ETC: Newsy news

What's going on in bookland these days?

Exciting news for Anne lovers here in the land of Anne. It's the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables and I am very pleased to see that there are events beginning to commemorate this. Things like the publication of a prequel, written by Budge Wilson. I was a little leery of any tinkering with Anne Shirley, but I've seen some favorable reviews and I think I'm willing to read it. Also, Kate S is planning a group read of Anne of Green Gables beginning in June. I've seen a number of bloggers discover the joy of Anne for the first time, and enter into the series proper. This would be a great way to share our love of Anne together, and speaking from experience, the book is just as enjoyable on subsequent reads.


Dewey is always finding fun ways for bloggers to meet and connect. I met several new bloggers last year with her blog roll game, and she organized a very successful 24 hour readathon last year with ways to play no matter how involved you are able to be. Now she's planning Weekly Geeks, a thematic blogging challenge. I'm not entirely sure what's involved, but it sounds like fun and a way to play and meet other bloggers. There is also a chocolate internet monkey involved, and that makes it several degrees of awesome right there. Go check her out.

Challenge Update: I am close to finishing off a few challenges, and one book for each will move the Book Awards challenge, the Young Adult Challenge and the Man Booker to the completed list. It will make me feel a little better and accomplished and maybe able to sign up for another one or two. Speaking of new challenges: Maggie's planning to host the Southern Reading Challenge again, and it was one that I enjoyed the most last summer. She puts so much effort into planning and promoting that I got sucked in when I wasn't planning at all to join. I discovered new authors and the whole genre of southern writing. And I liked it.

I'm reading a few good books right now:

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolan is opening my eyes to a continent I'm not that familiar with and an epidemic that I knew about but on a far-away surface level. Reading the personal experiences of individual people puts in a a completely different level. To protect myself a bit, I'm only reading one or two stories a day.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a chunkster I've been wanting to read for a while, and it'll probably take a while as I haven't gotten into it properly yet. I'm reading a chunk, then another book, then a chunk, then another book.... and so on. It may take a while. I started it and The Gathering together for a bit, but there was too much Irish similarities to read at the same time.

I just started The Outcast, and it's sucking me right in very quickly. Post war England, (why is that such a common setting? Atonement, Remains of the Day) with themes of redemption and containing those awful, cold, upper class fathers who refuse to show emotions to their children. It's a nominee for an Orange book prize and so far I can see why there is buzz.

Enjoy your weekend!