Jun 30 2010

Yawn.

Well, I suppose the full-length trailer for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows adaptation looks nice enough. But I'm still SUPER IRRITATED by Warner Bros.' decision to split the story into ...

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Jun 29 2010

Ew! But also funny!

Salon has very kindly put together a slideshow round-up of the "10 Most Baffling Twilight Products". They range from G-rated weirdness (like the Edward-shaped body pillow) to other, less SFW opti...

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Jun 28 2010

eBooks just aren't the same.

Okay, I love these: Penguin Books has recently released a line called "Penguin Ink", which features six modern classics repackaged with new cover art designed by tattoo artists/illustrators. Jus...

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Jun 25 2010

Losing resources left and right

According to this terribly depressing article, the American Association of School Administrators is projecting that 19% of the nation's school districts will have fewer librarians next year, and 1...

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Jun 24 2010

Raised by Wolves, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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The cover of Jennifer Lynn Barnes' novel Raised by Wolves features a promotional quote from Melissa Marr describing the book as “[quite] simply, the most compelling YA werewolf book out there.” O...

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Jun 24 2010

Squee!

AustenBlog has posted a link to the trailer for Aisha, the upcoming Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, and it looks like so much fun, you guys. Seriously, I MUST see this movie. I don't...

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Jun 23 2010

Now that all is quiet on the Harry Potter front...

Diminutive Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe certainly dreams big, doesn't he? He has signed on to star in an upcoming film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. ...

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Jun 22 2010

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

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I cannot stand TV shows about hoarding. I am fascinated by the subject, but my limited experience with hoarders has convinced me that hoarding is an incredibly persistent condition that is diffic...

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Jun 22 2010

Maybe if it's good enough, I'll begin to consider forgiving them for that movie.

Well, this is just all kinds of awesome. Hyperion has posted the book cover, release date, and plot summary for the first book in Rick Riordan's "Heroes of Olympus" series. Behold The Lost Hero,...

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Jun 21 2010

Waste of a perfectly good YA series...

Gyah. The dread Miley Cyrus has apparently signed on to star in the upcoming movie adaptation of Lisa McMann's Wake. I'm torn on this one: I liked the book, but I'm not convinced it will transl...

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Jun 18 2010

Gimmicky and overpriced

I am voting "no" on the romance-novel inspired gloss made by Three Custom Color Specialists. I like romance novels and I like lipgloss, but A) I've never read anything by author Brenda Novak, B) ...

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Jun 17 2010

Yeah... I think not.

Yearning for an "artistic" sci-fi film about human clones being raised as organ donors, enjoying a few totally depressing romantic liaisons, and then dying early deaths? You're in luck! The trai...

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Jun 16 2010

We approve.

As longtime readers of the site know, I love reading about frugality. Sadly, Wordcandy hardly ever receives books on this subject, which means I have to either wait patiently for library copies o...

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Jun 16 2010

Something to (maybe) look forward to

Whoa: I've been wading through the descriptions of the "favorite fall teen reads" from a panel of big-name YA editors at the BookExpo of America. Their picks include:Infinite Days, by debut autho...

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Jun 15 2010

Deliciousness ahoy

I knew Publishers Weekly reviewed cookbooks, but I didn't realize they featured recipes, too—particularly not recipes with names like "Kate's Impossibly Fudgy Brownies with Chili and Sea Salt" (fr...

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Jun 15 2010

A happy combination

If you're interested in Janet Evanovich's upcoming graphic novel Troublemaker (a continuation of her Alex Barnaby series), you should check out the—mildly NSFW!—Etsy Shop of Joëlle Jones, the illu...

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Jun 14 2010

Looking forward to it

Eoin Colfer has apparently written his first independent novel for adults. (We're discounting And Another Thing..., his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sequel.) Colfer's upcoming book Plugged i...

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Jun 14 2010

Just like The Firm, but rated G, and set twenty years later...

Okay, I'd heard of this novel, but with a title like Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer I seriously thought it was a joke. But it turns out that A) it's a real book (international best-seller John Grisha...

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Jun 11 2010

Okay, I admit it.

Much as I hate these monster/classic book hybrids, this cover did make me laugh.

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Jun 10 2010

Let down your standards

I was really irritated when I first heard about Disney's decision to tweak their upcoming movie version of Rapunzel in order to attract more boy viewers. There's already a serious lack of girl-fr...

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Jun 10 2010

Pride and Prejudice and footnotes

Okay, it's not the annotated Pride and Prejudice of my dreams, but DK Publishing's "Illustrated Classics" edition is still pretty great. Each book contains the original, unabridged text, and feat...

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Jun 8 2010

A fine birthday tradition

Author Kat Richardson decided to celebrate her May 22nd birthday by giving her fans a present: a previously unpublished Harper Blaine short story, available here. Here's hoping Ms. Richardson had...

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Jun 8 2010

Nothing says "summer" like overblown Czech prose

I just don't know about your list of the top 60 books to read this summer, Los Angeles Times. I mean, I'm with you on the Daniel Pinkwater and Meg Cabot and China Miéville releases, but a bunch o...

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Jun 7 2010

Seita Parkkola

Finnish author Seita Parkkola is the author of the award-winning horror/fantasy novel The School of Possibilities, one of our Featured Book picks. According to the (possibly questionably translat...

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Jun 7 2010

The School of Possibilities, by Seita Parkkola

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The School of Possibilities is the English translation of Seita Parkkola's award-winning novel Viima, originally published in Finland in 2006. While the book isn't perfect, it is an unusua...

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Jun 7 2010

Awesome!

At long last, the cover art is out for Jennifer Crusie's first solo novel in years, a Turn of the Screw-inspired book called Maybe This Time. Behold:I'm not a huge fan of that font, but I like ov...

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Jun 7 2010

There's a fine line between "sweet" and "totally hokey"

Well, the trailer is out for the movie adaptation of my beloved Flipped, and I'm really not feeling it. The book was wholesome, sure, but this looks like a non-ironic version of Pleasantville wit...

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Jun 4 2010

I'm not gonna lie; I will probably watch this.

I have this 14-year-old family friend who only seems to enjoy books featuring preternaturally good-looking people dying horrible deaths. She's a big fan of the "Pretty Little Liars" series by Sar...

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Jun 3 2010

Kids + books = recipe for success?

Laura Miller wrote an essay for Salon about two recent studies that link the mere presence of books in a child's home with the number of years of education the child will complete. The first stud...

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Jun 2 2010

Odd pairing

I'm not sure why a Portland independent bookstore is celebrating Dairy Month, but celebrating it they are... so if you're in the market for a book about milk, cheese, cows, or goats be sure to che...

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