From one jerk to another
According to LaineyGossip, Russell Crowe has been cast as Roger Ailes in the upcoming film adaptation of Gabriel Sherman's The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News—and Divided a Country. This is, uh, really inspired casting...
Moving on
If you follow national literary news, there have been a lot of stories this week about the American Library Association's decision to remove Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from their annual award for children's literature. NPR put together a helpful essay exploring the controversy...
Not a new idea
In very different adaptation news, Deadline reports that Syfy is developing a TV series based on Clive Barker’s short-story collection Cabal. The material has been filmed before (as the 1990 movie Nightbreed), and sounds a little like the recent movie Bright...
Maybe if I had enough junk food...
The trailer is out for Netflix's upcoming adaptation of Jenny Han's All the Boys I've Loved Before, and it looks cute, albeit excruciatingly embarassing. I'm still recovering from the news that someone made The Kissing Booth into a (apparently successful!!!) movie...
A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, by Jules Feiffer
In a world bursting with children's stories that feel like they were designed by an algorithm to appeal to the widest possible audience, Jules Fieffer's A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears stands out. It's a genuinely weird book, and I'd bet cash money it never would have found a publisher had it been written by a less well-known author...
Weekly Book Giveaway: A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, by Jules Feiffer
This week's Book Giveaway is Jules Feiffer's 1995 children's book A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is one of those deeply weird, self-published books (because that's what it looks like), but I promise that is only half true. A full review will follow shortly.
If only...
I want to go here: Dumbarton House in Washington D.C., headquarters of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, is hosting its 7th Annual Jane Austen Film Festival on Wednesday nights from July 11th through August 1st 2018. I don't actually like any of the films that they've chosen, and...
Timely!
Paste Magazine recently compiled a list of the 30 Best Dystopian Books of All Time. I have some questions (the books are very English-language heavy; surely there are some great dystopian novels that haven't been translated yet?), and...
Be strong, Julia.
I'm not proud of being a sucker, I don't like the packaging (did this really need to be promoted by name-dropping The Big Bang Theory?), and I'm never going to shell out $65 for one of these, but a small part of me really wants this...
I DO, as it happens!
Today, the website Cup of Jo wrote a lovely essay about poetry, and asked their readers if they have a favorite poem. I do have a favorite poem, actually, and I encourage everyone to read it, because...
I think we all know what to expect.
According to Deadline, HBO has made the sensible decision to keep milking their cash cow until it dries up completely: they've greenlit a pilot for a Game of Thrones prequel series. Details are scarce, but the as-yet-untitled show is apparently set thousands of years before the events of A Song Of Ice And Fire...
Misfit City, Issues 3 - 8, by Kiwi Smith and Kurt Lustgarten
When I reviewed the first two issues of Kiwi Smith and Kurt Lustgarten's 8-issue miniseries Misfit City, I groused about the flimsiness of the plot, but felt the characters and setting made up for it. Unfortunately, as the series progressed and less of each issue...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Misfit City, Volume 1, by Kiwi Smith and Kurt Lustgarten
This week we're going to be reviewing issues 3 through 8 of the comic book miniseries Misfit City, so our Book Giveaway pick this week is the graphic novel compilation Misfit City: Vol. 1, which includes the first four issues. Our review of the rest of the series will be up shortly...
So pretty~
Publishers Weekly just posted an article about a bunch of booksellers' picks for promising summer books for kids and teens. I'm excited about the final book of the Penderwick Chronicles, The Penderwicks at Last, by Jeanne Birdsall, and...
Fishy DRAMA
Entertainment Weekly is currently doing their level best to make Aquaman look serious, and Lord knows Jason Momoa's face is doing some heavy lifting... but I'm sorry, nothing is going to make this movie seem anything other than goofy...
Reserving judgment
There is promising casting news coming out regarding the BBC's upcoming miniseries adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy: James McAvoy will play Lord Asriel. I like McAvoy a lot, but...
Revived
According to The AV Club, DC Comics is launching a full revival of their Vertigo imprint of comics for adults. Their goals are lofty: “modern, socially relevant, high-concept, inventive stories." Normally, I wouldn't trust DC to change a light bulb, but the original Vertigo line produced loads...
Mysterious
The official trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is out, and I'm assuming (based on the December release date) the producers have high hopes for it... but I'm not really seeing why. This is not a good trailer: the dialogue is clunky and clichéd, the biggest name involved (apart from Peter Jackson) is Hugo Weaving, and...
The Unknown Ajax, by Georgette Heyer
First published in 1959, Georgette Heyer's The Unknown Ajax is one of my all-time favorite books. It has a lot in common with The Grand Sophy—both are stories about a previously unknown relative showing up and taking charge of a troubled family—but The Unknown Ajax, happily, doesn't feature a scene with an offensive Jewish stereotype...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Unknown Ajax, by Georgette Heyer
This week's Book Giveaway is The Unknown Ajax, one of my favorite books by Georgette Heyer. The title refers to a character in one of Shakespeare's messier tragedies (Troilus and Cressida), but, thankfully, Heyer's storytelling is considerably more fun. A full review will follow shortly...
Beige pleather and inadequate fun
The MyModernMet online store recently launched a line of clutches designed by Elena Myloslavskaya of BAGatelle Studio. The three designs feature classic cover art from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, and cost $78 apiece. You'd think this would be right up my alley, but...
Not DC or Marvel, but it looks like it
The trailer is out for The Girl in the Spider's Web, Sony's attempt to re-launch the Lisbeth Salander series, this time starring The Crown's Claire Foy. They appear to have done everything possible to make this look like a superhero movie...
Interview rises again
Huh. There's been further news after our post about the demise of Interview, the long-running arts and culture magazine co-founded by Andy Warhol. According to WWD, there are plans for the magazine to almost immediately re-launch...
Personally, I'd go with a different slogan.
In light of the many literary adaptations currently appearing on HBO, the network has teamed up with the New York Public Library on a national campaign to celebrate summer reading. The campaign (which uses the undeniably dorky #ReadingIsLit hashtag, presumably in reference to HBO's Farenheit 451...
Excellent (if depressing) work
The #MeToo movement has made investigative journalists out of some unexpected sources, Eater NY among them: the culinary news site recently posted an in-depth look at the accusations facing celebrity chef Mario Batali. (It is a follow-up piece to an earlier article on the subject that they posted in December.) Eater should be proud...
Grey Sister, by Mark Lawrence
Grey Sister, the second book in Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor series, combines the magical schools and super-powered children of Harry Potter, the mystical sisterhood of Dune's Bene Gesserit, and more violence and looming ice than Game of Thrones. The various elements don't fuse together perfectly, but there are some A+ ideas in play...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Grey Sister, by Mark Lawrence
This week's Book Giveaway is Mark Lawrence's Grey Sister, the second installment in his Book of the Ancestor series. I was unexpectedly impressed by the first book in this series (so good, despite a lot of stomach-churn-y bits), so I'm looking forward to this sequel. A full review will follow shortly...
By popular(?) demand
According to Variety, Apple's streaming service has placed a straight-to-series order for a half-hour "comedic" series about 19th century poet Emily Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld. The series is described as a humorous look into the poet's world...
Bill Gates says so
Every year, Bill Gates puts out a list of recommended summer reading, and this year's picks were recently featured on Kottke. In related news, Gates is not the world's most persuasive speaker, but...
WHY
This seems like a waste of Jake Gyllenhaal, but whatever: he's not going to go hungry without a sweet Marvel multi-picture deal. According to LaineyGossip, Gyllenhaal has signed up to play Mysterio, the villain in the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel...