Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle board of directors, lists its members' favorite books of 2006. Critic Bruce Allen talks about his:

"The one book of 2006 that I would urge readers not to miss is Edward P. Jones's second short story collection All Aunt Hagar's Children. It's easy to lose track of Jones, who publishes so infrequently. But his first collection Lost in the City and Pulitzer-winning novel The Known World are genuine classics: richly detailed, brilliantly imagined explorations of Afro-American life, both as history and as images of the here and now, that are unsurpassed in our fiction."

To read about more books, check out the website here.

When Miguel Guhlin isn't spearheading groundbreaking technology-in-the-classroom initiatives as Director of Instructional Technology Services for the San Antonio, Texas, school system, he publishes his views on 21st century learning on his respected blog, Around the Corner, read by thousands of educators around the world. We caught up with Miguel for a provocative, and inspiring, discussion.  Continue reading...

Miguel Guhlin, the innovative educator we interview in this week's "Teachers at Work" feature, recommends these "must read" blogs on technology in the classroom and other topics:

Moving at the Speed of Creativity

2cents

The Savvy Technologist

Remote Access

Naming can seem mysterious because it's ridden with myths. And when a name-seeker approaches the naming process armed with myth rather than truth, the myth inevitably gets in the way. So let's take a few minutes to examine ten common myths about name development.

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Want to get the message across to get the revenue in? Professional copywriter Dianna Huff writes the Marcom Writer Blog, a website about marketing communications, copywriting and related topics. Here are some of the books she recommends:

Cashing In With Content by David Meerman Scott

Words that Sell by Richard Bayan

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

Writing White Papers by Michael A. Stelzner

When I was in Oxford, England, visiting my daughter who was studying there, I looked up into the beams of Merton Chapel and there was a face peering down at me. It was a face with leaves sprouting as hair, vines and tendrils springing from his mouth and nose. I had come to face to with an ancient carving of a Greenman. Greenman have been found in churches in the British Isles since the 12th century and they've been in existence in different forms in many countries for much longer than that. My response as a writer was to ask what if? What would it be like if my hair suddenly turned to leaves, my skin became as rough and fluted as sycamore bark, and vines pushed their way up my throat? My musings turned into a poem, The Greenman, which was published in several journals and anthologies.

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Can't decide on a book? Let the What Should I Read Next website help! "Enter a book you like," it says, "and the site will analyze our database of real readers' favorite books to suggest what you could read next." Give it a try here.