This can't miss!

Whenever I get a break from shelving, I like to try to come up with books to pitch to publishers. And today I think I've stumbled upon an idea guaranteed to be a hot seller:

Stuff on My Bad, Painted Cat.

It'll be a book of photos of my cranky cat, painted up to look like—I don't know—a mime or something, covered in stuff I have around my house.

Admit it. It's brilliant.

My New Favorite President

Can you identify the former POTUS who said this:

"Perhaps that study of literature is fullest which we steal from daily duties."

Hmm? Accolades to the person who can.

February Newsletter Literary Couples Quiz: The Answers

A. Mister Darcy (Lizzie Bennett)
B. Nick Charles (Nora Charles)
C. Lady (The Tramp)
D. Dashiell Hammet (Lillian Hellman)
E. Romeo (Juliet)
F. Catherine (Heathcliff)
G. Gertrude Stein (Alice B. Toklas)
H. W.H. Auden (Chester Kallman)
I. Eloise (Abelard)
J. Dante (Beatrice)
K. Tom Sawyer (Becky Thatcher)
L. Scarlett O’Hara (Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy and Rhett Butler)
M. Anais Nin (Henry Miller)
N. F. Scott Fitzgerald (Zelda)
O. Sylvia Plath (Ted Hughes)
P. Donald Hall (Jane Kenyon)
Q. Jonathan Safran Foer (Nicole Krauss)
R. Virginia Woolf (Leonard Woolf)
S. Byron Katie (Stephen Mitchell)
T. Harold Pinter (Antonia Fraser)
U. Michael Frayne (Claire Tomkins)
V. Susan Sontag (Annie Leibovitz)\
W. Michael Chabon (Ayelett Waldman)
X. Vendela Vida (Dave Eggers)
Y. Ayun Halladay (Greg Kotis)
Z. Jane Eyre (Mister Rochester)

Ed's Roundup

Some really amazing stuff in today's roundup from Ed Champion. Of particular interest: the link to this fascinating blog by a fiction writer dealing with a stroke, and this Tetris-themed bit of vandalism in Denver.

(Oh, and Wonder Woman is not the most boring of all comic book characters. Cut off his hand. Have him grow a beard. It doesn't matter: Aquaman is the dullest superhero around.)

Staff favorites

Case
Originally uploaded by ubs_blogger.

I'd rather be reading...

EmbryoyoMove
Originally uploaded by ubs_blogger.

If today I was just sitting around reading, I think I'd be reading one of these two titles.

It would either be the new book of poems by Dean Young, Embryoyo. Here's a sample line from "Sean Penn Anti-Ode":

"Must Sean Penn always look like he's squeezing/the last drops out of a sponge and the sponge/is his face? Even the back of his head grimaces."

Dean Young is awesome. Even though he's not this Dean Young.

Or it would be Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas. In Move Under Ground, Jack Kerouac and a ragtag band of beats must save the world from the Elder Gods of H.P. Lovecraft bizarre Cthulhu stories. I also eagerly await Under My Roof, the next Mamatas book, due any day now.

ALA announces literary award winners

The children's department is all abuzz regarding the American Library Association's announcement on Monday of the outstanding books of 2006. It's especially exciting because two of the authors honored are local! Laura McGee Kvanosky snagged the Theodor Seuss Geisel Beginning Reader Award for Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways, and Kirby Larson received a Newbery Honor for Hattie Big Sky. Congratulations, ladies!

Meanwhile, we're knee deep in deliberations for awards of our own. The Ubies, highlighting our favorite picture book and children's novel of 2006, will be announced very soon!

A Best of 2006 Booklist!

Seriously! Someone has compiled—get this—a list of good books from 2006.

It's a nice one, too. The fiction list is filled with titles I regret not having picked up yet.