Buzz Worthy News December 6th

Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome and not at all well-written. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kat and Kate are here to give it all to you. Just, ya know, not in any kinda sophisticated sense or nothing.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News, we have Goodreads Awards, Book Shimmy awards, JK Rowling writes about Draco Malfoy, Microsoft ditches Nook, Jennifer Lawrence hates singing and much more.

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two. For new releases and cover reveals of all the best Young Adult fiction, check out our Tuesday post: Hot New Titles.

Book News

Goodreads Awards

There has been a lot of controversy about the Goodreads awards this year, with some readers objecting to the fact that fantasy & scifi were separated in the adult categories and combined in the YA section.  There are also the people who inevitably hated pretty much every book that won.  But here are the winners for YA, in no particular order.

Debut Goodreads Author went to Pierce Brown, for his book Red Rising.

E. Lockhart took the YA Fiction category with the book We Were Liars.

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan won best MG.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare won best YA Fantasy.

And my 6yo was delighted to see that Mo Willems won Best Picture Book for The Pigeon Needs a Bath.

Source

Book Shimmy Awards

So Epic Reads had their annual Book Shimmy Awards Youtube Show this week, which is basically YA readers picking their favoritest books ever and voting online for them (116,000 votes were tallied for the final round).  Here are the results in no particular order for you to either squee or sulk over.  (also, the Youtube video is linked in the source for this)

The Pagemaster (Author of the Year):

Keira Cass

Hot Under the Covers (Steamiest Book of the Year):

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Teardrops on My Shelf (Made us Cry the Most):

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Silver Screen Award (Best Movie Adaptation):

Mockingjay (based on the book by Suzanne Collins)

Here & Now Award (Contemporary Fiction):

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Best Debut Novel:

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

We Need Diverse Books Award:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

A Whole New World Award (Fantasy):

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas tied with The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Best of Shelf Award (Best of the Best):

The One by Keira Cass

Source (Trophy Created By Epic Reads Fan Colleen)

Microsoft Says, “See ya!” to Nook

Poor Nook is like the nice guy that gets too clingy too fast and then gets dropped like a hot potato by the girl he is currently dating.  Seriously, they just can’t seem to find a company to form endless love and bookselling with.  And in the latest tale of woe in Nook’s hand-written journal of sadness and tears, Microsoft has sent that dreaded text, “It’s not you, it’s me.  Or maybe you.  I dunno.”

Just over two years into a rocky partnership, Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have decided to call it quits. The mega-bookseller announced Thursday that it plans to buy out Microsoft’s stake in its albatross of an e-reader, the Nook.

Microsoft bought into the Nook in 2012, investing $300 million to earn a share of about 17 percent in its ownership. In the time since, hopes for the deal’s prospects have faded. A low point came with news of last year’s holiday sales, which showed Barnes & Noble’s Nook division plummeting 60.5 percent from the year before, according to Publishers Weekly. In June of this year, the bookseller announced a plan to spin off its Nook unit into a separate company sometime next year — news that was greeted with cheers from investors.

Now, Microsoft will sell its stake in Nook Media back to Barnes & Noble for about $125 million.

“As the respective business strategies of each company evolved, we mutually agreed that it made sense to terminate the agreement,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

Don’t worry, Nook.  You’ll find the right company someday.  In the meantime, I’ll take you out for drinks and let you tell me all your troubles.

Source

JK Rowling Writes Some Stuff

In order to taunt us with the cold fact that she will never NEVER write another Harry Potter book, JK Rowling is going to release a THIRD piece from the magical world, featuring none other than everyone’s favorite bad boy, Draco Malfoy.

So, first it was Rita Skeeter, then Dolores Umbridge, and now she’s written stuffs about Draco Malfoy?  Is Rowling trying to kill our love for the land witches and wizards by inundating us with stories from its most annoying citizens?  I mean, srsly, WTF, Rowling?  I’ve had it up to Professor Dumbledore’s pointy hat with all these lame characters getting content.  Erg.

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Book to Movie News

Jennifer Lawrence Hates Singing

So, you may not know this, but apparently the star of the insanely popular Hunger Games movies (based on the book series), Jennifer Lawrence is terrified to the point of shaking and sweating of having to sing in public.  In the newest released film, Mockingjay Part 1, she sings The Hanging Tree and here is what she had to say about it:

“I can’t stand singing. The idea of singing in front of people is my biggest fear in the entire world. I cried the day that I did that,” she told HitFix during press for the film in London this week. “I was shaking. I was like, ‘I want my mom.’ I’ve never listened to it. When that scene comes on, I plug my ears.”

I don’t think I’d want to sing anywhere but my shower, either, so I sympathize with her.

Source

New Trailer For The Rest Of Outlander Season 1

April 4th is a date that has been on my mind for weeks, because it marks the return of Outlander from its mid-season hiatus.  And rest assured, Starz wants to keep it in your minds.  They’ve just released a teaser trailer for the second half of the season and it looks GOOD.

Kody Keplinger On The Duff Movie Adaption

As I mentioned before, the trailer for the movie version of The Duff  seems to bear little resemblance to what I remembered from the book.  Apparently, I’m not the only reader to have drawn that conclusion, as many fans have reached out to the author to ask about the faithfulness of the adaption.  This is what Keplinger had to say:

So, with that said, yes. Based on the trailer, it does seem like a lot has changed, and I understand why some of you are concerned. When I first learned, a while back, about some of the changes made in adapting, I was upset, too. This was my first book, after all, and it means a lot to me.

Which is why I’ve taken on the attitude I’ve talked about on here before: I’m okay with changes as long as it’s a good movie that, in the end, stays true to the idea that EVERYONE, no matter what you look like, can be the DUFF. (Even someone as adorable as Mae Whitman – who, BTW, has the BEST facial expressions in this trailer. OMG, I love her!)

But WHY the changes? Well, I actually asked them that early on, and the answer is pretty simple. For those of you who’ve read THE DUFF, you know that there’s a bit of …umm… risqué material.  The book is a little on the sexy side, and frankly, a faithful adaptation would have likely resulted in an R rating, which would limit the audience. CBS wanted to make a film that had the same message as the book but that would also fit at PG-13 rating. Which, at least to me, makes a lot of sense.

I don’t want to be argumentative towards the author herself, but I did a re-read of her book over the weekend.  First of all, there is some sexytimes stuff in the book, but none of it detailed and with VERY FEW changes, it could have been kept almost verbatim and still kept its PG-13 rating.  You just don’t show all the stuff, duh.  There was a pretty drawn out and detailed sex scene in the movie version of If I Stay, but that is rated PG-13.

Secondly, and this is way more important to the readers, there was no makeover involved in The Duff (well, there was a small MENTAL makeover).  She never changed what she looked like or how she acted.  She didn’t worry about her “uni-boob”, she never ASKED for a makeover.  The guy in the story (guys, actually) liked her for who she was, no flashy prom dress necessary to grab anyone’s attention.

And thirdly, THERE WAS NO BITCH QUEEN REIGNING OVER THE SCHOOL.  I mean, honestly, guys, can we just drop that trope????  So over it.

No offense to Ms. Keplinger in any way, but as I see it, they took the meat out of the story and turned it into a twist on She’s All That, which is a crying shame, because the book deals with a lot of themes that are way more important than getting a makeover from the school hottie.

One more little detail, the writer for this mess Josh Cagan, has written for such other stellar projects as Undergrads, Bandslam 2009, and Bananapocalypse.  In other words, there is little hope for you.

Source

Interesting Links:

Artists Re-imagine Beloved Children’s Stories (The Harry Potter ones are so cool!)