The Seduction of Lady Phoebe, by Ella Quinn
On the back cover of Ella Quinn's novel The Seduction of Lady Phoebe, there's a glowing promotional blurb by novelist Grace Burrowes: “Lady Phoebe is a heroine Georgette Heyer would adore—plucky, pretty, and well worth the devotion of the dashing Lord Marcus. A marvelous find for Regency romance readers.” Burrowes is lucky there's no such thing as a Better Business Bureau for romance novel promo quotes, because that comment is a pack of liiiiiies...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Seduction of Lady Phoebe, by Ella Quinn
This week's Book Giveaway is Ella Quinn's romance novel The Seduction of Lady Phoebe. The promotional quote on the back name-drops Georgette Heyer (always a dangerous comparison to make, IMO), so we'll see if it can live up to such high praise. A full review will follow shortly...
Holiday Gift Pick #8
Gift Idea #8: Amusing literary soaps (this is more of a stocking stuffer, unless you tossed in a copy of the actual book)
One more consumable suggestion: The Unemployed Philosophers Guild sells blocks of soap inspired by a wide variety of books...
Holiday Gift Pick #7
Gift Idea #7: The 1619 Project
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved people being brought to the United States from Africa. In August, The New York Times Magazine devoted an entire issue to the subject, featuring essays, photos, poetry, and fiction. It immediately sold out, but copies can be found on sale online...
Holiday Gift Pick #6
Gift Idea #6: Jane Austen's Sanditon (the good version)
In January, American viewers will have the opportunity to see ITV's adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon. From all accounts, this miniseries is both dumb as hell and features a depressing ending, so...
Holiday Gift Pick #5
Gift Idea #5: Literary candles
We promised you some consumable goods too, right? How about these $16 literature-themed soy candles from Uncommon Goods? (Sherlock Holmes's 221B Baker Street apparently smells like black currant tea and leather books...
Holiday Gift Pick #4
Gift Idea #4: a used copy of Amy Dacyczyn's The Complete Tightwad Gazette
Well before the internet became a haven of frugality tips, Ms. Dacyczyn produced a newsletter that compiled...
Holiday Gift Pick #3
Gift Idea #3: Vintage Shakespeare Festival posters
Look, there are a lot of long-running Shakespeare festivals, and they nearly all printed posters, so chances are good you'll find one that strikes your fancy. Personally, I'm thinking of requesting this incredible Romeo and Juliet poster for...
Holiday Gift Pick #2
Gift Idea #2: The out-of-print book you loved as a kid
Rather than buying some of the kids in your life yet another toy, share one of the harder-to-find books that you loved as a kid. (If it's out of print, chances are better that they won't already own it!) Here are some suggestions for books...
Holiday Gift Guide! (And Gift Pick #1)
It's one of my favorite times of the year: vicarious shopping week! Yes, dear readers, it's time for our Annual Holiday Gift Guide, where I feature eight book-related items that I would personally quite like to receive as gifts. This year I've been trying to focus on buying less new, single-use stuff, so everything on this list will be either A) used/vintage, or B) consumable...
Frank Miller will 100% find a way to make Nimue a stripper.
I'm mildly interested in the recently released "illustrated novel" Cursed, written by Thomas Wheeler and illustrated by Frank Miller. It's a retelling of Arthurian myth centered around Nimue, and set to become a Netflix series in 2020. (The show was announced more than a year ago, but I'm assuming the novel was published now in order to give it more real-book—versus "novelization" or "companion book"—cred.) It might work, too, but...
Jane Austen's taste in snacks
The Spruce recently posted a recipe for Jane Austen's Favorite Bath Buns. I'm not sure how I feel about caraway seeds in a sweet bun (as a Czech person, I'm used to caraway seeds in stuff like cauliflower soup or braised cabbage), but my love...
65+ melodrama
I just saw the trailer for The Good Liar, a new film (based on a book of the same name by Nicholas Searle) starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen. I definitely want to support movies starring older actors that aren't about them facing imminent death...
Blowout, by Rachel Maddow
Reading Rachel Maddow's Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth is like listening to an exceptionally long monologue for her MSNBC show. Her voice is genial, her subject important, and her arguments carefully researched and informative—but her laid-back, rangy, coolest-professor-on-campus style undermines the urgency of her subject...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Blowout, by Rachel Maddow
This week's Book Giveaway is Rachel Maddow's latest book, Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth. (Nothing but good times ahead!) A full review will follow shortly, and this review will run through 11/17/19...
We hardly knew ye
According to Slashfilm, the upcoming X-Men solo movie about Kitty Pryde is dead. They're blaming it on the failure of the Dark Phoenix movie, but I don't think anyone is surprised that when things get even remotely dicey, Disney/Fox/Marvel...
I've been burned before.
I have never liked Peter Pan much, and I am by no means certain that this new, Wendy-centric film adaptation of the story will make me feel any more positive about it. It certainly looks beautiful and wild, but I can sense the angst...
Single season for the WIN!
Ooh, according to THR, ABC is rebooting Revenge, their (very, very loose) TV adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. I fully approved of the glorious soapiness of Revenge when it premiered; sadly, it...
Better than all those made-for-TV musicals, I suppose.
The first trailer is out for the BBC's upcoming adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, and it looks creepy as hell. Were people really clamoring for more authentic Victorian horror with their...
I'm sure they'll find a new dude to handle this woman-centric story.
So much drama for such a young series! According to THR, HBO Max has fired Jon Spaihts as the showrunner for Dune: The Sisterhood, an upcoming TV offshoot of the (also upcoming) feature film. They haven't found a new showrunner to replace him yet, but apparently they weren't happy with his early plans for the "female-focused take" on...
Detection Unlimited, by Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer wrote some memorably creative mystery novels, and some memorably terrible ones. She also wrote Detection Unlimited, which I can only assume she threw together to meet an urgent deadline...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Detection Unlimited, by Georgette Heyer
This week's Book Giveaway is Georgette Heyer's Detection Unlimited. I know I've read this before, but I have absolutely no memory of what it's about—even after reading the description summary on the back. I suspect this is a bad sign, but we'll see. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 11/09/19...
You don't deserve it, sir.
Well, it's almost Halloween, and this seems more than adequately horrifying to me: there are loads of rumors going around that Andrew Davies will be allowed to write a second season of Sanditon, his racy fanfic continuation of the unfinished Jane Austen novel...
Romance recs
In a recent "Entertainment Self-Care" post, one of the writers at Lainey Gossip rounded up some solid romance novel picks, including my beloved Georgette Heyer. I'm not as enthused about some of the author's other choices...
Too soon
NPR recently posted an enthusiastic review of Danny Fingeroth's new biography of comics legend Stan Lee, A Marvelous Life. I'd be more interested in this, but A) I've been burned by their reviews before, and...
Snow & Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin
Emily Winfield Martin is best known as a visual artist, but her recent novel Snow & Rose proves she's a competent writer, as well. Inspired by the little-known “Snow White and Rose Red” fairytale, Martin has reworked it into a full-length children's book that is greatly enhanced by her delicate, richly colored illustrations...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Snow & Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin
This week's Book Giveaway is Snow & Rose, a fairytale retelling written (reasonably well) and illustrated (extremely well) by painter Emily Winfield Martin. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 11/09/19...
At least there's no clowns
Another day, another Stephen King adaptation. Here's the trailer for the upcoming adaptation of King's The Outsider, premiering January 12th on HBO. The series is based on King’s 2018 novel of the same name, and...
True, but unromantic
If you have $100,000 lying around, you could own an original and authentic piece of Jane Austen's writing. Unfortunately, this particular bit of writing is a description of how much going to the dentist sucks...
Throwdowns
This Twitter thread devoted to the greatest literary feuds in history is amazing. I don't know who Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was, but anyone who would brave a dissing contest with Jonathan Swift gets my vote...