Shaken & Stirred

This Was A Really Good Year

In terms of reading -- I really do recommend all the books in the sidebar over there, and, as you'll see, my effort to winnow to a Top 10 resulted in a Top 17, that could just as easily have been a Top 20. But I forced myself to stop. Behind the cut tag (in reverse alphabetical order by author).

#Topper Party

So TCM had a mini-Cary Grant marathon the other day, and one of the films included was Topper (which is also available on DVD, of course). Justine and I were bandying our love for it around with Ari, who had set up a timer but never seen it... And then Justine had the marvelous idea of live tweeting a simultaneous watch party from our respective corners of the world.

I'm stealing Scott's post about the relevant details, because lazy! but also busy! Here goes:

Next week I’m going to be live-tweeting an old movie with various friends around the world (namely, @justinelavaworm, @readingincolor, and @gwenda (ed. note from G--@scottwesterfeld is the other relevant twitter handle, of course). In other words, we’ll all be putting the DVD in at the same time, watching it in sync, and tweeting VERY witty things. Or just crapping on about Cary Grant’s amazing car, more likely. Why are we doing this? Because it seemed like fun, and @readingincolor hadn’t seen it yet.

The movie is called Topper, and is a screwball comedy about dying in a car accident and then messing with your banker as a ghost. (Seriously. People laughed at some weird stuff back then.)

If you’re on the twitter machine, please feel free to join in.

Time: 8:30PM US EST
Date: Tuesday Dec 27
(Sydney Time: 12:30PM Wed Dec 28)
Hashtag: #Topper

Join in if you like. It should be fun. After all, what is twitter for if not live tweeting old movies?

Excuses, Excuses: Holiday Edition

Yes, I know I've been MIA. I intended to do a post about books I recommend for gifts this year (just made our list today, figuring out which books to get for who) and about other things, but just haven't had a chance. I also have a million links for a hangovers post, which I'll try to post at some point in the nearish future. For the inevitable gift card frenzy to come, the 2011 reading list is down and to the right.

And here's a teensy reminder that if there's an old-school D&D or gaming fan on your list (or you fit this description), Christopher's Sandstorm makes a lovely gift--the perfect size for a stocking. And too big for a stocking but also a great gift is the Steampunk! anthology, edited by Kelly and Gavin, and filled with fabulous stories, including one by Mr. Rowe.

I could promise I'll try and do some catch up posts, but in all truth I'm probably going to do the sane thing and enjoy the coming time with our family, try and get some more novel written, and otherwise make my best attempt at R&R for the next week and a halfish.

So there. Happy holidays, my lovely ones.

A Trio of Tuesday Hangovers

...aka a pocketful of kidlit links:

• Editor extraordinaire Andrew Karre has very smart things to say about why #yamatters at Hunger Mountain. A snippet: "It’s easy to spot disruption in tech and media. These things happen very fast and concern a lot of people (and their money) on a day-to-day basis. It’s harder to see these disruptions in smaller and slower-moving categories and subcategories. But I believe they’re there, and, as you’ve probably guessed, I believe modern novels for young readers—particularly YA novels—are a disruption in children’s books and maybe in books in general." Right on. (via Big Think)
• Shannon Maughan has an excellent piece at PW about the history and importance of the Caldecott and Newbery awards, with extensive comments from Anita Silvey and Leonard Marcus. (I found the discussion about whether the best children's books really are "timeless" v. interesting.)
• At Publisher Perspectives, author Beth Kephart talks with Pamela Paul about her approach as the new editor of the NYT's coverage of children's books. Snippet: “It’s a busy world,” says Paul, a journalist and author who was named to the post in late January of this year. “There’s so much competing for our time. My hope with the children’s pages is to make them relevant and essential for all the readers of the Times — to provide expanded coverage of everything from board books and middle grade stories to young adult fiction and nonfiction. There are so many ways to tell a story. I’m trying to make room for them all.”

Monday Hangovers

Some links! And some of these have been sitting in my "links to post" file for awhile, so clearing them out. Also, I'm behind on email but hoping to catch up tonight or tomorrow. So there you have it.

• "For a Better Brain, Sleep Well": "While an awake brain is more stimulated, our thinking organ cannot handle unbridled activity. Neurons have a threshold past which the communication of information is inhibited. This is why, after a restless night, people say they are unable to concentrate on the day's tasks. By restoring the brain to a restful state, neurons are more prepared to activate the following day and learn from the surrounding environment. The brain's daily rejuvenation process is known as 'synaptic homeostasis." The key to everything, really.
• Great list: 5 Timeless Books of Insight on Fear and the Creative Process. 
• The science of kissing.
• "Alejandro Jodorowsky and His Tarot de Marseille": "In Paris, where he has lived for the last 20 years, he lectures on the tarot and does readings for strangers once a week. And he vividly remembers how, at 20, he first saw an old (and, he said, naked) woman in his native Chile give a tarot reading, and was instantly intrigued. He soon moved to Paris, where he joined the mime company of Marcel Marceau and began traveling with him. It was in Tokyo, Mr. Jodorowsky said, that he first bought a tarot deck. This became a habit. Every place they went, he would figure out where and how to buy a new deck; before long, he had a vast collection."
• Hannah Tepper conducts a fascinating interview about the science of free will with researcher Michael Gazzaniga at Salon: "There is something in our left hemisphere, a system, a module, a capacity that is constantly trying to see the meaning in the patterns of activity in the brain. It’s trying to interpret emotional changes and behaviors. It’s trying to put this into a story line. It’s the thing that builds our story. It’s also, I think, responsible for why we can talk about determinism and a lack of free will until we’re blue in the face, but none of us actually believes it. Because we feel we are unified and we have this sense of self. I think this is highly related to the interpreter."
• The difficulties of authors with hard-to-pronounce names.
• Everybody's favorite stealth library artist: link one and link two.
• Laura Miller interviews Jonathan Lethem, and many interesting things are said.
• Annalee makes a list of ten themes shared by historical and science fiction over at io9.
• Colleen visits The Big Idea to talk about The Map of My Dead Pilots, and the issues around writing about real people.
• The fabulous Kat Howard writes about fencing and its fictional versions (delightfully!) at Fantasy.
• Two wonderful and smart women talking: Malinda Lo interviews Cassandra Clare for Diversity in YA.
• I absolutely adored the series of posts Nova Ren Suma hosted on inspiration last month, and her own final post on the subject was no exception. Highly recommended.