Testing, testing
Slate recently posted an interesting article by David Z. Hambrick and Christopher Chabris about the effectiveness of the SAT. The authors feel the test is far more effective (and that SAT prep companies are far less effective) than many recent articles have made them out to be...
MetaMaus, by Art Spiegelman
I've had a copy of Art Spiegelman's MetaMaus gathering dust on my to-be-read bookshelf for almost three years now. I have always hesitated to review it, believing that Spiegelman's most devoted fans probably leapt upon it like starving lions the moment it was published, and suspecting that it would be of little interest to anyone else. I still think that's true, frankly, but as more universities and high schools assign Maus in their classrooms, it seems increasingly possible...
Weekly Book Giveaway: MetaMaus, by Art Spiegelman
Due to a crippling case of... well, laziness, mostly, I didn't get as much done last week as I planned to, which means our Comics Week is now two weeks long. (Sorry, non-comics readers.) However, that does mean we have another comic-related Book Giveaway: Art Spiegelman's MetaMaus, the ultra-fancy 2011 reprint of his Pulitzer prize–winning Maus, complete with loads of bonus materials and a DVD...
So close
We're rapidly zeroing in on 2014's Free Comic Book Day (23 days and counting), and the available titles have been released. If you're particularly masochistic, you can apparently read a shojo manga-style story called Les Miserables: The Fall of Fantine. Good times abound! (That's a lie.) Personally, I'm torn between...
Stand down
If you, like me, sincerely loathe perpetual romantic waffler Archie Andrews, you've probably seen all those exciting "Archie to Die!" headlines. Don't get your hopes up, guys: according to CNN, the only Archie who is going to shuffle off this mortal coil is the star of the Life With Archie comics, a spin-off series that...
It could be internet-famous!
April Fools jokes generally leave me cold, but I did enjoy these fake book titles from the Dear Author website. And while I have my doubts about anything written by someone named "Chastity Velvet", and—no joke—I have a bunch of YA books that look exactly like their Shattered Brokeness...
Little Lulu: Vol. 1, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp
The character of Little Lulu was created in 1935 by Marjorie Henderson Buell, beginning life as the subject of a series of gag panels in The Saturday Evening Post and eventually becoming the star of an ongoing comic strip. In 1945, she graduated to her own comic book series, written by John Stanley and illustrated by Irving Tripp. In 2004, Dark Horse Books picked up the rights to reprint the Little Lulu stories, making Lulu's adventures available to a new generation of readers...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Little Lulu: Vol. 1, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp
It's Spring Break, and we're celebrating by focusing on comic books—including several titles that we are seriously behind on reviewing (like the past year of Buffy). We're kicking things off by giving away a classic: the first "Giant Size" volume of John Stanley and Irving Tripp's long-running Little Lulu strip. Our review will follow later today...
In my defense, it's a super-fun game.
I'm pretty sure this adorable Robin Hood-themed print from Ohio artist James Graves (currently on sale at HelpInk for $12) should inspire more noble thoughts than: "Dude, I haven't played Conquests of the Longbow in forever...
Horror redux
British publishing house Faber & Faber has announced the publication of several new editions of the "strange stories" of horror writer Robert Aickman...
Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher
I admit I'm a little behind the times when it comes to Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, seeing as, uh, the final book was released in 2009. But you know what that means? No waiting, not even for public library editions! And if you want to buy your own copies, everything's in paperback now! You can probably even find used versions. Why, it's almost like I put off reading these stories for almost a decade... for you.
Weekly Book Giveaway: Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher
This week's Book Giveaway is the first book in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, Furies of Calderon. I'm only a few chapters in, but so far this appears to be straight fantasy, not the more tongue-in-cheek style featured in his Harry Dresden books. Who knows, though? Maybe he's just holding off on introducing a perverted, hard-to-shut-up skull sidekick until a later chapter...
Caaandy...
It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Publishers Weekly has posted a helpful round-up of Penguin's upcoming year-long celebration plans...
Mystery cake
I have an ongoing fascination with heritage recipes, despite being A) deeply lazy, and B) vegetarian, which severely limits the stuff I'm ever going to actually make. (Sorry, 1901 edition of The White House Cookbook; I'm never going to try that recipe for roasted squirrel.) So I was pretty stoked to pick up a copy of America's Best Lost Recipes, written by the editors of Cook's Country magazine, and read with purely academic interest...
Sign me up
The second trailer is out for X-Men: Days of Future Past, and I am so excited. Sure, I'll be there for the new Captain America movie... but I'll be thinking of X-Men. Everything about this speaks to me: the shamelessly melodramatic music, the glowering faces, the Buffy-esque power strides...
I do like the cover, though.
The website Word and Film recently posted an interview with Jennifer Graham, who co-wrote (with series creator Rob Thomas) the first Veronica Mars novel, The Thousand Dollar Tan Line. I admit I have my doubts...
The Mirk and Midnight Hour, by Jane Nickerson
When I saw the press notes for Jane Nickerson's The Mirk and Midnight Hour, which describe the book as a "haunting love story and suspenseful thriller" inspired by the Tam Lin fairytale, I applauded the author's ambition. She was taking a risk: Tam Lin doesn't have the universal appeal of, say, Cinderella, plus there are already two extremely well-regarded YA versions out there...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Mirk and Midnight Hour, by Jane Nickerson
This week's Book Giveaway title is The Mirk and Midnight Hour, the second YA novel from Jane Nickerson. Like her first book Strands of Bronze and Gold (which we reviewed here), The Mirk and Midnight Hour is inspired by a not-exactly-Disney-friendly fairytale: the Scottish ballad Tam Lin...
In a word: gross
I don't know why I'm so offended by the idea of a big-budget CGI Peanuts movie. I don't have particularly fond memories of the comics, and the strip has obviously inspired plenty of animated adaptations, but...
So ridiculous
Publishers Weekly has posted an update on the decision by the South Carolina House of Representatives to cut the College of Charleston's funding by $52,000 and University of South Carolina-Upstate's funding by $17,142...
This is my surprised face.
I am legitimately stunned to be writing this (seeing as I just gave James Dashner's The Kill Order my nastiest review of the year), but the full trailer for The Maze Runner actually looks interesting...
Season of the Witch, by Mariah Fredericks
Mariah Fredericks's Season of the Witch hopes for the literary equivalent of having one's cake and eating it too: the author tries to lure in readers with fantasy/horror stuff, but she also wants her story to be taken seriously as a real-world exploration of grief, revenge, and teenage power dynamics. I wish she had committed to one approach or the other, although the resulting mash-up is still remarkably entertaining...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Season of the Witch, by Mariah Fredericks
This week's Book Giveaway is Mariah Fredericks's Season of the Witch, which I'm told is a psychological thriller set in an exclusive New York prep school, not a supernatural romance. (I enjoy the way the cover art is purposefully vague, presumably in an effort to attract both audiences.) Our review will go up later today...
I want one!
Okay, I love this story: NPR's article "Advice For Eating Well On A Tight Budget, From A Mom Who's Been There" introduces readers to JuJu Harris, a "culinary educator" and SNAP outreach coordinator with the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, a nonprofit group devoted to pushing for...
An impressively terrible decision
According to Variety, Warner Bros. is making a Peter Pan origin movie slated for summer 2015. They have already cast Hugh Jackman and Garrett Hedlund as pirates, and just announced that Rooney Mara will play Tiger Lily. Clearly anticipating some controversy, the studio was careful to describe their film as a "multi-racial/international" production, and mentioned...
Anne Rice tries again
According to Dread Central, Anne Rice is going to write another installment of her Vampire Chronicles series. The book will be called Prince Lestat, and the author briefly described the plot...
MTV shows its age
People have been justifiably incensed by the MTV Movie Award nominees for 'Best Hero', which are 100% male. (And no, there's no 'Best Heroine' category.) Despite the huge and ongoing success of the Hunger Games adaptations, Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen lost out to Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Henry Cavill's Clark Kent, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins, and Channing Tatum's, uh, whoever he played in White House Down, which nobody saw...
The Kill Order, by James Dashner
In 1988, John Christopher wrote When The Tripods Came, a prequel to the Tripods series, his famous 1960s science fiction trilogy. Creepy and deeply weird, When The Tripods Came simultaneously established the post-apocalyptic world featured in the main series and worked as a standalone novel. James Dashner's novel The Kill Order attempts to...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Kill Order by James Dashner
This week's Book Giveaway is James Dashner's The Kill Order, the prequel to his bestselling Maze Runner series. I've never read the Maze Runner books, but I'm choosing to believe that makes me the ideal person to review a prequel (no preconceptions!), rather than, y'know, totally unprepared. My review should go up this evening...
Discount Armageddon, Midnight Blue-Light Special, and Half-Off Ragnarok, by Seanan McGuire
The third book in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series hit bookstores last week, making it officially Way Past Time for me to feature this fantastic (in all senses of the word) urban fantasy series on the site. Do your best to ignore the cover art—I promise this isn't a R-rated story about an anime schoolgirl gone rogue—and believe me when I say this series is wildly fun...