May 14
2006
While Mignon Good Eberhart’s name probably rings fewer bells for today’s readers than that of Dorothy Sayers or Margery Allingham, Eberhart spent half of the twentieth century being an extremely p...
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May 14
2006
Playwright and novelist Alexandre Dumas is so irrevocably linked in my mind with images of pre-Revolutionary France that it’s always a shock to remember that he actually wrote his books in the mid...
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Apr 2
2006
Jin Kobayashi is the author of School Rumble, a cheerfully bizarre manga with the tagline “Subtlety is for Wimps!”. School Rumble is the story of a sweet, dopey girl with a good heart, the cluele...
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Mar 21
2006
Bharati Mukherjee is the author of 1992's The Holder of the World. Mukherjee’s novel tells the stories of two women: Beigh Masters, a 20th century “asset hunter” who tracks down historical artifa...
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Mar 11
2006
Lauren Willig’s The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (and its sequels) feature two ongoing parallel stories: one about a modern-day scholar, and one about the people that she’s researching. T...
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Mar 11
2006
As everyone who spent any time around me in the fall of 2005 knows, I couldn't stand the most recent film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It played up the dramatic aspects of the story and played down everything else. I thought it was too short to do the story justice. The casting was all wrong. (I’m not saying Mr. Darcy wasn’t very pretty, because he totally was, but prettiness isn’t everything.) The whole thing felt like a commercial for a longer, better movie...
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Feb 18
2006
Elizabeth Peters is one of the three pen names used by the author known as MPM. (She has also written books under her real name, Barbara G. Mertz, and the name Barbara Michaels. However, we are ...
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Feb 18
2006
Megan Whalen Turner is the author of the excellent (possibly ongoing?) children’s fantasy series featuring The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. Borrowing freely from Greek my...
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Jan 24
2006
Stephenie Meyer is the author of Twilight, the only vampire novel with the distinction of being set in the town of Forks, Washington. Unfortunately Ms. Meyer just Googled Forks, rather than bothe...
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Jan 24
2006
Stephenie Meyer’s novel Twilight appealed to me for two reasons—I liked the cover, and my mom mentioned that it was a vampire story set in the town of Forks, Washington. If you’ve ever been to...
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Jan 11
2006
Jennifer Colt is the author of The Butcher of Beverly Hills, an action-packed story about two redheaded twin sisters (one an uptight university grad, the other a lesbian ex-con with a wickedly ben...
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Jan 11
2006
Diana Gabaldon wrote one truly remarkable book, followed by many inferior sequels. (Shades of Frank Herbert.) Read the wonderful romance/suspense/sci-fi novel Outlander and marvel at how intelli...
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Jan 7
2006
In the past two weeks Meg Cabot has released two brand-new standalone novels: the YA supernatural romance Avalon High and the mystery/suspense story Size 12 Is Not Fat. Both feature bright, funny...
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Dec 26
2005
Holly Black is the author of a series of excellent YA horror/fantasy novels: Valiant, Tithe, and Ironside, one of our Featured Book picks. Ms. Black is also one of the authors (along with Tony Di...
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Nov 25
2005
Epic fantasy authors David and Leigh Eddings are the authors of four massively entertaining series: The Belgariad, The Malloreon, The Elenium, and The Tamuli. Absolutely nothing about these books...
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Nov 25
2005
Born in 1926, Anne McCaffrey attended Radcliffe, got a degree in Slavic languages and literature, trained as a singer, and appeared in an Orff opretta. Clearly, this woman's brain is nothing to s...
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Nov 25
2005
According to Anne McCaffrey’s website, her first novel, 1967’s sci-fi/romance Restoree, was intended as “a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in sci-fi novels in the 50s and early 60s”...
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Oct 25
2005
When reading Miki Aihara’s Hot Gimmick series, it’s very important to keep a few things in mind: 1. It’s only manga. 2. No one actually behaves this way. (Hopefully.)3. No one is looking to thi...
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Oct 25
2005
Fuyumi Soryo is the author of Mars, one of the best-selling shōjo comics ever released in Japan. Mars is compulsively readable--the literary equivalent of a bag of potato chips--but it’s als...
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Oct 25
2005
If you’re in the mood for some classic “Who will this sweet, innocent girl end up with?” shōjo manga, you can’t go wrong with Nanaji Nagamu’s Parfait Tic. While this story has more than its ...
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Oct 25
2005
Kiyoko Arai’s Beauty Pop is the oft-told shōjo story of a quiet girl attending a high school that’s ruled by a group of gorgeous male bullies… but in Arai’s story, the bullies are the sons of...
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Oct 25
2005
Ichiha’s Pheromania Syndrome is yet another shōjo manga about a physically mismatched couple. Ichiha’s tall, masculine heroine, Hatori, is in love with her tiny, delicate (male) childhood fr...
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Oct 25
2005
Kamio Yoko’s Hana Yori Dango (English title: Boys Over Flowers) was a massively successful manga that ran for ELEVEN YEARS. (The author once said that toward the end of the series she found herse...
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Oct 25
2005
She’s not exactly a groundbreaking new talent, but Mimi Tajima’s stories (Koi Suru ¼, Ichigo Channel, and Aoi Spice) are consistently excellent examples of conventional shōjo manga. Tajima’s...
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Oct 25
2005
Hisaya Nakajo’s Hana-Kimi (original Japanese title: Hanazakari no Kimitachi E, English title: Hana-Kimi: For You in Full Blossom) is my favorite of the seemingly endless number of stories about a ...
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Oct 25
2005
Emura’s W-Juliet is one of those rare romances (of any type) that features a main couple that, in addition to being attracted to one another, are completely believable as friends. Despite an outw...
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Oct 25
2005
So-Hee Park is the author of the excellent Korean manhwa Goong. Goong is an alternate universe story about an ordinary high school girl forced to marry into the Korean royal family. (In Park’s w...
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Oct 24
2005
Yayoi Ogawa is the author of three josei mangas: Kimi ha Pet (English title: Tramps Like Us), Candy Life, and Baby Pop. Ogawa’s distinctive art style and truly bizarre romantic pairings have litt...
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Oct 24
2005
Tomoko Hayakawa’s Perfect Girl Evolution (licensed by Del Rey, original Japanese title Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge, English title: The Wallflower) is my favorite manga. Picture, if you will, a t...
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Aug 26
2005
As you all know, we here at Wordcandy are strong believers in the power of cover art. If you want someone to take your book seriously--i.e., shell out big bucks for the hardback version--then you...
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