Two thumbs up on the mustache, though
British TV nerds are aquiver: the trailer is out for the long-awaited Victorian Sherlock special. It looks pretty cheesy (particularly the bit about the hat), but...
Blargh
And speaking of inexplicably popular schlock, Stephenie Meyer is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Twilight by releasing a 442-page "reimagining" of the novel called Life and Death. The book swaps the genders of the main characters (Bella now a boy named Beau; Edward Cullen is now Edythe), and...
How is this a thing?
If you're the kind of person who enjoys Nicholas Sparks novels... well, I am currently side-eyeing your life choices. But once you escape the pain of my judgmental stare, you can take comfort in the news that ABC and Sparks are currently teaming up on a sitcom inspired by Sparks's life...
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
If you've read any of Rick Riordan's books for young readers, you've pretty much already read Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer. It's funny, exciting, and comfortingly familiar—but it's a little stale, too...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
This week's Book Giveaway is the first book in Rick Riordan's new Norse mythology series, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: the Sword of Summer. (Riordan is not afraid of a cumbersome title, you guys.) I'm so excited about this story—between my well-documented rage over both the Thor movies and the well-written but utterly dour...
Not interested, regardless.
The first images are out for the upcoming Bridget Jones's Baby movie, which will not be based on the third Bridget Jones book, according to LaineyGossip. I'm assuming it could still fit within the novels' cannon...
Behind the times
In an impressively out-of-touch article for the Guardian, Imogen Russell Williams gushes over the "thrilling rise" of the YA anti-heroine, a phenomenon she seems to think is recent...
Dumb, New Zealand. Seriously.
As far as I can tell, New Zealand is still maintaining a nation-wide ban on Ted Dawe's YA novel Into the River, despite the fact that the whole thing makes them look incredibly toolish...
Murderous yuppies
I don't understand why this book has so much longevity, but Bret Easton Ellis's novel American Psycho lives again, this time in the form of a musical. According to THR, Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) will star as serial killer Patrick Bateman...
Devoted in Death, by J.D. Robb
Devoted in Death is the 41st installment of J.D. Robb's futuristic mystery/suspense “In Death” series, and—unsurprisingly—things are getting pretty damn stale. There are a couple of nice moments in this book, but 99% of it is the literary equivalent of a filler episode...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Devoted in Death, by J.D. Robb
This week's Book Giveaway is Devoted in Death, the most recent installment in J.D. Robb's looooong-running Eve Dallas series. A full review will follow later today, but thus far it's 40% entertaining, 60% torture porn. Not my favorite ratio...
Sci-fi smorgasbord
I'm not totally sure how this works, but the website StoryBundle is currently offering a Philip K. Dick Award Bundle, featuring 11 e-books by Philip K. Dick Award winners and finalists. The site runs on a pay-what-you-want basis, although if you go above $15 you also receive five bonus novels, including one by Wordcandy-approved author Sarah Zettel...
LOVE
As a person who makes 100% of her alcohol purchases based on attractive packaging*, these are right up my alley: Publishers Weekly informs me that Harlequin Books has released a line of inexpensive wines (chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and red) called "Vintages by Harlequin"...
At least release the music
According to THR, the Park Avenue Armory recently featured a week-long "visual art, electro-pop, and contemporary dance" program called Tree of Codes, inspired by Jonathan Safran Foer's novel of the same name...
Not exactly burning questions
According to THR, J.K. Rowling has released yet another Harry Potter short story on Pottermore.com. This installment promises to explain more about "the history of the Potter family, including its origins in the 12th century" and...
Maybe a nice teen comedy?
According to io9, Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams is going to star in an upcoming film adaptation of Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which we reviewed (not super enthusiastically) in 2009...
The Hollow Boy, by Jonathan Stroud
I absolutely loved The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull, the first two installments in Jonathan Stroud's horror/adventure series Lockwood & Co. The third book in the series is more problematic than the first two...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud
This week we're giving away a copy of The Screaming Staircase, the first book in Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood and Co. series. We reviewed this a couple of years ago...
Historical romances with routine bathing
There's an interesting article (with a terrible, misleading title) over on Jezebel: "The Regency Romance: How Jane Austen (Kinda) Created a New Subgenre". The article has less to do with Austen than Georgette Heyer...
Lovely
There's a site up for Scholastic's upcoming illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, featuring over 100 illustrations by Jim Kay. If the nine "Special Preview" images featured on the site are a good representative sample, this book might actually be worth the jaw-dropping $39.99 cover price...
How much will I regret this?
According to Koala's Playground, there's a fun-looking upcoming J-drama called 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made, based on the josei manga of the same name by Miki Aihara. I like the trailer, I like the main actress, I'm okay with the premise (an arranged marriage between a modern young teacher and a Buddhist monk), but...
Why bother?
The first trailer was released for Disney's upcoming live-action remake of The Jungle Book. It looks very... CGI. I can't believe there's really that much of a demand for this movie. I mean, if Disney is so hard up...
Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde
Like my beloved Ysabeau S. Wilce, Jasper Fforde has a gift: his endlessly inventive books feel coherent, even when his actual plots are totally nuts...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Shades of Grey, by Jasper FForde
This week's Book Giveaway is Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey, which is not to be confused with any other shades-of-grey-related books. Instead, it's one of Fforde's trademark blends of fantasy, sci-fi, cultural commentary, and 100-proof weirdness, and I am quite looking forward to reading it. A full review will follow shortly...
Geek joy on tap
I need to go to this new Harry Potter-themed bar in Toronto, like, immediately. Sure, I don't drink alcohol, but I don't care. I will order whatever their themed version of a Designated Driver special is (and they better have one, damn it), and admire the decor...
Sad facts
SplitSider writer Priyanka Mattoo recently wrote a helpful explanatory article called "How Does a Book Get Optioned and Become a Movie?" If, like me, you don't really care about the how-to stuff for writers looking to sell their book(s) to Hollywood, skip to the paragraph that..
Sex, aliens, and videotape
And speaking of fantasy novels, io9 recently put together a great interview about the challenges (which range from "exciting" to, uh, "just plain challenging") facing the people attempting to adapt Octavia Butler’s novel Dawn into a TV show...