I stumbled across this and thank god I did because not only is this a super cool video but the song is catchy and I can’t wait until these girls start The Girls With Glasses Show. This is just the theme song:

I Am A Girl – The Girls With Glasses Theme Song from The Girls With Glasses on Vimeo.

The Girls With Glasses show will be a “smart girl talk show.” Featuring Brooke White (from American Idol) and Summer Bellessa, it’s going to be a “part-hipster part-variety talk show.” Get more information on The Girls With Glasses website. You can also follow them on Twitter. You can also watch the videos they have up right now, my favorite of which is the making of the theme song.

I’ve got to get a freaking button for this series. Make it all official and stuff.

Anyway, this week’s book that I’m just dying to read was brought to my attention early this morning when I opened my feed reader and saw my friend Jessica had a new post. Her review left me itching to read this book now, and I’ve put it high on my wishlist of books to buy next time I’m binging on books.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: The Dial Press (April 6, 2010)

Here’s what Jessica said in her review of The Imperfectionists: “It’s the story of an English-language newspaper in Rome and the characters who work there.  I do mean ‘characters.’  Each chapter focuses on a different person, with intervals describing the founding of the paper.  By turns endearing, pitiful, sinister, and heartbreaking, these interrelated personal stories twist tighter together until things start to maybe snap a little.

“I have to tell you, when you read this (because you must), pop back on here when you are introduced to Snyder.  I was so affected by this character that I had to put the book down for a couple hours and pull myself together.”

While that’s enough for me, here’s the starred review from Publisher’s Weekly:

“In his zinger of a debut, Rachman deftly applies his experience as foreign correspondent and editor to chart the goings-on at a scrappy English-language newspaper in Rome. Chapters read like exquisite short stories, turning out the intersecting lives of the men and women who produce the paper—and one woman who reads it religiously, if belatedly. In the opening chapter, aging, dissolute Paris correspondent Lloyd Burko pressures his estranged son to leak information from the French Foreign Ministry, and in the process unearths startling family fare that won’t sell a single edition. Obit writer Arthur Gopal, whose overarching goal at the paper is indolence, encounters personal tragedy and, with it, unexpected career ambition. Late in the book, as the paper buckles, recently laid-off copyeditor Dave Belling seduces the CFO who fired him. Throughout, the founding publisher’s progeny stagger under a heritage they don’t understand. As the ragtag staff faces down the implications of the paper’s tilt into oblivion, there are more than enough sublime moments, unexpected turns and sheer inky wretchedness to warrant putting this on the shelf next to other great newspaper novels.”

So whaddya think? Yay? Nay? I don’t know that Publisher’s Weekly would have sold me on it based on their description, but Jessica’s description and enthusiasm for it makes it a must read for me.

As part of the Book Blogger Convention, the organizers wanted to give back in some way, so we’ve solicited donations and are holding an auction for really cool bookish prizes.

Please, go bid!

This auction will benefit First Book, a non-profit that puts books in kids’ hands. Here’s their story:

Mission: First Book provides new books to children in need addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books.

Inspiration: Kyle Zimmer, a corporate lawyer by day, tutored children at an inner-city soup kitchen by night. She discovered that the children she tutored had no books to read. That year, Kyle left her day job, and she and two friends founded First Book to provide new books and resources to the children who needed them the most. They delivered 12,000 books to local communities in the Washington DC area the first year.

Motivation: Kyle discovered that fully 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for the children they serve. Millions of children spend thousands of hours every week in programs and schools that are starving for resources necessary to improve educational quality.

Empowerment: By providing new books to children in preschools and after-school programs, mentoring and tutoring programs, shelters and day care centers and beyond, First Book provides resources to empower teachers and administrators. With access to high-quality books, educational materials and more, these caring leaders can better teach, plan curriculum and impart a love of learning, elevating the quality of the programs and opportunities available to children in need.

Achievement: Now, nearly 20 years later, First Book has delivered more than 65 million books to programs serving children in need across the United States and Canada. Learn more about the honors and awards received by First Book.

Now isn’t that worth bidding on one of the awesome items that were donated?

I’ve been toying with this question for a while, because it’s something I ask myself quite often.

Would you rather be smart or funny?

Now, to make this question interesting, I have to add some caveats. Because if you asked me that question, before you could finish saying funny, I’d answer FUNNY. Funny, coupled with my average intelligence, would be AWESOME. For me. Maybe not for you. Maybe you’d get tired of me and boot me out of your club, but I love funny people. I want to be them.

So the caveat to this is that, if you’re funny, you’re not particularly smart; you have less than a 100 IQ. You’re average. You’re, uh, me. HA! Sucker!

But seriously, you can’t cheat on this question and be all, oh, I’ll have my cake and eat it too. Uh-uh. No, that’s not how this game is played. It is one or the other. You choose one, you lose the other.

If you choose to be funny, you make friends easily, lots of people like you (sorry, there’s always some haters out there), and you’re often the center of attention (in a good way).

BUT, if you choose smart, well, you’re SUPER smart. In whatever way you want to be! You know how some people are math smart or language smart or food smart? Basically, you’re a genius at something, or maybe just super smart about everything. But along with your being super smart, you’re also stunted socially. You’re stiff, you have a hard time making friends, often times you don’t get the slight, silly jokes people tell. You don’t *get* many of the social clues others pick up on. Now, that’s not to say that don’t have any friends. I’m just saying, you have to have some drawback to being smart.

So that’s your choice for this week. Smart or funny. One or the other. Which will you choose?

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Whew! You sure haven’t seen me much around, have you? I’m barely holding my head above water as I finish some things for the Book Blogger Convention.

I wanted to alert you to the fact that the FREAKING AWESOME Sarah Pekkanen, whose book, The Opposite of Me, I reviewed, is giving away a trip to New York to attend BEA and the Book Blogger Convention. Now you know why she’s freaking awesome! Even if you’ve already made your travel plans, you can still sign up to win!

Here’s what you’ll get if you win:

• Up to $350 of travel expense reimbursed – including gas, train tickets, flights, etc. (winner must arrange own travel and submit receipts)
• Two nights in a NYC hotel (I’ll book the room)
• $50 cash toward meals
• 1 pass to the book blogger reception on Thursday, May 27
• 1 pass to the book blogger convention on Friday, May 28
• I’ll also bring the winner with me to Atria Books on Thursday afternoon for a meet-and-greet and chat about hot new books for the upcoming year (bring a bookbag as you’ll collect an armful of new releases!)

Enter to win the trip to New York

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is that the organizers of the Book Blogger Convention will chat with the host of That’s How I Blog, Nicole from Linus’s Blanket, on

Wednesday, May 12th at 6:00pm PST.

Please join us! You can ask us questions, chat with us, and maybe even find out stuff we haven’t told anyone.