Apr 4 2019

Good call, people

Well, I'm excited: according to LaineyGossip, Netflix has cast the charming and talented Jordan Fisher as John Ambrose McClaren, the romantic "challenger" in their upcoming adaptation of P.S. I Still Love You...

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Apr 3 2019

Checked!

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Well, one question has been answered: according to Vice, the inexplicable phenomenon of hundreds of vintage Garfield-shaped phones popping up on the beaches of Brittany has finally been explained...

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Apr 2 2019

Not a Good Look

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According to The Guardian, Catholic priests in Poland were photographed holding a book-burning ceremony of titles that "promote sorcery", including J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. Two things: A) if the Harry Potter books successfully promoted sorcery, we'd have lost an entire generation to Hogwarts by now, and...

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Apr 2 2019

Paradoxical

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Somehow, I missed the first trailer for George Clooney's miniseries adaptation of Catch-22, which will air on Hulu on May 17th. It looks good—appropriately unsettling...

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Apr 1 2019

Pride and Prejudice: Puffin Plated edition, by Jane Austen

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As long time readers know, I frequently treat myself to special editions of various Jane Austen novels, mostly for the pleasure of complaining about their various bells and whistles. My latest acquisition is the Puffin Plated edition of Pride and Prejudice, featuring recipes for “modern teatime treats” by Martha Stewart...

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Apr 1 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Pride and Prejudice: Puffin Plated edition, by Jane Austen

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This week's Book Giveaway is the Puffin Plated edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, featuring "recipes for modern teatime treats" by Martha Stewart. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/15/19...

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Mar 28 2019

Rake in that cash

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Just what the world needs: another Marvel ensemble! According to The Guardian, Angelina Jolie has signed up for the upcoming adaptation of The Eternals, yet another Marvel series I know nothing about. Jolie is a true A-lister, so I'm assuming...

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Mar 27 2019

Clearly, Peter Gallagher has bills to pay.

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Ouch: I finally saw a full trailer for After, the real-person-fanfic (about One Direction's Harry Styles) turned YA novel turned movie, and it looks excruciating. It strongly reminds me of Beautiful Disaster...

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Mar 26 2019

Truth in advertising

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LitHub recently posted an excerpt from Margaret Leslie Davis's recently published book The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey. I've read several complaints that this title is misleading...

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Mar 26 2019

Gore for good

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Man, there are a lot of Game of Thrones tie-ins, ranging from fast food to shoes, but this is my favorite: the Red Cross partnered with HBO on Bleed For the Throne, an five-day-long effort to encourage blood donation...

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Mar 25 2019

Beauty, by Robin McKinley

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After last week's review of Leife Shallcross's The Beast's Heart, I decided to re-read Robin McKinley's thematically similar 1978 novel Beauty to see how it held up to my fond childhood memories. Like The Beast's Heart, Beauty does its best to transform the Beauty and the Beast fairytale into something romantic, rather than creepy...

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Mar 25 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Beauty, by Robin McKinley

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And this week's Book Giveaway is Robin McKinley's 1978 novel Beauty, the second installment in our (unplanned) two-book series of reworked fairytales. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...

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Mar 21 2019

Living dangerously for an Austen nerd

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Deadline just posted a casting update on the Jane Austen project I'm most curious about: the upcoming ITV/PBS Masterpiece adaptation of Austen’s unfinished final novel Sanditon. I'm concerned about the description of the heroine...

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Mar 20 2019

How many princesses can she have left?

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The trailer is out for The Spanish Princess, the latest adaptation of Philippa Gregory's endless series of historical novels about British royal women. I know that Henry VIII was considered quite a looker in his youth, and...

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Mar 19 2019

Ah, hubris

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LaineyGossip recently posted a look at the filming of The Undoing, a new HBO series based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known. The story sounds thematically similar...

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Mar 19 2019

Big plans

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(First, let me note that I love this cover art.) It's 2019, which marks the 200th birthday of author George Eliot, and there are going to be a number of events held in her honor...

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Mar 18 2019

The Beast's Heart, by Leife Shallcross

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There are some classic stories that just don't lend themselves to PC updates, and “Beauty and the Beast” is one of them. In her book The Beast's Heart, author Leife Shallcross does her best to minimize the fairytale's inherent problems, but there are too many to fully overcome...

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Mar 18 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Beast's Heart, by Leife Shallcross

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Our latest Book Giveaway is Leife Shallcross's The Beast's Heart, the first of two Beauty and the Beast-themed reviews we're planning on over the next couple weeks. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...

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Mar 15 2019

Clever

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Food52 just posted a list of "8 Clever Ways to Store Books if You're Short on Space". I can't get behind some of their ideas (don't store heavy stuff above your bed, people!), I love the idea of lining a hallway with bookshelves...

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Mar 14 2019

A stand-in wouldn't cut it

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A decade ago, we reviewed Simon Mawer's The Glass Room. It was the kind of book that sticks with you, so I was excited to learn that the upcoming Czech movie adaptation was filmed in the actual house that...

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Mar 13 2019

Free and easy (for me, anyway)

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According to The Verge, Netflix has acquired the streaming rights for The Wandering Earth, China’s first science fiction blockbuster, which was based on a story by Hugo-award-winning author Cixin Liu...

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Mar 12 2019

YAY

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THE FIRST TRAILER IS OUT FOR THE ROOK!!! It isn't exactly what I was picturing, but I totally don't care: I've been waiting to see this for years, and...

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Mar 12 2019

Binti: The Complete Trilogy, by Nnedi Okorafor

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If the plot of Nnedi Okorafor's Binti was as impressive as her world-building and character design, her book would be an instant sci-fi classic. Sadly, the plot is by far the weakest element of this story—although Okorafor has clearly established herself as an author to watch...

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Mar 11 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

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Our latest Book Giveaway is Binti: The Complete Trilogy, a flawed but impressively imaginative fantasy/sci-fi by Nnedi Okorafor. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...

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Mar 7 2019

There are worse ideas

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Vogue just posted an article titled "What Jane Austen Can Teach Us about Wellness", centered around Bryan Kozlowski's upcoming book The Jane Austen Diet. (Spoiler: go for a lot of walks.) I'm deeply suspicious...

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Mar 6 2019

Awkward!

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Wow, this guy sounds like he is an extremely messy human being: Ian Parker recently posted an in-depth investigation into the public persona of Dan Mallory, who, under the name A. J. Finn, wrote the best-selling thriller The Woman in the Window...

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Mar 5 2019

I'll even consider shelling out for HBO

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How did I miss this? HBO is working on a Perry Mason miniseries, and it will apparently star The Americans' Matthew Rhys in the title role. The show is being produced by Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey, and...

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Mar 5 2019

Respectable move, Netflix

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According to The Mary Sue, Netflix has ordered a ten-episode adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club, and put it in the capable hands of Rachel Shukert, the showrunner of G.L.O.W....

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Mar 4 2019

Slayer, by Kiersten White

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In my recent review of the BOOM Comics Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, I wondered if the Buffy-centric storytelling well had finally run dry. Bestselling author Kiersten White's new spinoff novel Slayer proves that there is still some life in this 'verse...

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Mar 4 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Slayer, by Kiersten White

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Our latest Book Giveaway is Kiersten White's Slayer, a book that I enjoyed far, far more than I expected to, considering the quality of recent Buffy the Vampire Slayer-themed output. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...

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