Less Disney, more Angela Carter
I'm intrigued by this NPR review of Giambattisa Basile's 17th-century book of fairy stories The Tale of Tales, which was apparently recently adapted into an Italian/British/French film starring Salma Hayek. The subtitle of this particular edition...
#TeamKenyon
I read with interest that author Sherrilyn Kenyon is suing author Cassandra Clare, accusing her of copyright and trademark infringement and false advertising. I have never read one of Kenyon's novels, and our (limited) coverage of Cassandra Clare has been...
The price is right
Harlequin Books is running a Valentine's Day special: they're offering a bunch of books recommended by the popular romance blogs Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, all...
Austen could only improve it.
Speaking of Shakespeare, I've been spending some time in Washington D.C., and the Metro is plastered with ads for the Folger Library's "The Wonder of Will: 400 Years of Shakespeare" celebration. The centerpiece of the event is, of course, the...
My favorite is his Richard III, but I don't want it on a t-shirt
Literature-inspired clothing line Out of Print has just released a pair of new designs featuring Milton Glaser's cover art for William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and The Tempest...
Dreamer's Pool, by Juliet Marillier
When it comes to fantasy novels, I usually judge books on three categories: world-building, characterization, and adventure. Juliet Marillier's Dreamer's Pool features complex, sympathetic characters and an intriguing plot, although the world she has built is an odd blend of brutality and utopia...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Dreamer's Pool, by Juliet Marillier
This week's Book Giveaway is Dreamer's Pool, the first installment in the Blackthorn & Grim series by Juliet Marillier. That's not the kind of cover that usually floats my boat (I avoid any book that looks like the author might describe someone's eyes as "cerulean orbs"), but I've been deeply impressed by Ms. Marillier's books in the past, so my hopes are high...
To Lure a Proper Lady, by Ashlyn MacNamara
When I reviewed a previous Ashlyn MacNamara book, I gave her writing a lukewarm but honest endorsement. Unfortunately, her upcoming novel To Lure A Proper Lady is the kind of hot mess that undoes a lot of preexisting goodwill...
What about that car, though?
Additional, far more exciting TV news: according to Variety, NBC has given a formal pilot order for a TV update of Cruel Intentions. The potential series "picks up 15 years after the movie left off and...
It's cute, I guess.
Dramafever informs me that Warner Bros. has recently given Animate (Japan's largest retailer of anime, games, and manga) the exclusive rights to produce a wide range of anime-style Harry Potter merchandise...
Riverdale is... TWIN PEAKS
According to Variety, the CW has picked up the Riverdale pilot, based on the long-running (read: why won't it die?!?) Archie comic book series. The producer is apparently promising a "surprising and subversive take" on the material...
70s food images!
Brain Pickings recently featured a look at The Museum of Modern Art Artists' Cookbook, a 1977 gem co-written by Madeleine Conway and Nancy Kirk. The cookbook is a collection of thirty famous artists' "favorite recipes and reflections on food", and features contributions from celebrities ranging from Salvador Dalí to Andy Warhol...
A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab
V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic is plastered with encomiums that make it sound like the second coming of Dune—it's described as “compulsively readable”, “ingeniously clever”, and “an exhilarating adventure”. This breathless enthusiasm struck me as distinctly overblown, but Schwab's story is undeniably thoughtful, imaginative, and action-packed...
Weekly Book Giveaway: A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab
This week's Book Giveaway is V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic. It's giving off a distinctly UnLunDun vibe, but I'm hoping I will like it better (or at least that it will be less pretentious). A full review will follow later today...
At least it's creative.
And speaking of webtoons, this weekend I started reading Witch Workshop, the latest effort from Goong author So-Hee Park. (English-translated chapters are available here.) So far it's not as instantly charming as Goong, but it's worth reading for the magical curse besetting one of the main characters...
The Deal, The Mistake, and The Score, by Elle Kennedy
I recently read Elle Kennedy's The Deal, The Mistake, and The Score, a collection of fun, loosely-connected New Adult romances set in the college hockey world. In The Deal, aspiring singer Hannah Wells sets out to overcome a past trauma with some no-strings-attached sex with her new pal Garrett Graham, the captain of her school's championship-winning hockey team. In The Mistake, Garrett's teammate Logan...
Scandalous!
I recently picked up a copy of Jane Mayer's nonfiction book Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. I love books about financial scandals, and this one is even juicier when you take into account the contents of this New York Times article, which...
Little House on the Prairie: the movie
THR recently posted an update on the upcoming Little House on the Prairie movie reboot: apparently, the project has moved from Sony to Paramount and they've hired Martha Marcy May Marlene filmmaker Sean Durkin to direct...
By Possession, by Madeline Hunter
On a recent trip to the beach, I picked up a battered copy of Madeline Hunter's 2000 novel By Possession from a Little Free Library. As longtime readers of the site know, I rarely read pre-Regency romance novels (I can't get fully invested in any sex scene when I'm wondering when the participants last bathed), but hey: I'd already finished the books I brought with me, and the price was right...
Weekly Book Giveaway: By Possession, by Madeline Hunter
This week's Book Giveaway is Madeline Hunter's historical romance novel By Possession. Please note: I picked this particular edition out of a Little Free Library, and it is trashed. Totally readable, though, and at least we're recycling...
Cheese in the Trap, by Soonkki
Today we're going to review something a little different: an ongoing Korean webtoon by Soonkki called Cheese in the Trap. Normally I would wait to cover this kind of thing until it was finished and fully translated, but A) I'm not that patient, and B) this story is so interesting, you guys—it's totally worth the inconvenience of reading it online...
Same issue, different book
Literally only a few months after the flap over the depiction of slavery in the children's book A Fine Dessert, there is another, virtually identical controversy...
Maybe?
Variety informs me that CBS has ordered a drama pilot featuring a contemporary take on the Nancy Drew series. According to the article...
Emma, by Alexander McCall Smith
Emma Woodhouse is not my favorite Jane Austen heroine, but she deserves better treatment than she receives in Alexander McCall Smith's Emma, one of the six titles in The Austen Project, an attempt to re-imagine Austen's novels with a modern setting. Austen's Emma is a flawed but endearing character who eventually begins to correct her many faults; Smith's Emma, in contrast, is...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Emma, by Alexander McCall Smith
This week's Book Giveaway is Alexander McCall Smith's Emma, a modern re-telling of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. I have my doubts about the wisdom of this project, frankly. Not only is Smith inviting comparisons with the original novel, he's also inviting comparisons with Clueless, and that seems like a really stacked deck. Our review will follow shortly...
Books on demand
There's a cool article in The Orange County Register about a book-dispensing vending machine located inside the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center and run by the Anaheim Public Library System...
Cheese plays more of a supporting role
Okay, I'm not 100% sold on the idea that Heidi is primarily about cheese, but I totally believe that great children's literature is nearly always improved by a memorable food description, from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe's tea party with Mr. Tumnus to...
This seems... risky.
Canada's CBC just announced that Emmy-winning producer and writer Moira Walley-Beckett (best known for Breaking Bad) is working on a new TV adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic children's novel Anne of Green Gables...
Revived!
According to io9, BBC America has announced an upcoming TV adaptation of Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Of course, BBC Four tried and failed to...