"...a fitting metaphor for the first decades of the 20th century, during which old scientific, religious, political, and social certainties were shattered."

1. Radium-Age re-releases! The author list includes Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard. These look fantastic.

2. Same Difference is a bit of a meandering "Reality Bites" sort of coming-of-age for college kids with appropriate sexual innuendo and panic over life descending upon you with a sudden and scary speed. I love the cover in a big way - the fish are from the opening pages which are set in a Korean restaurant with an aquarium. If it was faced out on a shelf it would certainly stand out.

3. Speak is reissuing Sara Ryan's stunning and life-changing Empress of the World. The new volume includes an introduction by David Levithan and three short graphic novels about the characters. I have the comics and they are great - fans of Battle and Katrina and crew will be delighted. If you somehow missed this one the first time out, be sure to grab it now. (I'm linking to amazon because it is the only site that shows the new cover with the Levithan intro. I'm kinda worried about other sites - Powells & Indiebound- as they show the old cover. All of them have the old page count. I'm hoping this is just the book as it is now since the ISBN has not changed. But just make sure!!)

4. Author Vanessa Veselka gave an interview to the magazine at Reed College. Her closing thoughts are quite amazing: I really believe it is better to try to do something really big and leap into failure, than to constantly stay on the side of irony," she says. "Failure expresses our desires in such an open, vulnerable way.

The piece has a nice overview of her book, ZAZEN, which I also found very affecting.

5. I dearly hope Barbara Follett ran away, reinvented herself and lived a long and creative and wonderful life. Her story is the stuff of novels and I found the new website about her (created by her nephew) to be outstanding. If you need inspiration, go read about this fascinating author who simply vanished one day in 1939. (Link via Sharyn November who never disappoints.)

6. I am....trying to get my act together. Seems like I type something like that here all the time, don't I? Sigh.

[Post title is the definition of "Radium-Age" - OF COURSE!]