I like being young. I can sleep until noon, eat without fear of heartburn and laugh at those motorized scooter commercials. But there's one thing I'm looking forward to with age: wisdom. I want to have stores of advice born of experience, born of happiness, born of heartache. I want to learn useful tips and tricks through trial and error, to gain knowledge through study and learning, to know when things are small enough to laugh off, not cry over. Until I reach that ripe old age, though, I'll have to content myself with the sagacity of others. 

So thank goodness I have people like Elspeth Marr to go to. Sadly, she's dead, but thanks to her great-great nephew, who found an old bundle of her letters and notes, her pearls of wisdom live on. And boy, are they alive and kicking.

I have a review of Aunt Epp's Guide for Life coming next week, but if you'd like your own copy for perusal, today's your lucky day! I've got three copies to put into your sweaty little paws; to enter, email giveaways@bookliciousblog.com with Aunt Epp in the subject line. Include your name+address in the body of the email. This contest is limited to residents of the U.S. You have through this Tuesday to enter, and I'll announce the winners this Thursday. 

Let's call today Threesday, shall we? Because I've got three new and upcoming releases for you. :)

First up is Where's My Wand: One Boy's Triumph Over Alienation and Shag Carpeting by Eric Poole, published by Putnam Books. Kirkus Reviews writes:
 

"A quirky, irreverent story of growing up odd in the 1970's, when people still wrote letters, loved shag carpeting and used carbon paper.  

You've read the review of Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer - now here's your chance to own it. Tom from Titan Books has three copies to give away. To enter, email giveaways [at] bookliciousblog [dot] com, with Yippee in the subject line. Include your name and address in the body of the email. This contest is limited to residents of the U.S. and Canada. You have through this Saturday to enter, and the winners will be announced next Tuesday. Good luck!

In accordance with the FTC and Amazon, I must disclose the pots of cash and freebies this site brings me (ha!). So, without further ado, I disclose that:

*"I, Evangeline McMullen, am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.” This means that if you click through to Amazon using any of the ads or links on this site and then place an order, I receive a commission. 

*I also am a LinkShare affiliate. I receive commissions from orders placed on advertiser websites after click-throughs from the ads on this site.

*The books reviewed on this site are advance review copies sent free of charge from the publisher to me and my reviewers. 


And that's all, folks! 

In addition to the 18 fabulous literary ladies I posted about recently, Pages to Pixels also has 16 great pictures of 16 great authors. My favorites are after the jump; for the rest, click here. Warning: some are NSFW.

April 26 marks the six-month anniversary of this wee blog, which is quite an accomplishment, considering I usually give up on journals and diaries after a matter of weeks. To celebrate, I'll be giving away books every day next week. Exciting! Some of the giveaways will only be on Facebook or Twitter, however, so if you're not already following Booklicious, you might want to jump on board so you can snap up some freebies.

Looks like someone from the Royal Shakespeare Company read Twitterature and got inspired. 

The power of the Bard has electrified audiences via the stage, the page and is now set to do so via the internet. Well, more specifically, via Twitter. Starting this morning, the Royal Shakespeare Company will be performing Romeo and Juliet in real time using only tweets. The cast of six actors will be using their cell phones to perform their lines, and the "show" - entitled Such Tweet Sorrow - will last five weeks. 

From the London Times:
"Michael Boyd, RSC artistic director, believes mobile phones 'don’t need to be the Antichrist for theatre'. The RSC’s aim was always “to bring actors and audiences closer together', he said. 'We look forward to seeing how people engage with this new way of playing.'"

But it seems the "way of playing" isn't the only thing that's going to be new about this production.

"Roxana Silbert, the RSC associate director who is directing Such Tweet Sorrow, emphasised that it was a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s play and 'was not very reverential'. The original dialogue is lost to more contemporary language so there will be no posts like '@romeoM: R,R, wr4 rT thou R?'

Tybalt is an “arsey teenager on the verge of being expelled from private school”. Romeo is 'an avid PS3-playing, drum’n’bass lover', Juliet is as obsessed with Robert Pattinson and the Twilight vampire saga as any of today’s 15-year-old girls and the friar runs an internet café." 

Oh boy. You can follow the star-crossed lovers @Such_Tweet.

I love my all-white library, but sometimes I wish we'd been able to throw up a coat of colorful paint before we moved everything in. Now that our 2,000-odd books have made themselves at home, the odds are slim to none we'll move them back out to paint (plus, that's one more room we might have to paint back when we move out, which is just - ugh.). I've been toying with the idea of putting patterned paper behind the open shelf backs as an alternative, though, so here's a sampling of inspiration.