Shelf Discovery news

Shelf Discovery news Fine Lines Plotfinder returns!

2010-06-28T10:04:42Z

Hello pretty subscribers to my mailing list! I am writing because now that it is too hot to do anything else, I am BRINGING BACK PLOTFINDERS,

This is the only time I'll actually email the Plotfinder -- no worries. But if you want to stay apprised of the series, the best way is to either friend me on Facebook or follow http://www.lizzieskurnick.com/tag/plotfinder/ on an RSS feed or bookmark. You can also follow me on Twitter at @lizzieskurnick.

THAT IS MANY WAYS TO FOLLOW! Little essay below.

One of the great sadnesses about leaving Jezebel's "Fine Lines" series behind is that I also had to retire the Plotfinder series, in which you all sent me your mysterious queries -- "Girl on a bus who eats bean sprouts and peanut butter sandwich?" "The Divorce Express!" -- and we all solved them.

Plotfinder was one of those weird items that sprang up organically almost from the first column, and I've often wondered if it's because strange details and covers are so much more likely to endure -- "Blue dress, orange dress, girl who says Avenue of the Americas instead of Sixth Avenue?" from "The Trouble With Thirteen" are especially persistent with me -- than actual titles at that age.

Someone could probably do a neurological study on it, and I am not that person! I am just the person in possession of about 100 unsolved queries who was always like "I'll add it to the queue" and then let it languish for an unacceptable period.

Yesterday I found yet another trove of used YA -- this one in Seaburn Books, in Astoria -- and was like WAIT -- why am I not posting a cover and a Plotfinder with some regularity so we can all enjoy the mystery and wonder thereof? In any case, I am now going to do so. Since I literally have 96 I should probably do one once a day but we'll space them out. I'll also see if I can get my publisher to donate some "Shelf Discovery" copies for the winners. For now it is all for the honor and the glory.

Feel free to answer by reply, or to friend Shelf Discovery on FB and answer there. You can also send me an email at jezziefinelines@gmail.com.

These first two come from Betsy P. and Ashley T.:

The book was set in Maryland. The heroine was a cheerleader/all around good girl who gets auctioned off, in a charity auction, to the school bad boy (drag racer) who gets her to skip school and help clean his car. They start to go out and her horizons get broadened by seeing that he is smart, etc. A secondary plot line is her trying to get into Mt. Holyoke and getting wait listed. She also has a brother at Yale who is becoming a hippie and questioning the family's values and lifestyle. The book ends with a pregnancy scare and the girl deciding to go to a small school in VA. She and the boy break up and she moves on with her life, but not the one that she took for granted she would have. My guess is that it was published in the early 70's. The cover of the book showed a Peter Max bedspread and a princess phone. How I can remember these arcane details and not the character's n ames is a mystery to me.

The books are about a girl who lives on an island off the coast of Maine. In one book, she goes to school barefoot and is shamed by her teacher, whom she later learns to appreciate and who learns to appreciate her. In another book, she goes to the mainland for high school and decides against accounting in favor of the college course. Perhaps also In that book, she saves her money to buy "the book of knowledge" that she sees advertised in a magazine and desperately wants.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!! As always, if you want to unsubscribe, you can do so below.

Shelf Discovery news Shelf Discovery holiday thank-you and FREE COPY communal action item

2009-12-20T14:30:10Z

Dear dearest Fine Lines readers and Shelf Discovery fans,

I'm sitting here working on pieces on New Moon, The Lovely Bones, and Push's transition from page to screen, as well as dissecting the particulars of Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir Committed, and I was suddenly overcome by a semi-procrastinatory but genuine RUSH of gratefulness to you all. I don't know that in the years of Fine Lines or since I've been able to adequately thank you for your wonderful comments, emails and assorted contributions to the uncovering of this miraculous period of now-not-forgotten literature.

Your memories, questions, cover scans, and CORRECTIONS (I know! Let's blame copyeditors! Though it was pretty much all me!) about these works and MY transition from screen to page have meant more to me than I can say.

Happy holidays! And let's raise a tattered copy to the authors we love,

PSSSSSSSSSST! SEE MY P.S. FOR SOME TANGIBLE GOODIES.

xoxoxo

Lizzie

TANGIBLE GOODY P.S. It is impossible to send presents to you all, but as thanks of a sort, I'd like to give away 5 free copies of Shelf Discovery to you people. All you have to do is tell me about the young adult work that means the most to you. It can be in any form: a sentence, a review, an essay, a poem, an MP3 or video clip. Feel free to tell me the funny story of your attempt to churn butter, or write a wish list of recipes you'd like to cook from fave YA books. It's all you!

I will select THE BEST for free copies of Shelf Discovery, and I will also feature ALL submissions on my blog and Facebook (unless requested not to).

You can submit as:

Comment on this blog link
Post on my Facebook page
Email to shelfdiscovery@gmail.com
Twitter comment @lizzieskurnick (for post-post-modernist 2.0'ers)
GOOGLE VOICE CALL! (You must go to my blog link to do this. I have no idea if it will work, so you might want to double-up as insurance.)

Deadline is January 1st.

SHARE THE LINK AND SPREAD THE WORD with this link: http://bit.ly/6z9RH3

Cannot wait to hear from you!

Shelf Discovery news Steal this email

2009-12-09T12:30:05Z

Hola guapas! Writing to say hello and happy holidays, and to remind you, if you are considering the matter, that that book to the left is actually a lovely and reasonably priced gift for your friends, family, or, you know, yourself. You can buy the book on Amazon or BN or Indie Bound or Powell's, or, in the grand tradition of my childhood reading technique, steal it from a friend and read it to decide if it is worthy.

I am also writing in some new places! I'll be returning with some new Fine Lines to Jezebel ASAP, but in the meantime, you can also find me at:

The Daily Beast, writing on the new culture of fatherhood and Tiger Woods

Politics Daily, writing about why book prizes always got to men, the culture of momhood and health care

The Chicago Trib, writing on Anne Frank

NPR, covering Jaws, among others

As ever....find me on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, OR GOODREADS.

xooxox (I wish I could FORMAT these better. I apologize.)

Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news Tour & Talk etc.

2009-09-22T15:03:00Z

Hello beautiful ladies! (And sole and handsome gentleman.)

I have been VERY remiss in updating you on all happenings Shelf Discovery, mostly because I fried my computer and briefly lost the link to even access this list thing. But I am back w/Intel Centrino Duos and want to bring a few things to your attention:

* Tomorrow, Wednesday, the 23 of September, at 3 pm, I will be appearing with NANCY PEARL, Librarian Extraordinaire of Action Figure Fame, on Blog Talk Radio! Click this link to register to ask questions, to schedule a reminder, or, I THINK, to actually listen. This web radio thing is a new one on me.

* I am SWIRLING AROUND THE DREGS OF MY TOUR in the bottom of my happy traveling glass! Starting Thursday, I will be appearing in Englewood, NJ; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; and Milwaukee, WI. (WI, right?) Please go to my EVENTS PAGE at www.lizzieskurnick.com/events to get more details. The Chicago part will be updated shortly, as will a later trip to...NEW ORLEANS, home of my ancient relatives, the Heberts and Lowerys, incidentally.

* I have a FACEBOOK PAGE and a TWITTER THING and I'm on GOODREADS and RED ROOM. These things are set to propagate across platforms, but you may want to join one anyway. Click lizzieskurnick.com to find me anywhere in one click.

* There has actually been a lot of press on this book! Presumably, you have the book and have formed your own opinions. But if you want to keep up with chatter, read MY BLOG at lizzieskurnick.com/news.

I feel like there is more but I can't remember, because I spent the last two weeks being a bridesmaid and workshop leader and new blogger at Politics Daily, where I am writing all about getting your insurance to reimburse you for things that they don't want to, because they are crooks. I feel this is not really what you come to me for, but you can find me on Woman Up! being all glowery about twice a week if you wish. Tomorrow I'm switching gears to talk about Sheree, fyi.

MORE SOON! Don't forget to write!

xooxox

lizzie

Shelf Discovery news Events and Intimations of Things Distant

2009-07-26T13:51:37Z

Hello everybody -- just a QUICK note to let you know a few important things:

I have been doing some radio and babbling terrifically, although at queerly different pitches and speeds, like a Victrola. (Bob Edwards in particular seemed to somehow prompt me to mimic his meditative, meandering tone, which is better than unconsciously imitating an English accent, I guess, which I apparently do all the time.) In any case! Hear me talk of V.C. Andrews, periods periods periods, and my favorite book, Secret Lives, on:

TALK OF THE NATION (incest, Amoss)
THE BOB EDWARDS SHOW (periods, boys)
A YALSA PODCAST WITH MICHAEL CART (Richard Peck, death of print)

Attention NY'ers and Tri-State area people! I will be appearing at the TRIBECA BARNES AND NOBLE Tuesday night, doing Lord Knows What but it will be fun. Come if you can! Download ics, event info below, or click for BookTour thinger.

Barnes & Noble Tribeca

Date: Tuesday, July 28
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Barnes & Noble Tribeca
Location: 97 Warren Street, NY, NY

If you'd like me to do an event at your bookstore/library/school, let me know. God knows in this economy, but I'll certainly try -- I'd love to meet you.

Thanks for reading!

xooxox

Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news July 21, 2009 is tomorrow!

2009-07-20T15:48:38Z

....AND MAY I REMIND YOU

....IS ALSO THE PUB DATE FOR SHELF DISCOVERY!

I would like to be soppy for one second. I've been doing this column now for almost a year and a half, and I can't thank you enough for your wonderful and witty comments, suggestions, corrections, exhortations, exhalations and manifestations in the comments section of Fine Lines, in my inbox, on Facebook, and in my life all the way through. It's been so wonderful to have the chance to revisit all these works that meant so much to me, and ALL THE MORE WONDERFUL to revisit them, CAPPED, WITH YOU.

Below, please find all the 2.0 places you can find me, where there will soon be more links to events, press, thoughts, assignations, and applications. You can also certainly buy the book. BUT. Mainly this is to tell you hello, and thanks.

xooxxoox Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news There are some 9,000 links in this email. Forgive!

2009-07-13T13:25:51Z

A very quick note to say....Shelf Discovery will be alive and kicking in bookstores and other places of commerce on July 21, 2009! That is, my friends, so, so soon. I am freaking out! Sorry, I know you shouldn't really tell your mailing list that you are freaking out. And YET. Freaking out.

A few items of information:

(Forgot this: iii: The latest Fine Lines is on A Taste of Blackberries. Click for Only the Goofs Die Young.)

1. In the next few weeks the book will be featured on many outlets and inlets, including DoubleX, Newsday, Talk of the Nation, Bitch magazine, and Bob Edwards. I may EMAIL you when some of this stuff happens. I know you signed up to be emailed, so it makes no sense to pre-apologize for emailing you. But I was raised PRE-INTERNET.

2. I am launching www.lizzieskurnick.com in a few days, which will have a neato COVER GALLERY as well as a blog and many other ways to follow any goddamn thing I am doing. But: re: cover gallery. Do you have a cover YOU ADORE? Send it to this email or lizzie@lizzieskurnick.com and I'll post it. And if you'd like to write anything about what it, as they say, means to you, I will happily post that on the blog too, once I figure out how.

3. Two bloggers, Chair, Fireplace & Tea Cozy, and Chris & Qualler, wrote very nice appreciations of the book. Go to their blogs, where they also have many other wonderful things.

4. I am 2.0! Goddamnit! Less so than I could be because I refuse to get an iPhone and I also have no internet right now. But if you are on these places, I would love to meet you:

FACEBOOK (where a cover gallery resides and people have made FUN YA QUIZZES);

GOODREADS, where I am about to write about the weirdest book by Elia Kazan EVER that it doesn't even list;

HARPERCOLLINS, which also has a cover gallery;

TWITTER, where I always want to just write about what I am eating, though I understand that's a tsk-tsk. Let me tell you: the $12 jar tuna at Citarella is worth it. It's worth it! Judge me!

You can also PRE-ORDER THE BOOK! I just got it in the mail the other day and it is very pretty.

p.s. Rob Walker asked me to be part of the Significant Objects project, where writers contribute fictional essays about items we never actually owned that you, the reader, may then bid on on eBay. I do that about shoes I don't buy in stores ALL THE TIME. Click to read my strangely moody piece!

p.p.s. I was on Ana Marie Cox on the Rachel Maddow radio show which is available on iTunes. I know, I know, my head is spinning! Scott posted directions to listen. I miss, my friends, the radio. But here you go:
a) Search the iTunes Store for “Maddow 960″.
b) Click on the green Rachel Maddow icon.
c) Select the 06/30/09 episode.
d) Listen and be amazed (or at least amused).

More, more coherently, soon!

xooxox

Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news Radio, quizzes and links, oh my!

2009-06-27T11:17:54Z

Okay, no quizzes YET. But! The publication of SHELF DISCOVERY approacheth! And I have news for you!

a) This week on Jezebel, Fine Lines tackled LITTLE WOMEN. A commenter mentioned how boring Daisy and Demi are, something I forgot to put in the column itself. Thank you.

b) I was on NPR talking about teen heroines and the glories thereof! You can listen HERE.

c) I am now on TWITTER. As an old lady, tweeting is difficult for me, as I was raised to be ominously silent and carry a reticule. Still, though it sounds vaguely sinister, you may FOLLOW ME.

d) I am also on FACEBOOK. And GOODREADS. And this HARPERCOLLINS MICROSITE. I update all these things regularly, allegedly. Join me there!

QUIZZES! Okay, quizzes. This is the interesting part. Many of you have asked that the book tour (such as it is) involve QUIZZES! Yes, it will. But I would also like you to be INCLUDED in these quizzes. Thus, I am soliciting YOUR QUESTIONS TO INCLUDE AS WELL! What do I mean by questions? Here are some examples:

"When Cal returns from the war to Rass in 'Jacob Have I Loved,' Louise smears what on her hands?"

a) Cheap lotion
b) Saltwater
c) Her sister's left-behind perfume

ANSWER: A

"In what Paula Danziger book does a girl trade her lunch for a peanut-butter-and-bean-sprout sandwich?"

ANSWER: The Divorce Express

Those who submit questions (just hit "reply") will be entered for a chance to win a free copy of Shelf Discovery. If you make a FACEBOOK QUIZ on YA stuff, you win one automatically.

Yes. You, too, can buy the book. HERE. More soon.

xoxoxo

Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news Message

2009-06-08T09:55:28Z

Hello everybody!

Just a very quick note to impart the following informations:

Fine Lines has returned...THRICE! If you missed it, please check out:

Lois Duncan's 1974 thriller DOWN A DARK HALL

Barthe Declements 1981 killer NOTHING'S FAIR IN FIFTH GRADE

Judy Blume's singular ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET

and...Lisa Alther's 1976 KINFLICKS for Shelf Pleasuring, also off hiatus!

This is a terrific book if you've never checked it out.

I am also going to be in some MAGAZINES and on some RADIO! I will tell you all about it once I know more.

Shelf Discovery is on FACEBOOK and we would be thrilled to have you attend our doings there.

You can also pre-order SHELF DISCOVERY, if you have the means and will. Or you can just wait, because it is out July 21, 2009! Here 'tis pretty:

On a totally separate note, I keep getting spring colds I can't shake. What are your best cures? My mother used to make us lemon-onion tea, and I just can't face that today.

Yours, with cruelly sore throat, awaiting wisdom,

Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news Updates, updates

2009-06-08T09:44:43Z

Hello everybody!

Just a very quick note to impart the following informations:

Fine Lines has returned...THRICE! If you missed it, please check out:

Lois Duncan's 1974 thriller DOWN A DARK HALL

Barthe Declements 1981 killer NOTHING'S FAIR IN FIFTH GRADE

Judy Blume's singular ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET

and...Lisa Alther's 1976 KINFLICKS for Shelf Pleasuring, also off hiatus!

This is a terrific book if you've never checked it out.

I am also going to be in some MAGAZINES and on some RADIO! I will tell you all about it once I know more.

Shelf Discovery is on FACEBOOK and we would be thrilled to have you attended our doings there.

You can also pre-order SHELF DISCOVERY, if you have the means and will. Or you can just wait, because it is out July 21, 2009!

On a totally separate note, I keep getting spring colds I can't shake. What are your best cures? My mother used to make us lemon-onion tea, and I just can't face that today.

Yours, with cruelly sore throat, awaiting wisdom,

Lizzie

Shelf Discovery news Shelf Discovery goes cable

2009-05-19T17:56:27Z

Hello all! I am currently in the process of creating yet another new site that will either give me some central place to post news for the book or (more likely) create yet another site to update. But until such time as all this is fed into some grand aggregator in the sky, some recent news/links about Shelf Discovery for your amusement:

I started up the Fine Lines column again two weeks with Judy Blume's Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, and discovered I was a terribly old lady who was probably only about one week away from needing a full set of fake teeth. Read the full column here.

I also started up the Shelf Pleasuring column again last week with one of my favorite books, Lisa Alther's now mainly unsung Kinflicks, which I gifted in the days before Mustela sets and diaper caddies were all the rage. Read that full column here.

At the LA Times Book Festival two weeks ago, I sat on a panel about reading with the marvelous Laura Miller, Jane Smiley, and Sara Nelson. Then C-Span put it on TV! I find this, inexplicably, hilarious.

You can watch the entire panel here, or, if you like, I've assembled some handy clips. (You'll have to allow popups for the player to work.)

Wherein I discuss the infamous pancake slashing incident

Wherein I recall how wondrous were the days when parents had no idea what you were doing

Wherein I manage to move the conversation around to erections

Wherein I clear up the misconception that the Little House books are heartwarming

Shelf Discovery is on Facebook! (Though disturbingly NOT showing up on Amazon searches today. Oh, AMAZON...) My Facebook friends get to vote on which book will be next! Become one with us!
Shelf Discovery's Profile

Create Your Badge

I will also be doing a signing at BEA next Friday at 11:00 in "the signing area," wherever that is, and sitting on some panel or other at Printer's Row in Chicago. Then I will be doing like 68 other things. More info on that and other events as those dates approach.

You can also just buy the book!

(If you read my blog Old Hag, you will note the above bears a suspicious resemblance to what I just sent you. Yes -- I cribbed from my own blog. I am so tired. Does anyone else need a drink?)

Write me at shelfdiscovery@gmail.com about ANYTHING. I am procrastinating right now, and I love mail.

See you in teenland SOON!

Lizzie