Spread the word: Let the sharing begin
Ask Amy’s recent column highlights great charities – including First Book! – to support this holiday.

The Book Bench Holiday Gift Guide
The New Yorker asked  various editors, writers, and bloggers what they’ve seen and wished they had. Don’t miss their gift guide!

Gift Tips for the Bookish: Jane Austen Junk
Have a Jane Austen fan in your life? Here are some fun gift ideas, with no zombies in sight.

Natalie Portman to slay zombies
And in other Jane Austen news, of the zombie variety this time, Natalie Portman will star in and produce “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” based on the adaptation by Seth Grahame-Smith. No word yet on a potential release date.

“Leave a Mark” online auction – Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
The latest offering in the “Leave a Mark” auctions benefiting First Book is a marked-up copy of Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush. Bids are accepted online through 11:59 PM ET on Tuesday, December 15th – cast your bid today!

More links after the jump!

Twilight gives new Brontë films wings
The success of the Twilight saga books and films inspire new productions of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre to shoot in 2010 and 2011.

‘The Polar Express’ Celebrates a Quarter Century
To commemorate the book’s 25th year, Houghton Mifflin recently released an anniversary edition including a CD of Liam Neeson reading the story.

New York: Eloise, the storybook heroine, gets her due at Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel has opened the latest tribute to the restless, 6-year-old storybook heroine who made her fictional home in the New York City landmark: a 2,100-square-foot pink shrine to all things Eloise.