Plain Kate, by Erin Bow
When it comes to YA literature, the current trend towards dystopian stories boasting loads of hardcore violence is so widespread it's actually gotten boring—no matter how creative the backstory, it's hard to be shocked by yet another novel centered around some far-fetched excuse for futuristic kids to kill one another. This is why I found myself approving of Erin Bow's novel Plain Kate—sure, it was dark and sad and creepy...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Plain Kate, by Erin Bow
This week's book giveaway pick is Erin Bow's debut novel Plain Kate, which I'm planning to read and review this afternoon, despite the fact that stories about witch burnings—even thwarted ones, which I'm assuming is the case here—totally give creep me out. I'm doing this for you, dear readers...
Heart of Glass, by Sasha Gould
YA author Sasha Gould recently released Heart of Glass, the sequel to last year's well-received historical novel Cross My Heart. I found this installment less interesting than Gould's first, but it was still well-written and solidly researched (and blessed with much less Vegas-y cover art)...
Up and coming
According to Publishers Weekly, Delacorte Press recently announced it has purchased the rights to 17-year-old Beth Reekles's debut novel The Kissing Booth, which has apparently been selling like hotcakes on the self-publishing site Wattpad...
Just in case you were wondering
Speaking of random-but-impressively-thorough online efforts, someone at the real estate website Movoto came up with a detailed analysis of the resale value of Hogwarts, based on its presumed location, comparable (if non-magical) properties, and square footage...
Trackers and Trackers: Shantorian, by Patrick Carman
Patrick Carman's Trackers series is simultaneously one step forward and several steps back: it features even more digital bells and whistles than his Skeleton Creek quartet, but it's markedly less readable than his recent novel Floors or his earlier Land of Elyon series...
Another show I will be skipping
I can't see any way for this to avoid being absolutely horrible, but maybe that's what makes for must-see TV: according to The Hollywood Reporter, FX is developing an "event series" based on Kim MacQuarrie's book The Last Days of the Incas, which focuses on...
Austen-inspired arts and crafts
The design-and-print-your-own-fabric website Spoonflower is asking readers to submit and vote on fabric patterns "inspired by the idea of what life would be like in a Jane Austen novel". Some of them are pretty creepy-looking (and several have nothing to do with Austen), but I liked at least ten of them enough to vote for them...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Trackers and Trackers: Shantorian, by Patrick Carman
We're giving away two books this week: Patrick Carman's Trackers and Trackers: Shantorian. Like his Skeleton Creek series, they appear to be full of unnecessary bells and whistles, but who knows? Maybe all the digital tie-ins and stuff will be magical. I'll have more for you on Wednesday, when I post the review...
Brain-wrinkling
I've been staring in appalled fascination at the website Scarfolk, which seems to the project of graphic designer Richard Littler. The blog is devoted to the ephemera of an imaginary—and impossible—town...
Historical mash-up
The most recent Hark! A Vagrant strip blends the life of Anne of Cleves (well, at least the part of her life that involved Henry the VIII) with Anne of Green Gables. Thomas Cromwell fills in for Matthew; Henry himself is Marilla...
A three-million-dollar book deal seems like the least the world can do
Pakistani education activist, youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize nominee, shooting victim, and fifteen-year-old girl Malala Yousafzai has closed a book deal, according to The Guardian. The nonfiction title I Am Malala will be published by Little, Brown and Company this fall, and describe Yousafzai's life to date...
Room 237, in depth
I had no idea people had devoted so much energy to analyzing Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining, but apparently there's enough interest in picking apart the deeper significance of every shifted prop, altered costume, and misplaced window to justify making a whole documentary about it...
Banished and Unforsaken, by Sophie Littlefield
I'm sure most bookstores have filed Sophie Littlefield's novels Banished and Unforsaken with the teen paranormal romances, but that's far from accurate. These books are about a girl who discovers that she has magical healing powers, and is immediately targeted by a series of evil scientists, murderous rednecks, and zombies. She does eventually acquire a boyfriend, but their relationship is never more than a minor plot thread...
Vintage cyborgs
Speaking of serialized stories, science fiction fans can now read the first chapter of British author E.V. Odle's 1923 little-known novel The Clockwork Man, which is apparently the earliest story to feature a cyborg...
Neverwhere on the radio
The BBC has apparently made a radio production of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and you can download the first episode here. It features the voices of James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, and Sophie Okonedo...
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron is a collection of eighteen all-new short stories about witches and witchcraft, edited by Jonathan Strahan. Most of the featured authors—a who's who of well-known fantasy writers, including Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint, Jim Butcher, and Holly Black—brought their A-game, and the resulting stories are memorable, imaginative, and utterly absorbing...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Under My Hat, edited by Jonathan Strahan
This week's book giveaway pick is Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, a collection of eighteen short stories inspired by witchcraft, edited by Jonathan Strahan. I'll post my full review this afternoon, but here's the quickie version: I'd give the overall collection a solid B+, with a couple of stories creeping up into A territory and one slipping into the C range...
Out of Warranty, by Haywood Smith
Despite its Viagra-commercial cover art and quirky plot summary, Haywood Smith's novel Out of Warranty isn't a conventional middle-aged romance. Instead, it's a story about two deeply neurotic characters beset by a legion of age-specific problems: fragile parents, irritating adult children, bad health, and worse insurance coverage...
This is real thing, apparently.
April Fools' Day is so close, but we're not actually there yet. So I'm assuming this isn't a joke: someone actually wrote a children's book called Mr. Penny and the Dragon of Domeville, and it's about a "singular" little penny who battles a dragon that represents a bloated federal government...
Book cover art for your phone
If you own an iPhone 4 and you're looking for a new case, Nordstrom currently has three "Out of Print" cases inspired by classic book covers on sale: Animal Farm, The Outsiders, and On the Road...
Nostalgia ahoy
I was mega-excited when I saw this Slate article about a brief, wordless Calvin and Hobbes cartoon created by professional animator Adam Brown. Unfortunately, the final product was a bit of a letdown...
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
Ernest Cline's debut novel Ready Player One borrows its premise from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, its plot from TRON, and its conclusion from The Wizard of Oz, but that's actually okay: people are buying this novel to wallow in all the geek-oriented nostalgia, not marvel at the author's originality...
Aim high
According to THR, Constantin Films is planning another film version of Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. David Goyer will direct, Jeremy Bolt (of the Resident Evil franchise) will produce, and they're apparently planning to take a "graphic novel approach" to the story. I figured that meant something vaguely cartoonish...
The phrase "training guide" does sound a little ominous, though.
In a move that has generated a lot of online commentary, Chicago Public Schools (the nation’s third largest school district) announced last week that they would be restricting students' access to Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s 2003 graphic novel about growing up in Iran. We're obviously no fans of book-banning...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
This week's book giveaway pick is Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, which we're planning to review tomorrow. I haven't finished it yet, but thus far it appears to be a modern-day reworking of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, only with video games instead of candy...
Does the world really need a writing guide inspired by a Twilight fanfic?
E.L. James seemingly intends to milk that cash cow dry: according to Vanity Fair, a "how-to-guide" called Fifty Shades of Grey: Inner Goddess (A Journal) is due out in May, and will...
Dumber than a box of rocks
Entertainment bigwigs in Japan have apparently decided the world needs ANOTHER Itazura Na Kiss adaptation, despite the varying success of the three versions that already exist...
Much ado about nothing... that I particularly care about, anyway.
The teaser trailer is out for Joss Whedon's adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and it looks... artistic. Black-and-white, y'know, and heavy on the strong, dramatic words flashing across the screen in equally strong, dramatic font...
Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman
Rachel Hartman's debut novel Seraphina won the 2013 Morris Award for YA literature, but the major thing defining the book as “young adult” is its teenage heroine—everything else about it is straightforward high fantasy, suitable for readers of any age...