Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

I have a confession to make. I was among the many who thought romance novels were silly. Formulaic, pure fluff. Damsels in distress. Ladies in long dresses and painful bodices. Men in puffy shirts. Then I became Booklist’s romance editor. I scrutinized the wonderfully varied array of romance novels that arrived in the mail. I attended a Romance Writers of America [...]

In an essay entitled “The Splendors of Crap,” published in his new book Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon, shares his distaste for contemporary kids’ movies:
“The new studio-made CGI products are like unctuous butlers of the imagination, ready to serve every need or desire as it arises; they don’t leave anything implied, unstated, incomplete. There is [...]

You may recall that, way back in the middle of last summer (or thereabouts), Time Out Chicago hosted a book launch party for Bill Ott’s new book, The Back Page. Well, Daniel Kraus, whose fingers must be smoking from all the videos he’s been editing of late, put together a nice overview of the event. Unfortunately [...]

This past summer I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to fantasist-turned-romancer Maggie Stiefvater, whose recent book, Shiver, is providing vampire-addicted teens a welcome dose of literary lycanthropic methadone. But just how did the author of seriously ass-kicking faerie tales (Lament, Ballad) turn up the heat and find herself writing books with actual [...]

As you might know from reading 10 inches below this post (or, if for some reason you gets infos from somewhere else other than our little Likely Stories, you already know from anywhere else), the National Book Award nominations were announced yesterday. And while the NBAs are no stranger to odd picks, especially in the [...]

Seven months ago, four Booklist editors were shown up by the book-themed board game It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. Seeing how our scattered egos were approaching reassembly, it was time for another round of humiliation. That’s just how we roll.
Thus: Bookchase. The box claims as its audience everyone from “people who have never [...]

Previously I’ve talked about how much my family enjoys Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Tomorrow we’ll be able to share the love during Jumpstart’s fourth annual Read for the Record campaign, which encourages adults and children across the country to read  aloud the same book on the same day—this year it’s Carle’s classic picture book.

If you need a warm-up [...]

Well, I didn’t get a Weeklings post written last week, and I may not get one written today. The reason? We’ve been testing improvements to Booklist Online–improvements that just went live last night. Here’s the scoop:
Beginning with the October 1 issue, now in readers’ hands, our sister publication, Book Links, will be published as a [...]

When I started Book Trailer Thursday back in 1986, I was just a lad with an Apple IIe and a dream. Who could’ve guessed that 1,825 posts later, BTT would be the revered institution that it is today?
Okay, so I’ve only been doing BTT for a few months, but the response has still been darn [...]

On Thursday, September 10, Daniel Kraus gave a thumbs-up to a 30-second spot touting Laurie Ann Levin’s God, the Universe, and Where I Fit In. On Saturday, September 12, Bonita Rodriguez posted the following comment:
This is a good one; we viewed it in lit class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuALxOAL0Ok
The link leads to a trailer for Eva’s Confessions: The MOOD [...]