RIASS stuff:
Evil in-laws, spineless husbands and Kirsty Crawford's The Secret Life of Husbands'Rating: 
Shakespeare on Toast by Ben Crystal (or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the Bard)'Rating:
1Q84, The Midwich Cuckoos'and Liz Jensen's'The Uninvited'Rating:
Other bookish stuff:
10 great authors we should all stop pigeonholing'These include Ursula LeGuin, Jack London and Jules Verne (for my part, Im happy to continue pigeonholing Verne).
On moving print publications online'In addition to discussing what the move to digital means, the author also gives some tips on the transition, including defining what online publication means to you, having a consistent brand, using social media, updating regularly and ensuring that quality is retained.
An interview with E. Kristin Anderson, author of Dear Teen Me, which had its origins in the blog of the same name. When we put together the blog, we thought it was great to have a space for authors to reach out to teens in this entertaining but also heartwarming way. I think a lot of adults have forgotten what it's like to be a teenager ' and why wouldn't they? Being a teen is really, really hard!
Using invalid beliefs to show character growth'Invalid beliefs are things like I am unlovable, money is evil, sex equals love, the world is a dangerous place'An invalid belief is a great way to develop inner conflict and show character growth. With every turn of the plot, the character is forced into situations that challenge these beliefs. These beliefs lead to behaviours, often self-defeating behaviours that thwart your protagonist and make the story problem difficult to solve. Exactly what you want.
John Green offers to telephone people to get them to vote.'(PS, Americans, have you voted? Have you?)
Caragh OBrien on writing without a safety net'Each book I write seems to require its own process, and this one apparently needs me to write wild, without my net.' How unexpected this is to me.' How scary and fascinating. 'How perfect that now is the time my editor is on maternity leave. 'Later, someday, the reasonable grown-up part of me will certainly resurface and look around for guidance, but for now, the brave, new, twisted, magical side of me is delving deep.
The League of Extraordinary Librarians'Stats and graphs galore!
Whats this? The Famous Five on TV?
It looks like criminals are the new vampires in YA'Maybe adults are realising that we older teens arent as fragile as they once thought we were. We know about all the bad things already, know they happen and what some people do. So why arent we meant to read about it in a fictional book ' why are we told Oh, you dont need to know about that yet, even though we see it all on TV and in the news?
Got a spare $8k? Why not buy a scale model of a bookshop?
When agents attack: a thought-provoking look at the changing author-agent relationship'What we're seeing is a balancing of power. Authors have more control of their careers and can be more demandingAuthors have long been frustrated by the publishing process, and rightly so. It has been an antiquated machine that never treated the people who actually drive it with the respect they deserve. But that is less true now than it has been at any point since I became an agent.
Inside the Caldecott Prize with Steve Herb'There is a certain marriage of words and images that is important. The criteria, which are listed on the American Library Association's website, suggest that components of the book besides its illustration can harm its chances. But this year the winner is a wordless book. As Art Spiegelman says, there are plenty of words in a wordless book. They are just in the mind of the reader.
Bookstore secrets: a slideshow of pretty things
J M Blackman on the use of the m word'Not only does minority fiction open the doors (and windows and closets) of the issue, but it also continues to compound the problems around the word 'minority' as well as the people identified as minorities. But have no fear'this complication is both natural and necessary. It gives us the ability to more easily access the things we are too inexperienced, too unaware, too afraid to talk and think about.'Here is where the fiction part of 'minority fiction' is important. Writers and readers have used fiction to discuss, dissect and devolve societal issues for longer than I can accurately guess (or research).
