Links for the End of the World!

There's so much awesome dystopian stuff going on this month, I wanted to make sure you all knew about it!

First, be sure to read the blog at Presenting Lenore all month long--she's doing an entire month dedicated to dystopian YA lit. Book reviews, author interviews, discussions...Lenore is really going to feature the whole genre all of August. And watch closely...you might see some never-before-revealed stuff from all of us Leaguers :)

Second, a fellow aspiring author, Heather Zundel, is honoring MOCKINGJAY this month by holding a bracket of YA fantasy characters duking it out in battle. Lots of authors in the blogosphere contributing battles between beloved YA characters from Edward Cullen to Tally from UGLIES in a showdown where you, the reader, get to vote on the outcome of who makes it to the top. This site is going to be lots of fun--it goes live tomorrow, and you've got until the weekend to vote for the first round of characters.

And speaking of MOCKINGJAY...don't forget to enter out contest for one of TWO pre-orders of the book, and we'll be discussing HUNGER GAMES at the end of the month for our Book of the Month Club!

With all this awesome dystopia stuff going on, you may (like me) start randomly talking to strangers about the cool books and everything else out there dystopian. When they give you funny looks (and they will) point them to this site, one of the most comprehensive definitions of the dystopian genre out there.

Once you've properly converted them to dystopian, have your friends check out this online questionnaire, that has some pretty basic questions, but ends up with good suggestions of what kind of dystopian books you will probably want to read next.

And if that doesn't help, here's two lists: the top 50 dystopian movies (I agree with SERENITY and 12 MONKEYS but have never heard of their top pick), and the 16 best dystopian books of all time (I *just* bought THE HANDMAID'S TALE).