This Week in Links

Much of the awesome stuff I found in the blogosphere this week:

In the News
Already, Sasha and Malia Obama face the world of celebrity brought to them not of their choice. I have to admit I found this letter from the Bush girls touching and I cried a little! While not on the same scale, I can relate a tiny bit to some of the feelings having grown up with a pastor for a father. (HT: Without Wax)



Faith
Brant Hansen started a festival of judgement over at Letters from Kamp Krusty. And wow, what's scary is just how spot on some of the comments are! Anyway, if you need to laugh at just how ridiculous Christians judging Christians can sound, you should check it out and maybe even join in. In other news, Laura featured a great two part interview with What's Your Response? an organization fighting human trafficking at the local level at Inspired to Action.

Film
Author Kristin Billerbeck doesn't seem overly thrilled with the choices for this year's Academy Awards. Go check out her nominations and see if you agree with her or not. (for the record, while I do believe Hollywood is overly invested in political films, I don't agree with her!)

Strange Culture takes a look at Best Picture nominees adapted from books and gives us a wonderful list of more adaptations coming out...in case we want to read the books first!

Books
I read a non-fiction book a few years ago that was a collection of stories of the women of China. I forgot the name (I borrowed it from a friend) and have since wondered how to find it again. Lo and behold the magic of the book blogosphere..it popped up here in a review!

Harelquin is giving away 16 free ebooks! Check it out, there's something for everyone!

Jen pondered the definition of handsome during the 14th and 16th centuries (read the comments there's some interesting stuff there!)

Shelly shared another great author interview with Merrily Kutner. Shelly does a really fantastic job at the author interviews, unlike yours truly.

Tracy has another review of Beat the Reaper. Have you read this one? I still haven't decided whether or not I'll read it. Wendi gave a fantastic review of The Heretic's Daughter...I really want to read this one! Speaking of which, Trish reviewed The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffrey Deaver...I definitely want to read this one as well. Beth reviewed a graphic novel that looks interesting. Her enthusiasm for graphic novels is definitely inspiring me to give the desire to dedicate more time to them. Marta reviewed the Famiy Bones which I've been thinking of checking out myself.

Have a smoke stench in your books? Sometimes when you buy books secondhand this can be a problem. Check out these great tips for getting rid of it!

Wendy shared her list of 50 must read novels which, considering how few I've read, kind of stressed me out a little! Wendy also lost Caribou this week. My prayers are with her, you can read her beautiful tribute here.

John Updike's death will increase sales of his book and by the way, did you know a lot of indie booksellers blog? Check out the sidebars here and here and watch your google reader explode.


Other
Cute kid drawings here and here. Shaun Groves shares his judgemental theory about beautiful people. And a lover of literary theory celebrates the power of story.