I’ve always liked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but I hadn’t realized he was writing until I found this article about young adult books. His post-basketball career isn’t what I expected. He’s got some interesting picks.

5 contemporary young adult novels adults should read LosAngelesRegister.com

http://m.losangelesregister.com/articles/adult-601508-novels-novel.html

How many languages do your chracters comfortably speak or read? Imagine it’s only one. What happens when that character lands in a country where no one understands that language?
For some Central American immigrants to the US, it’s true today.
How does your character respond?

Language Barriers Pose Challenges For Mayan Migrant Children : Code Switch : NPR

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/07/01/326426927/language-barriers-pose-challenges-for-mayan-migrant-children?ft=3&f=1001

In my Writers as Readers book club, there are a few folks who write fiction and have said they don’t care to read non-fiction. I like to read both — going so far as to read things like the NASA report about the flawed Hubble telescope and court filings in some hacker cases. Geeky, I know. But I get a lot of story ideas from the non-fiction I read. (And the info made great conversation-starters when I met Cliff Stoll and Bruce Sterling.) Here’s one take on some of this year’s best non-fiction.

The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2014 So Far – Flavorwire

http://flavorwire.com/464711/the-10-best-nonfiction-books-of-2014-so-far

Is fantasy or science fiction your genre? Do you think it might be? Then you may be looking for a creature or a race to populate your world. Here are a few oldies you might want to adapt. A friend of mine, E.R. Barr, melded the Piasa legend with Celtic mythology in his award-winning debut novel, Roan: The Tales of Conor Archer.

Ten Mythological Creatures in Ancient Folklore | Ancient Origins
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ten-mythological-creatures-ancient-folklore-001805