Early but unhelpful
Publishers Weekly has already compiled their "Best Summer Books of 2014" list, because they are revoltingly well-organized. As usual, though, I can comfort myself with the thought that while I won't come up with a recommended summer reading list until late June (and possibly not even by the end of July), at least none of my picks...
Apart from my overdue fees, this applies to me.
This is a bit difficult for me to swallow, but according to a study commissioned by the U.K.'s Department for Culture, Media & Sport, visiting a library gives people the same pleasure getting a raise does (a £1,359 raise, specifically). The study looked at ways "cultural engagement" affects overall health and happiness...
We're overdue, really.
io9 recently compiled a list of 10 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories that Editors are Tired of Seeing. My thoughts...
Intimidating
Wow. This is quite the eye-catcher: according to Boston Magazine, the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston has chosen sculptor Stefanie Rocknak to create sculpture bronze, life-sized statue honoring author and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is depicted with a suitcase in hand, a raven in front of him, and a dramatically flapping coat...
WHATEVER.
There's an article in the Times of London about author and illustrator Jonathan Emmett's suggestion that boys aren't reading because "the majority of publishers, editors, librarians, judges and reviewers of children’s books" are women, and this disparity is apparently enough to convince boys that Books Are For Girls. To which I reply: riiiight...
Meant to Be, by Lauren Morrill
Like most YA novels that aren't straight-up angstfests, Lauren Morrill's Meant to Be has its fair share of cringe-worthy moments. But if you can disengage your sense of secondhand embarrassment, Morrill's novel is an engaging opposites-attract love story, offering readers a fun alternative to the current overabundance of supernatural romances and dystopian horror stories...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Meant to Be, by Lauren Morrill
This week's Book Giveaway is Lauren Morrill's Meant To Be, which I have to admit I chose pretty much because of the gloriously Easter-candy-colored cover. As near as I can tell, it's a secret admirer/Cyrano de Bergerac story. I usually avoid those, due to a crippling fear of secondhand embarrassment caused by fictional romantic hijinks, but I will do my best to be brave...
Yet more crying at the movies this summer
The trailer is out for the upcoming adaptation of Gayle Forman's 2009 YA novel If I Stay. I considered reviewing it, but I'm not into tearjerkers, and the allure of the central question (would the comatose heroine choose to survive, or join her family in death?) was somewhat lessened by the fact that I heard there was going to be a sequel...
Unfortunate
An author over at The Atlantic recently pointed out that Amazon.com's data-mining techniques seem to have inadvertently created a recommended-purchase list that serves as a helpful guide to setting up your own drug-dealing kit.
Alien monkeys!
According to THR, Twentieth Century Fox has picked up Mark Millar's comic Superior, intending to transform it into a big-screen adaptation produced by Matthew Vaughn. The comic ran for seven issues and centers around a 12-year-old boy who has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis...
Testing, testing
Slate recently posted an interesting article by David Z. Hambrick and Christopher Chabris about the effectiveness of the SAT. The authors feel the test is far more effective (and that SAT prep companies are far less effective) than many recent articles have made them out to be...
MetaMaus, by Art Spiegelman
I've had a copy of Art Spiegelman's MetaMaus gathering dust on my to-be-read bookshelf for almost three years now. I have always hesitated to review it, believing that Spiegelman's most devoted fans probably leapt upon it like starving lions the moment it was published, and suspecting that it would be of little interest to anyone else. I still think that's true, frankly, but as more universities and high schools assign Maus in their classrooms, it seems increasingly possible...
Weekly Book Giveaway: MetaMaus, by Art Spiegelman
Due to a crippling case of... well, laziness, mostly, I didn't get as much done last week as I planned to, which means our Comics Week is now two weeks long. (Sorry, non-comics readers.) However, that does mean we have another comic-related Book Giveaway: Art Spiegelman's MetaMaus, the ultra-fancy 2011 reprint of his Pulitzer prize–winning Maus, complete with loads of bonus materials and a DVD...
So close
We're rapidly zeroing in on 2014's Free Comic Book Day (23 days and counting), and the available titles have been released. If you're particularly masochistic, you can apparently read a shojo manga-style story called Les Miserables: The Fall of Fantine. Good times abound! (That's a lie.) Personally, I'm torn between...
Stand down
If you, like me, sincerely loathe perpetual romantic waffler Archie Andrews, you've probably seen all those exciting "Archie to Die!" headlines. Don't get your hopes up, guys: according to CNN, the only Archie who is going to shuffle off this mortal coil is the star of the Life With Archie comics, a spin-off series that...
It could be internet-famous!
April Fools jokes generally leave me cold, but I did enjoy these fake book titles from the Dear Author website. And while I have my doubts about anything written by someone named "Chastity Velvet", and—no joke—I have a bunch of YA books that look exactly like their Shattered Brokeness...
Little Lulu: Vol. 1, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp
The character of Little Lulu was created in 1935 by Marjorie Henderson Buell, beginning life as the subject of a series of gag panels in The Saturday Evening Post and eventually becoming the star of an ongoing comic strip. In 1945, she graduated to her own comic book series, written by John Stanley and illustrated by Irving Tripp. In 2004, Dark Horse Books picked up the rights to reprint the Little Lulu stories, making Lulu's adventures available to a new generation of readers...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Little Lulu: Vol. 1, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp
It's Spring Break, and we're celebrating by focusing on comic books—including several titles that we are seriously behind on reviewing (like the past year of Buffy). We're kicking things off by giving away a classic: the first "Giant Size" volume of John Stanley and Irving Tripp's long-running Little Lulu strip. Our review will follow later today...
In my defense, it's a super-fun game.
I'm pretty sure this adorable Robin Hood-themed print from Ohio artist James Graves (currently on sale at HelpInk for $12) should inspire more noble thoughts than: "Dude, I haven't played Conquests of the Longbow in forever...
Horror redux
British publishing house Faber & Faber has announced the publication of several new editions of the "strange stories" of horror writer Robert Aickman...
Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher
I admit I'm a little behind the times when it comes to Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, seeing as, uh, the final book was released in 2009. But you know what that means? No waiting, not even for public library editions! And if you want to buy your own copies, everything's in paperback now! You can probably even find used versions. Why, it's almost like I put off reading these stories for almost a decade... for you.
Weekly Book Giveaway: Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher
This week's Book Giveaway is the first book in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, Furies of Calderon. I'm only a few chapters in, but so far this appears to be straight fantasy, not the more tongue-in-cheek style featured in his Harry Dresden books. Who knows, though? Maybe he's just holding off on introducing a perverted, hard-to-shut-up skull sidekick until a later chapter...
Caaandy...
It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Publishers Weekly has posted a helpful round-up of Penguin's upcoming year-long celebration plans...
Mystery cake
I have an ongoing fascination with heritage recipes, despite being A) deeply lazy, and B) vegetarian, which severely limits the stuff I'm ever going to actually make. (Sorry, 1901 edition of The White House Cookbook; I'm never going to try that recipe for roasted squirrel.) So I was pretty stoked to pick up a copy of America's Best Lost Recipes, written by the editors of Cook's Country magazine, and read with purely academic interest...
Sign me up
The second trailer is out for X-Men: Days of Future Past, and I am so excited. Sure, I'll be there for the new Captain America movie... but I'll be thinking of X-Men. Everything about this speaks to me: the shamelessly melodramatic music, the glowering faces, the Buffy-esque power strides...
I do like the cover, though.
The website Word and Film recently posted an interview with Jennifer Graham, who co-wrote (with series creator Rob Thomas) the first Veronica Mars novel, The Thousand Dollar Tan Line. I admit I have my doubts...
The Mirk and Midnight Hour, by Jane Nickerson
When I saw the press notes for Jane Nickerson's The Mirk and Midnight Hour, which describe the book as a "haunting love story and suspenseful thriller" inspired by the Tam Lin fairytale, I applauded the author's ambition. She was taking a risk: Tam Lin doesn't have the universal appeal of, say, Cinderella, plus there are already two extremely well-regarded YA versions out there...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Mirk and Midnight Hour, by Jane Nickerson
This week's Book Giveaway title is The Mirk and Midnight Hour, the second YA novel from Jane Nickerson. Like her first book Strands of Bronze and Gold (which we reviewed here), The Mirk and Midnight Hour is inspired by a not-exactly-Disney-friendly fairytale: the Scottish ballad Tam Lin...
In a word: gross
I don't know why I'm so offended by the idea of a big-budget CGI Peanuts movie. I don't have particularly fond memories of the comics, and the strip has obviously inspired plenty of animated adaptations, but...
So ridiculous
Publishers Weekly has posted an update on the decision by the South Carolina House of Representatives to cut the College of Charleston's funding by $52,000 and University of South Carolina-Upstate's funding by $17,142...