Buzz Worthy News
December 8th 2015
Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome and not at all well-written. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.
In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: JK Rowling Talks Snape, Men Need Their Own Coloring Books, Goodread’s Choice Awards, and I Am Jazz Reading Is Packed After Cancellation.
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.
Rowling Talks About Snape
The queen of the internet has spoken and this time it’s about everyone’s favorite villain, Severus Snape.
https://twitter.com/FrazzyJazzy7/status/670133420215898112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/CaptPlanet_/status/670170703111577601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That's not true, I'm afraid. Snape projected his hatred and jealousy of James onto Harry. https://t.co/5jzNHlfSe0
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 27, 2015
Snape is all grey. You can't make him a saint: he was vindictive & bullying. You can't make him a devil: he died to save the wizarding world
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 27, 2015
In honouring Snape, Harry hoped in his heart that he too would be forgiven. The deaths at the Battle of Hogwarts would haunt Harry forever.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 27, 2015
I've got to say this: you lot have been arguing about Snape for years. My timeline just exploded with love & fury yet again. Never change x
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 27, 2015
As always, Rowling has the last word. 🙂
The Morris Awards
The YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) has just released the list of finalists for the Morris awards.
The 2016 finalists are:
- “Because You’ll Never Meet Me” written by Leah Thomas, published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books;
- “Conviction” written by Kelly Loy Gilbert, published by Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group;
- “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” written by Becky Albertalli, published by Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers;
- “The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly” written by Stephanie Oakes, published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers;
- “The Weight of Feathers” written by Anna-Marie McLemore, published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press
Good luck to all the nominees. (Oh, and btw, did you notice they’re all WOMEN?? You are rocking the Morris Awards this year, ladies!)
“This year’s Morris Committee gladly accepted the challenge of searching for the best YA debut author from a collection of exceptional stories,” said Nichole King, chair of the 2016 William C. Morris Award committee. “The 2016 finalists feature teens embroiled in a star-crossed love affair, teens who told stories from inside prison cells, teens valiantly fighting insurmountable odds and teens that were dealt impossible challenges, however, these stories also highlight hope, love and friendship. The committee loved reading all the debuts and we look forward to more exciting stories from these talented authors.”
The Morris Award is named after William C. Morris, an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults. William “Bill” Morris left an impressive mark on the field of children’s and young adult literature. He was beloved in the publishing field and the library profession for his generosity and marvelous enthusiasm for promoting literature for children and teens.
Goodreads’ Choice Awards
The Goodreads’ Choice Awards are out, and even though some of my faves didn’t get picked, at least I have the satisfaction of knowing we all voted for our faves. 🙂
Here are some of the more interesting categories and their winners:
Fiction Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
Mystery & Thriller The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Historical Fiction The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Young Adult All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Romance Confess by Colleen Hoover
Science Fiction Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy #2) by Pierce Brown
Fantasy Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
Horror Saint Odd (Odd Thomas #7) by Dean Koontz
Graphic Novels & Comics Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas
Middle Grade & Children’ The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
Picture Books The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
Debut Goodreads Author Victoria Aveyard (author of Red Queen)
Men Need Their OWN Coloring Books, Thankyouverymuch
Because everything in this world has to be gender specific, I guess, the mens have an adult coloring book that is Just. For. Them.
https://twitter.com/GraceSpelman/status/671721250289557504/photo/1
And what does a MENS coloring book look like, you might want to know… I dunno? Kind of like an other coloring book in the world for adults? At least in the book shown above:
Amazon has a sizable sampling of these for sale, including some that are fairly NSFW. There’s the redundantly-titled Adult Coloring Book For Men: Realistic Coloring Book of Sexy Women and Hot Girls for Men. There’s also one that promises to take the colorer “on a man’s journey”—which, from what I can glean, is creating, courting, and proposing to your dream woman, followed by lots and lots of sex, complete with genitals to fill in with your favorite flesh-toned crayon.
Ewwwww… sorry. sorry. If you like coloring pictures of genitalia, you be you. Man or woman, there is a coloring book for everyone, I guess!
Morrissey Wins Sex Scene Award
You know, I’ve written a few sex scenes *cough* Bellarke fanfic *cough* and they are tough to do right. You have to think of all the moves and the noises and stuffs. Well, apparently I’m not the only one who has a tough time with it, as there are actual awards for who does it the WORST.
This year’s winner? Former Smiths frontman, Morrissey.
According to The Associated Press, the former Smiths frontman was announced the 23rd “winner” of the Literary Review Bad Sex award for his debut novel, List of the Lost, which centered on the supernatural trials of a ’70s Boston relay team. In EW’s poll of the eight finalists, Morrissey’s book won in a landslide. Here’s a snippet of the winning material.
What kind of sex scene will win you that honor? Um… here’s a sample for your reading (non) pleasure.
Eliza and Ezra rolled together into the one giggling snowball of full-figured copulation, screaming and shouting as they playfully bit and pulled at each other in a dangerous and clamorous rollercoaster coil of sexually violent rotation with Eliza’s breasts barrel-rolled across Ezra’s howling mouth and the pained frenzy of his bulbous salutation extenuating his excitement as it whacked and smacked its way into every muscle of Eliza’s body except for the otherwise central zone.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the bathroom, scrubbing my eyeballs. *shudder*
School Cancels Transgender Book Event And Hundreds Attend it At A Library Instead
A school in Wisconsin had scheduled a reading of the book I Am Jazz written by Jazz Jennings, a transgender teen, whose life the book was based on.
The school’s principal, school psychologist and counselor sent out a note to parents alerting them to the reading of I Am Jazz by Jessica Hershel and Jazz Jennings. The note explained that a student at the school identifies as a girl but has male anatomy and the reading would support that student.
“We believe all students deserve respect and support regardless of their gender identity and expression, and the best way to foster that respect and support is through educating students about the issue of being transgender,” the note read, reports The Cap Times.
Unfortunately, the school didn’t care enough to stand up to a bullying organization called Liberty Counsel that threatened to sue them if they continued with the reading, and so it was cancelled.
Thankfully, that is not the end of the story!
Following the cancellation, organizers arranged a reading of the book instead at a library nearby. Amy Lyle, the lead organizer, said she was hoping for about 15 people to show up, LaCrosse Tribune reports. The reading instead drew almost 600.
“I knew that our Mount Horeb community was a loving, compassionate and inclusive one for all kids — I knew that in my heart — but you all have just shown that to be overwhelmingly true,” Lyle told the crowd.
Awww… it’s always nice to get a happy ending for a story like this! So great.
Interesting Book Links
Love DNA of Famous Classic Novels
Georgette
The Morrissey thing is too funny (although I am a fan!)
J.K. Rowling is the best.
The Goodreads awards? I agree with three of the choices. Three. I don’t remember how last year turned out, in terms of what I voted for vs. what won.
I like the idea of men’s coloring books, but I think they would have football, BBQ themes, etc. That’s what my guy friends in the States are obsessed with. LOL
Kate Copeseeley
I guess I’m an outlier, because I only got about 3 myself. I honestly think Uprooted was robbed, because how could anything be better than that book? It was a truly AMAZING bit of fantasy writing.
Yeah… some of the men’s coloring books listed I can’t imagine anyone in my life actually using. O.O
Natalie Monroe
I’m really happy Buzz Worthy news is back! As always, Rowling is queen. I don’t understand why there has to be separate coloring book for men. What wrong with the ones right now?
Kate Copeseeley
So happy to BE back! Had to take a break for Nano, because I just have too much other writing going on right now.
I think of cool coloring books like Game of Thrones and the idea of men specific coloring books seems really lame. I mean, there are plenty out there that both genders would enjoy equally. But whatever. 😀
La Coccinelle @ The Ladybug Reads...
LOL at those “manly” colouring books. I wonder how graphic they actually get. I wonder if we’ll see a weird shift back away from computer porn, with teenage boys passing around their dads’ colouring books…
Re: I Am Jazz… It’s great to see that so many people turned out to the event! But the reasons why the school was threatened with a lawsuit are disturbing:
“But the school pulled back after the Liberty Counsel, a Florida religious conservative group acting on behalf of what it said were “concerned parents,” threatened to sue the district on grounds that the planned discussion violated parents’ constitutional right “to direct the upbringing of their children” and what it called their First Amendment right to refer to a person by his or her biological gender.”
The first part I’ve heard before. People want to be allowed to raise their children as closed-minded bigots. Whatever. But now they’re trying to claim that it’s their “right” to use inappropriate gender pronouns (which is, in my view, bullying and harassment). It amazes me how far some people are willing to go for the right to be nasty.
Kate Copeseeley
Yeah, I have never heard that argument either. It was odd, to say the least. 🙁
Carina Olsen
Yaaay for new blog posts 😀 Love all of these news. <3 Stunning post, Kate, as always 🙂 Sigh, Snape. I loved and hated him, sort of. Love what she writes about him, though 🙂 But ugh, the Goodreads winners. So so so disappointed. Annoyed with the YA winner :p Hmph. Anyway. Thank you for sharing about it all sweetie. <3
Kate Copeseeley
Thanks, Carina! I look forward to your comments every week! 🙂