Nov 11 2008

Why don't we ever get to see animated versions of, like, Paradise Lost?

According to AnimeNewsNetwork, anime director Osamu Dezaki is planning to debut his anime Genji Monogatari Sen-nen-ki Genji ("The Tale of Genji: A Millennium-Old Journal") on Japanese television i...

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Nov 11 2008

Conan remake to compete with Red Sonja?

Remember our earlier posts about the prospect of a Red Sonja remake? Well, it turns out the consistently-awful director Brett Ratner is thinking of updating another cheeseball-adventure-series-tu...

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Nov 10 2008

We Interrupt this Broadcast, by Joe Garner

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Effectively combining history, commentary, and audio recordings of actual news broadcasts, Joe Garner’s recently re-released We Interrupt This Broadcast is a far cry above the typical coffee-table...

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Nov 10 2008

One last pumpkin and we're done, promise...

But how could we pass up a Jane Austen pumpkin?

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Nov 7 2008

Chris Onstad blogs for Powell's

The recently-featured-on-Wordcandy comic strip author Chris Onstad (or, uh, Ray Smuckles) has produced a blog post for Powell's Books... and, as always, it is totally awesome.Note: Today's Achewoo...

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Nov 7 2008

Gaiman fans take note...

There are still tickets available for this Vertigo/Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) event, apparently:Veteran voice actor Tom Wayland and others, will read from some of the most politically c...

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Nov 6 2008

Speaking of Black Jack, you can read a complete chapter online!

And for those of you who DON'T win the MangaBlog giveaway, but just can't get enough of creepy medical drama/horror stories about rogue doctors, The Beat (Publishers Weekly's comic news blog) has ...

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Nov 6 2008

Black Jack giveaway!

MangaBlog is giving away three sets of the first two volumes of the legendary Osamu Tezuka’s (Astro Boy, Kimba, the White Lion) manga Black Jack--a twisted-but-awesome series about an outlaw surge...

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Nov 5 2008

Edward Cullen in squash form.

The MTV Movies Blog asked their readers to send in pictures of their best Twilight-inspired Halloween gear. Most of the costumes were underwhelming (let's face it: red eye-makeup aside, dressing ...

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Nov 5 2008

Michael Crichton: October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008

Holy moly: Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton died yesterday after a private battle with cancer. He was 66. Our sympathy goes out to his family.

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Nov 4 2008

Recommended reading for anybody stuck in line to vote!

First of all, I'd like to thank whoever decided to make my county mail-in-only, because I do not enjoy waiting in lines. Sadly, however, in plenty of places in this country, people are stuck in ve...

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Nov 3 2008

Lois Duncan tries, once again, to make a decent movie.

Despite some very, very bad film adaptations of her books in the past (including 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer), author Lois Duncan has sold the movie rights to yet another story, the 197...

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Nov 3 2008

MTV's must-read vamp list

MTV has posted a short essay comparing modern interpretations of the vampire myth in books and movies--everything from Buffy to Twilight. They don't say anything earth-shattering, but the article ...

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Nov 1 2008

What Looks Like Crazy, by Charlotte Hughes

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Before reading What Looks Like Crazy, our exposure to Charlotte Hughes’s work was limited to the utterly forgettable Full House series she co-wrote with Janet Evanovich. As longtime fans of ...

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Oct 31 2008

Last-minute book-inspired costume ideas for the truly lazy (Part II)

And for lazy adults...Guys:Dig out your suit, make some paper chains out of gray paper, and go as Jacob Marley.Ladies:Our Nancy Drew costume idea works for you, too--but the vintage dress (or at l...

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Oct 30 2008

Last-minute book-inspired costume ideas for the truly lazy (Part I)

Let's start with the kids, shall we?Pre-Hogwarts Harry Potter:This one couldn't be easier, less expensive, or more cold-weather-friendly. Dress your kid in oversized, shabby clothes, slap some tap...

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Oct 30 2008

Another casting match made in Heaven!

According to MTV, eccentric character actor Crispin Glover has joined the cast of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, playing the Knave of Hearts. Seriously, is every quirky actor in the English-sp...

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Oct 29 2008

At long last: Sisters Grimm news

I know Michael Buckley is probably hard at work on that Sisters Grimm movie, and I hate to whine about a mere one-year waiting period between books (okay, that's a total lie), but I really wish th...

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Oct 29 2008

Another famous fantasy series I've never heard of is getting the LoTR treatment.

According to the Powell's Books blog, Deryni Rising, the first book in a "classic sci-fi series" written by Katherine Kurtz, is on its way to the big screen. I'd never heard of this author or this...

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Oct 28 2008

Pirates, presidency, etc.

If you have a strict "try before you buy" approach to first time authors, please note that Silver author Edward Chupack has also written a few humorous essays on politics and piracy, available for...

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Oct 28 2008

Silver: My Own Tale as Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder, a novel by Edward Chupack

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Something about the fictional pirate Long John Silver seems to inspire absolutely fantastic titles. First there was Björn Larsson's Long John Silver: the True and Eventful History of My Life of...

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Oct 27 2008

Charlotte Hughes

Charlotte Hughes is a bestselling romance novelist who has achieved considerable success with both her independent contemporary romances and her series of collaborations with fellow Wordcandy-appr...

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Oct 27 2008

RIP, Tony Hillerman.

Tony Hillerman, author of the excellent Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, died of pulmonary failure yesterday. He was 83, and had been in poor health for se...

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Oct 27 2008

New Harry Potter trailer's out...

...and while the first few scenes come across as a little, uh, Biblical, I really like the final fifteen seconds:

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Oct 24 2008

Want to win a shopping spree?

Lots of contest news this week, huh? But this one looked too good to pass up...Hyperion is giving away a $1,000 shopping spree and lunch with Blue Bloods author Melissa de la Cruz. Admittedly, a...

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Oct 24 2008

Barnes and Noble takes on furniture, with meh-inducing results.

Has anybody else checked out B&N's new "Home" section? Frankly, I would think that a bookseller would offer a more practical book storage solution than this:On the other hand, I did kind of like s...

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Oct 23 2008

Soul-crushing... but in a good way!

I heard about New York's "Cringe" gatherings on NPR about a year ago, but I've never been lucky enough to attend one (and, seeing as I'm something of a delicate flower, that's probably just as wel...

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Oct 23 2008

Cook like a spy

Or, at least, cook like a titan-haired teen sleuth:I wonder if this is actually a shiny new reprint of this?

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Oct 22 2008

Powell's Books, new and improved.

The Willamette Week's blog has posted some images of the proposed addition to Powell's Books' Burnside store in downtown Portland, OR. It's tough for me to visualize the finished project based on ...

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Oct 22 2008

"Spain—On the Road Again", or: "The Insufferably Smug Take a Road Trip"

I finally caught an episode of Spain—On the Road Again, the PBS food/travel TV series featuring cookbook authors Mario Batali and Mark Bittman and actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols. Un...

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