MONDAY MASHUP – January Issue: New Dan Brown Book Announced, Jim C. Hines & Sexisim in Book Covers, Warm Bodies and Beautiful Creatures Trailers & More!
Welcome to our new feature where we talk about random things we’ve seen around the blogosphere. It could be an interesting article, a book trailer, maybe a fun piece of news we feel you should know about, and maybe even a stylish pair of shoes or handbag we’ve seen (if Laura has her way!). Basically it’s a bit of a mashup! Enjoy….
Happy Monday everyone, it’s Gemma here, taking over from Laura for this month. Here are a few interesting bits and pieces I’ve come across on the web during January. Hope you enjoy!
Dan Brown to Release New Robert Langdon Book in May
The Robert Langdon series of books; The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol were one of the best selling series of the last decade. Now it seems that fans are in for a treat with the announcement of the forth book in the series due to be released in May this year. The title of the book is Inferno. Brown is quoted as saying he was influenced by Dante’s “Inferno” and a trip to Florence. Apart from the title, little is known about the book but Brown says this about his forthcoming novel:
“Although I studied Dante’s Inferno as a student, it wasn’t until recently that I came to appreciate the enduring influence of Dante’s work on the modern world,” Brown said.
“With this new novel, I am excited to take readers on a journey deep into this mysterious realm… a landscape of codes, symbols, and more than a few secret passageways.”
I’ve never read any of Brown’s books, but it will be interesting to see how it’s received especially after the mixed reception J. K. Rowling received on her book The Casual Vacancy.
Source: BBC NEWS
Jim C. Hines Discusses Sexism in Fantasy and Urban Fantasy Book Covers
This subject came to my attention through, yet again, a story on the BBC website. What caught my eye was the title of the post The Battle Against ‘Sexist’ Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Covers along with the picture below. Needless to say, I had to read on.
It isn’t something I really noticed until I read his interview. To me scantly clad female models with disproportionate bodies were to be found in comic books. Yet as I read the article, the more I realised that Hines has a point. True the heroines inside these books do indeed kick-butt, yet they are represented by models who at times would make a Victoria’s Secret Model jealous of their body, while they could easily win Gold at Gymnastics in the Olympics!
To reiterate his point, Hines recreated a number of covers including two of my favourite series, The Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost and The Signs of The Zodiac series by Vicki Pettersson.
This was done in the aid a charity called Aicardi Syndrome Foundation. This is a condition that causes brain malformation, visual problems, developmental delays, seizures and other medical complications. Most research puts the life expectancy for people with Aicardi between 8 and 16 years. Haines met the target of $15,000 and has stated on his blog that we can expect a 2014 calendar with cover parodies. Go check out the main post that has an index of all the covers here.
Many thanks to Jim for allowing me to use some of his photo’s for the blog.
Source: BBC NEWS
Do You Have What it Takes to Be the Next E. L. James?
Here in the UK, a morning show called Lorraine has just launched a completion to find the next Erotic Writer. Entitled “Racy Reads”, entrants have to submit the first 1000 words of their erotic novel. The prize is a chance to have your novel published by Mills & Boon. This is a great prize for all you budding writers out there. The closing date for entries is Wednesday 6th February. For more information, click here for completion details.
Source: Lorraine
The White Queen is Coming to BBC 1 Later in the Year
Not many of you will know this about me, but I do love my historical fiction books too. So I was really happy to hear that the BBC are filming a 10 part series based on Philippa Gregory’s The Cousins War series of books. This is all about the War of The Roses and I just love this period of time in English history. It is going to be shown later this year, but for more information on the cast look here.
Here is the trailer with the BBC’s 2013 highlights. There is a little snippet of The White Queen at the end.
Official Trailers for Beautiful Creatures and Warm Bodies
Having the luxury of going to the cinema often, I end up catching posters and trailers for future films. Two that have particularly caught my eye are Beautiful Creatures and Warm Bodies (which Carolyn reviewed a little while back).
As soon as I got home, I IMDB’ed both and found out that they were based on books. Both look really good and I can’t wait to see them. Now to read the books before the films come out!
So here are the trailers for the films
BEAUTIFUL CREATURES
WARM BODIES
Seriously Cool Bookshelves
I’m going to finish this Monday Mashup with a seriously cool bookshelf I found online. You know the drill. You are lying reading a book, so comfy. Then you come to the end of the book and your bookcase is ALL. THE. WAY. ACROSS. THE. ROOM. Here is the answer to your prayers! Now all you need to do is reach under and pick the book from under you!
Source: Stephens Lighthouse
And if you find that you have WAY too many books like me, you can always recycle them into a handy desk!!
Source: Stephens Lighthouse
9 Comments
I hope these come to BBC America! I was excited to see some bits of Luther in there. It’s one of my fav shows. The White Queen also looks good!
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Checked on IMDB and looks like STARz has the distribution rights for the US.
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NOOOOOO!!!!!! I don’t have Starz. BBC America has shown past seasons. That just…sucks.
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I’m not sure I understand your corellation between Dan Brown’s upcoming release and J. K. Rowling’s book. While I’m sure there must be some overlap, I think they have two different audiences, and Dan Brown is simply going back to the same well that has already made him rich and famous. Pretty sure that’s NOT what Rowling did.
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Thanks for the comment. What may not have came across was the fact that Rowlings book was surrounded by a lot of hype. I agree that it was a completely different genre and target audience, but none the less the hype around it was huge. The same thing is happening with Brown’s book. I just wonder if Inferno is going to get a mixed review after such hype.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear.
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Thanks for taking over, good Mashup
Really interesting on the book covers, I hadn’t considered them to be sexist really, but seeing him in the positions the heroines are in are almost ludicrous.
Exciting about The White Queen, not read any of Phillippa Gregory, but I’ve heard good things about her.
Also love the pink bookshelves
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No problem. I had a lot to live up to so was a bit nervous!
I agree with you on the covers, but Hines did have a point when you look back. You should have a look at some of the other book covers he did.
I love Phillippa Gregory so this is awesome news for me. Her books are very interesting and I have even went to a book event. She makes some very interesting points about historical fiction. I’ve read two of the three books this series is based on so it should be good!
The pink bookshelf is cool! Wonder if I can squeeze it in anywhere. lol
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I’m really looking forward to Warm Bodies!!
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Me too! It looks so cool! Maybe thats all zombies really need to be cured… Love! Quick tell Rick and the gang from the walking dead!! Hug a zombie day!!
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