Happy Friday! Before we get into it, some housekeeping: Some of you have been asking if you can get autographed copies of The Royal We and the answer is yes! We signed stock when we were in Chicago last weekend, so The Book Stall has a lot of signed copies at hand right now, and will happily ship to you wherever you may be. You can call them at 847 446-8880 to order, or email [email protected]. (They’ve actually got LOTS of signed books in stock, so take a look at the list and see if there’s anything else you want, too.)
Readers in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, we will have some good news for you on that front VERY SOON.
And on to the business at hand!
– This is fun! NPR wants to know all about your favorite romantic novels for their Summer of Love. (They’re putting together a list of 100 love stories; it doesn’t need to be Romance romance, but can be.) I can’t WAIT to see the list.
–Speaking of love, I love The Toast, and I love this: The Greatest Wedding Group Shot Of All Time Is From 14th-Century Bologna. It’s so brief and perfect. Mallory Ortberg is a genius.
– Carolina Herrera is OVER the sheer trend, to which I say, INDEED. (The Washington Post)
– The idea of Chris Hemsworth as the receptionist in the new Ghostbusters is so delightful. He’s good at comedy and he’s so likeable and also he’s hot. I decided Ghostbusters HQ is, in my fantasy world, across from GFY HQ and he and our new receptionist (Chris Evans) go out for happy hour on the regular. (Lainey)
– Flavorwire gives us a Classic Book for Every Myers-Briggs Personality Type.
– Speaking of books, School Library Journal asked a bunch of authors and illustrators what they’re reading this summer, and the results make for an EXCELLENT list. (I am not just saying that because Leila Sales name-checked The Royal We — she said, “Bex is one of the best narrators I’ve met in years”! — but that WAS my favorite part, let’s be honest.)
– We were likewise delighted to make Buzzfeed’s list of 29 Best Summer Reads. This is definitely the only time I will ever be on a list with Tolstoy.
– Let’s go to here: Hobart, NY, which The Guardian calls “America’s burgeoning book village.”
– At Bustle: I Washed My Hair With Orange Fanta And It Revamped My Volume And Texture Unexpectedly. Oh my god, you guys. I am totally going to end up doing this.
– I love this story of the man who donated his (dead) wife’s wedding dress to the local charity shop with a note of good luck on it. That’s totally a novel right there: the story of the first couple, and then of course of the woman who buys the dress. Someone get to work on that! (Yahoo!)
– Peach sauvignon blanc sorbet? OKAY. (Cup of Jo)
– Jezebel’s interview with OITNB/HTGAWM’s Matt McGorry — about feminism, among other things — is well worth a read.
– Pajiba’s Seriously Random Lists feature always makes me giggle. This week, in the form of Five Horrible Movie Characters Whom Everyone Still Wants to Bone.
– This is great, at Mental Floss: 12 of the Sweet Valley High Books’ Most Ridiculous Plotlines. To wit, “Jessica continues to see Jonathan, who Liz has figured out is a vampire based on some books she found at his house. She tells all the SVH kids, and they believe her. When Jonathan takes Jessica to his lair—a cave on the beach—Liz and Todd come to save the day, an angry mob on their heels. Jonathan turns into a bird and flies away. Vampires are real. The end.” WHAT? I missed that one.
– At Celebitchy, they’ve got the Mockingjay 2 trailer. I must confess, I had issues with that book — namely how much of the ending happened off-screen/while Katniss was in a coma or whatever — but the trailer is promising.
– Vulture has all the dropped plot points on Pretty Little Liars, so…ALL OF THEM? This in particular made me laugh: “It is very difficult to believe that a man who spent what felt like years spying on four teenagers from various bunkers full of surveillance equipment all in the name of an accurate true-crime novel would be totally fine with letting the pages of his hard work flutter to the ground off a ski lift, all so he could continue to statutorily rape Aria. I’m not buying it, Ezra. Wasn’t your agent mad?”
– At Vanity Fair, this oral history of Clueless — excerpted from As If!: The Oral History of Clueless, as Told by Amy Heckerling, the Cast, and the Crew by Jen Cheney, for which (in the interest of full disclosure) we were interviewed (I am in Clueless [that is a lie]) — is an AWESOME must-read.
