"Type 'revolution' into a search engine and find a soccer team, a tutoring system, a firm that engages in mergers & acquisitions, kites, pet care products, a music venue, dancewear, a health information database, climbing gear, a restaurant...(a)nd the Communist Party, USA."

- Andrew P. Mayo, "Too Busy For a Revolution"

Andrew's observation best sums up the fact that any fundamental change that takes place in a relatively short time can be called a revolution, and so does the variety of blog posts Red Room saw this week on the topic of revolution. Some bloggers wrote about political revolutions which they observed first hand (like Sambath Meas  in Cambodia or Li Miao Lovett in Nepal) or know through the experience of a loved one (Lloyd F. Lofthouse's wife in China). Others experience revolution through embracing the religion of their childhood (Catherine Nagle, "The Doors That Never Closed") or from declaring independence from religion altogether (Jane Hammons, "In Support of Myself")

Of particular interest to the Red Room community are the posts about the publishing industry. Sue Guiney's perspective on a giant book retailer is really a motivational essay for aspiring writers, while Geoffrey Philp gives an informative call for a revolution in the industry in the Caribbean region from which he writes. And R. Michael Phillips uses vivid imagery to discuss the revolutionary impact of Print on Demand technology in the industry.

Three bloggers stood out this week to Red Room's editors:

Red Room author Sarah Stone's consideration of several revered authors helps her (and us) understand how looking at how different novels' pacing can help us understand how we actually process information. Read her erudite, fascinating "Gold Leaf: A.S. Byatt,Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, The Arabian Nights, and the Tyranny of 'Fast-Paced' Fiction."

Radio scriptwriter and aspiring children's-book author Leslie Moon declares a renewed revolution for "stands for those who have no or little voice; a revolution for the weak who face adversity every day of their lives." Read "The Revolution for the Disabled."

Our favorite title this week also inspires us with its call to each of us to create our own revolution. What could be more courageous than to "...tell somebody what that step is and when you will take it. Tell them your dream, and why its not too late for you to pursue it." Read Micki McNie's "How to Overthrow Your Own Personal Government."

Each of these three featured bloggers will receive a copy Red Room author Ying Chang Compestine's young-adult novel Revolution is Not a Dinner Party. It won more than thirty awards in 2007 and 2008, including the New York Public Library's 100 Best Titles for Reading and Sharing, the American Library Association's list of Notable Children's Books, and the Women's National Book Association's Judy Lopez Memorial Award. The novel tells the story of Ling, a "dreamy, idealistic" eight-year-old girl whose world is turned upside down during China's Cultural Revolution and who survives on "wit, hope, and courage."

Here are some other bloggers whose posts best captured "revolutions":

• New Red Room author Tonya Pinkins staged her first revolution when she was just nine years old. Read "I Am The Revolution." 
• Kristen Craven gives us an insider's look at a woman's college whose students fought back and won against harmful change. Read "The Mills Revolution: 20 Years Later."
• Richard Rorty's analysis of political essaying Richard Rorty's "The Contingency of Community" addresses "radicalism, liberalism, and poetic language."
• David R. Beemer worries about the revolutionarily short attention span of readers, including himself, in "The Inside of a Washing Machine."
• Red Room's own Jennifer Gibbons writes entertainingly about a revolution that was televised, namely that thrown by the Smothers Brothers in the 1960s. Read "Move Over Che, the Smothers Brothers Are Here!"

All of the week's entries on revolution are worth checking out. Thanks as always for blogging!

-Huntington W. Sharp, Editor, Red Room