Posts tagged with such-wrongness
Apropos, but...
Well, Entertainment Weekly has the first images from the upcoming miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and they look creepy as hell. That is, of course, an accurate...
"Wake Up Pretty!" v. "Explore Your Future"
There was a lot of buzz earlier this month about the unfortunate contrast between the covers for two magazines: Boys' Life and Girls' Life. A business owner and mother of five named Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll took to Facebook to...
Ew.
So, some dude is auctioning off Truman Capote's ashes, in case you're in the market for some truly creepy literary memorabilia. According to Vanity Fair, Julien’s Auctions has announced that Capote’s ashes will be sold in late September...
Shocking
Forbes just posted an interesting article about how scandals affect book sales. (Short answer: negatively.) The article takes specific aim at Gay Talese's new work, The Voyeur’s Motel, which has been...
Vital questions of our times
The fine people at Lucky Peach recently put together a list of Nineteen of Roald Dahl’s Most Important Food Inventions. Sometimes I forget how incredibly messed up Dahl's writing was, and then a passage like this one, from The Witches, reminds me...
No sympathy
In a twist that will shock absolutely no one, Gerald Foos, the subject of Gay Talese's upcoming nonfiction book about a hotel owner who claims to have spent decades spying on his guests having sex, is possibly a liar, as well as a bonafide Grade-A creeper...
A world of no.
According to Deadline, there are some big names attached to the film adaptation of Gay Talese’s The Voyeur’s Motel: Sam Mendes will direct and produce; Steven Spielberg is also producing. The movie, which is based on this insane magazine article written...
Well, that's appalling.
According to Slate, Texas has agreed to include a textbook on Mexican-Americans on its list of proposed titles for the 2017-2018 school year. Seeing as 51.3 percent of the state's public-school students in 2012-2013 were Hispanic, this seems like a perfectly appropriate gesture. Unfortunately...
Original-flavor dystopia
Nightmares, ahoy: according to THR, Hulu is planning a 10-episode-long miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. The series will air in 2017 and star Mad Men actress Elizabeth Moss. I've never been able to finish The Handmaid's Tale...
Yes, that's really what they call themselves.
Ugh: once again, the Hugo Awards have been hijacked by two groups known as "Sad Puppies" and "Rabid Puppies". While there are slight differences between the Puppy factions, both are determined to defeat what the Guardian tactfully refers to as "a perceived bias towards liberal and left-wing science-fiction and fantasy authors". Put less tactfully, the Puppies are...
Action! Hemingway
This is... really embarrassing, frankly. There's a movie coming out soon called Papa: Hemingway in Cuba, which appears to turn Ernest Hemingway into a regime-toppling superhero. The film was shot in Cuba, and features a sidekick character (Robin to ol' Hemingway's Batman) based loosely on...
And the shadiness continues...
There's a deeply depressing article in New Republic about the death of the mass-market paperback edition of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The article is well worth reading in full, but here's the gist: Lee's estate (under the direction of her highly controversial lawyer, Tonja Carter) has required that all bookstores sell off...
#TeamKenyon
I read with interest that author Sherrilyn Kenyon is suing author Cassandra Clare, accusing her of copyright and trademark infringement and false advertising. I have never read one of Kenyon's novels, and our (limited) coverage of Cassandra Clare has been...
Sorry, try again.
Wow, this is the second time in less than a month that I am left rolling my eyes over a respected English professor's opinions about Jane Austen. (Note: Few things make me happier than hate-reading subpar Austen criticism...
My eyes, they roll
Today in embarrassing book-banning news, a school board member in Marshfield, Wisconsin is trying to ban a Muppets book on the grounds that it contains images of suffering and poverty that are "too graphic" for a kindergarten audience...
Big stuff worth sweating
The Telegraph recently posted a totally creepifying story about self-help author Kristine Carlson, who has endured years of stalking after...
How much will I regret this?
According to Koala's Playground, there's a fun-looking upcoming J-drama called 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made, based on the josei manga of the same name by Miki Aihara. I like the trailer, I like the main actress, I'm okay with the premise (an arranged marriage between a modern young teacher and a Buddhist monk), but...
Nope.
Okay, um, GROSS. The latest full trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of Attack on Titan is out, and it's final: there are some things I don't need to see on a big screen (and some things I really don't need to see in 3D), and huge, nude, people-eating zombie-things rank high on that list...
That is just unkind.
Some guy named Patrick Stewart (no, not that Patrick Stewart) apparently wrote his 52,438-word doctoral thesis for the University of British Columbia entirely without punctuation, arguing that he wanted to make a point...
Have they read it?
Well, this is just... unfortunate. In an effort to purge Russia of swastikas in observance of Victory Day, the holiday commemorating the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, Moscow bookstores have removed all copies of Maus, Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1980 graphic novel about the Holocaust...
No, thanks.
Yeah, this is never gonna happen: according to THR, Televisa USA (creator of Lifetime's Devious Maids) has acquired the TV and digital rights to Anne Rice's best-selling Sleeping Beauty trilogy. The article indicates that they're hoping to turn the books into a Fifty Shades of Grey-esque TV series, but...
Ridiculous, but kinda funny.
I was totally oblivious to the kerfuffle over Dinesh D'Souza's accusations that Costco and Google where somehow trying to depress the success of his recent movie and book America (due to their liberal political leanings, I guess) until I read this Seattle Times article. D'Souza's suggestions sound pretty flimsy...
Really, impressively dumb-looking
Well, apparently the Flowers in the Attic movie on Lifetime made enough money for them to fast-track a sequel, and lo and behold, the first trailer for Petals on the Wind has arrived...
Yet more magical pants
I cannot believe this. DOES THE WORLD REALLY NEED ANOTHER MOVIE ABOUT MAGICAL PANTS?!? According to THR, it seems so: Alloy Entertainment is working on a movie adaptation of Sisterhood Everlasting, the third (and, hopefully, final) novel in Ann Brashares's inexplicably popular* Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series...
Some things should not become brands.
Okay, this news makes me MEGA uncomfortable: there are apparently THREE Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl adaptations in the works, one of which is going to be animated movie(?!?), one of which is a live-action feature film, and one of which is apparently unauthorized...
It's coming.
I'll just present this without additional comment: here's a link to the film trailer for Lifetime's upcoming Flowers in the Attic adaptation...
My eyes, they roll
I have serious doubts about this, you guys: BBC News recently posted a round-up article about the upcoming series of six contemporary re-workings of Jane Austen's books. The HarperCollins project kicks off this month with Joanna Trollope's version of Sense and Sensibility, due out on October 29th. Future authors include...
A fool and their money are soon parted.
I love soccer, and I love books, but I cannot imagine anyone shelling out for former Brazilian legend Pelé's new book 1283, which will apparently cost 1,225 euros (approximately $1700) and weigh over thirty pounds...