Tidbits: Are you Hungry for the Divergent trailer or just drooling over butterbeer and Hobbit pancakes?

Movies and adaptations

• In case you've been camped out under a rock or working out your daddy issues on a deserted island like the stud my new favorite brain vacation show, The Arrow, the new  Hunger Games movie is about to drop, with the requisite frenzy and hooplah.  Here are some things:
• Oh good.  It appears that the crack marketing team at Subway received advanced degrees in not understanding what the Hunger Games is about!  
• Just like the braintrusts behind the Hunger Games summer camp and the plan to make an amusement park.  
• Shockingly, Finnick can't read good.  
• This is the best thing I think we'll all see, all week.  The Sesame Street Hungry Games

• Harry Potter stamps drop on my birthday aka today.  Thank you for the gift, universe!
• Butterbeer...at Starbucks?
• The Hobbit menu is baaaaccccccck, precious! 
• If they take pictures and put them on the cover, it has to happen, right?  Fifty Shades promo pictures (since you've never heard of it before and it needs the all the promotional help it can get).  I can't wait; it's not often to find such high potential to be a fantastic case of the terribles! Go Fug yourself agrees. 
• I'm way too excited by Four's back to wrangle sense into the English language; luckily the ladies at Forever YA have girded their loins against being Pamuked senseless and have done it for us, because you guys....DIVERGENT TRAILER.
• Bad accent, awesome costume alert (how great are those horns?): the trailer for Maleficent is out! 
• I've failed to adequately share just how flippin' excited I am about the upcoming Outlander series (aka my favorite not so secret shame).  Here are somethings that have me in a tizzy:
• Let's start with Jamie.  
• Or better yet, Jamie in the modern day.  Pretty sure that horse is panting. 
• And now Claire.
• And how about Jamie and Claire 2gether 4evah?
• And how about SIXTEEN episodes?  I'm so down.  
• And now this unsurprising yet terrible news from DGabs that she's delaying the publication of the next book in the series. Yet again. This is all I have to say about that.. It's only been like five years...why not make it an even six? (But please don't.)

Books

• Judy Blume's Forever and Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, got a facelift.  Apparently AYTGIMM is being marketed to middle aged lady book clubs? 
• Eric Carle has a beautiful new book about friends titled...you guessed it!  Friends.

Misc and nonsense

• I have more questions than answers regarding an OkCupid first date to go traveling internationally together for a month bringing no luggage, and only plane tickets.  
• All you need to know about why this would make a great gift for a tea swilling book nerd is in the product description, if they were real.  Sadly, it appears to just be an idea in an art portfolio.  All I'm sayin' is...get at me:  
  

  Prologue is a series of fine teas inspired by literary classics. Each canister of loose leaves features a unique blend of flavors that characterizes the novel. The designs on the tins include motifs from the narratives and other elements that are a part of the reading experience. 

• Now I know why I always wanted to wash my hands when I checked in dog-earred Romance novels at the Public Library...If this isn't a case for more eBooks at libraries, I don't know what is! 

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 (and a running case of the terribles)

• Say it ain't so, Keith! Notorious library loving rocker Keith Richards owes his library like a million dollars in 50 year old overdues, a rough conversion from pounds (Hey, I'm a librarian. I never said I was good at math!). 
• Yes kids, books DO grow on trees.  
• I dunno, but I kind of think selling fan fiction goes against the spirit of it.  Amazon is opening it (shock me, shock me, shock me). 
• Ofcourse we need a list of super annoying characters in literary history.  I could not agree with #3 and #1 more.  Touche, Hairpin.  
• A free digital copy of a Neil Gaiman short story and an excerpt of his new book?  Why not?
• I'm both confused, delighted, and frightened by this Selection fan video. No need to read the book now kids!  (Also, the second attempt at a pilot got scrapped.  Maybe because they accidentally submitted this?)
• Reader, I know your deepest desire has always been to look just like Effie Trinket in the Hunger Games.  The Glamazons at Cover Girl have heard your tear-laced prayers!
  
  
• Annnd your Bonus....
  Case of the Terribles, Nudist Family Camp stylez (probably NSFW): Bare Buns Fun Run.  Exactly what it sounds like.  

Tidbits: Nothing says in the mood like Titanic undergarments

• The Titanic is being rebuilt.  Nothing can possibly go wrong, right?!  "Everyone on board will however be provided with early-20th-century-style clothes and undergarments in their cabins to get them in the mood." What mood would that be, PR person responsible for this press release?  The mood to freeze to death in icy water? (Also...provided undergarments?  Let's let Jimmy Kimmel and Emma Stone tell you what I think about that.)
• Additionally, have I mentioned the Girl Scouts enough lately?  I didn't think so.  There are now badges for smart things like bookbinding (be still, library nerd hearts)!  Yay, Todd Pattinson, Harvard Guybrarian extraordinaire! This makes my badge for fashion design just seem shameful.  
• Here are 10 flower arrangements that curiously resemble the covers of some YA books.
• I didn't even know that The Maze Runner had been optioned...and now they already casting.  Whaaatt?
• Oh, hello there, Mr. Odair.  That's a very deep V you're rocking. I suppose we'll accept your rose.  There's like a billion more portraits for the Hunger Games up on the Internets now. 
• Even though it will probably be forever until I can hear the whole thing, what with living on the rebellious continent, I am still so, so excited about Neverwhere.  Benedict Cumberbatch?  James MacAvoy?  This could only be better if it were filmed.  Thank goodness for American Gods!
• HOW DID YOU KNOW?  #truergiffs

Big news tomorrow about an exciting book nerd reunion, race, and travel plans!

Tidbits

Books

• It took me long enough BUT.  Best news ever red alert, via your, my, everyone's favorite Melina Marchetta:
  They’ve also come back into my life at an important time for writing because 24 year old Jimmy Hailler is camping out in my head.  It’s not just his story, but a bit of a four hander and it will definitely be an adult one rather than YA.  It’s interesting that I didn’t know where Jimmy and his life was until I played with circumstances in Froi and Quintana’s life.
  
  JIMMY HAILLER.  JIMMY HAILLER.  Plus, word on the street is soon even us Yanks will be able to hang tough with our favorite knocked-up pink taffeta dress wearing exiled princess, Quintana.  2013 is looking up!
• Meta alert! These works of art (books) have been turned into works of art (sculptures)!
• Things I am maybe embarrassed to totally get: Texts from the American Girl dolls (the OG's not these new poseurs).
• Somehow, I missed this most exciting news about Patrick Ness and the new books he's going to drop on us!  
• I'm one part jealous, one part judgmental (it's a private home, also she spit-shone his grave), and one part sorry for the people who live there now this is up on the interwebs - a blogger visited E.B. White's house in Maine.  But mostly...I want to live there?
• If you enjoyed Partials and want more, check out this preview of the sequel, Fragment.  
• Thank GAWD, DGabs. Fall is just around the corner, right?  Alls I'm sayin' is you best not Robert Jordan us, mmkay?
  
• The thievin' thugs of YA (Elizabeth Wein! Shock me, shock me, shock me, with that deviant behavior!)

Movies

• Divergent casting news about Four (Let's just say I saw a lot of Alex Pettyfer in Magic Mike that I can't unsee in picturing him as Four...)
• Don't really want to jinx it, but Y: the Last Man has a director.  Still think it would be better as a mini-series!
• I had no idea that Robopocalypse had even been optioned as a movie, let alone optioned by Spielberg.  
• Whhaaat? EW has some pictures of Catching Fire up (like four), but all you need to know is this:

"People are just worried that I'm not going to be as sex god enough as Finnick should be. I've literally had four months of eating nothing but chicken and asparagus. I just want a burger and a beer."

He's hungry behind the eyes, guys.  (Incidentally, does this picture remind you of anyone else? A certain pasty, Civil War era YA vampire, perhaps?)

Tidbits: "See there’s more things to look at on the internet other than naked guys Ann."

As much as much as I agree with "Leslie Knope"'s book blurb about The Bell Jar (“My official statement is that is, overall, a bummer.”), I'm all in for Ron Swanson.  

I can get behind Nathan Adrian...(badum dum) as Finnick Odair.   

Anne Shirley, of Green(back) Gables.  

My favorite YA title confirms my suspicions that I'm "a smart aleck and kind of a badass — that is, you know all the places where a young lady is supposed to scream for help, but you generally prefer to rely on your sword hand. Also you make a killer cherries jubilee."  What does yours say about you?  

Oh snap, King Henry VIII will be playing Valentine in the Mortal Instruments.  Except I'm officially over it.  I want more news about the Beautiful Creatures movie, not this hooey, Hollywood Crush!  OH WAIT.  You did.  I was just on vacation.  

Perhaps my favorite news this week via tweet:

Followed up by this news about a short story just published by Melina Marchetta.  


I was away, and NPR clearly waited for this moment to post their 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels list without several of my favorites on it to avoid my wrath.  If you're going to call it the best of...shouldn't it actually be?  But I digress. Sure I agree with many of the fabulous titles on the list.  In fact, I've read more than half.  But...why are some authors on multiple times, when others, AHEM (see above), didn't make it even once?  And why are some things on the list clearly identifiable as children's classics or as being originally published with an adult audience in mind?  The whole thing is a great idea, but a little too arbitrary for me to agree entirely with.  In all seriousness, good effort, NPR; always great to bring attention to these fabulous YA titles.  (But next time try harder.  Apparently I am still grumpy from my earlier case of the angries).

Here is an interesting read about the overall White-ness of the NPR list.

Tidbits: Ketchup on the week

I was away for a week, frolicking on the shore, reading boatloads, eating indecent amounts of ice cream (so much so that we're seeing other people for a while), and having close encounters with nature (had a dance off with a fisher cat, found a dead bird INSIDE THE HOUSE, and something touched me while I was swimming, leading me to think of this...before I realized I was in two feet of water).   Turns out I missed a LOT of things on the Internets, so let's have some ketchup, shall we?

• Best. News. Of. The. Week.  Ron Moore, he of the Battlestars Galactic, will be adapting Paperblog Guilty Pleasure Numero Uno (excluding food and YA):  OUTLANDER.  For HBO.  That squee you hear?  It is not a rogue piglet.  It's meeeeeee, snitches!
  
• The Hunger Games casting people went on a bender last week, and hot dog, they done good.  Meet Johanna Mason, Wiress (aka Nuts), and Plutarch Heavensbee, solid contender for best inexplicable name of a  Hunger Games character. 

• Everyone, and their mom, and their mom's mom have seen this by now, but I don't know why we don't have 6 year olds judge books by their covers more often.  If only her assessment of Fifty Shades of Grey happened to be true...("The book is about a zebra that wears pants.")

• YAY: Vote for your favorite YA novels in NPRs election for the best-ever YA titles!

• Donald J. Sobol, the man behind some of my favorite childhood books (The Encyclopedia Brown series), passed away.  (I really could have used Leroy Encyclopedia Brown to solve the curious case of why there was a dead bird inside my cottage - jury is still out.)
  
•  Guys, libraries have cool things in them.  Like say, the Boston Public Libraries digitalized vintage travel posters library, which claimed, oh, about an hour of my day.  This one totally qualifies for vintage Case of the Terribles status.  I dare you not to groan.  Really, America?)

• Are you a school librarian for a high-need public school in the United States?  Don't miss out on these  Department of Education grants, due August 10th.  

• The DoJ is moving ahead with the anti-trust settlement against the big three publishing houses.  They included this ruling, leading me to believe that none of them actually have e-Readers:

  It called arguments that Amazon will eventually monopolize the e-book market “highly speculative at best” and noted that with Apple, Microsoft, Google and Sony all in the e-book market “there is no shortage of competitive assets” being brought to bear on the e-book industry.”

  Yes, DoJ, there are competitive assets.  But what are the sales like in comparison? For serious...has anyone actually ever purchased a book off of the Googles?  I want to know who that one person is.  I didn't even KNOW that Microsoft was in the game... #librarianfail.  

• I'll leave you with an awesome tidbit.  Sherman Alexie wins a Gold Star for super sass this week!

Tidbits: The best fake reality show we'll never get to see

Behold the best new concept reality show that will never make it past YouTube.  Pranks, awesome snacks, badass ladies... I can't even pick who amuses me more, twitchy angsty teen Bella Swan, or twisty angsty Swede Lisbeth Salander. 

You're right, Hermione.  Things never do end well for men who turn into animals. Watch out, (were)dudes!

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner: Build bridges, not walls!

The Maze Runner

by James Dashner
Delacorte Press: New York, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-385-73794-4

A boy comes to in a rising elevator.  He is disoriented, scared, and clueless as to where, or who, he is.  He has no memory from life before, even of how old he is, only that his name is Thomas.  When he disembarks, he finds himself on what appears to be a small working farm, populated only with other teenage boys.  This, as he comes to find out, is the Glade.  The Gladers have lived here for two years and also have no memories prior to their own arrivals.  They have, however, discovered that the Glade is located in the middle of a giant, treacherous maze, whose walls shift daily, enclosing them inside nightly, protecting them from the monsters that lurk beyond. But things are changing; the first ever girl arrives a day after Thomas, in a coma, but clutching a note that simply says “She’s the last one.  Ever.”  Thomas, begins feel like he remembers things about the maze, and the mysterious girl, though he can’t fully recall what.  He’ll have to, because the Gladers are facing a whole new set of challenges: they’ve been cut off from all supplies, and the walls have stopped shifting to protect them at night.  Will they find a way out of the maze, and discover who they are and why they are even inside it before it is too late? Because of some violence and death, this book is recommended to middle school boys, and will have appeal to fans of The Hunger Games.

Book talk hook: (Yeah, I'm back on the sauce.  For now.) Briefly summarize the disorientation experienced by Thomas, asking the group to close their eyes and imagine that feeling.  Then continue with a brief summary, emphasis on the danger, excitement of trying to find a way out, and the shock at having a girl show up, bearing that super showstopper of a confusing message.  Hook, line, stinkers!

Review continued:

Tidbits: In which bad ideas outnumber good ones

 Hey you guuuuyssss.  Sorry it has been so long since my last tidbit explosion all over this page. I hope you are tid-tillating with the following:

•  Here is your feel good international library sory to get you through Thursday and Friday, and onto your weekend:  there are now 100 public mini-libraries in permanent kiosks in parks across Colombia, and if you live in the city of Bogota, you are extra lucky because there are 47.  The project began ten years ago in an effort to promote literacy in the country.  If you speak Spanish, you can watch the following news story on it.  If not, you can still watch it for the only on Spanish-language television interview positioning at the two minute mark. 
   
• In bygone days, I hinted at my deep reverence for the early 90's TV show, Carmen San Diego (in the context of burying it deep in a ramble about my #1 love, The Oregon Trail).  I still want to go on that game show and lose!  According to Vulture, Jenny from the Block has attached herself to a film remake of this most fabulous show.  Ugh.  Ughhh.  Ughhhhh.  So wrong. 
  
• Ally Carter's Heist Society 3: Perfect Scoundrels just got a new dress.  Except I'm going to be totally honest here, my first, second, and third reaction to it was: "Isn't that the same cover?" Yes, yes it more or less is.  And also, I'd like to draw your attention to the 35-year-old banker dude in the sunglass reflection. 
  
  
  Don't even try and tell me that is Hale; no teenage boys, no matter how ridiculously wealthy, have posture that good, or wear a suit that comfortably.  Nice try with your stock photo, book cover designer.   
  
• Things that just don't sound like a good idea to me: Hunger Games live action role playing.  Everyone gets straight up fight club murdered! And yet, it happens, and someone got really hurt.  I wish this young woman a speedy recovery.  Be safe out there, larpers. 
  
• So you want to smell like a vampire.  Or a witch.  Or BOTH.  Lucky for you, Viking press is launching a promo for Deborah Harkness' Shadow of Night, which includes...perfume.  Yeah, I don't know either.  But now you can find out what the undead smell like after they do vampire yoga.  Score!  I am more excited to actually read the sequel to A Discovery of Witches than I am to smell like it, but each to their own, right?

Case of the Terribles: Katniss and Peeta get an unfortunate celeb name

STOP.

There is a part of me that I am not so proud of that wants this t-shirt.
Evil Genius behind this t-shirt, I'd like to electronically shake your hand.  

Well played, sir or madam.

(And thanks to Jules for bringing this to my attention.)

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?
  
  

Divergent, by Veronica Roth: Five factions diverge in a future Chi-city, and sorry Tris could not travel all...

Divergent, by Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books: New York, 2011.
Nook copy reviewed.

In an alternative future Chicago, people live as part of five disparate social factions that highly value specific qualities.  As a 16-year-old, Beatrice must now choose her own faction.  Raised in Abnegation, she receives an inconclusive test result on the government administered aptitude test, and must choose to stay in Abnegation with her family, or break ranks, abandon her family, and join another faction.   Her surprising choice to join Dauntless spins her life in an entirely new direction; soon she is jumping off buildings, onto and off of moving trains, learning to shoot guns, making new friends and enemies, developing feelings for her distant instructor, and fighting to survive her initiation training.   But the newly nicknamed Tris’ test result is what really sets her apart, even from her new faction members, and what will awake her to the realization that her utopia is anything but.  It may be the very thing to save her…Divergent is strongly recommended to all libraries serving older teens.  It even has a bonus slow burning romance (delightfully not a love triangle!), and is an easy sell to Hunger Games fans of both genders craving more, this is an action packed, high intensity, highly addictive, and fun book to read.

YOU GUYS.  I LOVED THIS BOOK.  Not because it’s the most super books in all the lands, not because it blew my mind, not because it made me want to be a better person – in fact, it did none of these things.  No, my friends.  It was straight up FUN to read.   So, so, so much fun!  It’s firmly in the mind-crack category.  Y’all know how much I love a slow-burning romance (swoon), so Veronica Roth had me at Four.  I loved the description of messed up future Chicago (the Bean in particular), the differences in the factions, and witnessing Tris and her fellow faction switchers adjust to what really amounts to as a new culture.  Super bonus points for a kind of badass game of capture the flag!  Sure, there are minor things that if I hadn’t raced through it I might have a quibble with (largely, hey TRIS, have a thought about what is beyond that giant fence!? OR where do the factionless go?!? OR less importantly, who drives those trains? what happens in winter? - but methinks this will factor in later in these books), but I don’t care!  I couldn’t put it down, and when I did, I got that twitchy finger feeling that encouraged me to go back and pick it up.  I even stayed up past teacher o’clock to finish reading it, and then couldn’t sleep because I was so excited.  I’m so glad I finally resigned myself to get at it, after having heard tell of it for a while.  It received a strong rating of awesome from the wonderful teens on my trip to Chile this past summer, and it had been on my to do list since.  Thankfully, my procrastination paid off; I have to wait way less time for the May 1^st sequel, Insurgent.  I won’t say much more about how much I enjoyed this, because I’ll be gushing here all afternoon and you’d rather use your time to be reading this, right?  Lucky for you, there is a 100 page preview available.  Say goodbye to your afternoon plans!

Tidbits: Little libraries are dauntlessly fashion forward

• Little libraries may be the cutest advancement in the housing market since the birdhouse. 
• For those of us who still want to dress like Stacy, Claudia, Dawn, and Maryann in the Babysitters Club, Lucky Magazine UNDERSTANDS.  They have created a YA inspired fashion guide. +1 for including The Saddle Club, but -1 for those Boxcar Children inspired horrible overalls.  No, girl, no.  Other lovely books from my youth included are Nancy Drew,  Little House on the Prairie, and Sweet Valley High.
• I haven't stayed up past my bedtime (okay, my bedtime is like 10, but WHATEVER) to finish a YA book in a while.  But I did last night...Divergent.  I held off, but once I started, there was no stopping.  Thank the YAgawds the sequel drops in a few months!  And DOUBLE thank the YAgawds because a preview of Insurgent, the sequel, is available on the EW website.  This made my breakfast ohsodelightful. And then...OHO!  Fast forward to the next item, because this, my friends, is what we call a CLIFFHANGER in YA:
• And this, friends, is what we call the SEQUEL:  Lo, just as I was thinking to myself this morning that there would totally be a Divergent faction quiz online, what do I see?  A Divergent Faction quiz*.  Thank you internet!  Please divert your attention if you are in Abnegation, because I'm about to do what is called BRAGGING:  yes, I am a Dauntless (even if I do think that, like, sky diving and face tattoos are not for moi).  And double smug, I'm totally always a Gryffindor too.    Humbleness is one of my greatest traits.  Though, I think the real question is how does one buck the system and test as divergent?  Does having this thought make me...divergent?!?
  (*You do, however, have to offer up your info for this Facebook quiz.  Which I assume is how the Erudite will control us all!)
• Something really exciting happened to me on Valentine's Day.  No, not my student publishing a piece on the back page of the school newspaper of the eight reasons I should be his Valentine (true story, I cannot make these things up).  It may not have been romantic, but I know my favorite authorcrush was totally thinking of me on Galentine's Day when she linked to my review of her latest book on her site.  Melina Marchetta, thank YOU for being my Galentine!
• Well hey there, potential case of the terribles: the cast of the Hunger Games is touring the malls of America, in case you had any doubts about this being an Oscar nominee.   Life, imitating art.  Do you think Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will accidentally on purpose start a revolution?  And yet,...still really excited for the movie.

Tidbits: 2 for 5 on the Printz, Panem is a pretty map?

• GUYS.  I gleefully report my excellent taste in books to you.  Since I've become lazy exclusive with my book reviews (only posting those that I love or hate), I am tickled to note that two of my favorite books of the year were named 2012 Printz Honor Books.  Plus, at work we totally just happened to have purchased a third.  2/5 personal reads and 3/5 titles at work is a darn good ratio, considering in certain years (I'm looking at you 2010) I've been rocking more of a 0/5 ratio.  But enough with me being an egomaniacal soothsayer.  The books this year either sound great, or are straight up great.   Perhaps if I ever finish Monte Cristo, I will pick up the other three!  If you want to know more about my two personal picks, here are the links to the reviews:
• The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater: The book I set out to hate but fell in love with instead.  
• Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey:  I retrospectively realize I haven't talked this one up enough, probably because I read it before leaving the country to speak Spanish for a month.  Do yourself a favor and read this gorgeous book.  Best sidekick of the year!  Same sleepy town on the brink of social changes vibes as to Kill a Mockinbird!  Hilarious and yet heartbreaking!  Get at it, team.  I like to think the Printz judges took my Printz dinner party advice...
• Look you guys, a map of Panem!  To me, it looks like the NBC Peacock and a hurricane map had a baby over North America.  Here is more about the process of creating the map.  

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.

Tidbits: Feminists like nail polish, Legos, voting, art crime, AND sparkles

I've been hoarding these up for quite a while, team.  I feel pretty terrific about getting them out before the end of the year, so there's a strong chance someone will be treating herself to a cappuccino later today.  Happy 2012!

• Nominate your favorite YA book of 2011 on TeenReads! I'm more than a bit torn between Piper's Son and Scorpio Races.  Luckily, you get to nominate six titles.  PHEW. 

• Attention sparkleprincesses out there: the crack team behind the Hunger Games movie marketing has come out with a gimic you've probably seen on a thousand other blogs - Panem themed nail polish! As they note on this blog, the dozen colors seem to match up pretty well to each of the districts.  Except for 13, which is suspiciously missing from the map.  I smell a conspiracy!  Personally, I am hungry for foie gras.  Served in Peeta bread.

• This magazine cover made me groan when the mail came in at work a few weeks ago.  Boooooo.  I'm pretty sure little girls like Legos.  And they don't need them to be sparkly or pink for the fantasy dream houses and giant towers we build, only to be knocked down by our little siblings. You know, kind of the same way boys play.  How do I know this?  Because I am a girl.  And I loved Legos.  

• Let's keep going on this feminist bender! Here are thirteen fantastic female comic creators of 2011.  From this list, I've only read Anya's Ghost, but have been wanting to read Marzi for a while.  And now I want to read Ivy and Finder. 

• Ahem.  This lady totally has my dreamfantasy job (or rather, the positive version of my Thomas Crown/Uncommon Criminals fantasty).  Let's be best friends. 

Tidbits: The Perks of being the Hunger Games Trailer

• I don't know about you guys, but I'm torn from what I see in the photos from The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Charlie and Sam look the same age.  Isn't it supposed to be the early 90's?  And Charlie looks way too cool.  The Charlie in my brain is kind of scrawny, slightly pathetic, a bit squirrelly, kind of a wallflower...AHEM.  Thoughts?

• Have you been away from the internets all day?  Because BIG NEWS, three loyal readers.  The Hunger Games trailer dropped today!  Get at us Panem!  You guys.  I don't want to jinx it...but...it is all kinds of good news, in my opinion.  

Peeta?  That Josh Hutcherson totally looks like he's going to vomit when his name gets called.  Effie Trinket? Looks like Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.  Perf!  Tiny Rue?! A perfectly concrete heavy and stark District 12?  Serious and prescient Cinna?  And the countdown at the end?  SQUEE.  TENSION.  EXCITEMENT.  ANXIETY.  And is Haymitch sober?  Because his hair isn't.  We can't win them all...For the highly scientific breakdown, visit the Forever Young Adult analysis.  

• A tiny treat.  The Perks of being a Male Twilight Fan, aka The Men Who Camped Out For Twilight, a photoessay by the Sports Guy's new site, Grantland.  Personally, I'm a big fan of the last entry, for their shirts and for the reason the guy cites as the thing he's most excited for in the movie. 

Tidbits: PrE-Views, the Hunger gets Vain, Outlander gets a Kitchen, and there goes the COPPA, ruinin' Facebook for 12-year-olds EVERYWHERE

Peeta, why are you dead?

• Oh look, another movie has gotten on board with the zombie/vampire/ghost craze.  Just kidding.  But seriously, why does Peeta look dead?  There's more pictures and information in the Vanity Fair coverage, but really, this is all we need to talk about, other than Rue being appropriately tiny.
• This is actually a really interesting albeit long read on the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.  It's also totally about how parents are now not only totally salting the game of their prepubescent kids most days, but egads, also enabling them on the book of faces.  Enablers!  But what I'm really more interested is the eventual future study in the levels of embarrassment in teens whose parents have made and maintained a Facebook page for them from conception.  
• PrE-view:  John Green has made the first chapter of his newest book, The Fault In Our Stars, available online.  Lots of the usual quirky, romantical, witty kids, but definitely an interesting concept and already a good read!
• Outlander Kitchen: OMG. OMG. OMG YOU GUYS.  Someone has made a food blog with recipes she's created based off of the Outlander books.  It is totally wordy, but committed to the DGabs cause.  Brianna's Bridies look delish.  Personally, I want a recipe for the crazy potion that DGabs takes when she writes these.