5.23.2008

Friday is my favorite day of the week!

Happy Friday, everyone! Truly, I am in the best spirits. The skies have finally cleared over NYC and we’ve been promised a stellar weekend, weather-wise.

In the spirit of Friday-before-a-holiday, today has just been full of delight (children’s books-related). First, I received my copy of Rapunzel’s Revenge (no, Liz, you’re the sweet one!) and I huddled down in my cubicle and read the first half already. It’s phenomenal so far – Nathan Hale’s artwork, in particular, is stunning. I’ll email you soon, Miss Erin, and we’ll chat.

This actually happened last week, but I’m only now getting around to blogging about it. Remember I blogged ages ago (okay, fine, it was just February...but doesn't that already seem like ages ago?) here and here about the book Graceling by Kristin Cashore? To refresh your memories, it’s an upcoming YA fantasy novel with adult crossover possibilities, pubbing in October. I really enjoyed it – the characters were richly drawn and the concept of the book was well-executed. However, when I got the ARC in January, it didn’t have a cover yet: it was just a white book with black writing. Well, the cover has come out and here it is:

It’s really gorgeous. The sword is silver foil with a reflection of Katsa, and the author’s name and the book’s title are in embossed gold foil. There also was thought put into the design of the back cover – it has a horizontal picture of the sword with the reflection of Katsa’s different-colored eyes in it. Can anyone else say Ka-Ching! Harcourt is promoting this big-time, as they should with a 75,000 first printing for a debut author. Luckily, the cover is fantastic and will definitely draw in readers. Thanks to Ellen Greene, one of my favorite publishing folks, for the advanced copy!

Food-wise, well, I don’t feel like making dinner so we’re going out tonight. Interestingly, we’re going to check out Uno Chicago Grill down the street from our apartment. We’ve stayed away because it’s, you know, a chain (in mind I just kept seeing images of Pizza Hut and Little Caesar's). However, this article in the Boston Globe turned me around: Uno’s was named Health Magazine’s healthiest chain restaurant in America. Who knew?! They even serve antibiotic-free chicken and whole grain pastas. I haven’t tried Uno’s since I read this article, but we decided tonight would be a good night. Uno’s is one of the few places in our neighborhood with outdoor seating and it’s definitely a good night to enjoy the nice weather.

Eat, drink, and have a lovely weekend, everyone!

2 comments:

Erin said...

Woo-hoo! I agree about the artwork. It was so hard to turn the pages, I just wanted to keep looking and looking....

Anonymous said...

Yay! So glad you got it.
xLiz