Creepy
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...
I thought it was already gone, TBH
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...
Take heed, friends
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...
Either way, probably not.
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...
There will be limited opportunities for theater if we're all UNDER WATER.
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...
The Lovely and the Lost, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
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...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Lovely and the Lost, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
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...
My hopes are medium-low.
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...
As long as it's not Lifetime
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...
Ka-BOOM!
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...
The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang
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...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang
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...
Nicely dull
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...
He'll be fine
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...
Such a letdown
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...
Future so bright
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...
Money was spent
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...
Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts
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...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts
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...
Just charge more!
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...
That'll be a no
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...
They're cute~
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...
Neat!
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...
WhatEVER
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...
Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, by Alice Waters
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...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, by Alice Waters
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...
I can wait. Forever, if need be.
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...
BOOOO
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...
Unexpected opposition
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...
Soapy!
I have watched the first four episodes of Netflix's new show The Society (billed as a modern YA take on The Lord of the Flies, but with a supernatural twist), and I am giving it a somewhat wobbly thumbs-up. It took me two full episodes to be able to tell most of the characters apart (the Elle and Allie actresses were particularly confusing), and...