Travel in style to fictional locations
Okay, I'm adding an addendum to our Holiday Gift List. Check out these "Comic Travel Location" posters from artist Justin Van Genderen:Are they not awesome? There are more on Mr. Van Genderen's ...
Code: Breaker Vol. 1, by Akimine Kamijyo
Volume one of Akimine Kamijyo's series Code: Breaker is not for the faint of heart. And as the first few pages indicated the story was going to be an all-ages-friendly shounen mang...
The Flappers: Vixen, by Jillian Larkin
Vixen, the first book in Jillian Larkin's new Gossip Girl-meets-Thoroughly Modern Millie young adult series, has a lot going for it. The cover looks great, Larkin has a wonderful time with period slang, music, and clothing, and flappers are totally hot right now...
$30 of pure cuteness
Well, I've decided what I want for Christmas:In addition to being totally adorable, 15% of the gross sale of this "Alice" print by artist Katie Kirk goes to benefit the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation.
Real award, (thankfully) fictional sex
The 18th annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award was announced a few days ago, and the dubious honor was given to Irish author Rowan Somerville for The Shape of Her, which apparently inclu...
I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore
Before we begin, a small disclaimer: I have never read James Frey's notorious “memoir” A Million Little Pieces, but any man who compares writing a falsified autobiography to Picasso...
Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher, by Wendelin Van Draanen
We adore Wendelin Van Draanen's books, but we understand why the director of the recent film adaptation of her novel Flipped re-set the plot in the 1950s—Ms. Van Draanen's unif...
Plus after plus
Finally, some e-book news I'm genuinely excited about: Google has launched an online e-book retail store. Their e-books aren't fancy (no 3-D pictures or dictionary definitions on demand), but the...
Odd Is On Our Side, by Dean Koontz and Fred Van Lente
Odd Is On Our Side is the second graphic novel to feature Odd Thomas, a twenty-year-old fry cook living in the fictional Californian town of Pico Mundo. Odd—a character first intro...
Stone Rabbit #5: Ninja Slice, by Eric Craddock
Eric Craddock's Stone Rabbit #5: Ninja Slice is a boisterous, colorful read aimed squarely at reluctant male readers ages 7-10. The plot (what little there is of it) is simple: whe...
Zen Ghosts, by Jon J. Muth
Unlike the book we featured yesterday, Jon J. Muth's Zen Ghosts is an example of kid-friendly surrealism done absolutely right. It's short on words, but overflows with thought-prov...
Dry your tears, Buffy fans.
I've only been keeping half an eye out for news about the proposed Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, but I did see an article on the MTV Movies Blog that (gently) chided series creator Joss Whedon—...
The Memory Bank, by Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson
The Memory Bank (text by Carolyn Coman, illustrations by Rob Shepperson) is the story of two sisters. When Hope's evil parents banish her baby sister Honey for breaking the family'...
Major (by our standards, anyway) announcement:
Well, dear readers, after nearly six years of our current layout, Wordcandy.net is finally getting a full site redesign, and we're building up for the changeover by having a month-long book giveaw...
Wordcandy's Holiday Gift List: 2010 Edition
It's that time of year again, dear readers—time for our annual list of Wordcandy-friendly gift suggestions! Behold ten of our favorite book-related goods ranging in price from $10 to $100:1.Jonat...
One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead
Do not give Rebecca Mead's 2007 book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding to anyone who has recently had a wedding*. Trust me, it will only depress them, and who wants to embark o...
Happily Ever After, by Nora Roberts
Earlier this month, Nora Roberts released Happy Ever After, the final novel in her Bride Quartet. I've grown fonder of this series with each book, so I trotted out to my local bookstore—this ti...
One-stop holiday shopping
Well, this should make Megan happy (she loves these editions): for a limited time, Powell's Books is selling Penguin's "Hardcover Classics" line—designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and featuring "g...
Check your fairy godmothers at the door
Salon's Laura Miller has posted an article about the National Book Award's stipulation barring "collections and/or retellings of folk-tales, myths, and fairy-tales" from entering the contest. I h...
Cookbooks lie.
Jesse Wegman has posted an article on Slate.com about the inaccuracy of cooking times advertised in cookbooks. The author explores a variety of theories, including three possibilities suggested b...
"You better watch yourself." Seriously, film?
Behold, the dark-and-sexy new film take on Little Red Riding Hood:Okay... that looks hilarious, and unintentionally so. I am so there.P.S. Is it just me, or did they steal most of their costumin...
Save the words!
The fine people at Oxford English Dictionaries have started SaveTheWords.org, a website devoted to reviving thousands of gloriously obscure English words that have fallen out of daily use. Visito...
Michael Buckley for an older crowd
I caught an episode of Robotomy over the weekend, and while this series was co-created by best-selling children's author Michael Buckley and appears on Cartoon Network, do not assume it is safe fo...
Jumping the gun?
Deadline is reporting that Fox 2000 has bought the rights to a projected YA trilogy written by Julianna Baggott. The series doesn't actually have a publisher yet, much less a release date or cove...
Weak. Sauce.
Oh, for crying out loud:They're doing zombie/children's poem crossovers now? And they're charging nearly $13 for them? Seriously, the minute I see someone trying to splice a monster joke into a ...
Smelling like Charles Dickens
Artisan candlemaker Paddywax has released a line of author-inspired candles. At $25 per 9oz. glass container, you can now scent your home with candles named after Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen, He...
It's still not April 1st, right?
Huh. NPR informs me that the 4th Annual Quidditch World Cup is taking place at De Witt Clinton Park in New York City this very weekend, and will feature more than 60 different teams from high sch...
And look! She's *not* shaped like Barbie!
Jezebel has posted a couple of advance images from the upcoming Marvel Comics reboot of the "Spider-Girl" character. (This version of the character has no connection to Peter Parker, apparently.)...
Not bad, not bad at all.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips is apparently planning on giving away several advance-reader copies of her upcoming book Call Me Irresistible over the next few months, so if you're a fan of hers you migh...