• Travis does a yearly round up of the year in kid lit miscellanea. It cracks me up. This is the kind of “end of year” I really appreciate.

• Bookpage lists their favorite book covers of 2012. I agree with a ton of them — I really like the Abbott cover, as well as a number of their non-people covers. 

• So “Millennials” don’t like having their digital news flooded with ads, with pop ups, with videos and interactive content and instead would just like to read their news in columns? Color me shocked (see my sarcasm font here, please). 

• Anna captures my heart with this post that breaks down the best of romance novels by their titles. There are charts! What words and professions were most popular in the titles? Check it out.

• Julie offers up her perspective on how we should all be panicking about Common Core. She suggests maybe we shouldn’t and instead, we should think about how we can embrace it since it’s the reality of future education. This is, of course, in response to that insane Guardian article that people decided to panic about rather than think critically about. 

• Cat + Book = Pictures.

• Though this isn’t exactly reading related, it resonated with me hard enough I want to share it: on being a late bloomer. I think about this a lot, about success and timing and goal setting, because when you start to put ages on when you want to achieve certain milestones, it always is more disappointing than it should be when you fail to meet your own (arbitrary) standards. Sometimes, the wait ends up paying off more. 

• Shaun Hutchinson on boys and reading. 

• Can you name celebrities who have been models on book covers? Now you can. I actually knew about the BSC one, but the others were all new to me. 

• My favorite YA column is dedicated to their end-of-year favorite books. That’s right — The Atlantic’s “YA for Grownups” shares their favorites in a number of categories. I wish some of the books had actually been published in 2012 (sure, the paperback edition came out then, but…) though the list is a nice range of titles. Some that got push and some that did not. 

• I don’t care that I shared this last week. I am sharing it again. Brian Farrey’s letter about how much his school libraries mattered to him.

• Many people have talked about what it means now that the New York Times has split up their best sellers list into new categories. I think this explanation is the best. While it sounds great, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be easier for YA or MG authors to shine on the list. 

• Here’s a thought-provoking post on the 7 ways that women are stereotyped, sexualized, and underrepresented on screen. 

• I can’t wrap my head around this article. Lifestyle bloggers aren’t living their lives because they’re not blogging openly about their sex lives. I think the argument gets muddled — I think it’s really that these lifestyle bloggers don’t show off living their lives because of how pristine everything is packaged on their blogs, but that gets tangled in the bit about how they aren’t talking about sex. All I can think of is, sometimes there are limits to what you share openly and publicly, and that is okay. Begging that of bloggers is voyeurism, to be honest.

• The criminals who were involved in the murders that inspired Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood may be linked to another crime, too. 

• Infographic time! What are the best selling science fiction books of all time?

• This is the best blogger post I’ve read in a while. Where is original content? Though I don’t read the blogs that tend to be big on promotional material, I think that what’s said here is important and true and I wish people would be more willing to write and demand original own content. Original content doesn’t need to be brilliant. Just…original! 

• I stumbled upon this response to a guest post I wrote last month (the one about how you’re going to piss people off). I kind of love it — as someone who, despite feeling okay with pissing people off to do my job, still beats herself up about it, thinking about scoring response like they do in gymnastics makes sense. It eliminates the outliers and sets up a real statistical way of determining the strength or weakness of what you’re doing. I’m going to remember that. 

A bit of news for STACKED, too: we’re hosting a new series beginning this coming week. From the 19th through the end of the year, we’re doing a 13 Days of Class 2K13. We’ll have more information when it begins, but we have a ton of guest posts and Twitterviews with debut authors who are part of the Class 2K13. We will have our own posts, too, including our favorites of 2012 coming up soon, as well. 

• Pam at MotherReader posted her amazing annual gift guide, 150 Ways to Give a Book. It’s not just about the books — it’s about an entire experience. I love reading this every year. 

• Speaking of gift giving (I am already tired of thinking about it from typing the words alone), here’s Salon’s guide to gifts for “characters in your life.”

• The ladies over at The Readventurer offer up another “wall of books,” and this time it’s books that guys will love reading. It’s a mix of male and female voices and authors. Worth checking out. 

• Are you a fan of fantasy or science fiction? Then you’ll like knowing that the Encyclopedia of Fantasy is now available for free, along with the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Details here. 

• Here are the 10 grumpiest authors in history. Can you name any others to the list? 

• We’ve now heard that there’s talks between HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster about merging, which comes on the heels of the merger between Penguin and Random House. But what does that mean in terms of profits and shares in the business? Here’s a great graphic to show the numerical breakdowns in the industry. 

• Via the Guardian, the rise of literary genres. Obviously, something I’ve been thinking a bit about lately. I think some of these are legitimate and good genres. Others…I’m not sure I’m sold. Might be the UK slant against my US slant. 

• Let’s talk trends and money following trends, shall we? First, before I share them, let me say that I think there is an obsession with figuring out the next trend, and I don’t understand why. Sometimes, there are going to be books that tackle similar themes. They’re interesting to note, but I don’t think that it’s necessary to devote article after article about what the next big thing is. Just let it happen. It’s probably not a thing anyway. Alas, the next trends, according to different sources, include the rise of thrillers and realistic fiction. I am not entirely sure how realistic fiction can be a trend since it’s been around forever, but, yay? 

• NPR tackles kidlit that features autism in this piece. Missing is Tara Kelly’s Harmonic Feedback (though the main character is more asperger’s than autistic). Again, I don’t think this is a trend but rather a reflection of the reality of today’s kids. 

• Sarah over at Clear Eyes, Full Shelves has a fantastic post in response to a GQ article about erotic literature/the rise of Fifty Shades. Read it if you care at all about female sexuality, about the male gaze, or about male privilege and power in judging what females read for their own pleasure and gratification. So, so good. 

• Readers of Book Riot weigh in on their favorite quarter-life crisis reads. Of the listed reads and of the ones in the comments, I’ve read four. I think de Gramont title is an interesting pick, seeing it’s a story that’s set in high school.

• Adele Walsh was kind enough to share her list of recommended Australian YA authors on a blog post — it’s what she presented about at YALSA’s YA Lit Symposium. 

• Megan Crewe has a really thoughtful blog post about the importance of writing and representing diversity in novels. Guess what? Characters who are of a different background, different race, or different sexuality are as dynamic and as human as anyone else. That’s something to embrace.

• Here are ten suggested books featuring characters who could be the modern Holden Caulfield. Or something. Sometimes the writing in these things kills me. I especially love the bit at the end about how any teenager who binges on Twin Peaks will eat up the story. Guys. Twin Peaks came on in 1990. *I* was 6 years old when it came on. Today’s 16 year olds were born in 1996. In other words, maybe there are a few teens who are watching the show but, uh. Even if the line was in jest, I get a little ranty about this because there ARE people serving teens today who are clueless about their milieu. 

• I’ve never read Terry Pratchett (I tried listening to Nation but couldn’t get into it), but I love this blog post for people who are interested in getting into his work. It’s a great discussion of good entry points. 

• Speaking of reading guides, here’s another neat one from Kirkus: science fiction books for those who love watching science fiction television shows. 

• Do the industry experts think that in today’s market, The Hunger Games could get published? Food for thought. 

• The Sidney Morning Herald wonders if literary sex is better than real sex. It’s written by a romance author who talks about the importance of emotions and other non-physical aspects of writing big scenes. It was this line that killed me in the story: My mum reads all my first drafts, but I realised pretty quickly she wasn’t the person to critique my sex scenes after she exclaimed, “Do people really do that?”

• Much discussion this last week came out of this LA Times Review of Books article about boys in YA fiction and the end of manhood. When I read the article, I didn’t get a sense of being anti-ladies or anti-boys but rather additional stories that DO tackle “manhood” as it’s a social construct. But out of that piece came a bunch of really well-written and thoughtful discussions about the topic of manhood, of girls in young adult fiction, and more. Read Saundra Mitchell’s, Phoebe North’s, and Malinda Lo’s pieces. By the way, the original author expanded her commentary on her own blog.

• Who has better book covers, the US or the UK? 

• You know about book packagers, right? And about Paper Lantern Lit and how they aren’t really a book packager but instead a creative engine or some other non-packager sort of name? Here’s a fascinating article about Paper Lantern Lit and about how they operate. I still get really icked out about these, and I don’t know why. It’s not that I don’t think the authors might have talent, but there’s something about packaging a creative product with nothing but the intent of making money that gets me. 

• Mental Floss shows off 11 books you didn’t know had sequels. I did know some of them, but not all of them. 

• Another great Mental Floss list: 10 adult coloring books. Can someone please get me the unicorn one for Christmas? 

• Ever wanted to work in publishing and have no idea how to get there? This post by Alex Bracken is amazingly thorough and honest about the process. And what I love about it is how similar it is to breaking into librarianship. 

• So do all YA books featured screwed up parents? Not so much. Here’s a list of YA books that feature “grounded parents.” Except I disagree on some of them (sure, the parents in Something Like Normal are married but their marriage is kinda in shambles). 

• Did you know half of self-published authors make less than $500? It’s…not really surprising. But a worthwhile read. 

• The last time I read about the last taboo in YA lit, it was about abortion. But Deborah Heiligman writes about how it might be religion. 

• It’s apparently Baby-sitters Club week on the internet. First, the announcement that in December, Scholastic will release the first 20 books in the series as e-books (with original covers) and second, Ann M Martin picks her favorite books of the series. 

This is something I want to pull out separately because I’ve been thinking about it all week. Angelina came up with a really neat idea last week and has been talking about it a bit over social media with other librarians, and I think it’s something worth becoming a part of and talking about at a little bit of a wider level. It’s a 2013 reader’s advisory challenge and the premise is super simple: every month in 2013, those participating will read a book of a different genre. I plan on taking part, and I think I’m going to follow her genres pretty closely. If I can get organized enough and don’t get lazy, I’ll try to post something once a month next year about the challenge, as well as titles that’d fit into those categories for people looking for recommendations. Obviously, this challenge is open to all readers, not just librarians. 

Which reminds me: if you’ve been wondering about #readadv, we’ll be back soon. The last couple of months have been busy for Liz, Sophie, and myself. We’re in the process of brainstorming a list of topics and questions and are so looking forward to bringing it back full force!