Amazon Publishing announces Kindle Worlds, the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so.

Someone is going to unlock all the potential of fan fiction. Amazon has the pull to do it, but do they get the ethos of fan fiction? We’ll see, I guess.

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And so it behooves us as authors of all shapes and designations and genital configurations (oh and I’m talking to you, too, publishers, if you’ll listen) to look deep into the hearts of our stories and to see if we’re leaning on lazy archetypes, stereotypes, conventions, historical myths or outright buckets of bullshit.

And I would guess nearly all of us are.

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Bestselling author Dan Brown has told fans he knows “exactly what [he] is writing next”, and that he has a locations in mind that “fall into Robert Langdon territory”—though he stopped short of confirming his next book will also feature his famous professor of symbology.

Even his real-life cliffhangers are pretty obvious (and fun).

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A first edition copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” that contains author J.K. Rowling’s notes and original illustrations fetched 150,000 pounds ($228,000) at a London auction on Tuesday.

Nerd.

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In this graduation season, it doesn’t take much to see the plunge into a new book as a not imperfect metaphor for life’s journey. To follow-up on Josh Corman’s recent Book Riot posts on some of the best commencement speeches by writers and recommended gifts for graduates, here are three bookish things to keep in mind as you move on to what comes next in this our annual season of renewal.

1) The Metaphysics of Possibility: Ok, so Jorge Luis Borges’ 1941 story, “The Garden of the Forking Paths,” has nothing to do with graduation, but it is all about choice and possibility and the forging of identity. It’s the old idea that every time we make a choice we set our lives on one path or another or another, and that as we come to the next sequential choice, we move further down one specific path and further away from another. Of course, our subsequent choices down these various forking paths can potentially merge again (or not) as we move on down the road.

In Borges’ story, this contrast of infinite possibility and the very finite consequences of choice is represented by a novel—The Garden of the Forking Paths—which is peopled by characters who die on one page and reappear on the next and that unfolds in a series of episodes, some of which overlap and some of which have no logical connection. The idea is that—if you accept the philosophy of the forking paths—that the person you are now could be very similar to another version of yourself out there on another path, or equally that the person you are now could not recognize or even be able to conceive of the “you” out there on one of those other paths.

How far you want to go down that rabbit hole is yet another personal choice, but it is a valuable way to think about the meaningfulness of our decisions, of the odds that one way or another we end up walking the path we choose. As for the actual Borges story, it’s a good one—a World War I detective story featuring a German spy (who is also a Chinese expatriate) on the run in the English countryside from a British intelligence officer (who is also an Irishman who grew up under British rule) toward a climactic scene at the rural home of an old colonial Sinologist and antiquities collector who just happens to have an artifact of great importance to the German spy’s Chinese ancestors. These people and their choices . . .

2) Practical Advice: In 2006, novelist Ann Patchett returned to Sarah Lawrence, her alma mater, to deliver the commencement address. Two years later, HarperCollins published an extended version as What Now?, a book clearly targeted at the graduation gift market (thin hardback, big font, and lots of overly symbolic fork-of-the-road images). Packaging aside, the book is a good quick read, especially for young aspiring writers as Patchett builds her speech around the question What now? and its centrality to human life.

About those forking paths . . . after graduating from Sarah Lawrence, Patchett returned back to her hometown in Tennessee and waited tables until an accident with a steam washer got her fired for her own safety. Patchett then headed off to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop to get an M.F.A. But after a one-year teaching stint, she was back again in Tennessee, this time waiting tables at a T.G.I.Fridays. As she tells her story, Patchett shares several pieces of practical advice, including:

• Practice mindfulness and continuous learning: “It was for me the start of a lesson that I never stop having to learn: to pay attention to the things I’ll probably never need to know, to listen carefully to the people who look as if they have nothing to teach me, to see school as something that goes on everywhere, all the time, not just in libraries but in parking lots, in airports, in trees.”
• Listen to others: “Chances are, anyone who claims not to need the input of any other person on the planet is probably crazy.”
• Be both patient and fully engaged: “If you’re lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you’re alive.”

Some of this feels like the usual graduation fodder, but Patchett grounds her advice in the life of her past experiences and memories, and what she says feels true and valuable (more on that below). The book also includes a postscript in which Patchett describes the process of writing and scrapping and rewriting the speech and of the continuing influence and inspiration of two longtime teachers—a reminder that even at the height of her success, Patchett is still open to turning to others for help.

3) Out on the Path (w/the boys of Middle Earth): Ok, I’m about to Tolkien-out a little, but are there any better journey stories than The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings? In the latter, the fate of the entire world rests on the ability of a small group of people to help one another live up to their absolute full potential while facing down all kinds of expected and unexpected obstacles. Here are two quick moments to remember in times of uncertainty and change:

Midway through Two Towers, in a flashback to before the journey began, Aragorn tells Arwen (yes, his elfin princess) of his doubts about what lies ahead. “My path is hidden from me,” Aragorn says. But Arwen is confident. “It is laid before your feet,” she tells him. “You cannot falter now.”

And early in The Hobbit, Bilbo weighs his own uncertain journey, asking Gandalf, “Can you promise that I will come back?” “No,” Gandalf answers. “And if you do, you will not be the same.”

Of course that’s exactly the point: why we open that book, why we set out the door each morning. One way or another, we will not be the same. That’s what Patchett is getting at when she urges her crowd of graduates to “choose a life that will keep expanding.” Of that question—What Now?—Patchett advises that we see it not as a burden, but as something that “represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life . . .it is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance.” Whatever the obstacles, whatever we cannot change but must face, wherever our path, Patchett frames What Now? as a kind of calling: to engage deeply, to choose our best possible life.

First Impressions:

I had to watch the 1974 Gatsby in high school. I say had to because the only thing I remember from that experience is being BORED OUT OF MY EVER LOVING MIND.

On rewatching it, I can kind of appreciate how Jack Clayton (director) and Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay) were trying to make the book “cinematic” in a 1970s sort of way. It might have actually been a good movie if it weren’t for a few problems that I’ll get to in a bit.

As for the 2013 Gatsby, I’d forgotten that Luhrmann’s films always overwhelm me when I first see them. I left the theater with a massive headache and a general reaction of “Meh,” but I’ll probably like it more when I rewatch it. And it does have its redeeming qualities, especially in comparison to the 1974 version.

Beginning:

The opening of 1974′s Gatsby does a great job of introducing the story in a purely visual way. We see Gatsby’s fancy-butt house, his scrapbook of Daisy paraphernalia, his monogrammed hairbrush, and a photograph of her on his vanity. A guy with a vanity? That’s not a normal guy.

The beginning of Luhrmann’s version opens with Nick in a sanitarium whinging about how people drank too much. Back in the day. Which was like, what, a month ago? This intro makes me think the story is the rambling of syphilitic mind. Then a “doctor” tells Nick he should write this shit down instead of boring him with it, and THEN the movie starts. Because if there’s one thing The Great Gatsby needs, it’s more framing. *headdesk*

WINNER: 1974

Acting:

I don’t know about you all, but if there’s anyone who can look more like my mental image of Jay Gatsby than 38-year-old Robert Redford, I’ve never laid eyes on them. Which makes the fact that he really phones the role in that much suckier. He should have been able to hit this one out of the park; instead, he doesn’t show any emotion AT ALL. Leonardo DiCaprio, on the other hand, does manage to capture Gatsby’s intensity—that’s like DiCaprio’s schtick, right?—and manic mood swings and charisma. Gatsby’s vulnerability could use a little work, but you know.

Elizabeth Debicki plays golf star Jordan Baker in the most recent Gatsby, and she rocks that role out. I love Jordan now! Lois Chiles opens her mouth and blinks a few times in her portrayal of the character. You could honestly cut Jordan out of the 1974 film altogether and no one would notice.

Which one of these men is Sam Waterston and which is Tobey Maguire? YOU DON’T QUITE KNOW, do you???

Nick is played by Sam Waterston in the 1974 version and Tobey Maguire in 2013, and I swear to god THEY LOOK EXACTLY ALIKE. Seriously. Are they related? Because they definitely could be.

And now for Daisy. After watching both these movies, I realized something: Daisy may not do much or develop as a character in any way during the course of The Great Gatsby, but she’s the most important person in the entire story. Like the king on a chessboard—if you lose it, game over. Personally I thought Carey Mulligan brought a lot to the role of Daisy. I could definitely see her as a bird fluttering against the bars of her gilded cage. She’s not a fool, but she wishes she could be so she might at least be happy. Mia Farrow, on the other hand… OH LORDY LORD, Mia Farrow. Her Daisy WAS a “beautiful little fool”; not to mention loud, obnoxious, dull, and kind of narcissistic. Gatsby chasing after some sixty-year-old harridan aunt would make about as much sense.

WINNER: 2013

Sound:

Probably the biggest difference between the films is in their sound—not just the soundtracks, but everything from dialog to sound effects. A lot has been made of Baz Luhrmann’s soundtrack and how appropriate it might or might not be (the Will Friedwald article about it in Wall Street Journal that Cassandra linked to a few weeks ago, for example). Luhrmann uses contemporary artists and musical styles, including hip-hop, as the soundtrack to his film, and I didn’t mind it when I saw the movie; but after seeing the 1974 Great Gatsby, which uses period music, I have to say I agree with Friedwald. It just made more sense and worked a hell of a lot better. Who knew music would be such an important component to Fitzgerald’s sensibility, eh?

Even aside from the soundtrack, though, Clayton’s Great Gatsby is a quieter movie. There’s no score, no crashes or sis-boom-bahs, and no shouting. Even the party scenes are quiet: instead of jumping into the pool and doing the Charleston, people do the tango. I would say it’s actually TOO quiet. There’s no crescendo, either sound- or story-wise. Luhrmann’s movie, on the other hand, might be a little too loud and obnoxious. But at least it kept me awake.

WINNER: DRAW Surely there’s a happy medium between these two.

Parties:

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?

I was going to conclude this without addressing the party scenes, but then I realized that was the crazy talking. No director can resist the lure of a party! I swear the opportunity to film a Gatsby party is the only reason this book has been made into a movie so many times.

Anywho, I think we all know Baz Luhrmann can direct a party. But I have to disagree with Kit (from her post Am I the Only Person on the Internet Who Liked the Great Gatsby Movie?) that he nailed the party scenes here. They seemed more Disneyland than debauchery. Although the party scenes in the 1974 version weren’t a spectacle by any stretch of the imagination, I could believe the people in them were actually partying. They were very nights-at-Max’s-Kansas-City. Like I said, no one’s jumping into a pool, but they were convincingly bacchanal.

WINNER: 1974

Final Thoughts:

Look, neither of these movies are the definitive version of The Great Gatsby. That’s still the book. On The Colbert Report, Luhrmann said the difficulty in filming The Great Gatsby was capturing Nick’s inner monologue, but I have to disagree. Movies are told from a single character’s perspective all the time. No, what makes Great Gatsby adaptations difficult is that, like another one of my favorite books, Jane Eyre, it’s about what the narrator’s not seeing, all the stuff that happens off the page. It’s not about the parties, it’s about what built the parties. Even worse, it’s about what people don’t WANT to see, because then the parties would stop.

That’s why, even though Clayton and Coppola made more of an effort to turn The Great Gatsby into an actual movie, it winds up being boring, because the meaning of the book isn’t in it. Despite Luhrmann’s comment, I think he does he understand what the book is about; and even though his version feels at times more like a recreation of the novel than a film adaptation of it, I can appreciate that he tried to show the things that are only alluded to in the book. I loved how he preserved the absolute awkwardness of the novel and, even though the line about Daisy’s voice sounding like money isn’t in the film, Luhrmann shows us that Gatsby doesn’t just want Daisy. He wants Daisy, and the house, and the car, and the pool, and the shirts. So many shirts! And Daisy damn well knows it.

So even though I did have some problems with the 2013 Gatsby, I definitely think it’s worth seeing if you love the book, and that overall it’s more successful than Clayton’s version.

Helene Hanff could be known as a one hit wonder of the literary world, that is unless you know better. Most people know her book (that was turned into a play, and then a movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft), 84, Charing Cross Road. And they should know her for this – it’s a fantastic piece. It’s in those pages where most people will start with Helene’s work; also the place where they will start to fall in love with her work. However, don’t stop there, she offered more wonderful reads in her witty, intelligent, signature voice.

Each book is a quick read, and most are quite short, so she doesn’t even require that much of a time commitment. You’ll come to be sad about this eventually, when you realize you’ve sped through her library of work and there are no more to come. The great thing? Her books are fantastic to read over and over again! She is one of my favorite authors, and I regret that I didn’t come to know her work before she passed away, as I would have written her a letter and eagerly awaited a return (she was well known for personally answering letters from her readers). These books, instead, will be the letters that she wrote to me and to other book lovers and book learners all around the world.

Start With 84, Charing Cross Road

In her most popular work, Hanff (a New York City based freelance writer) shares with the readers a series of letters that she exchanged with a London bookseller, Frank Doel as they became friends, exchanged ideas, and wrote about their love of books. These letters make us privy to the decades long epistolary friendship between two people so bonded through their love of books and their letters to each other that you will wish for a time where Internet didn’t exist just so you could buy books in this wonderfully enchanting way as well.

Continue with The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

What is thought of as the sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street tells us what happens after the pages close on the letters between Helene Hanff and Frank Doel. Readers of 84, Charing Cross Road will be happy to have this piece as they will be left with an open space in their hearts after finishing the first book so quickly. Also non-fiction (Helene detested fiction), this will answer questions and give more details that weren’t included in the letters that Frank and Helene exchanged. It also will take us a step further to see what happens when the moment readers have been waiting for, since the beginning of 84, happens.

Finish (well don’t finish; keep reading after – see suggestions below) with Q’s Legacy

Anyone who reads 84, Charing Cross Road without a list of books to read by the end isn’t really a book lover. And anyone not curious about this Q whom Hanff refers to time and again, just wasn’t reading properly. Lucky for the readers, Hanff dedicates an entire book to Q (aka Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) in Q’s Legacy, so we can delve deeper into who he was and what he taught this brilliant autodidact. Part travel memoir, this book also wraps up some of the themes and questions readers might be left with after reading 84, Charing Cross Road.

Don’t Stop There

Don’t forget to pick up copies of Letters to New York and Underfoot in Show Business for more Hanff goodness!

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1.) The (Fill in the Blank)’s Wife/Daughter 

Why are you pushing that feminist soapbox toward me? Why are you lifting it up and forcing me to stand on top of it? I don’t need to yell about how annoying it is for the central female character to be defined in the title of the story by the primary male figure in her life! I would much rather rant about how I hate how derivative and overused this type of title is! Get me my “I hate all things derivative” soapbox!

Also, this kind of title feels like book club bait. Probably because it IS book club bait. But still. Turn down the volume on the obvious, dudes.

Bad Boys and Girls: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim, The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

2.) The (Quirky Quality) of (Usually Oddly Named Title Character)

Your title character better be Amelie Fucking Poulain to merit this kind of quirked up title, you hear? Oh, I KNOW you hear. And you know what, even Amelie, the quirkiest little thing in all of space and time, even Amelie didn’t have to have a bananas title. It’s JUST HER NAME, AMELIE! There’s just something that feels disingenuously folksy and trying too hard to be magical about this kind of title.

Bad Boys and Girls: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

3.) The (Fill in the Blank) Club

Again, this feels like book club bait. Like “Oh, we’re a club, so we should read a book about a club!” I feel like this post makes me sound snotty about book clubs and I’m NOT, I promise, I would love to join yours and I will bring a sheet of lemon squares. What I’m snotty about is a smug publishing industry that thinks they have book clubs all figured out, THAT’S what I’m snotty about.

Bad Boys and Girls: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, The Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

4) A Sentence With No Memorable Words

Because when I go to the bookstore and try to ask for your book I CAN’T REMEMBER WHAT IT’S CALLED. I try to paraphrase the title and describe what the author photo looks like on the inside cover and I become that bookstore customer I HATED when I was a bookstore clerk that came in spouting lines like “I’m looking for a book…the cover is kind of blue…” Vague sentenced title, I HATE YOU FOR MAKING ME THAT BOOKSTORE CUSTOMER.

Bad Boys and Girls: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July, How a Person Should Be by Sheila Heti, No One is Here Except All Of Us by Ramona Ausubel, And Then We Came To An End by Joshua Ferris

What types of titles are you red rover, red rover, so f—ing over?

Here are the rules that turned out not to be so arbitrary after all:

1. Always stop at the end of a chapter. Always.

2. Use specific bookmarks. I really do have a system for this. There’s a Harry Potter bookmark with a Patronus pendant only to be used when reading Harry Potter books. When I go to the library, I grab their colored cardstock ones for my library books. If I own the paperback, I have some cheap-but-cute bookmarks, brown-, red-, or black-beribboned, and I choose the one whose ribbon best matches the book cover. If I’m reading a hardback I own, I tuck the pages I’ve read into the dust jacket until the unread stack is smaller, then I switch sides.

2a. No dog-earing, bending, or folding of pages. On this point especially, my husband and I are opposites. For years, he worked outdoors and the machine he ran meant quite a bit of waiting while it did its thing; he spent that time reading. His copies of the books he read on those jobs are grease-stained and dog-eared, and the pages are falling out.

Witness our very different copies of the same book: his, top, grease-stained; mine with its lightly broken spine and general “survived three moves” scuffing.

2b. Weirdly enough, spine-breaking is fine, just don’t get too crazy with it.

3. Always read two books at once. This has only recently become a rule. Since I don’t like to buy two copies of a book (except out of necessity, like with A Song of Ice and Fire), I’m always reading something in ebook form for portability and a regular book for long-term sitting and reading. The two must be different enough that I won’t mix them up or lose interest in one. Right now, I’m reading Code Name Verity in ebook format and The Woman Upstairs from the library. One day, publishers will catch up with the music industry and offer an ebook download with purchase of a hardback. Until then, it’s two books at once for me.

4. No (or minimal) writing in books. No highlighters ever. Marginalia mars my rereading experience should I decide the book warrants a reread. I like to approach books with as fresh an eye and as few distractions as possible if I do read them again, to ensure the possibility of taking something entirely new from them the next time around. Exception: Twilight. Without my marginalia, I’d have gone insane, and there’s no chance in hell I’m reading that again.

Yes, I know what she probably meant, and I know his face is literally hard because of the whole like-marble thing. Still, come on.

5. Rereads must be earned because there are too many great books out there to read an okay one twice. My guaranteed rereads are: classics like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and the Alice books; Margaret Atwood and Sarah Waters novels; beloved series like Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, and the Looking Glass Wars; and my new favorite book, Summer and Bird, which I know I’ll revisit at least once a year from now on.

Earlier I said that my husband and I take very different approaches to reading. We’re different in many other ways, too, ways that make perfect sense when you look at how we read. He is a multitasker, flexible, spontaneous. I am none of these things. If I multitask, all hell breaks loose and nothing gets done. I like plans with backup plans that have backup plans. I require six years’ advance notice for possible social engagements. Knowing only these things about us, a total stranger could easily separate our book collections.

Sure, there’s the argument straight from Inkspell about leaving things behind in books, each reader and reading leaving a mark. It’s the “I like my books to look like they’ve been read!” argument. Then there’s the one that says books are like lovers, so there’s no universal approach for reading them. Some demand to be devoured; some long to be savored; some want the tenderest touch. As it were. Ahem. And then there’s batty ol’ me.

Actually, my only argument is for the reading of books, however it makes you happy. I don’t expect anyone to follow my rules, nor do I recommend any of them (except maybe always stopping at the end of a chapter, which is a good one). Why would I? They’re crazy!

Readers, do you have rules? Do they reflect your personality? And before you ask, why yes, I have been treated for OCD.

Round One of the Purge: Downstairs Shelves

I can’t specify what exactly prompted the urge to purge. I think it was a combination of spring cleaning momentum, getting tired of dusting all these cheap Target book shelves, getting tired of constantly trying to teach my toddlers not to rip covers off my paperbacks, plain old fashioned running out of room, and…(gasp) reading more and more books from the library on my ereader.

So, I girded my loins and began pulling out every single book that I had no plans to re-read, and every book in my TBR pile that had been there longer than two years. The books that are in the public domain were downloaded to my Nook in case I ever got a wild hair and decided that YES I AM GOING TO RE-READ THE SCARLET LETTER (that is literally never going to happen, but knowing it’s there is a security blanket).

Every other book or so, I’d have a mini panic attack and think OH GAWD WHAT IF MY KIDS WANT TO READ THIS SOMEDAY WHATEVAH WILL I DO and the rational part of my brain would reply, “library.” Then I’d think WHAT IF SOMEONE WANTS TO BORROW THIS SOMEDAY and again, “library.” I journal the books I read, so it isn’t like I need a totem around my house, marking the event. So what was I really keeping all these never-to-be-read-again books for? So other people would know I read them? Let’s be real: I’m not social. Ain’t no one coming up in here to judge my library.

I got rid of about 200 books (not much to some people, but it was about a third of my library). So now my shelves only hold books I seriously want to make out with, beautiful old volumes and first editions that I love, and a TBR pile that involves no guilt. And I’m dusting a whole heck of a lot less. I’ve mini-purged before and whatever I got rid of was quickly replaced by compulsive shopping, but now that I’m heavily library and e-reader dependent, I don’t think that will happen this time. I’ve gone from being anti-e-reader and someone who obsessively holds onto every book I touch to being a digital reader who sometimes views physical books as just more clutter to deal with.

But only sometimes.

So tell me, kids: have you ever done a major personal library purge? Did you feel better afterwards, or do you totally regret the experience?

It seems simple enough that a local library could put one together for a bring one/take one kind of event, especially in a nearby park. I’d go. What about you?

Girls, not boys, in all three countries received more time from parents on three activities: reading, storytelling, and teaching letters and numbers.

Maybe boys aren’t as interested, and so the interest isn’t reinforced? Too squirrelly to keep still? Huh.

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Ebook besteller lists will now appear only online, not in print. The reasoning behind this is a bit more tenuous, given the documented overlap between print and digital readers. Heavy readers, the kind likely to bother even glancing at bestseller lists, are reading in both formats. The real thought steering this might be that the digital bestsellers are so driven by pricing whims—99 cent ebooks feature heavily—that they have little bearing on literary culture outside of those lists.

What a strange decision.

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Looking to transform Hollywood’s pile of unproduced scripts into publishable e-books, James West, a motion-picture industry entrepreneur, has launched Script Lit. The company licenses optioned, but never produced, scripts, to turn them into commercial fiction.

Fascinating idea. Some of the best storytellers in the world are working in film, but only a very small percentage of their work gets produced (and often for reasons totally separate from the quality of the story). Turning those stories into good books, though…..not that easy.

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Australia’s Qantas Airlines is promoting the announcement of its extended flight routes by commissioning a series of books that last exactly as long as each flight. 

You know if Infinite Jest is waiting there on your seat for ya, you’ve got a ways to go.

May 21

Cold Killing by Luke Delaney (William Morrow)

The debut novel in a terrifying London-based thriller series featuring D.I. Sean Corrigan, who becomes ensnared in an increasingly dangerous psychological game with a killer.

After a young man is found brutally murdered in his own flat, D.I. Sean Corrigan, responsible for one of South London’s Murder Investigation Units, takes on the case. At first it appears to be a straightforward domestic murder, but immediately Corrigan suspects it is much more and it soon becomes clear he is hunting a particularly clever and ruthless serial killer who changes his modus operandi each time he kills, leaving no useable forensic evidence behind…

Then by Morris Gleitzman (Square Fish)

Felix and Zelda have escaped the death camp train, but where do they go now? They’re two runaway kids in Nazi-occupied Poland. Danger lies at every turn of the road. With the help of a woman named Genia and their active imaginations, Felix and Zelda find a new home and begin to heal, forming a new family together. But can it last? Morris Gleitzman’s winning characters will tug at readers’ hearts as they struggle to survive in the harsh political climate of Poland in 1942. Their lives are difficult, but they always remember what matters: family, love, and hope.

Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Forget the cud. They want blood.

It began with a cow that just wouldn’t die. It would become an epidemic that transformed Britain’s livestock into sneezing, slavering, flesh-craving four-legged zombies. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the fate of the nation seems to rest on the shoulders of three unlikely heroes: an abattoir worker whose love life is non-existent thanks to the stench of death that clings to him, a teenage vegan with eczema and a weird crush on his maths teacher, and an inept journalist who wouldn’t recognize a scoop if she tripped over one.As the nation descends into chaos, can they pool their resources, unlock a cure, and save the world?

Three losers. Overwhelming odds. One outcome . . .Yup, we’re screwed.

Eat the City by Robin Shulman (Broadway)

Beneath the urban shell of New York City is an uprising of local farmers and producers. While the city has historically been a center of food production, the rural, folksy traditions of making beer, planting heirloom vegetable gardens, and cultivating honey are not easily associated with New York’s fast-paced lifestyle. But it is happening, in dimly lit kitchens and vacant lots across the boroughs. Here, the good food movement thrives; its legacy is extensive and as varied as the people who champion its growth.In Eat the City, journalist Robin Shulman explores urban food production from both a historical and cultural perspective to elucidate the origins and history of this movement and why it is so important environmentally, culturally, and socially.

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye (Vintage)

The story of three women who say no: Norah, a French-born lawyer who finds herself in Senegal, summoned by her estranged father to save another victim of his paternity; Fanta, who leaves a contented life as a teacher in Dakar to follow her boyfriend back to France, where his depression and dislocation poison everything; and Khady, a penniless widow put out by her husband’s family with nothing but the name of a distant cousin in France. As these three lives intertwine, each woman manages an astonishing feat of self-preservation against those who have made themselves the fastest-growing and most-reviled people in Europe. In Marie NDiaye’s stunning narration we see the progress by which ordinary women discover unimagined reserves of strength.

Transparent by Natalie Whipple (HarperTeen)

An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona O’Connell’s father is a powerful crime lord in Las Vegas, and he’s been forcing her to do his dirty work-stealing cars, robbing banks, and spying on people-since she was five years old. Fiona’s had enough, so she and her mom flee to a small town to try and build a normal life. But her dad isn’t going to let her escape without a fight….

With its contemporary setting and spot-on teen voice, Natalie Whipple’s debut novel is a witty and utterly relatable tale of friendship, family, and romance-with an irresistible paranormal twist.

Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury USA)

Headstrong, high-spirited, and already widowed, Isabella Walker became Mrs. Henry Robinson at age thirty-one in 1844. A successful civil engineer, her husband moved their family to Edinburgh’s elegant society in 1850. But Henry traveled often and was cold and remote when home, leaving Isabella to her fantasies. No doubt thousands of Victorian women faced the same circumstances, but Isabella recorded her passionate innermost thoughtsand especially her infatuation with a married Dr. Edward Lanein her diary. One fateful day, Henry chanced on the diary. Aghast at his wifes perceived infidelity, he petitioned for divorce on the grounds of adultery. Until that year, divorce had been illegal in England, the marital bond being a cornerstone of English life. Their trial would be a cause celebre, and her diary, read in court, was as explosive as FlaubertsMadame Bovary, just published in France but considered too scandalous to be translated into English until the 1880s.

The Double Game by Dan Fesperman (Vintage)

A few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, spook-turned-novelist Edwin Lemaster reveals to up-and-coming journalist Bill Cage that he’d once considered spying for the enemy. For Cage, a fan who grew up as a Foreign Service brat in the very cities where Lemaster set his plots, the story creates a brief but embarrassing sensation. More than two decades later, Cage, by then a lonely, disillusioned PR man, receives an anonymous note hinting that he should have dug deeper. Spiked with cryptic references to some of his and his father’s favorite old spy novels, the note is the first piece of a puzzle that will lead him back to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest in search of the truth, even as the events of Lemaster’s past eerily-and dangerously-begin intersecting with those of his own. Why is beautiful Litzi Strauss back in his life after thirty years? How much of his father’s job involved the CIA? Did Bill, as a child, become a pawn? As the suspense steadily increases, a long chain of secrets may finally be broken.

May 28

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (Balzer & Bray)

When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone, and Cam becomes an expert at both.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship, one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self-even if she’s not quite sure who that is.

The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot)

Meet Mookie Pearl.

Criminal underworld? He runs in it.

Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it.

Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job.

But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give…

The Original 1982 by Lori Carson (William Morrow Paperbacks)

What if you could go back to a moment in time and change one crucial thing? How would your life be changed? In what ways would it be the same?

It’s 1982, and Lisa is twenty-four years old, a waitress, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and girlfriend to a famous Latin musician. That year, she makes a decision, almost without thinking about it. But what if what if her decision had been a different one? In the new 1982, Lisa chooses differently. Her career takes another direction. She becomes a mother. She loves differently, yet some things remain the same.

Alternating between two very different possibilities, The Original 1982 is a novel about how the choices we make affect the people we become-and about how the people we are affect the choices we make.

The Raft by S. A. Bodeen (Square Fish)

The harrowing story of a teen girl who is the sole survivor of a plane crash, and ends up stranded in the middle of the ocean. Is she alone? Robie, 16, lives with her family on the Midway atoll, a group of islands in the middle of the Pacific. After a visit to her aunt on Hawaii, Robie is left to return home alone. On her flight back to Midway the cargo plane hits nasty weather, and goes down. Robie is pulled aboard a raft by Max, who is injured and slipping in and out of consciousness. They have a bag of candy and very little water between them. Robie hopes they’ll be found quickly. But she’s not sure she was even on the flight manifest. Her parents must be looking for her…right?

The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller (Mariner Books) 

Storied, fiercely competitive Mariana Academy was founded with a serious honor code; its reputation has been unsullied for decades. Now a long-dormant secret society, Prisom’s Party, threatens its placid halls with vigilante justice, exposing students and teachers alike for even the most minor infraction.

Iris Dupont, a budding journalist whose only confidant is the chain-smoking specter of Edward R. Murrow, feels sure she can break into the ranks of The Devil’s Advocate, the Party’s underground newspaper, and there uncover the source of its blackmail schemes and vilifying rumors. Some involve the school’s new science teacher, who also seems to be investigating the Party. Others point to an albino student who left school abruptly ten years before, never to return. And everything connects to a rare book called Marvelous Species. But the truth comes with its own dangers, and Iris is torn between her allegiances, her reporter’s instinct, and her own troubled past.

Graveland by Alan Glynn (Picador)

On a bright Saturday morning, a Wall Street investment banker is shot dead while jogging in Central Park. Later that same night, one of the savviest hedge-fund managers in the city is gunned down outside a restaurant. Are these killings a coordinated terrorist attack, or just a coincidence? Investigative journalist Ellen Dorsey has a hunch they’re neither, and her obsessive attention to detail leads her to an unexpected conclusion. Days later, when an attempt is made on the life of another CEO, the story blows wide open—and Ellen’s theory is confirmed. Racing to stay ahead of the curve, she soon encounters Frank Bishop, a recession-hit architect, whose daughter’s disappearance is tied to the murders.

The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio (Plume)

On the eve of World War II, the last surviving specimen of a camellia plant known as the Middlebury Pink lies secreted away on an English country estate. Flora, an amateur American botanist, is contracted by an international ring of flower thieves to infiltrate the household and acquire the coveted bloom. Her search is at once brightened by new love and threatened by her discovery of a series of ghastly crimes.

More than half a century later, garden designer Addison takes up residence at the manor, now owned by the family of her husband, Rex. The couple’s shared passion for mysteries is fueled by the enchanting camellia orchard and an old gardener’s notebook. Yet its pages hint at dark acts ingeniously concealed. If the danger that Flora once faced remains very much alive, will Addison share her fate?

The Difficulty of Being by Jean Cocteau (Melville House)

By the time he published The Difficulty of Being in 1947, Jean Cocteau had produced some of the most respected films and literature of the twentieth century, and had worked with the foremost artists of his time, including Proust, Gide, Picasso and Stravinsky.

This memoir tells the inside account of those achievements and of his glittering social circle. Cocteau writes about his childhood, about his development as an artist, and the peculiarity of the artist’s life, about his dreams, friendships, pain, and laughter. He probes his motivations and explains his philosophies, giving intimate details in soaring prose. And sprinkled throughout are anecdotes about the elite and historic people he associated with.

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Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

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If you have to live in a scary land filled with monsters, you better hope for some magic to help you fight them off. Also, magic is just rad, and it would make the monster-ness a little less unpleasant, don’t you think? Harry Potter had to deal with Dementors and Death Eaters, but at least he had spells and wands to help him. For ast long as fiction has been a thing, it’s been filled with stories about seemingly ordinary people who discover their previously hidden powers to fight off the baddest big bads and save the world. Today we want to know: what are your favorite books about monsters and magic?

Please welcome to the show: Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, everyone!

See, I’m… well, there’s no other way to say this. I’m a fanatic. An obsessive. And like Mr. Hornby, my drug, the object of my lunacy, is a sports team comprised of individuals with whom I have no connection beyond temporary geographic proximity. His is Arsenal Football Club, mine is the University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball team.

I am passionate about a lot of other things too – books, of course, and films and music – but none of these other, I don’t know, hobbies or interests (the words sound pitiful when made to stand against ‘obsession,’ I grant you) occupy my mind – and, for better or worse, affect my happiness and sense of fulfillment – quite the way that sports, and UK basketball in particular, does on a day-in and day-out basis. “But the season’s only four months long” I can hear you saying. HA! What about the month of practice leading up to the season, when I ravenously devour any word of how new teammates are mixing in with the veterans? What about the coaches’ impressions of so-and-so’s mid-range jumper or passing ability from the high post? What about the spring and summer months, when I watch high-school all-star games and track recruits’ every dribble and shot (there’s a kid named Andrew Wiggins who you sane people probably haven’t heard of but whose name I know I haven’t gone a day without mentioning since at least December)?

The point is, I’m a fetishist, and if I didn’t live in an area densely populated by people like me (to one degree or another, anyway), I might be made to feel awkward about it. As it is, I have friends who are just as irrationally devoted to the team as I am, and these people go no small distance toward minimizing my self-consciousness (I’m sure there’s a psychologists’ term for the inherent dangers of just such a social arrangement). Crucially though, I also have Fever Pitch, which argues – as I have had to do – for the value of sports fandom and against the lie that anyone in possession of an intellect must deride sports as brainless escapism. One of the many reasons we read, after all, is to feel that we are not alone emotionally or intellectually, and Mr. Hornby’s book has been a refuge in that way. It provided me with a framework for more fully understanding this part of my being.

I hope you have a book like this, a book that makes you feel sane when other forces conspire to loosen your bearings, a book that values what you value, a book that makes you laugh and nod and gives you comfort. If you think that books don’t have the power to confer validation upon their readers, then I’m afraid we’ve had very different experiences. Because although of course validation comes from a dozen other places in my life, books have their own way of reaching those hard to scratch places right in the middle of my soul (sometimes when I don’t even know that there’s a place in need of a scratch) in a way few other things can. They are intensely personal in this way, these books, and one that speaks to me with power and clarity might sound tinny and distant to you. This exclusivity is one of the reasons they’re so powerful: it sometimes feels as though they were written with us in mind.

So here’s to the books that get everything right, that clarify and define and question and explain the parts of our world – and ourselves – that might remain otherwise mysterious to us. Here’s to Fever Pitch.

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Photo from No End to Books

That might be enough to make any lamp officially bookish, but there are ways you can make your lighting fixtures even more literary.

Lamp In a Box for example, offers inexpensive designs that run the bookish gamut, from Shakespeare to Captain America:

Photo from MyComicShop.com

But there are more inventive options, too, made from actual books. Like these amazing, sculptural lamps:

Photo from Booktagger Blog

Lamp by Michael Bom for Bomdesign. Photo from Lightpublic.

Poetic curl lamp from Ginkgo Studio. Photo from inhabit.

“A Bit of Light Reading,” by Lucy Norman. Photo from inhabit.

Artichoke Mixed Book Page Pendant Light, by Zipper8Lighting

Artichoke Colorful Cartoon Pendant Light, by Zipper8Lighting

Instructions on how to do this yourself are here.

If you want some encouragement to read more at night (because you’ll never sleep again), you could put this wonderfully creepy Edgar Allan Poe lamp at your bedside. Check out that skull!

Edgar Allan Poe lamp, by Christopher Darga. More information at CustomMade.com.

One-and-a-half billion people around the world still light their nights with kerosene, raising risks of injury and making it difficult to read or do schoolwork. So if you’re thinking of buying a bookish lamp for yourself, consider also making a donation to a group like Deciwatt, which has designed a low-cost, gravity-powered lamp that they’re distributing in Africa and India:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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LH: It’s already the middle of freaking May! *insert something witty about the passage of time here* Now, if you’re like me, and I’m pretty sure you are, sugar britches, I think a book you read during summer months = a summer read. It could be because summer is like any other season for me. Even those fishes found at the very bottom of the ocean are able to tan more than I do, so I hide inside with my books, away from the sun, which hates me (even though I think if it got to know me, we could hang.) So let’s talk about things we’re looking forward to reading in the next few months!

RJS: An excellent plan! I mostly don’t vary my reading by season, but I do sometimes gin up my courage and take my ginger self out into the sun, and when I do, I want a cocktail that’s cold and a book that’s hot. And hot can mean a lot of things. Mostly, I want the books I read during summer to be extra engaging and pageturner-y, and so much fun that I don’t notice I’m doing the work of reading. There are also some books that just feel like they’re meant to be read while you’re sweating it out in the sun. Know what I mean?

LH: I will start with The Magus by John Fowles, because I was just looking at it in the store, thinking, “I wish I could read this again for the first time.” Do not be intimidated by its size! It’s so sinister and fantastic. And it takes place on a hot Greek island. Sizzle and soak it in! Other delicious, sinister novels set during hot weather are The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan (I call it Magus Lite), and Disquiet by Julia Leigh.

RJS: My first sizzle and soak-it-in re-read of the summer (and of pretty much every summer) is James Salter’s A Sport and a Pastime. It’s excellent any time, but it’s extra-awesome on a really hot day, and it feels like the first time every time. Talk about summer lovin’! Now, for sinister, I have my eye on NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. I do love a bone-chilling read on a sweltering day.

LH: I rarely re-read books, because there are just so many others I haven’t read yet, but I have a list of favorites that I want to revisit some day. Topping that list is Just Like Beauty by Lisa Lerner. It takes place in future America, where mutant grasshoppers are eating up the land, groups of delinquent boys roam around with flame throwers, and teen girls are forced to participate in a beauty pageant, in which one of the talent requirements is arousing a blow-up doll. It’s so mad effed-up and awesome. And scathing. Imagine if Anne Tyler wrote a dystopian novel. That’s Just Like Beauty.

RJS: My list of re-reads is short too, for the same reason. But sometimes I get so hot and bothered about a book when I get it in pre-publication that I can’t wait to read it near the release date, so I read it once when it shows up at my house and again near release date so I can talk about with fresh eyes. Alissa Nutting’s debut novel Tampa (coming in July from Ecco) is one of those. Narrated in the first-person by a 20-something middle school teacher with a Humber Humbert-esque thing for 14-year-old boys, it is dark and twisty and steamy and scary and SO much fun to talk about. I read it a month or so ago, and I can’t wait to read it again in the middle of the summer.

LH: Sweet baby carrots, people are going to lose their minds over Tampa. There’s no denying that Alissa Nutting is a brilliant writer. I am looking forward to Kelly Braffet’s Save Yourself, which will be released in August. Early word is that it’s really wonderful. I have the ARC waiting for me, and I hope to get to it soon! I need about eighteen more hours in a day so I can get through my unread stacks of books. You understand – you’ve seen them.

RJS: I don’t know if you can even call those things stacks at this point. They’re more like mountains. Or walls! The actual walls of your apartment could crumble, and you might not know because the books are so solid. It’s a good problem to have, kitten. Another good problem to have? Reading a book that’s so awesome you can’t stop talking about it. J. Courtney Sullivan’s new novel The Engagements (due from Knopf on June 11) is that one for me right now. It’s about marriage (why some people want it desperately and others want it not at all), advertising (particularly how De Beers convinced the world that he doesn’t love you unless he buys you a big diamond), feminism, and family, and it is so super freaking good. I think it’s narrower and deeper than Sullivan’s previous smash-hit summer novel Maine, and it’s exactly the direction I was hoping to see her grow in.

LH: My last pick today is the second book in the Claire DeWitt series. I may have mentioned before that I am a Sarah Gran fangirl. I think she’s effing brilliant, and I think Claire DeWitt is the first formidable female detective of the 21st century. And as awesome as I thought the first book was, the second one is so mind-meltingly fantastic, I want to punch things out of pure joy. It’s called Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway and it comes out in June. Apply it directly to your eyeballs. Also: Here’s a photo of my friends’ daughter, Sam, picking out her own library books. So proud of her.

RJS: Only one pick left! I have no idea how to choose. I guess I’ll go with Neil Gaiman’s new novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane, due out June 18th. I’ve never read him before (I know, I know), and I’m taking the occasion of this publication as the final nudge to pop my Gaiman cherry. I’m going to light candles and put on Marvin Gaye and get it on with a bunch Neil Gaiman. His books, I mean. Not a bunch of him. I don’t want Amanda Palmer to beat me up, and you know she totally could. We’d better wrap this up before I get myself into any more hot water. See you on the beach, babes.

Shout it out, friends! What sizzlicious summer reads do you have your eyes on?

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We hear from readers all the time who want to read Virginia Woolf but don’t know where to start, so it’s only fitting that we should wrap up our series of awesome START HERE giveaways with this 14-book set of Woolf’s work from the good folks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

To enter, just share the link to the Kickstarter campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and your other social networks of choice. Getting the word out is crucial for making START HERE, Vol. 2 a reality, and we’re willing to reward you for helping us do it! After you’ve shared the link–be sure to tag Book Riot in your tweets and Facebook posts–leave a comment here to enter. Entries accepted until the Kickstarter closes at 11:59pm Eastern, Friday, May 24th. One winner will be randomly selected. Good luck!

Here’s the full list of titles the winner will receive:

Mrs. Dalloway

To the Lighthouse

Orlando

A Room of One’s Own

The Common Reader

The Voyage Out

Between the Acts

A Writer’s Diary

Flush

Jacob’s Room

Moments of Being

The Waves

Three Guineas

The Years

First off, let’s run down the list of what makes a work Luhrmann-daptable.

1.) Drugs- Or a very emotionally fraught or physically grueling situation that makes you act like you’re on drugs.

2.) Parties- You got to have one great party in your story if Luhrmann is even going to think about laying one of his glitter-dusted fingers on your work. It’s preferable that every scene in your entire book/play is some version of a party.

3.) A Love Story That’s Going to End So Badly- The more jacked up your ending is, the better.

4.) An Anachronistic Soundtrack- If you make him use period appropriate music, Luhrmann walks.

5.) Sparkle and Histrionics Everywhere- If your book doesn’t have much in the way of this, never fear, Luhrmann will gladly bring his own

6.) At Least ONE Great Death, If Not Eight- It’s got to be on par with an R&J double suicide or Nicole Kidman consumption-ing away until she’s just a pile of tuberculosis glitter. Nothing else will do!

7.) A Sundry List of Other Things He Likes: Swimming pools, inappropriate 3D, roles for Leonardo DiCaprio. 

And now a list of adaptations Luhrmann should seriously consider doing next.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Riot bosses Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinsky pitched this because they are the smartest around. This is a PERFECT Luhrmann adaptation. I don’t want to give too much away for Rioters who haven’t read (if you haven’t read WHAT have you been waiting for? Get on that train right now and don’t come back until you’ve ridden it to the last stop!) I will say there’s a small liberal arts college, accidental and intentional murders, and a MODERN BACCHANAL.

Hollywood’s been trying to make this book work on the big screen since it was published. Luhrmann, wave your magical, cubic zirconia-encrusted fingers and make it happen!

Role for Leonardo DiCaprio- Professor Julian Morrow… I guess? This might be a wash. However, Luhrmann can use the Teen Leo Doppelganger who played Young Gatsby in like four of the college dude roles. Consolation prize!

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laceless

This French epistolary novel is a match made in Luhrmann heaven. Check it. Pre-Revolution French Aristocracy being psychotically mean to each other. Pre-Revolution French Aristocracy means parties like whoa-nelly. And it means costumes like whoa-whoa-nelly. A love story that’s going to end SO badly AND a great death! Bam bam bam!

Role for Leonardo DiCaprio- Valmont, of course!

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Luhrmann, you’re not allowed to Americanize this. You’re maybe not allowed to make this in English. And you’re definitely not allowed to have Leonardo DiCaprio in this adaptation. But you should still for sure do it. Because this book is a madhouse of psychic prostitutes, sociopath teen girls, magical blue face marks, disappearing and reappearing cats and wives, and a Mongolian who might actually be scarier than Atilla the Hun. How can you NOT?

Role for Leonardo DiCaprio- None, he can produce this one like Jay-Z produced Gatsby. It’s going to be okay, Leo, you will Luhrm-act again, I promise you.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

No parties, no drugs, no sparkle for King of the Magpies Luhrman. There’s death. But there’s mostly Puritans and symbolism. So what gives? What gives is I think Hawthorne could USE a little more Luhrmann. Blasphemy, I know, whatever, this book bored me so much in school I almost ate the pages just to make it more interesting.

Role for Leonardo DiCaprio- Dimmesdale, obvs.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

This is actually what Luhrmann is eyeing next. And I get it. EVERYONE DIES. There’s the role to end all roles for DiCaprio. And the DEAD DAD PLAY WITHIN A PLAY. You guys, THE DEAD DAD PLAY. THE DEAD DAD PLAY IN 3D. Also ghosts. Win!

Role for Leonardo DiCaprio- Hamlet! Which will either be the best or worst thing ever. If we’re all very lucky boys and girls it will be the best AND worst thing ever.

So what do you guys think Luhrmann should adapt next? Don’t be lame and say “nothing,” if you don’t want to play, just don’t play!

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The only type of paid review that Amazon supports is an editorial review. An editorial review is a more formal evaluation of a book usually written by an editor or expert within a genre, but can also be written by family and friends. If you have received an editorial review of your book that you’d like to post to the Editorial Review section of your book’s detail page, please visit our Author Central Help Page.

This is a weird little part of Amazon’s review policy. Editorial reviews written by family and friends can be submitted for the editorial review section, but are not allowed in the customer review section. Odd.

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The publisher suggests that customers pay $10 for the download, but there is a drop down option to pay other amounts including: nothing, $2, $5, $25, $50 or $100.

Brave. Hope it works out for them.

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“[T]he launch of the pay model is the most important and most successful business decision made by The New York Times in many years. We have around 700,000 paid digital subscribers across the company’s products so far and a new nine-figure revenue stream that is still growing.”

Gotta ask yourself, though, how many other successful business decisions has the NYT made recently. Still, good for them.

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Amis is one of the finest stylists alive, but I thought “Lionel Asbo” was a bad novel. A really bad novel. In fact, my review of “Lionel Asbo” was a finalist for the Hatchet Job — a prize given for the most negative book review of the year. And yet, on the new paperback — on thefront cover, no less — appears this ringing endorsement from The Washington Post: “Amis is a force unto himself. . . . There is, quite simply, no one else like him.”

All true. But caveat emptor. That line is drawn from a review of “London Fields” that my colleague Jonathan Yardley wrote . . . 23 years ago.

This is pretty embarrassing stuff from the publisher.

Here are a few things I’d like to to tell my own students on the occasion of their graduation. Maybe a little more muted than most administrations would like, but it’s advice I myself would have liked to have heard at 22 (and am trying to remind myself of at 35).

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At this moment, you are more open-minded than you will ever be again. As you get older, your interests might deepen, but the range will almost certainly narrow. Fight this as hard as you can.

Over the next decade, you will probably be able to count on one hand the number of times you will sit in a room with people that are not your friends and talk about ideas. Find ways to have conversations with people who don’t think like you do.

Most of you will try to hold on to your youth for the next 10-20 years. The longer you try, the more painful and hindering it will be. Nothing ages you faster than trying to be something you are not.

You will never feel like you know what you are doing, so don’t wait for it.

Outside of your small circle of family and close friends, no one cares what you wear, what you do, what you read, or what you watch. This can be both liberating and terrifying. Choose liberating.

The more you enjoyed your time here, the more the memory of it will sting.

You were taught principally by people who have no idea how business works, though most of you will spend your professional lives outside of academia.

The difficulties ahead of you will make what you have faced to this point seem trivial.

It is easy to make decisions about your life without even knowing you are making them. You will regret the decisions you did not make a hell of a lot more than the decisions you knew you were making.

You don’t deserve anything. Your passion, effort, and creativity may not pay off. But you still have to try.

The things you care strongly about now might mean nothing to you in five years. And that’s OK. You haven’t failed or given up. You will just care about different things.

The pursuit and maintenance of health insurance will govern far more of your life than art.

Do not think that because you dated a lot in college you have any idea what it means to be in a healthy relationship. Most of this education is still in front of you.

What you will turn out to be will probably not bear much resemblance to what you thought you would be. Try not to mourn this overmuch.

If you pay attention and exert enormous effort, you might be able to mitigate some of your flaws, but this will be an on-going effort.

There are exponentially more possibilities than you can imagine.

Your favorite song right now is likely to be your favorite song for the rest of your life.

Favorite songs will matter to you less and less.

If there is an art to living, it is knowing when to be hard on yourself and when to go easy on yourself. This is more difficult than it seems.

The small patch of understanding and meaning you can create for yourself will be the anchor of your happiness. Grow and guard it.

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Storied, fiercely competitive Mariana Academy was founded with a serious honor code; its reputation has been unsullied for decades. Now a long-dormant secret society, Prisom’s Party, threatens its placid halls with vigilante justice, exposing students and teachers alike for even the most minor infraction.

Iris Dupont, a budding journalist whose only confidant is the chain-smoking specter of Edward R. Murrow, feels sure she can break into the ranks of The Devil’s Advocate, the Party’s underground newspaper, and there uncover the source of its blackmail schemes and vilifying rumors. Some involve the school’s new science teacher, who also seems to be investigating the Party. Others point to an albino student who left school abruptly ten years before, never to return. And everything connects to a rare book called Marvelous Species. But the truth comes with its own dangers, and Iris is torn between her allegiances, her reporter’s instinct, and her own troubled past.

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We asked you to share your favorite stories of campus life, and you came up with quite the list.  Take a look, and let us know if we’re missing anything.

Pnin and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy

The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies

Looking for Alaska by John Green

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

All That Sparkles Isn’t Real Sapphire by Daisy Jordan

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Straight Man by Richard Russo

Moo by Jane Smiley

Campus Trilogy by David Lodge

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

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The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan (Knopf, on sale date June 11, 2013)

This book is an iteration of the technique where a book follows a number of different stories that turn out to be linked. In this novel, the common thread is a particular antique diamond ring. The stories connected by the ring are interwoven with the snapshots from the life of Frances Gerety, the advertising copywriter responsible for penning marriage’s most famous tagline, “A Diamond is Forever.”

The Engagements sounds potentially saccharine - like a novelized version of several people’s wedding Pinterest boards - but it isn’t. These happily-ever-afters involve a healthy dose of realistic imperfection. The questions raised by the relationship of marriage traditions and advertising are interesting and will prod you gently to think, but don’t overshadow the story. Parts of this novel are better than others, but the good parts range into excellent and the weaker parts are never awful. This book won’t change your life, but it’ll entertain you if you let it.

Verdict: Buy if this subject matter is your jam. Otherwise, borrow.

Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, U.S. sale date June 11, 2013)

The premise: four strangers in a train compartment strike up a conversation and end up trading stories about love. The reader jumps between the characters’ minds, experiencing each of their stories through their own eyes as well as through the minds of their listeners. The love stories are quietly lovely, varied, and vivid, but the book as a whole reads more like several short stories tied together rather than a novel. The characters don’t seem to grow from sharing their experiences with each other, and only one of them gains any new insight from telling is story out loud. It’s still an enjoyable read, but for it to be more than that I would have needed to see the characters disembark the train as subtlety different people than who they were when they boarded.

Verdict: Borrow.

Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann (Touchstone, on sale date June 11, 2013)

Astor Place Vintage tells the stories of Amanda, a vintage clothing store owner who discovers a diary in an antique fur muff, and Olive, the long-ago girl who once hid her diary for safekeeping. According to the book summary, reading Olive’s diary is supposed to teach Amanda valuable lessons about her own life, but that’s not evident from the text. The connection between the stories never really expands beyond a series of forced-feeling coincidences and the characters themselves aren’t dynamic enough to carry the story. The one subplot that really grabbed me was Olive’s quest for accurate information about sex and contraception in the early 1900’s; I found the variation of misinformation she encountered and the depth of the taboos she challenged fascinating. Unfortunately, this was a minor part of the novel.

Verdict: Bypass.

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