Deep Thoughts

Monday Fun Day! (2/06/2012 Edition)

Welcome back to the work week, folks! Here's a little Monday fun to get things started:

- Last week Talia, Stephanie Chase, Alene Moroni, and I were featured in EarlyWord modeling their brand new, mega-chic GalleyChat buttons. See the article here!

- Flavorwire puts THREATS and HALF-BLOOD BLUES on their list of "10 New Must Reads for February." We agree! See the full list here.

- Looking ahead to the Indie Next List for March, we see THE STARBOARD SEA, THE INQUISITOR, THE DOG WHO DANCED, and GYPSY BOY. See the full list here.

- And a word on the big game:

We would be remiss to ignore all of the sports excitement from this weekend, so we'll extend our congratulations to this year's MVP (Most Valuable Puppy, that is), Fumble!

Watch highlights from Puppy Bowl VIII* here.

*Apparently humans were playing a similar game this weekend, but that might just be rumor.

Deep Thoughts

Monday Fun Day! (1/30/2012 Edition)

Well, well, well; if it isn't Monday. You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here again, Monday...

Only kidding! It's going to be a GREAT week, I can feel it in my bones (or maybe that's just the lingering post-Midwinter exhaustion). Either way, we've got a few fun tidbits to kick things off for you.

- Minotaur swept the 2012 Dilys Award nomination list boasting four out of the five nominated titles! The Minotaur nominees are:

WICKED AUTUMN by G.M. Malliet
TAG MAN by Archer Mayor
A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Louise Penny
GHOST HERO by S.J. Rozan

See the full list of nominated titles here.

- I mentioned it last week, but I'm still tickled to see Talia and her librarian buddies pictured in Library Journal's recap of the RUSA awards ceremony. If you haven't seen it, take a look!

- Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, was featured in The New York Times on Sunday. Read the article, "Contradictions of the Heart," now.

- We're loving blogger Tiffany Gibert's literary outfits. So far she's recreated the cover looks from SMUT by Alan Bennett and SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray. I wonder what's next up her sleeve (or on it)!

And if you made it here from Unshelved, welcome! Feel free to poke around. We recommend our Books for Teens page and the About Us section. Also we would love it if you introduced yourself in the comments section.

Deep Thoughts

Dallas-Bound At Dawn

cowgirls As of 6 a.m. Thursday morning, Talia and I will be making our way South to Dallas (cue record scratch... did that girl just say 6 a.m.?!).

That's right people! We'll be rolling out of New York at an ungodly hour to get everything ready for the best ALA Midwinter Meeting that Macmillan Library has ever seen!

We won't be able to update the blog while we're gone, but we'll be updating again next Tuesday. Or, join us on Twitter to get the full ALA play-by-play.

If you're also Dallas-bound, come find us in booth #1509. Grab a galley, have a chat, and bring us coffee and donuts, cool? Cool.

Deep Thoughts

Tuesday Fun Day! (1/17/2012 Edition)

Happy Tuesday, all!

As you can probably guess, we're frantically finishing up last minute packing for ALA Midwinter. We're off to Dallas early (read: REALLY early) Thursday morning to scope out the convention hall and set up our booth (#1509)!

- Add our events to your Midwinter schedule and RSVP today for the annual BookTalk Breakfast!

And whether you're joining us in Dallas or not, we are running two contests that you'll want to take a look at.

- Enter to win a copy of A TRICK OF THE LIGHT signed by Louise Penny!

- Enter to win copies of all the books from the 2011 Featured Cover column of our e-newsletter!

And we'll leave you with a little inspiration from Martin Luther King, Jr.,

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

Deep Thoughts

EarlyWord Galley Chatting!

If you missed the EarlyWord Galley Chat on Twitter yesterday, I highly recommend you go back and take a look at the conversation (just search hashtag #ewgc).

What's that you say? You're not on Twitter? BIG MISTAKE! These monthly chats are an exceptional way to hear about which galleys other librarians are reading, have read, or plan to read and what made them pick up those books. It's the perfect first look at forthcoming titles.

A few excellent, upcoming Macmillan titles were discussed yesterday. I'll highlight a few for you here:

GRANDDAD, THERE'S A HEAD ON THE BEACH by Colin Cotterill

SO DAMN LUCKY by Deborah Coonts

GLAMOUR IN GLASS by Mary Robinette Kowal

MIDNIGHT IN AUSTENLAND by Shannon Hale

The next EarlyWord Galley Chat is on February 7th. And if you're looking for news on teen titles, you're in luck! The folks at EarlyWord are adding an EarlyWord YA Galley Chat starting February 14th (hashtag #ewYAgc).

Deep Thoughts

Welcome to the Future!

Fireworks It's 2012, librarian friends! Can you believe it?

We're incredibly excited to embark on another year of reading with you.

I had a blast reliving the highlights of 2011, a great year in books, via the #libfavs2011 hashtag on Twitter. You should definitely take a peek at what other librarians tweeted about and add your own favorites to the conversation.

If your resolution this year is to build a better relationship with publishers or keep on top of the newest releases, then we would LOVE to hear from you via email (library-at-macmillanusa.com), in the comments here on the blog, on Twitter, or at conferences!

Our resolution is to reach more librarians than ever, so make it easy on us by kicking off the conversation, will ya?

Thanks again for a great 2011!

Deep Thoughts

Happy Holidays from Macmillan Library!

Snoopy Holidays Dearest librarians,

This will be my last blog post of 2011. It's been an absolute pleasure blogging about all of our amazing books over the last year.

Tomorrow, I'm heading back to the Pacific Coast to spend the holidays with my family. I'm looking forward to a lot of eating, reading, and sleeping in as late as Mom will let me.

Things we're looking forward to in early 2012:

ALA Midwinter in Dallas!

PLA in Philadelphia!

World Book Night USA, during which two of our titles, HOUSEKEEPING and ENDER'S GAME, will be given out for free to remind people about the joy of reading! See all of the WBN books here or jump right in and sign up to give away books.

This holiday season Talia and I wish you many hugs, lots of smiles, delicious food, and piles of puppies. You make our jobs wonderful and easy.

Have an excellent rest of the year, and we'll see you on the other side!

Deep Thoughts

Philadelphia Book Buzz Title List

Thanks to all of the librarians who joined us at the Free Library of Philadelphia yesterday! I had a lot of fun and got A LOT of compliments on my awesome new fox sweater.

For those of you who couldn't make it to Philly, here's the list of titles I presented:

New from Our Bestselling Authors

Dark Mysteries

Thrillers

For the Janeites

MIDNIGHT IN AUSTENLAND | Hale, Shannon | 978-1-60819-625-8 | HC

For the Magicians

HEMLOCK GROVE | McGreevy, Brian | 978-0-374-53291-8 | TPO
JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY | Mignola, Mike | 978-0-312-64473-4 | HC

Heavy Memoirs

GYPSY BOY | Walsh, Mikey | 978-0-312-62208-4 | HC
TRIGGERED | Wortmann, Fletcher | 978-0-312-62210-7 | HC

Now, Back to the Cute! (Cozies with Kittens)

THE CAT SITTER’S PAJAMAS | Clement, Blaize | 978-0-312-64313-3 | HC
NO COOPERATION FROM THE CAT | Babson, Marian | 978-0-312-33240-2 | HC

For YA Librarians

Teen title information at MacmillanLibrary.com under Books for Teens.

Deep Thoughts

Monday Fun Day! (12/12/2011 Edition)

Happy Monday, librarian friends!

- First and foremost, the RSVP deadline has been moved back for Wednesday's rockin' publisher book buzz in Philadelphia. Please come join us for lunch and a sneak peek at upcoming titles! Contact Anne Silvers Lee at leea-at-freelibrary.org.

- Neve Campbell signed onto play Chief of Police Kate Burkholder in Lifetime's original adaptation of Linda Castillo's SWORN TO SILENCE! See details here.

- NPR asks, What's On Your Cult Film List? See the full list of films from 100 CULT FILMS and submit your own!

- And Ryan Gosling is asking you what the classification number is for love at first sight...

Deep Thoughts

Griffin Teen is Now on Facebook

We've been spending a lot of time getting excited about Griffin's stellar list of young adult titles coming in 2012 and considering the number of hits we get on our new Books for Teens: Class of 2012 blog post, we're not the only ones!

If you're also looking forward to these titles, you've got a new place to keep updated on the action because Griffin Teen is now on Facebook! Go on, take a peek at their page. They post videos, excerpts, updates, bonus stories, notes from authors, and more.

And, of course, we encourage you to hit that Like button to stay in the loop.