Ugh times a million
I've been struggling to choose what makes me the angriest about Simon & Schuster's decision to pay Milo Yiannopoulos (editor of Breitbart Tech, alt-right pundit, and all-around racist asshole) what Yiannopoulos described as "a wheelbarrow full of money" for his upcoming book, Dangerous, and I think I've finally figured it out: it's Simon & Schuster's...
The Dead Seekers, by Barb and J.C. Hendee
Barb and J.C. Hendee's new novel The Dead Seekers has a very specific target audience: people hoping for a serious take on movies like Van Helsing or Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Set in the same world as the Hendees' best-selling Noble Dead series, The Dead Seekers features a vaguely Eastern European setting, loads of ghosts, and two gloomy protagonists—Tris, an uptight ghost-slayer for hire, and Mari, a young woman determined to avenge her murdered family...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Dead Seekers, by Barb and J.C. Hendee
This week's Book Giveaway is The Dead Seekers, the first book in a new series by Barb and J.C. Hendee. The Dead Seekers is set in the same world as the authors' bestselling Noble Dead saga, but should (hopefully) work as a standalone. A full review will follow shortly...
Big budget
According to LaineyGossip, Julia Roberts has signed on to a TV adaptation of Maria Semple’s recent novel Today Will Be Different. Between this, that Reese Witherspoon show, and...
Shopping for Slackers: 2.0
Last year we posted a list called "Shopping for Slackers", aimed squarely at people who do most of their holiday shopping Christmas Eve. We actually stand by most of last year's picks, with a handful of updates, so we thought we would both link to the old list and post a couple of new ideas...
My birthday's coming up.
I was flipping through the artwork featured on the Creative Action Network's website, and in addition to many gorgeous images inspired by our national parks, their stable of artists have also produced some really great literary images. I'm particularly impressed by this Don Quixote print, but...
Holiday Housekeeping
A quick note to our readers: posting will be sporadic over the next two weeks. New material will appear... but when and how often is a mystery (even to us). So if you don't get a chance to stop by, please accept our best wishes for...
The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily is the sequel to 2010's Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. Once again, the authors flip between the two title characters' points of view, as Dash and Lily drift around New York at the holidays. A year into their relationship, the once-devoted couple is struggling on several fronts, but don't worry—in Cohn and Levithan's books, there are few problems that can't be fixed with an impossibly twee grand gesture...
Holiday Book Giveaway: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
Today's Holiday Book Giveaway is David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, the sequel to 2010's Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, which we reviewed here. It's also the first book we've read all week that isn't about murder or mayhem...
Holiday Book Giveaway: Santa, Baby, by Jennifer Crusie and others
Today's Holiday Book Giveaway pick is the 2006 romantic short story collection Santa, Baby, which we originally reviewed here. The highlight of this collection was undoubtedly Jennifer Crusie's novella Hot Toy, which I see has recently been...
Envious Casca, by Georgette Heyer
If you find Georgette Heyer's best-known romance novels, to borrow a phrase from Jane Austen, rather too light and bright and sparkling, her mysteries are considerably nastier. Heyer had a gift for creating caustic, almost misanthropic characters, and nowhere is this displayed to better effect than in the pages of Envious Casca, her 1941 locked-room whodunit...
Holiday Book Giveaway: Envious Casca/The Christmas Party, by Georgette Heyer
Today's Book Giveaway is Georgette Heyer's Envious Casca, possibly my favorite country-house mystery of all time. Please note: Sourcebooks has recently reprinted this novel as A Christmas Party. I sympathize with any publisher's desire to get their hands on some of that sweet Christmas-book money (who doesn't want to read about murdering relatives during the holidays?), but...
Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays, by Mike MacDonald and Jilly Gagnon
Written by Onion alums Mike MacDonald and Jilly Gagnon, Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays is an R-rated choose-your-own-adventure story that takes you through countless holiday misadventures, ranging from moderately gloomy to gross as hell. The set-up is simple: your family is out of town, and your relationship is too new for a shared Christmas, so...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays, by Mike MacDonald and Jilly Gagnon
Last week was devoted to our suggestions for stuff that we want for Christmas; this week we're thinking about others (occasionally, in between cookie breaks). Brace yourselves for five days of holiday-themed book giveaways, dear readers, beginning with Mike MacDonald and Jilly Gagnon's Choose Your Own Misery: The Holidays. A review will follow shortly...
Holiday Gift Pick #8
Gift Idea #8: Girls Next Door mugs
Okay, this one is both a little hard to explain and aimed squarely at the most hardcore nerds among us (me included; I already requested one of these for Christmas). French artist Rebecca Morse's webcomic Girls Next Door started life...
Holiday Gift Pick #7
Gift Idea #7: Pop Chart Lab's 100 Essential Novels Scratch-off Chart
I'm not a gambler, so I've never been able to experience the mysterious delights of scratch-off tickets. This gorgeous poster...
Holiday Gift Pick #6
Gift Idea #6: See America: A Celebration of Our National Parks & Treasured Sites
2016 is the centennial anniversary of the National Parks Service, In celebration, the artists at the Creative Action Network partnered with the National Parks Conservation Association to create this book...
Holiday Gift Pick #5
Gift Idea #5: Uncle Goose Alphabet Blocks
Okay, this suggestion IS for little kids. Uncle Goose produces absolutely gorgeous, 100% made-in-America wooden blocks. Their classic ABC blocks are lovely, but they make a wide variety of...
Holiday Gift Pick #4
Gift Idea #4: Jason Porath's Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics
Porath is a former professional animator, and his website Rejected Princesses is a fascinating, informative, and frequently genuinely moving read. This book tie-in features...
Holiday Gift Pick #3
Gift Idea #3: Mini Lumio Book Lamp
At $125, this is the most expensive item on this year's list, but it's just so cool. Here's the item description...
Holiday Gift Pick #2
Gift Idea #2: ThinkGeek's Harry Potter-themed 1000-piece puzzle
There are actually two versions of this puzzle. We prefer the vintage-travel-style "Ride the Hogwarts Express" one; but the Marauders' Map one is okay too. Both retail for $15.99...
Holiday Gift Pick #1
It is time once again, dear readers, for our annual Holiday Gift Guide! We're going to spend the week showcasing some of our favorite book-themed gift ideas, which vary widely in style and price point...
Stars of Fortune, by Nora Roberts
I really only had one problem with Nora Roberts's Stars of Fortune, but it's a big one: Roberts simply isn't very good at writing fantasy. She keeps trying, but the genre does not play to her strengths...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Stars of Fortune, by Nora Roberts
This week's Book Giveaway title is Nora Roberts's Stars of Fortune, the first book in her Guardians trilogy. If past experience is anything to go by, I'll probably have a LOT of complaints, but who knows? Sometimes Roberts decides to knock it out of the park. Plus, the final book in the series comes out tomorrow, so at least I won't need to wait if I decide to finish it...
Apropos, but...
Well, Entertainment Weekly has the first images from the upcoming miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and they look creepy as hell. That is, of course, an accurate...
Unexpected bedfellows
Sports Illustrated's The Cauldron has posted an essay by Erin Finnegan about the intersection between sports stories and romance novels. I'm not sure I buy all of the author's arguments (I think the combination of wealth, fitness, and celebrity has a lot to do with the appeal of sports-star romance heroes), but...
Getting creative
Quartz recently published a fascinating article about Mei Fong, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter whose book, One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment, has been unable to find a Chinese-language publisher...
Great question
Yesterday, Literary Hub set out to solve one of the great mysteries of our time: "Who is the genius behind Merriam-Webster's social media?" The short answer is: a lot of people, but...
Lovely!
According to NPR, there is a long-unpublished H.G. Wells story that will finally be seeing the light of day. In its new issue, The Strand is publishing "The Haunted Ceiling", described as a short story...
Pride and Prejudice: Third Norton Critical Edition, by Jane Austen and edited by Donald J. Gray
When reviewing an annotated Jane Austen novel, I always want to emphasize that I am focusing solely on the quality of the critical content featured in this particular edition. (I don't have anything left to say about Pride and Prejudice other than it's amazing, and...