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2006 was a good year for Wordcandy. We got the blog up and running, publishers and PR groups have been generous with the review copies, and (best of all) you, our beloved readers, have been visiting in ever-increasing numbers! Thank you for your continued interest, and we hope you enjoy our list of the top ten Wordcandy-approved happenings of 2006! (Note: For a glimpse of what we’re most excited about in 2007, check out today’s blog post.) |
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This collection was uneven, but at least three of Clarke’s gorgeously bizarre short stories served as an instant reminder of why Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell knocked our socks off.
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Based on Bisco Hatori’s manga of the same name, this adaptation looked great, and it did a wonderful job of condensing Hatori’s storyline into 26 light, funny episodes.
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Interesting romantic storylines are rare beasts in American comic books, and ones that end well are even rarer. The fiftieth issue of Willingham’s series tied up the Snow White/Bigby Wolf romance in a highly satisfying way.
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The beautiful artwork featured in HarperCollins’ W.I.S.P. ("Wonderfully Illustrated Short Pieces") and Penguin's Graphic Classics books tempted a new generation of readers to pick up books by authors like Stella Gibbons, Dorothy Parker, and Ray Bradbury.
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Lisa Kleypas has really stepped up her output in the last few years—without sacrificing her consistently high level of quality—and we here at Wordcandy are profoundly grateful.
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The Goong TV show, based on So-Hee Park’s manhwa, aired in January, February, and March. This Korean romantic comedy/drama was 24 hours of pure girly awesomeness (apart from all the scenes where the characters just stood there and stared sadly into space—those got a little old). Goong was beautifully produced, directed, and acted, and we highly encourage everyone who’s ever enjoyed a Cinderella adaptation to download or buy it.
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There were other food-related non-fiction titles that got a lot of press this year, but Nestle’s book was the best of the bunch: smart, dryly funny, easy to understand, and genuinely useful to the average shopper.
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On August 29th, Buena Vista released the DVD of the 1994 cartoon version of Ben Edlund’s comic book. Mysteriously, they didn’t include episode #11 (“The Tick vs. The Mole Men”), but it was still hugely exciting to finally get our hands on twelve episodes’ worth of Mighty Blue Justice.
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There were several great contributions to ongoing YA series. Diana Wynne Jones’s The Pinhoe Egg, Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith, and Meg Cabot’s Missing You all served to enrich their respective canons.
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This collection was the nicest surprise of 2006. This is a series we’ve been following for years, but Medley’s erratic output meant that her stuff was hard to find. Thanks to Fantagraphics Books, readers can now pick up all of Medley’s earlier stories in a single (and surprisingly affordable) volume.
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| Lisa Clark, creator of the awesome website www.pink-world.co.uk, has graciously given us a list of her top-ten favorite Wordcandy-type books. Take note, gentle readers, because this is a woman with some seriously excellent taste. | |
| The top ten most Wordcandy-worthy moments, books, and assorted literary phenomena of 2004. Got any bookstore gift certificates over the holidays? Blow ‘em on these: | |
| While fiction is obviously our first love, we here at Wordcandy do occasionally gird our loins and venture forth into the brave new world of non-fiction, determined to broaden our minds and deepen our understanding of the world around us. (Or at least learn why Frenchwomen don’t get fat. Whichever.) Anyway, if you’re in the market for a little mind-broadening, here are a few Wordcandy-worthy non-fiction reads. Enjoy! | |
I have long been attracted to the shōjo manga section of my local bookstore. Those bright candy colors, the pretty title fonts, the shiny covers… everything about them spoke to my Skittles-eating, Bollywood-movie-watching, essentially frivolous soul. I was dismally certain that as a non-manga-reader I was missing out on something awesome, but (cue the violins!) I was too intimidated by the sheer volume of shōjo manga available to know where to begin. (Also, I didn’t have the money just to pick up a bunch of random manga titles off the shelf. Most manga volumes are about ten dollars, and a manga series can last anywhere from five to thirty-odd volumes. In a word? Ouch.)
This sad state of affairs persisted until approximately two months ago. Now, thanks to about fifty million online recommendations, some incredibly gracious IRC tutoring from a person named Truffle (whose patience with me will undoubtedly shave off several thousand years’ worth of her time in purgatory), and the efforts of various scanlation groups, I am now able to march right up to that shōjo manga section and waste money with confidence.
Note: There are some terms, tips, and technologies you should familiarize yourself with before you embrace the wide world of shōjo manga. If you’re interested- AND YOU SHOULD BE- please check out our handy Wordcandy Manga Glossary and Tips Page! | |
| Okay, we’re a little late (surprise!), but here are our picks for the best books and book-related experiences of 2005. If you happen to have a tax refund check burning a hole in your pocket, blow some of it on these: | |
| In honor of April Fool’s Day, we would like to take this opportunity to warn you away from the following eight novels. These are books that, over the years, people have encouraged us to read, falsely assuring us that we would enjoy them. Let our suffering prevent yours, and avoid: | |
| Forget Superman. Forget Pirates of the Caribbean. Particularly forget Click, on the off chance that you were fool enough to see it. Here are five as-yet-nonexistent summer movies we here at Wordcandy would love to see: | |
| (Yes, they do exist. Sure, it would have been a lot easier to write the Wordcandy’s One-Thousand-and-One Least Favorite Book-to-Screen Adaptations list, but there are a handful of good adaptations that we really, really like.) | |
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| We realize that reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has become something of a cultural literacy issue at this point, but let’s not kid ourselves, okay? There are WAY BETTER supernatural romances out there, people—stories that won’t leave you saying things like “Dude! Why is she such a freaking whiner?!”, or “But why is he still in high school? I mean, he’s supposed to look 17! Couldn’t he just pretend to be a college student or something and stay home?” The books listed below are all smarter, sexier, and 1000% more genuinely romantic than Twilight, and any one of the featured authors could out-write Meyer every day of the week and twice on Sundays. |
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