Linktastic! Mixed Bag Edition

I know. You thought I was out of crazy links I lost temporarily in the black hole that is my Twitter favorites. You’d be wrong.

• A photographer edited smartphones and other devices out of photos and the results are stark, lonely and kind of chilling. Eric Pickersgill created the photos for a series called “Removed” which you can also see online (maybe not on your phone though, okay?) It’s a good reminder why the number one thing my mom complains about is how much I am on my phone.
• Sweden is experimenting with 6 hour work days and it sounds like the best idea ever. As Stefan Sirucek points out in the article, the 8 hour workday and 2 day weekend were safeguards won by the labor movement. They were not, he suggests, meant to be the ideal by which all work hours are measured.
• Karl Laggerfeld is basically a lunatic as far as I can tell from a New Yorker profile I read about him back in 2007 or 2008. This Times Magazine profile by Andrew O’Hagan suggests that little has changed on that front.
• The crazy ways your clothes can kill you by Mackenzie Dawson confirms that following fashion trends can be quite dangerous.
• I got this one from Estelle over at Rather be Reading: Letter to the Editor: Importance of Libraries
• For Creative Problem-Solving, Why Young Kids Can Outwit College Students By Michelle Trudeau. This article details a research study where researches gave college students and preschoolers the same problem to solve. And the preschoolers were totally better at it.Why? Possibly because “This is flexible, fluid thinking — children exploring an unlikely hypothesis.” Something adults are less likely to attempt.

Linktastic! Silly Quiz Edition

I save links on Twitter to read at a later date sometimes and I apparently forgot to do that for two months SO I give a monster Linktastic! post to peruse with many personality quizzes:

• Buzzfeed’s “Which Disney Pet Are You?” Quiz tells me that I am Pascal the Chameleon from Tangled: “You radiate creativity and enjoy doing anything that allows you to use your imagination. Everyone wants to hang out with you because you’re an incredibly supportive and loyal friend. Sometimes you’re a little bit afraid of the unknown, but you’re working on being less skittish about trying new things.”
• Not a quiz per se but a Bustle article about what your favorite Harry Potter book says about you: Mine is number 3: “You don’t judge a person by rumors you’ve heard, because you know that sometimes learning a bit of backstory will completely change your mind. Though you’ve had your share of tough days and can relate to the feeling that dementors inspire, you’re also incredibly hopeful (and you know that chocolate can help a lot). You also own a time-turner necklace and you REALLY want to visit Hogsmeade.” It’s all true.
• Which Banned Book Are You? I got Beloved by Toni Morrison which, embarrassingly, I have not read.
• Which Halloween Town Should You Live in? Halloweentown because OBVIOUSLY.  “When it comes to Halloween, you are drawn to fun festivities over scary ones. You love to carve pumpkins, dress up, and watch Disney Channel Halloween movies while drinking cider. As a person, you are family- and community-oriented. What can you say? You love people. You will be right at home with the Cromwells in Halloweentown.”
• Write Your Very Own Hit YA Novel With Our John Green Book Generator:
  

  The Euphoria of Canyons

   Colton is a senior at Susan B. Anthony High School in West Kensington, a few miles outside of Los Angeles. Colton is a great student. His favorite subject is Bio-Chem, but his true passion is yodeling. Rodd the Bodd and Vincent never know what he’s talking about, but the three of them are best friends anyway, and have been ever since Colton moved to West Kensington after his brother went missing. After his long-time girlfriend Violet breaks up with him, Colton becomes infatuated by Flor, the brunette with a tattoo of a dreidel on her neck. But even though she seems like the perfect girl, she’s actually the secret illegitimate daughter of the president. Despite their differences, they fall in love and spend the summer together. But one week before they go off to college, tragedy strikes. Flor is seriously injured while saving a friend’s life, and their relationship may never be the same.

Linktastic! Thoughtful Pop Culture Articles Edition

Remember how I forgot I had about a million links saved to read on Twitter? Well I’m still chipping away at that. Today I give you some pop culture-y links.

• I didn’t think it was possible to love Daniel Craig more than I already did. But lo! He hates James Bond even more than me and I adore him for being so candid about it. (Sidebar: I was going to start a blog called Sexy But Sexist years ago solely for the purpose of dissecting all of the things that are wrong with James Bond.)
• I want every single one of these Disney Princesses painted in fine art portraits by Heather Theurer. They are stunning.
• Disney Princess Outfit Swaps are surprisingly successful. Except I did a literal step back from my computer at Snow White as Belle in Beauty in the Beast. Reject.
• 29 ridiculous Harry Potter tweets. Related: If you ever want to talk in-depth about Ronbledore I am ready.
• Alice in Wonderland is 150. Here’s everything you never knew about Wonderland. (You also might not know I am very excited about the new Through the Looking Glass movie coming soon!)
• Katherine Howe takes readers on a tour of NYC inspired by her latest novel The Appearance of Annie Van Sidderen.
• I love Taylor Swift both as a musician and a personality. She’s fascinating. This interview with Chuck Klosterman takes that up to eleven. It also makes me remember the brief, brief moment in my life when being a reporter seemed appealing when I first began writing for my college newspaper.
• Speaking of Taylor, here are some Taylor Swift songs paired with YA romances from Book Riot because why not?
• Rainbow Rowell is the best thing to happen to young adult literature in ages according to this article by Genevieve Koski and I think she’s on to something
• Martin Vargic created this phenomenal map of literature. I don’t even really like posters but I want this one as a big old print to hang somewhere. Actually, maybe I should just buy his book.
• I am all for Mallory Ortberg’s plan to expand the cozy mystery genre. Who’s with me?

Linktastic! I forgot I had saved all these links edition

I save links on Twitter to read at a later date sometimes and I apparently forgot to do that for two months SO I give you a monster Linktastic! post to peruse:

• From Bustle we have “29 Absurd Things In ‘Grease’ That You Never Noticed Before, Despite All Those Rewatches” including but not limited to everyone being too damn old to play teenagers, the entire school year taking one week, and more!
• Shop Fabulous Flapper Fashion Inspired By ‘Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries’ from Bust Magazine. Like every self-respecting librarian I am a big fan of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (no, seriously, so many librarian friends love this show). Although I am not watching the new season on Netflix, my mom and I religiously watch the earlier seasons on PBS. We even rewatch them. Constantly. I love this show. And I always want all of the clothes SO.
• Related: If you are watching a TV show and find yourself coveting an outfit be sure to check out wornontv.net which has outfit rundowns for a lot of popular TV ladies (Watson, Felicity). Warning: All of their clothes are more expensive than you think they will be.
• PicMonkey.com continues to be magic and my favorite as illustrated with these (out of date, sorry) tips for taking perfect Halloween photos.
• We have officially passed “Back to the Future day” BUT you can still check out these cool facts about the movies from Mental Floss.
• 21 Quotes From YA Heroines That’ll Make You Feel Unstoppable from the Buzzfeed Community: All the points for that quote from Ella Enchanted!
• Based on this parody from The Toast I think it’s clear we all need to be sure to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight if we haven’t already.
• Tiny! Clockwork! Creatures!

Linktastic! : I missed a week’s worth of links because of BEA edition

As the title suggests, I missed a ton of stuff last week while I was running around doing BEA things. Here are some links of note:

• Head over to SLJ for a comprehensive selection of books about teens with special needs.
• For five years author Leila Sales received texts meant for a variety of other Leila’s due to a technological glitch. The texts can be found here: http://theleilatexts.blogspot.com/
• I don’t watch Outlander or Game of Thrones (and honestly I’m not likely to start for a variety of reasons) BUT I have been following the outcry from a resent GOT episode (I bet you know which one) and found this article to be an interesting contrast between both shows and how they handled very dark material.
• I started Chick Lit Wednesday here on the blog as a way to highlight, well, books girls would read. Within its first year, the feature morphed into a way to showcase books with strong female characters and also books by female authors. One thing I’ve continued to struggle with is the feature name. I think Chick Lit, on its own, is a stupid and arbitrary term. But I also like the idea of reclaiming the term but using it to highlight books that might not always be “chick lit” in a marketing sense. Anyway, A History Of The Term ‘Chick Flick’ And How It Marginalizes Female Filmmakers looks at how the term is applied to movies and how the terminology has changed over time and is both detrimental and largely irrelevant at this point.
• As you might already know, I am obsessed with Mike Curato’s Little Elliot books. Part of Macmillan’s marketing for the latest installment, Little Elliot, Big Family, involves posing for a portrait with Elliot, Mouse and Mouse’s extended family. Thanks to http://www.littleelliotbooks.com/portrait/ you can also make a pre-existing photo 100% better with a Little Elliot portrait frame.
• If that’s not enough, thanks to Epic Reads you can also make your very own Dumplin’ as seen on the cover of Dumplin‘ by Julie Murphy: http://www.epicreads.com/blog/make-your-own-dumplinpose-cutout/
• Thanks to Hannah @ So Obsessed With, I’ve been getting back into notebooks and I already use a lot of stationary for my own pen pals and for PostCrossing. Consequently, this article about Japanese pens was immediately fascinating to me. (For the record I like anything that rolls out ink like a marker more than a pen. Recent favorites include Le Pen brand.)
• Since we’re already talking about writing utensils the logical next step is A Brief Yet Complex Color History of Crayola Crayons and CrayonCollecting.com
• One of my favorite reads from 2015 is A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab. If, like me, you are a fan of the book, you might want to explore the beautiful website that Tor made for the book.
• Take this quiz to find out which YA genre book you are most like. I got Contemporary Romance which is leading to a minor identity crisis and forcing me to re-evaluate a lot of things.

Linktastic! Hunger Games, National Book Awards and More Edition! (12/5/14)

• How “The Hunger Games” Challenges Old Hollywood Expectations About Gender Roles by Allison Willmore at Buzzfeed: “Peeta may require the occasional rescuing, but Katniss is more than capable of figuring that out, and in flipping these roles, The Hunger Games has become a YA adaptation that shakes up the way we think about action, and — maybe more importantly — about romance.”
• What Really Makes Katniss Stand Out? Peeta, Her Movie Girlfriend by Linda Holmes at NPR: “In fact, you could argue that Katniss’ conflict between Peeta and Gale is effectively a choice between a traditional Movie Girlfriend and a traditional Movie Boyfriend.”
• How The “Hunger Games” Team Brought “Mockingjay – Part 1” From The Page To The Screen by Adam B. Vary on Buzzfeed: “His shock could have been due to the daunting task of transforming Collins’ darkest and most psychological novel into a global commercial blockbuster, or having to artificially split the book’s narrative into two franchise-extending movies. Instead, the reason was much more straightforward.”
• National Book Award winners this year include Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
• Being a White Guy in Children’s Books by Roger Sutton at The Horn Book: “It’s a nice life that’s easy to get used to. But as Handler learned, it can bite you in the ass. There he was in the spotlight, doing what he’s been amply rewarded for doing for years, and he overreached.” (Be sure to also read the comments here!)
•  Handler Donates $110,000 to We Need Diverse Books by Claire Kirch at Publisher’s Weekly: “WNDB gave away as “featured” swag for each $75 contribution during the 24-hour period that Handler matched donations a signed copy of Woodson’s novel, Brown Girl Dreaming, which won this year’s National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. More than 150 copies had been given away to contributors by Saturday morning.”
• I Sacrifice, Therefore I Am Good: Young Adult Fiction Heroines and Self-Destruction by Katja Huru at PopMatters: “What makes Tris’s behavior problematic beyond the obvious level, however, is that her self-sacrificing behavior is validated through her motivations. The act itself is not important, only the reasons behind it.” I’m still not sure about this essay–and it has a ton of spoilers for the Divergent trilogy–but this is still a very interesting read.

Linktastic!: 4/11/14 Edition

This Linktastic! post has so many cool things that it cannot even be categorized!

• Sarah Rees Brennan shared a link to 10 great resources for writing cross-culturally on her Tumblr.
• I have doubts but there is a new speedreading app coming to your smart devices: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/spritz-reading_n_4865756.html?utm_hp_ref=tw (I feel like this is just a way to make reading feel more like work. Discuss?)
• You can order a custom made library card design for a phone case if you’re into that sort of thing: http://inquiringjoy.tumblr.com/library-card-design
• Columbo should be America’s Dr. Who: http://the-toast.net/2014/03/05/the-case-for-columbo/ (You might think I’m joking when I say this is a brilliant idea I wholeheartedly support. I assure, I am not.)
• Leila at Bookshelves of Doom linked to an awesome online quiz. Which Dewey Decimal Category Are You? Here’s me: “You got 800’s – Literature! You are a true bookworm! You are always in the middle of a fantastic book and hit up your local library often. You appreciate not only fiction novels and nonfiction books, but enjoy reading poetry and plays as well! You can recite the plot of quite a few Shakespeare plays and appreciate theater and the arts!” (Totally spot on. Have I mentioned I’m blogging about lots and lots of poems this April?)
• I leave you with Libraries for Real Life’s list of facts about public libraries. (Coolest fact: There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the US – a total of 16,541 including branches. Saddest fact: Americans spend more than twice as much on candy as they do on public libraries.)

Linktastic!: 4/5/14 Edition with many bookish things

Many bookish things to share today!

• Have you read my favorite 2014 pub The Winner’s Curse yet? Because you should. Especially since you can now play the game Bite & Sting on the Winner’s Trilogy site. (You didn’t hear it from me but a victory might also lead you to a special video of Marie reading something. FYI.)
• Speaking of my favorite 2014 pub: Did you know there is a short story about Arin up on Tor.com? Check it out: http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/01/bridge-of-snow-marie-rutkoski
• “Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?” by Walter Dean Myers over at the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/where-are-the-people-of-color-in-childrens-books.html
• “The Apartheid of Children’s Literature” by Christopher Myers also at the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-apartheid-of-childrens-literature.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 (I’m not sure how recently but I have seen suggestions that writers of color are pushed into the “niche” for POC awards like the Pura Belpre or the Coretta Scott King. That isn’t the entire story because as these articles show it’s a rampant and constant problem. But I have always wondered if an award cast a wider net–for all authors instead of focusing in African American authors or hispanic authors, just all authors, if perhaps that might be a good step. Who knows? Let’s all go and promote diverse children’s book right now.)
• “Gender-specific books demean all our children. So the Independent on Sunday will no longer review anything marketed to exclude either sex” by Katy Guest over at the Independent: Yes. So much yes. The biggest frustration (after the other ones that aren’t relevant) of working at a bookstore was having to practically argue with parents that their kids will love X book with a protagonist of the opposite gender. The worst was picture books. It drove me nuts doing reader advisory and other sellers would say well “boy or girl” but I hated the pigeon holing so I would just skip that question. Anyway, I love this. Obviously.
• See also: Let Books be Books
• (None of this is to say that kids can’t read books about girls or boys or have gendered toys. I just think, like everyone, there should be options. And those options should be equal.)
• Liz B has a review of the Veronica Mars Movie up on her blog. Nicole and I went to see this for her birthday and we both enjoyed it. A lot. Go see it guys!

Lintastic 2/14 Edition: Valentines, Love Notes, and other Romantic (or not-so-romantic) Edition

Lots of Valentine-y things for you guys this week!

• Sarah Couri (@scouri) shared a new tumblr created by one of her school’s writing classes: http://withlovefromblanktoyou.tumblr.com/ which consists of unsigned post-it note confessions and looks totally rad.
• Barnes and Noble’s book blog asks which Kid Lit Heroine you are in their latest quiz: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/which-childrens-lit-heroine-are-you/ Initially I had expected to get all C’s (Pippi Longstocking) but then a sudden turn halfway through gave me mostly E’s (Jo March) which is pretty much spot on.
• Emily Winfield Martin has some lovely Valentines you can download if you’re a little behind on finding clever ways to show your love and affection tomorrow: http://theblackapple.typepad.com/inside_a_black_apple/2014/02/i-made-some-valentines-for-you.html
• What J.K. Rowling’s Ron And Hermione Bombshell Tells Us About True Love And ‘Harry Potter’ By Alyssa Rosenberg combined with the bombshell that Ron is a time-traveling Dumbledore have come together to convince the Harmonie ship is the only true and right ship there is (seriously, it’s the only thing that makes sense!). I find this whole thing infinitely entertaining and now view it all as canon for the series in my head. That said, the only OTP I wish JKR would admit to failing is that of Luna and Neville.

Linktastic!: Stories and Memories and Feminism (1/27/14) Edition

More links! More feminism! Also stories and memories and baby names!

• “The Other Side of the Story: When I was fourteen, I had a relationship with my eighth grade history teacher. People called me a victim. They called him a villain. But it’s more complicated than that.” by Jenny Kutner at Texas Monthly: Nova Ren Suma shared this essay on Twitter saying that it was powerful. She was right. While this topic appears periodically in film and literature I don’t think it’s ever addressed as honestly as it is here by Ms. Kutner. I applaud her for the strength it took to share and really think everyone should read it.
• “The Myth of the Teenage Temptress: Or Why a Young Girl Cannot Consent to Sex with an Adult Man” is another powerful essay that I think is an insightful, important read for everyone.
• “What Really Makes Katniss Stand Out? Peeta, Her Movie Girlfriend” by Linda Holmes: I love this article. I love it so much. For anyone who still thinks The Hunger Games is just another action movie, read this article. So smart, so accurate. So brilliant. So Team Katniss and Team Peeta. (Thanks to Leila Roy for sharing this!)
• Also apparently there is a Sesame Street parody of Catching Fire. Go figure.
• “How to Name a Baby” over at Wait But Why: Among things explained in this article: Why you know at least 5 Jennifers and why they are all the same age. Why Lynn is a name for men and women. And oh my god, go check out the Baby Name Wizard site right now. Unless you have work to do. Then you should never click that link. Same for the Government name database. (Thanks to Sarah Couri for sharing this!)
• I don’t know a lot about The Chronicles of Narnia. But I know Susan got a raw deal. This Tumblr post from Hark the Empty Highways Calling offers a great, great commentary about what comes next for Susan after she is forced out of Narnia. Thanks to both Sarah Couri and Karyn Silverman for bringing this to my attention. (I don’t think I ever read the full series. I don’t even remember which books I did read, but man Susan was always my favorite. That stuck with me!) But, guys, tell me the truth: Is that part about all the other Pevensies dying in a train crash canon–does that really happen in the books?!
• Speaking of novels (when am I not?) The Toast has a brilliant post up: “How To Tell If You Are In A Noel Streatfeild Novel” by Nicole Dieker. Petrova <3 (Fun fact: I read these books after they were mentioned in the movie “You’ve Got Mail”)
• “‘Memories’ pass between generations” by  James Gallagher at BBC: Another find from Lynn Weingarten. This helps explains why I dislike carrots and green beans as strongly as my mom. It does not explain why my fear of bugs is almost pathological while my mother’s is a more socially acceptable level of distaste.
• Last but not least Tor.com has a short story on its site called “In the Greenwood” by Mari Ness. It’s a retelling. I’ll let you guess what it’s retelling. (Thanks again to Karyn Silverman for sharing!)