Also pretty!
I have long admired the cover art for Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series. They're truly beautiful books, with packaging that confidently asserts: "Yes, these books are going to be instant cla...
The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer Ouellette
I'm no physicist, but I like to keep an eye on the science news, lest I end up sounding like an idiot when chatting with my in-laws, who are all science teachers or geotechnical engineers. Th...
The Watchman, by Robert Crais
I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Crais’s action/suspense novel The Watchman. Crais’s book is neither deep nor plausible, but it is fast, fun, furious, and capped off with a satisfyingly noisy shoot-‘em-out ending. It doesn't have any of the intellectual ambitions of the last action/suspense novel that we reviewed, but it's much more entertaining...
They're not toys, they're action figures.
In slightly cooler figurine news, we're seeing a lot of pictures of the upcoming Harry Potter "deluxe" action figures, and I've got to say--as non-biodegradable plastic goes, they do look pretty a...
Glorious 3-D
Amazon.com is currently having a sale on this mega-cool-looking Alfred Hitchcock pop-up book. According to the publishers, this book "pays tribute to the great filmmaker and features seven of his...
HBO to mix Rogue, Charlaine Harris.
Apparently, HBO is producing a TV version of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels, and it will star Anna Paquin, an actress I actually like! She's perfect for the role of a young, vulnerab...
Ilium, by Dan Simmons
Plenty of science fiction writers get so dazzled by their own ideas that they sometimes forget about developing a decent plot. This is not the case with Dan Simmon’s novel Ilium. It has plot coming out of its ears—in fact, most of the story is based on tried and true literary classics. While his overarching storyline is based on Homer’s Iliad...
World Book Day
March 1st is the 10th annual World Book Day. There are loads of activities and charitable opportunities (including some Harry Potter-related stuff) associated with this event, so please swing by ...
Judging books by their covers
I can't believe how much better children's book cover art has gotten in the past ten years. When I was a kid the majority of children's book covers were terrible--lots of cheesy, semi-realistic d...
I can't believe I'm typing this...
...but I am actually about to recommend a Marvel comic book.Runaways is unexpectedly awesome. This series, about a group of teenagers who discover that their respectable California parents are le...
From Russia, with love
At long last, someone has translated Sergei Lukyanenko's novel Nightwatch. (Thank you, Andrew Bromfield and Miramax Books!) If you haven't seen the movie based on this bizarre, elaborate, spraw...
Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville
I confess: I didn’t expect to like China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun. Preconceived dislike is a terrible thing for a book reviewer to admit, but there’s no denying it. I opened Miéville's book hoping to give it a fair shake, but A) I’m still recovering from reading certain scenes in Perdito Street Station...
Northanger Abbey
Artist Anne Timmons and writer Trina Robbins are doing a graphic novel adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey as part of a collection for the Graphic Classics line. Details are sketchy, but...
Hot contest action
Jennifer Colt is featuring a "Bookapalooza" contest on her site, giving away 100 copies of The Butcher of Beverly Hills, The Mangler of Malibu Canyon, and The Vampire of Venice Beach. For details...
Coffee table art for bibliophiles
If you're in the market for some truly beautiful comic books, I suggest you take a look at Chris Ware's stuff. Not only is it jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but it's also remarkably entertaining. Here...
Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitich Smith
I have loads of horror/fantasy novels on my shelves—everything from Carmilla to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell—but Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Tantalize is unique: it stands alone as the only book that has ever inspired me to genuinely freak out. I’m a pretty unflappable person, but when I saw the words “chilled baby squirrels, simmered in orange brandy, bathed in honey cream sauce” on the restaurant dessert menu featured on page 174, I needed to lie down...
Worcandy loves John Donne's poetry
In honor of Valentine's Day, here's a bizarre little love poem from John Donne. (Please note: This may not be to everybody's taste. If you're looking for something a little more conventional, t...
A Nancy Drew movie, too?
The trailer is out for the new Nancy Drew movie and I have to say: I am not sure that I'm going to enjoy this film. Maybe it is all of the Veronica Mars I've been watching for the past few years, ...
Exile, by Richard North Patterson
Richard North Patterson clearly put a hell of a lot of work into Exile. He spent countless hours on research, he did his best to be fair to both sides of an extraordinarily complicated issue, and he tried to minimize his own biases. Unfortunately, all that effort seems to have drained some of the storytelling juice out of him...
Jennifer Colt appearances
Beloved Wordcandy author Jennifer Colt has two appearances scheduled for April: one on Saturday, April 7th at 6:00PM at The Mystery Bookstore in LA, and one on Saturday, April 21st at 4:00PM at My...
Movie news
We're rarely happy about Wordcandy movie adaptations, but we've found that if we play it safe and keep our expectations very, very low, we can usually get through them without too much trauma. Un...