Author links:

~ The Rabbit Room: A Visit with Wendell Berry – If you’ve never read Berry’s poetry, fiction, or essays, you need to do it soon – he’s brilliant.

Discussion starters:

~ My Friend Amy: What makes a book YA? and The Value in Rereading

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ Fall by Colin McAdam, reviewed by Heather at Book Addiction

~ Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder, reviewed by Michelle at GalleySmith

~ The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves

~ The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine by Todd Kliman, reviewed by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

~ WWW.Wake by Robert J. Sawyer, Nothing But the Truth by Avi, and Trouble by Gary Schmidt, all mentioned at Mental Multivitamin

~ The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves

~ Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa, reviewed by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts

Reading challenges:

~ For the second year, Darren at Bart’s Bookshelf is hosting The YA Dystopian Reading Challenge.

~ Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting the RIP V Challenge.

Other bookish links:

~ The Guardian: When book recommendations go wrong

~ The wonderful Beth at Beth Fish Reads has started a new blog called Audiobook Jukebox – a place for those of us who love and review audiobooks to find new audios and link our reviews.

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This list is, I’m sure, missing a lot of really good posts. When we came home from the hospital, I had to click the infamous “mark all read” button again – there was simply no time to read everything. Feel free to point me in the direction of discussions and reviews that I shouldn’t have missed!

Author links:

~ John Marsden speaks about the identity of the invaders in his Tomorrow, When the War Began series.

Discussion starters:

~ Bookalicious: When will I grow up and read adult books?

~ Debbie’s World of Books: Serial readers

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ Illyria by Elizabeth Hand, reviewed by Beth Kephart

~ The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June by Beth Conway, reviewed by Debbie

~ Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, reviewed by Lulu

Book lists:

~ Bookalicous: A few books from 2010 you should read

Other bookish links:

~ NY Times: The Kids’ Books Are All Right

~ Postertext: Book posters for reading enthusiasts – These posters are amazing – they use the entire text of literature’s greatest books to create art.

~ Better Book Titles (Warning: contains some salty language.)

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Author links:

~ Shannon Hale: How to be a writer’s friend (or spouse)

~ Andi at Estella’s Revenge has an interview with Lucy Knisley, author of the graphic memoir French Milk.

~ Beth Kephart: How do you choose the books you are going to read?

Discussion starters:

~ Books Lists Life: The problem with series

~ My Friend Amy: Reflections on Peeta and reading

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, reviewed by Rhapsody in Books.

~ Poetry Speaks Who I Am edited by Elise Paschen and Dominique Raccah, reviewed by Vasilly.

~ Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, reviewed by Pam.

~ The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers, reviewed by Michelle.

~ Chasing Orion by Kathryn Lasky, reviewed by Amanda.

~ Troublemaker by Janet and Alex Evanovich and Joelle Jones, reviewed by Amy.

~ Room by Emma Donoghue, reviewed by Carrie.

~ A God Somewhere by John Arcudi & Peter Snejbjerg, reviewed by Swapna.

Book lists:

~ EW: Stephen King’s 6 Must-Read Books for Summer

Other bookish links:

~ Guardian: Eighty Years of Book Cover Design by Faber and Faber

And, lastly, I leave you with Jane Austen’s Fight Club:

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Author links:

~ Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog has a guest post by Beth Hoffman, author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt: Book Bloggers: Foxes of the Literary World.

Discussion starters:

~ Michelle’s Masterful Musings: Free Speech and Blogging

~ Bookstore People: If you could pick one book that would represent America to foreigners, which book would you pick?

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons, reviewed by Staci at Life in the Thumb.

~ Sleepless by Cyn Balog, reviewed by Irish at Ticket to Anywhere.

~ The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison, reviewed by Marci at Serendipitous Readings.

~ Library Wars: Love and War, Volume 1 by Kiiro Yumi, reviewed by Nicola at Back to Books.

~ WWW.Wake by Robert J. Sawyer, reviewed by Rhapsody in Books.

~ Time’s Legacy by Barbara Erskine, reviewed by Sarah at Reading the Past and Alaine at Queen of Happy Endings.

~ Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus, reviewed by Lenore at Presenting Lenore.

Other bookish links:

~ Lenore is hosting Dystopian August.

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The Literary Road Trip is a project in which bloggers are volunteering to showcase local authors. This showcase can be anything you want to make of it – book reviews, author interviews, giveaways – as long as you’re working with an author local to you.

Holly Cupala is the author of the YA novel Tell Me a Secret – today is her release day! Holly lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter, and is a regular contributor to readergirlz.

Tell Me a Secret: In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda’s death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister’s world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a secret all her own.

Then two lines on a pregnancy test confirm her worst fears. Stripped of her former life, Miranda must make a choice with tremendous consequences and finally face her sister’s demons and her own.

In this powerful debut novel, stunning new talent Holly Cupala illuminates the dark struggle of a girl who must let go of her past to find a way into her future.

For more information on her writing and an in-depth bio, visit Holly Cupala’s web site.

I was fortunate to be able to interview Ms. Cupala via e-mail for this post.

Your first book is being released today. Can you tell us a bit about it – what is it about? Where did the idea come from? What was your road to publication like?

Holly: Tell Me a Secret is a young adult novel about a girl whose family is still reeling from the mysterious death of her bad-girl older sister—she’s been holding the family together for the past five years while trying to discover the secret her sister took to the grave. Now, as she’s about to have everything she wants—a dangerous best friend, art school, and the perfect boyfriend—she has a secret of her own. She takes a pregnancy test, and that’s when things get interesting.

The idea fell in my lap a few months after a tragedy in our family. My husband and I lost our first daughter at birth, which basically crippled our lives. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to write anymore. Then I went to a writing conference, and Justina Chen, also a Washington author, asked me, “Are you thinking of writing about Ezri?” In that moment, she gave me permission to go there. Moments later, as we listened to author Libba Bray talk about getting to the heart of your writing, the entire story came to me in a split second.

Putting words to the page was the hardest part, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to delve into the places the story demanded—difficult family relationships. Longing. Grief. But on the other side, and sort of unexpectedly, there was hope and healing. I had to fight a lot of my own demons in writing the story—the ones that said I couldn’t do it, that I was wasting time and babysitting money (for the second daughter at that point), that I had no real chance. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators gave me a Work-In-Progress Grant, which acted as a signpost. I pressed on, met my agent at a conference, and he sold it in three weeks to our top editor pick. No one could have been more surprised than me!

What made you decide to write for the YA audience?

Holly: It wasn’t really a conscious decision so much as the book deciding for me. I started out thinking I wanted to write and illustrate picture books. Nobody wanted my 1600 word epic poem about an eclipse, which totally broke my heart. But it was for the best. At one point I started a middle grade novel, and I was on the right track—the voice was spot on, and I loved the character (in fact, I recycled him into my next book). Then, when we lost Ezri, a key turned. I knew I couldn’t write another word that didn’t come from my heart. So apparently there are several seventeen year-old girls in there!

Have you always lived in Washington? If not, what brought you here? Does being a Washingtonian make a difference in your writing?

Holly: (Uh oh, don’t throw apples at me!) I admit, I’m not a native. I moved up here (from…shhh…California) in a Toyota Corolla stuffed with books and a cocker spaniel to go to graduate school at the University of Washington. Growing up, two of my best friends were originally from the Seattle area, and when we all came up here on a road trip, I fell in love. Space Needle, Water, and Nirvana – what more could you ask for? Seattle definitely has a role in Tell Me a Secret —though I changed some locations around to suit my fictional whims.

Which writers have had the biggest impact on your life and your writing?

Holly: Michael Ende (author of The Neverending Story) showed me you could make a child stay up until 3 a.m. to read a book and cry because it’s over. C.S. Lewis showed me you could embroider a story with meaning without ever preaching a word. Jon Scieska showed me that the bizarre could be universal. Italo Calvino, my very favorite author, showed me the wonders of language and imagination. Laurie Halse Anderson showed me that sometimes you just have to Speak.

What is the best book you’ve read this year so far?

Holly: I confess, I’m very picky about investing my time and choose new titles carefully. I just finished Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson—heartbreaking and brilliantly handled. I loved Janet Lee Carey’s Stealing Death, and Justina Chen’s North of Beautiful. I have Ellen Hopkins’ Identical in my To-Be-Read pile, which I know will be equally incredible.

If you could recommend one book that everyone should read, what would it be?

Holly: So much responsibility, to choose just one book! If it was only one, I would say The Bible—a compendium of extraordinary stories, to be sure. If I could add more (please, could I add more?), I would say K.L. Going’s Fat Kid Rules the World. Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Geraldine McCaughrean’s The White Darkness. Oh, if only I could invite you into my shelves!

Thanks, Holly, for the wonderful interview – and congratulations on the release of Tell Me a Secret!

To visit other blogs participating in the Literary Road Trip, click on over to Jenn’s Bookshelves.

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Author links:

~ Shannon Hale: Morals and values and lessons, oh my!

Discussion starters:

~ Insert Suitably Snappy Title Here: Literary mashups – what do you think?

~ Book Chick City: Genre Misconceptions – have you ever been wrong?

~ Becky’s Book Reviews: Imagine a Blog(ger) Without Guilt

~ Truth, Beauty, Freedom & Books: Objective Reading

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ Folly by Marthe Jocelyn, reviewed at Emily’s Reading Room.

~ Epitaph Road by David Patneaude, reviewed at Debbie’s World of Books.

~ The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum, reviewed at Bloggin’ ’bout Books.

~ Illyria by Elizabeth Hand, reviewed at Things Mean a Lot.

~ Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor, reviewed at Novels Now.

~ Tethered by Amy MacKinnon, reviewed at Reading Thru the Night.

Other bookish links:

~ Jen at Devourer of Books is hosting Audiobook Week, June 21st through 25th. Count me in!

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Author links:

~ Shannon Hale: Graphic novels – the great satan

Discussion starters:

~ A Few More Pages: What is your favorite childhood reading memory?

~ Persnickety Snark: Blogging Conflicts – Learning the Hard Way

~ Book Magic: Amazon vs. Barnes & Noble – A Tale of Two Dealers

~ My Friend Amy: What Books Do You Wish Everyone Would Read?

~ Michelle’s Masterful Musings: Does Twitter hurt bloggers?

~ Book Chick City: Blog promotion – yay or nay?

~ It’s All About Books: Happy or sad endings?

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ False Mermaid by Erin Hart, reviewed by Swapna at S. Krishna’s Books.

~ Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien, featured by Kristi at The Story Siren.

~ Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson, mentioned by author Jamie Ford.

~ Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, reviewed by Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made On.

~ The Tourist by Olen Steinhauser, mentioned at Presenting Lenore.

~ Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman, reviewed by Michelle at Galleysmith.

~ The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone, reviewed by Rebecca at Book Lady’s Blog.

~ Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor, reviewed by Vasilly at 1330v.

Reading challenges:

~ Julie at Booking Mama is hosting the 2010 EW Summer Books Challenge.

Blogging tips and info:

~ The Story Siren: The Real Deal on Cover Images

~ There’s a Book: Blogging and Professionalism

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Author links:

~ The Page Flipper has a guest post by Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves.

~ Allison Winn Scotch, author of Time of My Life: Book Bloggers – Their Time Has Come.

~ Neil Gaiman writes for the Guardian on what it’s like to go to the Oscars.

~ Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit posted about seeing author Tim O’Brien in Washington, D.C., on the 20th anniversary of his Vietnam War novel, The Things They Carried.

~ Wendy at Caribousmom has a guest post by Tatjana Soli, author of The Lotus Eaters, which I am currently reading and finding very excellent.

~ Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, has some cool news about his next book.

Discussion starters:

~ Farm Lane Books: Does the age of the author matter?

~ My Books. My Life: The results are in on memes.

~ One Literature Nut: What Should Come First, the Book or the Film?

~ 1330v: What inspires you to keep blogging?

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ The Last River Child by Lori Ann Bloomfield, reviewed by Chris at Book-a-rama.

~ 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion by Morgan Llywelyn, reviewed at Truth in Fiction.

~ The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers by Thomas Mullen, which I found on the author’s web site when writing my review of The Last Town on Earth.

Book lists:

~ Library Journal: 20 Core Steampunk Titles

Reading challenges:

~ Bibliobabe has compiled a list of all the current reading challenges – enough to keep you busy for a long, long time – all on one page. Very handy.

Book to movie news:

~ Keira Knightley, Eric Bana, and Richard Gere have been cast in the film version of the novel The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud.

~ Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin, and John Krasinski have been cast in the film version of the novel Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin.

Other bookish links:

~ I set up a page for Books and Movies on Facebook, so if you’re on FB, please feel free to “become a fan.”

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Since I didn’t do a links post last week, I have a ton of links to share with you. I didn’t get to them on time for Saturday, though, so the Sunday Salon it is.

Author links:

~ Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit has a guest post from Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: Writing Spaces and Other Forms of Solitary Confinement.

~ Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, appeared on Good Morning, New Zealand.

Discussion starters:

~ Booklust: What Makes You Unsubscribe?

~ A Striped Armchair: How I Read

~ Book Chick City: Reviews – Long or Short?

~ Michelle at My Books. My Life asks for your thoughts on memes.

~ Devourer of Books: Say Yes to the Book

~ A Striped Armchair: On the Validity of Audiobooks

~ Michelle’s Masterful Musings: Why Blog?

~ My Friend Amy: Literary Identity and the Weight of Recommendations

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ The Disappeared by Kim Echlin, reviewed by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts.

~ Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves.

~ When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, reviewed by Tim Challies.

~ Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber, reviewed by Amy at Steele on Entertainment.

~ Merlin’s Harp by Anne Crompton, reviewed by Pam at Bookalicious.

~ Castle in the Air by Judy Corbett, reviewed by Cathy at Kittling Books.

~ Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean, reviewed by Aarti at Booklust.

~ Angelology by Danielle Trussoni, reviewed by Swapna at S. Krishna’s Books.

~ The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow, reviewed by Amy at Steele on Entertainment.

~ The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips, reviewed by Jane at Fleur Fisher Reads.

Book lists:

~ Robin at My Two Blessings posts a list of 50 of the best Irish books.

Book to movie news:

~ There will be a film version of one of my favorite books: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It will star Christoph Waltz as August, Reese Witherspoon as Marlena, and Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Giveaways:

~ Win The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson at Escape in a Book.

Other bookish links:

~ Persnickety Snark: Top 100 YA Titles Poll

~ Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Books: Suggestions for Reading Classics.

~ Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon returns April 10th. Volunteers are needed, if you’re interested in doing more than reading.

~ Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is calling for bloggers to help celebrate National Poetry Month in April.

~ L.A. Times: Young adult lit comes of age

~ EW has a first look at the cover of Cassandra Clare’s next novel, Clockwork Angel.

~ I have a guest post up at Po(sey) Sessions: James Dashner and the Male Reader

~ A video that every reader, teacher, and parent will love:

~ And just because he’s gorgeous, here’s Hugh Jackman dancing in a Lipton Iced Tea commercial.

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Carrie was interested to knowing what restrictions were put on Sofonisba Anguissola’s development as an artist because she was a woman, which is a wonderful question. In a nutshell, nothing came easily for her. It’s amazing that she even thought she might paint, seeing how women—especially noble women—just didn’t do it then.

To start with, finding a teacher was difficult. Painting was taught through the apprentice system. Boys around the age of nine were expected to go live for five to seven years in a master’s workshop while they learned the ropes. In Sofonisba’s case, she had to find a master who had a situation suitable for a young woman, let alone a noble woman. (Not even men who were noble painted.) I suppose it took some looking, but she was fortunate enough to be taken into the household of Bernandino Campi along with her sister, Elena. They were treated like family members, with Campi’s wife serving as chaperone and surrogate mother. For the three years she was in the Campi household, Sofi learned to mix and grind paint—considered heavy man’s work and most unsuitable to nobility, be it man or woman. She was taught how to draw, though her understanding of the human body was hampered by her inability, due to social taboos, to study more than heads and hands. As Carrie noted in her excellent review of The Creation of Eve, Sofonisba wasn’t allowed to study human bodies from the nude, and so she couldn’t learn how to accurately depict the scantily clothed subjects in the historical or Biblical scenes that painting masters sought to do. (The masters leaned toward epic painting because churches and nobility paid the big bucks.) Instead, Sofonisba practiced on the subjects available–her family.

From this, Sofonisba Anguissola made lemonade out of lemons. If she couldn’t make it big as an epic history painter, she could carve out her own niche by painting portraits of families. We take this for granted now, but back then portraits were reserved for the richest of rich, and mostly adults, (kings, popes, dukes) although portraits might be made of children who were going to go on the marriage market. The pictures of these children were used as advertisements, so to speak, for when their parents would arrange marriages. But Sofonisba offered something new. She painted children, dogs, and servants, and she painted them with great affection and humor. Her work “Portrait of the Artist’s Sisters Playing Chess” seems like a natural subject to us but in Sofonisba’s time, no one was doing this. If she didn’t invent genre painting, she certainly was one of its earliest pioneers. A hundred years later, the Dutch popularized these kind of family scenes in what is known as genre painting, but few were practicing it anywhere in the world in the mid 1500’s, let alone women.

Michelangelo, the most famous painter living at the time, saw one of Sofonisba’s drawings of a laughing child and was so intrigued that he asked for her to do a crying child. Anyone could draw a smile, he said. She came up with her now famous, “Boy Bitten by a Crawfish,” and was promptly invited by the Maestro of Maestros to study with him in Rome. I wonder if he thought that she probably wouldn’t take him up on it. He didn’t know Sofonisba Anguissola if he did. In an era when most women didn’t leave their houses except to go to church, she traveled around Italy (chaperoned, of course,) to paint in the various ducal courts.

Philip II (Felipe in the book) must have thought he was buying his teenage wife quite a rare and whimsical treat by having this woman painter of charming portraits to come teach her. Perhaps Sofi thought of it as a reason to escape a failed romance, (my conjecture in EVE) but unfortunately, because she was a woman, taking a position as a lady-in-waiting actually set back her career. It wasn’t deemed proper for her to sign her work, so paintings that were hers were attributed to the male painters to the king. Only now, more than four centuries later, is credit being given where it is due, to that bold visionary whose talent and creativity could not be suppressed, Sofonisba Anguissola.

Thank you so much, Lynn, for taking the time to answer my question in such depth – and for writing a book that was not only a wonderful story, but left me wanting to learn more.

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