February 22, 2012

With this teaser for Insurgent, we are drawn right back into Tris and Tobias/Four's new reality in Amity, and after that action-packed and body count-heavy ending in Divergent, there are a LOT of adjustments ahead for these two....starting with makeovers.   The first excerpt from Philippa Gregory's first YA novel, Changeling, is up on USA Today—read it here (and get seriously impatient for May 22nd). Congratulations to the Finalists for the 2011 Los Angeles Times Young Adult Literature Book Prize: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman A Monster Calls, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd, written by Patrick Ness  Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet  The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater The prizes will be presented on Friday, April 20, 2012, in a public ceremony at the USC campus. For more details, click below!   The Nebula Award nominees have been announced, and these books are up for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor Chime by Franny Billingsley Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson The winners will be announced at the 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend, May 17-20. For more details, click below. Finally, the Agatha Awards (not to be confused with the Edgar Awards) honor the best mystery novels during the year. The finalists for the Best Children's/Young Adult category are as follows: Shelter by Harlan Coben The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey The Code Busters Club, Case #1: The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner  The winners will be announced at the 2011 Agatha Awards banquet to be held on Saturday, April 28, 2012. For more details, click below.     After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend Ilven kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for the charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with the vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned, or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it.    I had no idea what to expect out of When the Sea is Rising Red as I dove into it. I knew there would be vampires, and a bit of magic, but I was nowhere near prepared for the elaborate and beautiful dark fantasy of Cat Hellisen's world. If you put the writing of Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, and Tamora Pierce in a blender, you'd closely approximate the reading experience of When the Sea is Rising Red.    Click here to read the rest of our review! Even if you've already seen it, it's time to re-watch the trailer for Fever to get yourself pumped for this week's release! Who knew merry-go-rounds could feel so menacing? Two new TV spots for The Hunger Games movie are up online for your viewing pleasure, and they feature brand new scenes, including a more in-depth look at the rogue arrow that turns the bearded head of Seneca Crane during the private Tribute/Gamemakers sesh. Watch them below! Fair warning: Katniss does her strangled, desperate sister-bear scream, "I volunteer!!! I volunteer as tribute!" in both clips, just in case it still makes you tear up (PS- no shame at all, it happens to me EVERY SINGLE TIME). Would you like to win an Effie Trinket Hunger Games poster signed by Elizabeth Banks? She is holding a contest on her website until this Friday at 5 PM PST, so head over here quickly if you want to enter! Then make sure to check out her MTV interview videos, where she discusses what she's most looking forward to seeing in the film, and how her unwieldy Effie nails made life on set kind of uncomfortable bathroomwise. You decide if it's TMI.... Lily Collins chatted with The Telegraph about all things Mirror Mirror, including a moment on the set in which Julia Roberts tears her hair out! Click here to hear the distressing tress tale.   Summit Entertainment and producer David Heyman have found a screenwriter to adapt The Night Circus for film. Moira Buffini, who wrote the recent adaptation of Jane Eyre, is set to tackle adapting this mysterious, magical novel.

A humongous congrats to Dr. Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author of the Raised By Wolves series and Every Other Day, who just completed her PhD! Jennifer's doing the superhero juggling act: academic by day, talented YA author by night. Now don't you think it's time to get started on your third career Jen? I mean, you don't want to look like a slacker......

February 15, 2012

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl revealed the title for book 4 in the Caster Chronicles. Click here to find out what it is! Scott Westerfeld teased us with more artwork from the Uglies manga; this time we get to see the dastardly Dr. Cable. Click here to put a face to the razor voice. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.   Sometimes a book comes along that just defies age categories. You could read it in fourth grade, or in your fourth year of college, and it wouldn’t matter—the story just soars off the page, and you want everyone to experience it, no matter their age. Wonder is one of those rare books.   August or “Auggie” has been home-schooled his whole life. He’s about to start the fifth grade, and his parents think it’s time for him to attend a real school, Beecher Prep. Starting school for the first time would be daunting for most kids in his position, but it’s even more so for Auggie. Due to an improbable interaction of recessive genes, he has an extraordinary face—the kind that stops people in their tracks and causes horrified gasps. His features "look like they've been melted, like the drippings on a candle." 27 surgeries have done little to improve the situation, but Auggie is used to it, and surprisingly well-adjusted to his circumstances.   Click here to read the rest of our review! The Breathless Reads tour kicks off today! See if you're lucky enough to be in its path below. This intense trailer for The Butterfly Clues gives us a front row seat to Lo's dangerous quest to piece together the mysterious "butterfly clues," as she tries to solve the mystery of who killed Sapphire, the girl whose butterfly pendant Lo found at a flea market. With the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined--a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death. According to Deadline, we now have a release date for the Beautiful Creatures movie! Mark your calendars for February 1, 2013. Casting news has been fairly rapid-fire over the last couple weeks, so hopefully we'll round out the rest of the cast shortly. So far Viola Davis has signed up to play Amma, with Emma Thompson taking on Mrs. Lincoln/Sarafine. Jack O’Connell and Alice Englert will take on the starring roles as Ethan and Lena, respectively.  A new issue is up on the Hunger Games Capitol Couture fashion site—and this time Cinna, aka "District 12's Other Volunteer," is on center stage. Describing his understated personal style (save for the gold guyliner), Cinna says “I put so much passion and creativity into my work that sometimes there’s not much leftover for myself.” The full track listing for the Hunger Games soundtrack, "Songs From District 12 and Beyond," is up on iTunes, available for purchase on March 20th. To hear a preview of the available songs, click here! Check out this new extended trailer for John Carter. Taylor Kitsch has obviously been to the Christian Bale Dark Knight school of line-delivery, and it WORKS. In this behind-the-scenes peek at the upcoming season of Game of Thrones, we get a preview of the Icelandic landscape for Jon Snow's journey North of the Wall. Seeing the actors and crew endure bone-chilling temperatures and rough shooting conditions is going to make curling up with hot chocolate and watching it even more (smugly) satisfying...

Shannon Hale and Stephenie Meyer pose with extras on the set of Austenland, the movie based on Shannon's novel by the same name. To get Stephenie's perspective on producing the movie, head over to her blog.

February 13, 2012

A very happy book birthday to each of this week's new release lovelies! If you haven't sent any Valentines to your Harry Potter loving friends, get thee to the Accio Valentines section of MyHogwarts. (Yes, you CAN send these to yourself...and blow them up...and pin them on your wall....not that I would know or anything.) Since Game of Thrones has its share of romance (you know, underneath a fine coating of gore & violence), it's only fitting that a Valentine's Day card collection would surface just in time for the big day.    If you prefer to serenade your Valentine with more traditional sweet nothings, check out the Fallen in Love collection of e-cards.  What other bookish delights can you expect on your Valentine's Day? How about brand spanking new stories from two of the most romantic series out there—the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver, and The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. 1) There were enough pre-orders of Pandemonium, book 2 in the Delirium series, for Lauren Oliver's short e-story, Hana, to be released for free! The story will be up on MTV's site for four days. Check out Lauren's blog in the AM for the link. 2) Julie Kagawa will also have a new short story about Meghan and Ash's first Valentine's Day up on her blog. Check here for the story. Gloria "Glory" Fleming is a talented piano prodigy, dubbed "the Brecht of the piano" by critics for her innovative performances mixing the masters with new music such as Pavement and Wilco. Glory has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and been written about in newspapers and The New Yorker.   Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to Francisco "Frank" Mendoza, who moves in next door. She loses herself in his paintings and drawings, mix CD’s and late night IM conversations. Soon, Frank becomes both her connection to the world and her escape from reality.   Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song Chopsticks; F and G notes moving closer together, and farther apart. Now, Glory has disappeared from her rest home without a trace. But nothing is what it seems. And we must decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along... Click here to read the rest of our review for Chopsticks. If you loved the Dean & Aoife chemistry in The Iron Thorn, book one in The Iron Codex series, you'll love this book trailer for the sequel, The Nightmare Garden, which promises even more steampunk with a side of swoon. Great news—if you haven't started these popular paranormal romance series, now you can catch up on the cheap! These four series-launching books—Marked, Infinity, The Iron King and Evermore—are between $2.99 and $4.99 on your e-reader for a limited time.  The music video for Taylor Swift's Hunger Games soundtrack contribution with The Civil Wars, "Safe and Sound," premiered on MTV earlier today. Click below to watch Taylor stroll through a stark, very District 12-like landscape as she sings this mournful tune. And look what Taylor found—a meaningful trinket to play with while she sings! Emma Watson is taking a page out of Kristen Stewart's post-mega-franchise book, and heading for the fairy tales. The Hollywood Reporter reported today she is likely to star in Guillermo Del Toro's Beauty, an adaptation originally based on Robin McKinley's novel that has since evolved into a new story. Given how dark the Potter movies got toward the end, I think she'll be well prepared for Guillermo's creepy, spine-tingling style.. The Breaking Dawn: Part 1 DVD went on sale Friday, and already it has sold 3.2 million copies over the weekend. Could the Target midnight sneak peek be responsible for this record-breaking success? If you weren't among the many fans who crowded the DVD section of their local Target Friday night, you missed a 5 minute clip of interviews with the cast, plus a delish full scene from Breaking Dawn: Part 2, in which Edward and a fully vampiric Bella find Alice's note in the cottage. To watch the clip (via a Target big screen), and marvel at Bella's new vampiric speed, click below. If Friday's Mortal Instruments movie "turnaround" news has you freaking out, read this blog post by Cassie Clare. She explains what happened with Screen Gems and Scott Stewart, and what it means for the series. The good news is that Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins are still attached to the project, and will be for the foreseeable future (an assurance that JCB echoed via Twitter), and that Cassie has been assured shooting will begin in August. So nevermind the studio shuffling—onward and upward! Disney's live action take on Snow White, originally titled Snow White & The Seven, has recently been renamed Order of the Seven, and has also gained a leading lady in Saoirse Ronan. Why the name change? The original plot had very few connections to the traditional Snow White tale, but due to Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Hunstman stealing some of the Snow White thunder, all references to the fairy tale are being scrubbed from the script. Set in Hong Kong, the story chronicles “a 19th century-set disparate band of international warriors belonging to a centuries-old order who have lost their way. Their meeting with an Englishwoman being chased by an ancient evil is the catalyst for their redemption.”

Charlize Theron channels her inner Evil Queen in this behind-the-scenes pic from Snow White and the Huntsman.  To check out more pics from the set, head over here.

February 10, 2012

You guys know we're crazy about YA books & music coming together—so this mashup of the Hunger Games with Lana Del Rey's "Video Games" is a most welcome spoof! Click below to hear the song, and to see the original too. If you ever feel like re-reading all seven Harry Potter books or re-watching all eight movies again, but you've only got a few minutes, not to worry! Now you can re-live the highlights in under sixty seconds, courtesy of this silly video. And speaking of the Harry Potter movies, this ultra scientific hotness flowchart over the course of the series is spot-on. You'll notice Neville "Nails For Breakfast" Longbottom is off the charts..... Get ready to revisit your childhood—Lemony Snicket is back with a new series! We might be done with the Baudelaires, but the mysterious Snicket couldn't stay away for long. His new series, All the Wrong Questions, kicks of this October with book one, Who Could That Be At This Hour?" The series chronicles Snicket's life in a "fading town, far from anyone he knew or trusted" and documents his experiences as "an apprentice in an organization nobody knows about." Snicket gives us fair warning about the series: "These books are questionable and contain questions. I, for one, question why anyone would be interested in reading them."  Oh, how I've missed this kind of nonsensical Snicketism..... Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe.   But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans—and Colby—to start college in the fall.   But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?   Nina Lacour's The Disenchantments has all the ingredients that make this a must read contemporary: rocking music, wonderfully vibrant characters, electrifying romantic tension, and a "we're on the verge of the rest of our lives" roadtrip.  Click here to read the rest of our review, including our 5 Reasons to Get Disenchanted. Check out the Month of Love, brought to you by Epic Reads, where you can play lovely bookish games and enter to win heart-pounding romances from Harper Teen!  Lauren Oliver is offering fans the chance to read Hana, her e-short story based on Lena's best friend Hana, for free on Valentine's Day. If pre-orders for Pandemonium reach 5,000, we get to read it for free, so if you're planning on heading to the Wilds with Lena, pre-order now to get the best Valentine's day present ever (aside from amor deliria nervosa, of course). Head to Lauren's blog for the details. In Grave Mercy, book one in the His Fair Assassin trilogy, a powerful girl assassin attempts to reconcile her murderous duties with her heart. This trailer packs the butt-kicking punch you'd expect from a heroine who is rumored to rival Katsa from Graceling. Another role has been cast for the Beautiful Creatures movie! Emma Thompson (Harry Potter) will take on the role of Mrs. Lincoln, the religious zealot, and Sarafine, the dark witch who ultimately possesses her. I can't wait to see what Emma will do with the role! Billy Connolly (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) has been announced as a late addition to the cast of The Hobbit. Connolly will play Dain Ironfoot, a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin Oakenshield. Peter Jackson says of the casting, "We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the staunchest and toughest of Dwarves, than Billy Connolly, the Big Yin himself. With Billy stepping into this role, the cast of The Hobbit is now complete. We can't wait to see him on the Battlefield!"   Ever wonder which Hunger Games character Josh Hutcherson would dress up as for a Hunger Games party? Hint: it ain't Peeta. Click here to find out! Check out these new faux Hunger Games ads for Capitol cosmetics. So far there's one featuring Cinna sporting his signature gold guyliner, Caesar Flickerman's blindingly bright smile, and Seneca Crane's maze-like facial hair. Wow, the Capitol is just SO fancy (too bad it comes at the expense of most of Panem). Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) and Lea Seydoux (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) are set to star in a new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, to be directed by Christopher Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf). Yes, I know, this is the umpteenth fairy tale movie remake to come to our attention, but I'm kind of excited to see Cassel and Seydoux take on this classic. DreamWorks is working on a remake of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, according to Variety. Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) has signed on to re-adapt the original book, which was famously adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. I think it's about time we had an ultra-creepy, modern take on this classic. Now to find an appropriately sinister Mrs. Danvers..... Another reason to lose your everloving mind on March 23rd—not only do you get to see Katniss wield her bow and arrow in the Hunger Games, you get to see the premiere of the Breaking Dawn: Part 2 trailer! Since Summit and Lionsgate are bedfellows now, it's no surprise that they're cross-promoting, hoping for a large intersection between these mega-fandoms.   Not all movie news is good today, so let's just rip the bandaid off all at once.  1) Warm Bodies has been pushed back to a February 2013 release (previously it was slotted for August 2012), so we'll have to stave off our craving for a hot zombie flick a bit longer. 2) Screen Gems just dropped The Mortal Instruments, and director Scott Stewart has removed himself from the project. The film is now in the dreaded "turnaround" phase; meaning they need to find financing fast, or it could go into the never never land of book-to-film development. BOO! HISS!

That is one bedraggled Khaleesi! This pic accompanies a flood of other sneak peek pics from the upcoming season of HBO's Game of Thrones. Things are looking grim in the Seven Kingdoms.  <