Books & Pieces: weekly roundup

World Weaver Press presents our weekly quick roundup of news and factoids, articles and more that struck our fancy, tickled our interest, and had us scratching our heads. For readers, writers, and genre fans of any form.

While usually a weekend segment, we’re bringing you Books & Pieces on a Monday this time around and we’re going to blame it on the fact that in the United States, this is actually a three-day holiday weekend.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

First, a moment of silence to remember Neil Armstrong. The first man on the moon died on August 25 at age 82. It was hard not to look up at last week’s gorgeous blue moon and think of him and the men of Apollo 11.

While we’ve got our eyes turned to the sky, we must say that we’re still totally enthralled with the @MarsCuriosity rover as it slowly does it’s thing up on the martian surface. And if pictures of butterscotch colored desert don’t spark your fancy for space exploration, how about these artist’s concepts of far out space stations courtesy of NASA. We have to say the “inflatable space station” is the most intriguing … and nerve wracking.

The Hugos are here! Sunday night the winners were revealed at the WorldCon ceremony in Chicago. Read a full listing of winners and nominees.

The Midwest drought reveals ghost towns. Certain cities in Indiana were intentionally flooded when they were abandoned decades ago.  After an entire summer without enough rain, they’re reappearing.

Are book covers a dying art? NPR asks the question in the face of the rise in ebooks.

Your moment of awesome: It took Scott Weavers 35 years to make a 100,000 toothpick sculpture of San Francisco. This isn’t the largest toothpick sculpture ever, but it is the largest kinetic sculpture of it’s kind. Yes, kinetic. Be sure to watch the video when you follow the link and go on all three or four “tours of the city” that the artist designed.

If the characters of Star Wars were teenagers in the 80s,  we imagine they’d look like these mash-up sketches of what they’re calling “the best Breakfast Club ever.”

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