Beauty, by Robin McKinley
After last week's review of Leife Shallcross's The Beast's Heart, I decided to re-read Robin McKinley's thematically similar 1978 novel Beauty to see how it held up to my fond childhood memories. Like The Beast's Heart, Beauty does its best to transform the Beauty and the Beast fairytale into something romantic, rather than creepy...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Beauty, by Robin McKinley
And this week's Book Giveaway is Robin McKinley's 1978 novel Beauty, the second installment in our (unplanned) two-book series of reworked fairytales. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
Living dangerously for an Austen nerd
Deadline just posted a casting update on the Jane Austen project I'm most curious about: the upcoming ITV/PBS Masterpiece adaptation of Austen’s unfinished final novel Sanditon. I'm concerned about the description of the heroine...
How many princesses can she have left?
The trailer is out for The Spanish Princess, the latest adaptation of Philippa Gregory's endless series of historical novels about British royal women. I know that Henry VIII was considered quite a looker in his youth, and...
Ah, hubris
LaineyGossip recently posted a look at the filming of The Undoing, a new HBO series based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known. The story sounds thematically similar...
Big plans
(First, let me note that I love this cover art.) It's 2019, which marks the 200th birthday of author George Eliot, and there are going to be a number of events held in her honor...
The Beast's Heart, by Leife Shallcross
There are some classic stories that just don't lend themselves to PC updates, and “Beauty and the Beast” is one of them. In her book The Beast's Heart, author Leife Shallcross does her best to minimize the fairytale's inherent problems, but there are too many to fully overcome...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Beast's Heart, by Leife Shallcross
Our latest Book Giveaway is Leife Shallcross's The Beast's Heart, the first of two Beauty and the Beast-themed reviews we're planning on over the next couple weeks. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
Clever
Food52 just posted a list of "8 Clever Ways to Store Books if You're Short on Space". I can't get behind some of their ideas (don't store heavy stuff above your bed, people!), I love the idea of lining a hallway with bookshelves...
A stand-in wouldn't cut it
A decade ago, we reviewed Simon Mawer's The Glass Room. It was the kind of book that sticks with you, so I was excited to learn that the upcoming Czech movie adaptation was filmed in the actual house that...
Free and easy (for me, anyway)
According to The Verge, Netflix has acquired the streaming rights for The Wandering Earth, China’s first science fiction blockbuster, which was based on a story by Hugo-award-winning author Cixin Liu...
Binti: The Complete Trilogy, by Nnedi Okorafor
If the plot of Nnedi Okorafor's Binti was as impressive as her world-building and character design, her book would be an instant sci-fi classic. Sadly, the plot is by far the weakest element of this story—although Okorafor has clearly established herself as an author to watch...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
Our latest Book Giveaway is Binti: The Complete Trilogy, a flawed but impressively imaginative fantasy/sci-fi by Nnedi Okorafor. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
There are worse ideas
Vogue just posted an article titled "What Jane Austen Can Teach Us about Wellness", centered around Bryan Kozlowski's upcoming book The Jane Austen Diet. (Spoiler: go for a lot of walks.) I'm deeply suspicious...
Awkward!
Wow, this guy sounds like he is an extremely messy human being: Ian Parker recently posted an in-depth investigation into the public persona of Dan Mallory, who, under the name A. J. Finn, wrote the best-selling thriller The Woman in the Window...
I'll even consider shelling out for HBO
How did I miss this? HBO is working on a Perry Mason miniseries, and it will apparently star The Americans' Matthew Rhys in the title role. The show is being produced by Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey, and...
Respectable move, Netflix
According to The Mary Sue, Netflix has ordered a ten-episode adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club, and put it in the capable hands of Rachel Shukert, the showrunner of G.L.O.W....
Slayer, by Kiersten White
In my recent review of the BOOM Comics Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, I wondered if the Buffy-centric storytelling well had finally run dry. Bestselling author Kiersten White's new spinoff novel Slayer proves that there is still some life in this 'verse...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Slayer, by Kiersten White
Our latest Book Giveaway is Kiersten White's Slayer, a book that I enjoyed far, far more than I expected to, considering the quality of recent Buffy the Vampire Slayer-themed output. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
Sign me up
And in our third and final bit of page-to-screen news this week, here's the only one of the bunch I'm genuinely excited to see: The Changeover, a deeply creepy-looking adaptation of an award-winning YA fantasy novel...
Meeeeeehhhh
And speaking of unnecessary movies, here's the trailer for Tolkien. Notice how when he talks about all the things his stories are about, the one thing...
What a charmer
Wow: those of us who read Phyllis Rose's Parallel Lives already knew that Charles Dickens was a total asshole to his wife Catherine, but a recent discovery indicates that he was even worse than previously supposed...
Not the target audience, I guess
Apparently, the first trailer for the upcoming Hellboy reboot went over so badly they're cutting another one, and comic creator Mike Mignola says it's "so much better". I watched the first trailer, and while it doesn't seem...
Young Men in Spats, by P.G. Wodehouse
The last book I reviewed left me convinced we're all about to die, so this week I wanted something soothing—and soothing, for me, usually means P.G. Wodehouse. I picked up a copy of Young Men in Spats, a collection of Drones Club, Mulliner, and Uncle Fred short stories, and, while definitely not the author's most impressive work, it did its anxiety-reducing job...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Young Men in Spats, by P.G. Wodehouse
After our latest Book Giveaway, I decided to balance things out with little P.G. Wodehouse: our current book on offer is his short story collection Young Men in Spats. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/10/19...
Yep. Here they are.
I'm not a Game of Thrones fan, and, even if I was, I'd balk at the $180 price tag, but it is my duty to report that Adidas has released their full line of Game of Thrones-inspired sneakers...
New-old Poirot
NPR recently posted a glowing review of The ABC Murders, a three-part British miniseries that is now available via Amazon Prime...
The Water Will Come, by Jeff Goodell
It has been more than six months since my last review of a gloomy nonfiction book about water, so I'm clearly way overdue. Today's pick is The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, the latest effort from Rolling Stone contributing editor Jeff Goodell...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Water Will Come, by Jeff Goodell
If you, like me, are fond of reading deeply unsettling nonfiction accounts of potential disasters, today could be your lucky day: our current Book Giveaway is Jeff Goodell's The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World. It's just as cheery as it sounds...