Nov 8 2006

Wordcandy wishes her the best.

Ernestine Gilbreth Carey died Saturday. Ms. Carey was the co-author, along with her younger brother, Frank Gilbreth, of the wonderful memoir Cheaper By the Dozen. She was 98, and is survived by tw...

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Nov 7 2006

Borders Books draws a (totally bizarre) line in the sand.

I've only been half-aware of the flap surrounding Aury Wallington's new YA novel Pop, but I thought I'd pass along my tiny store of knowledge so that you too, gentle readers, can be In The Know (o...

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Nov 6 2006

The Mislaid Magician, or, Ten Years After, by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede

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Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede’s 1988 novel Sorcery and Cecelia was a delightful curiosity—a cult favorite that appealed equally to devotees of Diana Wynne Jones and Georgette Heyer. The book's two sequels, 2004’s The Grand Tour and the just-released The Mislaid Magician, don’t totally recapture the magic of the first story, but they still make for very entertaining reading...

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Nov 6 2006

Jane Austen movie news, now 100% clearer.

Okay, I was a little confused by all this--maybe it was too much awesomeness for my simple brain to comprehend--but I think I'm clear now. There is an upcoming feature film about Jane Austen's lif...

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Nov 4 2006

We have a cover...

While we only have a vague idea of when the final book in the 'Gregor' series will be released (we're hearing May 2007-ish), we now have the cover art! I am so excited for this book, and I have no...

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Nov 3 2006

GOONG!!!

Yes, my little manhwa-obsessed darlings, the English-language DVD version of the hugely popular Palace (a.ka. Goong, a.ka. Princess Hours) TV miniseries is coming out on November 21, and now you c...

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Nov 2 2006

Upcoming Harcourt titles

The good people at Harcourt Books were kind enough to send us their Spring-Summer 2007 Catalog, and I'm happy to see that there are several books coming out that I am really excited about, includi...

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Nov 1 2006

Santa, Baby: Hot Toy, by Jennifer Crusie

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Jennifer Crusie's novella Hot Toy, the first story in St. Martin's new collection Santa, Baby, is as cute as the proverbial button. I couldn't believe how much Crusie packed into a mere 111 pages—her book was the only Christmas story I've ever read that featured an Alfred Hitchcock reference...

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Oct 31 2006

Harry Potter and the Junior Accountancy Job

Dude, what happened to you?Cute sports jacket, Harry. And what nicely combed hair you have! Did you send out those khakis for ironing, or did your loving aunt do it for you?I'm assuming that this ...

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Oct 30 2006

Holiday movies are approaching.

The HD trailer is now up for the big holiday blockbuster-to-be Eragon. I am still not really sure how I feel about this film adaptation, but so far the trailers have been working for me.

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Oct 29 2006

Wow.

Apparently, a massive statue of comic strip veteran Dennis the Menace was stolen from a park in Monterey, California, some time last Wednesday. The statue is three feet tall and weighs 125 pounds...

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Oct 28 2006

Fabio!

Two of my favorite things collided this week: romance novels & reality television! You see, I have a very sad, pathetic obsession with America's Next Top Model, and the photo challenge this week w...

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Oct 27 2006

Stephanie Lessing

Stephanie Lessing is a freelance writer who has contributed to magazines ranging from Conde Nast Traveler to Vogue. She is also the author of one of our Book-of-the-Week picks, 2006’s Miss Under...

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Oct 27 2006

Wordcandy loves Sylvia Plath's poetry

It's been a long time since we've done one of these, but today is Sylvia Plath's birthday (and, let's face it, a lot of her stuff is very Halloween-appropriate), so I think it's time:TerminalRidin...

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Oct 26 2006

Miss Understanding, by Stephanie Lessing

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At first glance, Stephanie Lessing’s novel Miss Understanding looks pretty generic. A fish-out-of-water comedy set in a fashion magazine? Shades of Ugly Betty. A neurotic, obsessive heroine with a bevy of psychosomatic illnesses? Shades of Bridget Jones. A female-empowering adult-coming-of-age story featuring lots of Mean Girls-style bad behavior and a romantically mismatched couple...

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Oct 26 2006

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Mega-popular author Barbara Delinsky has recently updated her non-fiction book Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors, and Anna Suknov at FSB Associates has very kindly off...

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Oct 25 2006

They're coming...

The holidays are careening towards us at warp speed, so it might be time to start thinking about presents, people. Now is the perfect time to stock up on inexpensive gifts for those terrifying peo...

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Oct 24 2006

About as weird as you'd expect.

While poking around at Seattle's Easy Street Records a few days ago (I was waiting for Bobbby Bare Jr*. to show up), I ran across a pile of Shel Silverstein CDs. Apparently, these recordings were ...

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Oct 23 2006

Match Me if You Can

I finally got around to reading Match Me if You Can, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (it took a while, but midterms have put a major crimp on my reading time). This book reminded me of why I love Ms....

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Oct 21 2006

Guilty Pleasures

Check 'em out! The long-awaited Anita Blake comic book was released this week. While I could not bring myself to actually go out and spend my hard-earned money on one, I was able to find some sam...

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Oct 19 2006

Save the date?

The world's first Jane Austen-inspired tarot deck is scheduled to be released on March 7th, 2007. Behold:...yeah, I can't really see Miss Austen as a big tarot fan, either.

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Oct 17 2006

e-book news

Slate.com has an interesting article up about the Sony Reader, a $350 portable e-book device that that has many a pair of book-geek-y hands in a cold sweat. (Not mine, though. You'll have to rip t...

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Oct 16 2006

The Ladies of Grace Adieu, by Susanna Clarke

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Fans of Susanna Clarke’s 2004 novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell will be thrilled to learn that Bloomsbury has just released a gorgeous collection of Ms. Clarke’s short stories, all of which are set in the same world as Strange and Norrell, although few feature the same characters...

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Oct 16 2006

More Diana Wynne Jones!

I was pleased to discover that Penguin Books has just reprinted Diana Wynne Jones's wickedly funny The Tough Guide To Fantasyland. Jones's book is presented as a mock guidebook, complete with map...

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Oct 15 2006

Have the coolest kitchen on your street.

Tile it pulp-fiction style!Tiles available through ClassicHardware.com

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Oct 14 2006

Two things.

When I saw the cover art for Eloisa James's upcoming book, two thoughts crossed my mind (after I stopped snickering):1. Isn't this story supposed to feature a non-size-4 heroine? Because that back...

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Oct 13 2006

What price weirdness?

I love Lewis Carroll's stuff, and I didn't blink an eye when, in 1999, Martin Gardner's lovely Annotated Alice was priced at $29.95. It's a beautiful and staggeringly well-researched book, and I ...

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Oct 12 2006

Just in time for Halloween...

...comes Dame Darcy's (author of the indie comic Meat Cake) illustrated version of Jane Eyre. If you happen to be a pretentious tool dressed up in a Goth-Lolita outfit, this is totally the book f...

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Oct 11 2006

The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones

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I was thrilled to learn that Diana Wynne Jones was writing another book for her Worlds of Chrestomanci series. Her previous effort, 2005’s Conrad’s Fate, was funny and surreal, a tongue-in-cheek Upstairs/Downstairs farce with some dreamlike fantasy thrown in...

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Oct 11 2006

Host Club

Nathan and I have begun watching the fan-subbed anime version of Bisco Hatori's Ouran High School Host Club. (If you're interested, you can download all 26 magnificently silly episodes at Animes...

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