Mar 21 2011

Imagine a Japanese Nancy Drew paired with a demonic Sherlock Holmes

I was delighted to discover that the deeply weird horror/mystery/comedy anime Neuro has turned up on Hulu. I don't think the manga is available in English and it's not the kind of show that comes...

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Mar 18 2011

Skipper Barbie, with a bow, in a cage fight...

Well, Katniss Everdeen has been cast. And while Jennifer Lawrence is a lovely young woman and (from what I hear) a very talented actress, and I know Hollywood hair and makeup will go a long way t...

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Mar 17 2011

Sherlock Holmes (as portrayed by Justin Bieber)

Ever since I heard about this project, I've been keeping an eye out for the first book in a new series featuring Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. The Times liked Andrew Lane's Death Cloud, and it's...

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Mar 17 2011

Knit Your Own Royal Wedding

I don't care about knitting or England's royal family, but Fiona Goble's new how-to book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding is undeniably adorable:How's that for a wedding souvenir? She even got the pri...

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Mar 16 2011

RASL on the big screen?

According to The Beat, Jeff Smith's trippy sci-fi/noir series RASL is being developed into a feature film. Several things about this idea concern me: A) The film adaptation of Smith's infinitely ...

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Mar 15 2011

A stroke of genius

PopEater is reporting that Bradley Cooper hopes to play Tom Buchanan in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Sadly, the article makes it clear that Luhrmann has never express...

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Mar 15 2011

Shout-outs via snail mail

According to The Mirror, the U.K.'s Royal Mail recently unveiled their 2011 "Best of British"-themed stamps. The designs include a collection called "Magical Realms", all of which pay tribute to ...

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Mar 14 2011

So very unnecessary

Remember how creeped out everyone was by that sorta-realistic-looking animation technique they used to film the The Polar Express? Well, they've made an equally disturbing adaptation of Berkeley ...

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Mar 14 2011

Earthquake and Tsunami relief

AnimeNewsNetwork is offering special coverage of the horrific earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday, including information on the status of artists and writers in Japan and suggestions a...

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Mar 11 2011

39 Clues on a budget

If you've never read the best-selling 39 Clues series, I noticed a "buy one, get the next for half price" deal at my local Barnes and Noble. I don't know if the deals will get better or worse as ...

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Mar 10 2011

Just what the world needs...

According to the Associated Press, a 25-room mansion some scholars believe served as a model for one of the homes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is going to be razed for a subdivision. ...

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Mar 10 2011

No way, no how

It will be a sub-zero day in hell before I spend $45 on a candle, but these little gems from Assouline Publishing promise to evoke the "atmosphere of your fantasy library, and the pleasure of read...

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Mar 9 2011

Bone goes upscale

If you really, really, really love Jeff Smith's Bone, you might want to start saving your money now. Three new, full-color, one-volume editions of Bone will be released later this year. There wi...

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Mar 8 2011

At least Harrison Ford looks like he's having fun

I'm about three months behind the times, but I finally got around to watching the Cowboys and Aliens trailer, and I have to say, I'm pretty stoked about it:It was originally reported that Robert D...

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Mar 8 2011

Stretching the imagination

Uh, okay: apparently, actor Channing Tatum is hoping to co-produce and star in a re-imagining of the Peter Pan story. In Tatum's version, Pan and Captain Hook would be brothers, and the movie wil...

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Mar 7 2011

Anne with an E

Thank you, Forever Young Adult. An Anne of Green Gables movie drinking game is exactly what this world needs.

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Mar 7 2011

Eoin Colfer goes after the grown-ups

Behold, it's Eoin Colfer's first standalone novel for adults:In addition to having great cover art, I notice that the list price for this sucker is only $22.95. I get really irritated when YA/chi...

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Mar 3 2011

...shocker?

My, my: people are apparently all concerned that Lionsgate's upcoming film adaptation of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games has put out a casting call for a pretty, tomboyish, 15-to-20 year old Ca...

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Mar 1 2011

Role-playing Jane Austen

According to AustenBlog, the fine people at Reflexive Entertainment have produced a video game inspired by Jane Austen’s novels called Matches & Matrimony. There is a trial download available for ...

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Feb 28 2011

Left by the wayside

The Guardian has posted a great slideshow of their choices for the 10 Best Neglected Literary Classics. I'm a little taken aback by how many of these books are about young women living alone with...

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Feb 24 2011

Admittedly awesome

Filmmaker Danny Boyle has been working on a stage version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and it sounds gimmicky but cool: it will feature relatively big-name stars (Johnny Lee Miller and Atonemen...

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Feb 23 2011

Everybody's doing it

Huh. The Go Fug Yourself ladies have apparently written a young-adult book.

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Feb 22 2011

Danger!

Whoa: posting negative reviews can lead to book critics being sued for criminal libel?!All we've ever gotten from posting negative reviews is a handful of equally negative author e-mails. (Well, ...

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Feb 18 2011

A "romantic" comedy, sans romance

Another book-to-movie adaptation I will not be watching:Ugh. I hate books where infidelity is excused because the "other woman" is unpleasant, and this one looks even more irritating than most. ...

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Feb 17 2011

A book-to-movie adaptation for the Tea Party crowd

Huh. Apparently, a film adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged actually got made: When I first heard about this project, it was a big-budget production rumored to star Angelina Jolie and Brad P...

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Feb 17 2011

Going gently into the good night

Well, the death knell has been struck: Borders has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company plans to close about 200 (out of 642) stores over the next few weeks, all of which will ...

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Feb 15 2011

Goodbye, Lois Lane.

According to Publishers Weekly's The Beat, Joanne Siegel, widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and and the woman who inspired the Lois Lane character, passed away yesterday. Siegel was 93, a...

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Feb 14 2011

I do like her haircut, though.

I've never been particularly impressed by Emma Watson's acting, but maybe I'm alone in that: she's apparently starring in two buzzed-about YA movie adaptations: Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Bein...

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Feb 14 2011

Tween romance... or not?

I ran across this cover art mystery via Read Roger, The Horn Book editor's always-entertaining blog. According to Publishers Weekly, Phoebe Stone's The Romeo and Juliet Code is a "intricate and l...

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Feb 11 2011

X-men... back in the day

Okay, forget the Captain America stuff. This I'm excited about:

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