There are many reasons why The Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular shows on TV right now: the friendships, wonderfully geeky references, and of course, Sheldon’s antics, all combine to create something we’ve never seen on TV before. A show about geeks that celebrates them instead of mocking them; a show that makes these nerdy guys the heroes that you root for while you’re watching; a show that makes being smart cool and funny, instead of something to be avoided. As author George Beahm says in the introduction of our new companion book, Unraveling the Mysteries of The Big Bang Theory:

The Big Bang Theory didn’t simply serve warmed-up leftovers, but instead gave viewers new, tasty fare. Although we have geeks and girls aplenty, …

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We didn’t blackout Smartpopbooks.com today. But we did want to talk a little bit about why we don’t support SOPA.

We are not in support of piracy, obviously. Our continued existence and ability to create books depends on people buying those books, and as e-books are adopted more widely, e-book piracy is bound to continue to grow. But I’m personally not convinced—as many, many people around the web and in academia and in politics are not convinced—that SOPA and PIPA are the way to do that.

We publish books. We’re in the business of making agreements with writers on their copyrighted work, where we pay them a certain amount of money for the privilege of making their work available to book buyers. And so we …

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If you, like me, have a permanent Amazon search for “Smart Pop” as one of your browser bookmarks, you might have noticed a new book that popped up a few months back, to be published in late June 2012: Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, a collection of essays on the books. You might have also noticed that this page has remained stubbornly absent of cover image.

Today, I’m very pleased to share Beyond the Wall‘s front cover, which you’ll see over there to the right of this paragraph. The design is the always-excellent work of Charles Brock over at Faceout Studio, who not only put together a whole set of fantastic comps for …

» Continue Reading “Beyond the Wall: Unveiling the Cover”

We’re guessing that the Stephanie Plum fans out there are getting pretty excited about the One for the Money film premiere later this month, and thought it only appropriate that we give Stephanie her due with a Perfectly Plum giveaway!

Through midnight (EST) on February 8 you can enter to win one of three signed copies of Perfectly Plum. Just leave a comment below to be entered (U.S. and Canadian-only entrants, please).

And if you don’t feel like waiting until February to get your hands on a copy of Perfectly Plum, then there’s no better time than the present to purchase a copy for Kindle: it’s currently only 89 cents! You can grab it on Amazon here.

Finally, for the next four …

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A few weeks ago we announced a special The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-themed giveaway to celebrate the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie release. Over 200 of you, Smart Pop readers, entered to win, and the following ten have won the prizes listed here! (All winners were chosen with the help of random.org.)

Grand Prize Winner

BRONSON

Runner Up Winners

JOHN V. DEVITO

LESLIE

Book Winners

LYOLA SHYBANOVA

LISA

LINDSEY

CHRIS PETERSON

BRANDI

HILLARY WEBB

BRIAN

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For everyone who didn’t win, we can at the very least offer a free PDF excerpt download when you sign up for The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo mailing list below. We’ll also send you occasional updates about …

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Last month we opened a giveaway for Nyx in the House of Night, with five winners to receive a copy of the book (signed by both P.C. and Kristin Cast), an illustrated print of the goddess Nyx (signed by the artist Alan Torrance), and a NYX cosmetics Slim Eye Pencil in sapphire. We asked entrants to share in the comments what kind of tattoos they would get as an adult vampyre if they lived in Zoey’s world, and got some great answers in return (we highly recommend reading them here!). Without further ado, here are the contest winners and the comments they shared.

ALLISON LOPEZ - my tattoo could have blue crescents and some blue butterflies with dark blue swirls going down one …

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Why are we putting out a Movie Edition of The Girl Who Was on Fire?

Well, book publishers love new editions. (It gives bookstores a reason to take a fresh look at an old book.) And who am I to resist an excuse to jump back into the Hunger Games series and have a few new writers write a few more great essays?

For our new edition, we drafted Brent Hartinger, Jackson Pearce, and Diana Peterfreund to write essays for us: on mixed opinions of Mockingjay; why we shouldn’t forget about Gale, just because he wasn’t the one Katniss picked; and the game theory of the Games, respectively.  I think they all make incredible additions to the original edition’s fantastic line-up …

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There’s only one more week until Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara hit the big screens in David Fincher’s new film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I don’t know about you readers, but we can hardly wait to see it. What with H&M’s new movie-inspired clothing line launch, and all of the coverage leading up to the movie, we can’t stop talking about Lisbeth at Smart Pop, and we figure she’s probably on your radars too. In anticipation of the movie launch, and in celebration of our recent release, The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we’re holding a Dragon Tattoo giveaway.

One grand prize winner will get . . .

• A $100 H&M gift card

…

» Continue Reading “The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Giveaway”

If you’re a Mad Men foodie, the only thing better than trying the recipes from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook would be eating at the restaurants featured in the show. Thanks to very generous donations from some of the food establishments that contributed to the book (pictured above), now you can!

Starting immediately through midnight on March 6, 2012 (CST), you can enter our “Dine Like a Mad Man” sweepstakes for a real chance to dine like Draper and drink like Sterling (which will include ordering an old fashioned or martini, natch). Six lucky entrants will each win one of the following prizes—altogether worth over $1200:

Grand Prize

Dinner for four at Barbetta (valued at $500)

First Prizes

Gift certificate from the Russian Tea Room…

» Continue Reading “Announcing The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook “Dine Like a Mad Man” sweepstakes!”

Each season we announce our new titles individually, each in their own post, to give you a little extra background behind the book. If you’ve missed any, you can check them all out here. Fall 2011′s intro posts are here.

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On December 21, 2012, the American film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo premieres. I confess: I haven’t seen the Swedish version. I hear it’s pretty incredible. But at least judging by the trailer, this new version looks pretty incredible too:

In the months since the film was first announced, most of the discussion has—as it did for the book—surrounded the Millennium trilogy’s heroine, Lisbeth Salander . . . the subject of the latest addition to our Psychology of series, …

» Continue Reading “Get inside Lisbeth Salander’s head: The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”