Sep 1 2009

Fantastic Mr. Fox movie smells of win

And in slightly bigger-budget promotional news, here's the trailer for the upcoming film based on Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox:I was a little taken aback by the animation style, but this film lo...

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Sep 1 2009

Clutch the pearls!

Behold, it's the book trailer for Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, our current Featured Book:I refrained from complaining about this in the review, because even I understand it's an awfully minor point, but I'...

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Aug 31 2009

Popular fiction in the classroom?

There's an article up on the New York Times website about a teacher in Atlanta who allows her students to read whatever they want to* in her middle-school literature class. The students explore th...

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Aug 31 2009

Twilight + wedding dresses = girl-entertainment jackpot?

In what I can only describe as a desperate attempt to attract really young readers with the fashion equivalent of fanfiction, InStyle magazine asked several designers to sketch Bella Swann's weddi...

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Aug 30 2009

Amanda Grange

Amanda Grange has written several bestselling Jane Austen continuations. We haven't fully forgiven her for making Lydia full-on evil (see the Bitter Aftertaste section) in her book Mr. Darcy's Di...

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Aug 30 2009

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, by Amanda Grange

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Jane Austen continuations and vampire romances have been two of the great literary success stories of the past five years, so we're actually a little surprised we haven't already seen a combi...

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Aug 28 2009

Entertainment for the masses

I had to snicker when I read this Variety article about the sky-high ratings enjoyed by the recent episode of HBO's True Blood, which was the first HBO series episode to top 5 million viewers sinc...

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Aug 27 2009

Repackaging for fun and (even more) profit

A recent trip to the bookstore revealed quite a few repackaging efforts on behalf of Wordcandy-approved authors. Richelle Mead has upgraded to hardcover class:Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books have...

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Aug 27 2009

TokyoPop calls dibs on Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume

According to Deb's Manga Blog, TokyoPop has licensed Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume ("Happy Cafe"), and will be releasing it in January. This 11-volume series overflows with shojo cliches, including a r...

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Aug 26 2009

Youth in Revolt trailer's up...

...and while I'm not a huge Michael Cera fan (he's precious) and I haven't read the C.D. Payne book the movie is based on, the trailer's teen-romance take on Fight Club shtick did make me snicker ...

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Aug 25 2009

Wordcandy (hearts) public libraries

Once again, my local library has come through for me with their excellent books-on-CD selection. My family and I are heading off to the beach this week, and we'll be listening to the complete and ...

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Aug 25 2009

Advertising run amok

So, as kind of a palate-cleanser after the orgy of fiction I've been reading lately, I picked up a copy* of Carrie McLaren and Jason Torchinsky's Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consume...

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Aug 24 2009

The Forest of Hands and Teeth book trailer

Okay, as book trailers go, this one isn't too bad, actually:And isn't it a relief to know that eyeliner is still available, even after the zombie apocalypse?

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Aug 24 2009

Popular shojo manga comes to TV

AnimeNewsNetwork informs me that someone is making an anime version of Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, the super-popular shojo manga by Hiro Fujiwara. This series, while cute, is one of those stories that...

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Aug 20 2009

Jennifer Crusie needs you...

...to come up with a new title for her paranormal work-in-progress. The book has been tentatively titled Always Kiss Me Goodnight for some time, which Crusie chose because the phrase has always g...

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Aug 20 2009

The Punctuation Avenger!

I was listening to BBC Radio yesterday, and they had a story about 62-year-old Stefan Gatward, a Kent resident who finally lost his temper over the incorrectly-punctuated sign on the end of his st...

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Aug 19 2009

Too much money, too little sense

Y'know, I enjoyed the "missing bottles of Thomas Jefferson's wine" plotline in Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer, but I had no idea the storyline was based on an actual (alleged) hoax.

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Aug 19 2009

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Heh. I finally got around to watching the New Moon trailer, and I'm sorry to say that the hokey boy-into-wolf CGI in the first teaser does not appear to have been fixed:And the last line of the tr...

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Aug 18 2009

Fahrenheit 451: dumbed allll the way down?

Sarah Boxer has a nice article up in Slate about the recent graphic-novel adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451--you know, the book about a world where all books are banned exc...

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Aug 18 2009

Contest news...

We've finished the drawing for our Summer Beach Reading Giveaway, and e-mails will go out to the winners this afternoon. If you entered this drawing, PLEASE check your e-mail!Thanks to everyone wh...

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Aug 17 2009

James M. Cain novel coming soon to TV?

Kate Winslet, apparently feeling that she just hasn't won enough awards lately (or starred in enough super-depressing movies), is hoping to play the title role in a TV miniseries based on the Jame...

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Aug 14 2009

The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal, by Sean Dixon

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Sean Dixon's debut novel The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal is a sprawling, gorgeous mess of a book: a Canadian take on Latin American magical realism with a bunch of h...

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Aug 13 2009

Castration Celebration, by Jake Wizner

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The cover of Jake Wizner’s new book looks like the promotional posters for Disney’s High School Musical. It features about 10,000 hokey musical numbers*, just like Hig...

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Aug 13 2009

Killer Summer, by Ridley Pearson

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Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer is his third book featuring Walt Fleming, the sheriff of Sun Valley, a small Idaho resort town. I'm always hesitant about starting a ser...

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Aug 12 2009

Carrie Ryan

Carrie Ryan is a North Carolina-based author of young adult fiction. Her debut novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth was one of our Featured Book picks.

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Aug 12 2009

The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan

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A word of warning before we begin: on the Depression Scale, Carrie Ryan's debut novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth ranks somewhere between Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and Schopenhauer...

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Aug 12 2009

My wallet would cry.

Annnnd speaking of short roads to poverty, I was recently tempted by these little baubles from Tarina Tarantino's Queen Alice collection:Adorable, no? The combination of Tenniel's art and sparkly ...

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Aug 11 2009

By Invitation Only, by Jodi Della Femina and Sheri McInnis

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By Invitation Only is a breezy romantic comedy co-written by Jodi Della Femina and Sheri McInnis, two authors with solid beach-reading street cred: Femina is the autho...

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Aug 11 2009

Poverty, here I come.

Speaking of things that make my world a better place, I have long been excited about the upcoming complete collection of Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County strips. Behold:But what's with this "Volum...

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Aug 10 2009

So. Awesome.

Once again, Penguin's Deluxe Editions make my world a better place, and this time even The New York Times has noticed. Aren't these new covers from artist Ruben Toledo adorable? Nothing's gonna co...

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