1. Bunnicula by Deborah Howe and James Howe
What evil lurks within the hearts of bunnies? Harold knows!

2. Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
Every undergrad in a fiction workshop should read this.

3. Disgrace by J.M. Cotzee
It felt like there was an interesting story that kept getting blocked by the protagonist.

4. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Eerie account of a teen struggling with anorexia, avoids being an “issue novel.”

5. Knuffle Bunny: a Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems
A beloved stuffed animal is left behind, with a sweet and surprising ending.

6. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
I’ve only attempted once recipe so far, but I love flipping through this one.

7. Karen’s Cartwheel (Baby-Sitters Little Sister #29) by Ann M. Martin
Karen was annoying. but this was about gymnastics and dolls. Of course I read it.

8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Everyone has nine names. Levin and Kitty were may more interesting than Anna.

9. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
Probably would like this more now, but as a 9th grader I was suspicious of Feynman.

10. Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry ed. Billy Collins
A lovely collection of poetry, especially good for reluctant readers.

11. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003, ed. Dave Eggers and Zadie Smith
“A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease” by Foer is great. Can’t remember others.

12. Peanut Butter and Jelly: A Play Rhyme by Nadine Bernard Westcott
My sandwiches are peanut butter-only but I loved this lyrical book as a kid.

13. The Young Unicorns by Madeleine L’Engle
Read this before I knew about the Austins. The non-Austin characters were my favorites.

14. Night by Elie Wiesel
First book that made me cry. Arresting account of the Holocaust, a must-read for humanity.

15. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare or grindhouse? Your call!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

• A book by any other name would sell as well? Not so, apparently.
• App spin-offs from children’s book favorites.
• But don’t worry, apps aren’t killing actual books.
• I definitely need to focus more on what I’m actually reading.
• The Hunger Games cast and producers are working with United Nations World Food Programme and Feeding America to raise awareness about very real problems of starvation around the world.
• How does a genre “die” and is chick lit on the way out?
• Susan Dennard is giving away a signed ARC of Something Strange & Deadly for her birthday. Happy Birthday, Susan!

John Locke (I’m going to imagine him like this) is the man behind the project. He hopes that people will pick up a book while they’re about down, or maybe drop a another off when they’re done with it. One part of the project I find especially cool:

Is there any screening process for the books? For instance, do you try to include great works of literature, or perhaps focus on more accessible and popular novels?

I want everything and anything. I don’t have much of a budget, so all the books are donated from people that live nearby and off my own shelves, so everything from Oprah-approved to Jane Jacobs. And obviously as people leave their own books, I’d want the collection to become a record of the interests of that particular site. A next site I have in mind is near a public school, and I’m trying to get a good collection of children’s books.

I’d be interested to see what books kids share without any guidance from adults. School libraries are obviously fantastic, but something about children being able to run their own library really intrigues me.

Make sure to check out the full interview with Locke. Have any of you seen any pop-up libraries around town?

Kind of want to take a trip down Fairy Tale Road now.

Monica also mentioned the Grimm Legacies conference, which I didn’t know about before. It sounds so awesome! Sad I missed it.

The hosts used literary references for the food and drink served–from Turkish Delight (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) to fried green tomatoes (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe) to the Vesper martini (Casino Royale). Pages from books and Scrabble pieces went toward decorations. What a fun idea!

I’m a sucker for costumes, so I’m probably be tempted to ask guests to dress up as their favorite authors or literary characters. If it’s your birthday, they have to agree, right?

Some of the great museums included are the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in MA(somehow I still haven’t been there yet!) and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Another on my to-visit list is the MIT Museum, which explores invention and technology. They have robots!

Have you visited any cool museums lately?

JK Rowling is coming out with a new book.

!!!

So far no details announced except that it will be for adults and it will be published by Little, Brown, and Company. Really curious to see what Rowling has in store.

Blume also talks a little about what she’s working on now:

Q. Is it a young adult novel or is it for adults?

A. I don’t know, it’s one or the other. It’s probably both. It’s too soon to know. Did you see that thing with Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert, it’s on YouTube. [Bagger’s note: It is really worth watching. Especially when they get to the marker-sniffing.] Colbert says something about, ‘So did you always know you were going to write for children?,’ and Sendak says: “Write for children? I just write, and they decide where it should go.” I will have to decide, but I’m on a first draft of an intricate novel, it’s a complicated story for me to tell.

• Neko Case “Nothing To Remember”
• The Decemberists “One Engine”
• Glen Hansard “Take The Heartland”

It looks like the overall vibe is folk with an edge, which I think is perfect. (Frankly, I wish Neko Case could write the whole album; her sound matches the books perfectly.) Even though I don’t listen to much Taylor Swift, I actually like her song for the movie. You can see the video here:

Not as bouncy as a lot of her hits, and it has a nice mountain feel. So I’m very hopeful going into the movie. Any artists you like/dislike on the soundtrack, or anyone you wish were on the list?