The Liar, by Nora Roberts
After her most recent—and truly terrible—series, I was ready to give up on Nora Roberts forever, but her latest standalone novel, The Liar, is the kind of satisfying, sturdy, girl-power effort that drags me right back in. Curse you, Nora Roberts, and your ability to wrest away my hard-earned spare cash...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Liar, by Nora Roberts
Okay, I'm giving Nora Roberts one more shot: this week our Book Giveaway is her recent standalone novel The Liar. We'll have to see where it ranks on her scale of shameless self-replication. My hopes aren't high, but Roberts has surprised me before...
Gilded mansion (or close enough)
According to Curbed.com, the 7-bed, 7-bath New York home that once housed F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is up for sale for a mere $3,888,888. Zelda apparently described it as her "nifty little Babbitt house"...
Sixty-odd years and counting
NPR recently posted a lovely interview with writer, artist, and illustrator Jules Feiffer, who, at age 86, is still going strong. His work is the subject of a new book (Out of Line: The Art of Jules Feiffer), which...
Innnteresting.
I had actually assumed this was an April Fool's Day joke, but apparently it really happened: earlier this spring, Marvel teamed up with the subscription-clothing site Five Four Clothing to produce a line of goofy-looking clothing inspired by their Avengers comics...
Pard-Spirit
Writer and director Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley) is working on a two-hour-long drama for BBC1 about the "difficult" home life of the Brontë sisters and their alcoholic brother Branwell. According to the Guardian, the movie will be titled To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters, and...
The Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis
Stewart Lewis's The Secret Ingredient has a great cover, a great hook, and the foundations of at least two—maybe more—great YA novels. Unfortunately, he seems incapable of delivering on any of that promise, and once again produces a book that is simultaneously overly dramatic and underdeveloped...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis
This week's Book Giveaway is Stewart Lewis's The Secret Ingredient, which I suspect will hone pretty closely to the tone and style of his first book, You Have Seven Messages. I was underwhelmed by Messages, but...
Much worse
NPR recently visited Monroeville, Ala., the home of Harper Lee, asking residents about the controversy surrounding Lee's upcoming To Kill a Mockingbird sequel Go Set a Watchman. While I share many residents' concerns about Lee's health and independence, at least the people of Monroeville can take comfort...
That is just unkind.
Some guy named Patrick Stewart (no, not that Patrick Stewart) apparently wrote his 52,438-word doctoral thesis for the University of British Columbia entirely without punctuation, arguing that he wanted to make a point...
Day Shift, by Charlaine Harris
This is going to sound a little strange, but I mean it as a compliment: Charlaine Harris's Midnight, Texas novels are a delightful opportunity to indulge in benign nosiness. Her characters are still only half-developed (at most), but the odd, disjointed peeks she offers into their lives makes me feel like I've had an opportunity to eavesdrop on the private conversations...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Day Shift, by Charlaine Harris
This week's Book Giveaway is Charlaine Harris's Day Shift, the sequel to her highly enjoyable novel Midnight Crossroad. If Day Shift is even half as fun as Midnight Crossroad, readers are in for a treat—the first book in this series hit all of Harris's sweet spots (pink-collar work, small towns, creepy hijinks), while neatly avoiding her weaknesses...
Blood Magick, by Nora Roberts
It's official: Nora Roberts's writing has reached peak laziness. Not only has she used these characters and situations before, she's used them before in this exact same combination. Seriously, if you want to read Blood Magick, just pick up a copy of her 2002 novel Face the Fire—it's the same story, but half the price...
The Marvel juggernaut rolls on
I was pleased to learn that ABC has chosen to renew Marvel's Agent Carter, but I can't help but wonder if Marvel worked out some kind of deal with the network in an effort to improve their current reputation re: female characters...
I want these. All of them.
I love both cookbooks and nerdy literary slide shows, so there's no way I wasn't going to be all over this: Paste recently compiled a list of the Saddest Cookbooks Ever, and it is a delight...
Sleepless nights ahoy
Variety recently posted an update on Cary Fukunaga's upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King's It. The story will be split into two films (one featuring the characters as children; the other as adults), the scripts for both films are ready, and...
Update: Marvel still full of jackasses
io9 put together a very helpful summary of the main talking points surrounding the fan reaction to Joss Whedon's depiction of the Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It's a quick but comprehensive read, and will bring anyone up-to-date on the whole kerfluffle who doesn't want to wade through a million pages' worth of Internet commentary...
Jinn and Juice, by Nicole Peeler
Nicole Peeler's Jinn and Juice is nowhere near as terrible as either its tacky cover art or suggestive tagline (“Don't Rub Me the Wrong Way”) would suggest. On the other hand, that doesn't make it actually good, nor does it prevent the story from dipping into some really shady areas...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Jinn and Juice, by Nicole Peeler
This week's Book Giveaway is Jinn and Juice, by Tempest Rising author Nicole Peeler. A full review will follow shortly, but I promise the book is better than that cover makes it look, or that tagline makes it sound...
Undertow, by Michael Buckley
Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm is one of my all-time favorite kids' series. The books have their problems—actually, some really big problems—but they are so funny, romantic, and action-packed that it's easy to overlook their flaws. Buckley's new YA novel Undertow is much darker than his previous books, but...
No need
Netflix has announced an upcoming miniseries adaptation of Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, which will somehow transform from a 72-page-long book of nonsense poetry about weirdly-colored food into a 13-episode-long show about two characters and the journey that tests "the limits of their friendship"...
Have they read it?
Well, this is just... unfortunate. In an effort to purge Russia of swastikas in observance of Victory Day, the holiday commemorating the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, Moscow bookstores have removed all copies of Maus, Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1980 graphic novel about the Holocaust...
Free Comic Book Day
Just a reminder: this Saturday, May 2nd, is Free Comic Book Day, and (as always) there's a ton of titles on offer. You can see all the possible options here, but...
Sorry, Bard fans.
There was a recent post on io9 debunking the popular rumor that William Shakespeare was responsible for inventing 1,700 English words, including such necessary additions as "puking", "bump", and "eyeball"...
Fairest, by Marissa Meyer
Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles are a sci-fi blend of classic fairytales, Sailor Moon, and modern fantasy/adventure. Meyer has a gift for mashing all of her various inspirations into a seamless whole, but her constant borrowing makes it difficult to judge her books on their own merits...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Fairest, by Marissa Meyer
This week's Book Giveaway is Marissa Meyer's Fairest: Levana's Story. Fairest was released in place of Winter, the next chronological installment in Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. I think this is a brilliant move. Back-story novels usually only come out after the original series has ended (and they generally only appeal to the most hardcore fans), but Meyer's decision to release this novel early means that...
No. Just... no.
I thought the webseries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was a cute, if far-fetched, idea that stretched on a little too long. I didn't actually finish it, but I definitely liked the first third or so, and I can see why it was such a success. But I am not sold on the visual appeal of these...
Well, good luck to them.
E.L. James does not strike me as a woman who is big on self-reflection. I'm not judging her (clearly, her bank balance is proof that she's getting something right), but a lot of the people who worked with her on the first Fifty Shades of Grey movie have...
An ongoing and uphill battle
According to the recent NPR article "See Priya Cook", gender bias is prevalent in textbooks worldwide. Women are generally portrayed in subservient or domestic roles, while men are depicted as figures of authority and action...
See Westeros by bus!
The travel blog GoEuro.com has created a guide to the various real-world stand-ins for Game of Thrones locations, in case you'd like to make vacation plans based on your love of a fantasy series...