This week’s links of note is legitimately shorter than most. I’m in the midst of preparing a huge presentation for YALSA’s YA Lit Symposium and I’ve been working on setting up the forthcoming contemporary week series here at STACKED, to run November 3-10. I’ve got five amazing guest posts, and I’ll be including coordinating book lists to the topics the guests wrote on. Contemporary week will kick off with a post including all our presentation materials from the Symposium, including a massive project I’ve devoted all my free time to. Which would explain why this week’s links of note is shorter.

• What’s new in YA Fiction? Mashups. But not the kind of Mashups where Abe Lincoln is taking on something paranormal. These are mashups that tangle genres. I think some of these work way better than others, especially when trying to sell books to a teen. 

• So how much do women dominate the YA world? Not that much, according to this awesomely well-researched piece over at Lady Business.  So next time there’s moaning about the guys reading problem, maybe it’s not because of who is writing the stories nor who the main characters in stories are. There is another great followup piece over at Zoe Marriott’s blog.

• Turns out Isaac Marion hates that he’s associated with young adult books. Even though it was blurbs from a YA author who got him his start. The shame and stigma, etc. I’m posting this so you can add him to your “don’t bother” list. 

• The amazing ladies of The Readventurer have posted another “wall of books,” this time featuring titles from Australia. I felt my to-read pile grow by leaps and bounds. 

• Here’s a good piece on how to support an author. Though I do find the “buy a copy even if you won’t read it” bit to be kind of weird. I get the point, but I don’t like extra clutter in my house. I’d rather just gift a book in support.  

• Ten essential books for book nerds! How many have you read or do you own? I’ve read The Book Thief and The Polysyllabic Spree. I do own Reading Lolita in Tehran but haven’t read it yet. 

• Want to visit a haunted library? Here are the ten most haunted in the United States. I’ve been to exactly zero of them.  

• Quercus books is going to expand to US distribution. I’ve read a couple of YA titles from Quercus (having ordered them from the UK) and I’ve really enjoyed them. This is great news. 

• Ploughshares literary magazine does a feature on little-known literary boroughs, and this time, they covered Iowa City, IA. I went to college just north of Iowa City and used to go down to their amazing indie, Prairie Lights, to get a fix. I got to hear a few readings there, too, and I had the privilege of hearing so many well-known literary readers while in college because of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop being there. I also had a professor who came from the IWW, which really did transform a lot of my thinking about creative writing and the creative process. When they tell you you will not have opportunities for “cultural events” in the midwest, I beg to differ. I loved reading this piece. 

• Cassie Clare wrote a great piece about bullying and how it’s a bad thing. I know that sounds cheesy and I feel like everyone’s read this already, but I think her speaking out like this — especially with the audience she has — is brave and powerful.  

• Want a literary Halloween costume? Look no further.

• The ten most twisted couples in literary history. I haven’t read enough of these to agree. But do I love a twisted couple.   

• I think it’s way too early to be talking about the best books of the year, but The Huffington Post disagrees with me. They offer up their favorites of the year.  There is one YA book on the list. Can you guess what it is? 

• Speaking of Halloween, twisted couples, and other scary thoughts, make sure you check out the new series over at Nova Ren Suma’s blog: What Scares You?