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Win a copy of the ‘Eleanor & Park’ audiobook.


As an author, it can be extremely frustrating to hear someone else read your words. No matter how great the reader is, they can never match what you hear in your head, and it’s just … irritating.

But I decided to listen to the “Eleanor & Park” audiobook, just for a few minutes, just to get a sense of the production. TWO HOURS LATER, I had to stop because I was getting so emotional.

I LOVED IT. And I got so excited about it, the publisher offered me five copies to give away.

ENTER TO WIN ONE OF THOSE COPIES. HURRY.

LOVE ON A FARMBOY'S WAGES, XTC {more}

Why is Park Korean?

Posted on April 30th, 2013

This spring, after “Eleanor & Park” came out, I went on a book tour to high schools across the Midwest. A number of questions about the book kept coming up again and again, like:

Why is “Eleanor & Park” set in the ’80s? Is it a true story? Will there be a sequel? What happened to Eleanor’s cat — is the cat okay?

So I decided to write a few blog entries, addressing some of these questions — just in case other people have them, too.

I’m starting with this one: Why is Park Korean?

The first time I was asked this, my answer was: “Um, because he is.”

But the more that it came up, the more I thought about it — and the more realized that there were actually A LOT of reasons why …

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Eleanor & Park — All the playlists! All the music!

Posted on March 4th, 2013

I decided to put all four playlists in the same place, for linking purposes. One-stop playlist shopping.

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Books that still have covers should expect to be judged by them.

Posted on February 18th, 2013

Another books column from my newspaper days. This one is about how real paper books have to be beautiful to survive the digital revolution. “If I’m going to buy a book, an actual book — if I’m going to bring it into my house and make space for it — it better be beautiful. It better justify its visual existence.”

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Fill your bomb shelters with hardbacks.

Posted on February 18th, 2013

This column reads a little newspapery. (My voice always shifted when I was writing my columns, it’s such a wide general audience.) But I still like it. It’s about loving e-books, but feeling like we’ll want paper copies to see us through the Apocalypse.

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