For those of you who might not be familiar with The Saddle Club, I’m sorry. You have my sympathy for your wasted childhood. To those of you who did follow the exploits of Carole, Lisa and Stevie obsessively I say greetings, sisters. In honor of the Kentucky Derby this weekend (one of the three major yearly horse races, the other two being the Grand Prixe and the Preakness — it’s called Saddle Club trivia recall ability and mine will crush yours) let’s take a look at back at some of the best parts of the YA series.

Like a lot of us, Mary Dimino was fed up with the constant pressure from our culture and media for women to diet and stay thin. But while most of us just complain, she wrote a whole book about it! Her new book Scared Skinny, chronicles her weight loss after a lifetime of struggle with her weight.

Cat Marnell finally got it together enough to write a book proposal. And then she got a $500K advance…which is almost emphatically not about the quality of the proposal/book as it is about drumming up publicity. This is the world we’re living in. What are your feelings?

Dramatically sweep all books from your shelves like you’re clearing the space for some wanton smooching, burn your Kindle/iPad/Nook in a millennial take on Fahrenheit 451, and just generally don’t do any reading at all — menus, street signs, and mail included — because Mindy Kaling is set to write a second book and you need to rest your eyes in order to fully appreciate its glory.

According to VIDA’s byline counts, women’s representation in national literary publications like The Paris Review and The New Republic decreased in 2012.

Like most women who once had a music collection dominated by Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey, a large Livejournal following, and aspirations of moving to New York because people would “get me” there, I had an intense relationship with The Bell Jar. Though I no longer spend whole weekends wrapped in my bedcovers, weeping over Esther Greenwood’s misfortunes, I still have enough of a soft spot for the novel that my first reaction to Faber’s new Bell Jar cover (released to commemorate the book’s 50th anniversary) was, “What is this monstrosity? Why are they pretending that The Bell Jar is 2013′s new sexy summer beach read?!”

What would you pay for a journey into the “mysterious world of dark, supernatural desire” with this woman and the man who once tweeted “I just threw some kazoo on this bitch” at the helm? Assuming it actually exists, that is.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s recent column in the Daily Mail about her struggle with “over-giving” may make people hate her a little (or perhaps a little more), but before you start penning a new post for EatPrayYou’reTheWorst.tumblr.com, may I intervene on Gilbert’s behalf?

Following the success of 50 Shades of Grey, adult fiction publishers Clandestine Classics are inserting (pun intended) erotic scenes into literary classics such as Jane Erye, Pride and Prejudice, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (!!!).

Say what you will about British writer E.L. James and her Twilight fanfic-turned-novel Fifty Shades of Grey , but girl is living large. (Seriously, she’s making bank. At this point I imagine that her paychecks come in the form of a comically oversized canvas sack with a dollar sign printed on the side, just brimming with money.) To top off her year of domination, James was recently named USA Today‘s “Author of the Year,” a status symbol probably as coveted in literary circles as second-grader Julia Norris’ selection for her monthly book report or the advertising panel next to David Baldacci’s on the Q train.