Wow. Another crazy week for Bookworm Blues.

First things first, I have another giveaway going. Click here to find out what it’s all about and how to enter.

My interview with Elizabeth Bear on the Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast went live. Click here to listen.

Special Needs in Strange Worlds has a fantastic guest post from author Alex Hughes. Check it out. 

I Not-A-Reviewed The Goblin Emperor. Tor is really publishing some amazing things this year.

Speaking of Special Needs in Strange Worlds, I just did an interview on Tuesday night with the fantastic people at the Hide and Create podcast about my column, and about disabilities in literature. It was a great opportunity, and I truly enjoyed talking to them. Very nice men, and a very cool podcast. I’ll let you know when it goes live.

I was also told that my Special Needs in Strange Worlds column was talked about on the diversity panel at the PIkes Peak Writers Conference. Then I was later told by an author who attended that my name was mentioned quite a bit at that conference. My ego exploded. That was so incredibly cool to hear, and it is so very, very nice to know that the dialogue I am trying so hard to start, is starting.

I just received an email saying that Elizabeth Bear’s post for Special Needs in Strange Worlds was the fourth most popular post in the month of April on SF Signal. Bravo, Elizabeth, and thanks so much to everyone who is spreading the word, and making my column a success. It really, really means a lot to me. I also have to thank the authors and other people who are participating in my column. It wouldn’t be anything without you guys.

So that’s about all there is that is newsworthy.

Reading wise, I haven’t read a ton recently, which is completely abnormal for me. I’ve been so busy with the Shattered Worlds project that I just haven’t had as much time as I wanted. I could have read a bunch today, but I decided to plant flowers with the two-year-old instead. It was worth it.

However, I have read some. I’ve started reading The Boost by Stephen Baker – a social scifi that I am really enjoying. I re-read Green Rider by Kristin Britain. I read this book years and years ago, and I remember feeling pretty “meh” about the first book in the series, but I got really into the series with each consecutive book. I’m pretty “meh” about Green Rider, but I’m going to keep going because sometimes comfort fantasy is exactly what the doctor ordered. I also am just about done with The Revolutions by Felix Gilman. I have to admit, I’m struggling with this one. Not because of the story or the writing (both of which are excellent) but because I have some sort of allergic reaction to all things Victorian. I finished Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire. I have to admit, I went into this one expecting absolutely nothing. Ghost stories have never done it for me. I find them about as interesting as zombies (which is really, really uninteresting). However, McGuire hooked me. She has this way with words… even if I thought the book was horrible (which it wasn’t. This damn thing is amazing), I’d have read it for the writing alone. Wow. Just wow. This woman has some serious talent.

Here are the books I’m Eyeing this week. 

Camelot Burning – Katheryn Rose 

Discovery blamed on: A Fantastical Librarian

About the Book

By day, Vivienne is Guinevere’s lady-in-waiting. By night, she’s Merlin’s secret apprentice, indulging in the new mechanical arts and science of alchemy. It’s a preferred distraction from Camelot’s gossipy nobility, roguish knights, and Lancelot’s athletic new squire, Marcus, who will follow in all knights’ footsteps by taking a rather inconvenient vow of chastity.

More than anything, Vivienne longs to escape Camelot for a future that wouldn’t include needlework or marriage to a boorish lord or dandy. But when King Arthur’s sorceress sister, Morgan le Fay, threatens Camelot, Vivienne must stay to help Merlin build a steam-powered weapon to defeat the dark magic machine Morgan will set upon the castle. Because if Camelot falls, Morgan would be that much closer to finding the elusive Holy Grail. Time is running out and Morgan draws near, and if Vivienne doesn’t have Merlin’s weapon ready soon, lives would pay the price, including that of Marcus, the only one fast enough to activate it on the battlefield.

Adaptation – Melinda Lo

Discovery blamed on: Bibliotropic

About the Book

Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

Dealing with Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede

Discovery blamed on: Fantasy Review Barn

About the Book

Cimorene is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart – and bored. So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon – and finds the family and excitement she’s been looking for.

The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness

Discovery blamed on: Mithril Wisdom

About the Book

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee — whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not — stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden — a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

What books are you eyeing?