First off, I'm exhausted! For some reason, I couldn't sleep this morning so I spent a few hours trying to catch up on blogs. This led me to the realization that I needed to ditch the blogs I was subscribed to but hadn't looked at in over 2 months. I also organized it a little better. A big project, but my google reader is empty for the first time in months and I'm hoping in the long run that this will save me loads of time.
So there was TONS of good stuff in there! Here's some of what I found:
Bookish Stuff
Two book reviews that will be forthcoming on this blog have already been reviewed by some fantastic bloggers! Swapna reviewed The Lost Hours by Karen White, an author I simply love, and Beth reviewed the book currently sucking my happy life force away, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.
Still scared to try Christian Fiction? Nicole offers a fabulous review of a book I've never heard of!! categorized in this genre and suggests it would reach an audience beyond the usual suspects. I really want to read this book!
April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate, Carries shares some of her favorite poems and poetry collections!
If you're looking for a few great books to read yourself, you might want to visit Shelly's April Fool's Giveaway!
If you enjoy the occasional Harlequin SuperRomance (and yes, yes I do) then check out Wendi's review of Married by Mistake.
And Jen had a busy reading month--go check out her favorite book of the month, it just so happens that book arrived in the mail this week!
The fabulous Mitali Perkins wrote a fantastic piece on race in children's literature...do not miss it. There's a lot to think about there.
I was also really interested in Jackie's post about prize winning books...I'm not well read enough to make the sort of comparisons she does, but it WAS interesting!
When GalleyCat announced Dear Author's new review policy I must confess I wanted to scream.(It probably doesn't help that they are daily read for me and I follow one of them on twitter. They are always preaching e-books. Like always. Seriously, it's constant.) It's nice for them to get all tough on receiving e-copies of books only...they got free e-readers! Not all bloggers are in the financial position to do all their reviewing via electronic copies. However, once I read the explanation on their site, it made more sense. Still, I simply don't foresee an e-reader in my future any time soon.
I LOVED LOVED LOVED this piece by Alexander McCall Smith on the novelist's moral responsibility....I loved this excerpt:
"Although we eventually learn to distinguish between the world of make-believe and the real world, I suspect that many of us continue to experience fictional characters and events as being, in some way, real. This is because the imaginative act of following a story involves a suspension of disbelief, as we enter into the world it creates. When Anthony Minghella showed me a moving scene that he had just filmed for the pilot of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," I found myself weeping copiously, right there on the set. I felt rather embarrassed -- it was only a story, after all -- but he put a hand on my shoulder and said that was exactly what he had done over that particular scene." Please go read the whole thing!
I enjoyed this review of Stone Soup by Amy over Hope is the Word. I read this in elementary school and was supposed to be in a play of it, but then came down with strep throat! It was devastating!
Lisa Samson wrote a beautiful guest post for Novel Journey. So it's true that I love anything mentioning chickens but especially this post!
This article on the benefits of reading fiction sort of falls in the duh category for me and anyone who is an avid reader of fiction I'm sure, but it's still a lovely read. (HT: Minds Alive on the Shelves)
Television
Pushing Daisies Season 2 is coming to DVD in July. Yay! (this is all you need to know, so no link)
My favorite April Fool's Joke and thank God it's not true!
That's it for now! I actually still have several starred items, but some of them warrant their own posts!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The Weekly Review Week Ending April 4
Posted by Amy at 11:35 PM
Labels: The Weekly Review
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14 comments:
I would love to get an ereader but they are far too expensive, and then there are also issues with downloading books to Australia, so I don't see it happening anytime soon for me either.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and commenting! I'm bookmarking your blog--maybe one day I can participate in your Saturday challenge! : )
Thanks again! You have a great blog. I can tell you put a lot of time and thought into it.
Great links! Thanks for all the recommendations!
That was an interesting article at Dear Author. I personally do not enjoy reading eBooks so I hope printed ARCs (and printed books for that matter) won't disappear entirely. One anon commenter said publishers are reluctant to send out digital ARCs because they are hard to control. You can easily pass the files on to hundreds of people and they fear that this could impact sales.
Thanks for the heads-up about Pushing Daisies! I have Season 1 and intend to get Season 2. I loved that show!
I can't see me spending $400+ on a device just to read review books. It's not going to happen.
I have a whole post about why I'm not going over to an e-reader any time soon over at Geek Buffet. (http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/the-problems-of-the-kindle/)
And I also loved loved loved the McCall Smith article, too.
Thank you very much for mentioning my post!
I love the April Fools joke you mention, and the comments it gets are almost as funny!
Loved the piece on race in children's lit. And I'm off to read the Alexander McCall Smith piece, which also sounds great!
Marg, I totally agree, it's just not happening anytime soon.
Amy..Well you do have a wonderful name and thanks for the kind words of encouragement!
Jill..my pleasure!
Lenore..that makes a lot of sense and for really highly anticipated releases I can see how it would be especially problematic. Puts the problem of selling used copies on ebay in a different light, eh?
ham1299...me too! I'm so sad it won't be back.
Chris...no not for me either, though I'd be happy to accept one as a complimentary gift.
Jennie, I'll definitely check out your post, I've been meaning to address it here as well, but just haven't yet.
Jackie...my pleasure it was a great post!
Nymeth..I hope you enjoy!
But they've cancelled the show!
The Dear Authors review policy is really interesting, but I think they're missing the point a bit. Continued exposure is good, so if some of us can't get to an ARC for a month or two, all we're serving to do when we review is drag out the publicity and keep a book in the public eye, right? My thoughts only. Having said that, I do my best to review in a timely manner.
I turn down e-books flat, though, because I don't have a reader, am not interested in forking out big bucks to own one, and can't stand to sit and read off the computer for long. I write reviews because reading is a joy and I can't shut myself up about what I've read. I'll still do so, even if the ARC stream is dammed up. I've got plenty of older titles on my shelves and just reading great books is always going to be my sole purpose.
Luanne..I know I'm really sad about that, too.
Nancy..I won't stop reading and reviewing books either. I have so many I want to read! But the pushiness in general sort of bothers me...because there are a lot of bloggers willing to donate their time to read review copies and won't be able to in an e-format. Print copies don't exclude anyone, e-copies will exclude a lot.
Actually, I kind of went backwards from the Dear Author ladies' position. I was getting a lot of e-ARCs even without specifying (probably close to 40%), and I wound up with eye strain and constant headaches from reading all the books on my computer. So I invested in a Sony reader just for the sake of my health. It was freakishly expensive, but I don't get headaches on a daily basis anymore, so worthwhile.
That being said, I'm not going to neglect paper books sent to me in a timely fashion. Emphasis on "timely." (On Monday, I had a mid-March release arrive in my mailbox. One I'd requested in February!)
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