Apr 23 2010

I'm *sure* there's already fanfic about this.

Huh. Apparently, long-running comic series Archie is about to introduce its first openly gay character. It's sweet that the Archie writers are trying to make their universe more diverse, but ge...

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Apr 22 2010

Taming the West

NPR has a great interview up with Stephen Fried, author of the recently-published book Appetite for America, a nonfiction account of the life of entrepreneur Fred Harvey. Harvey created the Harve...

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Apr 22 2010

Contest news...

Flat broke, but still in the market for a Mother's Day gift? Check out Bookreporter.com's Mother's Day Contest. In addition to a variety of Mom-inspired reading material, they're also giving awa...

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Apr 21 2010

Movie magic

Rumors are rampant that Robert Downey Jr. will be starring in a movie prequel to the Wizard of Oz series. I wonder if Johnny Depp is upset that Downey is now sufficiently clean and sober to provid...

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Apr 21 2010

Class act

Aw... in a particularly cool move, Powell's Books is celebrating Earth Day by giving away a free reusable Powell's tote bag with the purchase of any three used books.This offer is good through Apr...

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Apr 20 2010

Once more (with pants)

Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe is continuing his march towards Broadway fame. Unlike his role in Equus, we're assuming playing J. Pierrepont Finch in the 2011 production of How to Succeed in...

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Apr 19 2010

For serious?

Whoa: the Royal Shakespeare Company has arranged something called Such Tweet Sorrow, a five-week-long event that allows six actors (playing Romeo, Juliet, and four additional characters) to tweet ...

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Apr 16 2010

Alas.

AustenBlog informs me that actor Corin Redgrave, whole stole every scene he was in in the 1995 movie adaptation of Austen's Persuasion, died on April 6th. He was 70 years old, and no cause of dea...

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Apr 15 2010

Fun with taxes...

In honor of Tax Day, allow us to point out that you can find copies of Jean Johnson and Scott Bittle's excellent Where Does the Money Go? for as little as $5.99 online.

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Apr 14 2010

Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Kate Brown

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Amulet Books clearly worked hard on their Manga Shakespeare books. The series is edited by a “leading Shakespeare scholar” and evaluated by an educational editor and an advisory group of teachers...

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Apr 14 2010

Dark times

There was an interesting article in the Seattle Times (via the Tri-City Herald) a few days ago about a potential censorship case in the Richland School District. A 10th grade Honors language-arts...

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Apr 13 2010

The Scarlet T-Shirt

The L.A. Times recently posted an article about literary-themed t-shirts. I particularly liked the style of and idea behind these baseball-style shirts... but I wish they'd chosen better characte...

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Apr 12 2010

The Reckoning, by Kelley Armstrong

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Kelley Armstrong is one of those authors whose work I rarely think about unless one of her books is right in front of me. I like her novels, but they just don't stick in my brain—at least, they h...

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Apr 12 2010

National Library Week

April 11th through the 17th is National Library Week, and public libraries nationwide will be celebrating with special events. This year's theme is "Communities Thrive @ Your Library", so if it's...

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Apr 9 2010

Let them read read Pat the Bunny.

After years of finding Gwyneth Paltrow unbearably full of herself, I'm learning to appreciate her. I still think she's insane, but insane in a fun way, you know? But while reading her GOOP newsl...

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Apr 8 2010

Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir, by Jennifer Mascia

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When Jennifer Mascia was five years old, her father was taken away by the FBI. It was the first sign that there was something different about her family—a difference that Mascia only dimly unders...

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Apr 8 2010

Return of the Tiffany

AWESOME. There's a release date up for the next Tiffany Aching novel: I Shall Wear Midnight is coming out on September 28th. We will be there with bells on.We want Terry Pratchett to focus on hi...

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Apr 7 2010

Out and about

If any of our beloved readers are going to be within traveling distance of Olympia, WA on April 23rd and 24th, make sure to check out the Olympia Arts Walk. Not only is it a consistently awesome ...

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Apr 6 2010

They Never Came Back, by Caroline Cooney

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Caroline Cooney has never quite achieved household-name status, but she's made a successful career out of writing suspense novels for young readers. Her latest effort is They Never Came Back, a f...

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Apr 6 2010

Meh.

According to Digital Spy, Dark Horse will be coming out with another "season" of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic.I'd be happier about this news if the first season hadn't been such a disappoint...

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Apr 5 2010

Poetry Speaks Who I Am, edited by Elise Paschen

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Poetry Speaks Who I Am is the latest anthology to come from Sourcebooks' Poetry Speaks line, and the first—perhaps only?—poetry collection aimed specifically at middle-school-age readers. This ...

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Apr 5 2010

Iron Man 2 cometh

Click here if you're interested in seeing a 2-minute-long clip from the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie. (Personally, I find it funnier if you picture Bill Gates standing in for the Tony Stark characte...

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Apr 2 2010

Randomness

Huh. Apparently, there's an award given out each year for the oddest book title, and this year's winner is...Who knew? But now I kind of want to read it.

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Apr 1 2010

Get well soon, Ms. Jones

We are very sorry to hear that Wordcandy favorite (and Howl's Moving Castle author) Diana Wynne Jones is suffering from cancer, and is currently undergoing both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Fan...

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Apr 1 2010

Little grotesques

Whoa. Speaking of questionable cover art, how did I miss this? It came out in 2007!Normally I'm a huge fan of Penguin's Graphic Classics editions, but I don't know about this sucker. It's certa...

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Mar 31 2010

Reduce, re-use, etc.

Um. I'm all for recycling, but doesn't this C.S. Lewis cover (released in 2009) strike anyone else as kinda weird?Of course, HarperCollins was also responsible for these monstrosities, so maybe t...

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Mar 30 2010

Tell Me Lies and Crazy For You, by Jennifer Crusie

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Even on her warmest, fuzziest day, Jennifer Crusie doesn't go for the hearts-and-flowers approach to romance writing. Her books are funny and sharp-tongued and sexy, and even her sweetest titles—...

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Mar 30 2010

Smell like a superhero

The fine people at BellaSugar inform me that Diesel is planning to launch a limited-edition, Ironman-inspired version of its "Only the Brave" fragrance. The scent will remain the same--a blend of...

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Mar 29 2010

Azumanga Daioh: Omnibus, by Kiyohiko Azuma

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I have mixed feelings about the recent omnibus edition of Yotsuba&!'s Kiyohiko Azuma's Azumanga Daioh. I'm all for anything that exposes this wonderful series to a wider audience, but Yen Press's...

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Mar 29 2010

Sorry, Canada!

I ran across an interesting article about the difference between American and Canadian book prices. Canadians pay approximately 30% more per book, despite the fact that the Canadian and American ...

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