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, …

» Continue Reading “Unraveling the Mysteries of The Big Bang Theory Introduction and Giveaway”

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”

Though our parent publisher BenBella has exhibited at Comic-Con before, this will be Smart Pop’s first year with a booth—and we’re jumping in feet (or is that spines?) first. Jennifer, Heather, and I will be in San Diego for four days (plus preview night!) packed with signings and giveaways for our 2011 titles. You’ll find us at B-4, in the back right corner of the exhibit hall.

You can download our official Comic-Con press release here but we wanted to take some time here to give you guys a sneak peek—not just of the high-profile highlights, but also the various extras that didn’t make the press release . . . plus the opportunities we’ll be making available for those of you following the con …

» Continue Reading “Smart Pop at Comic-Con”

Look for it to be a little quieter around our site next week. Jennifer and I will both be at BEA—BookExpo America—“the largest publishing event in North America”: a yearly gathering at which book publishers tell the rest of the world (via media, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, other publishers, etc.) what books they have coming up that they’re excited about. (You can follow attendees on Twitter by watching the #bookexpo and #bea11 tags—the former is the official tag, but we’ve seen a lot of the latter being used, too.)

For those of you attending—and/or those of you attending Book Blogger Con on Friday—we wanted to, like last year, give you a quick rundown of Smart Pop at BEA. We’ve got a lot …

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Our Fall 2011 Smart Pop titles are already on Amazon and elsewhere, and we’ll be promoting them next week, too, at BEA (see tomorrow’s post) . . . so we wanted to give them an official introduction here, as well. (And as we’ve been doing with our Spring 2011 titles, we’ll give them a more in-depth intro closer to their actual pub date!)

Here are the six new Smart Pop titles to look forward to later this year:

OCTOBER 2011

The Psychology of Twilight
Edited by E. David Klonsky, PhD, and Alexis Black

Husband and wife Twilight fans David and Alexis worked with us to put together a collection of essays by psychologists on the Twilight Saga, ahead of the November 2011 release of …

» Continue Reading “Our Fall 2011 Smart Pop Titles”