| Countdown to NEBA. |
[Mar. 16th, 2006|12:49 pm] |
Since I'm not doing BEA in May [I'm just not comfortable going to Washington DC on my own], I am gearing up for NEBA in the fall, which will be held again in Providence. Hopefully I can find a quieter hotel this year.
To celebrate, here's one of those cheerful little tickers. I've put it on my LJ info pages.
Feel free to count along with me.
[crossposted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) norda] |
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| Press release for this year's Robert's Snow |
[Nov. 6th, 2005|03:58 pm] |
Reprinted with permission from Grace Lin.
Hello!
I'm pleased to announce that Robert's Snow 2005 (www.robertssnow.com)
begins
today, Sunday Nov. 6 at 5pm PST!!!
This is a wonderful chance to own an original piece of art by your
favorite
children's book illustrator. Not only are these snowflakes exclusive
(each
one comes with it's own certificate of authenticity) and beautiful (see
for
yourself at www.robertssnow.com), 100% of snowflakes sales will go to
the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/The Jimmy Fund.
The 200 snowflakes are divided into 5 seven day auctions. The schedule
is as
follows:
Auction 1: Nov. 6-Nov. 13
Auction 2:Nov. 13- Nov. 20
Auction 3:Nov. 20-Nov. 27
Auction 4: Nov. 27- Dec.4
Auction 5: Dec.4- Dec. 11
Robertssnow.com will have a link to the live ebay auctions on its
homepage
(red snowflake icon). Also, when you view each snowflake individually,
the
date of their auction is posted. Furthermore, you can sort the
snowflakes by
auction number with the pull-down menu under "view snowflakes."
Please remember that no matter when you win your snowflake, it will not
be
shipped until Dec. 12--after our snowflake exhibits.
Thank you for your support and happy Bidding!
Best Wishes,
Grace Lin
Support Robert's Snow at www.robertssnow.com
see more about Grace at www.gracelin.com |
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| Late to the party. |
[Oct. 30th, 2005|09:26 am] |
I finished DARKHENGE this morning. Absolutely delicious. Very interesting to read something the POV of the golden boy who's completely unaware that he's perceived as such. Full review in a separate entry.
I think, now that deadlines have passed for the Fall Review Project*, I can finally read HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, before I dive back into the rest of my Winter 2006 galleys. It's a little too heavy to take to work with me, so I'll be reading something else on the side.... probably some Dunsany, or Papa Bear's ANDROMEDA novel that he sent me for my birthday, or perhaps the copy of TIME AND AGAIN that was a giveaway on the library's "Free Book" cart.
*I do have one more Fall 2005 book that could stand to get its own review even though it wasn't in time for the project. Alice Hoffman's THE FORETELLING was a passable read, although I would have liked it better when I was twelve than I did now at the age of 43. |
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| "The tree branched like a brain." |
[Oct. 23rd, 2005|01:02 pm] |
Finally getting a chance to go through my swag, for Winter and Spring 2006 releases.
Catherine Fisher's DARKHENGE starts off deliciously, in a very Margaret Mahy vein.
I can't wait to finish it. |
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| Swag. |
[Sep. 24th, 2005|01:56 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  happy | ] |
I have bags and bags of swag from NEBA.... galleys, signed books, and even a T-shirt. Not as much swag as I would have had if I'd remembered to pack my collection of cloth bags and a backpack. But plenty of good readin'.
My coup, however, was sweet-talking the PGW rep out of a copy of this...
Book info can be found here. I will definitely, definitely be carrying this as a permanent item for Mike's Comics, for as long as it stays in print. |
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| My entries in the NECBA Fall Review Project. |
[Sep. 24th, 2005|01:53 pm] |
UNDER A STAND STILL MOON
Ann Howard Creel
Brown Barn Books
October 2005
$8.95
978-0-9746481-8-3
Ages 10 and up
Notable aspects: strong unconventional heroine, interesting setting, imagery, language
UNDER A STAND STILL MOON could easily be this generation's ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. It was a real page-turner for me, at 192 pages; I was sorry it was over so soon. It is intriguing historical fiction, set in the Southwestern United States around 900AD.
Echo is a spirited girl of the Anasazi, born under the Stand Still Moon, which comes once every eighteen years. She is not content to be merely a traditional wife and mother until she falls in love with her oldest friend. But fate intervenes in the form of Echo's timely rescue of a child, which brings her to the attention of her tribe's High Priests. She suddenly finds it her duty to forsake her one love and marry a much older man, the Sun Watcher, who proves to be kind and gives her the greatest gift of all.... his sacred knowledge of the sky and the seasons.
This knowledge, normally forbidden to women, becomes crucial when drought strikes the land and the People lose faith. But the author does not take the easy way out to have Echo save the day. She must watch as friends die and kin leave the settlements they have farmed for generations, in search of more fertile ground. But she is determined to continue watching the sky, charting the Earth's cycles, and waiting out the bad times, in the hopes of the beneficence of another Stand Still Moon.
* * * * *
INKSPELL
Cornelia Funke
Scholastic/The Chicken House
October 2005
$19.99
0-439-55400-4
For mature middle readers, young adults, bibliophiles, fans of fantasy and the Middle Ages
Notable aspects: lyrical language, rich and detailed settings, intricate plot twists, acknowledgement of consequences, mature themes
INKSPELL, the sequel to INKHEART, is dark. Unbelievably and unrelievably dark. It's a very mature book that pulls no punches in the telling of a much more involved tale than its predecessor.
Many new characters are introduced to round out the cast that we've already gotten to know. Meggie is a year older, somewhat wiser, but still the intrepid and curious young girl, who makes a young girl's mistakes. We get better acquainted with Farid, Resa, and Fenoglio, the latter of which still seems determined to control the story that he created but which has taken on a life of its own.
The darkness in this book is offset by its richness of detail. Although it is just as long as INKHEART, perhaps even longer, it moves at a much swifter pace and sweeps the reader away even more strongly.
I anxiously await the resolution of the ending set up in the final pages of INKSPELL. |
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| Crossover post. |
[Sep. 10th, 2005|12:55 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
The fullscale Edgecliff Abbey site has been moved to its new server and has gone live. It can be found here. Just in time for NEBA next week.
Let me know what you think, since it appears that Mr. Michaels has not yet set up the e-mail addresses.
EDIT: Yes, I'm aware that the site currently only works in Internet Explorer. We're working on it so that other browsers can use it too. |
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| Racing against time. |
[Sep. 3rd, 2005|04:00 pm] |
Needing to get book reviews written.
Two brief thoughts, as placeholders for this journal.
1] INKSPELL is unrelievedly/unbelievably dark. I mean DARK. Fans of the comparatively light-hearted handling of dire situations in THE THIEF LORD and DRAGON RIDER are going to be reeling.
2] UNDER A STAND STILL MOON is this generation's ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. No faint praise, there.
More later. |
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| 1001 NIGHTS. |
[Aug. 13th, 2005|04:59 pm] |
While looking for the publishing history of a New York City firm called Hurst and Company, in response to an antiquarian book want list, I came across this lovely site celebrating a number of different editions of THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, with links to illustrators.
Published editions.
Observant folk with recognize an icon I use on my main blog. |
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| Harry Potter meets The Gashlycrumb Tinies. |
[Aug. 13th, 2005|11:11 am] |
There are Harry Potter homages and Harry Potter parodies in abundance, all across the Internet. I'm generally not moved much by them, and more often I'm turned off by them, precisely because of their ubiquitousness.
However, this one is something different. First of all, it's hand-drawn, which appeals to my visual tastes, and second of all, it draws upon Edward Gorey as its source, which appeals to my deliciously mordant sense of humour.
I present chronographia's and the_alchemist's tribute to Ms. Rowling's oeuvre.
http://strangehours.com/portfolio/papergashlyindex.html |
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| Show the illustrator some love! |
[Aug. 12th, 2005|09:11 pm] |
Cross-posted from my main blog, sort of.
I can't believe that this is the only blog on LiveJournal that lists "Evaline Ness" among its interests.
Doesn't anyone still have their original copies of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books?
I mean, do I have to tell you that she was Mrs. Eliot Ness to get you interested?
From the University of Southern Mississippi de Grummond Collection page:
Because printer's ink is flat, Ness' constant concern was how to get texture into that flatness. The primary challenge in illustrating children's books, she believed, was how to maintain freedom within limitation. Some of the techniques she has used to combat these limitations include woodcut, serigraphy, rubber-roller technique, ink splattering, and sometimes spitting.
To crib from one of my favorite musicals: Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see the things that I see? |
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| Douglas Clegg wants to send me THE PRIEST OF BLOOD. |
[Aug. 12th, 2005|02:29 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  anticipatory | ] |
Okay, so Douglas Clegg doesn't know me from Adam, but I answered his promotional "challenge" in Publishers Lunch to be one of the first 50 booksellers to get a signed copy. We'll see if I make the cut. [pun intended]
More info about the book can be found here: http://www.vampyricon.com
UPDATE: 'Tis not to be... he just e-mailed to tell me they all flew out the door the first day the offer was posted. Very gentlemanly of him to write back and let me know, though.
I'll just have to add it to my list of Fall releases to read. |
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| WHALES ON STILTS! |
[Aug. 10th, 2005|03:09 pm] |
M. T. Anderson's latest. A perfect follow-up to my just having seen the movie THE INCREDIBLES.
Gloat-gloat: I'm going to meet him next month at NEBA. ::::rubs hands briskly in classic evil dictator fashion:::: |
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| Too long unreading. |
[Jul. 29th, 2005|05:58 pm] |
There's a very lively spider building her web in the shade of my reading lamp, indicating a much-too-lengthy period of inactivity. I must rectify this.
I am one-third of the way through INKHEART, and two-thirds of the way through THE KEY TO ATEN. I need to finish the Funke book and get it back to the library before the 6th; its sequel awaits me, as does THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.
I think I'm in desperate need of some moonporch time. I haven't even glanced at DANDELION WINE this year, and it's nearly Lammastide. |
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| CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY |
[Jun. 27th, 2005|05:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  silly | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Spyro Gyra - Rites of Summer | ] |
Adding to my teetering pile of things to read.....
I usually re-read JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH every summer, but I'll have to pit CHARLIE against it this year, because I've just been invited to the movie premiere in Boston.
Hardly a Dahl moment around here. |
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| Mystery guests, sign in please. |
[Jun. 27th, 2005|01:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  complacent | ] |
Welcome to my reading journal. Let this serve as the message board equivalent of an intro thread.
Some of you know me as Patty, some as Sylph, some as Norda. I'll answer to any of those. You can even call me Fred, since everyone's "Fred" to someone.
Respond here so that I know who's really interested in reading about what I read, so I can Friend you. |
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