Just wanted to remind anyone who lives in the Bay Area not to miss the fantastic Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Rees Brennan as they debut their newest works of fantasy, Leviathan and The Demon's Lexicon.

Leviathan is the first in a brand new trilogy that reimagines history. On the eve of World War I, the machine-loving Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their big steam-powered Clankers. Inspired by Darwin, the British have fabricated animals into warships. Their mothership, "Leviathan," is a marvelous whale-dirigible.

The Demon’s Lexicon is the tale of two young men. Brothers. Demon Slayers. Sixteen-year-old Nick and his brother, Alan, are always on the run from the deadly magicians who use demons to work their magic. Alan is Nick's partner in demon slaying and the only person he trusts. So things get very scary when Nick begins to suspect that everything Alan has told him about their past is a complete lie.

The event is at 7:00 p.m. tonight at the Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma Street, Menlo Park. Will I see you there? If you do go, make sure you come and introduce yourself to me. I'll be selling books in the foyer.

Waiting on Wednesday

This idea was taken from Breaking the Spine (thanks) and is such a great idea because it's the place we can talk about the books we really, really want - now. And this one is a no-brainer. I am totally addicted to this series and simply cannot wait for:

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
And it won't be out until May 18th 2010!

But please don't read further if you haven't read Blood Promise because it does include spoilers.

Dimitri gave Rose the ultimate choice. But she chose wrong…

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri’s birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s — and to her best friend, Lissa. It is nearly graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives beyond the Academy’s iron gates to begin. But Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri, and she knows he’s out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance. And now her worst fears are about to come true — Dimitri has tasted her blood, and now he is hunting her. Only this time, he won’t rest until Rose joins him…forever.

Can you hear my cries of
NOW, NOW, NOW!

Malinda Lo video book talk

So the lovely Malinda Lo was at Kepler's on Friday to talk about her wonderful debut novel, Ash. To see our review, please click here.

Here she is talking about Ash

Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser - Review

My colleague, Natalie, loved this book so I'm posting her review here. Perfect book for the season...another one added to my wish list!

An anonymous blogger, a serial killer, and a pretty, popular girl who knows she could be next. This chilling murder-mystery will have you wondering whether your latest Facebook status could wind up getting you killed.

Madison Archer has never questioned the security of her wealthy neighborhood in Soundview. But when three of her closest friends start to disappear one by one, she realizes she is in grave danger. When Madison finds an anonymous blog that wishes death upon the very students who disappeared, she thinks she's found the answer. But in a book this suspenseful, chances are the blogger is completely innocent and even more terrified than Madison, while the real killer is someone totally unexpected.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and utterly terrifying, you'll need to think twice before reading this after dark by your monitor's dim light.

Reviewed by Natalie

In My Mailbox

Again with thanks to the very creative Kristi aka Story Siren and Alea of Pop Culture Junkie, the blogs where this meme started.

This week I have laid my hands on two books, And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer and Positively by Courtney Sheinmel. Both authors have events at Kepler's coming up (Eoin on October 28th and Courtney on November 12th) and I can't wait to hear both of them talk about their books.

And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer
I have been a fan of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series since I first read them, love the Artemis Fowl series, and thought Eoin was one of the funniest speakers I have ever heard when he spoke at BEA.

Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has not been entirely without incident. Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate. His chances of getting his hands on a decent cup of tea have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up . . . again.

And Another Thing . . . is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

Positively by Courtney Sheinmel
I really enjoyed Courtney's first book, My So-Called Family, and had the pleasure of meeting her also at BEA

Emerson Price cannot remember a time when life was ordinary. She was four years old when she and her mom were diagnosed as HIV-positive and eight when her parents divorced. Now she is thirteen and her mother is dead.

When Emmy's dad and stepmother send her to Camp Positive, a camp for HIV-positive girls, Emmy is certain she is going to hate it. But soon she realizes that she is not so alone after all -- and that sometimes letting other people in can make all the difference in the world. This is an unforgettable novel about strength and hope in the face of tragedy.

So what are you reading this week?

An Exquisite Corpse

An exquisite corpse in not necessarily a terribly beautiful and recently deceased individual, despite the sudden rash of zombies and vampires that seems to be taking over the world. Sometimes an exquisite corpse is a game. You write a bit of a story on a piece of paper and fold it over. Then someone else writes the next bit and folds it over, and so on and so on, until everyone has written and you read all the hidden bits together and find out what happens in the story.

Jon Scieszka, aka, author of many awesome books (including The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales), aka, the National Ambassador For Young People's Literature, has launched just such an exquisite corpse story. It will last a year, with an episode every two weeks, each one created by amazing writers and illustrators (let me give you a taste: M. T. Anderson, Daniel Handler -- who is also Lemony Snicket, Shannon Hale, Susan Cooper...) and posted on a really swanky website that pretends to be a book, complete with pages to turn.

Interested? Intrigued? Go here:
http://www.read.gov/exquisite-corpse/Book/#page/2/mode/2up
or you can just click here

Thanks Megan for pointing this out

Shiver - the movie!

I am a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater's books, as I keep saying, and just read in Publishers Weekly that Unique Features has acquired screen rights to Shiver. The story is a paranormal romance between a boy who becomes a wolf each winter and his girlfriend, who helps him find the secret to staying human. You can read my review of Shiver here. The sequel, Linger, will be published next August and I just can't wait. Unique acquired all three books in the series. Wow.

So who would you like to see play Sam and Grace?

JK Rowling and the Bush administration

According to the Guardian, a new memoir by George W Bush's former speechwriter claims that Bush administration officials objected to giving JK Rowling a presidential medal of freedom on the grounds that her Harry Potter books 'encouraged witchcraft.' Really.

Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor by Matt Latimer reveals how politicized the medal became during the Bush administration according to the Think Progress blog.

The medal is given to "individuals who make an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors". Tony Blair, Harper Lee, Muhammad Ali, Alan Greenspan, Nelson Mandela, Doris Day and Charlton Heston all received this medal under the Bush administration..

The first 16 recipients of Barack Obama's presidential medal included Stephen Hawking and Senator Ted Kennedy – who, according to Latimer's book, failed to receive the medal during the Bush administration because he was "a liberal."

Witchcraft? Really? Sigh. Although I'm sure I've read that Laura Bush, a former librarian loved the Potter books.