Muppets Season Two DELAYED

Stink!

The Muppet Show Season Two boxed set has been pushed back from a tentative fall release to a tentative SPRING release. Boo. This better mean that they have negotiated for uncut episodes or something. I'm still sore that two of my favorite songs from the Vincent Price episode in Season One were axed due to royalty issues. Disney can afford to pay them; fork it over already.

On the upside we can vote here for what cover art they use.

The Safe-Keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn

Sharon Shinn's elegant little novel is one of the more enjoyable things I've happened upon this summer. Some months ago I had read her novel, Summer's at Castle Auburn had been keeping an eye out for more of her books since then. While I found The Safe-Keeper's Secret in the YA section, I hope this doesn't deter anyone from picking it up. It's a beautiful little story that brought me to tears on several occasions. There's no sex, no war, no life and death mystery...just ordinary people trying to make sense of their lives, and because of that perhaps it touched me more deeply than anything I've read in a long time.

Shinn has a knack of turning even the most predictable tales into poetry. Like Luanne Rice, she creates characters that touch our hearts and families that threaten to break them. I look forward to reading the two other books which, with Secret, create a loosely themed trilogy. Each novel stands apart, even as they explore elements of the same fantastic medieval setting.

Nora Robert's Angel's Fall

Nora Roberts doesn't need me to shill books. That said, this lovely lady has a new one on the stands entitled Angel's Fall. Originally titled Angel's Fist and scheduled for a fall release it got moved up on the schedule to make room for a new trilogy she's got coming out in the fall, as well as a hardcover J.D Robb "Death" novel. Let's hear it for serendipity!

PooPooChee, the Ultimate Toy!

After appearing on TELEVISION in the UK this hilarious little spoof on all toys robotic has been languishing on an old computer for five years. How sad!

Tom Briscoe's PooPooChee

Shannon Hale, Newberry Award Winner!

Congrats are due to the lovely Shannon Hale who just came home from New Orleans with a Newberry Award for her novel The Princess Acadamy. Ms Hale's newest novel, River Secrets, will be on shelves this fall, but in the meantime treat yourself to the sweet, fiesty and unpredictable girls of the Academy as well as previous books Goose Girl and Enna Burning.

Congrats are also due Shannon apparently, as this mother of a toddler is braving pregnancy a second time. It's scarier when you actually know what you are getting into...