BOOKMARKED is the name of our paper.li journal, but since not everyone is on Twitter and not everyone on Twitter likes paper.li, this is an adhoc round-up on the blog highlighting links and news that might be of interest.
Julian Fraire Memorial Fund
Some of you might have already heard that author Jackie Barbosa lost her son to a fatal car accident two weeks ago. A memorial fund has been established, which the Jackie and her family are planning to turn into a scholarship fund in her son’s name. You can find donation details at Beverley Kendall’s blog. If you’d prefer to support Jackie by buying her books, you can do so here: Booktopia | Bookworld | Amazon US | Book Depository | Kobo | Nook. You can find her backlist on her website.
Book o’clock
A huge thank you to everyone who attended Book O’Clock. I think every person who came along bought books, and we have raised $330 so far for World Vision. I’ll be taking the remaining books to the secondhand bookshop this week, hopefully to add to our fundraising total. Special thanks to Sarah H, Jacq and Maz, who turned up early to help set up!
Sarah Mayberry prize pack winner
Congratulations to Kaetrin, who has won our coveted Sarah Mayberry prize pack! We asked people to tell us what tattoo they’d have put on their bum, and Kaetrin’s answer involving her awesome imaginary bottom definitely struck a chord. :D
In this imaginary place where I’d be prepared to show my bottom to a tattoo artist and where it would be the sort of bottom I’d be happy to show just about anyone because IT IS JUST THAT AWESOME, I’d have a cute bookworm peeking out over the top of a book. (Alas, I have yet to visit this imaginary place…)
Thanks to everyone who entered!
Local author appearances
Helene Young will be launching her new release, Safe Harbour, at Black Cat Books, Paddington on April 3 at 6.30pm. (Source: ARRA)
Alyssa J Montgomery will be appearing at a fundraising event at the Queensland Eye Institute on April 5 at 2pm. (Source: ARRA)
Fleur McDonald will be talking about her new book, Crimson Dawn, at Ballajura Public Library on April 8 at 6.30pm. The event is free. (Source: Dymocks)
Carla Caruso will be signing her book Catch of the Day at Collins Booksellers Edwardstown on April 10 at 1pm. (Source: ARRA)
Cathryn Hein and Rachael Johns will be talking about their latest books at ‘A Romantic Morning’ event at the Penrith City Library Theatrette on May 9 at 10am. (Source: ARRA)
Rachael Johns will be talking about her upcoming book, Outback Blaze, at the ‘Diamond in the Dust’ event at Parramatta City Library on May 9 at 6pm. (Source: ARRA)
News from local bookshops
In case you missed it, we’re running a giveaway for Bookworld. Click here for a chance to win romance books by some of my favourite Australian authors. Coincidentally, Kaetrin is running a similar giveaway on her blog, so if you’d like a different set of titles, check out her giveaway.
The next paranormal book club at Galaxy Bookshop is on Thursday, April 10, starting from 6.30pm. The topic for the night is book covers:
If you haven’t been to book club yet, you should really give it a go in April. Cover Art tends to be a fun, raunchy, affectionately snarky discussion. All you need is an opinion and an appreciation for chocolate and chips. It’s a great way to wind down the week.
but going by past experience, the group tends to meander very quickly to other related and not-so-related discussions!
Booktopia has outgrown their Lane Cove premises and is moving soon. This means, of course, that they’re holding a moving sale! You can pick up a Mills & Boon title from $2.95.
Shearer’s Bookshop in Sydney has decided to close its bricks and mortar shop on May 31. They’ll still be trading online, but this is a huge loss to the book community. I know many readers who have fond memories of browsing their shelves and meeting up with friends at Froth cafe, and they were fantastic supporters of local authors.
Readmill app to be discontinued
The Readmill app will no longer be available after June, and it is now closed to new signups. Readmill was acquired by Dropbox, who is not interested in maintaining the app but in acquiring the collaboration technology and the team behind it.
Blog hops
Check out the list of best 101 books as voted by members of Dymocks’s loyalty program, Booklovers. I know you’re expecting me to whinge, but you won’t hear whingeing from me. The list includes a diverse range of books across genres, particularly sff. Fifty Shades of Grey makes the list at 43 and Twilight came in at 82.
Children’s and YA specialist Emily Gale from Readings responds to The Independent’s book editor Katy Guest’s new policy not to review books exclusively marketed to one gender:
I’m yet to read an online article or newspaper column that hits the nail on the head and perhaps this is because there is no single nail to hit – this debate is more like Whack-A-Mole. And we’re all at fault: publishers make the books, bookshops sell the books, customers buy the books – and the process isn’t linear, it’s circular. As soon as you decorate the nursery, or name your daughter after a flower, or tell your son he ‘needs’ a haircut – then you’re swept up in the circle too.
…
One thing I’m really happy to note is that as quickly as kids slide into gender-based fads, they also slide back out of them completely unscathed.
Claire Armistead at The Guardian talks briefly about what makes a great sentence in fiction (via @danielle_binks) and asks readers to nominated candidates from genre fiction. Most of the suggestions I’ve read come from sff or crime fiction. I know there are some in romance, because I’ve read them, but finding one brilliant sentence is difficult because context usually matters a lot. If you’re interested in my favourite quotes, I keep a record on Tumblr (though I don’t always remember to update it).
For your daily dose of literary snobbery, head over to The Huffington Post, where Alice Carey bemoans the demise of bookstores and blames it on Kindle readers who like to buy books but don’t read them: ‘who harbor nascient thoughts of reading, but no longer feel the need of real books made of real paper to do so — hence the demise of bookstores.’ (Via Lark @ The Bookwyrm’s Hoard) Almost none of her arguments actually stand up to a test of logic, though I sympathise with the sense of nostalgia that looking at a bookshop brings. But I also get that from libraries and cafes, so it’s not like that’s unique to bookshops either.