Jul 15 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Delinquent Housewife! Vol.1, by Nemu Yoko

This week's Book Giveaway is the first installment of Nemu Yoko's four-volume manga The Delinquent Housewife!. A full review will follow shortly, but I can already tell you that, alas, there are some cultural things that have confused the hell out of me. This giveaway will run through 7/22/19...

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Jul 11 2019

Creepy

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And this is why I prefer paper books: Microsoft has announced that they're getting out of the e-book business, and will be deleting every title ever purchased via their store. Customers will get refunds, and even a small credit ($25) for notes that were made in the digital editions, but I don't care...

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Jul 11 2019

I thought it was already gone, TBH

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It's the end of an era: according to the Smithsonian Magazine, after a 67-year-long run, MAD magazine will stop publishing new issues, although they will apparently still be printing vintage...

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Jul 10 2019

Take heed, friends

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Just a reminder: July is the American Library Association's first "Graphic Novels in Libraries Month", so you should definitely check out your local library to see what, if anything, they're doing to celebrate. This event has some A+ sponsors...

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Jul 9 2019

Either way, probably not.

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According to Variety, George Clooney is going to star in an adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight for Netflix. There's a hideously gloomy Jean Rhys novel with the same name, but I'm hoping the stories have nothing else in common than their titles: Rhys's book is about a...

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Jul 9 2019

There will be limited opportunities for theater if we're all UNDER WATER.

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Deadline informs me that Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance has resigned from the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company, protesting the theater’s ongoing sponsorship deal with oil company BP. Rylance has been associated with the Royal Shakespeare Company for thirty years, but he also one of several artists who object...

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Jul 8 2019

The Lovely and the Lost, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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In the note at the end of her most recent book, The Lovely and the Lost, author Jennifer Lynn Barnes acknowledges the debt this story owes to two of her earlier series: The Naturals and Raised by Wolves. Of course, lots of writers recycle their own work, although I was a little taken aback...

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Jul 8 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Lovely and the Lost, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Our latest Book Giveaway is Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Lovely and the Lost, which sounds like a soap opera and I am sincerely hoping is not a standalone. (I am much more invested in this book than in Barnes's previous effort.) A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 7/22/19...

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Jul 3 2019

My hopes are medium-low.

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The biggest film adaptation news of the week has arrived: according to THR, Netflix is making a TV series version of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and apparently money is no object...

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Jul 2 2019

As long as it's not Lifetime

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According to Deadline, Netflix is making a TV series adaptation of Sherryl Woods’s Sweet Magnolias series of romance novels. The show will star Jamie Lynn Spears and Chris Klein. There's no word on how they'll split the books up (will everyone straighten out their lives while falling in love simultaneously?), but I'm always pleased when...

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Jul 2 2019

Ka-BOOM!

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Oooh, there's a plot twist coming for fans of Robert Kirkman's comic The Walking Dead. I won't spoil it for you here, but curious fans should head over to The New York Times for the announcement. A recent plot development...

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Jul 1 2019

The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang

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I have spent the past few weekends hate-watching two “romantic” Chinese dramas*, switching between them whenever a particular plot development became unbearably stupid. In the midst of this cinematic garbage fire I paused to read Helen Hoang's The Bride Test, and—at least in contrast—it felt like one of the great love stories of all time...

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Jul 1 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang

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Our first July Book Giveaway is Helen Hoang's The Bride Test, which sounds like a very ambitious romance novel: there's an arranged marriage! Multicultural characters! A hero on the autism spectrum! I have no idea how it will turn out, but I applaud Ms. Hoang for going big. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 7/5/19...

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Jun 27 2019

Nicely dull

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And in another bit of TV adaptation news, Town & Country informs me that PBS's Masterpiece program will be remaking James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small as a six-episode miniseries. I remember watching reruns of the 70s TV show as a child—I thought it was boring, but in a weirdly soothing, pleasant way...

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Jun 27 2019

He'll be fine

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This a change of pace: according to THR, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon is taking over as the primary showrunner for CBS All Access's Star Trek: Picard. I have no idea what kind of showrunning experience Chabon has, but he's apparently a hardcore Trekkie...

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Jun 26 2019

Such a letdown

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Damn: I absolutely loved Daniel O'Malley's The Rook, but if this scathing review is to be believed, the new television adaptation has removed nearly all of what I enjoyed about the book and replaced it...

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Jun 25 2019

Future so bright

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I really enjoy these photographs of the cast of the upcoming "adaptation" of Jane Austen's Sanditon. I have no idea how the actual film will turn out...

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Jun 25 2019

Money was spent

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Vanity Fair recently revealed an exclusive first look at Gretta Gerwig's upcoming film adaptation of Little Women, which will star Saoirse Ronan as Jo. As longtime readers of the site know, I can't stand Little Women, but I can admit that this looks like a very handsome, well-cast production...

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Jun 24 2019

Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts

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In many of her recent standalones, Nora Roberts has minimized the tropes of romance writing in favor of straight action/suspense. That's fine—the romantic elements of her books are the bits she is most prone to recycling—but I do wish she wasn't so fond of really lingering on the POV of her villains. I don't need to read an additional hundred pages of manufactured drama between her protagonists, but...

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Jun 24 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts

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Our latest Book Giveaway is Nora Roberts's Shelter in Place. It's definitely one of her more impressive recent offerings (which, admittedly, isn't saying much), but skip it if you are in any way triggered by scenes of mass shootings. A full review will follow shortly, and this review will run through 7/5/19...

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Jun 20 2019

Just charge more!

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LitHub recently posted a promising-looking article about the development of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks in Florida. I'm always interested in logistics, so I was excited to learn more about merchandising tie-ins and ride development, but then I ran across this staggering fact...

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Jun 20 2019

That'll be a no

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The trailer is out for the upcoming movie version of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, the sequel to his classic novel The Shining. Ewan McGregor plays a grown-up Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel. He's a solid actor, but they're clearly making a lot of references...

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Jun 19 2019

They're cute~

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I have now seen the entire line of Vans' Harry Potter-inspired shoes, and I've decided that for once I am glad that I always, always get sorted into Slytherin...

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Jun 18 2019

Neat!

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Thankfully, I just read another, non-eye-roll-inducing thinkpiece about one of my favorite books: Jia Tolentino's “The Westing Game, a Tribute to Labor That Became a Dark Comedy of American Capitalism". I actually don't think that title does a great job of encapsulating the article, but...

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Jun 18 2019

WhatEVER

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A recent article on The Independent has arrived at the (apparently astonishing) conclusion that Jane Austen's life wasn't all sunshine and roses. I'm always quick to roll my eyes at this kind of thinkpiece, and my eye-rolling muscles got an extra workout today...

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Jun 17 2019

Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, by Alice Waters

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In 1995, celebrated chef Alice Waters joined forces with the principal of a public middle school in Berkeley to found The Edible Schoolyard, an on-site organic garden that allowed students a chance to explore food as a scientific and social experience. This process was documented by Waters in Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea. Ignore that lofty subtitle...

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Jun 17 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, by Alice Waters

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Our latest Book Giveway is Alice Waters's Edible Schoolyard, which, should you be in need of one, would make an awesome coffee table book. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 7/5/19...

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Jun 13 2019

I can wait. Forever, if need be.

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There's a good interview over on Collider about the recent Amazon adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's classic novel Good Omens. The article sounds pretty gushy, and I watched the first few episodes of the show with mild interest, but...

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Jun 13 2019

BOOOO

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For the second year in a row, The Guardian and The Observer have conducted a research study on diversity in children's picture books, and the results are extremely disappointing. According to the newspapers' research, the 100 best-selling picture books published in 2018...

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Jun 12 2019

Unexpected opposition

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Huh: according to Curbed, the Strand Bookstore in New York has been designated as a New York City landmark. This sounded like a good thing to me (bear in mind, I know nothing about New York real estate laws), but apparently the 92-year-old bookstore's owner feels very strongly...

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