Tidbits:

Let's play two lies and zero truths: I haven't been hoarding these links since July or anything...it's also not September, and I'm not back at school. 

Mish mash and some bookish things

• I love to hear about things like this pseudo Little Library, real library, book store mashup happening in the Shanghai subway.  It sounds like a library done right! 
• I think I found my how to guide for my Halloween costume!
• I love running, but some days, some days it is hard, juno?!  Thank the sweet baby lord jay-zeus that Book Riot knows about our woes  and made us this handy guide to Fitness for Book Nerds, fellow fitness doing book nerds! 
• You guys already know how I feel about food, but I also think the best karaoke I've ever seen done was to Coolio's Gangsters Delight, in a bar that served jello shots and was best known by it's pet name, Uncle Stabby's. This makes me think investing my $12 of life savings in this venture is a great idea!
• Check out the first six chapters of the lovely Laurie Halse Anderson's upcoming book, The Impossible Knife of Memory. 
• Aziz Ansari is going to write about my, your, OUR life, amigos of my day and age (aka modern romance).  I'm kindasortareallyexcited!

Movies and  TV show galore!

• I was SO excited, I forgot to post about the news that Jamie had been cast in the thing I'm probably most anticipating since the last thing, the Outlander miniseries.  What do you think?!  It doesn't really matter, because DGabs seems to be pumped!
• And then I continued to forget...because they cast Black Jack/Frank Randall, and I missed my opportunity to ask, "Et Tu Brutus?" Such a rookie.
• I think my PopTart will be hella excited about the hills coming back to life - I know I am.  Do I smell a family slumber(less) party, or is that just some kielbasa you started to grill in anticipation?
• Uh - Laura Linney and now (okay, a few weeks ago) Sam Tramwell for Hazel's parents?  Well played, casting director casting a cast right into my heart.  (Except for the incest part.   Still TBD.)
• I'm pretty Undeclared, but it is unlikely chance that I will be able to watch 50 Shades of Grey from anything but behind my fingers while giggling nervously has greatly been increased by the casting news. 
• This trailer is such a tease, but it will prove Divergent to your attention for a moment.   
• Who want to go and cry in a movie theater with me?  This trailer for The Book Thief looks so true to the book, I suspect that will be the case!

Until next time I realize I've been hoarding links, I'm back to school, back to school.  If you need to find me in September, I'll be busy. 

Tidbits: Gitmo' Shady

• If you follow this blog on the casual, you well know my fervent dreamwish of one day partaking in a live-action version of Oregon Trail (seriously, reality tv - make it happen).  Thank you, Mental Floss, for providing this history lesson on the history lesson game. 
• Shame on you, reader.  You forgot Harry Potter's Larry Bird birthday (he turned 33 yesterday)!  Don't worry.  I did too.  Here are some cakes to celebrate, and here is Ron Weasley's message to his bff.

• Recipe for a Downton Abbey Party (or like 50 - so more of a guide!): I'm in if there's costumes involved.

• Some clever fiend who knows YA Lit and wants to make you nonreading, judging adults read made a Buzzfeed.  Well played, sir or madam.  (This is like the YA Librarians guide to some of the best recommendations in YA today.)

• Jane Austen's got mad scrilla, y'all.  Incidentally, some truly horrible Internet trolls cant handle it, and have nothing better to do than hide behind an IP address and threaten the woman who made it happen.  Grow a pair, dipsh*ts.   

• In other things British that you probably already know about, someone named JK Rowling published a book under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.  And then someone spilled the beans.  Luckily, the New York Times saw this as an opportunity to make other authors come up with some pretty fantastic pseudonyms.  Especially you, Carl Hiaasen

• Jellicoe Road movie news (I'd totally partake in a Kickstarter, for the first and only time, for this to happen.  Just sayin'...)

• Are you even more behind the time than moi?  Well, get with it campers: the Catching Fire trailer is out, and it's pretty solid (spoiler alert: Peeta gets a hair upgrade, Finnick sans shirt, Stanley Tucci will probably haunt your dreams, you get the idea).  The Forever YA girls break it down here. 

• Shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior.  Fifty Shades is the most popular book at Gitmo?  Get out, Reuters!

Tidbits (of cheese and other literary goodness)

I'm sorry, two loyal readers, one of whom I'm pretty sure is a spambot! I've been super busy - ALA, work, other job, other things...but in good news, I do have some recipes and reviews forthcoming...errrr...as soon as I get the chance to write them.  I have, however, been hoarding up way, way, old news and things.  You've probably already seen them, but I don't care!  Enjoy them or not; as Captain Planet would say, the power is yours!

Food

• Behold, the greatest post I have ever seen: author and cheese pairings.  I mean...does it get any more fantastic than that?  But I have to ask, why no cheddar cheese pic for Ernest?  
• Do you want to make a chocolate loving librarian very happy?  Give them a library of exotic chocolate bars.
• Enjoy this map of the United States of Burgers, just because it is summer, and you are thinking about BBQs, right? 

Art

•  This artists description says it all ("art inspired by and made from books"), but her method of delivery - finger prints - is really cool!  
• Just because I loved it so much when I came upon it, I'm going to share the best, loveliest watercolor prints that would be great in a kitchen.  Speaking of making a librarian very happy, I happen to know a librarian who loves the olive oil print...

Movies

• Stills from The Maze Runner!  I'm not even in a tither about how much the actors are not 13.  It looks great! 
• However, the kid who just got cast as Jonas in the Jeff Bridges adaptation of The Giver?  He does not look like a preteen.  Just sayin'...
• There's a run on Jane Austen on the interwebs this week!  First, check out the trailer for Austenland, which I'm really, really looking forward to, because OBVI.  Then, check out this gigantic waterlogged statue of Colin Firth's Darcy.  Wouldn't you love to know what he thinks? And more importantly, what happens when birds poo on that super white shirt?

Books

• This is olllld news at this point.  John Corey Whaley - he of the dipples who shared his woodpecker tattoo with us - is coming out with a new book! YAY! The cover art was released, and now haunts my dreams.  #creepydolls
• Best. Manicures. Ever. 
• Are you a demigod?  Do you want to be one?  Good thing we had this talk.  There's a Camp Half-Blood you can attend! Percy Jackson camp, y'all!  Is there one for grownups?  I want to go! (I think I may have posted about this a million years ago, but if I've forgotten, so have you!) 
• There was an EW issue about Divergent!  There were lots of pictures for your eyeballs to feast upon, and the trailer is being released at Comic-Con.  But I've posted the most important information below:

PAMUKED!

Tidbits

Books and Libraries

• Yesterday the Youth Media Awards were announced.  An as per, I have never heard of the Printz winner at all.  But I am glad that the supremely delightful This is Not My Hat won the Caldecott, and that my fav from 2012, Code Name Verity, scored an honor - so YAY.
• I know libraries have to be innovative in marketing and services to lure in patrons (see below for more examples)...but pole dancing is a new one.
• I think the real question here is how do we get invited? The Netherfield Ball! 
• Since tea + books = <3 nbsp="">it's only natural there is a pairing guide.
• There is no way to read this story about how a small branch library in NYC is checking out an American Girl doll and NOT feel there is something right in the universe.  
• Fact: even puppies love libraries. 

Movies

• So many books turning into movies, guys!  Publishers Weekly has ten of them listed as the most anticipated (3 of which I've never heard of, so...)
• Did not even realize that If I Stay had been optioned, let alone cast!  
• Anna Dressed in Blood was such a false start of a book (started off terrifying, ended with warm fuzzies) that I'm not really that pumped to hear it may be a movie...even though it would probably be decent.  Maybe.  
• After seeing this tidbit about a certain Titantic star taking an interest in Divergent, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the news that she'll be playing Jeanine Matthews.
• The Selection may be a pilot TV show.  Again.  I'm still here, waiting, CW!

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare - Come the Eff On, Clary

That is not the jaw of a teenager.
Just sayin'...

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
Margaret K. McElderry Books: New York, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5507-8

When Clary interrupts what she thinks is a nightclub fight, she finds herself instead in a closet, with one demon and three tattoo-covered, gorgeous teenagers trying to kill it.  Clary has discovered the world of the Shadowhunters, human warriors fighting to rid the earth of demons, and they have discovered that she is not just a regular non-magical mundane human; she can see them and the demon.  In the course of the next day, Clary’s world is turned upside down and she is swept into the company of the cute and flirtatious Shadowhunter, Jace, when her mother is abducted, and she is attacked by a demon.  Clary begins to discover that she, and her mother, are not the ordinary people she thought; Clary has been a part of the Shadowhunter world for longer than she can remember.  Though the writing and plot of this book, the first in the Mortal Instruments series, is often overwrought, it is fast-paced, engaging, and fun to read.  It is recommended for grades 6-9.  Libraries will be advised to keep a copy of this popular title on hand; there is potential for this to be adapted into a movie.

In the interest of not being a huge jerk, I’m including this disclaimer: this book drove me a bit insane.  There are a number of reasons, which I will get into in a minute (the vast majority caused me to work a “come the [EFF] on, Bridget,” face, so I think you too will delight in a Monday eye roll).  However, I will say this about this series.  I totally get why kids (mostly girls, but definitely some boys) of a certain age (middle/lower high school grades) go bananas for these books and why they are on the New York Time Bestseller list, like permanently.  Frankly, it’s probably the reason I go gaga for Diana Gabaldon, or am eagerly awaiting the sequel to A Discovery of Witches.  The story is action packed, the twists are twisty, the OH-SNAPS are snappy, the boys are all hawt, the girls are all gorgeous, crazy supernatural things occur, and it takes place in a high-stakes cool parallel world, one that you kind of want to visit.  It’s a roller-coaster movie ride, and it’s a really fun book (series).  If you are an adult like me, you are excited for this book to be adapted as a movie (rights have been optioned, actors cast), because you see there is a lot of potential for an awesome movie-drinking game.  And honestly, while it is $0.99 on an e-Reader of your choice, why not?  It's a light read for summer. 

For me though…the book wasn’t quite enough.  It’s possible that I judged it more harshly than I would have otherwise, coming off of a book that also has fantasy, romance, excitement, and supernatural weird angels – Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  But where DSB soars, City of Bones is still learning to crawl.   This is not a well written, edited, nor entirely original book.  Again, it is fun, imaginative, and dramatic.  But hot snap, it is ALL over the place.  I probably won’t read the other ones, but I do want to know what happens, other than the likeliness that good is restored to power, Clary discovers that she’s just super and somehow is the key to all this awesome goodness restoration.  (SPOILER) Mostly, I’m just interested in finding out how this whole Luke and Leia grossness between Clary and Jace undoes itself, because, COME THE EFF ON, BRIDGET, obviously it will.  Can someone just tell me?  Seriously. 

Anyways, on with my not-so-kind thoughts about this book.  I’d give a spoiler alert, but I kind of get the feeling if you haven’t already read it, you’re probably too old to want to do this to yourself, or too young to be reading reviews on the Internet; you have been duly warned!

Tidbits: Good vs. bad ideas by Hollywood, pr-E-views, mini-mashups

• Queen Mary had a thing for dollhouses, and as everyone who is someone knows, no house regardless of size is complete without a library.  QM's library redefines the term pocket book, and answers a very important Zoolander question.  These dollhouse books are unbelievably cute!  And also, how did they make them so tiny?!??  Read about it at the first link, or tour the dollhouse library at this link.   [via Parathentical]
  
•  Have you always harbored a secret desire to replace steal Gilbert from Anne? Hear Captain Wentworth tell you that you pierce his heart?  Rest easy, daydreamer.  You can now special order a copy of a classic book with your name, and that of your friends/family/part-time lovers in the place of the characters.  BONUS: the company also does romance novels.  Best gag gift ever?  Bonus BONUS:  Oh, snap.  They also have a category called "vampire."  I can't even...[via GalleyCat]
• 
  
• The first twentish pages of Maggie Stiefvater's newest book, Raven Boys, is up on EW for your perusal.
  
• Ditto for an pr-E-view of  The Book of Blood and Shadow, by Robin Wasserman (who I met once, and who was very very nice!).
  
• Bad idea by Hollywood:  Robert Pattinson as Finnick Odiar?  Please, no.   
  
• Good idea by Hollywood: Oooh, I have spotted the moste curiouse tweet from Patrick Ness regarding the script for The Knife of Never Letting Go (I'm still nervous about it, even after Hunger Games didn't stink):
  
  
  CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER.  
  
  

Tidbits: I'm Hosting a 1984 workout case of the terribles.

Not too much today guys (been away from the interwebs for a week!), and frankly, I'm twiddling my thumbs for the next 24 hours until I am seated in a theatre with bagels, coffee, and Katniss.  HUNGERGAMESYOUGUYS.  Has anyone seen in yet?  THOUGHTS? Wait - don't spoil the ending!  (Kidding). 

• Still haven't read 1984.  It's party of the Dinner Train Book Club parade, but not until November.  Cut to the quick, there's a new adaptation in the works, with Shepard Fairey as part of group that purchased the rights.  As in, he of the infamous Obama Hope poster and the Obey stickers you see everywhere, amongst many other play on propaganda works of art and legal issues stemming from fair use and image copyright questions.  Curious. 
• Oh HEY, Hostess with the mostest. Or not.  The Host trailer (I think it's really more in the teaser family) is out.  It's...okay.  I wanted more, but I'm not disappointed. 
• Case of the Terribles: Normally this would get it's own post, but I'm lazy today, so there.  I've been seeing things about the Hunger Games workouts all over the interwebs for a while, but the intrepid, crack team of journalists down at MTV News (I can't believe they haven't won a Pulitzer yet) actually went.  And honestly?  That's it?  There is not nearly enough blood.  This will in no way prepare me to fight 14 year old girls for a seat in the arena theatre tomorrow (that's where the hot coffee comes in). 

Tidbits: It's Froiday, Phiday, Ender gets down with Emma T...whattt?

• It's Froiday, Froiday, gotta get down on Froiday!  Everyone on this continent (except you, Mexico, sorry) pick up your copy of the newest awesome Melina Marchetta book, Froi of the Exiles today!  
• To celebrate, you can join me in oohing and ahhhing over the Australian cover of Quintana, in which the titular Quintata imperiously mocks our Froi cliffhanger dismay.  I'd say it's a solid despite her hair not being nearly scraggly enough, but I still prefer humanless covers:
  
  

  

  Australia gets everything first, even tomorrow!

  
  
  At least there is no sword?  I am DYING to read this!
• It's also almost Phi Day, Phi Day, gotta get down on Phi Day (it pretty much already is in Australia)!  My favorite pie purveyor, Petsi Pies, is having the nerdiest yet tastiest competition to celebrate.  Tragically, I will be in Miami! I'm actually upset about this - I memorized 100 digits of phi in middle school!  As my poptart learned the hard way when he had to buy me a dog upon challenging me to go a year without tv to get a dog (in his mind, to shut me up about it) I will destroy your inane challenges!  I would totally do 300 for pie and grits! SIGH.
• The Ender's Game movie is ON! Ender Wiggin HAS A FACE (as does the rest of the cast, but whatevs.).  Was Ender the invention of Hugo Cabret? I don't care how terrible that line was because: It's HAPPENING!  Also, when did Abigail Breslin grow up? 
• Beautiful Creatures is a book I read and enjoyed immensely, but never reviewed.  But like every other YA book, it got optioned...and will be a movie.  With such unknown actors rumored to be in in it, like EMMA THOMPSON.  WHAT?!?  Oh, I was there already, but now that Nanny McPhee is making an appearance, ima bring my frey-ends!  Personally, I'm hoping she plays Mrs. Lincoln.  
• Is anyone else having trouble rectifying the news that the Hunger Games release is like...days away?  Remember when it was just a wink in Hollywood's eye? AHHH!  It premieres tonight! Is it just me or does Jennifer Lawrence look a bit like young early 80's Goldie Hawn minus a hair spray overdose/electrocution?
  
  

Tidbits: "What do they expect us to do? Go to the...library?"

• Salon has a piece about what the Occupy movement can learn from The Hunger Games.  WELL.  Sorry to be your Debby Downer, liberals and nonliberals alike.  Because frankly, I was intrigued.  But then kind of displeased.  This is a swiss cheese piece: full of holes.  I stopped giving much credence to this as anything other than a post designed to get a lot of hits and spoil a lot of books without warning when I read the following:
  

  Collins’ heroine, Katniss Everdeen, is an independent and even ornery 16-year-old who saves her younger sister by volunteering for, and then winning, a telecasted fight-to-the-death competition. Though her feats of derring-do have elements of escapist fantasy, her ultimate goal isn’t to win the Games, but to avoid exploitation: She wants to circumvent the rules and figure out a way to shut down the games for good.

  I'm sorry.  Did we read the same Hunger Games? You know, the one where Katniss had to have her act of major insubordination with the deathberries explained to her as such and then didn't get on board until like...page 372 of 398 in Mockingjay, also known as the last book (yeah, I looked)?  Plus, now I'm going to have to work really hard on forgetting the plot of Matched and like...six other books.  Which might not be as hard as I think, because adult books take forever to read (looking at you, The Count of Monte Cristo), and people don't live forever!
• Probably you have seen this mesmerizing video in a number of other places, because I've been hoarding these up while for nigh on two weeks now.  Whoops!  Enjoy the joy of books, which has me convinced I should line up my books by which ones would be good friends based on the premise that this actually happens when I leave the house in the am:
  
• BUT OF COURSE.  The publishing industry is honing in on Downton Abbey's success!  (I'm totally nodding at a certain August pick on my 2012 Dinner Train classic book resolution, then, so who am I to judge, really?).  Also Lady Mary and Lady Grantham in concert?  Bring it. 
• Double bring it, fitnerds.  NPR has an ultimate workout mix that I'm totally going to be streaming this weekend when I get my Monte Cristo cookfest on!   
• Oh hey, John Stewart.  Thanks for backhanded library high five (about 1:10)!  You know you want a library card, even if you do have to hang out with...riff raff.  We're like Wikipedia in 3D, with slightly more verifiable facts a higher percentage of the time! PLUS, we have books, movies, brains, and we're happy to check you out.  BOOM.

Very Important Thoughts By The PaperblogPrincess:

1.  Alice has a new haircut.  I didn't say it was a good one.
2.  There is not nearly enough of Jasper's constipation face in this trailer.
3.  How is it possible they were able to convince Taylor Lautner to keep his shirt on for the whole trailer?  Is it because he becomes a pedophile in part 2?  Was that the deal?
4.  Heheheheadboard!
5.  Oh, how I love Michael Sheen. You, sir, are possibly the only one who both sees and delights in this movie for what it really is:  a really great excuse for a drinking game.
6. Four movies in and they can't afford better makeup? HOW DO THEY STILL HAVE CAKEFACE?

Very Exciting Business!

You know how I gush about my love for Melina Marchetta a lot?  Stop reading now if you do not care or care for it.  

Okay now that we've got that out of the way, two items of VERY EXITING BUSINESS.

1.  Jellicoe Road has a movie script!  I don't know if this means it has been optioned or what (do share if you know!), but I like to think of this as promising.  It could be so cool as a movie!  All sparkly light on water and light through trees and teen angst and mystery and tree houses and drama and secrets and secret societies and boarding school...I'll just cut myself off.  Plus, it sounds like this company makes good movies.  I am filled with hope!  I love Jellicoe Road! Spotted this on YALSA's YA blog The Hub.  I'm not cool enough to have a google alert or anything of the like for Melina Marchetta.  Yet...I have one for Diana Gabaldon.  Yeah.  Judge away.

2.  I am so so so sad I cannot go to this next wonderous event:  The Teen Author Festival in NYC from March 14-19th!  It looks like such fun.  Plus, guess which awesome Australian author is going to be there?  Seriously.  I am bummed that I would have been able to go but can't as I'll be an ocean away in Egypt (yes, really.  Possibly more exciting, more on that later).  If you live in NYC, you must go for me and then tell me all about it!  You have full permission to rub it in.

Called it! The Girl Who Could be Katniss?

Since about a hot minute into True Grit, I knew I wanted one thing:  Hailee Steinfield as Katness Everdeen.  Oh snap, Hollywood.  Thanks for catching up.  If you can make this pipe dream a reality, we'll be in business! Not going to lie, I'd be pretty happy if they cast Jeff Bridges as Haymitch, but seeing as that movie is already called True Grit, I'm also open to other suggestions. 

Source:  Bookshelf of Doom (font of mucho awesome)

Let's make my dreams of dysentery a reality.

On snow day #4.5 of 2011, I woke up, rubbed my eyes in the dewy morning light, fired up the ole laptop and checked the headlines. I gasped. Not because of what is happening in the world, or because the Snowpocalypse was upon us yet again. Oh no. The following headline caught my sluggish morning attention: "Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego to go on Facebook." The article, which is really mostly about the company doing this game making for Facebook, ultimately fails to adequately capture the fervent love of my generation for the Oregon Trail. It states:

"[T]he game migrated to succeeding generations of classroom PCs, where it became a favorite among schoolchildren. Players are cast as 19th-century pioneers trying to survive a journey from Missouri to Oregon, fending off hunger, disease, and accidents."

Um, just a "favorite?" Hello understatement. A search for Oregon Trail on CafePress turns up 155 t-shirts, all spun from the images and vernacular of the original low-tech graphics game. My personal favorites are all dysentery related. Why, oh why would my favorites be those of the dying a violent death due to epic poo-ing? Because in a highlight of my life, 6 summers ago, my all-American co-administrators at an all-girls overnight camp and I convinced our lone British colleague to create a live-action role playing version of this game.

It was...amazing. As you can see above, we made the teenagers be the hunted animals, and had packs of eight year old girls screaming joyfully while pegging them with water balloons. The bison herd had a rough day. The camp director walked around carrying a scythe, impersonating death. There were old prospectors, a build and test a raft station, and oh yes, oh yes, there was Dysentery. And oh yes, oh yes, I played the timeless and classic role of Dysentery. As you would expect, Dysentery wore brown, carried a roll of toilet paper, and hung out by the water fountains and wash-houses. Dysentery, to her great joy and to the chagrin of her unwitting victims, repeatedly used the infamous Oregon Trail line "You have died of dysentary!"

In short, it was pretty fantastic. Also fantastic? Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I hard-out loved that show. It was one of the very few programs I was allowed to watch, airing on the ever safe PBS. I wanted to go on that show so so bad, and have my chance to run around and put flaring lights on the correct countries, buzz in to best Carmen at her own game, and rock out with Rockapella. I was delighted to discover that one of my C.I.T.'s (at the same camp, clearly a breeding ground for coolness) had actually BEEN ON THE SHOW.

Now, let me just say that video games in general are not my thing, with the exception of Oregon Trail. Facebook games? Reallllly are not for me. Despite my great love of these two fantastic game shows, I probably won't be playing them on the 'book. But I am excited they will be making it back into the public eye. Why? They are pretty much the two exceptions to my No-Reality-TV-Shows rule (along with Amazing Race, someday). I feel that their increase in popularity could, just maybe, might, result in some crazy-awesome Hollywood producer being all "HECK YES, let's turn this into a show!" I mean, PBS (or rather Thirteen/WNET New York and Wall to Wall Television) did Frontier House, Texas Ranch House, and Colonial House. Why not My House is a Chuck Wagon and We're Headed West for Oregon? And why not an adult game-show version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? I mean...come on. If they can be Facebook games, and if film adaptations of Ouija and Battleship are in the works, why can't they have their spot of honor on my DVR list? Seriously, Hollywood. Get. It. Together.

Come on, people. I can't be the only one.
Join me in my appeal:

Thirteen/WNET New York and Wall to Wall Television, if you are out there, make Oregon Trail the reality show happen!

And call then me. If you need someone to ford some rivers, go hunt buffalo, and NOT die of dysentery, I'm your woman.