Hollywood validation
I tried reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, but couldn't get into 'em--they seemed so impressed by their own quirky hipness that I was totally turned off. I thought at the time it was like ...
London to Pemberley in 20 stages
Tired of those "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters but still want to adorn your walls with something quintessentially British? How about one of these subway-poster-inspired nods to Pride and Prejudi...
Ramona and Beezus go to Hollywood
Click here if you'd like to watch the movie trailer for the upcoming Ramona and Beezus movie. It seems almost aggressively twinkly and adorable, but whatever. Could be worse, right?
Mister Monday, by Garth Nix
As I went through the Wordcandy mail a few weeks ago, I was pleased to run across a package from Scholastic containing not only the final book in Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, but also t...
Studio Ghibli fans take note:
I'm a little confused--apparently, some Finnish film studio has already made one Moomin movie (based on the fantastic series by Finnish novelist and artist Tove Jansson) and is working on a second...
Smooth Talking Stranger, by Lisa Kleypas
Smooth Talking Stranger is the third book in Lisa Kleypas's best-selling series about the wealthy, powerful, Houston-based Travis family. Kleypas's current heroine is Ella Varner, author of the p...
Well, *I* would watch it.
This reminds me of all those [classic novel] v. the monster books, only way more fun. Because unlike Jane Austen Beats Down the Werewolves (or whatever they're publishing next), Twilight would ac...
A Brief History of Montmaray, by Michelle Cooper
I have never learned to love Dodie Smith's novel I Capture the Castle. I don't care how classic it is: if I spend 99% of a novel thinking wistfully of giving all of the characters a swift ki...
Tim Burton goes goth-lite... again.
Tim Burton has apparently made plans to direct a 3-D stop-motion film based on the original Addams Family cartoons by Charles Addams. I'd probably feel better about this if I hadn't been so under...
Vintage Veronica, by Erica S. Perl
15-year-old Veronica Walsh, star of Erica S. Perl's debut novel Vintage Veronica, has big plans for her summer. She's going to work in the consignment section of Clothing Bonanza, drink mocha smo...
Wow. Just... wow.
Oh, man, you guys... anyone not reading Rumiko Takahashi's Rin-ne online is seriously missing out. Not only is it funny and weird and totally free, I'm pretty sure the the demon introduced in the...
Awesome and awesomer...
When I saw the cover art for the upcoming 50th anniversary edition of Peg Bracken's classic I Hate to Cook Book, my only thought was How adorable. But now I've seen the original version, featurin...
Hot-button topic
The most recent Horn Book newsletter has a great interview up with Joanna Cole, one of the co-creators (with illustrator Bruce Degen) of the Magic School Bus series. Cole and Degen's most recent ...
Booooring.
The website Popcandy (no relation) is currently featuring a sneak peek of the upcoming graphic novel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, due out May 4th. It all looks very "Barbie vs. ...
Wild Ride, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Wild Ride is the most successful of the Jennifer Crusie/Bob Mayer collaborations to date: fast, fun, and deliciously weird. Admittedly, we still prefer Crusie's solo work, but how could anyone ha...
The Tempest 2.0
I have a new movie to look forward to: an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest directed by Across the Universe's Julie Taymor and starring Helen Mirren. Mirren will be playing "Prospera" (rath...
Drawing to a close
Two of Yen Press's titles are coming to an end this spring, so those of you who only buy manga once the entire series has been published should add these titles to your to-be-investigated list, sa...
Less fun than a barrel of monkeys, but not bad at all.
Mindful of that March 9th deadline for catching the recent television adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma online, I finally sat down and watched it*. And while I spent most of the time bemoaning the...
Time on your hands?
Whoa. This must have taken some serious effort:And in other news, Disney has decided to go for a more dude-friendly take on the ol' fairytale genre: from here on out (says the Los Angeles Times),...
Alice in Wonderland (film review), by Lewis Carroll
Well, dear readers, I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland over the weekend, and the best thing I can say about it is that it's probably best that the horrors of the Percy Jackson movie are still so fresh in my mind. It's not that the Alice movie was good, but everything looks better in comparison...
Please let this be true.
THANK YOU, KOREAN CINEMA GODS.Dramabeans.com is reporting that Jang Geun-seok (the adorable lead actor from last year's You're Beautiful) has signed on to play Takeshi Gouda, the main male charact...
Wildfire at Midnight, by Mary Stewart
Mary Stewart is one of those authors whose best work (the truly awesome 1958 novel Nine Coaches Waiting) was so good that everything else she produced pales in comparison...
Patience: my least favorite virtue
Speaking of The Wallflower, Friday's post reminded me that I hadn't seen Tomoko Hayakawa's latest volume on bookstore shelves yet, so I did a little research into its whereabouts. As it turns out...
Perfect Girl Evolution
I finally watched the first episode of the J-drama Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, which is based on one of my all-time favorite manga series, Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower. For those of you unf...
The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan
The Dead-Tossed Waves is the sequel to Carrie Ryan's 2009 novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and it's just as cheery as its predecessor—which is to say, not even remotely. Ryan's second book...
Counting down
AustenBlog recently posted a handy reminder that PBS is still hosting all three episodes of their recent adaptation of Emma on its Masterpiece website--but only until March 9th, so if you'd like t...
Chalk and cheese
Weird pairing news: Warner Bros. has apparently hired R.J. Cutler (the dude who directed the well-respected documentary The September Issue) to helm their adaptation of Melissa de la Cruz's (deepl...
Perpetual Check, by Rich Wallace
Rich Wallace's novel Perpetual Check is set at a regional chess tournament. Two brothers—sports star Zeke and chubby, retiring Randy—are competing, and the idea of playing against each other has p...
Goldfinger: new and undoubtedly improved
The BBC's Radio 4 is recording a new version (one "more faithful to Fleming’s original 1959 novel than the film version was") of Ian Fleming's classic James Bond novel Goldfinger, with the always-...