Soapy!
I have watched the first four episodes of Netflix's new show The Society (billed as a modern YA take on The Lord of the Flies, but with a supernatural twist), and I am giving it a somewhat wobbly thumbs-up. It took me two full episodes to be able to tell most of the characters apart (the Elle and Allie actresses were particularly confusing), and...
I'm so proud
I don't know how I missed this, but I was delighted to discover that Simon Armitage—author of my all-time favorite poem, "I am very bothered"—was announced last month as the UK's next Poet Laureate...
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 14, by Kiyohiko Azuma
It's been years since I read a volume of Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba&!, and even longer since I've reviewed one. Part of that is due to the author's extremely intermittent publishing schedule (there was a three-year gap between his last two books), but a lot of it was because it took me a long, loooong time to adjust to the editorial changes that took place between the fifth and sixth volumes...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Yotsuba&!, Vol. 14, by Kiyohiko Azuma
This week's Book Giveway is the 14th volume of Kiyohiko Azuma's universally beloved Yotsuba&!. It's taken me years, but I've finally adjusted (mostly) to the new publisher and their translation style, so I think I can give this a fair shake. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 7/5/19...
Hadn't she already suffered enough?
NPR just posted a fascinating article about Life With Picasso, a memoir written by French painter Françoise Gilot, who served as Pablo Picasso's "muse, manager, and support system" during a decade-long relationship. Apparently, while it was A-okay for Picasso to use Gilot in his work (he used her likeness in hundreds of paintings), many...
Hmm
I'm not sure how I feel about these angled bookshelves, which were recently featured in a home decor article on The Cut. They give off a vibe of fanciness for fanciness's sake, which I usually dislike, but...
Yes spoilers
And in sharp contrast to our earlier post, the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Vertigo Comics' miniseries The Kitchen gives away pretty much the entire plot. On the other hand, the presence of Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss...
No spoilers
Good job, trailer editors: I have literally no idea what this film adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Goldfinch is about, other than an explosion in a museum, a rather depressing painting of a chained bird...
The Wind Off The Small Isles, by Mary Stewart
If you, like me, consider yourself to be a Mary Stewart fan, you might be concerned that you have never heard of her book The Wind Off The Small Isles, which her publisher describes as a “beloved modern classic”. But take heart, dear readers, because it turns out this description is utter garbage—Stewart produced several beloved modern classics, but this isn't one of them...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Wind Off the Small Isles, by Mary Stewart
This week's Book Giveaway is The Wind Off the Small Isles, by Mary Stewart. I'm really happy that Hodder Books reprinted this little-known 1968 novella (along with a recently rediscovered short story, "The Lost One"), but I'm not sure I would describe it as a "beloved modern classic". Maybe "long-lost treasure", if they were looking for a superlative...
It's not all about lake monsters, though. (Alas.)
According to Lithub, Hulu has ordered a series based on Nathan Ballingrud’s Shirley Jackson award-winning short story collection North American Lake Monsters. The book has great reviews and an even better cover...
BOOOO
Tea and literature are two of my favorite subjects, so I opened this recent NPR article expecting nothing but joy... only to discover a horrifying announcement about a link between hot tea and esophageal cancer...
Damp
There's a full-length trailer out for DC's upcoming Swamp Thing series, and it looks extremely dark, both literally and figuratively. I'm not sure if this is a purposeful attempt at building up suspense or an easy way for DC to save on their FX budget...
We Have Always Lived In the Castle, by Shirley Jackson
A recent film adaptation has renewed interest in Shirley Jackson's 1962 novella We Have Always Lived in the Castle. As a scary-movie weenie, I stuck to reading the synopsis... which ended up irritating me in its own right, because Jackson's story didn't actually need a bunch of tacked-on action/horror sequences to be creepy as hell...
Weekly Book Giveaway: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson
Our current Book Giveaway is Shirley Jackson's 1962 gothic novel We Have Always Lived at the Castle, the inspiration for the recent film of the same name. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 6/8/19...
The Queen 2.0
I'm so pleased to see this has been expanded (although the original article was not exactly a quick read): according to The New York Times, Josh Levin has fleshed out his article...
Grandparents take note
Marie Kondo is writing a children's book that ties right in with her overall mission: according to LitHub, it will be called Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship, and it will be...
Clear as mud
George R.R. Martin addressed the controversial ending of Game of Thrones on his blog recently, answering his fans' most urgent question: will the books end the same way as the show?
"Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes."
I hope that cleared everything up for you, GoT readers...
Art budget well spent
According to The Mary Sue, there's going to be a one-shot Buffy the Vampire Slayer prequel comic coming out in August from BOOM! Studios, called The Chosen Ones. It will apparently tell the stories of three historical...
Salty!
If you, like me, are amused by reading scorched-earth book reviews (they're also the most fun to write!), you should definitely check out NPR's review of Fox News host Mark Levin's Unfreedom of the Press, which includes the following paragraph...
Storm Cursed, by Patricia Briggs
Patricia Briggs is one of the most reliable fantasy writers on my mental list of books to take on a plane. She's less pretentious than Seanan McGuire, way less gross than Laurell K. Hamilton, and better at romance than Charlaine Harris...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Storm Cursed, by Patricia Briggs
Our latest Book Giveaway is Storm Cursed, the 11th book in Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson series. (Why are the titles in this series so generic-fantasy-lite? I've already read the book, and I still couldn't tell you what "storm cursed" refers to.) A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/31/19...
This does not seem like a good use of funds.
If you're a hardcore James Bond fan with £2.75 million to spare and space in your garage, Aston Martin has announced the details of their limited run of 1964 DB5s, inspired by the one Sean Connery drove in Goldfinger. The cars will include...
It's her one big scene!
As longtime readers of the site know, I frequently find Neil Gaiman a little tough to take, but I'm happy to see that he held out for an important element of the upcoming Good Omens adaptation: the death scene of Agnes Nutter, which was written by co-author Terry Pratchett...
SCARY
The trailer is out for We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the upcoming adaptation of Shirley Jackson's horror/suspense novel of the same name. I tend to get this title confused with Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle...
Time to match some funds
There has been another twist in the saga of this particular copy of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, which belonged to the judge who presided over the book's 1960 obscenity trial: while the book was sold at auction last fall for £56,250, the UK government has blocked its release...
The Plotters, by Un-Su Kim
I am a big fan of the John Wick movies. They're stylish, they're fast-paced, and the violence is so over-the-top it is essentially meaningless. It's like a ballet about a bloodbath. Sadly (for my movie-watching plans, not for the rest of my life), I have a one-year-old baby, so my chances of seeing John Wick 3 are pretty remote right now, but the fine people at Doubleday sent me a copy of Un-Su Kim's The Plotters, which checks a lot of the same boxes...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Plotters, by Un-su Kim
This week's Book Giveaway is The Plotters, an action-and-suspense thriller that is as far from this as humanly possible, while still being shelved in roughly the same section. A full review will follow shortly...