Marvel just loves scenes of destruction.
The trailer is out for the upcoming Marvel mega-project Avengers: Age of Ultron, and I have thoughts. First, is Ultron, like, a Terminator? (Also, why the ballerinas? Will they serve some plot purpose, or do ballerinas just look cool?) I have no doubts this movie will make a zillion dollars, but it looks a little depressing...
The Secrets of Tree Taylor, by Dandi Daley Mackall
If you, like me, feel a pang of sadness whenever you remember that Wendelin Van Draanen's Sammy Keyes series has really and truly ended, I have good news: Dandi Daley Mackall's coming-of-age novel The Secrets of Tree Taylor hits a lot of the same notes, and hits several of them even better...
Currently experiencing second-hand embarrassment
And speaking of upcoming movies, Paramount has picked up the rights to first-time author Anna Todd's One Direction fanfic-turned-novel After, which has apparently been a massive success on WattPad. I haven't read this story (because, well, I'm not in the market for One Direction fanfiction), but...
Hokey or not, I'm out.
The trailer is out for In The Heart of the Sea, the movie based on the true(ish) story that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. Setting aside my usual eye-rolling over the obvious CGI, I think this movie looks terrifying...
Alice in Zombieland, Through the Zombie Glass, and The Queen of Zombie Hearts, by Gena Showalter
I am a huge Alice in Wonderland nerd, but I've had some bad experiences with Alice-inspired rewrites. (I'm looking at you, Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars. You were abysmal.) After years of buying—and regretting—these novels, I swore off them for good... until I saw a “specially priced” copy of Gena Showalter's Alice in Zombieland at my local Target, and that red-and-white 20% off sticker was enough to overcome my embargo....
Weekly Book Giveaway: Alice in Zombieland, Through the Zombie Glass, and The Queen of Zombie Hearts, by Gena Showalter
This week we're giving away all three books in Gena Showalter's White Rabbit Chronicles: Alice in Zombieland, Through the Zombie Glass, and The Queen of Zombie Hearts. This series is a perfect October comfort read, and would go particularly well with any Halloween candy you might have already purchased... y'know, in case all the stores run out. Our full review will follow later today....
Complicated
There's an interesting censorship case facing the British Royal Courts of Justice: according to the Guardian, a "well-known performer" has been prevented from publishing a memoir because his ex-wife fears that the information featured in the book will cause harm to their child...
Amazon via bricks and mortar
According to GeekWire, Amazon is planning to open two pop-up kiosks in San Francisco and Sacramento for the holidays. Doors will open as early as next week, with no word as to when they'll close...
The Bodies We Wear, by Jeyn Roberts
Jeyn Roberts's The Bodies We Wear is the kind of book I normally avoid. I'm not a big fan of gothic melodramas, so I was surprised to discover that this novel spoke to the same part of me that enjoys the Underworld films. The Bodies We Wear might lack vampires and shiny pleather catsuits, but, like Underworld, it takes its goofy gothic premise 100% seriously, and I find that endearing...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Bodies We Wear, by Jeyn Roberts
This week's Book Giveaway pick is The Bodies We Wear, by Jeyn Roberts. The cover is graced with the tagline "Revenge Will Be Hers" and the plot seems to hinge upon a teen girl's attempt to get even with the people who forced her into drug addiction as a child, so I'm expecting hardcore DRAMA. Our review will be posted later today...
One last attempt
According to THR, the US Supreme Court has declined to review a challenge to Warner Bros./DC Comics' claim to the rights to Superman...
A drop in the college-expenses bucket
NPR's Planet Money recently posted an article about the win some/lose some economics of college textbook publishing. The whole thing's worth a read (it's short), but in brief: the cost of textbooks has gone waaaaay up, but the number of textbooks people buy, and how much they pay for them, has gone waaaaay down...
Elmer + Undine 4-EVER
According to Deadline, Scarlett Johansson is planning to produce and star in an adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1913 novel The Custom of the Country (the novel which is rumored to have inspired Julian Fellowes to write Downton Abbey)...
Eh. Whatever.
Adam Mansbach, author of the bestselling children's book Go the Fuck to Sleep, has written a "sequel": You Have to Fucking Eat. I feel $14.95 is about ten bucks more than I would be willing to pay for a joke picture book, but...
More Mediator
Awesome news—Meg Cabot is planning a seventh book in her Mediator series! Unlike the earlier installments, Remembrance will be aimed at adult readers (which I'm assuming = sex), it will be released in 2016, and the plot synopsis is vague...
The Smoke Thief, by Shana Abe
I have strong feelings about romance novels. I like stories that don't expect me to buy that the hero and heroine have fallen into deep, everlasting love in a matter of days, stories where the sexual relationship isn't forced or coerced, and, above all, stories set after 1800, where I feel like all the characters are more likely to routinely bathe. Shana Abé's The Smoke Thief is none of these things, so I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed it...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Smoke Thief, by Shana Abe
This week's Book Giveaway is Shana Abé's The Smoke Thief. It's the first of her bestselling Drakon books, a series of historical fantasy/romance novels about characters that shift between human, dragon, and, uh, smoke monster forms (but not in a Lost kind of way)...
Anastasia Krupnick, with a little remodeling
According to The Cut, Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik books are going to be re-released next January, with slightly updated content (the publisher is taking out some no-longer-socially-acceptable language and content) and, thankfully, infinitely better cover art...
Mystery solved
Lisa Kleypas fans take note: Amazon announced that the next novel in her Friday Harbor series, Lightning Bay, would be out on September 1st, but the book has been listed as "Out of Print-Limited Availability" ever since. Sadly, availability is very limited—seeing as Ms. Kleypas hasn't actually written the book...
Mojo, by Tim Tharp
Last week, I complained at length about a novelist whose characters spoke only in sparkling witticisms. I clearly need to be more careful what I wish for, because the first book I read this week features characters who show all the intellectual prowess of a cheese sandwich...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Mojo, by Tim Tharp
This week's Book Giveaway is Tim Tharp's Mojo, which was originally cursed with incredibly boring cover art. I was pleased to discover that the publishers chose something more eye-catching for the paperback version (and that they finally pointed out that Tharp also wrote The Spectacular Now, which was recently made into a movie), but damage was undoubtedly done...
Look Out Look Out Look Out...
This NPR music article makes a very funny (if not totally convincing) argument linking the music of 1960s girl groups like the Shangri-Las to modern YA fiction...
"Cute hipster" isn't gonna cut it.
I don't know about this, you guys. The first trailer for the Korean version of my beloved Nodame Cantabile has been posted (to be called Cantabile Tomorrow), and it has not assuaged my fears that this take on the material is going to be prettied up beyond recognition...
Unmade: The Lynburn Legacy, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken was one of the most promising teen romances I've read in the past decade, with an absolutely phenomenal premise. The sequel, alas, took several steps down in quality, and I'm sad to report that the final book in the trilogy is dumber still...
At the very least, the costumes will be great.
According to Variety, Hulu has placed a direct-to-series order for a nine-hour-long adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling time-travel novel 11/22/63. The miniseries will be produced by King and J.J. Abrams, and a premiere date has not been set...
Creepy! But interesting.
The online magazine Aeon recently took a fascinating (and legit horrifying) look at the long and troubling history of the Ladies’ Home Journal’s trademarked ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?' column...
The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud
The Whispering Skull, the second book in Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series, is just as complex, entertaining, and ghost-stuffed as its predecessor. It has the same faults, too, but they remain happily minor...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud
This week's Book Giveaway is Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, which I reviewed here. I'll post our take on the sequel, The Whispering Skull, later today, but my hopes are high—Mr. Stroud nearly always delivers the goods, and a clever, witty ghost story sounds like the perfect way to ease into fall...
At least they don't all die in this one.
And speaking of film news, Variety reports that model Cara Delevingne is in talks to star in an adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns. I haven't read the book, but if the Wikipedia plot summary is to be believed it sounds like it actually has a surprising amount in common with I Know What You Did Last Summer...