Rob LeFebvre

“Hugh Howey’s Wool was originally published as five novella-length e-books that he wrote while working at Scholars’ Bookshop in Boone, N.C. His novel is set in the far future, with humans living in an enormous silo under the ground in a society long since stratified to ensure their own survival. There is dissent in the air, though; glimpsing freedom through the pixelated screens piped in from the ruined outside, a few souls risk everything to find the truth.”

Walter Mosley may be best known for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, but he’s no stranger to science fiction. Merge/Disciple is the second collection of two short SF novels from Mosley in 2012 (after The Gift of Fire and On the Head of a Pin); like the previous volume, it presents the pair in “Ace Doubles” format, where readers flip the book over after finishing one story to start the other.

Chris Ware’s Building Stories comes in a sturdy box that contains defiantly non-electronic comic strips, pamphlet-sized graphic short stories, a hardbound volume in the dimensions of a Golden Book, a few comic-book sized collections and a large, hard tri-fold piece that would work in a board game. 

Don’t cringe when video games are offered in public libraries. In fact, a well-maintained collection just might bring more kids, youth, and young adults into the hallowed halls of a local library than books ever will.

Games! They’re awesome. There are a ton of them released every year, making best of lists like this one fairly difficult. In the interest of our space and your time, we’ve narrowed the field down to ten, with what we feel are the best of the best games out there for Mac as well as for iOS. All of these games were released this year, and while all of them may not be blockbusters you’ve seen on other end of year roundups (this is on purpose), they’re all of them worth your time and money.

Mobile games continue to play a large role in gaming circles, with low-cost and ease of access driving record sales of app-based gaming experiences for iOS and Android devices. A ton of new games come out every week, which is both a blessing and a curse. Picking just a few for any top games list is often an exercise in futility, as there really are too many to count. What follows, then, is a list of the games that impressed GamesBeat this year, those that stood out above the flood of constantly released mobile games — and those would still be worth playing in 2013.

Been saying this for years, in different forms - always get yelled at by “core” gamers. Ah, well.

Yeah, it’s a bit non-objective (read, subjective), but what the hell. I don’t feel objective about a kid’s voice being pulled from the app store. 

So, Darth Vader was cruising around on his vespa one sunny afternoon, when all of a sudden, a bus pulled up. Does the Sith Lord: a) Ask the bus driver for directions before strangling him with the Force, b) Board the bus and use the Force to propel the vespa into a safe parking spot, or c) Continue calmly to the nearest Red Mango? Choose your own adventure, everyone! (via Blastr)