Busy guy
The Library of Congress announced yesterday that the next U.S. poet laureate will be Juan Felipe Herrera. Herrera, a California-based activist, teacher, and author of poetry, "novels in verse", and children's books, is the first Latino poet to be appointed to the position...
No, thanks.
In a leave-no-stone-unturned effort to extract every possible penny from the George R. R. Martin media empire, Bantam Books recently announced that they're planning a Game of Thrones-themed coloring book. While I've written before about my love for coloring books for adults, I'll be skipping this sucker...
News re: Newt
According to NPR, J.K. Rowling recently indicated on Twitter that there is an American equivalent of Hogwarts. She's keeping the name and location of the school under wraps for the time being (apparently, it might play a role in the upcoming film adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), but...
Eh.
The first trailer is out for Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (and don't think I don't have a little rage flare-up every time I have to write out that stupidly long title). The film looks fine, I guess. I'm sure it...
Snow White Must Die, by Nele Neuhaus
I'm not a big mystery reader, but I like to periodically give the genre a shot, just to make sure I'm not missing out on something awesome. My latest attempt was Nele Neuhaus's internationally best-selling novel Snow White Must Die. While I found it readable enough, it's definitely not the book that's going to convert me into a hardcore mystery fan...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Snow White Must Die, by Nele Neuhaus
This week's Book Giveaway is the best-selling yet grim-looking German novel Snow White Must Die, written by Nele Neuhaus and translated by Steven Murray. I have no idea if I'll enjoy reading it, but I give the author massive props for choosing such an eye-catching and memorable title...
Grim death/Oscar bait
The first trailer is out for Everest, the upcoming film based on Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air, about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster...
Eyeshadow + MURDER!
They've released the teaser trailer for Justin Kurzel's upcoming film adaptation of Macbeth, and it looks extremely videogame-y. I'm actually more excited about last month's DVD release of the recent adaptation of Cymbeline...
My visits to Anthropologie usually spark irritation.
A few weeks ago, the New Yorker published an account of shopping with organization expert Marie Kondo, creator of the KonMari method and author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The essay...
Gloomy reality check
Novelist Nicola Griffith recently posted a disheartening study regarding the last 15 years of six major fiction awards. According to her research...
Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, by Natalie Standiford
Natalie Standiford's Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters seems like it's one of the many trashy thrillers out there about wealthy, pretty kids behaving badly, but the plot summary and glossy cover art are misleading. I'm not sure what I could compare this story to, but it's definitely no Gossip Girl rip-off...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, by Natalie Standiford
This week's Book Giveaway is Natalie Standiford's 2010 novel Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters. I've always been put off by the generic cover art and the characters' names ("Sassy" is a name for an elderly Shih Tzu, not a human female), but I'm told the story is actually really good. A full review will follow shortly...
I WANT.
DesignSponge recently featured a straight-up amazing tutorial on how to build your own neighborhood library stand out of salvaged materials. I am totally jealous of this, mostly because...
Creepy yet intriguing
Donna Zuckerberg, editor of the online Classics journal Eidolon, recently contributed a fascinating article to Jezebel recently called "How To Teach An Ancient Rape Joke"...
The Liar, by Nora Roberts
After her most recent—and truly terrible—series, I was ready to give up on Nora Roberts forever, but her latest standalone novel, The Liar, is the kind of satisfying, sturdy, girl-power effort that drags me right back in. Curse you, Nora Roberts, and your ability to wrest away my hard-earned spare cash...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Liar, by Nora Roberts
Okay, I'm giving Nora Roberts one more shot: this week our Book Giveaway is her recent standalone novel The Liar. We'll have to see where it ranks on her scale of shameless self-replication. My hopes aren't high, but Roberts has surprised me before...
Gilded mansion (or close enough)
According to Curbed.com, the 7-bed, 7-bath New York home that once housed F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is up for sale for a mere $3,888,888. Zelda apparently described it as her "nifty little Babbitt house"...
Sixty-odd years and counting
NPR recently posted a lovely interview with writer, artist, and illustrator Jules Feiffer, who, at age 86, is still going strong. His work is the subject of a new book (Out of Line: The Art of Jules Feiffer), which...
Innnteresting.
I had actually assumed this was an April Fool's Day joke, but apparently it really happened: earlier this spring, Marvel teamed up with the subscription-clothing site Five Four Clothing to produce a line of goofy-looking clothing inspired by their Avengers comics...
Pard-Spirit
Writer and director Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley) is working on a two-hour-long drama for BBC1 about the "difficult" home life of the Brontë sisters and their alcoholic brother Branwell. According to the Guardian, the movie will be titled To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters, and...
The Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis
Stewart Lewis's The Secret Ingredient has a great cover, a great hook, and the foundations of at least two—maybe more—great YA novels. Unfortunately, he seems incapable of delivering on any of that promise, and once again produces a book that is simultaneously overly dramatic and underdeveloped...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis
This week's Book Giveaway is Stewart Lewis's The Secret Ingredient, which I suspect will hone pretty closely to the tone and style of his first book, You Have Seven Messages. I was underwhelmed by Messages, but...
Much worse
NPR recently visited Monroeville, Ala., the home of Harper Lee, asking residents about the controversy surrounding Lee's upcoming To Kill a Mockingbird sequel Go Set a Watchman. While I share many residents' concerns about Lee's health and independence, at least the people of Monroeville can take comfort...
That is just unkind.
Some guy named Patrick Stewart (no, not that Patrick Stewart) apparently wrote his 52,438-word doctoral thesis for the University of British Columbia entirely without punctuation, arguing that he wanted to make a point...
Day Shift, by Charlaine Harris
This is going to sound a little strange, but I mean it as a compliment: Charlaine Harris's Midnight, Texas novels are a delightful opportunity to indulge in benign nosiness. Her characters are still only half-developed (at most), but the odd, disjointed peeks she offers into their lives makes me feel like I've had an opportunity to eavesdrop on the private conversations...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Day Shift, by Charlaine Harris
This week's Book Giveaway is Charlaine Harris's Day Shift, the sequel to her highly enjoyable novel Midnight Crossroad. If Day Shift is even half as fun as Midnight Crossroad, readers are in for a treat—the first book in this series hit all of Harris's sweet spots (pink-collar work, small towns, creepy hijinks), while neatly avoiding her weaknesses...
Blood Magick, by Nora Roberts
It's official: Nora Roberts's writing has reached peak laziness. Not only has she used these characters and situations before, she's used them before in this exact same combination. Seriously, if you want to read Blood Magick, just pick up a copy of her 2002 novel Face the Fire—it's the same story, but half the price...
The Marvel juggernaut rolls on
I was pleased to learn that ABC has chosen to renew Marvel's Agent Carter, but I can't help but wonder if Marvel worked out some kind of deal with the network in an effort to improve their current reputation re: female characters...
I want these. All of them.
I love both cookbooks and nerdy literary slide shows, so there's no way I wasn't going to be all over this: Paste recently compiled a list of the Saddest Cookbooks Ever, and it is a delight...
Sleepless nights ahoy
Variety recently posted an update on Cary Fukunaga's upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King's It. The story will be split into two films (one featuring the characters as children; the other as adults), the scripts for both films are ready, and...