Nov 2 2017

Seems like a solid pick

There's an interview over on Slate with Lin-Manuel Miranda about his next big project: adapting Patrick Rothfuss's epic fantasy series The Kingkiller Chronicles into a TV show for Showtime...

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Nov 1 2017

Sure...?

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I know The New York Times is infamous for their out-of-touch "trend" stories, but I'm going to have to take their word on this: according to the paper, Arnold Lobel's classic 'Frog and Toad' stories have become a popular meme. I'm...

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Oct 31 2017

Ouch

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Bon Appétit magazine recently posted a great review of France Is a Feast, a new book of Paul Child’s personal photographs taken between 1948 and 1954, when he and his wife, the famous Julia Child, were living in Paris and Julia was mastering the art of cooking French food...

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Oct 31 2017

Sad that I can't hear her thoughts on the Trump casino, though.

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I had wondered if the controversy surrounding Go Set a Watchman would cast a shadow over Harper Lee's legacy, but it appears she's still a money-maker, at least: a collection of her letters recently fetched more than $12,000 at auction...

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Oct 30 2017

Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero

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Edgar Cantero's novel Meddling Kids is clever, creative, and funny. It is also profoundly self-indulgent and only occasionally creepy. Individual readers' mileage will vary, based on their tolerance for pointless stylistic quirks and their love for the book's many pop-culture sources...

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Oct 30 2017

Weekly Book Giveaway: Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero

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This week's Book Giveaway is Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids, which has a great cover and an even greater hook: it's being sold as a subverted, grown-up version of works like Scooby-Do, The Hardy Boys, and Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" series. I have no idea how well that combination will actually work, but it sounds like my idea of note-perfect Halloween reading. A full review will follow shortly...

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Oct 26 2017

Envious

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Man, every time I read about a cute-sounding Korean webtoon, a fresh wave of resentment rolls over me. I hate missing out on fun stuff, and I have a strong suspicion that my inability to read Korean is holding me back from a lot of Wordcandy-friendly stories...

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Oct 26 2017

Um, what?

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According to Pajiba, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are planning to adapt James Frey's discredited "memoir" A Million Little Pieces into a feature film. This confuses me. If the contents of Frey's book are made up, and Frey's actual writing skills...

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Oct 25 2017

I can hold myself back.

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Great news, guys: you can now read Stephen Hawking's 1966 Ph.D. thesis! For free! And people were so excited by this news (or optimistic about their own ability to understand a 134-page-long paper on "“Properties of Expanding Universes”) that...

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Oct 24 2017

This woman's accomplishments merited a BIG tombstone.

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I was listening to The Writer's Almanac today, and Garrison Keillor's soothing voice introduced me to the wonder that was Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor and poet who is widely credited with successfully campaigning to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Hale was also a major force behind...

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Oct 24 2017

Tell me more

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Yesterday, someone on Jezebel posted a loving tribute to the 1946 film Dragonwyck, which I had never heard of but now need to watch immediately. The movie is based on a book by Anya Seton, and the plot sounds like it will be familiar to anyone who has ever read a gothic novel, but...

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Oct 23 2017

The House of Binding Thorns, by Aliette de Bodard

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Aliette de Bodard's The House of Binding Thorns is the sequel to last year's The House of Shattered Wings, a book I described as “more The Godfather than... sword-and-sorcery adventure”. In this installment, a handful of characters from the first book are still struggling to survive the mafioso-style wars between the various Houses of Paris...

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Oct 23 2017

Weekly Book Giveaway: The House of Binding Thorns, by Aliette de Bodard

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This week's Book Giveaway is Aliette de Bodard's The House of Binding Thorns, the sequel to last year's The House of Shattered Wings. My review of the first book in this series was not unequivocally positive, but I am still intrigued by de Bodard's premise, and that cover art feels like an A+++ choice for the week before Halloween...

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Oct 19 2017

I think not.

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Just what the world needs: more grim Scandinavian horror! The trailer is out for the Icelandic film I Remember You. The movie is based on a best-selling ghost story of the same name by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, described as "The Queen of Icelandic Crime"...

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Oct 19 2017

SO. AMAZING.

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Adding to my ever-growing list of things I wish I could fly to England to see, the British Library's insanely awesome-sounding Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibit is about to open. (The exhibit will run from the 20th of this month until the 28th of February, 2018...

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Oct 18 2017

Reworked, again

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According to Deadline, the Nancy Drew TV series that failed to find a home last season has been put into development this year for NBC, albeit with a slightly altered premise. This version will apparently be a lot different from the books...

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Oct 17 2017

Terrifying but handy?

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For those of us who are obsessing over President Trump's tweets about North Korea, Politico recently posted an article about T. R. Fehrenbach’s 1963 book This Kind of War. Apparently, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is a big fan of the book, and has been relying upon it to develop the US's military strategy...

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Oct 17 2017

Sneaking a peek at The Book of Dust

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NPR recently posted an "exclusive first read" excerpt from Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, due out this week. I don't think this book is going to have any problems selling, but if you're still angry over the way the His Dark Materials trilogy ended...

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Oct 16 2017

Misfit City, Issues 1 & 2, by Kiwi Smith and Kurt Lustgarten

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New comic series Misfit City sets out to recapture the oddball charms of 80s kids' adventure movies (specifically, The Goonies), but my favorite thing about this story is the way it depicts living in a real town that's best known as a nostalgia-driven tourist trap...

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Oct 16 2017

Weekly Book Giveaway: Misfit City, Issues 1 & 2, by Kiwi Smith and Kurt Lustgarten

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Our latest Book Giveaway is the first two issues of Misfit City, a new comic series written by Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith and Kurt Lustgarten. The story features a lot of tributes to classic 80s kids' movies (particularly The Goonies), so if you're a fan of the kind of film that, looking back, you cannot believe was ever marketed to children, congratulations: you're in luck...

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Oct 12 2017

So jealous.

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According to the Southwark News, the Dulwich Picture Gallery will be showing the first major UK retrospective of work by Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomin books. While she is regarded as one of the most iconic illustrators of the 20th century, Jansson's non-Moomin-work is rarely shown...

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Oct 12 2017

The Tell-Tale Heart (plus corn)

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Here's the trailer for (yet another) Stephen King movie adaptation, in case you were longing for more. The movie is based on King's novella 1922, and is currently available to stream on Netflix. I haven't read the short story, but...

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Oct 11 2017

A little cheesy, but...

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I checked out the first episode of Deadly Manners, a new 10-episode podcast that features a big-name cast (including LEVAR BURTON!!!) doing a radio-drama take on a vintage-style mystery. The concept is great, although I'm not 100% sold on their execution—there's too much variation in the quality of the voice acting, and...

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Oct 10 2017

I want it.

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And speaking of cool visuals, check out this extraordinary Instagram video of an edition of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. If the video is to be believed, Bradbury's text only appears when the reader applies heat to the page. I have absolutely no idea how this book works...

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Oct 10 2017

Wasteful

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The Seattle Repertory Theatre is currently running a theatrical adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The local paper recently posted a lukewarm review that killed any desire I had to see the play, but I still wanted to...

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Oct 9 2017

Immortally Yours, by Lynsay Sands

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It's been years since I've read one of Lynsay Sands's vampire romance novels, but they have always stood out in my mind: in her long-running Argeneau series, vampires are not the result of dark magic or whatever, but rather the products of blood-powered nanotechnology first developed in Lost Atlantis. The quality of her individual installments might vary, but Sands gets all the gold stars for coming up with such a delightfully weird premise...

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Oct 9 2017

Weekly Book Giveaway: Immortally Yours, by Lynsay Sands

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Keeping up with our Halloween theme, our current Book Giveaway is Lynsay Sands's latest Argeneau novel Immortally Yours. I'm not sure what installment this is (possibly #18,567), but Sands is a reliably fun writer, so my hopes are high. A full review will follow shortly...

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Oct 5 2017

Cookie decorating not for beginners

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The Kitchn just posted a list of 18 Harry Potter-inspired Halloween recipes. I can resist most of these ideas (they're very heavy on pumpkin and butterscotch flavors, neither of which are my favorite), but I am in love with the Weasley Sweater cookies idea...

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Oct 4 2017

Maybe on TV?

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The trailer is out for the upcoming movie adaptation of Agatha Christie's Crooked House. It has a great cast and the sets look amazing, but if you haven't read the book, be warned: Crooked House is one of Christie's most...

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Oct 4 2017

Promo-worthy

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I rarely use the website Thread Reader, but occasionally it's super useful. I was fascinated by this thread (by nonfiction author Jason Fagone) about Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a Shakespearean scholar-turned-codebreaker who spent decades working on some of the most complicated codes of the 20th century...

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