My condolences
Remember when I wrote that Jennifer Crusie was republishing a novella she'd written long ago, later described as "embarrassingly bad", and said she never wanted to lay eyes on again? I was trying to be understanding about the reprint, because I know Crusie has had a really rough year and could use the money, but it turns out that wasn't an accurate assessment of the situation...
Signs of life from L.J. Smith
I was looking up information on the CW's upcoming spin-off series The Originals, which will kick off with a "back-door pilot" episode of The Vampire Diaries airing on April 25th. I wanted to see if L.J. Smith (the original author of The Vampire Diaries) was going to be involved, so I made one of my infrequent visits to her delightfully hokey website...
Weekly Book Giveaway: I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend, by Cora Harrison
This week's book giveaway title is Cora Harrison's I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend, which we reviewed here. (The book isn't actually a fictional tell-all about Jane's dirty secrets, despite the way the title makes it sound...
I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend, by Cora Harrison
According to the promotional sheet included with the review copy we received, Cora Harrison's YA novel I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend was written for “anyone who has imagined what it might have been like to be the best friend, cousin, and confidante of the one and only Jane Austen.” That is, um, a very specific fantasy, but I'm sure those readers are out there. Somewhere...
Passion and Rapture, by Lauren Kate
I reviewed Lauren Kate's novel Fallen in 2010, its sequel in 2011, and then waited nearly two full years to bother reading books three and four, despite the fact that they've been sitting on our To Be Read shelf for ages. That says a lot about my feelings about this series—the premise was too promising to set aside entirely, but...
For the hardest of hardcore geeks only
If you are really, really rich, and really, really geeky, you should check out this $9,900 "Orcrist" sword inspired by The Lord of the Rings. It's a limited-edition item, will only be made to order, and requires a wait time of up to 6 months...
Shopping (for myself)
I've decided to request one of these gender-swapped fairy tale prints from artist Yudi Chen for Valentine's Day. Pretty adorable, huh? I'm leaning towards the "Tarzana and John" one...
DO NOT WANT.
I'm sorry, but I'm voting "no" on this one: according to Deadline, Guillermo del Toro is planning to produce a movie adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden, and it's rumored that his version will be set in the American South at the turn of the 20th Century...
Still a loss, but it could have been worse.
The AP Wire has posted a surprisingly positive story about the recent military activity in Timbuktu. After the French and Malian troops chased out the Islamist militants that had taken over the fabled city, there was concern that the collection of 30,000 ancient manuscripts stored in the city's Ahmed Baba Institute had been destroyed...
Floors, by Patrick Carman
When it comes to Patrick Carman, I usually end up damning with faint praise: his books are, y'know, fine. His 2011 novel Floors maintains his record of being totally inoffensive—I've read better, and I've read worse...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Floors, by Patrick Carman
This week's book giveaway title is Floors, the latest offering from prolific children's author Patrick Carman. Unlike some of his other recent releases, this is just a book (there are no video tie-ins or whatever), but we really prefer that, so here's hoping the story is entertaining enough to stand on its own two feet. Our review will go up tomorrow morning...
There are big names behind the Vampire Academy movie
The upcoming movie adaptation of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy has some serious YA street cred: according to Deadline, Daniel Waters, writer of the iconic black comedy Heathers, has written the script for the first movie, and his brother, Mean Girls director Mark Waters...
Waste of time
Ugh. NYMag recently posted a ridiculous article about Jane Austen's novels, asserting (shocker!) that she's, like, still way popular, particularly with the ladies! Thanks for the info, guys! The whole thing is really poorly researched (it describes The Lizzie Bennet Diaries as "a web series in which Mr. Darcy has Twitter", which, while technically true...
Unexpected consequences
Well, this is a problem: according to CBS News, the decline in printed newspapers has created difficulties for San Francisco's Animal Care & Control (and elsewhere, presumably). The shelter system has long relied on used newspapers to line its puppy cages, but...
Forget Tim Burton, Sleepy Hollow is going Underworld
I'm shoving this into my mental file labeled "Probably a mistake": according to Entertainment Weekly, Fox has ordered a pilot for a television adaptation of Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow. They're describing it as “A modern-day supernatural thriller based on...
The Lacey Chronicles, by Eve Edwards
As long-time readers of the site know, I tend to avoid romance novels set prior to the 19th century. I'm sure that means I'm missing out on a ton of excellent books, but Kate Beaton's 15th Century Peasant Romance Comics perfectly sum up my vision of the English-speaking world before, say, 1795: lots of early death, zero dental hygiene...
"Darwin Day" possible (but really unlikely)
According to the Huffington Post, New Jersey Democratic Rep. Rush Holt has introduced legislation that would designate February 12, 2013, as “Darwin Day". Holt's attempt to recognize the famous biologist as a "worthy symbol... [of] the achievements of reason, science, and the advancement of human knowledge” was introduced last week. Unfortunately for science fans...
The Graveyard Book movie is back on
I had no idea (or had forgotten) this movie was even in the offing, much less that the project had gone off the rails. But apparently Neil Gaiman's 2008 novel The Graveyard Book was being developed as a stop-motion project to be directed by Henry Selick and produced by Disney, with a planned release date of October, 2013. Things went downhill last summer...
Blood Magic, by Tessa Gratton
I winced when I read the promotional materials for Tessa Gratton's Blood Magic, which describe the book as “A natural next-read for fans of Stephenie Meyer”. I am not one of said fans, so this news was not enticing. Having now read the book, let me reassure my fellow Twilight anti-fans that Blood Magic is a gore-splattered, intense YA novel without so much as a hint of love triangles, magical imprinting, or sparkly vampire action...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Blood Magic, by Tessa Gratton
This week's book giveaway is Tessa Gratton's debut novel Blood Magic, which we're planning to review this afternoon. It looks fairly gory (I haven't read it yet), but if you're in the mood for that, today could be your lucky day...
Unusual library services
The New York Times posted a lovely article this week about an American Girl doll that's available for checkout from the Ottendorfer branch of the New York Public Library in the East Village, where many of the library's clients are unwilling or financially unable to buy American Girl dolls (which retail for a jaw-dropping $110 apiece) of their own...
Fateful, by Claudia Gray
Claudia Gray's Fateful must have had one hell of an elevator pitch: “It's a Downton Abbey romance! But with werewolves! And set on the Titanic!” Some of those elements are executed more successfully than others, but we always approve of an author thinking big...
Making science
NPR posted an article this morning about Ewan Birney and Nick Goldman, two scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute, who set out to explore the use of DNA as a method of storing information. Birney and Goldman decided to encode Shakespeare's sonnets, an audio clip of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and a picture of their office, and sent all the data...
What did Anne Shirley ever do to you, cover artist?
WHOA. Remember the collection of The Bell Jar covers we linked to the other day? Well, Jezebel was also thinking of Sylvia Plath this week, and found this edition, which manages to be both deeply unsuitable (considering the book's subject matter) and ugly. But wait, there's more...
Here's hoping the Korean drama lightning will strike twice.
Dramabeans recently posted an article about a possible drama adaptation of Salon H, a webtoon from manhwa writer Park So-hee, best known for her silly-but-undeniably-entertaining series Goong...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Fateful, by Claudia Gray
We're a day late, but here goes: our current weekly book giveaway title is Claudia Gray's Fateful, a YA novel about werewolves on the Titanic. (No joke.) Our review will go up in a day or two...
Semi-useful Valentines
I volunteer at a local children's library, and we are definitely going to be making these Heart-Shaped Page Markers from the website How About Orange for Valentine's Day. They look mega-cute and super easy...
Like the geekiest bake sale ever
According to Tech News Daily, a physicist and author is attempting to use his science fiction writing to raise money to build laser weapons capable of knocking out guided missiles with electronics-disabling electromagnetic pulses. Adam Weigold, author of the upcoming novel Dragon Empire, is hoping his book...
The Bell Jar revisited
The Atlantic recently put together a slideshow of a "50 Year Visual History" of Sylvia Path's The Bell Jar, which came out in England a half-century-ago this week. (It was originally published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, which made the book sound like it was written by a soap opera ingénue.) The slideshow includes...
Shield your eyes
I don't watch reality TV, but Entertainment Weekly informs me that the latest episode of The Bachelor featured the contestants dressing up as Harlequin romance cover models. (Because nothing says "proof of romantic compatibility" like a willingness to pose as a vampire or Southern belle or whatever.) The results, judging by the covers featured in the article, seemed uniformly awful...