Welcome to another session of Turning Pages! Synopsis: Ludmila Novakova is a girl of wealth and privilege. The daughter of the Chancellor, she has lived her seventeen years as the pampered denizen of Prague Castle, a good Catholic girl who accepts... Read the rest of this post

Hi all, Julie here!

This is the second post in a series. If you want to read them in order, the first post was Building Blocks of a Novel: Word Choice.

Although the central analogy of this series compares writing a novel to constructing a city, forgive me for switching to a different metaphor for a moment. If we think of a novel as a living body, sentences create the heartbeat. Choices a writer makes about sentences can alter that heartbeat—make it speed up, slow down, pound harder, or even skip out of rhythm.

Returning to the city analogy, if words are the bricks, then sentences are the walls. They provide support and structure, but they also control how a building is experienced. High ceilings, narrow passageways, walls of glass and steel–change these things and the whole building changes. In the same way, each sentence makes a difference, and each must be deliberately crafted.

Here are some tips for creating great sentences:

Use sentence length deliberately. Long sentences can force the reader to linger, allowing an image to appear in the reader’s mind. Here’s an example from Truthwitch by Susan Dennard:

“As Iseult det Midenzi wriggled free from her sea-soaked tunic, boots, pants, and finally underclothes, everything hurt. Every peeled-off layer revealed ten new slices from the limestone and barnacles, and each burst of spindrift made her aware of ten more.

This ancient crumbling, lighthouse was effective for hiding, but it was inescapable until the tide went out. For now, the water outside was well above Iseult’s chest, and hopefully that depth—as well as the crashing waves between here and the marshy shoreline—would deter the Bloodwitch from following.”

Long sentences can also carry the narrative along, picking up speed as they go. Here’s an example from The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry:

“The walls and floor are aging now, the light still juddering through its phases like a movie from a projector, until the drywall starts crumbling, spiderwebbed with vines and weeds. From those vines, flowers blossom and wither and grow back and die again. Seasons stretch into years stretch into decades stretch into centuries, all in moments, while I can hear Beau’s breath, make out his edges through the millisecond of dark before another morning comes.”

By contrast, short sentences cut out all the window dressing. They ensure pauses. Short sentences change a rolling pace to a staccato rhythm. This can be effective for focusing attention on the plain meaning of the words. Here’s an example from The Martian by Andy Weir:

“I ache all over. And the shovels I have are made for taking samples, not heavy digging. My back is killing me. I foraged in the medical supplies and found some Vicodin. I took it about ten minutes ago. Should be kicking in soon.”

One thing I love about the above example is how a sentence starts with “And…” rather than continuing from the previous sentence. If those two sentences were joined into one, the resulting long sentence would ruin the effect that the shorter sentences create: a man in pain giving a spare description of his circumstances.

Vary the structure. This is important advice if you have a favorite sentence structure, because you may not realize how frequently you repeat it. Your reader will notice, though, and those wonderful sentences will lose their power. I personally love parenthetical phrases—especially when set off by dashes—but if I use too many on a page the sentences become muddled. Changing up the structure keeps the reader engaged. It combats boredom. Here’s an example of varied sentence structure, from Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard:

“He stares at me, scrutinizing everything from my face to my worn boots. It makes me squirm. After a long moment, he heaves a breath and lets me go. Stunned, I can only stare at him. When a silver coin spins through the air, I barely have the wits to catch it. A tetrarch. A silver tetrarch worth one whole crown. Far more than any of the stolen pennies in my pockets.”

One of the things I like best about the above example is the fact that the last three sentences are fragments. Sometimes it’s hard to ignore that red underline in Word that tells you the sentence isn’t grammatically correct. Here, it’s clear that those sentences are thoughts in the narrator’s head, and we rarely think in complete sentences.

Check for clarity. Sometimes we try so hard to create prose that stands out that we let communication suffer in the name of style. You can create lovely, lyrical, complex sentences, but your writing will suffer if clarity is sacrificed. Parallel structure, consistent tense, and clear pronouns are all the more important when sentences become more intricate. Here’s a made-up example of what I mean:

“The trail was blanketed in snow and shadows, creating a patchwork design that climbed into the mountains. The hikers paused. Their feet ache in their damp boots, memories of so many miles imprinted on their soles. It’s terrifying, Megan thought. Terrifying, yet beautiful. Her freezing toes wiggle inside her boots as they press forward, leaning into the wind.”

This example is loaded with clarity issues. The first line seems to say that the trail was creating a patchwork design, when it’s actually the snow and shadows. There are multiple tense changes, and it’s unclear what Megan finds terrifying yet beautiful. The view, or her aching feet? The last line seems to say that her toes are pressing forward, leaning into the wind.

How’s this instead?

“Snow and shadows blanketed the trail, creating a patchwork design that climbed into the mountains. The hikers paused. Their feet ached in their damp boots, memories of so many miles imprinted on their soles. It’s terrifying, Megan thought, her gaze taking in the view. Terrifying, yet beautiful. Her freezing toes wiggled inside her boots as she and the others pressed forward, leaning into the wind.”

Still not great prose, but the sentences are clearer! They make more sense and better support the story.

What are your thoughts on sentences? Do you have any advice to add? Please share your ideas in the comments!

Those who argue that lame-duck presidents should not nominate justices to the Supreme Court have forgotten or ignored the most consequential appointment in the Court's -- and the nation's -- history: President John Adams's 1801 appointment of John Marshall as the nation's fourth Chief Justice.

The post John Marshall, the lame-duck appointment to Chief Justice appeared first on OUPblog.

You guys! It's that time of year again. It's the sixth annual Ontario Teen Book Fest and I'm happy to be posting about one of the keynote speakers today, Marissa Meyer! I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of supplying the themed party food for the Los Angeles stop of her Winter book tour. You can read Thuy's recap and see lots of cool photos here. If you haven't read her Lunar Chronicles series yet, well, there's no time like now to get started, especially if you can join us in Ontario, CA to see her at Teen Book Fest!

Before we get to that, here's the important stuff to know about the festival so you can plan and find your way there. 

Important Stuff

When: Saturday March 12th, 9 am to 5 pm

Where: Colony High School 3850 E. Riverside Drive, Ontario, CA 91761

The Ontario Teen Book Fest Website: http://www.ontariotbf.org/

FREE -- No tickets necessary!

Side note, if you attend, you will be fed. Panera sandwiches and water/sodas are provided for attendees (since it's kind of hard to leave campus real quick to get some food--you might miss a panel!). I usually bring snacks anyway (and sandwiches are verboten on the anti-inflammatory diet I am currently on, so I do have to bring my own grub this time).

Books will be sold by Once Upon a Time. There will be t-shirts and posters as well.

At the end of the post, make sure you enter on the Rafflecopter for a poster signed by all of the authors!

Also, please share details about the fest on social media, and use the hashtag #OntarioTBF. 

Last but not least, show the event bloggers some love by heading over to their websites, reading their posts, and leaving a comment! Not mandatory but it would be super nice of you. And you can see by the schedule who this year's authors are!

Blog Tour Schedule

February 22nd - Spotlight on Andrew Smith - What A Nerd Girl Says

February 23rd - Spotlight on Alexandra Monir - The Consummate Reader

February 24th - Spotlight on April Tucholke - Adventures of a Book Junkie

February 25th - Spotlight on Alexis Bass - A Traveling Book

February 26th - Spotlight on Marissa Meyer - Read Now Sleep Later

February 27th - Spotlight on Sara Elizabeth Santana - Movies, Shows and Books

February 28th - Spotlight on Robin Reul - Recently Acquired Obsessions 

February 29th - Spotlight on Katherine Kottaras - iFandoms Collide

March 1st - Spotlight on Stephanie Diaz - My Fangirl Chronicles

March 2nd - Spotlight on Virginia Boecker - The Reader's Antidote

March 3rd - Spotlight on Mary McCoy - Book You Very Much

March 4th - Spotlight on Brad Gottfred - Seeking Bazinga

March 5th - Spotlight on Michelle Levy - My Fangirl Chronicles

March 6th - Spotlight on Elana K. Arnold - Read Now Sleep Later

March 7th - Spotlight on Kristin Halbrook - What A Nerd Girl Says

March 8th - Spotlight on Jessica Brody - The Windy Pages

March 9th - Spotlight on Nicole Maggi - Nite Lite Book Reviews

March 10th - Spotlight on Jay Asher - A Bookish Escape

Now that that's all squared away, here's Marissa!

Spotlight on Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer is the author of the Lunar Chronicles series. She thrilled YA fans with her debut novel, Cinder, which landed on the New York Times bestseller list at #10 in 2012. While to the untrained eye, Cinder may have looked like just another fairytale retelling aimed at teens, it is really much more than that. It's a socio-economic analysis, a political intrigue, a science-fiction thriller, a teen drama, a cyber-punk romance, and a dystopian fantasy all rolled into one (with an occasional hint of chibi comedy thrown in, just for fun).

Click the book covers to find out more about the books themselves.

Meyer continued to expand on her Lunar 'verse with sequels Scarlet (Red Riding Hood), Cress (Rapunzel), and Winter (Snow White). Each novel not only reveals more about Cinder's story, as well as the history and culture of the moon-dwelling Lunars threatening to take over the Earth, but also allies her with the strong, smart young women each volume is titled after. In the interval between Cress and Winter came Fairest: Levana's Story--filling in the gaps of the story by exploring the childhood and young adulthood of the primary antagonist in the series, the Lunar Queen herself. 

Her most recent release is Stars Above, a print collection of nine Lunar Chronicles short-stories, only four of which had previously been published. It also contains an excerpt from the upcoming Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired Heartless, a stand-alone YA novel telling the story of a girl before she became the Queen of Hearts. Heartless hits shelves (and, I'm sure no one will bet against me on this) best-seller lists on November 8, 2016. The thing that amazes me most about Meyer's novels is how she manages to make the totally familiar fairy tale elements thematically fit the far-flung story she concocts in every book. You wonder why you never thought about it that way before because it just totally makes sense. I'm almost certain Heartless will not be an exception to this rule.  

Did you know?

• Marissa started writing Sailor Moon fanfiction when she was 14. You can still find her stories at fanfiction.net under the pen name Alicia Blade.
• She has three cats named Calexandria Josephine, Stormus Enormous, and Blackland Rockwell III.
• She has a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University.
• Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress were all written for NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month).
• She loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Meyer lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband. Tweet her @marissa_meyer. You can find a TON more information about her at www.marissameyer.com, as well as music and book recommendations, downloadables, fan art, and details about Lunar history and real-world technology that Cinder might make seem like she thought it up (but these things totally exist, or may exist shortly if scientists keep at it).

Giveaway

       The March/April issue of World Literature Today is now available online -- with a focus on 'International Comics'.
       Of particular interest, of course: the regular WLT Book Reviews section -- which also features reviews of many comics-books this time around.

       At Shanghai Daily Yao Minji reports that Chinese literature gets the cold shoulder abroad, as: "Chinese novels seem to have trouble attracting Western readers".
       The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin: "has sold over 110,000 English-translated copies since it was published in the US in November 2014" -- but:

It's a rare success story in a global market where Chinese authors are unknown, and even in cases where their books are translated, readership interest is wan.

She noted that there are about 50 different prizes and scholarships for translators who turn English texts into German, but not a single one for Chinese translation.

       At The Bookseller Natasha Onwuemezi reports they've announced the seven finalists, as: Diagram Prize: Oddest Book Titles of the Year battle it out.
       Yes, titles such as Too Naked for the Nazis (see the publisher's publicity page) and Reading the Liver: Papyrological Texts on Ancient Greek Extispicy (see the review in the invaluable Bryn Mawr Classical Review) ... but, alas, none yet under review at the complete review.

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Alexander Lernet-Holenia's small art-(semi-)historical tale about Leonardo's Mona Lisa, out in a nice little edition from Pushkin Press.

Which Dress Would You Wear to the Oscars?

The Academy Awards ceremony (also called the Oscars) is coming up, and to be honest, I haven’t seen very many of the movies, but the actresses always wear such pretty dresses on the red carpet! Which dress would YOU wear if you were nominated for an Oscar?

Vote for your favorite dress in the Comments.

Sonja

“You wanna see my tattoos?Why, little man, you always want to see my tattoos. Here we go then.”(Click to enlarge spread)   Today over at Kirkus, I’ve got a wonderful, new picture book, a superb blend of nonfiction and poetry. That will be here soon. * * * Last week, I wrote here about Alison […]

In reading her website, Nnedi Okorafor is a novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy and magical realism for both children and adults. Born in the United States to Nigerian immigrant parents, Nnedi is known for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings and memorable characters. In a profile of Nnedi’s work titled, “Weapons of Mass Creation”, the New York Times called Nnedi’s imagination “stunning”.

Nnedi Okorafor’s novels include Who Fears Death (winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and Le Prix Imaginales for Best Translated Novel), Akata Witch (an Amazon.com Best Book of the Year), Zahrah the Windseeker (winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature), and The Shadow Speaker (winner of the CBS Parallax Award). Her latest releases include her short story collection Kabu Kabu (A Publisher’s Weekly Best Book for Fall 2013) and science fiction novel Lagoon (finalist for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Association award for Best Novel and a Red Tentacle Award for Best Novel). In addition, her novelette, “The Girl with the Magic Hands” was released through Amazon.com’s Worldreader program , where it became their most read young adult title (read by thousands in Africa).

Her adult novel The Book of Phoenix was released in 2015 and her young adult novel Akata Witch 2: Akata Warrior will be released in Fall 2016. In September 2015, Lantana Publishing released her children’s book Chicken in the Kitchen and Tor.com released her space opera novella Binti to much critical acclaim. Nnedi’s novels Who Fears Death and Akata Witch have both been optioned for films. A producer is also currently writing a screenplay for her novel Zahrah the Windseeker. In addition, Nnedi’s screenplay Wrapped in Magic was filmed and produced in Nigeria in 2011 by award-winning Nollywood film director, Tchidi Chikere.

Here, Nnedi talks about her work, and her life:

Nnedi Okorafor is currently working with Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu (Pumzi) on developing their feature film Camel Racer with Triggerfish Animation Studios (South Africa). Nnedi has had several short stories publishing in anthologies, magazine as journals. Several are available online.

Nnedi earned her BA in Rhetoric from the University of Illinois, C-U. Her MA in journalism from Michigan State University. And her MA and PhD in English at the University of Illinois , Chicago. She is also a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop (2001). She is a professor of creative writing and literature at the University of Buffalo. You can also find Nnedi on twitter (@Nnedi) and facebook.

Thank you, Nnedi, for your contributions to children’s literature!

So, this is how much I didn't want to do homework last week. For once in my life, I put together links to all the local book events.

There's some crazy crazy stuff coming up, so I hope you all have been saving your book allowances! (I haven't. Bad booklover.)

If I missed some, please let me know! You can email [email protected], tweet it at us @rnslbooks, or message us on Facebook. I can't guarantee everything will be put up, but I'll do my best!

We hope you see you at some of these. I will almost definitely be at Ontario TBF, and make sure you mark your calendars for our big Bridge to Books event in Pasadena on May 14. (More details on that to come!)

See you all soon!

~ Alethea

I began reading comic books in elementary school, checking out issues of Spider-Man along with my stacks of Goosebumps books. I eventually broadened my horizons past the amazing web slinger and onto the X-men, Batman and the rest of the Marvel and DC Universes. I mostly read this way until my late high school and early college years, during which I discovered Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and all the interesting stories Vertigo was publishing that didn’t involve characters in spandex. Now I will occasionally pick up a superhero book but typically gravitate towards stories outside of the caped universe.

The amount of interesting, quality graphic novels and comic books that are published for young readers today is impressive and exciting to see. I often think of how young readers can be exposed to the world of comics without feeling their only choice is a caped crusader. Of course, there is nothing wrong with loving and reading those stories but it’s important to have other choices in your collections for kids who are looking for something different.

I’ve highlighted three of my favorite quirky and fresh graphic novels for young readers, all published within the past 5 years, that will add something special to your shelves and make great choices for elementary school students in grades 1-5.

Hotel Strange by Florian and Katherine Ferrier. Illustrations by Katherine Ferrier. Translated by Carol Burrell. Graphic Universe; 2015.  This is indeed a strange story with odd characters and more dialogue than action, but both volumes #1 and #2 of Hotel Strange are charming and fun to read.

Image from http://lukepearson.com/HildStrange

Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson. Nobrow Press; 2012. I loved all of the Hildafolk books but Hilda and the Midnight Giant is probably my favorite. Pearson’s stories are a great mix of creepy moments, humor and modern fairytale magic. And his rich color palette- sigh. It is so beautiful you might just gaze at the pictures and forget to read the words!

The Only Child by Guojing. Schwartz and Wade; 2015. This book was heralded as a best book of last year from establishments like Entertainment Weekly, and rightfully so. It really is a wonderful piece of art and narrative. This wordless graphic novel is a bit nontraditional in it’s size and format, but is a touching story about a child’s loneliness and imagination that kids and adults will enjoy.

There are many other great titles that I would put into my quirky category, but I wanted to keep this post brief. What are some of your favorite non-superhero graphic novels? Do your young patrons seek out these types of comics or does Marvel rule your stacks? What comic books did you read as a child?

The post Past the Cape: Quirky Graphic Novels appeared first on ALSC Blog.

¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! / Olinguito, from A to Z
By Lulu Delacre
Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books
$18.95
ISBN: 978-0-89239-327-5
Ages 4-7
On shelves now

Adults, I have a little secret. Have you ever wanted to sound smart at dinner parties? Knowledgeable in the ways of the world and how it works? It’s easy to do if you know the secret. Come closer… I’ll whisper it to you. Read nonfiction children’s books. Seriously, do that and watch as your brain expands. If I can talk with any competency about the Donner Party or the siege of Leningrad or the Pentagon Papers, it is because I read nonfiction written for people half my age and younger. Most recently I learned about olinguitos. Ever heard of them? If not, you aren’t alone. These shy little rainforest denizens were only discovered and announced as recently as 2013. Not too much is known about them, which makes placing them into picture books a bit of a challenge. Author/illustrator Lulu Delacre had a plan, though. All she’d need to do would be to turn the story of the discovery of olinguitos into a bilingual/alphabet/nonfiction/search & find title. You see? Easy peasy. Or, put another way, so incredibly difficult that no one else would have ever attempted it. But that’s what I like about Ms. Delacre. Sometimes the craziest ideas churn out the most interesting books.

A zoologist from Washington D.C. is in the cloud forest today. He is searching for the elusive olinguito, a squirrel-like mammal that dwells in the trees. Along his path we meet the rainforest in an abecedarian fashion. From the A for the Andes to the M of moss and monkey, finally ending with Z for the zoologist himself, the book observes the many denizens that call the cloud forest their home. The book is entirely bilingual and backmatter (also bilingual) consists of notes on the “Discovery of the Olinguito”, facts about the Cloud Forest, information about the illustrations, hints on how to be an explorer, a heavily illustrated Glossary, “More Helpful Words”, and an extensive list of Author’s Sources.

I’ve read plenty of Spanish bilingual picture books in my day. In doing so, I’m a bit handicapped since I don’t speak the language. Still, there are things that I can observe from my end. For example, the difficulty Ms. Delacre must have faced in writing two texts, both of which had to contain specific letters of the alphabet. Now the primary language in this book, to a certain extent, is the Spanish. For each letter the Spanish sections get a lot more use than the English. Take the letter “J”. In the Spanish language section it reads, “Jigua jaguey y jazmin brotan, crecen en tal jardin.” Pretty straightforward. Now in the English: “Jigua, fig, and coffee trees sprout and grow in this garden.” Were it not for the “jingua” we’d be out a J. To be fair, sometimes the two languages get equal use of a letter. “I”, for example, is “insectos incredibles y una inerte iguana” and also “incredible insects, and a resting iguana.” However, more often than not the Spanish gets more words with the chosen letter. This is particularly true near the end of the book where the English translations at times completely do away with the letter at all. In “X” and “U” (surprisingly) not a single word in the English portions begin with those letters. What is clear is that the Spanish is the focus of the book. With that in mind, the book acquires another potential use; excellent reading for people learning Spanish.

It’s been a long time since I reviewed a Lulu Delacre book. I think the last time I seriously considered one was when Ms. Delacre illustrated Lucia Gonzalez’s The Storyteller’s Candle. There, the book integrated newspapers and other mixed media to tell the tale of two children introducing their immigrant neighborhood to the library. Here, the art is also mixed media but there’s a smoothness to it that was lacking in Storyteller’s Candle. In the back of the book Ms. Delacre mentions that there are real pressed leaves and flowers in every picture (something I entirely missed on my first, second, and third reads). There is also a zoologist in every picture, like a fuzzy little olinguito-seeking Waldo. Add in the colors, angles, and gorgeous spreads and you’ve got yourself one heck of a colorful outing. Ms. Delacre even mentions in her note at the book’s end that, just to be honest, these pictures are entirely too clear. “I decided to remove the clouds and limit the vegetation. I represented the fog and mist with squares of translucent paper framing the alphabetic letters. This allowed the species to be in plain sight.” Not only is she honest but creative as well.

I’ll level with you that I’m not entirely certain how one goes about using this book with kids. That is not to say that I don’t think it can be done and done well. But what Ms. Delacre has conjured up here isn’t a simple book. It’s not simplistic. The English text lacks much of the fun alliteration of the Spanish, which means the teacher or parent who reads this with their non-Spanish speaking children will need to span that gap themselves. It’s not a readaloud in the sense that you can just read it to a group without comment. This is an interactive text. You need to be spotting the zoologist, naming the vegetation and animals, flipping back and forth between the pictures and the glossary for clarification on different names, etc. In other words, this book requires the adult reader to be an active rather than passive participant in the reading process. Olinguito is more than mere words on a page.

There’s a soft spot in my heart for any book that proves to kids that there is more out there to find and discover than they might expect. The oceans haven’t been mapped out. Outer space remains, in many ways, a mystery. And hidden in the rainforests are tiny creatures just waiting to be discovered. Our world still needs explorers. If it takes one tiny mammal to prove that to them, so be it. A clever, lovely, wise little book. Knowledge of Spanish helpful, but not required.

On shelves now.

Like This? Then Try:

• Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth
• Water Rolls, Water Rises / El Agua Rueda, el Agua Sube by Pat Mora, ill. Meilo So
• Living Fossils: Clues to the Past by Caroline Arnold, ill. Andrew Plant

Professional Reviews:

• A star from SLJ
• A star from Kirkus
• A star from Publishers Weekly

A strong active engagement, and a routine for informally assessing student work during the minilesson can give you the tools you need to be sure that no student leaves the meeting area completely confused.

Review by Sara... WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED By Kristin Rae Series: If Only #8 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury (March 29, 2016)  Language: English Goodreads | Amazon If Only . . . he was the boy she's been dreaming of. The If Only line continues in this fun high school theater-themed romance!Drama girl Maddie Brooks has always had high standards for guys. But she has

Night Meadow. Hand-drawn graphics, digitally colored. © 2016 by Lisa Firke.

Liberty Frye and the Witches of Hessen Written by J. L. McCreedy Penelope Pipp Publishing   11/18/2012 978-0-9882369-1-2 256 pages     Ages 8—12 . “The average ten-year-old girl seldom travels far from home. She doesn’t worry about being kidnapped by witches or imprisoned in medieval castles where children meet their unspeakable demise. She rarely …

Today was a special day at Elsie Quirk Library in Englewood, Florida.  Fellow author, and friend Suzanne Bloom did a presentation for children. Her drawing of Goose in Cowboy hat and boots enraptured the children as she began her presentation. We danced with Bear.    We drew with Goose, and we read with Suzanne. She read A SPECIAL FRIEND, INDEED 

No reviews or memes or exciting links today. I just feel like babbling a little if that’s okay with you. If it isn’t, I presume you know how to take yourself elsewhere, not that I want you to go elsewhere, but you know what I mean.

So, read any good books lately? Heh. Do you hate it when non-readers ask you that? I do. I don’t know what they are expecting me to say. If I say yes then they ask me for titles and I kind of cringe inside because I know they are not interested in reading any of the titles I might rattle off. Sometimes I try to name books I think they might like in the hope that maybe they really are looking for a book suggestion. But mostly no matter what I say I get a blank but polite stare.

Now and then the non-reader might recognize a title or author and bark out commentary like, I read that and hated it. How am I supposed to respond to that? Or they’ll say, Virginia Woolf? Are you taking a literature class or something? And I will say no and they will be all astonished and say you read Woolf for fun? And then I get embarrassed because I can see the look in their eyes which is then followed by accusations of me being a super smart genius (um no) or a big weirdo (maybe?) but either way I am clearly not normal.

Then there is the follow up question, how many books do you read in a year? When a non-reader asks you this you know anything more than one or two is going to seem like a lot so when I stammer out that I read 67 books last year the person’s eyes get big and round and then they say something like, you must read really fast. Implying of course that if I don’t read fast then I really am weird because no normal person would actually spend so much time with books.

The conversation usually ends with the other person wondering how I manage to have so much time to read when they themselves are so busy there is not a minute in their day to sit down with a book. And I know this is a veiled accusation that I am somehow lazy and spend a lot of time doing nothing because reading, to a non-reading person, is nothing. The person walks away feeling superior and I am left to be the freak I so obviously am.

This is why I love the internet and book blogs. Because you all are my tribe. Among you I am completely normal and it is the non-readers who are freaks. We can babble on and on endlessly about all the books we are reading and want to read, about being excited over so-and-so publishing a new book or going to hear a favorite author read or the treasures we found at the used bookstore or the library. It feels good to be among you and not feel embarrassed or weird or accused. It’s home.

Comic-Con International has released the floor plan for WonderCon 2016, scheduled for March 25-27 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. After four years of steady growth in Anaheim, CCI has moved WC to downtown Los Angeles. Some wonder if the site is suited, given the lack of hotel rooms and the location. (Yes, these are […]