Feb 18
2006
Elizabeth Peters is one of the three pen names used by the author known as MPM. (She has also written books under her real name, Barbara G. Mertz, and the name Barbara Michaels. However, we are ...
More »
Feb 18
2006
Megan Whalen Turner is the author of the excellent (possibly ongoing?) children’s fantasy series featuring The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. Borrowing freely from Greek my...
More »
Feb 18
2006
The works of Mervyn Peake, poet, illustrator, and author of the children’s story Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor and the fantasy/horror Gormenghast trilogy, fall somewhere between Edward Gorey...
More »
Feb 18
2006
Peter Abrahams has written several intelligent, entertaining mystery/suspense novels for adults, and two phenomenal mysteries for teens, 2005’s Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery and its ...
More »
Feb 18
2006
Michael Buckley is the author of the Sisters Grimm books, a highly enjoyable series that has some striking similarities to Bill Willingham’s Fables series. So if you’re not old enough for Willing...
More »
Feb 7
2006
I don't know if you're alive or dead.Can you on earth be sought,Or only when the sunsets fadeBe mourned serenely in my thought?All is for you: the daily prayer,The sleepless heat at night,And of m...
More »
Feb 2
2006
Well, kids, we have some new casting announcements for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! Er... you kind of have to imagine these actors' potential. (Thought not so much in the case of ...
More »
Feb 1
2006
I am told that Marilyn Manson is to play Lewis Carroll in an upcoming film. Let's examine this casting choice, shall we?Marilyn Manson:Lewis Carroll:Hmm. Not exactly a perfect fit- Mr. Carroll d...
More »
Jan 28
2006
More than one critic has compared the English poet Christina Rossetti to Dorothea Brooke, the heroine of George Eliot’s Middlemarch. (A character, by the way, that I have always longed to kick in...
More »
Jan 28
2006
Most people don’t realize that James M. Cain, the taciturn, womanizing author of such hardboiled pulp classics as The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, originally trained to become ...
More »
Jan 28
2006
Obert Skye is the author of the very entertaining Harry Potter-esque YA fantasy Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. I wouldn't recommend going to great lengths to hunt this book down, but if you...
More »
Jan 27
2006
Okay, so I have to admit it- I was skeptical when I heard that Jenny Crusie's next book was going to be co-authored with Bob Mayer. I had never heard of him, and after doing some research I decid...
More »
Jan 24
2006
Stephenie Meyer is the author of Twilight, the only vampire novel with the distinction of being set in the town of Forks, Washington. Unfortunately Ms. Meyer just Googled Forks, rather than bothe...
More »
Jan 24
2006
Stephenie Meyer’s novel Twilight appealed to me for two reasons—I liked the cover, and my mom mentioned that it was a vampire story set in the town of Forks, Washington. If you’ve ever been to...
More »
Jan 13
2006
You know what I learned today? Apparently the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a pet wombat named Top that he let sleep in the middle of his dining room table during dinner parti...
More »
Jan 12
2006
English author Ian Fleming was the author of fourteen James Bond stories. Charming, intelligent, and ambitious, Fleming was also a hard-drinking womanizer who worked as a journalist and a stockbr...
More »
Jan 11
2006
Walter Mosley is the author of the intelligent and entertaining Easy Rawlins mysteries. This series, set in mid-20th-century South Central Los Angeles, blends classic hardboiled pulp style with t...
More »
Jan 11
2006
We would not be the first to compare Stephen King with Charles Dickens. Both were staggeringly prolific, both frequently used an obnoxiously faux-avuncular tone to address their audience, and bot...
More »
Jan 11
2006
Diana Gabaldon wrote one truly remarkable book, followed by many inferior sequels. (Shades of Frank Herbert.) Read the wonderful romance/suspense/sci-fi novel Outlander and marvel at how intelli...
More »
Jan 11
2006
John Mortimer is the author of the Horace Rumpole novels, short stories, and plays. Mortimer's Rumpole is a cheerful, obese barrister with a passionate love for cheap wine (Pommeroy's Very Ordina...
More »
Jan 11
2006
Jennifer Colt is the author of The Butcher of Beverly Hills, an action-packed story about two redheaded twin sisters (one an uptight university grad, the other a lesbian ex-con with a wickedly ben...
More »
Jan 9
2006
I love vintage Harlequin romance novels. I love how magnificently cheeseball they can be, with their lurid covers and hopelessly outdated sexual politics, and I admire how instantly entertaining ...
More »
Jan 9
2006
ANNABEL LEEIt was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee;And this maiden she lived with no other thought ...
More »
Jan 7
2006
In the past two weeks Meg Cabot has released two brand-new standalone novels: the YA supernatural romance Avalon High and the mystery/suspense story Size 12 Is Not Fat. Both feature bright, funny...
More »
Jan 3
2006
I am in the process of hunting down all the wordcandy titles for our "upcoming books" section. While there are many I am excited about (like Jennifer Crusie's new collaboration, due out April 4th...
More »
Dec 26
2005
Holly Black is the author of a series of excellent YA horror/fantasy novels: Valiant, Tithe, and Ironside, one of our Featured Book picks. Ms. Black is also one of the authors (along with Tony Di...
More »
Dec 26
2005
The daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus when she was nineteen. (Yes, nineteen. Take THAT, Christopher Pa...
More »
Dec 26
2005
H. G. Wells was the author of numerous science fiction masterpieces, including The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Time Machine. Although a pacifist, Wells enjoyed war games ...
More »
Dec 26
2005
Poet, novelist, and screenwriter, Aldous Huxley is best known as the author of Brave New World, one of the few dystopian novels to earn the Wordcandy Stamp of Approval. Huxley was born to a famil...
More »
