The Superman movie is almost here!
The final trailer is out for the upcoming Superman movie, and it's really working for me. I've been a lot more interested in Superman stories since reviewing Larry Tye's Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero last December...
Ruined and Unbroken, by Paula Morris
After reading Paula Morris's novel Dark Souls earlier this spring, I decided to hunt down the two books in her earlier series, Ruined and Unbroken. Dark Souls had some shaky characterization, but Morris's plot was creative, creepy, and rich in historical detail (all things I approve of in a ghost story), so my hopes were high...
School Spirits, by Rachel Hawkins
Slightly more than a year after releasing Spell Bound, the (totally disappointing, it must be said) conclusion to her Hex Hall series, Rachel Hawkins has returned to familiar territory in School Spirits, the first book in a Hex Hall spin-off series devoted to a different branch of the monster-hunting Brannick family...
How I Lost You, by Janet Gurtler
In a world overflowing with books about teenagers killing one another, it's always nice to discover a well-written YA novel about normal teen drama—one that limits itself to figurative (rather than literal) back-stabbing. This real-world premise wasn't the only thing we liked about Janet Gurtler's How I Lost You, but it definitely helped...
How To Lead a Life of Crime, by Kirsten Miller
Kirsten Miller's How To Lead a Life of Crime is the junior-division version of Catherine Jinks's novel Evil Genius. Both stories are about unhappy boys with a gift for criminal behavior who are approached by shady older dudes offering them a chance to attend schools for budding supervillains, but Jinks's take on the material is far weirder...
Weekly Book Giveaway: How To Lead a Life of Crime, by Kirsten Miller
Our current Weekly Book Giveaway pick is Kirsten Miller's How To Lead a Life of Crime, which we will review later on this afternoon. Like Catherine Jinks's Evil Genius, Miller's book is a story about a school for would-be evildoers. I like the concept, but I'm hoping it turns out to be less legitimately creepy than Evil Genius, the memory of which still disturbs me...
At long last: non-ugly reprints!
I have been wishing for years that someone would reprint the novels of L. M. Montgomery (whose books deserve much better cover art than they have received), so I was legitimately pleased to learn that Sourcebooks...
That is some glorious graphic design.
There's a fully-funded Kickstarter project devoted to producing a collection of mini-cookbooks called "Short Stack Editions". The books are described as "a series of small-format cookbooks about inspiring ingredients, authored by America’s top culinary talents. Each edition is a collectible, single-subject, 50-page booklet packed with recipes that offer ingenious new ways to cook our favorite ingredients...
The Infinity Ring #1, 2, & 3: A Mutiny in Time, Divide and Conquer, and The Trap Door, by assorted authors
In an effort to duplicate the monster success of their 39 Clues series, Scholastic Books has launched The Infinity Ring, another multi-platform series blending reading and an online experience. The Infinity Ring series was outlined by The Maze Runner author James Dashner, and will be seven books long. The first three installments—Dashner's A Mutiny in Time, Carrie Ryan's Divide and Conquer, and Lisa McMann's The Trap Door...
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, by Galen Beckett
Galen Beckett's 2008 novel The Magicians and Mrs. Quent features a plot cobbled together from the works of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, and Henry James, bound together by a hefty dose of classic fantasy. The end result falls short of Susanna Clarke's thematically similar Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but is readable enough in its own right...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, by Galen Beckett
We have approximately ten million reviews to get through this week, so we're starting with this one, which we're also offering as our Weekly Book Giveaway Pick: The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, by Galen Beckett. We'll post a full review this afternoon, but my first impression is that it seems like a C-grade version of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell...
This will terrify small children.
Northlake Public Library near Chicago is hoping to spruce up its interior with this charming (and nine feet tall) objet d'art: a massive Incredible Hulk statue. They're using crowd-sourcing to fund the project, as well as raising money for additional graphic novels and a "creation station"...
Cash for fanfiction?
HOLY CATS: Amazon is launching a licensing and publishing program for fanfiction! According to Publishers Weekly, Amazon has already set up licensing agreements with various popular properties...
Hee. (Also, gross.)
Tréy Sager’s ebook Fires of Siberia is apparently a real—and mind-blowing—thing*: an "old-fashioned bodice ripper romance" inspired by the life of Tea Party leader and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Here's the official plot summary...
Starstruck, by Rachel Shukert
Rachel Shukert's Starstruck steals most of its plot from Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, but Shukert's YA novel is a vast improvement on Susann's dour melodrama, transforming a silly and overwrought story into something smart, ambitious, and utterly engrossing...
Unexpected best-sellers
According to THR, Scandinavian production companies Zentropa and Nordisk Film are working together on a film version of Frans G. Bengtsson's 1941 novel The Long Ships. I was surprised there was much of a demand for a cinematic adaptation of 1940s adventure story set in 10th century Sweden (particularly one with such a pulp fiction-y cover)...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Starstruck, by Rachel Shukert
This week's Book Giveaway title is Rachel Shukert's Starstruck, which we'll be reviewing tomorrow. Shukert's book features promotional quotes from Anna Godbersen and Jillian Larkin, both of whom are known for their YA series sent in the 1920s, so I'm assuming Starstruck is set in a similar time period. (Although that's clearly Veronica Lake hair, which is totally 1940s, but maybe the artist was aiming for...
Is it three-dimensional, though?
I have no use for this utterly awesome mobile based on the art work of Belgian children's author and illustrator Tom Schamp, but I want one. (Maybe hanging mobiles above adults' beds will become a hot design trend...?) I also want more of Schamp's books to be translated into English...
Vampy!
Speaking of upcoming literature-to-TV transformations, NBC has unveiled the trailer for their take on Dracula, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers. As far as I can tell, this show will be a 10-episode miniseries that is still set in Victorian London, but reworks the original plot...
Summer Rental, by Mary Kay Andrews
Mary Kay Andrews's 2011 novel Summer Rental sticks to the formula that has served her so well in the past: loads of female bonding, a love story, a woman-in-peril subplot, and a healthy dash of angst. Lifelong friends Ellis, Dorie, and Julia have made plans to spend a month together in a North Carolina beach rental, hoping for a break from their respective personal and career problems. Maryn Shackleford is a total stranger, but...
More John Christopher
According to Publishers Weekly, the late science fiction author John Christopher is having his backlist digitized and several of his older books republished, including his famous Tripods trilogy from the late sixties...
More prime-time fairytales
ABC is pinning their hopes on more fairytale action: they've ordered a spin-off of their popular series Once Upon a Time based on Alice in Wonderland, creatively titled Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Here's the cast list and official synopsis...
Manicpixiedreamgirl, by Tom Leveen
In addition to being saddled with a painfully quirky title that lights up my Spellcheck like a Christmas tree, Tom Leveen’s novel Manicpixiedreamgirl features one of my least favorite YA character types: the wishy-washy teenage male. Leveen’s protagonist is high school student Tyler Darcy, a kid blessed with a long-term (by high school standards) relationship, a supportive family, and a loyal circle of friends. Tyler has literary ambitions, and...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Manicpixiedreamgirl, by Tom Leveen
The phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" gives me a rage headache, and I'm equally irritated by unconventional word spacing (WHY?!?), but Tom Leveen's Manicpixiedreamgirl has had solid reviews, so who knows? Maybe my heart will grow two sizes today, and I'll learn to love both the phrase and its lack of Strunk-and-White-approved spacing. (Spoiler: No, I won't.) Either way, Mr. Leveen's book is our current Weekly Book Giveaway selection...
A guide to adulthood
If you're looking for a literary graduation gift, you might want to check out Kelly Williams Brown's Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps. I usually give out copies of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm (my personal Guide to Life), but this Publishers Weekly excerpt from Ms. Williams Brown's book is pretty great...
Congratulations, Ms. Tapahonso!
In a bit of closer-to-home poetry news, the Navajo Nation has just announced its first Poet Laureate: Luci Tapahonso, a poet, college professor, and novelist whose writing often blends English with Diné, the Navajo language...
Ugh.
The first trailer is out for the film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, but any appeal the movie might have held for me is trumped by Card's long history of being a jackass...
Poetry in space
If you have dreams of becoming an intergalactically famous poet, now's your chance: NASA is promoting its upcoming launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft (MAVEN) via its "Going to Mars with MAVEN" project. Mission managers have invited the poetry-writing public to submit haiku written for the occasion...
Legal wrangling
This is a depressing story, so I hope she wins: 87-year-old To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee says that her literary agent Samuel Pinkus (the son-in-law of her long-time agent Eugene Winick) took advantage of her poor health to trick her into signing over the copyright of her book to him...
Jane Eyre's Daughter, by Elizabeth Newark
The front cover of Elizabeth Newark's novel Jane Eyre's Daughter features a blurb announcing that this is “A Superb Tale for Lovers of the Brontë Classic”. That's not a promotional quote from a reviewer, mind you—it came straight from the publishers, who, sadly, are somewhat overstating their case...