Mojo, by Tim Tharp
Last week, I complained at length about a novelist whose characters spoke only in sparkling witticisms. I clearly need to be more careful what I wish for, because the first book I read this week features characters who show all the intellectual prowess of a cheese sandwich...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Mojo, by Tim Tharp
This week's Book Giveaway is Tim Tharp's Mojo, which was originally cursed with incredibly boring cover art. I was pleased to discover that the publishers chose something more eye-catching for the paperback version (and that they finally pointed out that Tharp also wrote The Spectacular Now, which was recently made into a movie), but damage was undoubtedly done...
Look Out Look Out Look Out...
This NPR music article makes a very funny (if not totally convincing) argument linking the music of 1960s girl groups like the Shangri-Las to modern YA fiction...
"Cute hipster" isn't gonna cut it.
I don't know about this, you guys. The first trailer for the Korean version of my beloved Nodame Cantabile has been posted (to be called Cantabile Tomorrow), and it has not assuaged my fears that this take on the material is going to be prettied up beyond recognition...
Unmade: The Lynburn Legacy, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken was one of the most promising teen romances I've read in the past decade, with an absolutely phenomenal premise. The sequel, alas, took several steps down in quality, and I'm sad to report that the final book in the trilogy is dumber still...
At the very least, the costumes will be great.
According to Variety, Hulu has placed a direct-to-series order for a nine-hour-long adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling time-travel novel 11/22/63. The miniseries will be produced by King and J.J. Abrams, and a premiere date has not been set...
Creepy! But interesting.
The online magazine Aeon recently took a fascinating (and legit horrifying) look at the long and troubling history of the Ladies’ Home Journal’s trademarked ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?' column...
The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud
The Whispering Skull, the second book in Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series, is just as complex, entertaining, and ghost-stuffed as its predecessor. It has the same faults, too, but they remain happily minor...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud
This week's Book Giveaway is Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, which I reviewed here. I'll post our take on the sequel, The Whispering Skull, later today, but my hopes are high—Mr. Stroud nearly always delivers the goods, and a clever, witty ghost story sounds like the perfect way to ease into fall...
At least they don't all die in this one.
And speaking of film news, Variety reports that model Cara Delevingne is in talks to star in an adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns. I haven't read the book, but if the Wikipedia plot summary is to be believed it sounds like it actually has a surprising amount in common with I Know What You Did Last Summer...
If 90s fashion trends continue, maybe they can recycle costumes?
According to Deadline, Sony Pictures is planning a new film adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer, Lois Duncan's 1973 horror/suspense novel of the same name. The book already inspired a very successful slasher film (and sequel) in the late 90s, so I guess the world's crying out for a reboot...
Skink—No Surrender, by Carl Hiaasen
Much has been made of the fact that Skink—No Surrender is Carl Hiaasen's first book for teenagers, but there isn't much of a difference between this and his books for either adult or child readers. If you're already a fan of Hiaasen's writing, get ready for another installment of Florida-specific weirdness. If you're a teen reader who is unfamiliar with Hiaasen... well, this might be a tougher sell...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Skink—No Surrender, by Carl Hiaasen
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Carl Hiaasen's Skink—No Surrender. People are making a big deal out of the fact that this Hiaasen's first novel aimed at teen readers, so I'm interested to discover what separates it from his previous books for adults and children. (Swearing, but just a little? Non-explicit sex? Semi-detailed descriptions of alligators eating people?) Sadly, one thing is already clear: there's no sign of the vivid, pop-art cover style...
No, thanks.
Yeah, this is never gonna happen: according to THR, Televisa USA (creator of Lifetime's Devious Maids) has acquired the TV and digital rights to Anne Rice's best-selling Sleeping Beauty trilogy. The article indicates that they're hoping to turn the books into a Fifty Shades of Grey-esque TV series, but...
Depressing.
According to the Pew Research Center's annual report on reading in in the United States, fully 24% of American adults read no books in 2013...
Sammy Keyes and The Kiss Goodbye, by Wendelin Van Draanen
After eighteen installments, Wendelin Van Draanen is ending her award-winning Sammy Keyes series. The final book, Sammy Keyes and The Kiss Goodbye, was released this week, and it's a creative and genuinely sweet send-off...
Good omens indeed.
According to io9, BBC Radio has announced that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are collaborating on the first successful dramatization (after many, many attempts) of their 1990 classic Good Omens, to air this December...
The Lotus Caves on TV
Apparently, TV producer Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies fame) tried developing a Syfy TV adaptation of our beloved John Christopher's 1969 young adult sci-fi novel The Lotus Caves. Syfy declined to pick up the pilot as a series, but...
Gameboard of the Gods, by Richelle Mead
To do her justice, Richelle Mead is not lazy. Her Vampire Academy series is successful enough that many authors would have settled for simply producing more of the same, but she has chosen instead to return to her adult paranormal-fiction roots, creating the sci-fi/fantasy series Age of X...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Gameboard of the Gods, by Richelle Mead
This week's Book Giveaway is Richelle Mead's Gameboard of the Gods. I've found Richelle Mead's adult novels to be even more hit-or-miss than her Vampire Academy books (and let's face it: those are pretty spotty, too), so here's hoping this is one for the "hit" column...
Lois Lane gets the YA treatment
According to the website DC Women Kicking Ass, Lois Lane will be starring in a YA novel by author Gwenda Bond and published by Capstone/Switch, to be released next May...
A disappearing breed
NPR recently posted a depressing article about the loss of librarians in Chicago's more than 600 public schools. As the districts are facing tough financial choices, more and more librarians are being reassigned from libraries to classrooms. Illinois does not require library instruction, so schools won't face any political or financial repercussions...
Visions, by Kelley Armstrong
The second book in Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series has recently been released, and it has the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor: I continue to find the heroine about as emotionally engaging as a roll of paper towels, but I am 100% invested in figuring out the whys and wherefores of the world Armstrong has created...
Gross, gross, gross
Margaret Talbot over at The New Yorker recently posted an article that perfectly sums up my feelings about the deeply creepifying new cover art for Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...
Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
Carry On, Jeeves is a collection of ten of P.G. Wodehouse's early Jeeves and Wooster short stories. Nine are told from the point of view of Bertie Wooster, a wealthy, genial, mentally negligible young Englishman; the tenth is narrated by Jeeves, Bertie's unflappable and infinitely resourceful valet. There are no surprises in a Jeeves and Wooster short story...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
In honor of back-to-school week, I've chosen something soothing for this week's Book Giveaway: Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. It isn't my favorite Jeeves-and-Wooster collection, but it's pretty much ideal reading for anyone feeling overwhelmed by constant demands for calculators, kleenex, and signed permission slips...
The Lowly Worm returns
NPR informs me that there's a new Richard Scarry book coming out this month (despite Scarry's death in 1994). Scarry's son, Richard "Huck" Scarry Jr., claims to have found the partially-finished manuscript for Richard Scarry's Best Lowly Worm Book Ever! in his father's Swiss chalet, and decided to complete it himself...
Mollocking
I suspect this will be (unintentionally) hilarious: according to Variety, BBC One has announced the cast for its upcoming adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley’s Lover...
Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner
Inspired by Robert Lynn Asprin's long-running Thieves' World series, editor and author Terri Windling created the shared-world Borderland series in 1985. Borderland was followed by 1986's Bordertown and 1991's Life on the Border, and in 2011, twelve years after the publication of The Essential Bordertown, the series was revived by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, with Windling's blessing and participation...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black
This week we're giving away a copy of Welcome to Bordertown, a collection of short stories and poetry set in Terri Windling's "Bordertown" Universe and edited by Holly Black. The anthology includes some big names (Jane Yolen, Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, etc.), but I'm most excited about the short story by Annette Curtis Klause, whose book releases are way too few and far between...