RIASS stuff:
Review: One Mountain Away by Emilie Richards'Rating: 
'Bring tissues!
Interview:'Juliet Madison on the art of the do-over novel
Review: Silent to the Bone by EL Konigsburg'Rating: Fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will love this.
Book Review: The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini'Rating: A literary novel with potential, but that ultimately disappoints.
Other bookish stuff:
Bookish, a collaboration between Hachette S&S, Penguin USA designed to connect readers with authors, has been launched. Jeff ONeal from Bookriot reviews the site over here. I tend to agree with Jeffs thoughts: the site looks great, but is it enough to pull buyers away from their usual buying habits? And also, Im kind of daunted by the idea of yet another website to keep tabs on.
What is a book in the age of the iPad?'Sometimes when youre so close to a medium, as we all are ' to books, to the way magazines work, and the way distribution works for physical things, and the way publication cycles are for physical things ' and then a new device comes out that requires you to take a step back and disconnect from everything thats part of the incumbent industry, it can take a little while to create the proper distance.
Andrew Karre from Carolrhoda books asks for journalists to do some fact-checking when interviewing self-published authors who make sweeping statements about publishing.
An interview with Jennifer Kean from Hardie Grant Egmont'Romance is a huge trend right now, whether it's the falling over your high heels kind of love featured in Smitten or a sweet, quirky romance captured so well by Melissa Keil in her debut novel'Life In Outer Space. I suspect most publishers will be looking at releasing YA romance titles that don't have a vampire or werewolf in sight, particularly in light of the success'50 Shades of Grey'had in the adult market last year.
Author Michael Wagner on how Maxx Rumble was born'I got the idea to create a storytelling boy who exaggerates when I noticed the way my son and his mates talked about their own sporting adventures. They were in primary school at the time and told some wonderfully entertaining (though not entirely reliable) stories about the things that had happened on the sports field.
On the serialisation of paranormal romance'Such romances, often written by a single author but occasionally being collaborative, exploit the romance reader's addiction to familiar form, by providing multiple romance narratives that share a common thread. The strength of the connection between the individual narratives varies, however, in what I categorise as weak, medium and high-level intensity series associations (Read on for an in-depth analysis of these terms, and the series they apply to)
Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson to star in'The Book Thief
As Barnes & Noble shrinks, small bookstores are born in the US
When writers met their debut novels'Last week, copies arrived, boxed and beautiful, and I had an odd feeling.'I felt nothing.'That's right. I felt nothing. No sense of accomplishment. No surreal feeling of universal lines coming together in one perfect moment where angels sing and demons curse. I wasn't excited. I wasn't giddy. The book is beautiful but I felt' nothing. Contains quotes from a bunch of writers about how they felt when they first saw their book in print.
Amazon has released a list of the US cities with the highest romance novel purchases (obviously this only tracks purchases on Amazon)
Readers, amnesia is making a comeback.
Oh Lord.
Ive only read two books with that theme, that I can remember. But hey its a much better theme than sceret baby!
Uh secret. Ive not had much sleep!
I read an amnesia romance last year, and, eryes. A few problems.
Fortunately Ive mastered the art of selective reviewer amnesia. :D
Actually, having chatted to Juliet Madison yesterday, I do think that do-over novels are an interesting way of applying an amnesia-like trope without actually employing amnesia.
I do like the possibilities that type of storyline can bring up; love my drama! However, amnesia is always made out to be this romantic thing in books, where everything is the same, except the beautiful heroine (or her lover) is just missing a period of time.
Ever since reading a piece about the reality of amnesia a few years ago' I have trouble taking it seriously as a plot device!