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...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Paradox, by A.J. Paquette
This week's book giveaway title is A. J. Paquette's Paradox, which I'd like to think is a YA retelling of the 1990 camp-horror classic Tremors. (Sadly, it probably isn't, although someone should really write that book.) We'll be posting our review later this afternoon...
This is seriously the best.
Some dude named Tyler Adam Smith, a student in the "Masters of Branding" program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, has chosen to create 100 book covers for books that do not actually exist (but totally should), and they are glorious. At the very least, this guy should release these as a line of blank books...
He'll have to console himself with all that cash.
The Onion's AV Club has written an enjoyably nasty article about Alan Moore's response to the recent announcement that Fox is planning on turning his comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into a TV series. Moore has been outspoken...
TV to movie to book
E! Online informs me that Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas has nabbed a two-book deal to continue the series. The novels will pick up where the upcoming movie ends, and should be available in the spring of 2014...
Dear Mr. Watterson on the big screen
The movie trailer is out for Dear Mr. Watterson, director Joel Allen Schroeder's tribute to Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin and Hobbes remains one of the world's most beloved comic strips, despite ending in 1995...
Deep Betrayal, by Anne Greenwood Brown
To borrow an image from the cultural zeitgeist, Anne Greenwood Brown's Deep Betrayal, the second book in her YA trilogy about killer mermaids lurking in the Great Lakes, is like Syfy's Sharknado: a ridiculously fun idea, poorly executed...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Deep Betrayal, by Anne Greenwood Brown
This week's book giveaway title is Anne Greenwood Brown's Deep Betrayal, the sequel to last year's Lies Beneath, which we reviewed here. I have no idea if this book will fix the problems I had with the first installment (actually, I'm not sure it's possible to fix the problems I had with the first installment), but if you're curious, wouldn't it be nice...
A trip down Diagon Alley
Google Maps now allows people to explore the set of Diagon Alley at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London. It's well worth a look—according to Mashable.com, Warner Bros. says the Diagon set took more than three months to build, and six months to create over 20,000 products featured on the shops' shelves. The street view allows you to get up close and personal...
I would visit this place, but not in costume.
We still have a lot of Jane Austen-related news to get through this week, but nothing as amazing as yesterday's item. Today we're posting a link to the newly-released trailer for the upcoming film Austenland. It looks super embarrassing (Austen fans = Beliebers?), but...
I might prefer reading New Moo. That cow is cute.
I was genuinely amused by these altered book covers found on Pleated Jeans. The images feature 20 re-imagined book titles, each minus one letter. Some of the letters are more vital than others...
Still not April Fool's Day
Good LORD. There's a 12-foot tall statue of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy floating in a lake in London. I can't decide if I'm terrified (this is not a particularly realistic representation, guys) or if I think that miniature versions should be sold as home decor options for personal swimming pools...
The Beautiful and the Cursed, by Page Morgan
Page Morgan is an ambitious woman. Her debut novel The Beautiful and the Cursed features two heroines, a massive cast, a historical setting, a menagerie of supernatural creatures, and an elaborate mythology centered around gargoyles, which (in Morgan's world, anyway) can be both hideous monsters and ridiculously handsome love interests...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Beautiful and the Cursed, by Page Morgan
This week's book giveaway title is The Beautiful and the Cursed, by Page Morgan. I haven't even cracked this book open yet, but it appears to be a sexy YA supernatural thriller about gargoyles. (Possibly sexy gargoyles, in which case I give the author full points for creativity.) I'll post our review later today...
Better this than more Miami Vice
There is more screen-to-comic news today, this bit making far more sense than yesterday's announcement: according to THR, Dark Horse Entertainment publisher Mike Richardson has hinted that Ridley Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus may continue in comic book form...
I cannot believe there's a demand for this.
Sometimes, life is an incomprehensible mystery. According to THR, someone decided it would be a good idea to revive five shows from the NBC line-up of the early 1980s as digital comics: Knight Rider, Airwolf, Miami Vice, Punky Brewster, and Saved by the Bell...
The Car Thief, by Theodore Weesner
The back cover of Theodore Weesner's The Car Thief describes the book as a "modern American classic" featuring “heartbreak, cruel realities, and stunning personal triumphs”. That may be true, but allow me to issue a word of warning: you have to wade through a lot of heartbreak and cruel reality before you get to any personal triumphs...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Car Thief, by Theodore Weesner
After reviewing five supernatural romances, we're offering a literary palate cleanser as our current Book Giveaway pick: Theodore Weesner's The Car Thief. This autobiographical novel was first published in 1972, but has recently been re-released. I'm pretty sure it's 100% supernatural-creature-free, but we'll post our review tomorrow...
Throwing good money after bad?
There are some uggggly numbers coming out from Barnes and Noble: total sales fell 10% in the fourth quarter for their brick-and-mortar stores, and Nook sales tumbled 34%. But B&N isn't giving up the ghost just yet. According to Publishers Weekly, the company is going to invest $33 million in their Nook units this year...
Underworld and Awaken, by Meg Cabot
I've been waiting a whole year to review Meg Cabot's novel Underworld, the middle book in her Abandon trilogy. I read it as the minute we received it (because Cabot's books are always fun), but if I had any self-control I would have followed my own advice and waited until the final book in the trilogy was released.
The Demon's Lexicon, The Demon's Covenant, and The Demon's Surrender, by Sarah Rees Brennan
While poking around Powell's Books a few weeks ago, I found an autographed copy of Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon. The cover art was straight-up atrocious (the goofy-looking male model swinging a sword while sucking in his cheekbones does nothing for me), but I really liked Brennan's latest book—Unspoken, which we reviewed here—so...
I'm depressed about this.
THR informs me that Julianne Moore is being courted to play the role of District 13 leader Alma Coin in the two-part adaptation of Suzanne Collins's Mockingjay. That's fine (I don't care about the casting; I've had a DVD of The Hunger Games sitting, unwatched, next to my TV for more than three months now), but...
Golden Girl, by Sarah Zettel
Sarah Zettel's novel Dust Girl was one of my favorite books of 2012, which meant I was equally excited and nervous to read Golden Girl, the next book in the series. Middle books in trilogies are tough to get right, so I was thrilled to find that Golden Girl is just as entertaining as its predecessor—and possibly even weirder...