Hollywood gone wrong
Worst casting news ever: Columbia Pictures and Lakeshore Entertainment have signed Katherine Heigl to play Stephanie Plum, the hapless lingerie-buyer-turned-bounty-hunter heroine of Janet Evanovic...
Back on top
Megan informs me that Seattle currently ranks #1 on USA TODAY's annual list of the nation's most literate cities, thereby smacking down rival city Minneapolis (who actually dropped behind Washingt...
Behind the times
Wait. There's a Flipped movie?!? AND IT'S COMING OUT THIS YEAR? (...and why is it suddenly set in the fifties?)Why am I so behind on Wendelin Van Draanen news? Turns out there's both a plot summar...
The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated, by Nicole Chaison
Nicole Chaison is the creator of the website Blog-o-Hausfrau and the tri-annually published 'zine Hausfrau Muthazine, which launched in 2003. Her experiences—everything from giving birth in a hosp...
Supergross
When J. D. Salinger died two weeks ago, I decided not to write an obit for him, mostly because—I'm sorry; I'm a philistine—I've never felt like Catcher in the Rye or his Glass family stories were ...
All Unquiet Things, by Anna Jarzab
Anna Jarzab's intriguing debut novel All Unquiet Things centers around Neily and Audrey, two wealthy California teens haunted by the death of sixteen-year-old Carly—the beautiful, damaged girl who...
Brilliant with a side of more brilliant
Clearly, soap opera stars + an Agatha Christie read-a-long = Two great tastes that taste great together.
Freefall, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
All of the books in Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon's Tunnels series have featured elements from Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, but Freefall—the third entry in the seri...
Tunnels and Deeper, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams's Tunnels series has a great back story. Their first book (originally titled The Highfield Mole) was allegedly inspired by a real—and very strange—place: the Wil...
Girls Gone Victorian
Whoa: this is the first time I've seen someone market a romance novel (from Katie MacAlister, one of Meg's favorite authors) as "steampunk". New literary sub-genre, or just a marketing gimmick? On...
You do have to admire her gall, though.
My, my. Whatever could this be? It appears to be a reprint (the one hundred and forty-seventh edition, I believe) of Nora Roberts's 1991 novel Genuine Lies, and it costs sixteen dollars. Are you k...
Like The Rules, but even sadder.
Huh. It turns out Lori Gottlieb's Marry Him: The Case for Settling For Mr. Good Enough isn't a joke. It's a real book (due out next week!), not just fodder for AustenBlog's "It worked so well fo...
Silk purse/sow's ear
I was poking around the bookstore over the weekend, and I ran across this:Now, I'm not an Ayn Rand fan, but I am a fan of great cover art, and that is some really, truly great cover art. I love th...
Zombie Loan (Yen Press Extravaganza Part III), by Peach-Pit
This should be our last installment of this series... at least for a while! Zombie-Loan, an ongoing manga from the female writing/artistic duo Peach-Pit, offers a b...
The Diamonds, by Ted Michael
Fans of everything from Mean Girls to The A-List will recognize elements of Ted Michael's debut novel The Diamonds, but Michael's take on this overly-familiar material still feels smart, fun, and ...
Watered down
I was reading Roger Sutton's always-delightful Horn Book Blog, and ran across a post on Cornelia Funke's upcoming novel Reckless. Sutton's post quotes the Reckless press release (which I have not ...
Truth in advertising
99% of the cover art for the upcoming Twilight graphic novel is unremarkable......but I am impressed by the way they made [what is presumably] Edward's hand ever-so-slightly blue. Way to play up t...
Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs
If I had to describe Patricia Briggs's novel Moon Called in a single line, I'd probably go for something like: “A lot like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series—only way less annoying...
For the disorganized Austen junkies among us...
If, like me, you missed the first episode of the newest adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma currently airing on PBS stations in the US, you can see the thing in full on the Masterpiece Classic site. ...
I may not be a princess, but...
My concerns about costs remain valid, but I happened to run across Barbara Beery's Green Princess Cookbook the other day, and I have give her credit: the recipes in this book look crazy delicious....
Dream Life, by Lauren Mechling
Dream Life is Lauren Mechling's follow-up to 2008's Dream Girl, and it's even more enjoyably far-fetched than its predecessor. Both novels feature improbably-named 10th grader Claire Voyante, whos...
Do they bind them in gold or what?
Ever since finishing Obernewtyn (our current Featured Book), I've been sulking over the discovery that author Isobelle Carmody's US, UK, and Canadian publishers chose to split her final two books ...
Spinning Disney
We try to avoid reporting on rumors (particularly rumors from a site like AintitCoolNews, which gives us an instant headache whenever we visit it), but this one's pretty widespread: whispers aboun...
Babymouse: Dragonslayer, by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
The Babymouse series, written by author Jennifer L. Holm and illustrated by her brother, freelance graphic artist Matthew Holm, are cute, silly, and unabashedly pink, making them an enjoyable alte...
Congratulations to 'em both.
Whoa. I'd heard that Neil Gaiman was getting married again to musician Amanda Palmer, but I hadn't actually seen the happy couple. Now, thanks to GoFugYourself's Golden Globes coverage, I have. (L...