That was fast
Okay... so I was just writing about the announcement of a Katniss Everdeen Barbie doll, and apparently it has already A) been released, and B) sold out for the foreseeable future...
Mixed company
If you're in the market for a thematically-appropriate pair of bookends to contain your collection of nonfiction books on the American electoral process (and who isn't?), look no further than these "Left and Right" bookends from CB2. Apart from that $40 price tag, they're pretty cute, huh?
Literary real estate
Time recently posted an article about the North Carolina property that was used as the location for District 12 in the recent Hunger Games movie. The 72-acre plot is for up for sale, with an asking price of $1.4 million. I can't say I would be leaping to buy it...
So many fake names
They've released the cover art for Lemony Snicket's (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) upcoming book Who Could That Be at This Hour?. This will be the first full-length novel Handler has written using his better-known pseudonym since A Series of Unfortunate Events ended five years ago, and...
Planting season
In a nod to the Spring season, this month's NPR Backseat Book Club pick is Paul Fleischman's 1999 novel Seedfolks. I haven't read the book, but NPR's description makes it sound absolutely lovely, so I'm thinking I might buy it for my own Easter basket...
Lookin' sharp
The full-length Rurouni Kenshin trailer has turned up, complete with English subs. It looks awesome, and I'm increasingly hopeful the high quality will earn it a widespread international release.
A great loss to art
The illustrator John Griffiths has died at age 85. Griffiths was an incredibly talented and versatile artist, and produced a long line of memorable book covers for Penguin, a handful of which have been collected into this slideshow.
SPOILER: Now they're going to be aliens
NPR just posted an article about the angry response to the prospect of a Michael Bay-produced "reboot" of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Now, I understand people being irritated over the the prospect of a Michael Bay-produced anything...
Tacky in the best possible way
In celebration of the new e-book editions of the Classics Illustrated line, Flavorwire has set up a slideshow of some of the iconic comic books' best cover art. I'm partial to the Shakespeare covers...
A "kid" movie, appropriate for actual kids?
I thought the trailers looked God-awful, but the response to Mirror Mirror is actually mixed, and includes several downright glowing reviews from some very respectable sources...
Impressively gross
I probably shouldn't snicker over this, but I can't help it. The book world has been abuzz with news about E.L. James's unexpectedly successful Twilight-fanfiction-turned-published-erotic-novel Fifty Shades of Grey, which I've been doing my best to ignore....
An Austen FarmVille
Are all Legacy Interactive games this irritating? I've been trying to find out more information about the upcoming Facebook game Rogues & Romance (appalling name, I know, but it's based on Jane Austen's novels), but their website sucks....
Questionable casting
Actress Chloe Moretz has apparently confirmed that she will be playing the title role in the upcoming re-make of Stephen King's Carrie...
Maybe less terrible?
Speaking of upcoming movies, they've also unleashed an "Extended Sneak Peek" trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman. I'm on board with the fight scenes and magic and all, but less sold on the whole "inner beauty" nonsense...
Terrible, squared
The teaser trailer is out for the upcoming movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's sci-fi love-triangle The Host, and it looks about like you'd expect: simultaneously awful and like it takes itself really, really seriously.
So twisted
They're seriously planning a Katniss Everdeen Barbie? I thought that was an early April Fool's joke, but apparently it's a real thing. I... can't quite wrap my head around the idea. Are they still going to make her a traditional Barbie, with the high-heel shaped feet and impossible body image and everything? Because if that's the case, no joke, I would rather buy a Katniss Cabbage Patch doll. Or a Katniss My Little Pony.
Snow White, by the Brothers Grimm and Camille Rose Garcia
Somebody took a lot of time and trouble to get the Camille Rose Garcia edition of the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White exactly right. The fonts are gorgeous, the page layout is exquisite, and Garcia's elaborate, swirling illustrations are displayed to their best advantage. Unfortunately, Snow White isn't one of those stories that holds up to close examination...
The Gathering Storm, by Robin Bridges
It always feels weird to complain about a story having too much plot, but sometimes I can't help it: Robin Bridges's novel The Gathering Storm—the first book in a projected trilogy—races along at a breakneck pace, but it would have been improved by more world-building and less straight-up storytelling.
India Black, by Carol K. Carr
Carol K. Carr's debut novel India Black doesn't actually make that much sense, but when a book is as breezily stylish as this one, being a little short on substance is totally forgivable.
Sanditon (Continued), by Jane Austen and others
Most of our posts this week are going to be devoted to reviews, as our To Be Read shelf is once again looking like a potential earthquake hazard. And while the rest of the reviews are going to be of novels we've received specifically for Wordcandy, today I'm focusing on two books I picked up at my local library: Charlotte, by Jane Austen and Julia Barrett, and Sanditon, by Jane Austen and “Another Lady”.
For all those kindergartners with smartphones...
The creators of the Reading Rainbow television series have partnered with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Holiday House, and Charlesbridge Publishing to create a Reading Rainbow app, due out this spring. Details are still sketchy, but the app will feature an array of titles curated by Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton.
Meaningless awards
The American Book Review, a nonprofit journal published by the Illinois State University, recently compiled a list of the 100 best first lines from novels. As always, this is is totally subjective...
Seventy minutes seems more likely
I have long wondered how the upcoming The Hunger Games movie could possibly secure a PG-13 rating. And, at least in Great Britain, it hasn't. According to Entertainment Weekly, the British Board of Film Classification has required that seven seconds' worth of footage be cut from the film...
Patience is not one of my virtues
Two questions:
- What was wrong with this book's original, deeply awesome cover art?
Tacky, yet glorious
The fine staff at AbeBooks have put together a loving, if slightly tongue-in-cheek, guide to the cover art styles of vintage romance novels. "Romance novels", the author insists "...like their science fiction counterparts, have been done zero favors by designers of cover artwork." Personally, I love these covers...
New-old stories
According to the Guardian, 500 "new" fairytales were recently discovered in an archive in Regensburg, Germany, where they had been stored for over 150 years. The stories are part of the collection of folklore gathered during the mid-19th century by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth in the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz...
Christmas is coming... eventually
Behold the Albatros Bookmark, a new kind of bookmark that does the active page-marking for you. After you insert your Albatros bookmark, it automatically re-adjusts itself as you turn each page, so your book always opens to whichever page you were reading last....
Couldn't they find a more recent comparison?
Because Heathers came out in 1989, people. It's been quite some time.
New clothes inspired by old books
If you spend a lot of time in indie bookstores, you've probably already seen the line of t-shirts, hoodies, and bags created by Out of Print Clothing. Out of Print's products feature a variety of classic-book-cover-inspired images, and they're about to release several new designs taken from famous children's books...
Brace yourself
WHOA. Lisa Kleypas changed her website again! This time her web designer seems to be going for a magazine-inspired layout, which I think is... well, a mistake.