Congrats to the Edgar Award nominees!

A quick shout-out to the nominees of the Edgar Awards, announced today (Mr. Poe's birthday) by Mystery Writers of America! This list always send me to the bookstore to add to my ever growing TBR pile...

Here are the nominees for the YA and Juvenile (that's the kid and MG category) mystery novels; you can find the full list on the Edgars website.

Best Juvenile:

Summerlost by Ally Condie (Penguin Young Readers Group – Dutton BFYR)
OCDaniel by Wesley King (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books)
The Bad Kid by Sarah Lariviere by  (Simon & Schuster – Simon & Schuster BFYR)
Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand  (Simon & Schuster – Simon & Schuster BFYR)
Framed! by James Ponti (Simon & Schuster – Aladdin)
Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry by Susan Vaught
(Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books)

Best YA:

Three Truths and a Lie by Brent Hartinger (Simon & Schuster – Simon Pulse)
The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group – Henry Holt BFYR)
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown BFYR)
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier (Soho Press – Soho Teen)
Thieving Weasels by Billy Taylor (Penguin Random House –
Penguin Young Readers – Dial Books)

Again, congrats to all the nominees!

Too Many Books, Movies, TV, Not Enough Time... How Do You Decide?

We're busy here at Casa Bradley. This doesn't make us special--everyone has their jobs, after-

hours activities, friends to keep up with. Never mind pesky domestic duties. There's only so much time to read, watch TV, go see movies...

Something I noticed lately (and I don't know if this is new, or if I just have less time) is that there is SO MUCH TV! Good stuff, shows I don't get around to. Same goes for books: I just took a look at the CYBILS award nominations, and there was already a GIANT list of books I'd love to read. Hat tip to the judges for reading so many books. I know I'll be lucky if I get around to reading just a few...

Which made me wonder: how do you cull the herd of entertainment options? Do you wait to see what others like, or do you only read/watch what's new?

We just watched the latest Transformer movie, and afterward I kind of felt like someone owed me a few hours...

Visit your independent bookstore, meet a local author (an #IndieThursday shout-out)

I'm not a big fan of all this holiday shopping talk before the turkey has been cooked. Not to sound like Scrooge, but how much shopping do we need to do anyway?

But I am a big fan of Small Business Saturday, especially with this new idea of authors, guest-selling books at various independent bookstores. How cool is that? You can find out if this is going on near you, and who's doing the selling at IndieBound.

Author friend Sarah Frances Hardy (who wrote and illustrated Puzzled by Pink) will be at Square Books in Oxford, MS, in case you're local. She's the nicest person you'll ever meet.

Let's rock Small Business Saturday, all... It's on Nov. 30th this year.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This is one of those fun things that some blogs participate in, and I thought I'd share my reading adventures today.

For some reason, I got to thinking about The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, so I picked it up at my library to re-read. It's still good, I'm glad to say. Below is my kitten Chloe, ready for me to snuggle up with the book. I usually read a kids book at the same time; my MG read is Rick Riordan's House of Hades. Will let you know how that one stacks up.

Next up, I'll read the Criminal Element short story collection The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble. There are lots of good authors in there, so I'm looking forward to it. Also, I plan to read Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why.

What are you reading???

P.S. If you know a teacher, pass on this link to Caroline Starr Rose's blog, where I talk about using Code Name 711 with Revolutionary War Curriculum. There's a double giveaway, too...

What's Your Favorite Series, And Why?

As much as I love a good standalone novel, sometimes all I want is my favorite series. There's just something comforting about opening up a book or turning on the TV, and finding a familiar face. Even if it is fictional.

I love Michael Connelly's books for this reason. Tess Gerritsen is another favorite. On TV--well, that's pretty easy. There's Bones, Leverage, and the new Perception (boy, did that series find its groove toward the end!).

From the writer's perspective, I love writing series characters. As I start thinking of the next book in Linc's adventure, I already look forward to hanging out with Henry and Ben, and Linc's family. It's like meeting old friends, and finding out what's new.

What's your favorite series? Why do you love those characters so much?

Get Your YA Sleuth On

I was doing so research, looking for new books to read (like I needed any more…). And I found this link to Ocean County Libraries (in NJ), where someone named L Fletcher put together a list of YA mysteries.

How great is this! It’s a little dated (2007), but still. It was nice to find someone else who likes to get their YA Sleuth on.

Who said surfing the web is a waste of time?