Lark Rising, by Sandra Waugh
After last week's horror-story marathon, I've been looking forward to exploring different genres, and Sandra Waugh's Lark Rising totally fits the bill—it's classic high fantasy, complete with glowing orbs, prophetic poetry, and a hand-drawn map featuring names like "The Myr Mountains" and "The Dark Wood"...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Lark Rising, by Sandra Waugh
I could wish for a less moldy-looking cover, but I'm pretty excited about this novel: our current Book Giveaway is Lark Rising, the first installment in Sandra Waugh's Guardians of Tarnec series. I've heard good things about this story, and will post our take later this afternoon...
Scored, by Lauren McLaughlin
My favorite kind of scary stories involve real, everyday things gone horribly wrong, so when I realized the subject matter of Lauren McLaughlin's Scored I was totally stoked. Brace yourself, dear readers: this is a horror novel about student test scores...
It's maybe... 63% overdone.
The BBC has released a very dramatic trailer for their "A Lifetime of Original British Drama" promotion, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch at his absolutely most British, reciting the "All the world's a stage" speech...
The Turning: What Curiosity Kills, by Helen Ellis
This might be a stretch, but I'm including a novel about shape-shifting cats in my Halloween read-a-thon. I realize were-kittens aren't quite as threatening as zombies or whatever, but they fall somewhere along the monster spectrum, right? (On, like, the cuter end...
Scary Go Round, by John Allison
If you're looking for a Halloween read this week and you haven't got any money (or a library card, or friends who own books), you're in luck: John Allison's pre-Bad Machinery comic Scary Go Round is available for free online...
The memories are still too fresh.
While I'm picking random horror-themed books off my To-Be-Read shelf this week, zillions of other people are doing Halloween-related book lists, too. My favorite is Jezebel's "SPOOKY SCARY HALLOWEEN YA BOOK CLUB", which has been revisiting the big horror titles of my early 90s youth...
Famous Last Words, by Katie Alender
According to her author bio, Katie Alender went to film school, and her love of movies permeates every page of Famous Last Words. I expect there's already a film-adaptation deal in the works, but if not, Hollywood is missing out, because Famous Last Words has everything: ghosts, romance, murders... even a makeover scene. Seriously, it's practically a shopping list for a great teen movie...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Famous Last Words, by Katie Alender
This week's Book Giveaway is Katie Alender's YA murder mystery Famous Last Words. My original plan had been to focus entirely on horror novels this week, in honor of Halloween, but A) I actually want to read this sucker, and B) there might be a ghost in it...? Anyway, a full review will follow later today...
All pink and evil...
Okay, I know I've complained about J.K. Rowling's seeming inability to stop doling out further mini-installments of her totally, absolutely, 100% finished Harry Potter series, but her last story (the Rita Skeeter one) was actually really fun...
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...