ll ever read
Lighthearted Links of the Week
The 25 most beautiful public libraries in the world
Star in your favorite novel! (For a mere $24.95.)
Bookmobiles from around the world
Bookmark to:
RA Run Down
April 15th, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
To Be Published Week of April 15, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Forthcoming Books of 2012
We’re still compiling lists of 2012 book previews. Look to the right hand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
Ebook and Publishing News
The big news of the week, of course, is about the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple and several publishers, charging them with fixing the prices of ebooks. For an introduction to the story, read this informative summary. The Melville House blog discusses how indie booksellers are against the suit, which the author argues is pro-Amazon. At the Wall Street Journal, the antitrust suit’s outcome on Barnes and Noble is discussed; publishers and the ABA weigh in on the case as well. And now: states are getting in on the action too.
But what does the above all mean for consumers? Considerably more than chump change
And what is Amazon doing during all this? The company’s ebook pricing strategy
Librarians and authors to start discussions of their own about ebook lending; is it true that publishers and libraries just don’t understand each other? Also: does lack of ebook lending put all free access to information at risk?
Baker and Taylor to provide audio digital books to libraries
Amazon’s digital sales up 29% in 2012 first quarter
Coming soon: Amazon Appstore
New features on Barnes and Noble’s latest Nook
Trends and Talking Points
ALA releases list of most challenged books of 2011
Pottermore is open for business!
Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass factory: Barnes and Noble won’t say much about working conditions in its Nook factories
A new role for librarians? Help your patrons do a digital detox!
Want to peruse an original Gutenberg Bible? Soon you’ll be able to, online!
Not a big fan of profanity in picture books? Go the F–k to Sleep gets a new title
New York Times debuts new “By the Book” feature
Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans rejoice: new graphic novel series featuring Spike and Willow to be released
Magazines still in a slump
Social media news: Facebook acquires photo-sharing service Instagram
YouTube partners with Hearst Magazines for more “professional content”
Professional Development Opportunities:
PLA Ebooks 101 Webinar (April 17)
Check out all of PLA’s upcoming webinars, focusing on ebooks
Doing Readers’ Advisory for ebooks
Books on Screen
If you can’t wait to see Ender’s Game, this will be bad news: movie pushed back until November 2013
Game of Thrones picked up for third season
Hunger Games sequel will need a new director
AMC developing a new show based on a comic from Walking Dead author Robert Kirkman
The Hunger Games is tops at the box office for the fourth straight week
Maggie Smith is ready to be done with Downton Abbey
Awards
Eisner Award: Nominees
Hugo Awards: Finalists
Best Translated Book Awards: Finalists
2012 IMPAC Award: shortlist
2012 Audie Awards: Finalists
BookRiot asks: which book award has the best backlist?
Authors
Christine Brooke-Rose: Obituary
Historian Kenneth Libo: Obituary
Katherine Russell Rich, author of well-known cancer memoir: Obituary
Author and publisher Nick Webb (who helped bring about Douglas Adams’s novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has died
Former poet laureate Reed Whittemore: Obituary
J.K. Rowling’s book for adults, A Casual Vacancy, due out Sep. 27. Here’s the plot summary.
Twilight director Chris Weitz to write YA novels
New book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Herman Wouk coming
The last of William Manchester’s books on Winston Churchill to be published…eight years after Manchester’s death
Jules Feiffer to write graphic novel
A real-life Downton Abbey memoir on the way?
Novelist William Boyd to pen next 007 title
Stephen King’s newest release: a Southern gothic musical?
Ten of the most “bad-ass contemporary American poets”
Lists
Ten contemporary Southern authors you should be reading
Titanic Reads (at RA for All); and a list of helpful Titanic resource sites
Lighthearted Links of the Week
Celebrate April as National Poetry Month: 10 Poems You Can Memorize Today
Seven degrees of Michiko Kakutani
Most frequently shoplifted books
The most commonly misunderstood fantasy creatures
Bookmark to:
New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer
April 12th, 2012To be published week of April 16 – April 22, 2012
TUESDAY FICTION
TUESDAY NONFICTION
Bookmark to:
RA Run Down
April 8th, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
GRAPHIC BOOKS
To Be Published Week of April 8, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Forthcoming Books of 2012
We’re still compiling lists of spring 2012 book previews. Look to the right hand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
HAPPY NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK! (April 8 to 14)
Ebook and Publishing News
New iPad app for indie stories
A closer look at the ebook Freading service
Canadian libraries stop buying Random House ebooks; Connecticut consortium has the same idea
Baker & Taylor to offer ebooks for another platform (Azpen Android tablets)
For the digitally connected junior set: New Dr. Seuss and Berenstain Bears apps
Google no longer offering ebooks through Powell’s; is “Google becoming another Amazon”?, and what does that mean for indie bookstores?
Ebook price-fixing investigation news
Harry Potter: not only the hero of Hogwarts, but also very downloadable
Do boys value reading more if it’s Ereading?
Trends and Talking Points
Pew report: “The Rise of Ereading”; commentary on the report
Your newest self-publishers: teens and tweens
“Extending the life of bookstores is difficult…”
Is social media making reading a better or worse experience?
Trending: All things French
Are digital cookbooks ready for the next level?
Apps enable readers to “read it later”
People still like print for reading to kids
Fifty Shades of Grey goes audio; also, Fifty Shades of Grey parody signed
The Digital Public Library: predicted to open in April 2013
Amazon headlines
Amazon to publishers: deeper discounts, or else
Amazon pursues “tax avoidance” in the U.K. as well
Amazon launches Kindle en Espanol
Barnes and Noble will still stock Marshall Cavendish books (after spat with Amazon)
Professional Development Opportunities:
Tip: how to search Google by reading level
The ALA Notable Videos for Adults Committee has vacancies to fill! For more information visit http://www.ala.org/vrt/notablevideos
Upcoming Booklist webinars: What’s New with Graphic Novels (April 10); Hot Mysteries for Spring (April 24)
Computers in Libraries 2012 conference report
Readers Advisory 101: registration ends Thursday, April 12
PLA Webinar: Public Librarians’ Guide to EBooks (first one is April 17)
Events for librarians and educators at BookExpo America
YALSA online course on “Managing the Swarm: Teen Behavior in the Library and Strategies for Success” (April 24)
Forthcoming Online Learning with RUSA courses
Books on Screen
Game on Thrones has strong ratings for season premiere
Potted Potter parody play to open on Broadway
Downton Abbey season 3: SPOILERS!
Awards
International Thriller Awards: And the nominees are…
TV version of Game of Thrones wins Peabody Award
2012 National Magazine Award: Finalists
Indie Choice; E.B. White Read-Aloud awards announced; read free samples of the winners
Authors
Antonio Tabucchi: Obituary
Literary scholar and editor Edmund Epstein: Obituary
Playwright John Arden: Obituary
Book designer (and author) Chip Kidd speaks at TED 2012
Memoirs to come from Carrie Brownstein and Rita Moreno
Alain de Botton on the Bat Segundo Show
I wonder what she thinks of this headline: Is Ann Patchett the female Jonathan Franzen?
First-time authors, just ask John Grisham: keep a few of your first edition first novels
Help write Nicholas Sparks’s new book!
Lauren Oliver to write first adult book
Greg Mortensen ordered to pay $1 million to charity he founded
Controversial poetry, by Günter Grass, just in time for April as Poetry Month
Lists
Best books of 2012 (so far)
Lighthearted Links of the Week
Well, it’s kind of a Downton Abbey link (most famous estates in British period drama history)
Comic book heroes who should never have their own movie franchise
How authors got their pen names
Bookmark to:
RA Run Down
April 1st, 2012The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online. TRY THE FREE RA DATABASE based on Libraries Unlimited’s print Genreflecting Advisory series. Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at raoblog@lu.com. Also check out our free newsletter with more in-depth articles at Reader’s Advisor News.
Happy April Fool’s Day–our gift to you is a 100%-prank-free list of links. No foolin’!
By Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords
New To the Bestseller Lists This Week:
FICTION
NONFICTION
GRAPHIC BOOKS
To Be Published Week of April 2-8, 2012:
Fiction
Nonfiction
This is just a sample from our picks of the week. Scroll down or click here for the complete list.
Forthcoming Books of 2012
We’re still compiling lists of 2012 book previews. Look to the right hand column for our collection of links, or click here. As we find new lists, we’ll add them at the top of the column.
News of the Week:
Ebook and Publishing News
Harry Potter ebooks now available at your library!
Barnes and Noble’s new market: Germany?
Three new Kindle Fire tables are on the way; also, Google to enter tablet market
Titanic centennial boon to book publishing
Publishing platform woes continue: interactive books vs. apps
Digital revenues: publishing’s winners and losers
News Stories to Debate
Does the war on women extend to fiction too?
Boston Public Library still requires parental signatures for juvenile library accounts; what’s your policy?
Does Facebook own the word “book”?
Literary fiction: different rules for men and women
Are the kids really all right? The reading levels of high schoolers
If you want to understand libertarian politics today, forget Ayn Rand. Read Robert Heinlein instead.
Other Points of Interest
April is National Poetry Month. Here’s “From an Atlas of the Difficult World,” a favorite from Adrienne Rich who died this past week.
RA on location by Joyce Saricks
It’s the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time; email KidsSchoolandLibrary@MacmillanUSA.com for a party kit; follow on Facebook;
Which countries are the most loyal to printed books?
Print and ebook sales: up? (And speaking of optimism, check out Bookslut’s Jessa Crispin’s reporting on PLA)
One of the stranger headlines of the week: Jeff Bezos hoping to lift rocket engines off the ocean floor
Professional Development Opportunities:
Webcast: Library Journal Spring Adult Book Buzz April 10
Book Bloggers! Win a trip to BookExpoAmerica
Books on Screen
Why The Hunger Games is so popular
Universal wins the rights to Fifty Shades of Grey (meanwhile, articles are popping up on “mommy porn” going mainstream)
Zadie Smith’s On Beauty to be adapted into movie
Awards
Julie Otsuka Wins PEN/Faulkner Award for The Buddha in the Attic
The Morning News Tournament of Books names its champion
Results from the Left Coast Crime Conference:
Dilys Award: S.J. Rozan
Eureka Award: Darrell James
Golden Nugget Award: Kelli Stanley
Bruce Alexander Award: Ann Parker
The Lefty Award: Donna Andrews
Authors
Adrienne Rich, prize winning poet dies at age 82 – obituary
Harry Crews: Obituary
1930s child author Patience Abbe: Obituary
Bert Sugar, “boxing’s human encyclopedia” and writer: Obituary
Ernest Hemingway had a tender side?
Screenwriter Charlie Kauffman at work on his first novel
James Patterson sends 200,000 books to troops
Anne Tyler: does famously few interviews, but here’s a new one
Preview genre mash-up master Seth Grahame-Smith’s new novel Unholy Night
Lists
9 Mysteries Every Thinking Woman Should Read
Ten of the most precocious authors in history
Ten authors who made unlikely genre jumps
Books for teens who love The Hunger Games
Lighthearted Links of the Week
9 Things to Never Say in a Book Club
Beanie Babies The Hunger Games (spoiler alert: it’s pretty accurate)
Looking to shake up meal time? Be inspired with these Game of Thrones recipes!
This makes Sarah very proud of her home state: The Onion is the most popular news source in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and NM
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