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Courtney Summers lives in Canada. Now, it’s true, I’m not a quote-unquote “expert” on Canada, but I’m pretty danged smart so let me paint you a picture of her writing life. Somewhere in the frozen, unforgiving Canadian tundra squats an ominous black cabin stinking of yak hide and bear piss (aka “the smell of fear”). [...]

It’s easy to be hostile to James Dashner. Dude is ubiquitous. You walk into a book store? The Maze Runner and its sequels stacked floor to ceiling! You walk into a library? Maze Runner-centered posters and displays! You walk around Hollywood? Fevered scuttlebutt regarding the upcoming movie! You go into a restaurant? Maze Runner-brand cutlery! [...]

If you haven’t read The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf’s internationally bestselling analysis of beauty as a social construct, get yourself back to college and try again, this time with feeling. The titles of subsequent books–all of them starred by Booklist–say it all: Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the [...]

Who would have the cojones to publicly antagonize Pulitzer Prize-winning film reviewer, essayist, screenwriter, and memoir-ist Roger Ebert? Well, let me tell you a story. In a former life, I, too, was a film reviewer (I guess my Pulitzer got lost in the mail?) and on my first day at the screening room I accidentally [...]

The Night Circus. If you’re a publisher, you’ve probably spent long weekends clutching your head, weeping, wondering how it wasn’t you who published this internationally beloved debut. If you’re a reviewer, you’ve likely lingered over your typewriter, swishing your tumbler, wondering if transcendent mellifluousness was really the phrase you wanted to use. If you’re a [...]

Given the gushes of accolades gushed upon A.S. King (Printz Honor for Please Ignore Vera Dietz, six starred reviews for Everybody Sees the Ants), it’s shocking that no unscrupulous muckraker has put an end to her awesomeness by solving the the shady mystery of her full name… until now. Ladies and gentlemen, I am just [...]

When Gregg Hurwitz isn’t banging out bestsellers like Trust No One, They’re Watching, and You’re Next, he’s writing screenplays and dabbling in comics featuring such obscure Marvel and DC characters as Wolverine and Batman. (Ha! A “bat-man”? No one’s gonna buy that, Hurwitz.) But methinks Mr. Busypants has spread himself too thin. While he’s busy [...]

Take heed, warriors! That multi-limbed monster tromping over the hill is Pete “The Hydra” Hautman! Fall back! Fall back! He’s got too many methods of attack! Hiy-aa!!: he’s a National Book Award winner (Godless)! Karateeee chop!!!: he’s a sensitive sketcher of tender teen emotions (The Big Crunch)! Throwing-star zzzzzzing!!!!: he’s an epic sci-fi innovator (The [...]

Typically I start these things by listing a few accomplishments of the so-called “author.” Y’know, like: Anne Elizabeth Moore was co-editor and publisher of Punk Planet, founding editor of The Best American Comics, and is the author of Cambodian Grrrl. But, really, do you think I have all day for typing and hotlinking and whatnot? [...]

Kurtis Scaletta likes to write about baseball. Wait a sec . . . baseball?! That’s catnip for writers of introductions! Let’s see how many clichés I can squeeze-play (thats 1!) into this thing. After really throwing some heat (2) with Mudville, Scaletta proved he had the mechanics (3) to uncork a wild pitch (4) with [...]