Was literally everyone else busy?
Well, the first teaser trailer is out for Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff & D.B. Weiss's adaptation of Cixin Liu's novel The Three Body Problem, and it looks... expensive. Netflix clearly dug deep into the old couch cushions for this one. Unfortunately, based on Benioff and Weiss's previous work, do I trust them to handle cultural issues with sensitivity? No. Am I confident...
Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves, by Nils-Olof Franzen
As a lifelong fan of detective stories written for children, from Nate the Great to Bad Machinery, I was excited to hear about the recent reprints of Nils-Olof Franzen's Agaton Sax novels, a beloved but long out-of-print Swedish pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I had heard of these books, but only found one vintage edition—Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves—that was both in decent shape and affordable...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves, by Nils-Olof Franzén
Another week of posting, like adults who respect schedules! Our current Book Giveaway pick is Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves by Nils-Olof Franzén. This was originally written in 1965, and recently brought back into print via Oak Tree Books. It's the fourth book in Franzén's beloved, family-friendly detective series, but is totally readable as a standalone. A full review will follow shortly...
Another one for the shelf
I'm super into the minimalist cover art featured on Gladstone Press's edition of Pride and Prejudice, which is currently on sale for $11. (All of their covers are great.) I'd like it even better if they had produced an entire set of Austen's novels...
Pass
The official trailer for Yorgos Lanthimos's upcoming film adaptation of Alasdair Gray's novel Poor Things was released a few days ago, and I'll be skipping this one. The concept is creepy. The book cover is creepy. The movie looks creepy. (And creepy in a stomach-churning way, not the fun kind of creepy.) Plus, the...
Not the vibe
I recently got an e-mail from the Edward Gorey House store, informing me that their collection of summer beach towels was now available (currently on sale for $27.95). To be fair, these are some cute towels...
Bambi, but even more of a gut-punch
According to Dark Horizons, Sarah Polley is in talks to direct a live-action remake of Disney's Bambi, based on the 1923 Austrian novel of the same name by Felix Salten. I like Sarah Polley, but, uh, does the world really want to see a Bambi adaptation...
A messy situation
The Guardian recently posted an interesting article about an uptick in demand in Russia for translated versions of escapist fiction. While some big-name authors like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King have announced that Russian editions of their books will not be made available for the duration of the war in Ukraine...
Edible Economics, by Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Chang's Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World starts off strong. Chang is a well-regarded economist, his prose is simultaneously engaging and easy to follow, and I like the cover art concept (National flags! But made of food!) Unfortunately, the end result is slightly underwhelming—a tasty but thrown-together snack, rather than a well-balanced meal...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Edible Economics, by Ha-Joon Chang
WE LIVE (but the world is a weird place right now, so things will probably continue to be sporadic). Our current Book Giveaway is Ha-Joon Chang's Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World, installment #8,943 in our ongoing series, “Nonfiction Books Julia has Picked Up at Random”. A full review will follow shortly...
Wodehouse! In the trash!
If you're a P.G. Wodehouse fan in Wales, you might want to check out the Five Lanes Recycling Centre (near Caldicot). Apparently, some philistine threw out a collection of Wodehouse novels in their original dust jackets...
Lockwood & Co.: The Series
I've read several reviews of Netflix's new adaptation of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series that seem to have been written by people unfamiliar with the books, so I thought I'd chip in with a take by someone who adores the source material (and is picky about book-to-film adaptations): it's safe, fellow Lockwood & Co. fans! You're gonna like it...
No thank you
The trailer is out for The Boogeyman, the film adaptation of a 1978 Stephen King short story. I will be skipping this one, because I don't care how cheesy or overdone it looks (which is: very)...
I miss you, bookstores
One of the things I have missed most during the pandemic has been my life-long habit of going into bookstores and looking for pretty new editions of classic books. My local bookstore offers a drive-through window, so I can easily order specific editions in safety, but it's not like I get a press release from the estates of long-dead authors telling me about specific reprints. (ALTHOUGH THAT WOULD BE NICE.) So...
Never forget
I have mostly ignored news about the upcoming Percy Jackson TV series, because the original movie adaptation was so terrible that it's still tainting my memories of the entire series, even a decade-plus later...
Amazing (but also pricey)
Okay, it costs more than a car payment, but I absolutely want this: it's the Beehive books version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. They have divided up the text into "an actual physical research dossier full of ephemera, correspondence, and...
Please please please
Oh, thank the TV Gods: the first reviews of Netflix's adaptation of my beloved Lockwood & Co. are coming in, and they're (mostly) positive: check here, here, and...
First world problems
I am not normally in the business of reviewing puzzles, but I recently received one of Laurence King Publishing's 1000-piece "The World of Jane Austen" puzzles for my birthday, and I HAVE SOME NOTES. (Incoherent notes, because I don't actually know puzzle terminology, but notes nonetheless!!!) Let me start with the positives: the artwork is adorable, and I love that...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, by Henry Fielding
This week's Book Giveaway is Henry Fielding's 1749 comedic novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. I'll be posting a review as soon as I finish reading it, but while I am a fast reader, this sucker clocks in at nearly 900 pages of small font, so, uh... please do not hold your breath.
Super cool (also free)
As of yesterday, the original manuscript for Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is now publicly available online. The physical manuscript continues to be housed in a climate-controlled archive at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, but fans of the novel...
Sign me up
Ooh, I see PBS is hoping to take Masterpiece in an edgier direction with an upcoming adaptation of Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. If you haven't read Tom Jones, imagine an 18th century telenovela, complete with birth secrets...
I like the font, at least
Well, it's finally happening: Judy Blume's 1970 awkward-teen-girl classic Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret is being made into a movie. The trailer looks good (in a painfully embarrassing way, but that's due to the source material), so...
Doesn't he have a real job?
Boris Johnson has apparently signed a hefty deal with HarperCollins to write a memoir about his time as Prime Minister of the UK. According to a friend of Johnson, the book will be "an important exercise in rescuing his reputation", so I'm interpreting that to mean it will be...
Yikes
I still haven't read a Colleen Hoover book, but have kept her novels on my mental list of stories to check out if I run across one in a Little Free Library. (The descriptions of her books really don't sound like my thing, but I'm willing to give them a chance... as long as they're free.) However, her recent attempt at producing a coloring book tie-in...
January perfection
January 12th is National Hot Tea Day, apparently, which makes it the ideal time to break out this P.G. Wodehouse quote (from The Code of the Woosters:
"The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs...
This is gonna be a busy TV week
Paramount Plus just dropped a trailer for their upcoming series Wolf Pack, based on the book series of the same name by Edo Van Belkom, and I am stoked. Sarah Michelle Gellar + werewolves + angsty, 24-year-old "teenagers"? Is it my...
Financial hijinks
There's a juicy article in The New Yorker about the recent sale (or... attempted sale?) of an English country house that once belonged to Evelyn Waugh. Waugh was not apparently a fan of the house himself (it was a gift from his in-laws), but...
Covetable
Another thing to request for my birthday: last year, Chronicle Books released The Art of Alice and Martin Provensen, and I want it. (Actually, I want many framed prints of the Provensens' work, but they're pretty pricey, so...
Mark your calendars
BookTrust recently compiled a helpful list of some of the many book-to-screen adaptations of kid books coming our way in 2023. I am, of course, most excited about Lockwood & Co. (although that comes burdened the weight of So Many Expectations), but...
The Murder of Mr. Wickham, by Claudia Gray
I have read a lot of Jane Austen fanfiction, ranging from free stories on websites like AAO3 to published, high-profile efforts by well-known authors (those end up with fancier descriptors like “literary pastiche”, but whatever—they're totally fanfic). Claudia Gray's The Murder of Mr. Wickham is...