Fusenews: Truthiness is Stranger Than Fiction

Adorable baby Bird of a niece is sleeping in the room where I normally use the computer that allows me to post images.  So consider this an image-free day.  No images for you!

• Children’s book plots are intersecting with reality quite a bit these days. First up it’s The Man Who Walked Between the Towers redux.  Only this time the fellow gets a psychological exam.  How times have changed. Philippe Petit only had to do community service.  Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.  Second, this sounded like nothing so much as The Mysterious Benedict Society to me. "The architectural designer Eric Clough embedded clues into a Fifth Avenue apartment, leading the family who lived there on a scavenger hunt through the rooms of their home." Thanks to Shaken and Stirred for the link.

• Bottom Shelf Books frees No! That’s Wrong! from the bonds of ungodly oppression! Viva la revolucion!

• Ooo. I like it when authors mix and meld. Over at author Kimberly Willis Holt’s site you can find information on Kathi Appelt – Writing The Underneath, Part One.  If any of you are curious as to how this future award winner (doggone Atheneum… do you have to win so often?) came into being.  Thanks to Cynsations for the link.  And heck, while you’re at it you may as well read the magnificent Seven Impossible Things review that came out this week.  Even if you don’t take my word on the book’s amazing properties, you’re bound to believe Jules.

• Playgrounds for the elderly .  A most excellent idea.  Now I would like a playground for a 30-year-olds.  You may deliver it to Riverside Drive at your convenience. I’m in no rush. Thanks to Crooked House for the link.

• For people like myself (i.e. the childless) audio books are an amusing diversion but not something you spend a whole lot of time thinking about. For people facing long car trips with ants-in-their-pants kidlets, a good audio book can be the difference between heaven and an unimaginably sticky hell.  Pink Me has a round-up of audio books for little kids that is well worth your eye.  It may even offer an extension to your sanity.

• The Fine Lines column on Jezebel takes a long hard deeply loving look at A Wrinkle in Time. This is one of those books that I’ve heard adult readers over the years say disappointed them the most on a grown-up reread.  They deeply loved it as children, but upon rereading found that it didn’t have the same oomph.  I haven’t read it in at least 5 years, but last time I did I didn’t see a significant downturn in oomphness.  Something to chew on. Thanks to Tea Cozy for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews