Hangovers

• Leila rounds up the lukewarm-to-hated-it reviews of Alice Sebold’s latest. I adored The Lovely Bones, but it does sound not-nearly-as-good. Here’s hoping the next one is a return to form. (Contrary opinions more than welcome in the comments, if you’ve read and liked it.)
• The dynamite Sarah Ellis — who’s on the faculty at my MFA program — just won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, which even comes with a check for $20,000. Yay!
• Damon Garr offers some interesting commentary on the debate about whether to publish "original" versions of Raymond Carver stories. And see David Anthony Durham’s thoughts as well.
• Will smart cars conquer the US?
• Stephanie Aulenback’s Little Known Facts About Children’s Literature.
• Everyone who didn’t read Joe Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts when it was released in a smallish run by a British press, can now do so. The stories are fabulous.
• Eve’s Alexandria on my favorite novel of recent years, Geoff Ryman’s Air. I wish everyone would read it. I wish there was a lot more science fiction like it.
• Wes Stace’s top 10 ventriloquist novels.
• And Justine pointed out this divinely fun piece on the madness of Frankfurt.
• Second Chris Barzak novel, which will be AMAZING!
• Writers: Do not piss off your publicist.
• Jed Berry: SUPASTAH! (Also, Aunt Gwenda IMPERSONATOR!)
• Freelancers need health insurance too. (Via Austin.)

• Christopher‘s a star — or, at least, our local weekly did an excellent profile about his writing and yellow bike wrangler duties.
• Coffee and Ink weighs in on the first few Heroes episodes. She rightly points out — as others have — that it took awhile to get cooking last season too.
• The weekend saw an incredibly disappointing mini-storm involving an (unfortunate) letter from Ursula Le Guin to Cory Doctorow over his posting her piece that quite a few other people also posted awhile back, an (unnecessary) apology from Cory Doctorow to her, and more reaction to that.
• Coilhouse, a wonderful-looking new online and print magazine. (Via Karen Meisner.)
• And, speaking of Karen, she has a lovely post about the movie version of The Devil Wears Prada and why the protag should have dumped her boy instead of apologizing.
• Jim Di Bartolo makes cute shirts.
• Jeff VanderMeer has a breakthrough about outlining while working on a Predator novel.
• Fox rains on the Buffy sing-a-long parade.
• The Washington Post looks at the use of music in advertising.

• Austin has a fabulous George Saunders quote on capturing significant details in fiction.
• Andy Duncan shares some of his favorite novel and short story openings. He’s also been writing letters to the editor.
• Fortune cookie fortunes get depressing. Once in high school, I got a fortune that only had a period. Top that.
• The Boing Boing TV show in the Times.
• Jeff VanderMeer interviews the one and only Karen Joy Fowler about the new Jane Austen Book Club movie over at Amazon. We haven’t seen it yet, but soon.
• Jenny D on Margaret Cho’s new show, The Sensuous Woman, which I so want to see.
• Niall Harrison has a fascinating post on Kelly’s new story, "Light"; both the story and the post are must-check-outs.
• Yet another great review for the Lady Churchill’s anthology — this one by Adrienne Martini in the Baltimore City Paper.

• New York Magazine has an excerpt from Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. I can vouch that this book is knockout excellent and you will want to be getting your hands on a copy.
• Susan Cooper on how much the Dark is Rising movie will suck at NPR — I am glad to see her airing this publicly. Too often Hollywood gets away with this idiocy purely because it’s seen as bad form to complain. Well, I say it’s bad form to screw up classic books like this.
• Sci Fi Wire has a story about the Lady Churchill’s anthology.
• Top Chef q and a with the final three. (I’m rooting for Casey, but, honestly, I’d be happy with any of these guys.) And Frank Bruni in the NYT on the cult of the celebrity chef.
• Ysabeau recommends Deathray magazine, which sounds fab.
• Carolyn on George Saunders-palooza at Pitt.
• Jo Knowles (whose book I will write about Very Soon) interviews Sara Zarr.
• The new Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror volume is out; TOC at the link.
• New Kelly Link story "Light" in the current issue of Tin House and online for free. Gavin has the goods on a Friday night reading too.
• The Cybils are now open for nominations.

• Raina Kelley’s month as a freegan.
• The Cybils 2007 (aka the Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards) are gearing up and I am so very pleased to be serving with a stellar judging panel in the SF/F category.
• Wes Anderson’s Hotel Chevalier, a short prequel to The Darjeeling Limited. (Via Erin.)
• An introduction to a Brian Evenson book by Paul Di Filippo.
• Some interesting LJ conversations about YA: here and here.
• Jason Heller on some things he loves and hates about fantasy at the Onion AV Club blog.
• Sarah Prineas’ new site has launched.
• Politicians raising money on the Internet, and using authors to do it.
• Matt Cheney has the goods on the PKD-Lethem event.
• And Austin Kleon draws the highlights of a Scott McCloud lecture.
• Dark Crystal manga. (Via Fuse.)
• And a silly quiz result (to which I say: No fair, but the test is fun):

take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.

• Ursula Le Guin attempts to slap some sense into Jeanette Winterson with a fair and fabulous review of her latest, The Stone Gods (which Winterson adamantly feels is Not Science Fiction): "Formerly deep-dyed realists are producing novels so full of the tropes and fixtures and plotlines of science fiction that only the snarling tricephalic dogs who guard the Canon of Literature can tell the difference. I certainly can’t. Why bother? I am bothered, though, by the curious ingratitude of authors who exploit a common fund of imagery while pretending to have nothing to do with the fellow-authors who created it and left it open to all who want to use it. A little return generosity would hardly come amiss." I still consider Winterson one of the first fantasy novelists I fell in love with the work of — so there.
• Junot Diaz on returning to SF.
• Plunkett Award dead before it starts.
• Hannah Wolf Bowen recommends Kathe Koja’s Kissing the Bee, also recc’d by Sharyn November at the previous Wiscon.
• This video makes me very, very happy:

• Greg Frost has launched a new blog that he claims will be more writing-focused (I’m all for that, but I like the rants too). If you haven’t read his novel Fitcher’s Brides, well, read it.
• Justine Musk learns firsthand the stocking whoopsies that can happen to books that have the same name coming out at the same time.
• Villagers in Peru get ill after meteorite strike.
• Jeff VanderMeer inaugurates a new series of interviews called "Conversations with the Bookless" that will focus on writers at the start of their careers who haven’t put out books yet with a conversation with writer-to-watch Rachel Swirsky.
• Jeff also has a fun little interview with Gavin about the LCRW anthology over at Amazon.
• Cabinet of Wonders on passenger pigeons; this is just lovely.

• Jeff VanderMeer — lately of the enormous and impressive book sale — interviews lit darling Chris Barzak about One for Sorrow.
• A new short story by Etgar Keret (via Callie).
• The origin of ten famous cartoon/animated character names.
• Kevin Kinsella interviews Anya Ulinich about Petropolis.
• "Oh my god, there is a bird on my head and I am naked." Hee. Welcome back, Stephanie Aulenback.
• Susan Beth Pfeffer offers some suggestions for turning theme into story, using the Bad News Bears por example.
• Geoff Ryman’s guest speech at BOREAL 2007 (via Erin).
• Paul Collins’ latest New Scientist piece documents an absolutely terrifying — and forgotten — health scandal involving tens of thousands of women and X-ray beautification treatments that gave them cancer.
• Emily Lazar reads books and chooses authors for The Colbert Report. Tip: Become folksy.

• Pygmy goats! (Via Matt Ruff.)
• Cynthia Leitich Smith interviews Kathleen Duey on Skin Hunger, sitting very near the top of my TBR.
• Kay Reindl at Seriocity has more on the screwing of Glen Morgan on Bionic Woman.
• John Green reads from the draft of his novel-in-progress, Paper Towns.
• Tricia Sullivan’s Manifesto of the Really Shitty First Draft.
• "Mr Bones" by Paul Theroux and this fascinating article by Marc Singer about Joyce Hatto, both in the New Yorker. (As recommended by Jenny D.)
• The Comics Curmudgeon, an excellent blog about strip comics. (Via Austin.)
• Capote on criticism and its limited uses.
• Cabinet of Wonders explores the Golden Mean.
• NPR does the usual women read more than men story. The boys are not going to take it!
• Madeleine Robins beautiful tribute post to NYC. Also, you should be reading this blog — best group blog in the world.
• Dana on the real religious nuts: saints (and mystics and ascetics).
• Please read and support the giant blog mobilization to memorialize Grace Lin’s husband Robert Mercer and raise money to fight cancer. See also Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure. This is an amazing thing.

I’m going to be more or less on hiatus for the next week or so. I might pop in with link posts, but I might not. Fret not, at some point fairly soon, I’ll return. Life is a just a bit overwhelming at the moment.

• Cecil rescued by good samaritan ladies; this makes me happy.
• Kelly Fineman interviewed over at 7 Imps.
• Uma Krishnaswami (my advisor this semester) on how childhood is like a third-world country.
• Alison Lurie considers the the last Harry Potter book and the most recent film.
• Morgan Locke on the hidden costs of doing good things.
• The master reading list for Joseph Campbell’s "Introduction to Mythology" course taught from the 1930s through the ’70s. (Via Endicott.)
• The Knopf rejection files in the NYT.
• Justine reflecting on series.
• Richard Larson’s "Night and Day" at Pindeldyboz.
• Dunder Mifflin’s website.
• Cursing in genre! (Via Scalzi.)
• Colleen on when fiction doesn’t deal with "the call" effectively, particularly YA. Lots of good stuff in this post.
• An excellent review of the Lady Churchill’s anthology, which I was able to ogle in its tangible beauty a couple of days ago.
• Bookslut interview with Junot Diaz. (Via Greg, who believes .)
• Seriocity predicts mass chaos and suckiness when the new TV season arrives, including for most of the shows I’m actually looking forward to. Sigh.
• The first Interstitial Salon kicks off here, jumping off Greg Frost’s "Coloring Between the Lines."
• Also, fun with girl and boy reading polls here.