Check out what is now up at Amazon….Jacquelyn Franks second Shadowdwellers novel, Rapture. According to Amazon, Rapture is set to release June 30th, but I’m not going to say if that’s official or not since I haven’t seen it on Franks site or blog. Although, seriously, I first saw this up on Amazon.ca, so who knows.
The Science Fiction Book Club, which is my newly rediscovery (I had forgotten about it for awhile), is publishing Jocelynn Drake’s Nightwalker and Dayhunter as an omnibus, to be titled Dark Days, and will be available this July.
I did find more Jocelynn Drake happy news. The third novel in her Dark Days series is up for preorder at Amazon. The title, Dawnbreaker, is one I haven’t seen or heard of yet, but you can order it now. According to Amazon, it’s going to be released September 29, 2009.
I love anthology covers. Check out the one SciFiGuy found for Must Love Hellhounds featuring IIona Andrews, Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh and Meljean Brook. Between the cover and this awesome list of authors, you know this is going to be a must buy.
Speaking of anthologies, did we know that Unbound, the anthology featuring Kim Harrison, Vicki Pettersson, Melissa Marr, Jeaniene Frost, and Jocelynn Drake, is also up for preorder at Amazon? This is one I would love to get my hands on and can’t wait until it’s release date of August 25th.
I’ve come across two articles that I’m curious to see what everyone says. So if you’re interested in thinking a little harder at the moment (and not trying to relax or escape reality), take a look at Trashy Book Amnesty, published by the BBC News Magazine and Where Is Our Radical Youth?, published by the Washington Post. I’ll be curious to hear what you have to say.
Trashy Book Amnesty, published by the BBC News
The BBC News has an interesting article on people’s reading preference or at least what they will say.
Why do so many of us lie about our literary conquests? It’s down to a conquest of a different kind – psychologists say many people hope that pretending to have read heavyweight books will make them more sexually attractive.
According to a World Book Day survey, 1984, War and Peace and Ulysses are the favoured white lies.
If these are thought to have the power to impress, what about books we do read but are too embarrassing to own up to?
My only thought, finding out a guy likes to read War and Peace tends to steer me clear of him, not the other way around. I like a guy with a little imagination and I think that’s more prevalent with someone who’ll read fantasy or paranormal fiction compared to some other novels.
Where Is Our Radical Youth? by Ron Charles
So I’m not sure how I feel about this article. Published by the Washington Post, it’s wondering what happened to the radical youth of the 60s. It actually sounds like the article is complaining that there haven’t been any political protests held on college campuses anymore and it’s all the fault of mainstream literature. That riot police haven’t been called because of some political protest (although we all know they show up during the football and basketball seasons). Check out this quote:
An English teacher [Professor Eric Williamson] at the University of Texas-Pan American, he places the blame for students’ dim reading squarely on the unfettered expansion of capitalism. “I have stood before classes,” he tells me, “and seen the students snicker when I said that Melville died poor because he couldn’t sell books. ‘Then why are we reading him if he wasn’t popular?‘” Today’s graduate students were born when Ronald Reagan was elected, and their literary values, he claims, reflect our market economy. “There is nary a student in the classroom — and this goes for English majors, too — who wouldn’t pronounce Stephen King a better author than Donald Barthelme or William Vollmann. The students do not have any shame about reading inferior texts.”
First off, I’ve never heard of the other two authors, but why can’t Stephen King be a better author than someone an English Lit teacher is recommending? Just because he writes horror and has a following doesn’t automatically make his work inferior. That’s the one word that kind of ticks me off. It sounds like this guy is saying mainstream (aka popular) literature is inferior and thus not worth our time. However, I think this guy is so clearly out of the loop since this quote made me feel a lot better:
That spirit is still alive and well, even if it’s not reflected in their favorite book titles, according to Mike Connery, who writes about progressive youth politics for the Web site Future Majority. He doesn’t see a generation of vampire-loving boneheads. “Young people today express their politics in very different ways than they did in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” he says. Yes, they love Meyer’s “Twilight” series — even his fiancee is “obsessed” with it — but that’s just for escape. “People don’t necessarily read their politics nowadays. They get it through YouTube and blogs and social networks…”
I’m glad someone out there gets it. Although, I do wonder, what do you guys think?
Jacquelyn Frank had surgery not long ago, so that might be why her site isn’t updated – but I’m pretty sure the end of June is correct.
I’ve presented you with an award on my Sunday Salon post.
Sheri
A Novel Menagerie