Aug 13 2012

Weekly Book Giveaway: Lies Beneath, by Anne Greenwood Brown

Okay, here's our first Weekly Book Giveaway selection: Lies Beneath, by Anne Greenwood Brown, which we reviewed here. We had our problems with this title, but let's face it: how wrong can you go with a story about murderous mermaids from Wisconsin...

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Aug 13 2012

Weekly Book Giveaway Rules

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We're introducing a new feature to Wordcandy.net: weekly book giveaways. Each Monday we will choose a recently-reviewed title, and all you have to do to enter to win is either A) send us an e-mail with your name and contact information, or B) leave a comment in the post connected to a functioning e-mail address...

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Aug 10 2012

Still terrible after all these years

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The fine people at The Hairpin recently posted an interview with Ryan Nerz, a late-90s-era ghostwriter for the Sweet Valley High series. Mr. Nerz offers quite the eye-opening look behind the scenes, let me tell you...

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Aug 9 2012

Infinite shades of embarrassing

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How sad: some graphic artist clearly devoted way more effort to the cover art for this parody of Fifty Shades of Grey than the original designer(s) put into all three of the actual books...

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Aug 9 2012

The (still) walking dead

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According to THR.com, Robert Kirkman’s comic-turned-TV-show-turned-video-game The Walking Dead will live on in yet another incarnation: a Facebook social media game...

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Aug 8 2012

Crack open the college fund?

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According to Variety, Target is planning to sell several high-priced pieces of Hunger Games merchandise via their website, including a 14-carat gold reproduction of Katniss Everdeen's Mockingjay pin ($999), a replica of her leather hunting jacket ($349), and a lithograph signed by film's cast ($699)...

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Aug 7 2012

So painful. Seriously.

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Yet another day when I find myself wishing it was actually April 1st: according to The Independent, E. L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey is the best-selling British book of all time, beating out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...

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Aug 7 2012

Another (non-princess) princess movie

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The rumor that Disney was giving up on princess movies was apparently untrue: according to DisneyFandom.net, the studio is planning to release a film inspired by The Snow Queen in 2013...

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Aug 6 2012

Quite the wait

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I see they've pushed back the release date for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby from December 25th to next summer. According to THR's interview with Warner Bros., the official reason is because...

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Aug 6 2012

Iconic yet strangely boring (except for #9)

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If you're having a slow Monday (or if, like me, you need to do something soothing after watching the nerve-wracking US/Canada women's soccer match), you should give the latest round of Publishers Weekly's "Guess The Phantom Book Covers!" game a shot...

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Aug 3 2012

Avast ye, literary pirates!

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Publishers Weekly recently posted an article about non-English-language publishers' struggles with J.K. Rowling's upcoming adult novel The Casual Vacancy...

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Aug 2 2012

If it remained a miniseries, it might have a chance.

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC has ordered 10 episodes of a new drama based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. The series will feature The Tudors' Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the title character, and offers a new take on the story...

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Aug 2 2012

All sneaky and awesome...

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The always-fascinating site Instructables is featuring a tutorial on how to make a Secret Bookcase Box of your very own. As always, I'm sorry they had to sacrifice so many decent books (several Dick Francis novels and a copy of Joy of Cooking) for the project, but the idea is great...

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Jul 31 2012

WHHHYYY???

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Speaking of TV reboots, the world does NOT NEED a new version of the excellent Canadian television adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, but, alas, it's getting one anyway...

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Jul 31 2012

Milking the cash cow dry

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The Hollywood Reporter informs me that the CW is looking into acquiring the rights to Battle Royale, the late-90s Japanese manga/novel/movie series that boasts a very (some say suspiciously) similar plot to Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games...

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Jul 30 2012

The Greek Myths go deliciously pulp fiction

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I love this cover art with all my heart and soul. I already own half a dozen collections of Greek myths, and this edition costs a zillion bucks (well, $25...

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Jul 30 2012

In these troubled economic times, I know I should be grateful.

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Washington State tourism: first boosted by the Twilight books, and now (apparently) by the dread Fifty Shades of Grey. WHY? Why can't people visit us because of their burning desire to trace the scenes in Jim Lynch's The Highest Tide, or Kat Richardson's Greywalker books...

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Jul 26 2012

The Master of Misrule, by Laura Powell

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The Master of Misrule is the sequel to Laura Powell's novel The Game of Triumphs, which we enthusiastically recommended last October. Like The Game of Triumphs, The Master of Misrule is a fast-paced and richly imagined fantasy inspired by the rules of the Tarot...

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Jul 26 2012

Dead End Deal, by Allen Wyler

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Allen Wyler embraces that dictum about writing what you know: he's a Seattle-based neurosurgeon who writes suspense novels about Seattle-based neurosurgeons. His latest effort, Dead End Deal, is the story of Professor Jon Ritter, a neurosurgeon hovering on the brink of a major advancement in the fight against Alzheimer's...

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Jul 25 2012

Flora's Fury, by Ysabeau S. Wilce

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I have been waiting for Flora's Fury, the third book in Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda series, for what feels like forever. Happily, the book has finally been released, and I am delighted to report that it is totally worth the (damn near interminable) wait...

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Jul 24 2012

Lies Beneath, by Anne Greenwood Brown

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Before I read Anne Greenwood Brown's novel Lies Beneath, I would have assumed that any book about killer mermaids from Wisconsin had to be campy. Ms. Brown's book has proved me wrong; Lies Beneath has its faults (and plenty of 'em), but it takes itself quite seriously...

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Jul 24 2012

Black Gold: The Story of Oil in Our Lives, by Albert Marrin

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The vast majority of the books we receive here at Wordcandy are fiction, but every few weeks the odd nonfiction title turns up. I usually choose to review the ones on subjects I enjoy reading about (read: food preparation and money management, both of which I love... in theory, anyway, if not in practice), but Albert Marrin's informative-yet-totally-readable Black Gold: The Story of Oil In Our Lives is the kind of thing everyone should read...

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Jul 23 2012

Fever Moon, by Karen Marie Moning

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First, a word of warning: Fever Moon is the only Karen Marie Moning book that I have ever read, so while I'm finally capable of evaluating a graphic novel without a boatload of preconceived notions about how everyone should look and behave, I'm flying blind when it comes to the series' larger story arc...

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Jul 23 2012

Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel

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Sarah Zettel's Dust Girl has been criticized for its cover art, which several reviewers felt failed to convey an important element of the book—that the heroine is biracial. I wasn't hugely bothered by this, as the character is supposed to be able to “pass” as white and the cover model resembles the book's description, but I do have my own objections to the cover: A) it doesn't do much to evoke the book's Dust Bowl-era setting, and B) it's ridiculously boring...

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Jul 19 2012

That is some low-budget cover art, too.

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According to E!Online, some e-book company called Clandestine Classics has taken a bunch of classic novels and sexed 'em up. The article name-drops the Brontes, Austen, Melville, and Conan Doyle as potential subjects (victims?)...

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Jul 18 2012

Eat like Holden Caulfield

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Flavorwire recently featured a several images created by graphic designer Dinah Fried. The photo series, entitled Fictitious Dishes, features recreations of famous meals from classic novels, including The Catcher in the Rye, Moby Dick, and, of course, the gruel from Oliver Twist...

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Jul 17 2012

Unleashed, by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie

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First of all, I'd like to congratulate whoever designed the cover art for Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie's Wolf Springs Chronicles: Unleashed for finding a model who so closely resembles Buffy Summers. Well played, cover designer, well played indeed. Nothing says “smart paranormal fiction” like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so this book was off to an excellent start before I'd even opened it...

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Jul 16 2012

80s TV revival?

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According to a THR interview with the lead actors, the CW's upcoming Beauty and the Beast adaptation is "close" to the late-80s CBS TV series of the same name, but with some sci-fi (the Beast is the product of a military experiment gone wrong) and police procedural elements (Beauty's a cop) tossed in....

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Jul 16 2012

Texting Jane

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Following up their Texts from Scarlett O'Hara and Texts from Sweet Valley High posts, The Hairpin has produced a series called Texts from Jane Eyre. They're very Hark! A Vagrant in style...

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Jul 13 2012

Disney goes old-school

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The trailer is out for Disney's adaptation of Oz The Great and Powerful, and they've clearly spent a boatload of money on it. It looks very 3D-friendly and boasts plenty of big-name actors, but when it comes to Oz sequels and prequels my heart will always belong to the ultra-creepy 1985 movie Return to Oz...

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