Nov 14 2011

A modern classic

Much to my delight, the second book for NPR's Back-Seat Book Club is Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, one of my all-time favorite books. The Back-Seat Book Club is technically aimed at read...

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Nov 14 2011

Suppressed emotions and leg waxing

The first full-length trailer is out for The Hunger Games, and it focuses far more on the interpersonal drama than the kid-on-kid violence. Probably a smart move, considering I still have no idea...

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Nov 11 2011

Snow White goes goth

It pains me to admit that I will probably see this:

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Nov 10 2011

Drive a superhero

Starting at the end of the month, Australian comic book fans will be able to adorn their cars with a range of classic DC superhero images. The plates are not cheap (starting at $195 AUD), and dec...

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Nov 10 2011

So gross

Um... Apparently, this is a real thing.

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Nov 9 2011

Ridiculously adorable... but also just ridiculous

I spend a lot of time thinking about punctuation, so I covet these Kate Spade Air Quote Mittens with a fiery passion. Sadly, I would need these gloves to be at least 75% off before I would even c...

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Nov 8 2011

Abridged beyond belief

These "Baby Lit" books are cute, right? And the Jane Austen one at least got a good review on AustenBlog. But how could anyone make Romeo and Juliet into a baby board book (even if it's just a "...

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Nov 8 2011

Romance Writing 101

Aspiring romance novelists take note: Harlequin is kicking off their second "So You Think You Can Write" contest this week. (Actually, I suspect this event would benefit more than just budding ro...

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Nov 7 2011

Miss Havisham: surprisingly young and hot

I just discovered that Helena Bonham-Carter and Gillian Anderson will be playing the role of Miss Havisham in two separate adaptations of Great Expectations due out next year. I'm sure they'll bo...

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Nov 7 2011

That's some very, very tiny font.

I'm totally delighted by the images from PosterText, a company that designs posters featuring the contents of various classic novels*, artistically arranged to depict an important scene or element...

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Nov 4 2011

Taking liberties

Very few of the recent film adaptations of Dr. Seuss's books have been successful, but I'm wondering if the people behind the upcoming movie The Lorax even read their source material. This is an ...

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Nov 3 2011

One or the other

According to a Belgian judge, Tintin in the Congo isn't a racist book, just a "reflection of [author Hergé's] time", and therefore cannot be banned on racial grounds. Of course, it was a racist t...

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Nov 3 2011

A classic British mystery

Man, I don't understand the English. Apparently, two of England's biggest newspapers (the left-wing Guardian and the right-wing Daily Mail) are all up in arms over Pippa Middleton's plans to publ...

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Nov 2 2011

Blood feud? I'd like to think so.

Heh. According to THR, Anne Rice is not a fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Ms. Rice recently wrote:"[My characters] feel sorry for vampires that sparkle in the sun... They would never h...

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Nov 1 2011

Practicing what she preaches

Nora Roberts has a new book out, and while I am (once again) suppressing my irritation over the $16 price tag, I was interested to learn that the story was directly inspired by the historic inn Ro...

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Nov 1 2011

Additional Crazy

Several years ago, Jennifer Crusie wrote a collection of interconnected short stories for her MFA. The characters in the collection eventually formed the basis for Crusie's full-length novel Craz...

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Oct 31 2011

The Magic Tree House gets animated

The full-length trailer is out for the upcoming Japanese anime adaptation of Mary Pope Osborne's mega-popular Magic Tree House books. The film will open in Japan on January 7, 2012, and I suspect...

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Oct 31 2011

In honor of Halloween...

According to NPR, William Blatty has written a "revised and polished" edition of his novel The Exorcist. In addition to the stylistic updates, the recently-released 40th Anniversary Edition also ...

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Oct 28 2011

Science fair season is coming up

Thanks to the fine people at io9, I now know that Britain's Royal Society has recently opened up their historical archive of journals to the public, free of charge. The Royal Society has been pub...

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Oct 27 2011

A step in the right direction

According to Scientific American, a Dutch researcher has developed a font designed to decrease the number of errors made by dyslexics while reading. The font emphasizes the differences between ce...

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Oct 27 2011

Dressing up

If you've ever dreamed of looking like a disturbed computer hacker with multiple facial piercings (and who hasn't?), start saving now: on December 14th, budget retailer H&M will be releasing a clo...

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Oct 26 2011

It's almost Halloween, right?

Slate recently posted an article about the original Pinocchio story, which they claim is considerably creepier than the 1940s Disney version. Now, normally this wouldn't come as much of a surpris...

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Oct 25 2011

Big book, big price

Baking Bites has posted a largely-positive review of the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, which apparently boasts over 2,000 recipes from the magazine's twenty-year history.The book costs forty dollar...

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Oct 25 2011

He probably has his reasons.

This weekend's big geek news item was the announcement that Joss Whedon has made a mysterious adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. I'm not sure why Whedon was compelled to ...

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Oct 24 2011

The Game of Triumphs, by Laura Powell

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15-year-old Cat Harper, the orphaned protagonist of Laura Powell's debut novel The Game of Triumphs, is not your typical wide-eyed fantasy heroine. After witnessing a murder, streetwise, pragmati...

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Oct 24 2011

The Prince Tudor Theory

I don't know about you, but I have my doubts about a movie that employs (SPOILERS*) murder, deception, bribery, and an incestuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and her illegitimate son, all to ...

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Oct 23 2011

Kate Beaton

Kate Beaton is the author of Hark! A Vagrant, one of our favorite web comics (also one of our Featured Books). Hark! A Vagrant is a testament to the kind of comic strips that can only be found on...

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Oct 23 2011

Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton

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We rarely recommend buying something that can be enjoyed for free, but Kate Beaton's book Hark! A Vagrant is well worth your hard-earned $19.95—and not just because we want Ms. Beaton to earn...

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Oct 20 2011

Impressive... but morally wrong

I'm never thrilled when people take real books and transform them into fake books, and it's even worse when the books in question are actually nice. That said, these Book Charging Docks are kind ...

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Oct 18 2011

You win some

Publishers Weekly is reporting that Viz Media is moving closer to near-simultaneous English and Japanese manga publication, although English-language readers will be limited to the digital format....

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