Once again, the wonderful Kristen of We Be Reading is hosting Diana Wynne Jones March! She’s put together a fantastic schedule of events for the month. If you’re a Diana Wynne Jones fan or interested in becoming one, make sure to stop by her blog every day this month to see what she’s got going on over there. To kick off the month, she’s asking people to post pictures of their collection of DWJ books. Fortunately, since I haven’t yet organized my books onto bookshelves in my new apartment, all of my Diana Wynne Jones books were pre-strewn about the…
33 CommentsCategory: Misc.
Ha, ha, you thought you had escaped from the Stuff to Worry About series. Silly readers. I worry about so many things that I had to self-edit so you wouldn’t be getting Stuff to Worry About posts all the time. There is a plague on starfish. You may read about it here. Basically, starfish are dying of this wasting disease where their arms fall off, and because I don’t want to be the only one having these nightmares, I am going to add that sometimes in the course of this disease their arms fall off and crawl away. Scientists are…
29 CommentsDAMN this was a good year for books. As I was scrolling through old posts trying to make a Best of 2013 list, I was astounded at the percentage of posts this year that were four or five stars. Now, I will say that as years go on, I have become ever less inclined to review books about which I felt neutral, but even so, 2013 was an incredible year for books. It was so good that I gave up on the Best of 2013 idea, which would have felt uncurated because it would have included almost everything I read…
54 CommentsLast week, in pursuit of the question Why are there not yet Lizzie Bennet DVDs in my greedy hands?, I found a very dispirited Google Doc in which Bernie Su, showrunner of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and now Emma Approved, addressed criticisms he has evidently been receiving about the new series. Apparently people out there in the Pemberley Digital fandom are upset about problems including but not limited to: Delays in the DVDs of Lizzie Bennet Diaries; lack of diversity in the Emma Approved universe; not enough transmedia stuff in the Emma Approved storyline; the creators having Sold Out; Emma Approved…
36 CommentsAs you have probably heard by now, Jim Kay has been commissioned to give the Harry Potter books “a full colour makeover in a complete set of new editions.” The team that decided who would do this included J. K. Rowling, and Jim Kay is the brilliant genius who illustrated A Monster Calls. Below is his rendering of Hogwarts. Look, I know. How cool is that tunnel-staircase-pathway-thing that terminates in a creature mouth? My question now for the illustrated Harry Potter people is, What does full color mean exactly? I am so excited by the idea that it might mean…
17 CommentsJust a notification for you, lovely bloggy friends: I’m moving and starting a new job within the next few weeks, so I will not be posting as much until probably after Thanksgiving. I’ll still be reading and commenting, but I just won’t be reading anything new. I am sticking to a strict diet of books I have read before, and I’m not going to lie: It will be overwhelmingly Elizabeth Peters. I’m reading Sunshine right now (still awesome), but then it’s going to be all mysteries and thrillers written by the lady who has read all the same trashy early-twentieth-century…
29 Comments(Also, there was never a bad time to read Mary Renault.) Almost the whole of Mary Renault’s oeuvre is being put into e-book format as of next week. !!!!!! As you may know if you have hung around this blog or reviewed Song of Achilles or spoken of Mary Renault at all in any way ever, I am a huge huge HUGE fan of hers. My lovely mother handed me Fire from Heaven when I was thirteen or so, and I have loved Mary Renault ever since then. No author I have ever read before or since has managed to…
28 CommentsI am declaring a personal moratorium on books and shows and movies about kidnapped-presumed-raped-and-murdered girls. I don’t care how awesome the shows or books or movies are. I don’t care if they are Twin Peaks, a show I have still not seen in spite of its fanatical popularity in certain circles and now may NEVER SEE because I have absolutely had it with this storyline. This weekend I read Sara Zarr’s Once Was Lost. Once Was Lost is a pretty good book, per usual for Sara Zarr. It speaks thoughtfully about questions of faith and the benefits and drawbacks of belonging…
31 Comments