Wordcandy's Holiday Gift List: 2011 Edition
It's December, and that means it's time for Wordcandy to release our annual Holiday Gift Guide! We've chosen a variety of deeply awesome potential gifts for the bibliophiles on your shopping list...
Oooh, cheesy!
The first full-length trailer is out for Disney's John Carter (based on the "Barsoom" series by Edgar Rice Burroughs), and it looks like it's staying pretty close to its space-western roots:Barrin...
A nod to the pulp factor
Publishers Weekly did a great post recently about the many and varied cover art choices for John Steinbeck's East of Eden. I can't say I agree with their statement "If you haven’t yet read East o...
Neil Gaiman gets animated
Last year, it was an episode of Arthur. This year, it's an episode of The Simpsons. Do they give Emmys to people who guest-star on cartoons, and if so, is Neil Gaiman gunning for one?
Revisiting Firefly
If you're a big Joss Whedon fan, you should save some wall space for these awesome (and totally affordable) vintage-travel-style posters designed by Adam Levermore-Rich and inspired by Whedon's sh...
Politically pointed
Well-known fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin has written a depressing-but-effective short story called "Ninety-Nine Weeks: A Fairy Tale". You can read it (for free!) at the Book View Cafe.
At long last, more Cold Comfort
For the first time since its original publication fifty years ago, a reprint of Stella Gibbons's short story collection Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is going hit bookshelves next week. Cold Com...
The holiday meal of your nightmares
Publishers Weekly has posted a great list of The 10 Weirdest Cookbooks, just in time to remind you that whatever you're stuck eating this Thanksgiving, it could always be worse.Seriously. Much worse.
Beating a dead, zombi-fied horse?
I haven't looked up the sales numbers for The Death Cure, the third novel in James Dashner’s bestselling Maze Runner trilogy, but I'm assuming they're amazing... seeing as I just opened a press re...
Drink like a vampire
If you're both A) a big Twilight fan, and B) of legal drinking age, you might want to celebrate today's big movie release with People magazine's suggestions for Twilight-themed cocktails, includin...
Need to open a secret passageway, Scooby-Doo-style?
Okay, I want one:B.Light Design has created a "Secret Passageway Switch" that uses a hard-bound book (without damaging it) to conceal its true function as an electrical switch. Sadly, it's alread...
Ranma 1/2 gets promoted
Rumiko Takahashi has drawn a poster for the upcoming live-action adaptation of her classic manga Ranma 1/2, and while I'm feeling most of it, what is up with Genma's panda suit?!? I understand no...
Would-be authors take note
There's another writing competition in the works: the Serendipity Literary Agency and the Gotham Writers’ Workshop are hosting their second "Young Adult Novel Discovery Competition". Aspiring YA ...
A story in stuff
Speaking of NPR, they recently posted an enthusiastic review of Caroline Preston's The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, a novel told via a scrapbook-style collection of vintage memorabilia. (The revie...
A modern classic
Much to my delight, the second book for NPR's Back-Seat Book Club is Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, one of my all-time favorite books. The Back-Seat Book Club is technically aimed at read...
Suppressed emotions and leg waxing
The first full-length trailer is out for The Hunger Games, and it focuses far more on the interpersonal drama than the kid-on-kid violence. Probably a smart move, considering I still have no idea...
Drive a superhero
Starting at the end of the month, Australian comic book fans will be able to adorn their cars with a range of classic DC superhero images. The plates are not cheap (starting at $195 AUD), and dec...
Ridiculously adorable... but also just ridiculous
I spend a lot of time thinking about punctuation, so I covet these Kate Spade Air Quote Mittens with a fiery passion. Sadly, I would need these gloves to be at least 75% off before I would even c...
Abridged beyond belief
These "Baby Lit" books are cute, right? And the Jane Austen one at least got a good review on AustenBlog. But how could anyone make Romeo and Juliet into a baby board book (even if it's just a "...
Romance Writing 101
Aspiring romance novelists take note: Harlequin is kicking off their second "So You Think You Can Write" contest this week. (Actually, I suspect this event would benefit more than just budding ro...
Miss Havisham: surprisingly young and hot
I just discovered that Helena Bonham-Carter and Gillian Anderson will be playing the role of Miss Havisham in two separate adaptations of Great Expectations due out next year. I'm sure they'll bo...
That's some very, very tiny font.
I'm totally delighted by the images from PosterText, a company that designs posters featuring the contents of various classic novels*, artistically arranged to depict an important scene or element...
Taking liberties
Very few of the recent film adaptations of Dr. Seuss's books have been successful, but I'm wondering if the people behind the upcoming movie The Lorax even read their source material. This is an ...
One or the other
According to a Belgian judge, Tintin in the Congo isn't a racist book, just a "reflection of [author Hergé's] time", and therefore cannot be banned on racial grounds. Of course, it was a racist t...
A classic British mystery
Man, I don't understand the English. Apparently, two of England's biggest newspapers (the left-wing Guardian and the right-wing Daily Mail) are all up in arms over Pippa Middleton's plans to publ...