Apr 10 2012

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...

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Apr 9 2012

Mixed company

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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?

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Apr 9 2012

Literary real estate

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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...

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Apr 5 2012

So many fake names

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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...

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Apr 5 2012

Planting season

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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...

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Apr 4 2012

Lookin' sharp

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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.

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Apr 3 2012

A great loss to art

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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.

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Apr 3 2012

SPOILER: Now they're going to be aliens

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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...

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Mar 30 2012

Tacky in the best possible way

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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...

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Mar 29 2012

A "kid" movie, appropriate for actual kids?

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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...

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Mar 29 2012

Impressively gross

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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....

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Mar 28 2012

An Austen FarmVille

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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....

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Mar 27 2012

Questionable casting

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Actress Chloe Moretz has apparently confirmed that she will be playing the title role in the upcoming re-make of Stephen King's Carrie...

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Mar 27 2012

Maybe less terrible?

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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...

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Mar 26 2012

Terrible, squared

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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.

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Mar 26 2012

So twisted

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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.

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Mar 23 2012

Snow White, by the Brothers Grimm and Camille Rose Garcia

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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...

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Mar 21 2012

The Gathering Storm, by Robin Bridges

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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.

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Mar 20 2012

India Black, by Carol K. Carr

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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.

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Mar 19 2012

Sanditon (Continued), by Jane Austen and others

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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”.

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Mar 15 2012

For all those kindergartners with smartphones...

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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.

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Mar 15 2012

Meaningless awards

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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...

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Mar 13 2012

Seventy minutes seems more likely

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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...

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Mar 13 2012

Patience is not one of my virtues

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Two questions:

  1. What was wrong with this book's original, deeply awesome cover art?

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Mar 12 2012

Tacky, yet glorious

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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...

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Mar 12 2012

New-old stories

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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...

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Mar 8 2012

Christmas is coming... eventually

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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....

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Mar 8 2012

Couldn't they find a more recent comparison?

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Because Heathers came out in 1989, people. It's been quite some time.

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Mar 7 2012

New clothes inspired by old books

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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...

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Mar 6 2012

Brace yourself

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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.

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