May 17

May 17 Links + Things: Gendered Books, Hulk vs Grizzly, More Tiger Eyes News, Recommended Sale Books + More

Happy Friday, all! This week's Links + Things is a bit on the light side as I burned up a lot of my best stuff last week.

This Week's Video of Awesome

I asked my husband if he'd seen any fantastic YouTube videos lately and, naturally, he sent me this clip of the Incredible Hulk fighting a grizzly bear. It's quite excellent, no?

Required Reading

Leigh Bardugo's Tumblr

There’s room for all kind of heroes and heroines and some of our greatest stories happen to be love stories too. Love, friendship, sexual attraction— all essential parts of life. It’s only when girls or women become the audience that we start to turn our noses up at something that we all care about.

I loved author Leigh Bardugo's response to a reader who's frustrated that YA books aren't "geared towards guys," as she hits the nail on the head with regard to something that always bothers me: the dismissal of stories involving romance and love. Sarah Rees Brennan added some additional thoughts that are spot-on as well.

Cover Flip: The Action Plan (Maureen Johnson)

Coverflip’s ultimate goal is to show that books have no gender. Let’s stop pre-determining what’s for boys and what’s for girls. And it aims to do this by playing around with the cover image to show that covers are simply covers, and you can switch them around and change perception in a heartbeat. The media is not going to fix this. And publishers can’t really fix it. It’s up to readers. To paraphrase John and Yoko, “Gendered books are over, if you want it.”

I haven't written about the "Cover Flip" conversation, and am not sure that I will, because my thoughts are scattered and complicated and possibly controversial, but I've been fascinated about how the discussion took on a life of its own in unexpected--and often saddening--ways. Maureen Johnson reigns that in a bit with her thoughts on what readers and others can do to impact change regarding gendered book cover design.

Are you there Hollywood? It's me, Judy. (EW)

After Tiger Eyes wrapped, the deal with Amber Entertainment eventually fell apart. “We fought for a year to get control of the film,” sighs Lawrence. “Once we did, we thought, ‘Surely someone will want this.’ ” But it wasn’t that simple. While Hollywood was deep in the throes of its love affair with YA—thanks to Harry Potter and Twilight—Tiger Eyes didn’t fit its template. It was a movie about real teenagers dealing with real problems: no magic, no thrilling danger, no fangs. It didn’t have a big producer backing it, nor was there an A-list star attached. Sure, there was a name on board—Judy Blume—but that wasn’t enough on its own. So Lawrence commissioned a three-minute sizzle reel showing the scope of his mother’s influence on pop culture to bring with him to pitch meetings.

I was thrilled to find a lengthy feature about Judy Blume and the Tiger Eyes movie in last week's Entertainment Weekly. The story is now up online and so worth a read for all the little tidbits about that book and others, as well as some fascinating insidery stories about how Tiger Eyes as a movie has been a tough sell, despite the boom in the YA books to movie phenomena.

Cover Art News

Just One Day by Gayle Forman - Paperback Cover, Aug. 2014

Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield, U.S. Edition | Sept. 2013

Here are two cover switches, neither or which I'm thrilled with. Gayle Forman's Just One Day is getting a makeover for the paperback edition, and it definitely has more of a romance-centric feel, as opposed to the melancholic vibe of the hardback. One of the biggest complaints I've read about that book (which I loved and Laura and I discussed extensively in a podcast) is that people thought it would be more of a story about the relationship between Allyson and Willem, and it's largely focused on the aftermath of the day the two spend together. This new cover will only further mislead readers, though it will likely really fly off the shelves.

Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield, published as Friday Brown in Australia and the U.K., got a new title awhile back for its U.S. release (which I think is a great improvement), and I spotted the new cover on Goodreads this week. It is, in a word, horrid. From the illegible typography to the drowning girl photo, I'm just not sure what the designers were thinking. It's too bad, because both the Aussie and British covers were fantastic and very appealing.

I've never read anything by Melissa Marr, but I suspect her new novel for adults, The Arrivals, will be my first, if for nothing else than the fantastic cover than seems to really convey the essence of the story of a parallel, Wild West sort of world. The full front and back cover is really something, right?

Books That Are Cheap

(Click on the book cover for more information.)

The Story of Us

By Deb Caletti

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

By Deb Caletti

Nature of Jade

By Deb Caletti

I reviewed Deb Caletti's first novel for adults, He's Gone, this week and was reminded about how much I really enjoy her writing. Three of her novels for teens are on sale through Monday in Kindle format for $3.79. I'd get on any of these deals if you haven't read Deb's novels before.

For more curated book discounts, check out last week's Links + Things, as those sales are ongoing.

Happy weekending, all!