Congratulations?
In honor of April Fools' Day, The New York Times has put together a list of their favorite literary hoaxes of the 20th century. James Frey made the list...
As ever, I have Notes.
And speaking of Jane Austen, Lifetime has made a movie called Pride & Prejudice: Atlanta, which will air on June 1st. It's a contemporary retelling featuring an African-American cast, and I'm definitely checking it out, but I can't let go of my one bone-deep...
It's about... them?
The trailer is out for the upcoming animated Addams Family movie, and, while it conveys absolutely no sense of the plot, it does look like...
Emma, again
According to Screen Daily, there's going to be another movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, and this one has quite a cast...
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman
While browsing through a stack of battered paperbacks at a used book sale, I was delighted to run across a very old copy of Dorothy Gilman's The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. I had read it—and loved it—as a kid, but I had concerns about how well it would hold up, and felt that a $1 copy in readable condition was the perfect way for me to revisit the story...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman
This week's Book Giveaway is Dorothy Gilman's 1966 novel The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, arguably the platonic ideal of an airplane book (clever, amusing, and enjoyably far-fetched). A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/15/19...
Good call, people
Well, I'm excited: according to LaineyGossip, Netflix has cast the charming and talented Jordan Fisher as John Ambrose McClaren, the romantic "challenger" in their upcoming adaptation of P.S. I Still Love You...
Not a Good Look
According to The Guardian, Catholic priests in Poland were photographed holding a book-burning ceremony of titles that "promote sorcery", including J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. Two things: A) if the Harry Potter books successfully promoted sorcery, we'd have lost an entire generation to Hogwarts by now, and...
Paradoxical
Somehow, I missed the first trailer for George Clooney's miniseries adaptation of Catch-22, which will air on Hulu on May 17th. It looks good—appropriately unsettling...
Pride and Prejudice: Puffin Plated edition, by Jane Austen
As long time readers know, I frequently treat myself to special editions of various Jane Austen novels, mostly for the pleasure of complaining about their various bells and whistles. My latest acquisition is the Puffin Plated edition of Pride and Prejudice, featuring recipes for “modern teatime treats” by Martha Stewart...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Pride and Prejudice: Puffin Plated edition, by Jane Austen
This week's Book Giveaway is the Puffin Plated edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, featuring "recipes for modern teatime treats" by Martha Stewart. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/15/19...
Rake in that cash
Just what the world needs: another Marvel ensemble! According to The Guardian, Angelina Jolie has signed up for the upcoming adaptation of The Eternals, yet another Marvel series I know nothing about. Jolie is a true A-lister, so I'm assuming...
Clearly, Peter Gallagher has bills to pay.
Ouch: I finally saw a full trailer for After, the real-person-fanfic (about One Direction's Harry Styles) turned YA novel turned movie, and it looks excruciating. It strongly reminds me of Beautiful Disaster...
Truth in advertising
LitHub recently posted an excerpt from Margaret Leslie Davis's recently published book The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey. I've read several complaints that this title is misleading...
Gore for good
Man, there are a lot of Game of Thrones tie-ins, ranging from fast food to shoes, but this is my favorite: the Red Cross partnered with HBO on Bleed For the Throne, an five-day-long effort to encourage blood donation...
Beauty, by Robin McKinley
After last week's review of Leife Shallcross's The Beast's Heart, I decided to re-read Robin McKinley's thematically similar 1978 novel Beauty to see how it held up to my fond childhood memories. Like The Beast's Heart, Beauty does its best to transform the Beauty and the Beast fairytale into something romantic, rather than creepy...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Beauty, by Robin McKinley
And this week's Book Giveaway is Robin McKinley's 1978 novel Beauty, the second installment in our (unplanned) two-book series of reworked fairytales. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
Living dangerously for an Austen nerd
Deadline just posted a casting update on the Jane Austen project I'm most curious about: the upcoming ITV/PBS Masterpiece adaptation of Austen’s unfinished final novel Sanditon. I'm concerned about the description of the heroine...
How many princesses can she have left?
The trailer is out for The Spanish Princess, the latest adaptation of Philippa Gregory's endless series of historical novels about British royal women. I know that Henry VIII was considered quite a looker in his youth, and...
Ah, hubris
LaineyGossip recently posted a look at the filming of The Undoing, a new HBO series based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known. The story sounds thematically similar...
Big plans
(First, let me note that I love this cover art.) It's 2019, which marks the 200th birthday of author George Eliot, and there are going to be a number of events held in her honor...
The Beast's Heart, by Leife Shallcross
There are some classic stories that just don't lend themselves to PC updates, and “Beauty and the Beast” is one of them. In her book The Beast's Heart, author Leife Shallcross does her best to minimize the fairytale's inherent problems, but there are too many to fully overcome...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Beast's Heart, by Leife Shallcross
Our latest Book Giveaway is Leife Shallcross's The Beast's Heart, the first of two Beauty and the Beast-themed reviews we're planning on over the next couple weeks. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
Clever
Food52 just posted a list of "8 Clever Ways to Store Books if You're Short on Space". I can't get behind some of their ideas (don't store heavy stuff above your bed, people!), I love the idea of lining a hallway with bookshelves...
A stand-in wouldn't cut it
A decade ago, we reviewed Simon Mawer's The Glass Room. It was the kind of book that sticks with you, so I was excited to learn that the upcoming Czech movie adaptation was filmed in the actual house that...
Free and easy (for me, anyway)
According to The Verge, Netflix has acquired the streaming rights for The Wandering Earth, China’s first science fiction blockbuster, which was based on a story by Hugo-award-winning author Cixin Liu...
Binti: The Complete Trilogy, by Nnedi Okorafor
If the plot of Nnedi Okorafor's Binti was as impressive as her world-building and character design, her book would be an instant sci-fi classic. Sadly, the plot is by far the weakest element of this story—although Okorafor has clearly established herself as an author to watch...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
Our latest Book Giveaway is Binti: The Complete Trilogy, a flawed but impressively imaginative fantasy/sci-fi by Nnedi Okorafor. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...