I'm excited to moderate People of the Books: A Jewish and Trans Authors Panel as part of Goodbye Assembly Row this Thursday, the last event at All She Wrote Books before they move to their new location in East Somerville. Sim Kern, Kyle Lukoff, and Aden Polydoros will talk about their books ranging from middle-grade to adult.
And see Out of the Box for a few other outside-of-our-homes my colleagues and I will be doing in the next week or so. Hope to run into some of you at something!
The crime to be investigated is the theft of student Gilbert
Blythe’s heart. Classmate Anne Shirley is a person of interest, and Royal
Gardner is suspected of being an accomplice; other suspects include Ruby Gillis
and Christine Stuart. Host Charles Sloane will interview people familiar with
the case, including Shirley’s housemates Priscilla Grant and Stella Maynard and
their housekeeper, identified as Aunt Jamesina.
At this time, housemate Philippa Gordon is said to be
deliberating about whether to appear.
Update, April 2: I suppose this is conceivable, and if this book were unearthed, I'd love to read it...but for now, it exists only in my April 1 imagination.
For more silliness (for a cause even better than fooling people), check out Parodies for Charities.
For immediate release
New York, NY – Guilder Press has uncovered a
previously unknown manuscript by “S. Morgenstern,” the penname used by the late
author William Goldman for the wildly popular The Princess Bride (1973) and
the lesser-known cult classic The Silent Gondoliers (1983). The
manuscript was among the papers of Goldman’s editor. “He must’ve been planning
to read it, but you know how busy publishing gets,” said a staff member who’d
been helping to clear out the office as the company returns to in-person work.
The manuscript, titled THE SPINLESS WHEELS, tells the story
of Moe, the greatest driver since the invention of the automobile, who is
denied the opportunity to use his talents by a traffic jam on I-95 in New
Jersey, and his quest along with the other stopped drivers around him to pass
the time and, eventually, to get things moving again. Guilder Press offers a
sneak peek at the opening:
Traffic scientists disagree as to which was the worst traffic jam in history. After all, how does one define worst? General consensus is that duration and number of vehicles are the most important elements, but should they be the only ones considered? Do weather conditions or overall misery count, and if so, how much? Those in the duration camp cite the ten-day China National Highway 110 traffic jam, while for weather-watchers, the August Florida Foul-Up wins hands down. For misery, you can’t beat the Wine Country Wind-Up, given the state of the passengers’ collective bladders.
But whatever their metrics, all agree on this: they would not have wanted to be on I-95 in New Jersey on the day Moe Torist set out.
The release date is yet to be determined, said the staffer, citing a paper supplier stuck in traffic.
P.S. See the Horn Book's Out of the Box blog for another piece of exciting literary news!
It was, of course, a weird year (or so) for virtually anything--but I'm happy to say that my weird year's activities included serving on the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award committee with Luann Toth (chair) and Nicholl Denice Montgomery. Just as I grew sick of the sight of my own walls, those walls became lined with ever-shifting piles of books, culminating in this pile of winners and honor books, which were announced Wednesday:
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| From top: Fiction and Poetry winner and honor books; Nonfiction winner and honor books; Picture Book winner and honor books. |
I'm thrilled with the choices we ended up with, and highly recommend every one of these books.
This was my second award committee (and not my first set of Zoom deliberations--the Sydney Taylor Book Award was chosen remotely before it was cool). Though the two experiences were different, each one showed me new things about what I value in books; paradoxically, I've found that committee work teaches you about yourself as an individual. I highly recommend that, too.
(Also, bookshelves. I recommend bookshelves.)
(I started a post about the new year. It came out weird. Instead, here is a very short story set in the fairly near future.)
I'm sitting on a bus, on my way to visit loved ones. I check the news on my phone; the news is boring, so I go back to the physical book on the seat next to me. (As this is a fantasy, I have excellent habits and am not even tempted to scroll a whole bunch of social media. Also, I have a row to myself.)
I flip to check something in the back matter. I flip back and read on.
Happy New Year. Let's keep turning pages.
How's everyone doing? I'm still reading (mostly e-books), still writing, still offering parodies for charities (and now feeling one of this song coming on, in which "here" refers specifically to my living room. I'm sure you can relate). Still healthy and (always, but it's especially in season) still thankful.
A few updates:
I got to participate in the Post-Publication Panel, and talk about how book reviews and awards work, at the Jewish Book Council's Children's Book Writers & Illustrators seminar last weekend. Recap here.
I'm excited to serve on the 2021 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award committee. Chair Luann and fellow judge Nicholl and I will be selecting winners and honor books in the Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction categories from books published from June 2020 through May 2021.
Like I said, still reading. And still thankful.
Have a happy, healthy, safe Thanksgiving!
