Hard pass
Is this... a real book? More importantly, did Sean Penn get a real advance for it? This review suggests it is a real book (and that it's horrible), but I don't want to accept it. In a world where it took Madeleine L'Engle at least 27 tries to find a publisher for A Wrinkle in Time, this...
Bad idea
The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point recently announced it is eliminating more than a dozen majors in the humanities and social sciences, including English, history, and philosophy. They apparently want to focus on "areas with high-demand career paths" instead, despite...
Coraline, in song
There's a New York Times article up about the London Royal Opera's attempt to turn Neil Gaiman's children's book Coraline into an opera, despite several logistical challenges created by the story's contents (performing mice, children stuck in mirrors, etc.)...
Warcross, by Marie Lu
When I first picked up Marie Lu's Warcross, my hopes were simple: I wanted a less aggressively self-indulgent version of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One. This definitely qualifies (of course, it's hard to imagine a more self-indulgent version of Ready Player One), but Lu's story has problems of its own...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Warcross, by Marie Lu
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Marie Lu's Warcross, which I chose because I've been wanting to read one of Lu's books for a while, and I mistakenly thought this was a standalone. (You win some, you lose some.) A full review will follow shortly...
Implausible
Fellow cookbook nerds take note: there's a fascinating article in The New Yorker about the ongoing battle between the descendants of Irma Rombauer, author of The Joy of Cooking, and...
Grim but intriguing
Esquire recently put together an list of the 25 best True Crime novels. True Crime isn't my favorite genre, but some of these books look intriguing (and a lot of the covers are great). I'm adding...
Oscar bait
It's a little weird to see Melissa McCarthy in a serious period picture, but the movie Can You Ever Forgive Me? has awards-show-bait written all over it: it's an adaptation of a memoir, it features an impressively de-glammed actress, and appears to have been filmed mostly in the dark...
If I'm feeling brave
I clicked on this article about an upcoming stop-motion kids' movie because of my love for Jordan Peele, but I'm less interested in the kids' movie than the Peele-produced project mentioned at the very end: Lovecraft Country, based on the novel by Matt Ruff...
RIP, books
I always feel a pang when I see fake books that used to be real books, and this "Secret Book Panel Hidden Storage" shelf is no different. Thankfully, the books I can see look pretty bad...
Tricks for Free, by Seanan McGuire
This is a unusual thing to say about the seventh book in an ongoing series, but Seanan McGuire's Tricks for Free surprised me. This story is much different in tone and content from McGuire's previous installments, but plenty entertaining in its own right...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Tricks for Free, by Seanan McGuire
This week's Book Giveaway is Tricks For Free, the seventh book in Seanan McGuire's wildly entertaining InCryptid series. After a brief but welcome detour into non-sexy cover art, my mother will be disappointed to see that the cover model is back to a bulging, ripped tank-top, but one cannot have everything...
To be expected
I missed this news last month (and I was definitely happier for it): according to Publishers Weekly, the Trump administration has once again proposed "the permanent elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, as...
The thin line between gossip and news
According to Deadline, David A. Neuman’s Blackrock Productions wants to turn Ryan Holiday’s new book Conspiracy–Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker and the Anatomy of Intrigue into a movie or miniseries. The book covers the legal battle that lead to Gawker's dissolution: one involving a Hulk Hogan sex tape, a vengeful billionaire, and...
Nope!
The official teaser trailer is out for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and once again it looks great. Unfortunately, these movies seem more worried about aesthetics than storytelling—and the filmmakers' (and Rowling's) insistence...
From page to screen
Pajiba recently posted an article about the various book-related movie projects being produced by Reese Witherspoon. It's quite a list, ranging from Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere to S.J. Watson's Second Life. Not all of Witherspoon's choices appeal to me, but...
Scifi fairytales
And speaking of Persuasion, I'm interested in this upcoming film starring Ciaran Hinds. Elizabeth Harvest appears to be a sci-fi take on the Bluebeard story with a little Rebecca thrown in, and despite my reservations about that poster art...
Persuasion (Modern Library Edition), by Jane Austen
As longtime readers of the site know, every few months I indulge myself by reviewing specific editions of Jane Austen's novels. These are not meant to be reviews of the stories (hot take: Austen's books are great! You should totally read 'em!), they are reviews of the supplementary materials included by various publishers. I am a raging nerd, so...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Persuasion (Modern Library Edition), by Jane Austen
This week's Book Giveaway is the 2001 Modern Library edition of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I'm only a few pages in, but I'm already irritated by the foreword, so brace yourselves for a lot of very nerd-specific ranting. Our review will be posted shortly...
It's lurking
The trailer is out for Disney's live-action film Christopher Robin. I'm sure it will be very affecting and make a bazillion dollars, but I'd feel more enthusiastic about it if my first reaction wasn't: 'DEMON BEAR!' Seriously...
Not the book I would have chosen to have a lot of merch tie-ins
The jewelry makers at Alex and Ani have released a collection inspired by Disney's upcoming A Wrinkle in Time film. I'm not sure how many people would recognize these pieces as being related to the story—they mostly feature generic-sounding inspirational quotes—but...
Lin-Manuel... and friends
The teaser trailer is out for Disney's upcoming Mary Poppins reboot, and no matter how you felt about the original (personally, I avoid it), you gotta give credit to the mouse for common sense: the first character you see is Lin-Manuel Miranda...
At least they didn't record the names
Smith Journal recently posted an article about a box of library queries from the 1940s that was found at the New York Public Library, and it's a pretty great read—as well as a good reminder that we should all be so grateful for...
Hello Stranger, by Lisa Kleypas
Hello Stranger, Lisa Kleypas's fourth Ravenels book, has an unexpected virtue: it makes me much fonder of Marrying Winterbourne, the second installment in the series. When I first read Marrying Winterbourne, I complained about...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Hello Stranger, by Lisa Kleypas
This week's Book Giveaway is Hello Stranger, the fourth book in Lisa Kleypas's Ravenels series. I have been underwhelmed by this series thus far, but I do want to give props to Ms. Kleypas's cover artist for fixing the sleeve situation. A full review will be posted shortly...
A steep decline
According to The Guardian, a recent study of UK families indicates that the number of toddlers being read to every day has dropped by nearly 20% since 2013. The "Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer" survey is conducted annually by Nielsen Book Research, and consisted of interviews with roughly 2000 parents...
Dude. No.
We've complained about James Bennet, the editorial-page editor of The New York Times, several times on Twitter, and we're far from the only ones. Vanity Fair recently published an in-depth look at Bennet's choices for the op-ed page, and it sums up the problem with his "all-voices-matter" approach beautifully...
Shady
Man, EVERYTHING written about Harper Lee's lawyer has made me 10 out of 10 uncomfortable, and this latest bit of news (involving Lee's unsealed will) is no different...