Buzz Worthy News 30th July 2012

30 July, 2012 Buzz Worthy News 35 comments

Buzz Worthy News

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: Random House will be on your TV, JK Rowling reads at the Olympics, Awesome Sally Ride passed away.  Read for more news and, as always, Scandalous Scandals!

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly Monday post for all the best book world news and blogging gossip.  For Young Adult releases and and all the hottest Cover Reveals, check out our weekly Friday post, Hot New titles.

Book World News

Creator of The Boy Who Lived Reads The Boy Who Never Grew Up

There is a video for those of you who missed the magical moment at which JK Rowling read a portion of Peter Pan before Voldemort attacked her and was beaten off by Mary Poppins look-a-likes.

Rupert Grint ran with the torch from Middlesex University to Barnet near London.

Still, as this big run nears its end, Rupert Grint was successful and among the last to carry the official Olympics torch as this seminal symbol of the games heads for Olympic Stadium. There, the last torchbearer will light the cauldron in a dramatic way during the much-anticipated opening ceremony that say with a lot of pomp and circumstance that the games, herewith, begin.

Kenneth Branagh read some of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, because WHAT ELSE WAS HE GOING TO DO?!

And that completes our requisite Olympics coverage.

SOURCE and SOURCE

NPR Hosts YA Poll – Best YA Ever.

There is a poll going for THE BEST YA EVER.  This is important stuff, people.  Go vote so that we’re not forever labelled with rubbish (voted on because, like, the guy was SO HAWT!).

You can vote up to 10 books – which seems like a lot until you see the list and, frankly, will probably have a hard time choosing your favourite 20 or 25.

and the question of how well it fits the YA category. The latter sparked plenty of debate; there is, after all, no objective test for teen fiction. Is Pride and Prejudice YA? What about The Catcher in the Rye? Or The Lord of the Rings? (No, yes and yes, respectively.) The judges looked at qualities such as a book’s themes, the age of its main characters, its reading level. But in the end, the most important test was often whether a given book is one that teens themselves have claimed — whether they do, in fact, voluntarily read it.

SOURCE

Hail to a Badass – Sally Ride Leaves The World a Little Less Awesome Than It Was

When people told you, growing up, that girls could do anything – it was because Sally Ride had proved it true.  To our great sadness, she passed away this week at the age of 61 after an exhaustive battle with pancreatic cancer.

Sally Ride was the first American woman in space – and we’re pretty sure space has never been the same since she punched her way through the Earth’s atmosphere and made space 20% cooler.

“Studying whether there’s life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there’s something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge,” she said. “That’s something that is almost part of being human and I’m certain that will continue.”

Ride is survived by Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin; and her nephew, Whitney.

SOURCE

Random House Could be Random TV

Presumably sick of watching book rights bought, turned into horrible movies/tv shows and earning a buttload of money – Random House, together with Freemantle Media have joined into a super powered TV station.

“The first-look deal with FremantleMedia will reside within Random House Television, a newly created part of Random House Studio, the publisher’s rebranded and expanded entertainment division led by Peter Gethers, President. Random House Television will work together with Random House’s editors and publishers, and their authors’ agents, to identify and acquire performance rights for the full range of broadcast network, cable, and premium television scripted formats. The partnership will also seek to collaborate with Random House authors to develop original scripted television properties they might create.”

I’m kind of terrified for them – kind of uber excited to see if they can get it right.

SOURCE

Image from Slow Life

Holy Crap – Hotels Replace Bibles With 50 Shades of Grey

The Damson Dene Hotel has taken a leap and replaced the Gibson bible with Fifty Shades of Grey.

Believe it or not I find this preferential to his first and original choice, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

“Because everybody is reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ we thought it would be a hospitable thing to do, to have this available for our guests, especially if some of them were a little bit shy about buying it because of its reputation.”

The move has not been without contest from some Christians.

SOURCE

Needed More Katherine Mansfield? We Deliver

A student at King’s College in London found a number of lost works by acclaimed author, Katherine Mansfield.  The work is dated to a particularly turbulent period in the author’s life.  The collection includes three children’s stories, an autobiographical tale, and a collection of Aphorisms.

Dr Gerri Kimber confirmed the findings and gave the following statement:

“At first I was slightly sceptical – I thought they would be stories we already had in the collection, as we’ve stories which haven’t been seen in 100 years,” she said. “But it only took me a minute to realise that we didn’t have any of them. It’s hugely exciting.”

SOURCE

Scandalous Scandals

The author of Revealing Eden had a backlash after the book trailer and viral campaign for her debut novel received significant criticism for using blackface.  Among other things, the concept was criticized as insensitive and racist and her supposedly glowing reviews had their legitimacy called into question.

A couple of her Huffington Post articles were raised as problematic.  But it’s okay.  She gave to Obama so she can’t be racist.

Also brought into question was her usage of the terms “Pearls” and “Coals” – not only as being somewhat nonsensical in context, but also offensive.

The author, Victoria Foyt briefly had a Wikipedia page about her but it has already been flagged for deletion as self-promotion.

 

 

Issendai, of the Goblin author wank, has had her personal information revealed on behalf of the author on several negative reviews. She has blogged about her continued experiences here.  The dispute follows after the author took exception to what she felt was an overly long, negative review to her book and threatened legal action.

We were very sad to see that long-time book blogger and generally awesome person, Wendy from A Cupcake and a Latte, has abruptly deleted her blog, her Goodreads and all her accounts.  She will be very missed.  We knew her to be a genuinely pleasant, lovely person.

Steph says:

Farewell, Cupcake Queen.

35 Responses to “Buzz Worthy News 30th July 2012”

  1. Fangs4Fantasy

    It’s deeply sad to know that the stalkers that run the bullies site has attacked someone enough and put them at enough risk that they have been driven away from Goodreads. It’s sick, it’s twisted and it’s evil.
     
    As for Save the Pearls? Ye gods of mercy who could think this was a good idea? Reverse Racism? Appropriating blackface? I despair people

  2. RayRayRay

    Thats so cool that J.K. read at the olympics! Love the video! 
    true, its hard to judge what is YA. because there are so many different ages of a teenager. and that classics were written before the genre became official. (after Harry Potter!!!!!!) I always hear from my parents about how when they went to the bookstore as kids there was no YA section, that facts makes me sad and little happy to be born in the 90’s. 
     
    I was heartbroken yesterday when I found out Cupcake and a Latte no longer exists. I may not comment on her blog alot but i do enjoy reading her reviews and posts. Such a nice person.  

  3. Lisa FicTalk

    I can’t believe that Wendy from Cupcake and a Latte deleted her blog!!
    I know about all the drama on GR, etc, but just wow… that poor girl. I’m beyond enraged on her behalf.
     
    In other news, how psyched am I that we can now LIKE comments? *beams*
     
    *goes back to being angry*

    • Stephanie Sinclair

       @Lisa FicTalk You can also tag people via twitter and FB with the “at” sign, share comments via Twitter and FB, and you don’t have to refresh the page to see new comments! 😀
       
      I’m really sad about Wendy too. I hope she is well and doing okay. 

  4. Miss Bookiverse

    Oh no, poor Wendy! I didn’t even realize her blog was gone until you mentioned it 🙁
    Are we sure she deleted it herself? I hope she wasn’t the victim of some vicious “I figured out your password and deleted all your accounts” attack.

  5. Kailia Sage

    What the hell?! Why did Wendy go??? I didn’t even realize this until I saw it on here! She’ll be greatly missed! 

  6. KD

    Didn’t read Wendy’s blog, but it’s always sad to see someone silenced. 
     

  7. KD

    Ate half my comment. Don’t like this new system. Won’t be commenting anymore.

    • Lisa FicTalk

      It’s actually not that different from when you comment on blogger with your google account, etc. You just make sure you click in the comment section and that everything is there before you post comment.

    • Stephanie Sinclair

      I’m sorry about that! We are trying to find a system that has less load on the sever and allows for faster commenting. We are still experimenting. We hope you will bear with us while we find something that works, but understand that you’re frustrated.

  8. The Muggle

    Very sad to hear about Wendy from A Cup­cake and a Latte 🙁

  9. Beatriz

    Oh, I cried when J.K. read Peter Pan. It was so, so beautiful.
    Very sad to hear about Wendy. I always read her blog and her reviews D:

  10. Louise_P

    Is it just me the new comments section is majorly glitching for? The copyright/visitor count bar is obscuring some words making the layout an absolute pain to read – I’ve had to copypaste into word to read some comments.
     
    To be slightly more helpful, this is what I’m seeing at the moment:
    <a href=”http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u19/NerziP/Screenshots/?action=view&current=commentbuggery-1.jpg” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u19/NerziP/Screenshots/th_commentbuggery-1.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Photobucket” ></a>
     
    Sorry to be negative, I really like the idea of the new system and the ability to ‘like’ other comments but this just looks horrible on my screen 🙁
     

  11. Louise_P

    And lack of edit. Sorry about my link fucking up there! Just click the first of the blue links in that horrible mess. And  it won’t let me click the reply button either on any comments partly blocked by the copyright stuff. I think I might just give in.

  12. MusingsinRed

    This is great!
     
    I had no idea that a hotel would replace the Bible with Fifty Shades of Grey ! Crazy… and somewhat creepy even?

  13. Addie R

    Woah, I had no idea A Cupcake and a Latte deleted her account. I knew she hasn’t been posting much, but I didn’t know she just quit. She will be missed. 🙁

  14. Kate C.

    How telling is it that all of the books I voted for except one are fantasy series?
    McKinley, Pierce, Cashore, Pullman… all my favorites are fantasy.  Marchetta was my only exception. 🙂

  15. JayJason

    I watched the book trailer and was a little confused. It didn’t even tell me what it was advertising. It just demanded that I “Save the Pearls”. Not a great trailer if you ask me.

  16. ExperimentBL626

    The Bible vs. 50 Shades. 50 Shades win. I don’t know how I feel about this…
     
    Oy, the Foyt Fuck-up. Now, I love sightseeing drama llamas, but I’m going to stay far away from that one.
     
    There goes one great book blog. FYI, Steph, shouldn’t it be “farewell” instead of “fair well”?
     
     

    • Stephanie Sinclair

       @ExperimentBL626 One of these days I’m going to sit my iPad down and discuss this auto correct business. Its supposed to make me more productive, but it’s making me look bad! 
       
      Thanks for the heads up. Corrected. 🙂

  17. Georgette

    I’m a little frightened by the Random House TV idea. I will also be intrigued to see how it works out.
    Very sad about Sally Ride passing away. A great and courageous lady who carved her place in history.
     
    50 Shades replacing the Bible? I am speechless(bloggers and people everywhere applaud.). I do, however, have to say I agree with anything taking the place of Ayn Rand. Even a candy wrapper.
    Peace! Another great blog!

  18. Belles Bookshelf

    OK I think the Random House TV idea is kind of brilliant – I hope it works for them.
     
    I was so sad to see A Cupcake and a Latte disappear so suddenly. She was one of the first people I connected with when I first started blogging.

  19. JeepinJaime

    It breaks my heart that Wendy is gone. Seriously. She was one of the best bloggers, definitely one of my fave blogs to check out regularly.  And she just seems like a genuinely honest, good, hard working, book loving sweetheart! She will be missed. I hope that she comes back soon. I don’t know what happened to cause her to disappear, but if it has to do with that stupid website and all of the aholes involved, they are even more horrendous than I at first assumed. Thanks for another great post, dearie

  20. Real_MissyG

    That was one of the worst book trailers “Save the Pearls” that I have ever seen. Bar none. 
     
    That’s very sad to hear about Wendy. I really liked her blog and read it all the time. She’s definitely going to be missed 🙁 

  21. Kay2

    I am shocked that Wendy disappeared like that! A favorite blog of mine and many other readers! In any case, I do hope she is doing okay and is happy with her decision!
    I really liked Rowling at the Olympics. A beautiful moment!

  22. BeasBookNook

    I’m sorry to hear about Wendy, this is the first I heard she was gone. I wish her well. Thanks for the update.