Toning down a King classic
NPR has a great article up about a recent revival of the musical version of Stephen King's Carrie. I had no idea there had ever been a Carrie musical, but apparently it was one of Broadway's biggest flops...
Dolores Umbridge would not approve
And speaking of propaganda posters, I want one of these Harry Potter-inspired prints from Blimp Cat Studio. I'm torn, though: should I go for creepy, or so-cheerful-it-goes-back-to-creepy? Or both?
What, no baby showers?
TresSugar recently put together a slideshow of Hunger Games-themed party ideas for birthdays, weddings, and bat/bar mitzvahs. The whole thing struck me as being in questionable taste (seriously? For a wedding? Were all the Walking Dead invites already taken?), but even I have to admit this Hunger Games-inspired propaganda poster is awesome.
A busy day for book nerds
Tomorrow (March 2nd) is the NEA's annual Read Across America Day, and there are a ton of events scheduled...
A different take
CBS is apparently planning a complete reboot of the Sherlock Holmes story: they've hired Jonny Lee Miller to be their Sherlock Holmes (which... okay), changed the setting to modern-day New York City, and cast Lucy Liu as Watson.
I... can't even.
A Twilight-themed engagement shoot? I am, oh, 20% appalled, 30% amused, and 50% impressed by the studio's savvy. Way to go, K&K Photography. You will clearly get a boatload of publicity for this.
Note: Props to the makeup artist, too. The couple looks half-dead, but in an attractive way. That's a fine line to walk, you know?
Catching up
According to The Guardian, a new British study claims that boys are no longer lagging behind girls when it comes to reading ability.
A legacy to be proud of
We were sorry to hear that Jan Berenstain, who co-wrote and illustrated the perennially popular Berenstain Bears series with her husband Stan, suffered a severe stroke on Thursday and died Friday without regaining consciousness. Ms. Berenstain was 88, and is survived by two sons and four grandchildren.
Half cute, half creepy
NPR described Studio Ghibli's new movie The Secret World of Arrietty (based on Mary Norton's book The Borrowers) as "gentle and meditative", but the trailer looks like something that would have given me nightmares as a kid.
Utterly bizarre
Scholastic Parent & Child magazine has trotted out their list of the 100 Greatest Books for Kids, awarding the top spot to Charlotte's Web, second place to Goodnight Moon, and third place to A Wrinkle in Time.
Big money
A month ago, cartoonist Rich Burlew set up Kickstarter account in order to raise $57,500, the amount needed to reprint one of the out-of-print collections of his Order of the Stick webcomic.
It was bound to happen eventually
J. K. Rowling has confirmed the rumor that she is writing a non-Harry Potter book for adult readers. No release date, title, or plot details have been released, but... there you have it.
Cookbooks of the future
Eater recently posted a preview of this spring's most-anticipated cookbooks, including one book graced by a cover-photo of the author with a dead pig draped over her shoulders.
A Sad Lack
Seriously, if I had any hand-eye coordination whatsoever, I would be all over this truly awesome (and free!) crochet pattern to make your own Hobbes doll. As it is... maybe Nathan will do it!
Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
While looking for something to read on a recent plane trip, I finally cracked open Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures, a book that has been idling on my to-be-read shelf for over two years....
Re-heated noir
According to Variety, DreamWorks and Working Title Films are planning a new movie adaptation of Daphne DuMaurier's 1938 novel Rebecca. This version will reportedly stick closer to the original source material than Alfred Hitchcock did when he adapted the story in 1940, but there's still no news on casting or a release date.
Persuasion: An Annotated Edition, edited by Robert Morrison
Before I get started, let me clarify something: this isn't a review of Jane Austen's Persuasion. It's more an extended hissyfit about the annotations featured in this particular edition of Persuasion, and therefore I'm going to assume it's only going to interest my fellow hardcore Austen nerds. (Sorry, non-hardcore-Austen-nerds. Try again tomorrow.) Anyway: VAGUE SPOILERS AHOY.
February Book Club Pick
I've never heard of NPR's current Back Seat Book Club pick—Shooting Kabul, by N.H. Senzai—but this month they're asking kids to send in both questions for the author and photographs of beloved people and places.
Return of the Comic Gods
Thanks to all those males ages 18-34 who watched the Super Bowl, several exciting-looking action movie trailers have been released recently. Behold:
The Amazing Spiderman
It doesn't look bad, per se, but was this movie really... necessary? I mean, the last Tobey Maguire version just came out five years ago.
Useful cuteness
If you (unlike me) have been blessed with the virtues of patience and hand-eye coordination, check out this Origami Cat Bookmark tutorial featured on How About Orange. Pretty adorable, huh?
Do these cost actual money?
I keep hoping that someday, someone will produce a book trailer that doesn't look like something put together by a tech-savvy ninth grader with fundamentally bad taste:
Judging by this effort (the random graphics, the inexplicable saxophone solo, the general cheese, etc.), that day is still far, far off.
Real estate pin-ups
Last week, Flavorwire put together a slideshow of 15 Famous Authors' Beautiful Estates. It was fun to flip through, although surprisingly few of the homes had my heart burning with real estate envy...
They could re-name it Ugly Billy
ABC has green-lit an adaptation of Judith Krantz's 1978 best-seller Scruples. I have never read anything by Ms. Krantz, but the book sounds luridly entertaining...
Mister Rogers he isn't.
The Colbert Report recently aired an enjoyably salty two-part interview with famous children's author Maurice Sendak. Mr. Sendak provides quite the soundbite; I bet Stephen Colbert is sorry he's ...
Hipster Hamlet
If you told me this entire line of books (from Penguin's Puffin Books imprint) was a tie-in for a new series of classic literature adaptations airing on ABC Family, I would totally believe you:(It...
Growth market
The Pew Internet and American Life Project just released a "mini-report" on the recent upswing in e-reader purchase and usage. According to the report, the number of Americans owning tablets and...
And we hope they were delicious
According to the Horn Book Blog, the 2012 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction has been given to Jack Gantos's book Dead End in Norvelt. When informed of this honor, the stunned Mr. Gantos a...
Ooh, fancy...
The people who created the literature-inspired nail-polish art featured in this slideshow on Flavorwire clearly enjoy both A) more free time, and B) better fine-motor skills than 99% of the rest o...