Link Roundup 6.27.14: President Snow Edition

It’s the weekend again, and by “weekend” what I actually mean is “sangria time.”  It was a fun week on this end: we reviewed Amy Noelle’s The Hot Corner; made fun of weeping prom queens and other cover trends we hate; talked about the classification of young adult novels; and designed a Fifth Element Date Night. We’ll be back on Monday, but until then, on to the links. 

Worf + Troi 4ever. But only platonically. Because—real talk, guys—that relationship arc was pretty weird.

An interesting interview with Jennifer Weiner: 

Finally, if you’re a guy writing a funny, fast-paced, relatable comedy of manners, with a Jewish protagonist, you’ve written a book. If you’re a girl and you wrote that same thing, you’re… me. I remember, years ago, picking up Jonathan Tropper’s The Book of Joe, and thinking, “Wow, this guy writes like I do!” I still think it’s true. Except Janet Maslin reviews him on the regular, and the most I’ve ever gotten from Maslin is a few sentences in what I call the Vagina Flyover that she comes out with every May, where she’ll review a whole bunch of books with nothing in common but female authors.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that, in general, my books sell better than Jonathan Tropper’s. You could say it’s a fair trade-off, except I don’t think women writers should be in the business of making trade-offs. Men who write popular commercial fiction get reviewed in the Times and become big best-sellers. Women should be able to have that best-selling cake, and eat that review, too.

Eve and Roarke may be coming soon to a theater near you.

And apparently so will John Greene’s Looking for Alaska.

Everyone, I present to you the Wikipedia entry for Guam, retold as a young adult novel.

Today was the day. The day that everyone on Guam knew must arrive once every four years. A day of sorting. Of choosing. Of victory and defeat. The day of the non-binding straw poll for Presidential candidates.

Everyone would be there. As Inarajan set off, she saw her friend United Airlines. He waved to her, tripping over the statue of Chief Gadao, a prominent tourist attraction. She shook her head. United Airlines was the largest private sector employer on Guam and the second-largest employer overall, following the United States Military, but he could be such a klutz sometimes.

“Hi,” he said to her, flicking his blonde hair out of his face and grinning.

“Hi,” said Inarajan, flicking her red hair out of her face and sighing.

“What’s new?” said United Airlines, flicking his hair out of his face and frequently rescheduling flights to Japan during typhoon season.

Inarajan’s face heated. Was he flirting with her? No, that was crazy. As of 2008 United Airlines’ annual payroll in Guam was $90 million. She had never even had a boyfriend.

There’s a puppy. In his pants. With a…Santa Claus hat?

A quick hit with Isabel Allende on writing. Also, apparently in the 1960’s Allende was fired from a position translating romance novels into Spanish because she was altering the female characters dialogue to make them sound more intelligent…which is pretty badass. 

Simon & Schuster has become the most recent publisher to make its e-books available for libraries.

There’s a new Judy Blume novel, written for adults, scheduled for 2015!  

Barnes & Noble splits off their Nook business.

And finally…

What will you be reading this weekend? Rachel’s finishing L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon (one of my all-time favorite childhood books). I discovered Judith Ivory a few days ago—more on that next week—so my weekend will be spent reading as much of her backlist as possible.

Happy weekend, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

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By Diana Christine Biller