Some things should not become brands.
Okay, this news makes me MEGA uncomfortable: there are apparently THREE Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl adaptations in the works, one of which is going to be animated movie(?!?), one of which is a live-action feature film, and one of which is apparently unauthorized...
Awards season
This year's Newbery Medal winner was just announced: Kate DiCamillo's Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, from Candlewick Press. In addition, Publishers Weekly posted a helpful...
Omens, by Kelley Armstrong
Omens, the first book in Kelley Armstrong's new Cainsville series, perfectly encapsulates my feelings about her writing as a whole: her plots are solid and her mysteries intriguing, but her characters lack charm. I get ridiculously invested in finding out what happens to Armstrong's protagonists, but rarely do I care about the protagonists themselves...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Tell Me Lies and Crazy For You, by Jennifer Crusie
This week's Book Giveaway is a two-pack: Jennifer Crusie's Tell Me Lies and Crazy for You, which we reviewed here a few years ago. I'm trying to make some space on our bookshelves, and we were lucky enough to be sent multiple copies of Ms. Crusie's books, so you can expect one more Crusie-themed giveaway in the next few weeks. I have accepted (grudgingly) that...
The Naturals, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
We have been enjoying Jennifer Lynn Barnes's books for years—all the way back to 2008's The Squad: Perfect Cover. Her early stories were fun, if shaky, but it's been a pleasure to follow the steady improvement of her work. So many authors have one good (or good-ish) idea and go downhill from there; Barnes is among the few who have sharpened their style with every book...
These Broken Stars on TV
Publishers Weekly informs me that Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner's novel These Broken Stars is going to become a TV show. The book—which I've been seeing in the kids' sections of local bookstores—was published last month and is the first installment in the "Starbound" science-fiction trilogy...
Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and Prediction: edited by Carrie Ryan
Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and Prediction is a collection of short stories written by a bunch of well-known YA authors and edited by The Forest of Hands and Teeth author Carrie Ryan. Don't let the supernatural-horror cover art fool you: the "predictions" in these stories range from Greek mythology-style prophecies of doom to hopeful signs in lovely teen romances...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Foretold, edited by Carrie Ryan
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Foretold, a collection of short stories edited by Carrie Ryan, all of which deal (although some of them pretty distantly) with predictions and prophecies. The cover art looks totally gloomy, but the stories in this collection run the gamut from goofy to romantic to creepy, offering something for a wide variety of readers. I'll post our full review later today...
A little gift for me
I recently saw this title in the children's section of a local bookstore: Ballad, by French comic artist and illustrator Blexbolex. The book is both absolutely gorgeous (the quality of this image doesn't do it justice, trust me—the actual colors are much darker and richer) and weird as hell...
A Rogue By Any Other Name, by Sarah MacLean
After hearing absolutely glowing reports of Sarah MacLean's romance novels, I picked up a copy of the first book in her most recent series, A Rogue By Any Other Name. It's been quite some time since I last read a straight-up romance, and my hopes that I had found an entertaining new author to follow were high...
Books and jewelry
Sourcebooks is sponsoring a contest on BookPage in celebration of their new reprints of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic Anne of Green Gables books. The grand prize is two Tiffany & Co. sterling silver key pendants, the 5 second place winners will each receive...
The Dirt Diary, by Anna Staniszewski
The Dirt Diary, the first book in Anna Staniszewski's latest series for middle readers, centers around eighth-grader Rachel Lee, a shy, awkward girl with a passion for baking. When her parents split up, Rachel steals nearly $300 from her college fund and buys a plane ticket to Florida, hoping to fly down and talk some sense into her loving but flighty father. Rachel needs to replace the money before her mother finds out...
An Interview with Anna Staniszewski
We recently had the opportunity to interview Anna Staniszewski, author of the new middle-grade novel The Dirt Diary, and ask her some burning questions about inspiring creativity in children, her future writing plans, and brownie recipes. We've posted her responses below (along with a brief author bio) and will be featuring our review of The Dirt Diary later today...
Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas
Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass is the second teen-girl assassin book I've read in the past few months, and while I preferred Robin LaFevers's Grave Mercy (which sang to my very soul), Maas's offering is pretty fun, too. Between the two of them, “Ruthless killer” is fast becoming one of my favorite types of fantasy heroines...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass. I am told I can expect tremendous things from this story, but I keep getting distracted by the shirt the heroine appears to be wearing on the cover. Is that... ribbon? How does it even work? I will ponder this, and post my review later today...
Rosemary in Paris
More news about NBC's upcoming miniseries take on Rosemary's Baby: according to Deadline, actress Zoe Saldana has taken on the lead role, and the film will be set in Paris. I don't know, guys, but I'm feeling weirdly excited about this. Saldana is obviously a HUGE upgrade over Carrie Underwood...
I suspect this is a bad idea.
Slashfilm recently posted the first official image and plot summary for Disney's upcoming film adaptation of Judith Viorst's classic kids' book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. According to the article...
360-degree books
These paper books created by Japanese graphic designer and architect Yusuke Oono are spectacular. According to the "Art and Visual Culture" blog This is Colossal, the artist...
Still so pretty...
A trailer has turned up for the upcoming Rurouni Kenshin sequel Rurouni Kenshin: the Great Kyoto Fire Arc, and while I'm not quite as excited as I was for the first film, I'm still pretty stoked. The first movie was beautifully shot and perfectly cast, but I got more than a little irritated with the sword-fighting heroine's constant bouts of utter uselessness, which forced the hero to rescue her from her own stupidity again... and again... and again...
Another step forward
See that little bar on the right? The one above the long ad, with the bird on it? Yes, dear readers, today Wordcandy joined Twitter, once again bringing us up to date with the cutting-edge technology of, oh, 2007 or so...
Palace of Spies, by Sarah Zettel
We had such high hopes for Palace of Spies, the first book in Sarah Zettel's new YA trilogy. Zettel's writing is consistently solid, she chose an unusual time period for her setting, and she avoided the cover art controversy that has dogged her otherwise-excellent Dust Girl books. The end result, sadly, fell a hair short of our dreams, but let's face it: even Zettel's B-grade work still stands head and shoulders above...
Teardrop, by Lauren Kate
In the author's note following her novel Teardrop, Lauren Kate shares the following story: once, when she was crying, her husband reached out and swiped a tear from her cheek, blinking it into his own eye. If that's the kind of thing that strikes you as indescribably romantic, Teardrop is the book for you. If (like me) your reaction hovers somewhere between “Ew” and “...why?”, move right along...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Palace of Spies, by Sarah Zettel
This week's Book Giveaway title is Palace of Spies, the first book in a historical YA series by Dust Girl author Sarah Zettel. Our review will go up tomorrow morning, seeing as we still have to post our thoughts on the Book Giveaway title we featured over our winter break: Lauren Kate's Teardrop...
My birthday is coming up.
With the exception of our Weekly Book Giveaway pick, we are taking the two weeks off between December 23rd and January 1st, but this is too magical not to share: the Creative Action Network has partnered with the Harvard Bookstore to offer a series of beautiful artist-designed classic book editions that can be printed on demand...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Teardrop, by Lauren Kate
Our current Weekly Book Giveaway pick is Teardrop, the first book in a new trilogy from popular YA author Lauren Kate. Her Fallen series was hit-or-miss, but here's hoping she's learned something along the way...
More monkeys
I always wonder about authors like Pierre Boulle, who wrote both The Bridge Over The River Kwai and the novel that inspired Planet of the Apes. That's a wide-ranging literary legacy, you know? I'm sure more people have read The Bridge Over The River Kwai than La Planète des singes, but certainly more people have watched The Planet of the Apes than read the two books put together. Anyway, Boulle's monkey book is the gift that keeps on giving...
Ridiculously cool
Clearly, nothing says "holiday spirit" like the sex-and-death world of Game of Thrones, so we all have to be grateful to interaction designer* and storyteller Krystal Higgins for providing us with ten incredible (and free) GoT-inspired snowflake patterns...
Sacred and Splendor, by Elana K. Arnold
Sacred and Splendor, the first two novels from YA author Elana K. Arnold, are ambitious, creative... and totally devoid of editorial judgment or restraint. The books contain a number of intriguing ideas, but the sum total is a hot mess...
My eyes remain dry.
The Guardian posted an article about a trio of unpublished J.D. Salinger short stories that recently leaked online. The transcripts are apparently accurate, and have lead to considerable hand-wringing for Salinger's fans, who are torn between their desire to read the difficult-to-obtain* stories before Salinger's approved publication date of January 27th, 2060...