Salt Sugar Fat, by Michael Moss
Journalist Michael Moss has made a career out of terrible food: his 2009 reporting about the safety of ground beef earned him a Pulitzer Prize, and he has recently published a book about the activities of processed food companies, aptly titled Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us...
Maybe he wrote something from Phoebe's point of view...
According to the New York Times, J.D. Salinger's estate may release up to five more books written by the late author, including additional stories about the families of his most famous creations, Holden Caulfield and the Glass family (featured in Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories)...
Dragon's Keep, by Janet Lee Carey
Janet Lee Carey's 2008 novel Dragon's Keep is a fantasy novel aimed at mature middle schoolers—kids hungry for “realistic” historical fantasy (read: everyone has fleas, and there is frequent discussion of urine) but way too young for, say, Game of Thrones. Carey's heroine is Princess Rosalind Pendragon, the subject of an ancient prophecy that suggests that she—the 21st queen of Wilde Island—will be the one to restore her family's fortunes and end a war...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Dragon's Keep, by Janet Lee Carey
Our Book Giveaway pick of the week is Janet Lee Carey's 2008 historical fantasy novel Dragon's Keep, which we're planning on reviewing later this afternoon. I don't care for the cover art, but I was amused to note that the interior hardcover has been textured to look vaguely like snakeskin. I always approve of people trying to get the little details right...
A happy ending
A crime against literature has been solved: the bronze Lorax statue stolen from Dr. Seuss's house in March of 2012 has been found. Last week, a 22-year-old man walked into a police station in Montana and offered information about several crimes...
Needle-felted awesomeness
If you have any small children (or classic literature nerds) in your life, Urban Outfitters is currently offering all three titles in the "Cozy Classics" series for $4.99 apiece. The books feature a single but aptly-chosen word per page and amazing needle-felted illustrations inspired by...
A vast improvement
Oooh, things are looking up: according to Deadline, Marion Cotilliard has signed on to play Lady MacBeth alongside Michael Fassbender in an upcoming film adaptation of the play. Much to my disgust, this role was originally going to go to Natalie Portman, whom I still haven't forgiven for Thor. Or V for Vendetta. Or Star Wars...
Of Beast and Beauty, by Stacey Jay
Of Beast and Beauty, Stacey Jay's horror/fantasy/sci-fi retelling of the Beauty and the Beast myth, takes its fair share of missteps. The story's mythology is murky, the ending felt rushed, and several of Jay's attempts at poetic descriptive passages sound like something written by an overwrought seventh grader, but I must give credit where credit is due: this is a huge, huge improvement over her previous two books...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Of Beast and Beauty, by Stacey Jay
We weren't impressed by her earlier two books, but we're giving Stacey Jay another chance: her novel Of Beast and Beauty is our current Book Giveaway pick. Our hopes are not high, frankly, but if you're curious about the story at least the price would be right...
The mind boggles.
Deadline is reporting that 13-year-old Mad Men actress Kiernan Shipka has signed on for the lead role in Lifetime's upcoming Flowers in the Attic adaptation. I guess this answers my question as to whether or not people think this movie is going to be a Crazy Big Deal...
Touched and Dead River, by Cyn Balog
Cyn Balog's standalone novels Dead River and Touched are the kind of stories that allow YA readers to dip their toes into the horror genre. They're disturbing enough to send the odd shiver up one's spine, but still guaranteed to come with a safely happy ending, making them an ideal choice for kids who aren't quite ready for, say, Stephen King...
Drama!
I recently caught the preview for the upcoming movie Seventh Son. The trailer claimed the film was based on an "acclaimed series", but that's where things got confusing: there is a fantasy novel called Seventh Son (written by Orson Scott Card), but this movie is based on Joseph Delaney's book The Spook's Apprentice (U.K. title)/The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch (American version). In addition to...
More in my financial wheelhouse
If, like me, you were totally in love with the Kate Spade "Book of the Month" clutches, but neither willing nor able to spend $325 on an adorable but mostly useless accessory, today is your lucky day: Out of Print has released their own line of literary-themed canvas pouches...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Dead River and Touched, by Cyn Balog
This week we have two books for our Weekly Book Giveaway: Dead River and Touched, both by Cyn Balog. I'm pretty sure the books are standalones (I obviously haven't read them yet), and Balog's past work has indicated a real talent for character-driven YA paranormal romances, so my hopes are high. My review should go up sometime tomorrow...
Literary shade-throwing
Flavorwire has assembled a list of Jane Austen's "Most Famous Trolls, Critics, and Doubters", including but not limited to Charlotte Brontë, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Virginia Woolf. Without exception, all of the names mentioned remind me of one of my favorite quotes from Cold Comfort Farm...
I think not.
To my utter disgust, the reviews have been coming out for the second Percy Jackson movie, and they actually seem mildly positive. Not, y'know, good, but full of lines like this one...
Obsidian, Onyx, and Opal, by Jennifer Armentrout
After writing about the upcoming film adaptation of Jennifer Armentrout's sexy-aliens-in-peril Lux series, I requested the first three installments—Obsidian, Onyx, and Opal—from my local library. The books' mega-cheesy cover art was off-putting, but I was hoping the story would deliver some enjoyably soapy Roswell-style goodness...
Not sure if it's going to be a period piece, though.
In much-less-distressing movie news, a few weeks ago IndieWire announced that director Whit Stillman has begun casting for his next movie, an adaptation of Jane Austen's little-known novella Lady Susan. I'm not a big fan of most of Austen's juvenilia, but...
I cannot believe this is a thing.
I am seriously skeeved out by the idea of a Flowers in the Attic movie. I mean, I understand what they're hoping for: "It was shocking... titillating... the Fifty Shades of its day!" But is this really the kind of thing people feel nostalgic about? Want to actually watch? I remember the books being available at supermarket checkout stands...
The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater
I loved Shiver, the first book in Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, but I was seriously underwhelmed by its sequel, Linger. Middle books can be tricky, but Stiefvater's approach was ridiculous...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Maggie Stiefvater's award-winning novel The Scorpio Races, which I'll be reviewing this afternoon. I haven't finished the book yet, but thus far I'm really liking it—as monster stories go, you could do a lot worse than murderous sea-dwelling horses...
Literary decor on a budget
I was stoked to see that H&M is now offering online shopping for American customers, as it finally allows me to investigate the one H&M department I haven't been able to visit in person: their home line. (Plus, my European cousins can now stop lording their online shopping access over my head.) Most of the stuff looks pretty uninspired, but they do offer a few book-inspired products...
Have they nothing else to do with their time?
Wooow. I was ridiculously excited by the recent news that England's ten-pound banknote is going to feature Jane Austen's face*, but apparently some people were less delighted: according to Jezebel, Caroline Criado-Perez, the woman who lead the campaign to feature Austen's image, has received a "deluge" of rape and death threats from Twitter users...
Fever Crumb, by Philip Reeve
In Philip Reeve's colorful, violent steampunk novel Fever Crumb, post-apocalyptic engineers work alongside archaeologists to study ancient technologies like “electronic keypads”. Fever Crumb, a fourteen-year-old foundling raised by the all-male Order of Engineers, has just received her first work assignment. The Engineers have trained Fever to value logic and reason above all, but they haven't prepared her for London—a loosely-controlled city full of superstitious people...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Fever Crumb, by Philip Reeve
This week's book givewaway pick is Philip Reeve's Fever Crumb, which I intend to review later today. Meanwhile, I offer this description from Publishers Weekly:
Fever Crumb, a 14-year-old orphan, is the only girl ever accepted into the Order of Engineers and has been raised in seclusion by obsessively logical scientists in an enormous head, part of an unfinished statue of London's deposed ruler, the hated mutant “Scriven,” Auric Godshawk...
Still ridiculous, but whatever.
According to NPR, Chuck Palahniuk has announced that he is working on a sequel to his 1996 novel Fight Club. The book is described as a "dark and messy" graphic novel, and the plot summary involves one alter ego kidnapping the other's kid...
Timeless and Timekeeper, by Alexandra Monir
Here's my problem with time-travel stories: even for great writers, it's tough to come up with a workable plot when you're starting from a fundamentally problematic central concept. I've read a few successful time-travel books, but most of them offered a pleasingly vague “It's magic!” explanation...
Jane Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever., by Caissie St. Onge
Caissie St. Onge's novel Jane Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever. is an entertaining but uneven take on the joys—and many, many sorrows—of life as a blood-sucking perpetual teenager. Jane Jones has been a high school student for decades, but it never gets any easier. Her parents are still ridiculously overprotective (even though Jane is actually ninety-odd years old), she has nothing in common with her human classmates, and her vampire peers despise her for having a blood allergy...
Could the movie deliver on the HOLY ALIEN HOTNESS?
The covers for this series crack me up, but obviously someone takes them seriously, because THR says that Sierra Pictures has signed up to produce a film adaptation of Jennifer Armentrout's Obsidian. The book is a YA romance about a 17-year-old girl who discovers that her neighbor is actually a "hot alien" (note: that's from the official publisher's description) with...
Paradox, by A.J. Paquette
Despite its staggeringly ugly cover art, A.J. Paquette's novel Paradox is not, sadly, a tribute to the 1990 killer-giant-worms movie Tremors. It is instead the story of a teenage girl named Ana who wakes up on an alien world with no memories, a backpack full of weapons and supplies, and a note in her pocket instructing her to observe and survive. While she eventually meets up with three other kids (including a boy who seems strangely familiar), Ana is forced to rely...