Tumblr Book News

darkskiesfilm: The Count Down Begins. Own Dark Skies on...

rachelfershleiser — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:32:46 -0400

The Count Down Begins. Own Dark Skies on Blu-Ray™ May 28^th

rachelfershleiser: What did Chinese authorities do in July 2009...

rachelfershleiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:53:17 -0400

What did Chinese authorities do in July 2009 when tensions between the predominantly Muslim population of China’s Xinjiang province and authorities escalated into violent riots? They turned off the Internet in Xinjiang. This inspired China scholar Jason Q. Ng to devise a computer script to test all 700,000 terms in Chinese Wikipedia to see which ones are routinely censored on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, which currently has over 300 million users.

The result was the groundbreaking and highly praised Blocked on Weibo blog, expanded here into a book. Ranging from fairly obvious words, such as “tank” (a reference to the “Tank Man” who stared down the Chinese army in Tiananmen Square) and the names of top government officials (if they can’t be found online, they can’t be criticized), to deeply obscure terms, such as “The Four Gentlemen” (though it means a set of four traditional flowers, it can also refer to various quartets of dissidents) and “hairy bacon” (a coded insult for Mao’s embalmed body), Blocked on Weibo collects many of the phrases that could get a Chinese Internet user invited to the local police station “for a cup of tea”—a euphemism for being illegally detained by the authorities.

An invaluable guide to sensitive topics in modern-day China, Blocked on Weibo exposes the fissures between the idealized society that Chinese authorities dream of having and the actual one that Chinese netizens are creating each day.

(via The New Press - “Blocked on Weibo” by Jason Q. Ng)

A serious nonfiction Tumblr book deal — congrats, Jason!

rachelfershleiser: Favorite Swear Words of Famous People is an...

rachelfershleiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:10:30 -0400

rachelfershleiser:

Favorite Swear Words of Famous People is an awesome Tumblr by the author of an Oxford University Press book about the history of swearing called, I shit you not, Holy Sh*t.

Such a clever campaign!

cook-it-raw: Join chefs from Cook it Raw at their book launch...

rachelfershleiser — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:17:13 -0400

cook-it-raw:

Join chefs from Cook it Raw at their book launch at the New York Public Library on Wednesday May 22 at 7 pm

Tickets here

Cool!

rachelfershleiser: Next Thursday, Tumblr will be celebrating...

rachelfershleiser — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:55:53 -0400

rachelfershleiser:

Next Thursday, Tumblr will be celebrating Book Expo America at our favorite bookstore with three of our favorite authors! This is a meet up for readers and writers of all ages, with drinks for the adults and swag and short, funny readings for everyone! Here for BEA? Work at a publisher? Love Tumblr? Love books? Love people? Any of the above — this party is for you!

Ruth wrote Defriended, a creepy mystery about murder and online romance. Eliot wrote Endangered, a National Book Award finalist about bonobos in The Congo. Rainbow wrote the NY Times bestseller Eleanor &Park, a Tumblr favorite about weird kids in love. They are all terrific, so don’t miss it!

Rainbow Rowell lives in Nebraska, and this is her only public event while she’s in New York for BEA. We’re so honored and excited!

micropolisnyc: Does the very geography of Manhattan make it...

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:07:02 -0400

micropolisnyc:

Does the very geography of Manhattan make it more inviting to immigrants and other newcomers?

The idea came up during a long walk I took down Broadway with Becky Cooper, the author of “Mapping Manhattan,” and Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker, who wrote the introduction.

“Mapping Manhattan” is a crowdsourcing project that uncovers the intense emotional associations New Yorkers have with the island. Becky wandered about the city, handing out blank maps to people on the street and asking them to scrawl away. She also roped in celebrity contributors, like Yoko Ono and Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio.

Love came up, as did sex, hate, prostitution, death, and Patricia Marx’s lost gloves.

But on our walk, we kept returning to geography, and the street grid that defines Manhattan.

“The grid plan that makes New York so distinct is one that in a certain sense cancels personality,” said Gopnik. “Whereas Paris and London are both, in a certain sense, organic cities, they’ve grown up over a long period of time. The irrationality of their structure is a reflection of that long history, that’s why you need to take 2 years to learn how to become a taxi driver in London. New York has a super impersonal plan. But it takes on a private impress. That corner on the absolutely rectilinear grid, of 23rd and Broadway, becomes your corner.”

“I feel like the grid pattern actually invites personality,” said Cooper, “because of how non-specific it is. Because the second you come here you feel you own a part of it. There isn’t this barrier to entry, there isn’t this exclusivity of the person who’s grown up here.”

Listen to our full Micropolis conversation here.

And check out Becky Cooper’s “Mapping Manhattan” Tumblr.

significobs: According to Greg Kindall at Seven Roads: Anyone...

rachelfershleiser — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:23:39 -0400

significobs:

According to Greg Kindall at Seven Roads: Anyone who handles old books will have come across these small and sometimes beautiful labels pasted discreetly (more or less) into the endpapers. Booksellers, binders, printers, publishers, importers, and distributors of books used to advertise in this way their part in bringing the book to market.

(via Book Trade Labels: OBlog: Design Observer)

"I think if you’re going to really think about how to use the internet in an interesting way, like..."

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:45:38 -0400

“I think if you’re going to really think about how to use the internet in an interesting way, like for conversations and stuff, Tumblr is a lot better. Even if you only have like two followers, because of the tags, it allows everybody to engage in a conversation.”

- John Green wants you to tag your posts. (via rachelfershleiser)

How well are you using tags?

jpya: More amazing Flock fan-art! There’s seriously a lot of...

rachelfershleiser — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:02:02 -0400

jpya:

More amazing Flock fan-art! There’s seriously a lot of great stuff out there.

Cool!

rachelfershleiser: Last night at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe,...

rachelfershleiser — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:26:39 -0400

rachelfershleiser:

Last night at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, we had a glorious launch party for the wonderful Tumblr-born book Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown. The night featured stories of being not-quite-grown-up from some of the Internet’s funniest writers: Kelly, Julieanne Smolinski, Lindsey Weber, Christine Friar, Caragh Poh, John Asante, and Kelly’s editor Meredith Haggerty. Our guest bookseller Word Brooklyn sold out of every last copy! If you need a great graduation gift, a guide to life, or a bunch of hilarious Tumblrs to follow while you procrastinate everything you’re supposed to be doing, we’ve got you covered.

rachelfershleiser: adulting: Hey New York adults — y’all...

rachelfershleiser — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:25:52 -0400

rachelfershleiser:

adulting:

Hey New York adults — y’all should come! It’s going to be loads of fun. Wear your best grown-up clothes (or pajamas!) and join us. And Portland people, I hope you’re free from 7 to 9 p.m. on May 21, because there will be something fun happening. And a zillion trillion thank yous to Tumblr for putting these on!

In related news: the book is out a week from tomorrow. I am trying so hard not to mention it every second, because that’s boring, but I am proud of it and other people like it too.

This party is tomorrow! It is going to be hilarious and amazing! Please come! Please spread the word!

theiconsseries: ‘Thirteen great Icons fell from the sky. When...

rachelfershleiser — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:08:47 -0400

theiconsseries:

‘Thirteen great Icons fell from the sky. When they came alive, one billion died. Remember The Day. We are not free. Silence is not peace. Remember.’

The Rebellion has begun in ICONS: the heart-pounding new series from the #1 bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures, Margaret Stohl.

Watch the video, preview the book and meet the author on tour here!

jpya: From The Angel Experiment. Remember just getting to know...

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:07:57 -0400

jpya:

From The Angel Experiment.

Remember just getting to know Fang for the first time?

thenovl: theiconsseries: —Margaret Stohl, ICONS Guess what...

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:37:18 -0400

thenovl:

theiconsseries:

—Margaret Stohl, ICONS

Guess what tomorrow means?

ICONS IS HERE! [Appropriate reaction to that last sentence.]

Until then:
Preview the book
Watch the trailer
Catch the author on tour

Isn’t it romantic…?

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:36:20 -0400

Isn’t it romantic…?

Step 301: It’s OK to freak out when good, big things happen

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:51:58 -0400

adulting:

This big thing — maybe it’s your college graduation, or the start of a job you were really hoping for, or your wedding, or having a baby — is coming. And yes, it’s a happy thing. But it’s also a terrifying thing.

So while people are — and should be! — happy for you, it’s OK to have mixed feelings inside yourself. You can go from insanely happy to inexplicably sad to weirdly apathetic to panic attack and back to insanely happy within the space of the hour. That is the nature of freaking out — it’s everything, all at once.

In my case, it’s the knowledge that something I have worked on directly for two years (and wanted since I was a little girl) happens in 10 six hours when my book publishes. I am ridiculously happy and also so terribly frightened. It can be both.

But my friend Jessica, who is also an author, gave me the best advice: Whatever this big thing that is happening? That is not you. That is a small part of you. There are so many important things — your friends, your family, your significant other, your pet — that you can focus on to calm yourself. Because that big thing may go great or may blow up in your face. You don’t know. But the more important things? They will still be there. And you will still be you.

P.S. Thank you so, so, so much to all of y’all who pre-ordered the book. I really hope you like it. I’m proud of it.

housingworksbookstore: Podcast haikus! Poetry Month is...

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:10:03 -0400

housingworksbookstore:

Podcast haikus!

Poetry Month is
technically over but not
until you hear this

Listen on iTunes
or on Soundcloud works also
give us five stars please

Okay I’ll stop now.

Pre-Order Pieces of Parts

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:05:30 -0400

whydoihaveablog:

givemeajobplease:

Hi guys! I am taking pre-orders for my chapbook, called Pieces of Parts. I want to get an idea of how many I should make, as I am custom making and hand-stitching them. I hope to send them out by June 1, 2013.

At the bottom of my page is an option to purchase. There are further instructions on my Buy Pieces of Parts link.

The book is $10.00 plus $2.00 for shipping. There is an option to donate a little extra to me or to purchase two. Please do not feel obliged to do either. I am just ecstatic if you are purchasing it.

The book has seven poems, four haikus, and seven pieces of prose, including The Best Parts. It is basically a chunk of my heart and I am very excited to share it with you.

I once described Amanda’s writing in a long, winding email I wrote when half drunk and very tired and not feeling very eloquent: Her writing is some of the best, most truthful prose and poetry I’ve ever come across, including my favorite famous authors. You know how you can read something and instantly feel like — maybe for the first time in your life — someone gets a certain part of you and the way you feel and and why you act the way you act and what can make your breath feel too short and shallow and what makes you laugh your real life, that is obnoxiously loud and not reserved as it is in polite company? She is that person for me.

I am so proud and happy for… me to read this. I am not proud and happy for Amanda at all for accomplishing something so amazing and brave, nope. No way.

rachelfershleiser: openroadmedia: Happy National Short Story...

rachelfershleiser — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:49:49 -0400

rachelfershleiser:

openroadmedia:

Happy National Short Story Month! Today, read “The Bravest Boat” by Malcolm Lowry for free, only on Tumblr.

Read the complete story here.

Are you guys following Open Road? Free short stories all month long!

theawkwardphase: The Awkward Phase Story Telling Night at The...

rachelfershleiser — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:20:06 -0400

theawkwardphase:

The Awkward Phase Story Telling Night at The Annoyance Theatre on May 13^th at 8PM. Address: 4830 North Broadway Chicago, IL 60640

Performances by Ted Tremper, Brianna Baker, Wes Perry, Shaun Sperling, Patrick Rowland, Caitlin Bergh, and Tim “TinTim” Jones-Yelvingtion.

“The Awkward Phase” was recently chosen as a runner-up in Chronicle Books “Great Tumblr Book Search.” While we want to celebrate #TheAwkward Chicago, the event also hopes to generate submissions from the community in an effort to develop the Tumblr into a real, actual, in-your-hands book.

Hosts/The Awkward Phase co-creators: Claire Meyer and Tyler Gillespie

You can send your submission to [MyAwkwardPhaze@Gmail.com] (Yes, that’s with a “z”) You can also email us here if you want to ask our opinion on most flattering color for your new braces.

Links to the Performers:

Ted Tremper

Brianna Baker

Wes Perry

Caitlin Bergh

Shaun Sperling

Tim “TinTim” Jones-Yelvington

Patrick Rowland

Keep up with the Awkwardness on Twitter #TheAwkward

*All Hyperlinks go to Tumblrs, b/c DUH