2010 March - Better World Books Blog - Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Community Outreach & more

Funds Raised for Global Literacy:

$10,184,799.20

Books Re-Used or Recycled:

63,271,794

Introducing Better Mars Books

Posted by Tommy on 03.31.2010 at 11:32 pm

Better Mars Books

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Better World Books is expanding! We’re happy to announce the grand opening of our new website, BetterMarsBooks.com.

In our ongoing effort to promote literacy efforts, we’re looking ahead to new markets, and we believe that we can make a huge impact on the planet Mars.

Why Mars?
With efforts going so well here on Earth, why bother moving our business to the Red Planet? Well, there are a few reasons… Read more…

54 Comments » | Tagged Company News, Our Partners, Better Mars Books, Literacy on Mars, Read Planet

Stephenie Meyer new Eclipse novella announced today!

Posted by admin on 03.30.2010 at 4:48 pm

** Available June 5th! PRE-ORDER NOW – Only $7.68 – That’s more than 45% off AND Free Shipping!**

Yup. No kidding. Stephenie Meyer announced today that she will have a new novella out this June! And yes, it is part of the Twilight series.

The book is called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and is the story of one of the “newborn” vampires that are introduced in Eclipse. It will be out officially Saturday June 5th at 12:01 AM, so start planning your Bree Tanner parties now.

On her website, Stephenie says this book was written “before Twilight was even released.” She continues; “Back then I was just editing Eclipse, and in the thick of my vampire world. I was thinking a lot about the newborns, imagining their side of the story, and one thing led to another. I started writing from Bree’s perspective about those final days, and what it was like to be a newborn.”

Have your say » | Tagged Book & Author News, Book Lists, Bree Tanner, Eclipse, New Twilight Book, Pre-Order, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

Better World Bar Mitzvah

Posted by Chip on 03.29.2010 at 10:48 am

In today’s guest post – our youngest contributor to date talks about how he worked with us on his Bar Mitzvah project to bring attention to Books for Africa and their amazing mission!

My name is Andrew Goldberg and I recently had my Bar Mitzvah. As part of my Bar Mitzvah, I chose to do a Mitzvah project. This is a social action project where I got to choose something that was important to me. I wanted to do something with Better World Books, since I really believe in the work they are doing and the non-profit organizations they support.

Andrew blog pic

I asked people to purchase children’s books through the Books For Africa link on the Better World Books website. I have been concerned about Africa’s debt and plight for a long time, and I thought this would be a good way to help.

The purchased books went to a local organization here in Little Rock, Arkansas that provides books for kids to read to their incarcerated mothers. Then a portion of the proceeds went to Books for Africa, so my Mitzvah project helped both locally and globally. To my delight, many people purchased books. This was the first time many of my friends had heard of Better World Books and I encouraged them to continue supporting both BWB and Books for Africa.

4 Comments » | Tagged Company News, Impact, Our Partners, books for africa

Apply Now – Get a $20,000 literacy grant for your project!

Posted by John on 03.25.2010 at 3:44 pm

Readers’ Choice Literacy Grant Applications Now Being Accepted
Program Expanded to Two $20,000 Grants

We’re delighted to announce that we are now accepting applications for our Spring 2010 Readers’ Choice Literacy Grant.

It’s double the fun and double the funds this season as we expand from a single winner to awarding two $20,000 grants.

As before, any organization that promotes literacy can apply and readers will have the chance to vote for their favorite project. Afraid your organization can’t drive enough votes to win? Fear not. We know sometimes good things come in small packages and big ideas come from small organizations, so we’ve made a change! This season, our first $20,000 grant will go to the project with the most votes and our second $20,000 bonus grant will be selected by our literacy committee. This way we believe we’ll be able to get the funding to the most promising ideas and organizations, large and small alike.

Get all the details and apply now!

Ready to start voting? Well hold on a second…voting for the Spring 2010 grant starts June 1, 2010. We’ll have links right here on the blog when it’s time.

Need more Readers’ Choice? Meet our Fall 2009 winner and finalists!

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News, Spring 2010 Readers' Choice Literacy Grant

EPA Award. W00t!

Posted by Dana on 03.22.2010 at 4:44 pm

We like awards and we like the earth, so we’re pretty stoked to get an award from the EPA.

Yup. We’re mean and green and we’re proud of it. Okay well, we’re not mean but you get the idea. And so does the EPA. We were just awarded 2009 WasteWise Gold Award for Paper Reduction.

Wanna know why? We never throw a book away. Ever. Any used books we can’t sell are either sent directly to one of our non-profit literacy partners or are recycled.

We have diverted more than 32 million books from landfills while raising $7.6 million in funding for literacy and education initiatives worldwide through the sale of those books. Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News, Dispatches from the Green House, 2009 WasteWise Gold Award, EPA, Paper Reduction, recycling

Better World Books Podcast: Patricia Sprinkle

Posted by Dana on 03.16.2010 at 3:49 pm

Patricia Sprinkle has written almost thirty books in her writing career. Most of them are mysteries but she takes a break from all that for her latest work Hold Up the Sky.

Hold Up the Sky is a story about 4 women relying on each other through some fairly difficult times. It takes place during a drought in a small Georgia farming town and though not the kind of book I would normally be interested in, I was drawn in.

The characters Patricia creates have heart and though the dilemmas they face may not directly be facing us all, they do force us to question how we would behave in similar circumstances.

When Patricia and I sat down for the interview we focused on where the story comes from and some of the situations the characters found themselves in. But we also dealt with the idea of looking deeper into “genre” fiction for the issues the book is handling. For example, in Hold Up the Sky, Patricia humanizes US immigration through the character of Emerita. She doesn’t have the answer for us, but she does put a human face on it.

Enjoy the interview, and click here to check out the rest of the great authors talking about their books on our podcast!

– Dana

Better World Books Author Podcast [ 18:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1520)

Have your say » | Tagged Author Podcast, Author Podcast, dana barrett, Hold Up the Sky, Patricia Sprinkle

Better World Books Podcast: Chris Cleave

Posted by Dana on 03.09.2010 at 6:15 pm

Have you ever eaten a dessert so delicious you had no words to describe it? I mean you could try; “it’s rich…delicious…so chocolatey”, or maybe “so delicate…it melts in your mouth…the perfect blend”, but really the words just don’t do it justice.

That’s kind of how I feel about Little Bee. And whoever wrote the back cover copy clearly agrees with me. Little Bee IS a great story – and it IS filled with well developed characters and though it is not drenched in raspberry sauce, it is indescribably good. It unfolds in a unique way. It plays with language. It asks you questions and it puts you in uncomfortable positions without judging.

Have your say » | Tagged Author Podcast, Author Interview Podcast, Chris Cleave, Little Bee

The Oscars: Dresses, Weird Humor & Books, Yes Books

Posted by Dana on 03.08.2010 at 6:13 pm

zoesaldana Did you watch the Oscars last night? I swore I wasn’t interested. Didn’t care. Wasn’t going to waste my time. And then I put it on. Just for a minute. And I was sucked in. Argh.

I will admit that I’m not sure how long I would’ve stuck with it if it weren’t for the joys of Tivo, but as it stood I managed about 1.5 hours before I gave up and went to bed.

I saw the fabulous opening number where Neal Patrick Harris danced about in a sparkly black jacket and sang about Botox, Twilight and Julia Child.

Then on to the comic stylings of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin who essentially roasted all the nominees and some random audience members while the camera panned to a dark spot where James Cameron was and to an angry, sulky looking George Clooney. I think maybe that was some kind of joke – but if so my response was not to ROFL or even to LOL – it was more of a hmmm?? – not even really a haha.

Thanks to a blue Ben Stiller, some strange line flubs and the inability of many of the women to manage their dresses while walking, the awkward humor continued.

And then there was the fashion. I won’t do a full red carpet run down, but I will say this…what was up with Sarah Jessica Parker’s hair? And was that England, France or Zoe Saldana’s underpants on display when she tottered up to the mic?

But on with the show…as is often the case…many of the year’s notable and Oscar worthy movies are adapted from our favorite books. This year was no exception.

Congrats to:

Sandra Bullock – Best Actress – The Blind Side – Adapted from the Michael Lewis book of the same name.
Mo’Nique – Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Precious – Adapted from Push by Sapphire
(This one got the award for Best Adapted Screenplay too)
Jeff Bridges – Best Actor – Crazy Heart – Adapted from the debut novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb. (This one got Best Original Song, too).

And oooh almost – but nice try to:

Matt Damon – nominated for Invictus, based on the book by John Carlin
Stanley Tucci – nominated for The Lovely Bones, based on the book by Alice Sebold
Meryl Streep – for Julie and Julia, based on the book by Julie Powell

They’re all winners in my book – and as you can see there’s lots of books in the winners!

1 Comment » | Tagged Books on the Big Screen, Crazy Heart, Invictus, Jeff Bridges, Julie and Julia, Oscars, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Jessica Parker, The Blind Side, Twilight, Underpants, Zoe Saldana

Better World Books Podcast: Wendy Wax

Posted by Dana on 03.03.2010 at 7:01 pm

I met Wendy Wax, author of Magnolia Wednesdays and The Accidental Bestseller several years ago through work and we became friends. Good friends. The kind of friends that know each others families and drink wine together whenever possible.

So, reading a book by a friend has an interesting quality to it, as does interviewing them. When reading, I think “Hmmm. That living room she is describing sounds a lot like her living room” or better yet ” I think I might know who she based that character on!”. While interviewing Wendy I struggled not to lapse into our usual chit chat about the struggles of the day – and I didn’t jump in to admit that indeed I was the friend who went ballroom dancing with her in the name of research.

Have your say » | Tagged Author Podcast, Author Interview Podcast, dana barrett, Magnolia Wednesdays, The Accidental Bestseller, Wendy Wax

2009 Nebula Award Nominees

Posted by Tommy on 03.01.2010 at 11:19 am

sff_nebula_awards

The 2009 Nebula Awards are coming up! The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) nominate a handful of highly esteemed works every year since 1965, when Frank Herbert’s Dune won Best Novel. Other novel category winners since then have included Flowers for Algernon, Rendezvous with Rama, The Forever War, Neuromancer, American Gods, and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.

I, for one, am on the edge of my Command Seat / Throne (Delete as needed according to your persuasion as a Sci-Fi or Fantasy fan.) to see who wins come mid-May. In the meantime, here are some links to this year’s nominees after the jump.
Read more…