Genre Fiction

I like making lists; so here’s one for you filled with summertime reads. I can’t vouch for the entertainment value of any of these books, only the fact that they have “summer” in the title. So if you’re feeling daring and looking for a summer read, check out one of these.

* That Summer by Sarah Dessen
* Summer Knight, book #4 in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
* The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares
* A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
* Summer by Edith Wharton
* Killer Summer by Ridley Pearson
* Summer House by Nancy Thayer
* Summer On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
* Driftwood Summer by Patti Callahan Henry
* The Summer Kitchen by Karen Weinreb or by Lisa Wingate — two different novels, one name
* Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy
* The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
* The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
* Summer People by Elin Hilderbrand
* Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
* Life Without Summer by Lynne Griffin
* Dragons of Summer Flame by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
* A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade by Christopher Benfey
* Summer’s End by Danielle Steel
* Once Upon a Summer, book #1 in the Seasons of the Heart series by Janette Oke
* Summer Pleasures and Summer Desserts, both by Nora Roberts
* How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles

And finally, one that I can vouch for: Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.

Enjoy your summer reading!

Mental Floss just published a list of 15 surprising stories about 15 best-selling authors. The article — which revealed that Jodi Picoult once wrote comics, Danielle Steel has been married five times and two of the husbands were convicted criminals, Dan Brown used to be a singer and songwriter and had an album titled Angels & Demons, and Nicholas Sparks holds a track and field record at Notre Dame as part of the 4 x 800 relay team — is a fun read! It has also inspired me to see what I can dig up about some of my favorite authors.

* Running With Scissors author Augusten Burroughs, who comes from a writing family with a poetic mother, philosopher father, and memoirist brother, didn’t have formal schooling beyond elementary school. Following him on different forms of social media I have learned that, although he likes eating at restaurants, he would never be caught at an “it” restaurant and enjoys vending machines.

* The Lovely Bones author Alice Sebold originally wanted to tell her story (of how she was raped and attacked) in poetic form. She didn’t really dive into becoming a successful writer until she moved to California and worked as a caretaker of an arts colony. During this time she lived on less than $400 a month, in a cabin in the woods without electricity, and wrote by the light of a propane lamp. Her story was published in 1999 as the memoir Lucky.

* Audrey Niffenegger, best known for penning The Time Traveler’s Wife, has only written this one novel. Most of her other work, aside from a few short stories, is in pictures. She has written visual books and graphic novels including one very “special” one called The Three Incestuous Sisters (cover shown here).

Yesterday I took the whole day off to gallivant around New York City and be a tourist. The first destination on my list was the New York Public Library. Ever since I saw its huge marble stairs and gorgeous interior architecture on the Sex and the City movie I have been wanting to see it in person. I’m not a huge SATC fan, but I am a huge fan of libraries - and this one was over the top.

I visited the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Ave. and 42nd Street, a research-only location meaning that you cannot check out books. You request the books that you need and a librarian brings them to you in a study room for you to use.

I cannot begin to tell you how phenomenal this building was. It was so much more than just a library. There are a number of special exhibits, an art room with several paintings, a children’s section that is home to the original Winnie the Pooh, one of the first Gutenberg Bibles, and so much more. But even if the building were empty, the architecture alone would make it worth while: the ceilings are the most elaborate ceilings that I have ever seen.

I took the tour, led by a volunteer, that lasted just over an hour and I definitely recommend doing the same if you are in the area. Read about the rest of my day in NYC on my other blog, Living Without Meat.

Check out all of my NYC pictures by clicking on the one in this post.

If you have a minute, head to the NYPL Web site to learn the letter writing campaign and how you can help them maintain enough funding to stay open six days a week.

Have a kid’s party coming up this summer that you are responsible for planning? Why not use it as an opportunity to encourage reading early on by incorporating some favorite story book characters?

For one of her oldest son’s early birthdays, my sister hosted a party featuring Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar. There was a craft project for the kids, a themed cake, and even a giant a paper cutout of the caterpillar with a picture of the birthday boy in each body segment, starting with one of him as an infant followed by one of him at each month.

Cake Wrecks, a blog about disastrous professionally-made confections, has a “Sunday Sweets” edition each week that features cake successes. Today, the blog included a themed “Sunday Sweets” about cakes honoring favorite childhood books. Blogger Jen found inspirations for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon and Guess How Much I Love You, Dr. Seuss’s One Fish Two Fish … and Fox in Socks, Golden Book’s Poky Little Puppy, Babar, and Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit.

Click on the picture here to check the rest out for inspiration to make your own - or, for the less creatively confident, print out one of the pictures and take it to your own local bakery.

Don’t forget to spread the theme across the whole party, too! Incorporate the character or characters into the decorations, gift bags, crafts, games, etc.: Play pin the tail on Babar. Make monster masks or rabbit ears. Give out Swedish fish - or even a small copy of the chosen book! Have fun with it, knowing that you’re encouraging reading while celebrating a birthday!

Overly similar book cover designs were spotted again by a Totally Looks Like user again.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, also known as the book with the most cover designs ever (my count is at eight, including the one here - two movie ones, one foreign, and at least five others), was originally published in 1993 but I can’t find a specific year on this cover.

Disappearing Ingenue by Melissa Pritchard, which only seems to have two different cover designs including this one, is a collection of eight interrelated short stories was published nine years after Virgin Suicides, in 2002.

And on a separate note … while writing looking these books up, I realized for the first time that the author of Virgin Suicides also wrote Middlesex, whose screenplay rights are owned by Rita Wilson.

My current MP3 player is barely functioning. It is jammed up and only plays about half of the songs on it, never labels them correctly, and won’t let me remove them at all. It also shuts off if it jiggles and occasionally locks up, always on the same songs. Clearly, it is time for me to consider investing in a new MP3 player, especially with my new personal challenge of training for a half marathon.

I don’t have any money to spend; however, I have accumulated enough points in my MyPoints account to earn $75 in gift certificates to spend at Overstock.com (side note: MyPoints is seriously awesome. Leave a comment and I will send you an e-invite.)

I began shopping around the discount site to figure out what kind of MP3 player I want, which is when this story starts to relate to books. I narrowed my many choices down to the ones with the best gigabyte to price ratios - and that’s when I found Latte’s iPearl. It has 8GB of memory, FM radio, and a microphone. It can double as a USB storage device and can hold and show digital pictures. And … you can read e-books on it while listening to music (or with the music turned off if you cannot multi-task that well).

This aspect was the deciding factor for me. I take public transportation a lot and often am already carrying so much stuff with me for work that I sadly don’t have room for a book. This will be the perfect way to always have something to read on me!

I read - and loved - Dan Brown’s 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code before all the hubbub and controversy surrounding the concept of the story truly blew up. In fact, when I picked up my copy I hadn’t even heard of it yet. Brown is a good writer, regardless of whether you agree with his plot about Jesus’ blood line or not. The book is a well-written, suspenseful mystery. The movie, on the other hand, was only enjoyable because I enjoyed the book so much, but I digress … Dan Brown is a good author.

After The Da Vinci Code became a best-selling hit, readers went back in time to appreciate Brown’s 2000 novel, Angels & Demons, which is about the same characters and similar events. I haven’t read the predecessor yet, but it garnered almost as much positive and negative attention as its follow up novel. And now, the one written first is also a movie, which was released this past Friday, May 15. Tom Hanks reprises his lead role as Robert Langdon, while director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also returned. A few newbies, including Ewan McGregor, join the cast.

With the new film release, artsy people are revving up their crafty engines, excited for a movie that prominently features some classic artwork. The folks over at Craftster are so excited that they have put together a collection of angel and demon crafts made by the community board’s members.

Check out the angelic and demonic sculptures, screen printing, photography, stuffed toys, and more, including the hand stitched towel set shown here.

If teens and kids are reading less now because of the popularity of the Internet, then perhaps a kick butt Web site all about authors, bestsellers, new releases, and more would help generate some more young readers. Let’s see what I can find …

* Random House publishing company hosts Teens @ Random where there are quizzes, author interviews, related videos, new noteworthy reads and old favorites, and social opportunities to make friends, pick fave books, and create a profile. This site has recently been making blogging headlines for welcoming author Judy Blume to chat and answer questions on a message board there. The layout and design of Teens @ Random is much more appealing than most reading sites, too.

* Harper Collins Publishers also has a teen-specific site, Harper Teen. There’s no Judy Blume, but there is plenty of reviews, author info, contests, and, of course, vampires.

* TeenReads.com includes all of the basics too: interviews, polls, reviews, book clubs, info about books being made into movies, and much more. This site tops the others on variety of content, but could use some help in the graphic design area.

* Teen Ink magazine covers all the regular book-related stuff in a well-designed, youthful way, but also features writing fun. While gathering inspiration from fave authors, teens can submit their own poems, short stories, and even artwork and photos for publishing. Education resources are available for those ready to go to college or interested in a summer writing program. It’s not just an online magazine either; Teen Ink can be read in print as well.

Find more links by clicking on the picture shown here.

And the publishing world’s attempts at capitalizing on the Obamas’ fame and celebrity continue …

Not long after “Bo” Obama got his own tribute book, Bo: America’s Commander in Leash, Michelle is getting one of her own.

Female Force: Michelle Obama, available in bookstores starting today, is a Bluewaters Productions comic book edition about the new first lady. Female Force is a series that biographies leading ladies and has previously profiled other female politicians including Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Caroline Kennedy.

Just as Palin’s and Clinton’s issues sold out upon their release, Obama’s comic book sold out before the end of the first day of its release. Perhaps the company is not printing enough, perhaps they really are top notch reading, or perhaps Michelle hired someone to go around and buy all of the copies so that no one else could see it. Either way, you don’ have to worry - more copies are on their way!

Hey, did you know that celebrities crack open a book once in awhile?

Actress Rachel McAdams, who will star in the eventual release of the movie version of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, was seen grabbing a bite - and a few books from a local New York City library last week in the morning of Thursday, April 23. McAdams will also be seen on the big screen later this year in Sherlock Holmes, which is scheduled to be released in December.

On the same day in the same city, actress Angelina Jolie was toting around a book on the set of her new film Salt . The book seen here in her hand was a copy of Richard N. Haass’s War of Necessity, War Of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars.

There seem to be a lot of book giveaways on blogs right now! Not all of them are fiction reads - there are crafty and non-fiction ones, too - but they are all books that you can win for free! Here’s some that I have come across recently. Check them out quickly; some end in just a day or two!

* Handcrafted site Whip Up has three copies each of two Make Good Books’ books filled with Japanese-inspired sewing projects.

* Vegan.com is giving away three signed copies of Robin Robertson’s cookbook, Vegan Fire & Spice: 200 Sultry and Savory Global Recipes.

* Reader Views gives out copies of a handful of different featured books each month. Similar monthly giveaways can be found at Rebecca’s Reads and Blogging Authors

* Thought from an Evil Overlord is participating in a May Day giveaway carnival and her prizes are five books.

* For constant book giveaways, keep up with the Great American Book Giveaway site.

* Girls to Grow is hosting her first ever giveaway. The prize is a copy of In Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson.

* Win an audiobook copy of The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey on CD from Christian Personal Finance.

* Fantasy, teen novel writer Beth Revis has cleaned off her book shelves and is giving away two themed clusters of novels on her blog, Writing It Out.

* It’s Pondering the Myriad Things’ second blog anniversary. To celebrate, she is giving away two books: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace is Every Step and the 1992 edition of Eliot Coleman’s The Four Season Harvest.

When I write I am usually sitting on the couch in my living room with my laptop, fruit smoothie next to me, heating pad on my back, and two big cats on my lap. I also write on scrap paper on public transportation and in journals while laying in bed.

In college I met Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel and she told the crowd that when she was working on one of her books she lived and wrote in her publisher’s office, surrounded by empty Chinese take-out containers.

Then there’s the picturesque, serene, desk looking out a window with an inspirational nature scene like Chevy Chase’s character’s was supposed to be in Funny Farm.

And of course there’s the blog that started me on this rant - Sitting Pretty Magazine - which gives pictures and descriptions of writers’ desks … a good number of which include cats.

I purposefully avoided a whole section of novel titles that are literary illusion yesterday: Biblical ones. There are so many book titles that are taken from the best-selling Good Book that I decided they needed their own post.

So today I have for you some book titles and the Bible verse which they are named after.

* Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner: 2 Samuel 19:4

* A Time to Kill by John Grisham: Ecclesiastes 3:3

* Butter in a Lordly Dish by Agatha Christie: Judges 5:25

* East of Eden by John Steinbeck: Genesis 4:16

* The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: Ecclesiastes 7:4

* If I Forget Thee Jerusalem by William Faulkner: Psalms 137:5

* The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle: Psalms 121:6

* Number the Stars by Lois Lowry: Psalms 147:4

* The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway: Ecclesiastes 1:5

* The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: Isaiah 61:6

Allusion is a literary device where the writer makes a reference to another piece of literary work, be it the author, the title, a quote, or something else. I love literary allusion. I also love figuring out why authors and publishers choose a book’s title. See where I’m going with this?

A lot of books’ titles are literary allusion to a previously published book. Here are some examples where the first book’s title is an allusion to the second book or poem:

* As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: The Odyssey by Homer

* The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon: Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle

* For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway: Meditation XVII by John Donne

* In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck: Paradise Lost by John Milton

* I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar

* The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie: The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

* No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy: Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats

* Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham: Ethics by Baruch Spinoza

* Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: To a Mouse by Robert Burns

* The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham: Lift Not the Painted Veil Which Those Who Live by Percy Bysshe Shelley

* A Passage to India by E. M. Forster: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

If you are interested in joining me in reading the classics but just can’t find the time because you are too busy reading and rereading all things Twilight, then I have the perfect book for you!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith is the latest craze for intellectuals with a freaky side. Grahame-Smith, who has previously written quirky thrillers such as How to Survive a Horror Movie and The Big Book of Porn, somehow managed to snag the right to fiddle and faddle with Austen’s romantic classic. P and P and Zs features all the original text of Austen’s original story, but with an extra plot twist: “a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life.”

This book weaves together Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s tale with little extra bone-crushing, brain-eating zombie action. It also includes 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice). Word is that Hollywood big wigs are already in a bidding battle over the rights to turn this chick lit gone goth into a film. No surprise there, but who will be cast as the zombie-fighting heroine? Could Keira Knightley still pull off the role with a few new undead costars?

The original P and P was published in 1813 and continues to be a bestseller today, making most “100 Best Books” lists. It was Jane’s second novel; she also wrote Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Emma, and six more.