Book Business Tuesday: Cootie Catchers!

It's been awhile since I did a Book Business topic and this is a good one: Fold Me Up is here! I was so excited to be one of ten guest illustrators invited to do a special design for this collection of 100 paper fortune-tellers, aka cootie catchers. I was even more happy to learn that my design made the cover (the little mermaid lady above).

I received an advance copy a couple of weeks ago and it releases today. Author Michelle Taute has a great sense of humor and has created such a fun collection. Here's a peak of my page:

My topic was imaginary creatures with a mermaid, kraken, minotaur and unicorn. 

I continued the theme on the back with a phoenix. Available here and now! 

Book Business Tuesday: Recommendations

As you might remember, I am participating in the Fifty-Fifty challenge to read fifty books and watch fifty movies this year. I'm nine books and eleven movies in and thought I'd take this Book Business Tuesday to share with you some recommendations from my recent reads.

Two of these are from last year's reading list, but that doesn't really matter, does it? Now, I'm no great book reviewer, so I won't bore you with some sad attempt at it. There are plenty of those over at Amazon. I will just give you a brief overview and tell you I loved these books. Do with that info, what you will …

 Mr. Penumbra' 24-Hour Bookstore
by Robin Sloan

For all you book and bookstore lovers out there. A fun, fast story about the intersection and overlap of old knowledge and new technology filled with musty bookstores and literary intrigue. It even has geeky graphic design type nerd references. Charming.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home 

by Carol Rifka Brunt

I won't lie: I picked this one up for the gorgeous cover. It was done by the ultimate book designer to my mind: Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich. Perfection. So then to have to story live up to this great design — and then some — was such a nice surprise. Wonderful character development of two lonely people who find each other through the most unlikely of circumstances.

The Widower's Tale

by Julia Glass

And speaking of character development, no one does it better than Julia Glass. Ever since Three Junes, (still my favorite of her books) I have been a devoted Glass fan. She has a way of weaving together multi-generational family sagas like no other. 

The Cookbook Collector

by Allegra Goodman

It's funny—this one brings us full circle back to the first. It, too, brings together the worlds of new technology and old knowledge bookstores but in quite a different fashion. A story of two sisters a bit list in the world and the ways in which they get found and find themselves.

And there you have, from a true fiction junkie. 

Book Business Tuesday: Small Craft Skillshare

This month's Small Craft "skillshare" gathering is happening in Ann Arbor in the picture perfect event space at local flower and garden shop, pot & box. It's happening Saturday, February 8 and the afternoon features wonderful crafty book lady Amanda, of Dang Argyle fame, showing the crew how to make book sculptures!

She’ll show us how to cut, fold and glue unwanted paperback books into attractive sculptures. Books, scissors, X-Acto knives, glue guns and glitter will be provided but feel free to bring along your own books, tools and supplies. There will also be hot beverages and homemade vegan baked goods. And it's all free! Hooray for Small Craft!

Book Business Tuesday: Better World Books

Big and green with "books" written all over it … hmmm? I recently noticed this large bright green donation box in the local Meijier parking lot. Intrigued, I looked it up online and discovered Better World Books. 

Better World Books collects and sells books online in order to donate books and fund literacy initiatives around the world. With stock of over 8 million new and used titles, they match every book purchased with a book donation. From a used copy of Design*Sponge at Home for $14.93 to a brand new copy of The Shadow of the Wind for $16.00, they have a great selection—and all books ship free worldwide! 

To date, Better World Books has donated over 5 million books to partner programs around the world. Their four primary literacy partners are Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, and the National Center for Family Literacy. 

They have a handy map of donation box locations. In Michigan, it looks like most Meijier's now have boxes as well as quite a few additional locations. 

So if, like me, you've finally finished your new year's cleaning rituals, you may find yourself with a stack of books just waiting to be donated. Now you know where to go! 

Book Business Tuesday: The fiftyfifty.me challenge

Fifty books. Fifty movies. One year. One you. Over the weekend I signed on to the fiftyfifty.me challenge of reading 50 books and watching 50 movies in 2013. I usually average about 30 books a year (that I keep track of here on the blog) and thought it would be fun to try to up that number this year and also to keep better track of the movies I watch.

The challenge comes with a well-designed web site where you can keep track of your lists and includes great community components for sharing book and movie recommendations. I'm off to a strong start with three books and three movies under my belt.

Here are a few great resources to help with the challenge:

Goodreads: Keep track of what you're reading, what you want to read, recommendations from other users/readers and more.

What should I read next? Exactly what it sounds like: Type in the name of a book you like and the site will generate a list of recommendations.

The New York Times bestsellers list

National Book Award winners

How about you? Wouldn't you like to join in the fun?

Book Business Tuesday: Rose Sanderson

For this book business Tuesday, I have for you a look at artist Rose Sanderson's paintings of bugs on book covers. Perhaps it's her background as an illustrator—or that they have a little bit of many of my favorites things: books, painting, color and butterflies—but I find these truly delightful and appealing. I just wonder why the books are torn, rather than left intact. Sanderson's recent paintings of birds in graffiti-like settings are remarkably beautiful. Truly. I'm going to stick with the book theme here, but you should have a look!