These are the novels and short story collections that we absolutely loved in 2014. Ranked in no particular order.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Zach Dodson
Thursday, December 4, 2014
These Medieval Doodles Might Be The Coolest Thing Ever
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, December 04, 2014
It turns out boredom really is eternal.
Raise your hand if you've ever doodled mindlessly in a notebook.
(RAISES HAND!)
Fox / wearemagnetised.livejournal.com
It turns out that you doodlers are in good company, and that people in medieval times couldn't resist drawing in the blank spaces in their books either.
Leiden University Library
Kwakkel is an English professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and focuses on medieval manuscripts.
Like this one!
Leiden University Library
33 Signs You're Spending Christmas At Hogwarts
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, December 04, 2014
Because it’s better than going back to Privet Drive.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via a-movie-dream.tumblr.com
1. You spend all of your mornings in the Owlery.
2. There are parcels waiting for you in the common room.
3. You're beginning to suspect that your teachers really do live at school. Like all the time.
4. You've tickled the kitchen pear every night this week.
5. You have received a Weasley sweater, as is the custom.
6. It's snowing in your cornflakes but you kind of like it.
7. You have wondered, not for the first time, where they keep the official Hogwarts menorah.
8. You're not exactly sure what treacle is but it's absolutely everywhere.
9. Your long-dead parents have endowed you with a valuable heirloom.
10. The cashier line at Honeydukes is out of control.
11. You have written several letters to your godfather but have not heard back from him.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via moviepilot.com
12. The Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher is missing from the feast.
13. You are being treated for injuries related to a late-night game of Exploding Snap.
14. Your trashbag relatives have sent you a gift.
15. Dobby is a free elf.
16. You have fallen asleep in front of the fire in Hagrid's hut.
17. The centaurs are restless.
18. The prefects look the other way.
19. You have popped a whole box of Wizard Crackers and now have more hats than you need.
20. The Polyjuice is ready, at last.
21. Oh look, more treacle.
People Are Trying To Start A Rumor That "Fault In Our Stars" Author John Green Is The Zodiac Killer
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, December 04, 2014
The internet is dumb.
A few days ago Tumblr users realized that John Green kind of sort of looks like a police sketch of the Zodiac Killer.
17 Cosy Reading Nooks To Get You Through The Winter
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, December 04, 2014
Snuggle up with a book.
Announce your intentions with bold lettering.
Embrace colour, don't hold back.
Be clever with the space you have available.
Tuck your nook under the stairs.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
25 Absurdly Delightful Books To Read With Kids In 2015
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, December 03, 2014
Picture books guaranteed to make both adults and children excited for storytime.
Mallory McInnis / Buzzfeed
Goodnight Already! by Jory John, illustrated by Benji Davies
Bear longs for sweet, sweet slumber - if only Duck would let him get some shut-eye.
What kind of reader is it for? - Those with younger siblings who constantly prevent them from experiencing peace and quiet.
Release Date - December 2, 2014
Buy here.
HarperCollins
Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
It definitely pays to be polite when doughnuts are involved! Remember to say "please" and "thank you" if you want a sweet treat from this bear.
What kind of reader is it for? - Someone who could use a little brushing up when it comes to manners (but in a fun way).
Release Date - December 30, 2014
Pre-order here.
Scholastic Press
Zombie in Love 2 + 1 by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Scott Campbell
The sequel to Zombies in Love in which our zombie pals become parents to a bouncing, non-dead baby boy. Why are his teeth growing in instead of falling out? It just doesn't make sense!
What kind of reader is it for? - Anyone who appreciates things that are heartwarming and hair-raising in equal amounts.
Release Date - December 30, 2014
Pre-order here.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Monday, November 24, 2014
How The "Hunger Games" Team Brought "Mockingjay – Part 1" From The Page To The Screen
Posted by Unknown on Monday, November 24, 2014
Director Francis Lawrence, screenwriter Peter Craig, and producer Nina Jacobson spoke to BuzzFeed News about adapting the final installment of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling franchise. MAJOR SPOILERS!
Warning: The following story contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
Murray Close / Lionsgate
When screenwriter and author Peter Craig (The Town) first got the call about adapting Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel Mockingjay — the culmination of the wildly popular Hunger Games series about reluctant revolutionary Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) — into two feature films, he dropped the phone.
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.
"I have daughters," he told BuzzFeed News in his first major interview about The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, which opened worldwide this weekend. "Both [are] massive fans. Like, my oldest daughter actually took up archery — a crazed Katniss fan, basically." Before his first meeting with the film's producers to pitch himself for the job, Craig even ran one of his ideas — breaking from Collins' book to depict part of the Panem rebellion in the lumber-generating District 7 — by his daughter's carpool. "They were really into it. 'Yeah yeah yeah, Dad, do the tree thing!'"
Producers Jon Kilik, Nina Jacobson, author Suzanne Collins, and screenwriter Peter Craig at the Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 on Nov. 17, 2014.
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
His daughters steered him in the right direction. Craig got the job as Mockingjay's primary screenwriter, when Danny Strong (Lee Daniels' The Butler) moved on after writing the first drafts. And Craig's idea about District 7 was just the first of several significant changes from Collins' book that he integrated into the films, along with director Francis Lawrence (who also helmed the second film in the franchise, Catching Fire), producer Nina Jacobson (who first optioned the rights to Collins' novel), and Collins herself.
Craig, Lawrence, and Jacobson recently spoke to BuzzFeed News in a series of phone interviews about the complicated process of adapting Mockingjay – Part 1 — meaning that the rest of this story contains several MAJOR SPOILERS for the film, even for those who have read Collins' novel.
Meanwhile In America, Brown Girls Are Still Dreaming
Posted by Unknown on Monday, November 24, 2014
Jacqueline Woodson won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and she deserved better than a racist joke.
Nancy Paulsen Books
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
This past summer, a copy of a book called Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson showed up on my desk. It was a memoir written in poems, about a young black girl raised in South Carolina and New York City. I read it immediately. Each page was as enthralling as the last. It was the book I'd waited a lifetime for, the book I never worked up the nerve to write.
I have a letter from my father that says, "My darling, books are the easiest place to find your dreams. Once you have your dreams, keep them safe and they will keep you safe." My father had drawn pictures of me in the margins. He sent it a month before my eighth birthday. I brought the letter to class for show-and-tell. The other kids were confused. "Why does your daddy write you letters? Why doesn't he just talk to you?" I told them my dad was in jail, and letters were how he talked to me. The teacher cut me off, and asked the next student to come up. I sat on the circle carpet, clutching my dad's letter. Sometimes I feel as if a version of myself is still sitting there: a little brown girl holding onto that letter for dear life.
I've spent the last 20 years learning to live what my father wrote.
By the time I was in the third grade, Romeo & Juliet was my favorite book. It was a prize I'd won in a summer reading program at my local library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I kept a notebook where I spent hours copying my favorite passages. I was sure someday I could write like William Shakespeare. That was my dream. At school, my teacher snatched the book out of my hand during silent reading hour. "Romeo & Juliet? Ashley, this is reading time, not pretend to read time." From then on, I left Shakespeare at home.
The library became a refuge. The librarians never stopped me from reading anything, but they weren't terribly interested in my desire for more books about black girls. I'd read The American Girl series, Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, and even The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. When asked — and I asked often — the librarians insisted they were ordering all of the most popular books for kids and teens. One librarian slid a book across the counter toward me. The protagonist on the cover was a blonde-haired and blue-eyed girl. I picked the book up and halfheartedly read the synopsis on the back, and sat it back down. "A book doesn't have to be about someone the same race as you for you to love it," the librarian told me. A younger librarian piped in and said, "We'd love to have more books for kids like you, Ashley. There just aren't enough of them. No one really writes them." I checked out the book with the blonde on the cover.
I was a child, but I was well aware I could love a book about someone who wasn't the same race as me. In fact, if I only read books about brown kids, I would have quickly run out of reading material in our little library. Had my white classmates decided to only read books with characters who looked like them, the same would not be true. This felt wrong. I had stories too. I had dreams, and I wanted the same confirmation that my written words would matter to someone. During an "Our Future" presentation for my third grade class, I stood up and said I wanted to be a writer for kids. The presenter said, "You can do that! What would you write about?" Before I could speak, a boy in my class said, "About her daddy being in jail!"
*
As an adult, I've read many books with black women and girls as central characters. But I would be lying if I said they were all easy to come by or widely known. Whenever a book with a brown girl as a protagonist comes out, word among brown women writers spreads fast. "Did you pick up Pointe by Brandy Colbert? The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson?" We are no longer teens or children, but we are still ravenous for these images of our younger selves. We buy these books for the kids we know and love, especially the girls, because it should be better for them than it was for us, right? We've been waiting, writing, and voting for these stories with our dollars. When I read Brown Girl Dreaming this summer, it was the realization of a dream.
Last Wednesday, I was supposed to attend the after-party for National Book Awards, but found myself in bed with an ear infection and hives. Still, I had my fingers crossed for two writers I desperately wanted to see walk away with awards. I followed the tweets of friends and fellow writers who attended the banquet, waiting for them to announce the winners. I was disappointed when Claudia Rankine's name was not called for Citizen for the Poetry award. Rankine's book on racial micro-aggressions was searing, and it seemed a win would potentially bring it to the attention of a broader audience. I was ecstatic when Jacqueline Woodson won for Brown Girl Dreaming. I tweeted about my excitement for her, and at home, I picked the book up and re-read it until I fell asleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I saw what I'd apparently missed the night before. After Woodson accepted the award, Daniel Handler — author of the popular Lemony Snicket series and the host of this year's award ceremony — said: "I told Jackie she was going to win, and I said that if she won, I would tell all of you something I learned about her this summer, which is that Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Just let that sink in your mind."
We forget how often carelessness is a kind of malicious behavior. Woodson was worth taking the time to consider if "the joke" would undercut her moment. She should not have to accept a National Book Award in one hand and Handler's apology in the other. She was worth the time it would take to come up with a joke that was less lazy. Her story deserved better. A writer's victory is also a victory for the many readers nourished by her work. Every brown girl watching, hoping, and writing deserved better.
Handler has since publicly apologized and donated $10,000 to the We Need Diverse Books campaign, with the promise to match up to $100,000. I'm not sure exactly how much racism is worth, but it's a price I'm tired of brown girls having to pay.
There is a passage in Brown Girl Dreaming where Woodson's beloved ill grandfather asks her to tell him a story. She writes, "This I can do — find him another place to be / when this world is choking him." Brown girls everywhere know what it means to choke with invisible hands at their throats, to drown with water nowhere in sight. For us, a book like Brown Girl Dreaming is air itself. When I found out about Handler's joke, I gasped, my lungs briefly useless.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
18 Magical "Harry Potter" Themed Christmas Decorations
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, November 22, 2014
An enchanting way to add an extra touch of magic to the holidays.
"All I Want for Christmas is my Hogwarts Letter!" Pillow Cover
Seriously, I am still waiting for mine. Maybe this year?
Via etsy.com
A Quidditch Christmas Stocking
Sadly it's not big enough for Santa to stick a Nimbus 2000 inside of it.
Via etsy.com
Dumbledore Christmas Tree Ornament
This ornament would add a little bit of Hogwarts charm to any tree.
Via etsy.com
Gryffindor House Tree Ornament
Is there a better way to show off your house pride?
Via etsy.com
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The 24 Best Fiction Books Of 2014