Jul 11 2006

AHHHHH!!!!!!

And speaking of Harry Potter, has anybody seen these dolls? (More importantly, has anybody been murdered by one of these dolls?) Because, seriously, they scare the crap out of me:Hey, you may mo...

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Jul 10 2006

Aneva Stout

Aneva Stout is the author of the highly original book The List: A Love Story in 781 Chapters, the subject of one of our Book of the Week reviews. Subject-wise, Ms. Stout’s story is B-grade Bridge...

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Jul 10 2006

The List: A Love Story in 781 Chapters, by Aneva Stout

2006-07-10-the-list-a-love-story-in-781-chapters-by-aneva-stout

Gimmick books—miniature books, books that come with soundtracks, books cut into weird shapes—usually leave me cold. But I really enjoyed Aneva Stout’s The List: a Love Story in 781 Chapters. Sur...

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Jul 10 2006

Mark your calendars...

...because we're just about two weeks away from Lumos 2006: A Harry Potter Symposium! According to the schedule, there will be classes on a variety of topics, from the more high-minded ("Parameter...

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Jul 8 2006

Bleagh.

Okay. At first, I was pretty excited about the upcoming film version of Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust. He wasn't going to direct it (good), it's one of my favorite Gaiman novels (good), and it wa...

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Jul 8 2006

'Alice in Wonderland' Couture

I never realized how many of the, er, lesser filaments of the couture world had been inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Check out these little treasures from the Disney Couture (no, I'm not joking--...

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Jul 7 2006

Wordcandy Weekly Book Snippet

Excerpt from: The Thin Man, by Dashiell HammetWhy you should buy a copy of your very own:Because the dialogue, the mystery, and the characters are all awesome--sure, there's all that drinking (the...

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Jul 6 2006

William Morris

While William Morris is usually remembered as one of the founders of the British Arts and Crafts movement (and, to a lesser extent, as one of the first Socialists in England), he also wrote some g...

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Jul 6 2006

Sexton Blake

Sexton Blake is actually a character, not an author, and first appeared in 1893 in the boys’ magazine The Halfpenny Marvel. He was the creation of a man named Harry Blythe, who eventually sold th...

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Jul 6 2006

Jane Gaskell

There's an old Bloom County strip featuring a handful of characters watching TV and wondering what they’re watching—it’s either an entertaining shoot-‘em-up movie or a horrifying news segment. It...

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Jul 6 2006

Hope Mirrlees

Helen Hope Mirrlees was a translator, poet, and novelist, but is best remembered as the author of the obscure 1926 fantasy novel, Lud-in-the-Mist. While several authors have mentioned Lud-in-the-...

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Jul 6 2006

Watch out, Harry!

It seems that Ms. Rowling caused quite a stir during her interview last week, where she stated that two "main characters" won't survive the last book and dropped hints that one of them might be Ha...

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Jul 5 2006

Marion Nestle

Marion Nestle is a New York-based university professor, and the author of the excellent nonfiction book What To Eat. Filmgoers with strong stomachs will remember her from Supersize Me, where she ...

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Jul 5 2006

What To Eat, by Marion Nestle

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Wordcandy doesn’t review much nonfiction. It’s not that we have anything against nonfiction. It's just that the nonfiction books we tend to read (and then pass along to each other, because, hey, misery loves company) are frequently depressing, and none of us want to linger over the subjects in question—global warming, voter fraud, the contents of a McDonalds hamburger—long enough to write a halfway decent review...

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Jul 5 2006

Wordcandy loves nonfiction

In honor(?) of Ken Lay's unexpected death, we'd like to recommend the excellent non-fiction title The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, by Bethany McLean an...

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Jul 4 2006

Celebrate the Fourth the Wordcandy way!

...with a little Bloom County Babylon.

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Jul 3 2006

"The Golden Compass" news, part two

So, here's what the Imdb had to say about the new The Golden Compass film adaptation:-Writer Philip Pullman wants Nicole Kidman to play Mrs. Coulter and has indicated that he would like Jason Isaa...

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Jul 2 2006

Wordcandy (hearts) librarians...

...but not as much as Jen Wolfe does. Please take the time to check out Ms. Wolfe's awesome online tribute to librarians, which includes a Miscellaneous Librariana page, featuring snippets of boo...

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Jul 1 2006

And speaking of movies...

...guess what's freshly out on DVD? That's right: the special-edition version of Valley of the Dolls (proud holder of the number 5 spot on our Wordcandy List of Unreadable Books). Avoid this one a...

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Jun 30 2006

The Devil Wears Prada

Somehow I never got around to reading this book, although I'm not sure why--it seems like the kind of thing that would be right up my alley. Anyway, while the majority of movie-goers will be watc...

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Jun 29 2006

*cue fangirl-ish squee-ing*

THEY'RE GONNA START FILMING THE HIS DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY IN SEPTEMBER!!!!!Actually, I'm really nervous about this one. Dollars to donuts, it'll end up being a The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardr...

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Jun 29 2006

More Harlequin/Dark Horse

I stopped by the bookstore last night, and considered picking up these charming new releases:Happily for my bank balance, I resisted. So far, all of these Dark Horse/Harlequin manga fusions have b...

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Jun 28 2006

Long weekend = lots of reading time!

Whether you are heading off on vacation or just hanging by the pool this four-day weekend, here are a few new book suggestions to check out.Jennifer Colt - The Mangler of Malibu CanyonIf you have...

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Jun 27 2006

At least this one won't have Arnold in it, right?

Brace yourselves, gentle readers: Warner Bros. is re-making Conan the Barbarian. I know! I couldn't believe it either, but it's true: apparently, the world wasn't satisfied with one mindblowingly...

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Jun 26 2006

J.K. Rowling gives interview, implies much, says nothing.

At left: Harry Potter and the Eyebrows of Doom. Nice wind machine, kids!So, J. K. Rowling has given another interview full of hints that Harry won't survive the seventh book. To which we can only...

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Jun 25 2006

Wordcandy Weekly Book Snippet

Excerpt from: Seven Up, by Janet EvanovichWhy you should buy a copy of your very own:Nobody does inspired lunacy like Janet Evanovich. Her Stephanie Plum series can be a little uneven (and I usual...

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Jun 24 2006

Seeing Ear Theatre

We here at Wordcandy were extremely stoked to discover the Sci-fi Channel's Seeing Ear Theatre, an online archive of radio-play versions of stories by authors like Neil Gaiman, Lewis Carroll, and ...

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Jun 23 2006

Harper Lee!

Sandra Bullock has been cast to play Harper Lee in an upcoming biopic. Well, as bizarre Hollywood casting goes, it could have been much worse.

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Jun 22 2006

Save the Date...

We still do not have a date or title for the final installment of the Harry Potter series (although rumor has it that the book will be released in 2007), but we can now mark the release date for t...

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Jun 21 2006

Buck up, little Emma!

Why does that Hermione actress always look so angry (not to mention boozy) in pictures?I guess Warner Bros (they make the Harry Potter movies, right?) must not make their actors sign one of those ...

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