What better way to bid a bloggy farewell to Sharon than to address a few of her favorite things -- hot publishing deals, hot young New Yorkers, and YA fiction? To those ends, we contacted our (best) friend and author Lauren Oliver (indeed, she's hot), who recently got a "significant deal" (that's publishing lingo, not my own) for two young adult books.

Truly, life gets more amazing every day.

Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the Gossip Girl YA book series that was then adapted into the BSE, is working on her first adult series, according to Hyperion. Due out in 2009, the series (first book is called "Cum Laude" -- really??????) will be about a group of young adults who meet during their freshman year at a small college in MAINE.

There's something vaguely diabolical about Jessica Seinfeld's book, Deceptively Delicious. The basic concept is that you hide good-for-you things like spinach and sweet potatoes in yummy things like brownies and mac & cheese. Except 1) People say her recipes are actually disgusting and 2) She may have stolen the ideas from another lady who thought of those gross combinations first

HarperCollins will be publishing Frey's new novel, Bright Shiny Morning.

Publisher Jonathan Burnham said that "Mr. Frey was a “media lightning rod” but that “my opinion about James Frey and whatever he did is beside the point.”

“What matters is this is a very, very good work of fiction, and it very much stands up on its own.

If our posting schedule seems irregular in the next week or so, it's because we're really busy listening to "Save Ginny Weasley" on repeat and blushing over novel-length Harry Potter fan fiction that involves...naughtiness:

"Please stay."

Heavy breathing. Then a sigh. "Why would I stay, Potter? I'm sweaty, I'm filthy, and we have classes tomorrow."

Dear Oprah,

Please stop it.

Now when I recommed Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex to people as one of my favorite coming-of-age novels of all time, they're going to be like, Gag, wasn't that shit on Oprah? Soon you'll put your Oprah Seal of Approval on all the new book pressings. I'll walk into the bookstore and I'll see it.

We can't stop OMG-ing over these amazing graphic renderings of what will soon become The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Ok, so it'll be built in lame muggy Orlando as opposed to the moors of Britain, which sucks, but whatever. We're sure J.K. Rowling can invest her bajillions in some kind of park-wide fog/mist machine. Anyway.

The NYT's Sunday Business section asked, "What makes a best-seller?" and this three-page musing is their version of an answer. No real revelations, per se. What I found most fascinating was Shira Boss's interwoven explanation of what might have made Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep such a runaway hit:

When Ms. Sittenfeld was writing the novel, she recalled, colleagues said, “The boarding school book has already been written.

Just as soon as we're done pouring over Avril Lavigne's manga, "Make 5 Wishes" Vol. 1, we'll be heading over to TIME. They've got an excerpt of George Tenant's slam-dunking At the Center of the Storm. There's also an interview with Tenant up. Of course, Kakutani weighs in over at the NYT.

From today's Publisher's Lunch:

Crown has pulled back on another high-profile acquisition, deciding not to go forward with Melissa Dumas' LIVE TO TELL: My Life as Madonna's Nanny, which had been pre-empted in a major deal. The house simply says "it will not be publishing the memoir to be authored by Madonna's former nanny, Melissa Dumas.