I’m at ALA in Philadelphia for the next few days, sitting in a room full of fellow committee members as we hash out the final list and annotations for Outstanding Books for the College Bound. It’s a list updated every five years, so we’ve been reading tons and tons of fiction and non-fiction ranging from juvenile to adult in order to build a list of books that those eager to attend college or develop a lifelong habit of learning and exploration. It’s been a lot of work, and it has been a lot of reading. I’ll talk more about it once the final lists are out and public.

The introduction is sort of an explanation for a shorter-than-usual links of note post, but there was some really excellent reading over the last couple of weeks that I wanted to share. If there’s something I’ve missed, especially this past week, I’d love to hear in the comments so I have some post-conference reading to dive into.

• Molly Wetta began rounding up the YA books out or coming out soon in 2014 that feature LGBTQ characters. Go read and add these titles to your expanding to-read lists. 

• Since it’s that time of year, and the awards will be announced on Monday morning, I found Whitney Winn’s roundup of Mock Printz discussions really interesting. See what other people think is Printz worthy around the US. 

• Here’s a nice post over at Tumblr of YA books featuring Korean Americans written by Korean Americans. Increase your knowledge of diverse reads. 

• Speaking of diversity, Matthew Jackson, who has written for us in the past, has a really excellent post at Blastr about how Marvel and Warner Brothers need to be better with developing films that feature more diversity in terms of gender and ethnicity. It’s not book-related, but it’s really good reading and really important reading.

• Becky over at RA for All asks who is responsible for doing reader’s advisory? 

Elsewhere from me, I had two posts over at Book Riot:

• Why our youngest reading experiences matter — a little bit of talk about why reading books when we’re “too young” is important and helpful to us as readers (and why sometimes when we revisit those books that impacted us at that age no longer hold the same power they once did).

• Continuing my “Beyond the Bestsellers” series, I talked about what to read next after diving into Ellen Hopkins. 

Trong G. Nguyen’s library art project. Check out the rest of the library-loving artists in this roundup over at the Library as Incubator Project site.

It’s been a few weeks since the last link roundup, but there’s been quite a bit of good stuff to share from the book world:

• Over at Cite Something, Amanda MacGregor has rounded up a number of posts that are older readers (those who aren’t teens, that is) talking about favorite books they read when they were teenagers. Check out the first post, then go forward and read the ones that came up this week, too. 

via Book Riot’s 7 DIY Bookish Thanksgiving Decor

• Over at Flavorwire, there’s an interesting roundup of 50 books that defined the past five years in literature. These sorts of lists don’t always catch my eye nor do I stop and think about them a whole lot, but this one came to my attention because Becky over at RA for All talked about why those of us who do reader’s advisory or work with readers should care about this kind of list. She makes some really excellent points about making sure we don’t overlook them or undervalue them just because they’re no longer the brightest or shiniest.

• The Nation has a piece about the State of Literature. More specifically, it talks about reviews, about book covers, marketing, and how all of those things are impacted (or not) by gender and preconceptions of what a book is or is not.  There’s some really interesting talk in there about “new adult,” as well, and the primary focus is about readership, which is what made it stand out to me.  

• Here’s a fun one: The University of Illinois has archived online a bunch of the American Library Association’s old promotional reading posters. Enjoy. 

• In Australia, a look at gender bias in children’s literature. I am so glad this conversation is happening, continues to happen, and it keeps popping up all over the place in different variations. 

This is a cat dressed like Edward Cullen. These pets in literary-inspired costumes are ridiculously amusing.

Ready for a roundup of all things book, literary, reading, and otherwise worth clicking? I’ve got a mix of all kinds of stuff to share.

• Remember a few weeks ago that survey about book blogging? The results from that survey are in, and it’s interesting to see how long people have been blogging and what’s made their blogging change. Anyone who blogs goes through times of feast and times of famine, and it’s comforting to look at these results and feel like you’re not alone in those experiences.

• We don’t cover middle grade much here, but I do like to keep tabs on it. Angie Manfredi has a really nice reader’s guide for those who are looking for the next books to read or give to readers who love the Percy Jackson series. And if you haven’t been following Sarah Thompson’s excellent “So you want to read middle grade?” series, you should.