Mysterious
The official trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is out, and I'm assuming (based on the December release date) the producers have high hopes for it... but I'm not really seeing why. This is not a good trailer: the dialogue is clunky and clichéd, the biggest name involved (apart from Peter Jackson) is Hugo Weaving, and...
The Unknown Ajax, by Georgette Heyer
First published in 1959, Georgette Heyer's The Unknown Ajax is one of my all-time favorite books. It has a lot in common with The Grand Sophy—both are stories about a previously unknown relative showing up and taking charge of a troubled family—but The Unknown Ajax, happily, doesn't feature a scene with an offensive Jewish stereotype...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Unknown Ajax, by Georgette Heyer
This week's Book Giveaway is The Unknown Ajax, one of my favorite books by Georgette Heyer. The title refers to a character in one of Shakespeare's messier tragedies (Troilus and Cressida), but, thankfully, Heyer's storytelling is considerably more fun. A full review will follow shortly...
Beige pleather and inadequate fun
The MyModernMet online store recently launched a line of clutches designed by Elena Myloslavskaya of BAGatelle Studio. The three designs feature classic cover art from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, and cost $78 apiece. You'd think this would be right up my alley, but...
Not DC or Marvel, but it looks like it
The trailer is out for The Girl in the Spider's Web, Sony's attempt to re-launch the Lisbeth Salander series, this time starring The Crown's Claire Foy. They appear to have done everything possible to make this look like a superhero movie...
Interview rises again
Huh. There's been further news after our post about the demise of Interview, the long-running arts and culture magazine co-founded by Andy Warhol. According to WWD, there are plans for the magazine to almost immediately re-launch...
Personally, I'd go with a different slogan.
In light of the many literary adaptations currently appearing on HBO, the network has teamed up with the New York Public Library on a national campaign to celebrate summer reading. The campaign (which uses the undeniably dorky #ReadingIsLit hashtag, presumably in reference to HBO's Farenheit 451...
Excellent (if depressing) work
The #MeToo movement has made investigative journalists out of some unexpected sources, Eater NY among them: the culinary news site recently posted an in-depth look at the accusations facing celebrity chef Mario Batali. (It is a follow-up piece to an earlier article on the subject that they posted in December.) Eater should be proud...
Grey Sister, by Mark Lawrence
Grey Sister, the second book in Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor series, combines the magical schools and super-powered children of Harry Potter, the mystical sisterhood of Dune's Bene Gesserit, and more violence and looming ice than Game of Thrones. The various elements don't fuse together perfectly, but there are some A+ ideas in play...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Grey Sister, by Mark Lawrence
This week's Book Giveaway is Mark Lawrence's Grey Sister, the second installment in his Book of the Ancestor series. I was unexpectedly impressed by the first book in this series (so good, despite a lot of stomach-churn-y bits), so I'm looking forward to this sequel. A full review will follow shortly...
By popular(?) demand
According to Variety, Apple's streaming service has placed a straight-to-series order for a half-hour "comedic" series about 19th century poet Emily Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld. The series is described as a humorous look into the poet's world...
Bill Gates says so
Every year, Bill Gates puts out a list of recommended summer reading, and this year's picks were recently featured on Kottke. In related news, Gates is not the world's most persuasive speaker, but...
WHY
This seems like a waste of Jake Gyllenhaal, but whatever: he's not going to go hungry without a sweet Marvel multi-picture deal. According to LaineyGossip, Gyllenhaal has signed up to play Mysterio, the villain in the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel...
Act Like It, by Lucy Parker
In a year when most of the romance novels I've read have been a mild disappointment—even those that came highly recommended or were written by old favorites—I was thrilled to discover Lucy Parker's Act Like It. This short, ridiculously cute read by a new-to-me author more than meets my #1 romance novel requirement...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Act Like It, by Lucy Parker
This week's Book Giveaway is Lucy Parker's debut romance novel Act Like It, published in 2016. It's been a while since I've discovered such a promising new-to-me author, so I'm both excited (yay, she has two more books out!) and chagrined that I just started a month-long shopping ban (delayed gratification is for suckers!). A full review will follow shortly...
Farewell, Interview
According to The New York Times, Andy Warhol's Interview magazine is folding, nearly 50 years after it was founded. There have been rumors swirling for months about financial mismanagement (and, to be fair, it's a tough time for any magazine to survive), but...
I'd even pay FULL PRICE.
There are some big, awesome names indicating interest in making a movie adaptation of Marvel's Ms. Marvel: Mindy Khaling, Riz Ahmed, Jameela Jamil. Right now, I suspect the similarity of the Captain Marvel/Ms. Marvel names would cause confusion...
Historical romance with under-explored history
I was recently skimming the romance reviews on the website Dear Author, and I ran across the historical romance A Delicate Affair, written by Lindsay Evans and set in 1902. This is an unusual era for romance writers to explore, and I was even more intrigued by the novel's backstory...
A+++ choice
According to Publishers Weekly, the American Library Association has convinced former First Lady Michelle Obama to keynote the opening general session of their 2018 annual conference in New Orleans...
Big ideas, illustrated
io9 has an interview up with Jim Ottaviani, an author (and former nuclear engineer) who has written about several well-known scientists: Jane Goodall, Niels Bohr, and Richard Feynman...
The Sky is Yours, by Chandler Klang Smith
I picked up Chandler Klang Smith's novel The Sky is Yours for two reasons: I liked the cover art, and several reviewers compared it to a Jane Austen novel. I still like the cover art, but the Austen comparison is a total bait-and-switch. Both novelists touch on similar issues—sex, marriage, social position—but they're about as similar as cherry cough syrup and an actual cherry...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Sky is Yours, by Chandler Klang Smith
This week's Book Giveaway is Chandler Klang Smith's debut novel The Sky Is Yours, which I fully admit I picked due to its awesome cover art. Of course, I've been burned by seductive covers in the past, but hope springs eternal. A full review will follow shortly...
The story could have used some fresh blood (pardon the pun)
Slashfilm just informed me that Bryan Fuller is no longer attached to upcoming TV series adaptation of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I had no idea there was going to be a TV adaptation of these books, so there's nothing for me to mourn, but apparently it's still going to happen, albeit with Rice's son Christopher (also a writer) as executive producer...
Boooo
Another day, another depressing Stan Lee-related lawsuit. According to the BBC, Lee is suing Pow! Entertainment, the entertainment company he co-founded, for one billion dollars, alleging that...
He's a nice guy, though!
Man, there's so much to admire about James Patterson. He's ambitious and hard-working and, as this example proves, extremely generous... but he's still a straight-up terrible writer...
An overdue honor
Uh, I'm really not sure how I feel about the actual look of this portrait, but I thoroughly approve of the subject matter: Henrietta Lacks, unwitting cell donor and the subject of Rebecca Skloot's award-winning nonfiction book...
Captain Marvel, explained
LaineyGossip recently posted an article about the upcoming Captain Marvel film. This article is ostensibly about casting updates (Annette Bening is gonna be in it!), but it also offers a helpful guide to...
Burn Bright, by Patricia Briggs
Burn Bright is the fifth entry in Patricia Briggs' Alpha and Omega series, a spin-off from her popular Mercy Thompson books. The series centers around Charles and Anna, a mated werewolf pair. Anna is an Omega wolf, blessed (or cursed) with the ability to calm other werewolves. Charles, the son of the world's most famous werewolf, has spent countless years as his father's in-house assassin...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Burn Bright, by Patricia Briggs
This week's Book Giveaway is Patricia Briggs's latest Alpha and Omega novel, Burn Bright. I'm hoping this cover art isn't literal, because the idea of being tangled up in thorns is legit creepy. A full review will follow shortly...
Goals
Celebrating the re-release of her essay collection Meaty, author Samantha Irby was just featured on The New York Times' "By the Book" segment. Her answers, as ever, are refreshingly weird...