LISNews: Librarian News

App Scout: The world of book reviews can be stuffy and uninteresting, with lengthy and long-winded reviews written by authors and critics who may understand their source material but may not relate terribly well with the reading public, or people who would love to get into books but find reviews more difficult to digest than the books themselves.

Enter LitMob (litmob.com), a new kind of book review blog. Rather than focus on lengthy descriptions of the author's background, influences, and similarities to other works, LitMob cuts to the core of the text, giving you a synopsis of the plot, enough tantalizing information to get you interested in the book, and enough background information to make you want to pick it up, all without reading like Ben Stein sounds.

Book: THE LIZARD KING The True Crimes and Passions of the World’s Greatest Reptile Smugglers
Review in the NYT: In “The Lizard King,” his book about the wild world of reptile-dealing chicanery, Bryan Christy describes a smuggling incident at Miami International Airport. An Argentine man who claimed to be carrying a suitcase full of ceramics turned out to have crammed all this into his single piece of luggage: 107 chaco tortoises, 103 red-footed tortoises, 76 tartaruga turtles, five boa constrictors, seven rainbow boas, seven parrot snakes, 20 tarantulas, 10 scorpions, 90 tree frogs, 20 red tegu lizards, about a dozen other lizards and two South American rattlesnakes. It was one wiggling, squiggling, brilliantly packed load of trouble.

Scripps News reports: From the publication of the lesson-filled "New-England Primer" to the midnight bookstore parties for the latest "Harry Potter" volume, children's books have provided a valuable -- and fascinating -- window into American culture.

That's the premise of "Minders of Make-Believe" (Houghton Mifflin, $28), the newest book by children's-book historian Leonard S. Marcus. In this highly readable book aimed at adults, Marcus details the rise (and, often, the fall) of major U.S. children's-book publishers, as well as the key role played by librarians in the 20th century in determining what American children should read.

National Public Radio has expanded the book coverage on its website, adding weekly book reviews, and has hired six new book reviewers—including a graphic novel reviewer—and added more features to an already existing lineup of author podcasts, critics' lists and other book-focused content. Among the new slate of reviewers joining NPR.org are Jessa Crispin, founder of the literary blog Bookslut.com; John Freeman, book critic and a former president of the National Book Critics Circle; and Laurel Maury, freelance comics and graphic novel reviewer and a longtime contributor to PW Comics Week.

“We’re building up our book coverage because book content really works for our audience,” NPR senior supervising producer Joe Matazzoni explained.

Full story at Publisher's Weekly