Yeah, the most recent "We Must Protect The Children!" law, which may drive lots and lots of small businesses into the ground because each and every new iteration of their product must be extensively tested for toxicity.

Right, because those of us that grew up before the 1980s are so mentally deficient.

There must be a better way to regulate the lead danger without getting rid of all those books. Right? I can't actually think of anything, but there's got to be something.

I feel a sudden need to go reread all my old books. And hug them and squeeze them and call them George.

I could have sworn that books were supposed to be exempt.

Oh, man, the lead thing. So hard to believe they'll actually enforce that.

As for Dragonhaven, ita, well, here's my review. Shorter Suela: I found the narrative voice and choices interfered enormously with what would have been a really interesting novel. It's full of uninteresting digressions, falls into a lot of telling of the story, and avoids dealing with a lot of the most interesting parts of the plot.

I have loved a lot of McKinley's work, but Dragonhaven was so disappointing I think it only sold because of her name: a newbie writer wouldn't have been published on the strength of that novel. Or it would have been rewritten extensively.

So hard to believe they'll actually enforce that.

I doubt anyone will enforce it, but the threat of lawsuits from some loon of a parent who says "My precious darling Poopsie was exposed to Lead!!! I must call my lawyer!" is enough to make people dump things.

Libraries are exempt -- actually the only books they are worried about are the toy books -- ones with buttons, plastic parts -- the noisy books that play sounds when you push a button

Please pay attention to this issue - the bill is the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act. Congress passed it quickly last year in response to the panic over lead in toys from China, but it's a sloppily-written bill that is already hurting industries from children's clothing to thrift stores to dirt bikes. Libraries and book stores have what to worry about.

This guy has been following the issue. The Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal have written about it, too.

Congress needs to go back and clarify their intentions and straighten this out, because it's forcing retailers to throw out stock and will put a lot of companies out of business by raising the cost of production out of sight.

Getting off my soapbox, now, thanks...

I just finished reading The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper. It's her memoir of growing up in Liberia in the seventies, before the civil war, and then going back as an adult. I thought it was great -- she's great at managing to get both the stuff that seems important to a kid and the stuff that was important in the government to all flow together into something coherent.

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nominees for the 2009 Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award