Biz Hyzy works as an editorial assistant for Booklist's Adult Books department, where she pilfers the most appealing ARCs before anyone else gets the chance. Besides reading, she enjoys swing dancing and ninja training (though, in her case, both include a lot of bumbling around).
After 146 years of wowing audiences with rare animals and aerial stunts, “The Greatest Show on Earth” will hold its final performances this May. Ringing Bros. and Barnum & Bailey retired their elephants in May 2016 after an intense legal battle with activists, which led to a decrease in ticket sales. As they dazzle crowds in Rhode […]
I know what’s on your mind: When you roll out of bed in the morning, comb your hair, and brush your teeth, you think, “Gee, there just aren’t enough books with “wife,” “daughter,” or “girl” in the title. I read all the ones Booklist compiled last summer (here and here). If only there were more!” Well, fear not, voracious […]
In Uncle Vanya—one of Anton Chekhov’s four masterpiece plays—an aging professor, Serebryakov, and his young, beautiful wife, Yelena, reside in their country estate, which is run by the Serebryakov’s daughter, Sonya, and his first wife’s brother, Vanya. A doctor, Astrov, visits the family, and although Sonya longs for him, he—like Vanya—pines for Yelena. As the whole clan […]
As an associate dramaturg at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Neena Arndt researches the background and text of a play to ensure that the cast and crew understand the historical context of a production and the purpose for why they’re performing it today. Arndt shaped this version of Uncle Vanya, playing now through March 19 (read my review here) […]
Though brief, this week’s featured trailer is too haunting not to share. Slashes of red text and flashes of jail juxtapose images of a pristine nursery. Meanwhile, speaking in tones both soft and self-assured, innocent and eerie, the narrator—16-year-old Mary B. Addison—insinuates that she is ready to tell her side of her story. Convicted of infanticide […]
When I was younger, my mom and I engaged in good-natured debates about which colors we associated with which numbers and letters. Although our peculiar relationship with color influenced our everyday lives, we didn’t know this mental condition had a name until my sophomore year of high school. As a member of the marching band’s […]
In what’s quite possibly our cutest BTT to date, Kelp the narwhal happily sleeps in a clam and swims with his friends…but is he really a narwhal? Kelp has always felt different from his peers, despite their inclusiveness; although he shares their characteristic horn, he has four legs instead of fins and needs a helmet […]
Although Jon Stewart retired from The Daily Show in August 2015, fans will not soon forget his legacy in comedy and politics. In The Daily Show (The Book) (Grand Central), which released last month, Chris Smith records the memories the cast, crew, and guests shared while Stewart fronted the Emmy Award-winning news satire. In today’s corresponding […]
Praise Tehlu! Earlier this week, creative powerhouses Lin-Manuel Miranda and Patrick Rothfuss announced that they are teaming up to adapt Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear, and the forthcoming The Doors of Stone) into film and television. (And “other media.” Is it too much to hope for […]
This week, Anna Kendrick published her memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody (Touchstone). In anticipation, she also released a series of brief videos about the book. Though little, they certainly aren’t scrappy! In that humorous yet relatable fashion fans have come to expect from Kendrick, she talks about her jitters while writing in the video above. Be sure to also […]