Bestselling Irish author Michael Scott amps up the excitement
in this third book in a projected six book series about the
legendary Alchemyst Nicholas Flamel and American twins Josh and
Sophie, who are the twins of legend with the power to save or
destroy the world. In The Sorceress Sophie and Josh must master
more of the elemental magics and defeat John Dee and the Archon
Cerunnos. They hope to continue their training with Gilgamesh,
the immortal king, who knows all the magic in the world, but
cannot use it. Jumping from Paris to London to the island of
Alcatraz near San Francisco, this is a fantastic entry in a
series that keeps getting better.
Nobody does scientific adventure like bestselling author James Rollins.
Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force returns with their most
exciting mission yet. Three bizarre murders around the world
send Pierce and the two women in his life into a race against
time to solve a riddle going back centuries, to a ghastly
crime against humanity hidden within a cryptic medieval codex.
The first piece of the puzzle is discovered inside a mummified
corpse buried in an English peat bog -- a gruesome secret that
threatens America and the world. This is the perfect summer
read for fans of Indiana Jones and the books of Dan Brown.
Jack Reacher returns in Lee Child's unstoppable thriller which
begins with a simple ride on a subway in New York City. Reacher's
military training tells him that he's sitting across from a
suicide bomber: every one of the Israeli counterintelligence
behavior indicators are there. But what if he's wrong? The
incident puts him on a trail of deadly terrorists and at the
center of dangerous game of cat and mouse.
Dr. David A. Kessler is a former FDA Commissioner and in
his new book he charges that the food industry has colluded
in creating modern processed foods that people literally
cannot resist. He says that conditioned hypereating is a
biological challenge, not a character flaw. It is not a matter
of willpower, it is a result of being conditioned
to eat certain types of food which trigger irresistible
cravings. He promotes a plan to help avoid the food industry's
lures and reduce people's cravings for junk food.
Michael Connelly Signs Five Book Deal WIth Little, Brown Publishers Weeklyreports that Little, Brown has signed a new five-book deal with bestselling author Michael Connelly. PW says Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch cut the deal with Philip Spitzer.
Connelly's current novel, The Scarecrow, is garnering rave reviews from ciritics. You can see some of the reviews here, here, here and here. The setting for the novel is a dying newspaper, which is something journalists today are all too familiar with.
Michael Connelly's next book, Nine Dragons, will be released in October.
2009 Edgar Award Winners
The winners of the 2009 Edgar Awards - annual awards given by Mystery Writers of America - have been announced. Here's the list of winners.
Book Espresso Machine Launches in London
A new Book Espresso Machine launched
in London Friday. The machine will print any of 500,000 books for you in five minutes.
It's not elegant and it's not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than 500 years ago and made the mass production of books possible. Launching today at Blackwell's Charing Cross Road branch in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait.
Signalling the end, says Blackwell, to the frustration of being told by a bookseller that a title is out of print, or not in stock, the Espresso offers access to almost half a million books, from a facsimile of Lewis Carroll's original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland to Mrs Beeton's Book of Needlework. Blackwell hopes to increase this to over a million titles by the end of the summer – the equivalent of 23.6 miles of shelf space, or over 50 bookshops rolled into one. The majority of these books are currently out-of-copyright works, but Blackwell is working with publishers throughout the UK to increase access to in-copyright writings, and says the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Alas, the machine does not serve you an espresso while you wait, which we think is most disappointing.
Two Michael Crichton Books to be Published Posthumously
Two new Michael Crichton books will be published
posthumously. Harper Collins made the announcement:
The first, Pirate Latitudes, will be published on November 24, 2009; the second, as yet untitled, will be published in Fall 2010.
Pirate Latitudes is an adventure story about piracy in the New World. Set in 1665, when Jamaica was a British colony holding out against Spanish dominance, the story centers on a plan hatched by the island's governor and a notorious pirate called Hunter to raid a Spanish treasure galleon. Fast-moving and suspenseful, Pirate Latitudes is a historical classic from one of America's best-loved authors. The novel was discovered amongst Crichton's files and was written contemporaneously with Next, published in 2006.
Jonathan Burnham, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Harper, says, Pirate Latitudes is a fantastically enjoyable and light-hearted adventure yarn about pirates and profiteers in 17th century Jamaica. It is deeply researched and full of lively historical detail, and it shows Crichton going back to the territory he explored in novels such as The Great Train Robbery - old-fashioned entertainment, with a twist."
In Fall 2010, Harper will publish his latest techno thriller which explores the outer edges of new science and technology in the way that only Michael Crichton knew how. The new novel will be based on the development of Crichton's narrative on notes and files. "It is some consolation to the millions of Crichton fans out there that two or possibly more works are in the offing, and that the amazing legacy he has left behind him will be reinvigorated by these new novels" adds Burnham.
Michael Crichton was born in 1942 and died in November 2008. His bestselling novels include State of Fear, Prey, The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and Timeline. He was also the creator of ER.
There's no word yet as to who will be completing Crichton's last techno-thriller.
ABA Announces Layoffs
The recession has American Booksellers Association ("ABA"). The ABA announced that it is laying
off staff and implementing other cost-cutting measures.
In another sign of the economic times, the ABA announced that it is taking various steps, among them reducing its staff and instituting a hiring freeze, to scale back operating costs. The decisions, which came out of the ABA board meeting last week in Salt Lake City, will result in a 12% staff reduction (equivalent to at least five full-time positions) through attrition; suspending contributions to employees' 401(k) and SEP plans; and eliminating all discretionary travel and discretionary spending. The ABA also intends to deliver educational programs electronically, through webinars and other "web-based communication." The cutbacks have also led to the cancellation of the group's spring forum schedule and a revamping of employees' medical benefits.
Gayle Shanks, the president of the ABA also announced that the cost savings will allow the organization to cut membership fees by 50% in 2009. The goal is to help as many bookstores weather the recession as possible.
Ron Howard Says Dan Brown Finished Writing The Solomon Key Director Ron Howard said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that Dan Brown had finished writing the third Robert Langdon novel. However, Reuters reports that a Doubleday spokesperson would only say that Brown is "making great progress."
Celebrity television show "Entertainment Tonight" said movie director Ron Howard told the program in an interview that Brown has completed his third book based on the fictional, mystery-solving Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.
Howard made the 2006 film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" with Tom Hanks playing Langdon.
But late in the day, a spokeswoman for Brown's publisher Doubleday, would say only that Brown "is making great progress," stopping short of a full confirmation or denial.
"We do not yet have a title or publication date to share," added spokeswoman Suzanne Herz. Doubleday is a unit of Bertelsmann AG.
We look forward to reading The Solomon Key whenever it becomes available. It has been over five years since The Da Vinci Code was released. In the meantime there's Angels & Demons which will be in theatres this May.
Grisham Close to Ebook Deal
John Grisham is one of the few bestselling authors whose books are not available in ebook form. But all that is about to change as Grisham is close to closing a deal with Random House to put all his books in electronic form, including the format for the Kindle.
"There was a period when John and I felt it was a good idea to watch the world of e-books evolve before diving in," said David Gernert, Mr. Grisham's longtime literary agent. "Now that it's a more mature marketplace, he will be available very soon in all digital formats."
Earlier this week, Amazon introduced an updated version of the Kindle. Although many current best-sellers are available for $9.99 on the Kindle, Mr. Grisham's newest novel, "The Associate," a legal thriller that ranks No. 1 on The Wall Street Journal list of fiction best-sellers, isn't for sale.
A spokeswoman for Random House declined to comment except to say, "We would be thrilled by the opportunity to publish all of John Grisham's books in e-book format." Mr. Grisham's hardcover titles are published by Random House's Doubleday imprint, his paperbacks are published by Random House's Dell imprint and his audiobooks are published by Random House's audio unit.
Albert N. Greco, a professor at the Fordham Graduate School of Business who studies the book industry, said there weren't any reliable consumer revenue figures for e-books. But they are widely considered one of the fastest-growing segments of the book-publishing business at a time when the industry is being crippled by the recession.
Now that Amazon has launched the new Kindle, ebook sales will continue to grow. Grisham is smart to get on board the ebook train.
British Author John Mortimer Dead at 85
Bestselling British author John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey has died. He was 85.
Mortimer's family said he died early in the morning at his home in the Chiltern Hills northwest of London, with his wife and children at his side. They did not disclose the cause of death.
Mortimer combined a career as a lawyer with a large literary output that included dozens of screen and stage plays and radio dramas.
His most famous creation was Horace Rumpole, a cigar-smoking, wine-loving barrister who appeared in a TV series and a string of novels and stories.
Tony Lacey, Mortimer's editor at publisher Viking, said it's hard to think he's gone.
2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominees
Mystery Writers of America (MWA) has announced the nominees for 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. This year is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. Here are the nominees for the Best Novel and Best First Novel categories.
Current Book Giveaways
The new book giveaways co-sponsored with our sister site, WritersWrite.com,
include:
Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Definitive Collection DVD Box Set.
Fans of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
who solves crimes using his little grey cells, will adore this
fabulous boxed set of the BBC series which starred the brilliant
David Suchet.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books,
3rd Edition by Harold D. Underdown (Alpha Books)
A Silent Ocean Away by DeVa Gantt (Avon), a breathtaking
saga of an extraordinary American family.
Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey
by William Least Heat-Moon, an ingenious and mirthful exploration
of small-town America. (Little, Brown)
**The new (optional) Book Giveaway Question is:
"It's time once again for our annual New Year's Resolutions.
But instead of thinking of New Year's Resolutions for yourself
(how boring!), why not think up some for other people? What New
Year's Resolutions would you make for anyone in the public eye
(e.g., pop stars, paparazzi, professional athletes, politicians,
actors, authors, television programming decision-makers, book
publishers etc.)? What would you like to see any of these people
change about themselves or their policies (if they are decision-
makers for the country) in 2009?"
There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a
random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.
Stephen King Talks Best Books of 2008 Stephen King has shared with Entertainment Weekly his ten favorite books of 2008. In the Entertainment Weekly magazine King's list is probably all nicely laid out on one page but online EW has annoyingly seperated into ten parts as the online version of magazines so often do. You can find it here. Some of King's picks include Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News?, Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Good Guy by Dean Koontz. King's also reading all of Robert Goddard's mystery/suspense novels.
I discovered Goddard, a British mystery/suspense novelist, last year, almost by accident. In Pale Battalions, his second novel, was the first book I read on my new Kindle. Since then I've read eight more and have about seven to go. I'll parcel them out, because they're too good to gulp. There are missing heirs, stolen fortunes, mistaken identities, raffish con men, hot sex, and cold-blooded murder.
Stephen King also says that The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III is "terrifying, unputdownable, and the best novel so far about 9/11."
The Christian Science Monitor has also published King's top ten list is an easier to read layout.
Random House Expands Ebook Offerings
Random House has announced
plans to expand its ebook library.
Random House has announced plans to add 6,000 backlist titles to its current e-book library. With these additions, Random House will have nearly 15,000 titles available in the digital format. (The house, which is the biggest trade publisher in the world, is already one of the largest e-book publishers.) Random will also, for the first time, make its entire catalog of both new and existing titles, available in the emerging standard format for the industry, e-Pub.
Among the titles being digitzed, which include those from the children's and adult divisions, are books by Philip K. Dick, Harlan Coben, Louis L'Amour, John Updike, Mary Pope Osborne and Barbara Park. Markus Dohle, chairman and CEO of Random, said the publisher is "making significant investments in the digital future" with moves such as this one.
The digital movement has been much slower than many in the industry expected. But with the advent of the Kindle and the Sony ebook reader, finally ebooks are starting to take off.
Now if they could just solve the lithium ion battery life problem, we'd be all set. We are so tired of lining up all our devices at night to charge them up for the next day. Cell phone, laptop, blackberry -- it's like a little row of electronic soldiers getting rested for the day ahead. We want portable batteries that last for a month at a time. Or more.
Dutton Buys Digi-Novel for Millions
Publisher Dutton has paid millions
for a digi-novel by Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the CSI tv series. The series is three books with a companion website to promote interactivity.
Zuiker's chapters will close with codes that readers can use online to unlock "motion picture footage" that continues the storyline from the book. The deal, for world rights, was made by president and publisher of Dutton, Brian Tart, with a littany of players: Dan Strone, CEO of Trident Media, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Morris Yorn and Barnes & Levine and CAA.
Zuiker's story, of a government investigator named Steve Dark who goes rogue after his family is murdered by a drug kingpin, will, as Dutton noted, "move from books to film to the web with ease." Although the house called the deal "unprecedented in the publishing industry," it mimics, on some level, what Scholatsic is trying to achieve with its much-hyped multimedia project, The 39 Clues.
In addition to online film clips, the multimedia effort will include a web-based community portal with different characters and more spin-off storylines. According to Dutton, the portal will be a place readers can "consume countless ancillary levels of story enrichment." Tart said the best way to think of Zuiker's forthcoming work, slated to launch in fall 2009, is as "storytelling 2.0."
It's an interesting concept. Television and book fans already flock to the web to read more about their favorite stories and characters, so it's a natural progression for storytelling.
The Last Oracle by James Rollins (William Morrow), the spine-
tingling new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author
of Black Order and Map of Bones.
This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosely (Little, Brown),
the must-have writing guide from the bestselling author of the
Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones mystery series.
Don't Make Me Choose Between You and My Shoes by
Dixie Cash (Avon), the hilarious new chick lit novel about two
Texas female private investigators/hairdressers that head for
New York City in search of some fun and some fabulous shoes.
The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer's Identity and
Create a Customized Writing Plan by Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D.
(Adamas Media)
**The new (optional) Book Giveaway Question is:
"U.S. swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps eats
12,000 calories a day and trains five hours a day. A typical
breakfast for him consists of three fried-egg sandwiches loaded
with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.
He follows that up with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet,
a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with
powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes. If you were
an Olympic swimmer forced to eat that much, what would you
have for breakfast? What about dinner? In this hypothetical
exercise, you will never gain an ounce, have any adverse
health effects, you're pretty much always hungry and your
sponsors are paying your food bills."
There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a
random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.
Daniel Silva Plays by the Moscow Rules
Journalist and bestselling author Daniel Silva talks to MSNBC's David Gregory about his fantastic new thriller, Moscow Rules. We just finished the book -- it's an absolute must-read this summer. Brilliant art restorer and sometime Israeli spy Gabriel Allon heads to the New Russia to stop a terrorist attack against the West. Along the way, we learn quite a bit about the supposedly defunct KGB's stranglehold in this so-called "democracy." Take a look:
Larry Block Visits Craig Ferguson
Larry Block appeared on the Craig Fersguson show to talk about his new book, Hit and Run (William Morrow). The book features the continuing adventures of Keller, the hit man you love to love. Well, we love him anyways. We feel he's really a good guy, even though he kills people for money. That, of course, is how you know Larry is such an exceptional writer. Because we actually don't approve of murder at all.
Reviewing Child 44 by Tom Robb Smith
Everyone knows that the younger generation has embraced the technological revolution. They blog, they twitter, they plurk, they post -- sometimes wildly inappropriate -- videos on YouTube. Well, one enterprising young woman who calls herself amanduh111112 (let's call her Amanda instead, shall we?) decided to post a serious book review on YouTube. Her review of Child 44 by Tom Robb Smith is enthusiastic and sincere. She tells us it's a thriller. And that the many characters are kind of confusing, although she thinks that in a proper thriller, the characters are supposed to be kind of confusing.
She does warn about the graphic violence and tells readers to "censor themselves" if the gore bothers them. She doesn't mention the setting or the plot, but a quick bit of research that the book is a police procedural set in Stalinist USSR in 1953, which will appeal to those that enjoyed the excellent Gorky Park. It appears that Amanda's enthusiasm is well-deserved:
Publisher's Weekly gives it a starred review. But Amanda's review is more fun to watch.
A Birthday Book For the Prince of Wales
Prince Charles is getting a fabulous gift: a book will be published in honor of his 60th birthday which will be contributed to by some of the top authors of today. J.K. Rowling will be contributing to the project.
Reps for JKR have now confirmed to TLC that there will indeed be an extract of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows contained in this new book, along with two new illustrations of the story from author and artist Quentin Blake. Along with the contribution from Jo, others such as Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson are contributing to the birthday book for The Prince of Wales, with new material due from Philip Ardagh and Anthony Horowitz. In addition to the new illustrations from Quentin Blake, other artists contributing are Axel Scheffler, Posy Simmonds and Emily Gravett. The Birthday Book will be published on November 6, with all proceeds to benefit The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, a charity which”provides schoolchildren with opportunities to visit theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries."
We think it's a marvelous idea that will raise lots of money. And it's not like Prince Charles really needs anything material: this is the kind of gift that will really be appreciated.
Denzel Washington Attached to The Matarese Circle
Denzel Washington is attached
to the film version of The Matarese Circle, the bestselling thriller by Robert Ludlum. After the success of the Bourne Identity and subsequent film starring Matt Damon, studio execs are looking for another top spy franchise.
The project, "The Matarese Circle," revolves around two secret agents -- an American and a Russian -- who must work together to fight a mysterious group of killers known as the Matarese. The twist: The agents, Bradley Scofield and Vasili Taleniekov, have been nemeses for years, with each responsible for killing someone close to the other. According to those familiar with the pitch, Washington would play Scofield.
Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, the scribes behind Lionsgate's "3:10 to Yuma" and upcoming Universal tentpole "Wanted," are attached as writers. Veteran producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler are on board as producers.
Nearly all the major studios have heard at least a version of the pitch, with several thought to be keenly interested; however, no deal had been struck.
After decades during which the late Ludlum's novels failed to gain big screen traction, the thriller novelist is now hot in Hollywood. Universal's "Bourne" series, based on his globehopping Cold War novels and with Damon as the title character, has earned more than $900 million worldwide.
We think Denzel is a perfect lead for this project. Because he's starting to freak us out with how amazing he is at playing really bad guys. Think Training Day and American Gangster. We're ready to see Denzel as a world-class spy. Time to hit the gym!
Judging Your Date By His Taste In Books
The New York Times examines
the role that one's reading taste plays in dating. Mostly the article regales us with stories of of those who dumped prospective partners whose reading taste
wasn't highbrow enough.
At least since Dante's Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility. These days, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding. When it comes to online dating, even casual references can turn into deal breakers. Sussing out a date's taste in books is "actually a pretty good way -- as a sort of first pass -- of getting a sense of someone," said Anna Fels, a Manhattan psychiatrist and the author of Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives. "It's a bit of a Rorschach test." To Fels (who happens to be married to the literary publisher and writer James Atlas), reading habits can be a rough indicator of other qualities. "It tells something about ... their level of intellectual curiosity, what their style is," Fels said. "It speaks to class, educational level."
Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught. Go too low, and you risk looking dumb. Go too high, and you risk looking like a bore -- or a phony. "Manhattan dating is a highly competitive, ruthlessly selective sport," Augusten Burroughs, the author of Running With Scissors and other vivid memoirs, said. "Generally, if a guy had read a book in the last year, or ever, that was good enough." The author recalled a date with one Michael, a "robust blond from Germany." As he walked to meet him outside Dean & DeLuca, "I saw, to my horror, an artfully worn, older-than-me copy of Proust by Samuel Beckett." That, Burroughs claims, was a deal breaker. "If there existed a more hackneyed, achingly obvious method of telegraphing one's education, literary standards and general intelligence, I couldn't imagine it."
An "artfully worn" copy of Proust is apparently the death knell for a blind date. If you want to snag a second date with a member of the literati, by all means, leave the Beckett at home. In any event, showing up for a blind date with a book in hand is remarkably odd behavior.
Current Book Giveaways The new book giveaways sponsored by our sister sites, ReadersRead.com and WritersWrite.com, include:
The Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands (Avon), the funny,
sexy story of a woman who never intended to wind up being
the only vampire in a small town.
The Alpine Traitor by Mary Daheim (Ballantine), the
charming new Emma Lord mystery.
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins),
the gripping crime novel that won the Quill Award.
Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer
Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon (Penguin).
**The new (optional) Book Giveaway Question is:
"Lately there has been a rash of bestselling and critically
praised memoirs that turned out to be total fiction. Some of the
latest fake memoir stories included a man who vastly exaggerated
his tale of drug addiction (A Million Little Pieces by James
Frey), a wealthy white Valley Girl who wrote that she was a
biracial gangbanger in Los Angeles (Love and Consequences by
Margaret B. Jones) , and a woman who pretended that she was
adopted by wolves in the forest who helped her escape the Nazis
during World War II (Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years
by Misha Defonseca). The one thing these stories all had in common
was their wild, unusual storylines that made them fun to read.
(Some people think that the wild storylines should have tipped
off publishers that the books were fiction). Have these
scandals made you more skeptical about reading autobiographies
and memoirs? If you were going to write your fake memoir, who
would you pretend to be? What bizarre life experiences would
you pretend to have had? Do you think you could fool a book
publisher (or Oprah) into believing your story was true?"
There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.
David Levien Talks Suspense
Novelist David Levien discusses his latest suspense novel, City of the Sun, with the Wall Street Journal's Bob Hughes in the video below. USA Todaysays the book "radiates anguish" - it deals with a child who disappears while running his paper delivery route.
Levien also discusses his transition from screenwriter to novelist. Levien was the co-screenwriter of Ocean's Thirteen and Runaway Jury.
Levien would like to see the book made into the film but he admits the film will have to be pared down compared to the book. Levien says he is is playing another crime novel with PI Frank Behr.
Audible Shareholders Unhappy About Sale to Amazon. Shareholders of Audible.com are quite unhappy
about the company's proposed sale to Amazon.com for only $11.50 a share.
Shareholders of Audible.com are making noise about the company's proposed $300 million sale to Amazon.com.
Red Oak Partners, a New York City hedge fund that owns 1.4 percent of Audible shares, denounced the proposed $11.50 per share sale in a letter dated March 6 to the chief executive of Audible, calling the terms "inadequate" and "below fair value."
The critique from portfolio manager David Sandberg follows the filing of a class-action lawsuit February 20 in the Superior Court of New Jersey that charged six of Audible's directors with breaching their fiduciary duties with the aid of Amazon.
In trading Friday afternoon, shares of Amazon.com gained $.18, or .3 percent, to $62.92, while Audible edged up $.01, or .1 percent, to $11.47.
In the letter addressed to Audible Chief Executive Donald Katz, Mr. Sandberg called a valuation analysis by investment bank Allen & Company "flawed."
From March through July 2007, Allen & Company offered Audible to a dozen potential suitors for $12.50 per share. In a later analysis, however, Allen trimmed its assessment of Audible's worth to $11.50. Amazon, which last year introduced its Kindle digital book reader, announced the Audible acquisition in January.
Mr. Sandberg said Allen & Company trimmed Audible's valuation "despite a year in which Audible grew its revenues by 34 percent and added $0.50 per share in cash to its balance sheet.
The Red Oak letter also questioned the $2.62 million fee charged by Allen & Company.
Nearly 20% of Audible's revenue comes from the sale of content through the iTunes online store. The contract with iTunes runs through 2010 and the company says its sales are booming.
Regardless of the sharedholders' unhappiness, the deal is likely to be approved.
New DVD Picks: Becoming Jane and Gone Baby Gone
Now out on DVD are two great movies: Becoming Jane and Gone Baby Gone. Becoming Jane is a marvelous look at Jane Austen's life. The film explores her romance with a penniless Irishman (who in real life later became a very famous judge who wrote quite wistfully about his friendship with Ms. Austen). But Jane's family was very poor and the Irish lawyer had to make a good living to take care of his family back home. Anne Hathaway shines as Jane and James McAvoy is delightful as the charming Tom Lefray. The story is funny, imaginative and thoroughly entertaining.
A totally different kind of film is Gone Baby Gone, which is based on the bestselling novel by Dennis Lehane. Ben Affleck made his directing debut and it's clear he has a great future in the director's chair. Two young private detectives (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan) are hired to find a missing little girl. The performances are outstanding, especially Casey Affleck's. This is a gripping crime drama that fans of Dennis Lehane shouldn't miss. The DVD offers lots of bonus features, including an extended ending, behind the scenes clips and commentary by Ben Affleck.
Our sister site, Shopping Blog, is giving away a set of the two films. You can enter the giveaway here.
Novelist Phyllis A. Whitney Dies at Age 104
Novelist Phyllis A. Whitney, the author of numerous romantic suspense novels, has died at age 104. Whitney wrote her last novel, Amethyst Dreams, in 1997 but she had been writing her autobiography according to the AP story.
Whitney died last Friday in a Charlottesville hospital, not far from her home in Nelson County, her son-in-law, Ed Pearson, said Thursday.
Whitney wrote more than 75 books, including three textbooks, and had about a hundred short stories published since the 1940s.
"I've slowed down in that I only write one book a year," she said in a 1989 interview with The Associated Press, when she was 85. "A writer is what I am."
Whitney's last novel, "Amethyst Dreams," was published in 1997. She began working on her autobiography at 102.
Phyllis Whitney won the Edgar Allan Poe Award twice for her juvenile mystery fiction. She was named the Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1988. The New York Times also has an obituary for Phyllis Whitney. You can find more information about her books and her full biography here on her website.
The Real Kay Scarpetta Is Retiring
The woman who was the inspiration for Patricia Cornwell's famous character,
Kay Scarpetta, has retired
at the age of 66. Virginia's chief medical examiner, Dr. Marcella Fierro, gave an interview to the young author who then went on to write many bestsellers starring fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. The two became friends over the years.
Fierro, whose last day was Monday, worked on some of the nation's most notorious crimes, including the Virginia Tech massacre and Richmond's Southside Strangler killings. And though she would never admit it, many would argue she was the catalyst for the explosion of forensic-science TV shows, movies and books.
In 1984, Cornwell, then an aspiring writer, got an appointment with Fierro to ask questions about what a medical examiner does. Fierro became the inspiration for Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the heroine of what would prove to be a string of best-selling thrillers for Cornwell.
"I would not be where I am today in my life were it not for Dr. Fierro," Cornwell says.
Kay Scarpetta is chief medical examiner of Virginia, at least in Cornwell's earlier novels. But aside from their jobs and penchant for Italian food, Fierro sees little resemblance between her and the fictional doctor.
"Kay is blond, blue-eyed and 115 pounds," she says dryly. "I've never been blond, I have brown eyes, and I haven't weighed 115 pounds since I was 12."
Cornwell sees a stronger connection.
"What she does have in common with Marcella is this amazing database between her ears, a tremendous compassion for the victims, and she will fight to the death for them," Cornwell says. "She has always been a tremendous advocate for those who can no longer speak for themselves."
*****
Fierro, who has been married to her college sweetheart for 41 years, favors romantic comedies, thinks the CBS series "Numb3rs" is "the cat's meow," and devours thrillers. She is indifferent toward the "CSI" series. And she can't tolerate violent movies or TV shows.
"I cannot find a shooting or a stabbing entertaining. I simply can't," she says. "My frame of reference — absolutely wrong for gore."
It's hard to imagine that the hard-boiled medical examiner can't even sit through a play or movie that has violence in it, but that's what Patricia Cornwell says about her longtime friend. Dr. Fiero may be retired, but she will live on in Cornwell's books.
Minnesota Tops Most Literate Cities List
The new list
of America's most literate cities is out: the citizens of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most well-read.
The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:
Some cities that didn't make it to the overall top 10, however, did strut their stuff in one of the six key literacy indicators. For instance, while Newark, N.J., was the 49th most literate city overall, it shared the top spot for newspaper circulation with Washington, D.C.
Plano, Texas, ranking 51st on the overall most-literate-city list, came in second for educational attainment. The education ranking included two factors: the percentage of the city's adult population with a high school diploma or higher and those with a bachelor's degree or higher.
How did your city stand up to the competition? Even if it did poorly, you can still consider yourself a beacon of literacy in an illiterate town.
Walter Mosley Signs With Riverhead
Bestselling author Walter Mosley has signed a new three book deal with Riverhead Books. Two of the books will be part of a new mystery series Mr. Mosley is launching that will feature Leonid McGill, an African-American private investigator based in contemporary New York City. The character was first introduced by Mr. Mosley in his short story, "Karma," which was included in the Best American Mystery Stories of 2006 anthology. The first book in the series will be published in hardcover in 2009. NAL will publish the title in paperback version in 2010. The author will also write a literary novel for Riverhead.
Sean McDonald said of the deal: "I've long thought of Walter Mosley as one of the great American writers. His work is consistently provocative and exciting, delivered with a style and power that is uniquely his own. I'm absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him."
Geoffrey Kloske said, "We feel privileged to be launching a brand new series by such an internationally revered author. And we're very excited that he has decided to join the ranks of Riverhead's award-winning, bestselling family of writers."
Walter Mosley said, "I'm very happy that Geoffrey, Sean, and their excellent team have agreed to take me and my work on. It feels like a perfect fit and I'm looking forward to delving into the writing and the work that comes after the writing. I have every expectation that this will be a revelatory and deeply satisfying journey."
Walter Mosley is the author of twenty-seven critically acclaimed books and his work has been translated into twenty-three languages. His popular mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress, which was
made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and Jennifer Beals.
Coming Soon Books Updated
The Reader's Roundup section on readersread.com has been updated. The Reader's Roundup includes lists of new hardcover releases and lists of upcoming books that can be pre-ordered.
Here is a list of some of the upcoming titles:
Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey, Todd J. McCaffrey (December)
The Appeal by John Grisham (January)
The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky (January)
Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton (Januar)
Unboxing the Kindle
Robert Scoble was so excited to receive his new Amazon Kindle ebook reader that he videotaped the exciting unboxing. The Kindle reviews seem to be falling into two camps: 1) the hardcore tech peeps who don't like it because they prefer a multi-use device that functions as an ebook/phone/pda/computer/espresso maker and 2) the hardcore readers who love it because it does one thing and does it very well -- allow you to instantly buy books from Amazon.com using your existing account and be able to carry around hundreds of books with you when you're on the go.
You can find out more about the Kindle (or buy one) at
Amazon.com. They are really selling out; they are now on backorder until December 6th so you might want to hurry if it's part of your holiday shopping plans.
The Kindle Has Landed
The Kindle has landed. It's finally here -- the Kindle has landed. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com kept a veil of secrecy around the much-hyped ebook reader until the official launch. The ebook reader, which we earlier described here, retails for $399. It uses electronic ink, like the Sony ebook reader, which is very easy to read. The biggest selling point is that your purchase price also buys you free wireless connectivity to Amazon.com: you have the largest selection of books online right at your fingertips. You can buy and download a new book in minutes, and all the books cost $9.99 or less.
A number of bestselling authors have been trying out the device and are giving it rave reviews. We haven't tried it out yet, but we were quite impressed with bestselling author Neil Gaiman's (Stardust, American Gods, Sandman) incredibly positive review. Neil loves his technology and he wouldn't say it was great if it wasn't. See his video
here. See the new Kindle and read all the specs
here.
Oprah Goes Medieval Oprah has chosen a very interesting book for her new Book Club Selection:
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (New American Library). The writer of thrillers writes out of his normal genre to tackle the political and social issues of Medieval Europe. The focus of the book is the building of great cathedral. Here's what Publisher's Weekly said about the title:
Follett's depiction of the precarious balance of power between monarchy and religion in the Middle Ages, and of the effects of social upheavals and the forces of nature (storms, famines) on political events; his ability to convey the fine points of architecture so that the cathedral becomes clearly visualized in the reader's mind; and above all, his portrayals of the enduring human emotions of ambition, greed, bravery, dedication, revenge and love, result in a highly engrossing narrative. Manipulating a complex plot in which the characters interact against a broad canvas of medieval life, Follett has written a novel that entertains, instructs and satisfies on a grand scale.
You can read an excerpt, get a reading guide, send Ken Follett an email and much more at Oprah.com. You can see a list of Oprah's past picks here.
Borders Puts TV Screens In Stores
Borders Books has decided to install
giant television screens in the stores which will feature ads and book-related news. This is going to be a real shocker to people who enjoy the relative quiet of their favorite bookstore.
A new strategy at Borders will reinforce the message that its stores are not just about books: the company has been installing 37-inch flat-screen televisions to show original programming, advertisements, news and weather.
George L. Jones, the chief executive of the Borders Group, said each store would have two screens. The broadcast service, called Borders TV, has arrived in nearly 60 stores and is scheduled to reach an additional 250 stores by the end of February.
The screens are "not designed to be intrusive," Mr. Jones said. Rather, he said, they are "part of a master plan to create content that will do several things for us," like directing traffic to the Borders Web site and paving the way to more cross-promotional deals with large media companies.
Will literary-minded customers bristle at the intrusion, or will the screens be welcomed as fun? Mr. Jones has a firm opinion: at Borders, "you browse, buy a latte, read a magazine. It's entertaining." The televisions are “another way that we can bring knowledge and entertainment," he said.
We say thumbs down to putting the giant screen televisions in bookstores. When they implement this misguided plan, the stores will seem like airport waiting rooms which always have CNN on a loop. We like a quiet bookstore and certainly don't want to be "entertained" in any way. Color us unhappy.
Nora Roberts' Angels Fall Named Book of the Year
Nora Roberts'
Angels Fallwon the Book of the Year Award at the 2007 Quill Book Awards.
Nora Roberts' Angels Fall (Putnam) was named Book of the Year by readers (as well as winner in the Romance category) at the 2007 Quill Book Awards, held October 22 in New York City at the spectacular Jazz at Lincoln Center theater. Quills were awarded in 19 categories, plus Book of the Year and Variety’s Blockbuster Book to Film Award, which went to the Bourne Trilogy by Robert Ludlum. The Quills also honored David Halberstam posthumously with a Platinum Quill.
Kicking off the awards ceremony, The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert lamented the loss of the oral tradition, took a swing at the National Book Awards, and wondered why the Quills were "being televised instead of novelized." Presenters included Joan Allen, a star of the Bourne films and a supporter of First Book, which gives books to children from low-income families, footballer Tiki Barber, actress Brooke Shields, and novelist Mary Higgins Clark. Also on hand was Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Tony Gilroy, who directed the recently acclaimed film Michael Clayton. With winners named in advance, many more authors were on hand, including Amy Sedaris, who took the Humor category for I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence (Warner), and Laura Lippman, whose What the Dead Know (Morrow) received the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller prize.
Congratulations, Nora! The Quills will be broadcast on NBC on October 27, 2007, at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Celebrate Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week starts tomorrow, Saturday, September 29th. Here are the American Library Association's suggestions for how to celebrate:
Join the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, and the Newberry Library in Pioneer Plaza, at Michigan Ave. and the Chicago River, on Saturday, September 29, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., for the Banned Books Week Read-Out! Local Chicago celebrities join several acclaimed authors to read passages from their favorite banned and "challenged" books. Authors scheduled to appear include Chris Crutcher, Robie Harris, Carolyn Mackler, Peter Parnell, and Justin Richardson.
Organize your own Banned Books Read-Out! at your school, public library, or favorite bookstore.
Mount these Web badges on your blogs and home pages to help spread the word about BBW.
Join IFAN, the Intellectual Freedom Action Network, a grassroots, ad hoc group of volunteers who have identified themselves as willing to come forward in support of the freedom to read in censorship controversies in their communities.
Dedicate one day's programming on your National Public Radio (NPR) station to Banned Books Week. For example, "Today's programming on [the name of the radio station] is made possible in part by [your name], who is celebrating this Banned Books Week by re-reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings [or another favorite banned or challenged book] or by accomplishing some other activity related to the week.
Borders and Sony Renew Ebook Reader Agreement
Borders has renewed its agreement with Sony regarding the sale and promotion of the Sony Ebook reader. Under the new deal, Borders will continue to sell the Sony Readers, but will expand the number of stores where it is sold to 500 nationwide.
Borders is also going to launch a co-branded online store with support from
Sony that will offer digital ebook downloads. The store will stock more than 20,000 books by authors such as Dean Koontz, Khaled Hosseini
and Michael Connelly. The online store will eventually become part of Borders' revamped website.
"Embracing technology as a path to differentiate Borders is a key part
of our company's strategic plan," said Borders Group Chief Executive
Officer George Jones. "Sony's long history of innovation and pioneering
efforts in establishing the e-book category with the Reader makes them a
great partner. We firmly support the e-book as a format we believe will be
of growing importance to our customers in the future, and this agreement is
a big part of our plans to make Borders a true cross-channel retailer,
fulfilling our mission as a headquarters for knowledge and entertainment."
"Borders is a world-class brand with incredible reach and influence,
and their commitment to e-books is a clear sign the category is moving
beyond the early adopter phase into the mainstream," said Stan Glasgow,
president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics Inc. "We look
forward to working with Borders and the publishing community to broaden the audience by delivering a greater selection of digital content to people who love to read."
If the deal wasn't working, the agreement wouldn't have been renewed. When the Sony Ebook Reader drops in price, we predict sales will go even higher.
One in Four Adults Don't Read Books At All
One in four adults read no books at all, according to a new report. The report discusses book sales, which have essentially remained flat over time.
One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.
The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.
"I just get sleepy when I read," said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.
That choice by Bustos and others is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.
When the Gallup Poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started - a similar but not directly comparable question - the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999, but close to the 1990 response of six.
In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled "Reading at Risk" found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.
Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn't read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.
At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn't do without them.
"I go into another world when I read," said Charlotte Fuller, 64, a retired nurse from Seminole, Fla., who said she read 70 books in the last year. "I read so many sometimes I get the stories mixed up."
Among those who said they had read books, the median figure - with half reading more, half fewer - was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger.
The poll didn't address the Harry Potter phenomenon. So many kids got hooked on reading: we're hopeful that they will continue to find new authors to read now that the series has ended. And as for the people who never read: we just don't get it. How dull is a life without books! We are never without something to read. At the doctor's office, at the beach, in the backyard -- we always have at least a new paperback with us.
Autographed copy of The Silver Moon Elm by MaryJanice Davidson
and Anthony Alongi (Berkley Jam), the exciting new adventure
in the New York Times bestselling Jennifer Scales urban
fantasy adventure series. Jennifer is a normal teen with abnormal
problems: she's half-weredragon, half-beaststalker.
Inspired Creative Writing: Pokes and Prods for Scribblers of
All Stripes by Alexander Gordon Smith (Perigee), the offbeat and
accessible guide to help aspiring authors get their imaginations
flowing.
Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love,
Sex and Real Estate by Jane Juska (Villard), the funny, sexy and
frank story of a woman who refuses to give up dating, fun and
adventures just because she's passed the big 60.
Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak (Doubleday), the fabulously fun
mystery set in the fascinating world of soap operas.
There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.
Sebastian Fault to Write Next James Bond Novel
Bestselling author Sebastian Faulk has been chosen to write an official James Bond novel. The novel is set in 1967.
The book, Devil May Care, will be published next May and is set in 1967, when, Faulks said yesterday, "Bond is damaged, ageing and in a sense it is the return of the gunfighter for one last heroic mission". His own interpretation of the spy, he hinted, would show all the caddishness of Bond's previous incarnations, tempered with just a shade of new-mannish sensitivity.
"He has been widowed and been through a lot of bad things ... He is slightly more vulnerable than any previous Bond but at the same time he is both gallant and highly sexed, if you can be both. Although he is a great seducer, he really does appreciate the girls he seduces and he doesn't actually use them badly."
Faulks is not the first author to have been commissioned by Fleming's estate to resurrect Bond. Kingsley Amis accepted the challenge in 1968 with Colonel Sun, by general consent a failure. He was followed by John Pearson, Fleming's former assistant on the Sunday Times, the novelist John Gardner and the Texan writer Raymond Benson, who wrote the last Bond book, The Man with the Red Tattoo, in 2002.
*****
As for his method of writing, Faulks said he had adopted a suitably devil-may-care attitude. "In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling."
The Bond That Got Away
Details have emerged
about a new James Bond script written by Sean Connery. Connery would have starred in the film as Bond, who fights a giant robot shark in the New York sewers, parachutes onto the Statue of Liberty and waterskis on the Hudson River. The discovery of the finished script (which was not filmed because Cubby Broccoli sued to stop the project) has sent Bond fans into a frenzy.
Sadly, however, it was never filmed and exists today in a few recently unearthed sketches and photographs. Warhead never made it in front of the cameras, let alone on to the big screen, falling victim not to SPECTRE, but to a bitter and complicated legal battle.
Not only would Connery have starred, but he co-wrote the script with top thriller writer Len Deighton and personally chose and scouted the international locations.
Bond aficionados have always vaguely known about "the great lost Bond movie". But only now has it become apparent just how close it came to being filmed in 1977. And the full extent of Connery's involvement - not just as the star, but also as producer and in the unfamiliar role of scriptwriter - is only now clear.
*****
The information came out when Robert Sellers, author and Bond fan, announced he was writing a book on the maverick Irish producer Kevin McClory, who figured in a string of legal cases over Bond rights from the 1960s to the 2000s and who died last year.
McClory worked with Ian Fleming on a screenplay for Thunderball in the late 1950s, even before it was published as a novel.
Sellers was contacted by a former friend of McClory, who insisted on remaining anonymous but agreed to a meeting in a Hampstead café.
Sellers was surprised when the mystery man turned up with a copy of the script for Warhead, bearing the names of Connery, Deighton and McClory as co-writers.
He was amazed when his source then handed over never-before-seen snaps of Connery on a location visit to New York and artwork for key scenes in the film.
"I didn't know they even existed," said Sellers, whose book The Battle For Bond is published by the small Tomahawk Press in Sheffield and should be in shops this week.
"Bond fans have heard of Warhead," he said. "It's like a mythical sort of beast, almost the Holy Grail, this Bond film that never was.
"But if you search the internet or look in Bond books or magazines, there's nothing visual at all about Warhead. So it was quite a revelation to see the pre-production artwork."
Sellers added: "He actually had the original script... This wasn't a proposal or a suggestion, this was an actual script, a fully-fledged, finished screenplay."
Sellers could hardly contain his excitement as he leafed through pages telling a dramatic story in which the mysterious disappearance of planes in the Bermuda Triangle is the work of the criminal organisation SPECTRE.
They are intent on causing havoc by exploding a nuclear warhead under Wall Street, delivered by a robotic hammerhead shark via the city's sewers. 007 not only has to battle mechanical sharks, but also a massive villain called Bomba.
"You had an underwater base that rises out of the sea, you had helicopter attacks on the Statue of Liberty," said Sellers.
"It would have been the most extravagant Bond film ever."
Robot sharks in New York! A giant villain named Bomba! The Bermuda Triangle! Do you think that Daniel Craig is up for it? Probably not. Everyone knows that robot sharks are just so over.
Da Vinci Code Investigaton Dropped
Italian officials have now dropped
their obscenity investigation into the film version of The Da Vinci Code.
The obscenity investigation into "The Da Vinci Code" was dropped a day after it was launched, as the state attorney in the Italian port village of Civitavecchia it is no longer looking into the charges.
It was announced Monday that a criminal investigation had been launched into whether the 2006 film based on the best-selling Dan Brown novel was in violation of Article 528 of Italy's penal code. If found guilty of the charges, Brown, director Ron Howard and eight other defendants could have been subject to unlimited fines and jail time.
The investigation was reportedly based on complaints from clergy in the area, who alleged that the film was "obscene" from a religious perspective. But on Tuesday, the process was dropped.
While the local media speculated that the change of course may have been sparked by all the negative publicity for the town 40 miles north of Rome -- the story was widely reported in the international media -- an official answering the phone at the state attorney's office said the decision was made based on the merits of the case.
"There are no grounds for this investigation," the official said.
Ron Howard is busy doing pre-production work on Angels and Demons, which is being adapted by from Dan Brown's book of the same name. It's a good thing this investigation was dropped. Of all the countries it would really hurt not to be able to visit because of the threat of a jail sentence, Italy has to top the list. No vacations in Rome. No Venice Film Festival. No caci e pepe. No limoncello. That would be rough.
John Grisham Heads Back to Italy
John Grisham is taking a break from legal thrillers: his next book will be set in Italy.
The author of such million-selling classics as "The Firm" and "The Client" is setting his next book in Italy. "Playing for Pizza," the story of an American quarterback trying his luck in Italy, will come out in September, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group announced Thursday.
"One of the many joys of working with John is the element of surprise," Doubleday publisher Stephen Rubin said in a statement.
"Who would have thought that the master of the legal thriller would write a novel about cotton farming (A Painted House) or a novel about the excesses of Christmas? (Skipping Christmas) Now, John pulls another rabbit out of his endless supply of hats with Playing for Pizza, a romp about a fish out of water that had me laughing out loud."
"I was pleasantly surprised to find real American football in Italy," Grisham said in a statement issued by Doubleday, "and as I dug deeper, a novel came together. The research was tough - food, wine, opera, football, Italian culture - but someone had to do it."
According to Doubleday, Grisham came up with the idea of the book while researching The Broker, which took place in Bologna, Italy. Another legal thriller, currently untitled, is scheduled for Spring 2008.
Italy is so much fun to visit that it makes sense to set as many books as possible there. That way you can hang out in Tuscany or Rome and do lots of in-depth research.
Insufficient Mating Material (LoveSpell), the racy,
wildly entertaining futuristic romance by bestselling author
Rowena Cherry.
Autographed set of Murder on Nob Hill, The Russian Hill Murders
and an ARC of The Cliff House Strangler (all from St. Martin's Press),
the three books in the delightful and bestselling mystery
series by Shirley Tallman. Set in 1880's San Francisco, the
series stars a feisty female attorney who solves mysteries:
it's Legally Blond for the 19th century!
Autographed copy of Jeff Herman's 2007 Guide to Book Publishers,
Editors, & Literary Agents (Three Dog Press). It's the must-have
guide for all aspiring authors.
Floor Sample by Julia Cameron (Tarcher Penguin), the inspring
new memoir from the bestselling author of The Artist's Way.
Nothing is off limits in her life story: from her career writing
for Rolling Stone, her marriage to Martin Scorcese to life
in Hollywood, Julia tells it like it is, with her trademark humor
and wisdom.
There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.
The Andromeda Strain Returns as a Miniseries
Remember The Andromeda Strain, the horrifying disease thriller by Michael Crichton that launched 1,000 imitators? Well, it's back and it's going to be a tv series.
Michael Crichton's bestselling novel "The Andromeda Strain" will be coming to the small screen, as brothers Tony and Ridley Scott have signed on to produce a four-hour mini-series based on the book. The series is expected to begin production this summer.
Mikael Soloman is set to direct the A and E series. Robert Schenkkan adapted the story.
The series is expected to begin production this summer.
"The Andromeda Strain" is just one of many original series the A and E network plans to introduce.
The network is expected to announce its plans to invest about $600 million in new projects this year, Variety said.
There's just nothing like a terrifying disease thriller, we always say. We have a feeling that modern special effects are going to make this one a must-see for paranoid hypochondriacs everywhere.
Ian Rankin Brings Tartan Noir to The New York Times
Fans of bestselling Scottish mystery author Ian Rankin will soon get to read his new novella in The New York Times, which is serializing the story.
The Rebus creator has just completed a novella, provisionally entitled Doors Open, about a heist in Edinburgh. The standalone story features a cast of original characters and will be published in 14 parts in the magazine section of the newspaper each Sunday from this March or April.
Rankin follows a growing number of writers tackling the revived serial genre, such as Alexander McCall Smith with the "44 Scotland Street" series in the Scotsman, and Ronan Bennett in the Observer with Zugzwang. Orion has no immediate plans to publish the Rankin novella, but deputy CEO and publisher Malcolm Edwards said that it will appear in book form "at some time."
Previous fiction serializations in the New York Times include Patricia Cornwell's At Risk, Michael Connelly's The Overlook and, most recently, Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road.
We're not sure what's behind the resurgance of the serialization -- but it's definitely a revitalized form of showcasing fiction. We have the same problems with serializations that we have with miniseries on TV: we just can't make the commitment to keep coming back to see what happens next. (Although we might make an exception for Ian Rankin.)
Now that we've learned to watch entire TV series on DVD or on Tivo (so we can miss the commercials), we've just gotten so spoiled. We do still love excerpts though, which is why we have so many here at ReadersRead.com. We read one excerpt, then go buy the book.
Clive Cussler Sahara Lawsuit Headed for Trial
The lawsuit over the film version of the Clive Cussler book Sahara is in full swing. And it's a doozy -- the main backer of the film, billionaire Philip Anschutz, is suing Cussler saying that Cussler lied about how popular his books were, which caused Anschutz to lose $105 million when the film was not a giant box office success. Cussler is furious that they wouldn't let him write the script and said they messed up his book. Millions of dollars are at stake, not to mention the fact that the way book sales are calculated is now squarely in the public eye.
Attorneys for Philip Anschutz allege that author Clive Cussler duped the Denver industrialist into paying $10 million for film rights to the adventure novel "Sahara" by flagrantly inflating his book sales to more than 100 million copies.
"Cussler and his agent had gotten away with these numbers for years," said Alan Rader, Anschutz's lawyer. "It was a lie and it doomed the movie."
The claim is "ridiculous," Cussler said Thursday outside a courtroom at Los Angeles County Superior Court. "They wanted the book. They solicited us."
The allegations surfaced at the start of a civil trial that seeks to settle a dispute over who is responsible for Anschutz's company losing $105 million on "Sahara," the 2005 movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz.
The trial, which includes claims of sabotage, fraud, profligate spending and racism, is expected to provide a rare behind-the-scenes look at the world of moviemaking. Lawyers selected a jury Thursday and are scheduled to make opening arguments today.
Among those on the witness list are Anschutz, the secretive 67-year-old multibillionaire; former Paramount Pictures Chairwoman Sherry Lansing; director Breck Eisner, the son of the former Walt Disney Co. chairman; McConaughey, who also served as executive producer; and Cussler, the 75-year-old author.
Cussler initially sued Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment in 2004, charging that producers reneged on a contract that gave the author extraordinary approval rights over the screenplay. Anschutz countersued, alleging that Cussler deliberately torpedoed the film through his repeated attempts to write his own scripts, all of which were rejected by the producers. Both sides are seeking millions of dollars in damages.
In court papers, Anschutz's attorneys claim that Cussler "perpetrated a massive fraud" to secure an "unprecedented" contractual agreement in 2000.
"The essence of Cussler's fraud was simple: He lied about how many books he had sold to induce Crusader to enter the agreement," the papers state.
In addition to their effect on the trial, the allegations may raise broader questions about the authenticity of publishing-industry sales figures.
Although they declined to comment on the specifics of the Cussler case, New York publishing experts said Thursday that the industry had a long history of inflating book sales and hyping an author's success. But these practices have declined, they added, with the emergence of Nielsen BookScan in 2001.
Cussler's publisher Simon and Schuster says Cussler has sold 100 million copies of his books worldwide, which sounds about right. You can't walk into a bookstore, drugstore or airport store without stumbling over several of the man's books. We think Anschutz is a sore loser: there are no guarantees in the movie business. And any way, we saw Sahara: it was the script that doomed that movie. And any juror who saw the movie will agree: we like McConaughey, but his character wasn't anything like the Dirk Pitt of the books. And Penelope Cruz was woefully miscast. But it was the script that doomed the movie: maybe they should have let Cussler write it, after all.
John Grisham Sued After Playing Private Detective For Friend
John Grisham is being sued for infliction of emotional distress by a woman that was accused of sending anonymous letters. The woman said she was held up to ridicult after Grisham played detective for his friend who was trying to find out who sent his wife anonymous letters.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday that John Grisham must face a jury for his actions in a real-life whodunit.
Grisham, author of "The Pelican Brief," "The Firm" and "The Runaway Jury," among other bestsellers, lives outside Charlottesville. His son attended the private St. Anne's-Belfield School, where he played baseball for Alan Swanson, the head coach. Grisham and Swanson became friends, according to court papers, and Grisham is on the school's board of trustees.
In 1996, Swanson's wife, Donna Swanson, began receiving harassing anonymous letters, which included allegations that her husband was cheating on her, according to the ruling. Grisham also received an anonymous letter.
In 1998, according to a lawsuit, "Grisham was intrigued by the idea of trying to 'get to the bottom' of who was writing them, and he decided to play amateur detective."
Grisham and the Swansons targeted another St. Anne's parent, Katharine Almy of Charlottesville, who has three children.
Grisham and the Swansons took the letters to a handwriting expert, who told them that he needed more samples.
Both sides agree that Grisham and Alan Swanson then obtained enrollment and medical release forms from the school filled out by Almy and stamped "strictly confidential." They provided the forms to the handwriting expert, who issued a report saying the letters "possibly" were written by Almy, the lawsuit states.
Grisham provided the expert's report and the letters to the Albemarle County police, and a detective visited Almy. The lawsuit states that she was horrified that she was being investigated and repeatedly denied writing the letters. The detective reportedly told her to stop writing the letters. The lawsuit says that Almy provided handwriting samples to another examiner, who cleared her, and that she passed a polygraph test.
The author of the anonymous letters has never been found.
The moral of this story is obvious: it may look like fun to play amateur detective, but it's probably better to leave these things to the professionals. Unless you don't mind getting sued by people you accuse of wrongdoing, of course.
John Twelve Hawks Still Off the Grid
Remember John Twelve Hawks, the guy who lived off the Grid? You know, no credit cards, no driver's license, no bank accounts, no way to track him? Well he wrote this really interesting thriller,
The Traveler in 2005, then pretty much fell back off the Grid, leaving readers wondering what in the world would happen next in the series (including us).
Well, it appears that Mr. Hawks (or whatever he's really called in the no-man's land in which he resides) has actually finished the next book in the series. The next entry in The Fourth Realm series
is called The Dark River and it will be published by Doubleday in the summer of 2007.
"I've always seen the trilogy not as three books, but as a very long novel with an international setting. The action of The Dark River will take place in New York, London, Berlin and in a variety of other unusual locations. My goal is to show familiar places in a way that may surprise some people." --John Twelve Hawks
He has also revealed that the Irish Harlequin, Mother Blessing, will be a crucial part of the conflict between the Tabula and the Harlequins and that some of the characters won't survive the whole trilogy.
Clearly we're going to have to re-read The Traveler before next summer so we'll remember where we were when the book left off. This is just taking too long. Does living off the Grid mean he has to write using a quill pen? Can't he make an exception in the name of literature and just use a computer? Because we're really quite impatient and the sequel is just taking too long to appear.
New Jackie O Novel Infuriates Kennedy Family
Page Six reports that the Kennedy family is absolutley furious over Eve Pollard's new book, Jack's Widow (HarperCollins).
The Kennedy clan is on the warpath over Eve Pollard's new HarperCollins novel, "Jack's Widow," a
fictional tale of Jackie Kennedy's life after JFK's assassination, in which she spies for the
CIA and gets brutally raped. Her stepbrother, Hugh Auchincloss III, told Globe,
"It should simply not be allowed . . . It is terrible to toy with a historical figure's
memory in such a cavalier manner. None of these things are true, and [they] paint
an awful picture, presumably just to make money from Jackie's name." Pollard and
her book will be feted tonight at Peter Brown's Central Park aerie.
Well it's certainly a wild premise for a novel -- Jackie O was a spy? It's absurd, really. Publisher's Weekly says "Readers who enjoy historical personages cast in an unflattering, unsavory or unappealing light will be most rewarded."
Dexter, the Lovable Serial Killer?
The new Showtime series, Dexter, has an unusual
hero: by day he works for the police. By night, he's a serial killer. Yes, you heard that right. But he only kills bad guys who escaped the system, so we think he would more properly be called a vigilante.
The show, which premiered last night, is based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay which is available in paperback. Publisher's Weekly called the book "self-deprecating, smart and sometimes lyrical... a macabre fun ride." If that's your thing, you can see the first episode online for free at Showtime. Watch out for the blood, though.
Celebrating the Holidays With Hannibal Lector
A new Hannibal Lector book will be out in time for the holidays.
In a last-minute addition to its holiday-season list, Delacorte Press, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, is expected to announce today that it will publish Hannibal Rising on Dec. 5. The 356-page novel chronicles the early life of Dr. Lecter.
Mr. Harris just handed in the manuscript for Hannibal Rising last month, and Bantam is rushing to publish the book in time for the crucial holiday sales season. It also hopes to capitalize on the February 2007 release of the movie version of the new novel, for which Mr. Harris also wrote the screenplay. The movie, which is produced by the Dino De Laurentis Company and marketed by the Weinstein Company, stars Gaspard Ulliel, the French co-star of the 2004 film A Very Long Engagement, as the young Dr. Lecter.
Irwyn Applebaum, publisher of Bantam, said the timing was fortuitous. "Usually even the best-selling books have an eight-week excitement cycle," he said. "But for this book, the movie excitement will hopefully be at its height just as the book goes through that cycle, so it's a very good opportunity for this book to have an extended hardcover life."
Close readers of Mr. Harris’s previous novels, which also include “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Red Dragon,” may recall that Dr. Lecter saw his entire family killed during World War II in Eastern Europe. The new novel, which covers the young Hannibal from age 6 through 20, will shed more light on the circumstances of those deaths, with a focus on Dr. Lecter’s memories of his younger sister, Mischa.
Nothing says "I love you" like the gift of a good cannibal/serial killer book, we always say.
Nora Roberts Reviews Stephen King
Internationally bestselling romance author Nora Roberts (who also writes a futuristic detective series under the pseudonym J.D. Robb) reviews Stephen King's upcoming romantic thriller, Lisey's Story (Scribner).
Stephen King hooked me about three decades ago with that sharply faceted, blood-stained jewel, The Shining. Through the years he's bumped my gooses with kiddie vampires, tingled my spine with beloved pets gone rabid, justified my personal fear of clowns and made me think twice about my cell phone. I've always considered The Stand--a long-time favorite--a towering tour de force, and have owed its author a debt as this was the first novel I could convince my older son to read from cover to cover.
But with Lisey's Story, King has accomplished one more feat. He broke my heart.
Lisey's Story is, at its core, a love story--heart-wrenching, passionate, terrifying and tender. It is the multi-layered and expertly crafted tale of a twenty-five year marriage, and a widow's journey through grief, through discovery and--this is King, after all--through a nightmare scape of the ordinary and extraordinary. Through Lisey's mind and heart, the reader is pulled into the intimacies of her marriage to bestselling novelist Scott Landon, and through her we come to know this complicated, troubled and heroic man.
Two years after his death, Lisey sorts through her husband's papers and her own shrouded memories. Following the clues Scott left her and her own instincts, she embarks on a journey that risks both her life and her sanity. She will face Scott's demons as well as her own, traveling into the past and into Boo'ya Moon, the seductive and terrifying world he'd shown her. There lives the power to heal, and the power to destroy.
Lisey Landon is a richly wrought character of charm and complexity, of realized inner strength and redoubtable humor. As the central figure she drives the story, and the story is so vividly textured, the reader will draw in the perfumed air of Boo'ya Moon, will see the sunlight flood through the windows of the Scott's studio--or the night press against them. Her voice will be clear in your ear as you experience the fear and the wonder. If your heart doesn't hitch at the demons she faces in this world and the other, if it doesn't thrill at her courage and endurance, you're going to need to check with a cardiologist, first chance.
Lisey's Story is bright and brilliant. It's dark and desperate. While I'll always consider The Shining, my first ride on King's wild Tilt-A-Whirl, a gorgeous, bloody jewel, I found, on this latest ride, a treasure box heaped with dazzling gems.
A few of them have sharp, hungry teeth.
Lisey's Story hits bookstores on October 24, 2006.
Iranians Rush To Buy The Da Vinci Code
Iranian book lovers are rushing to buy copies of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, now that it has been banned.
Forget the nuclear program, wiping Israel off the map or going off to fight alongside Hezbollah. What Iranians really want is "The Da Vinci Code."
According to Al-Jazeera, Iranians are desperately scooping up whatever copies they can find of the tale of a married Jewish couple who had a child, after a government ban clamped down on sales.
"I rushed to buy the book when I heard about the ban," said Reza Mortazavi, a 32-year-old teacher, quoted in the Al-Jazeera report. "Now, I am more eager to know what was written in it."
On Wednesday, Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced it was banning further printing and distribution of the book, which has already gone through 8 printings in Farsi, after Christian clerics protested against it.
Mansour Jamshir, a bookstore owner, said: "I had several calls for purchase of the book in a bulk amount and in higher prices."
Earlier this month, Iranian Christian bishops condemned the book, saying it insulted their religion, and asked the Islamic government to ban publishers from printing it. Less than 0.2 percent of Iran's nearly 69 million people are Christian.
Ah, the eternal allure of the banned book. It never fails.
Author Writes Amish Crime Thrillers
Paul L. Gaus, chemistry professor at the College of Wooster, is also the author of an Amish mystery series. Gaus is very familiar with Amish culture and customs -- the Amish live nearby in Holmes County, Ohio. A Christian Science Monitorarticle says Gaus is an Amishlieben, which means a friend of the Amish. Gaus' latest Amish mystery is called A Prayer for the Night.
"Since I know so much about the Amish I decided to write mysteries about them," says Gaus. "To illuminate as much of their practices and beliefs as I could."
His first mystery, "Blood of the Prodigal," dealt with repentance and forgiveness within the Amish community. His second, "Broken English," addressed pacifism and revenge.
Greed and avarice were examined in "Clouds without Rain," and his fourth book, "Cast a Blue Shadow," exposed child abuse in closed Amish society.
Gaus's newest mystery, "A Prayer for the Night," captures the tensions of an Amish tradition called "Rumspringa," a rite of passage when 16-year-olds are set free from church rules and allowed to experiment with technology, sex, drugs, and alcohol. Large Amish communities like the one in Holmes County are anonymous enough to support a youth subculture where Rumspringa may spawn adolescent gangs, some more rebellious than others.
The article says some of Gaus' close Amish friends find the mysteries very realistic. It also says one Amish person was upset when he learned the mysteries were not true because his sect does not allow people to read fiction.
Current Book Giveaways
The new book giveaways sponsored by ReadersRead.com and our sister site, WritersWrite.com include:
Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson (Ballantine Books),
the hilarious and enchanting new urban fairy tale that combines
chick-lit, magic and romance.
Body Intelligence: Lose Weight, Keep It Off, and Feel
Great About Your Body Without Dieting by Edward
Abramson, Ph.D. (McGraw Hill), the revolutionary book
that will help you lose those unwanted pounds permanently.
The Alpine Recluse by Mary Daheim (Ballantine), the
fascinating new Emma Lord mystery in which amateur sleuth
Emma faces murder and arson in the tiny town of Alpine,
Washington.
The Jury Master by Robert Dugoni (Warner Books), the
exciting new legal thriller about a brilliant trial attorney that is
thrust into a whirlwind of danger and adventure.
There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.
Stephen King Reviews New Scott Smith Novel
Scott Smith has a new thriller out this summer called The Ruins. Smith was the author of the 1993 novel, The Simple Plan, which was made into a film starring Bill Paxon and Billy Bob Thornton. Stephen King has a review of The Ruinshere on Amazon.com.
The new book is here, and the question devotees of A Simple Plan will want answered is whether or not this book generates anything like Plan's harrowing suspense. The answer is yes. The Ruins is going to be America's literary shock-show this summer, doing for vacations in Mexico what Jaws did for beach weekends on Long Island. Is it as successful and fulfilling as a novel? The answer is not quite, but I can live with that, because it's riskier. There will be reviews of this book by critics who have little liking or understanding for popular fiction who'll dismiss it as nothing but a short story that has been bloated to novel length (I'm thinking of Michiko Kakutani, for instance, who microwaved Smith's first book). These critics, who steadfastly grant pop fiction no virtue but raw plot, will miss the dazzle of Smith's technique; The Ruins is the equivalent of a triple axel that just misses perfection because something's wrong with the final spin.
It's hard to say much about the book without giving away everything, because the thing is as simple and deadly as a leg-hold trap concealed in a drift of leaves…or, in this case, a mass of vines. You've got four young American tourists--Eric, Jeff, Amy, and Stacy--in Cancun. They make friends with a German named Mathias whose brother has gone off into the jungle with some archeologists. These five, plus a cheerful Greek with no English (but a plentiful supply of tequila), head up a jungle trail to find Mathias's brother…the archaeologists…and the ruins.
The Ruins sounds like a great read. If Stephen King is willing to recommend it then it is worth adding to your summer reading stack. Like King mentioned, Scott Smith needs to write more frequently. Thirteen years between novels is far too long.
Site News: Coming Soon Books Section Update
We have updated our Reader's Roundup: Coming Soon Books section. The section includes a list of future book releases in July, August, September and beyond. Readers interested in future book releases might also want to read's Time'sPublishing's Next Page Turners article. The article looks at a few books that may be hits in September and October based on reaction at this year's Book Expo.
Bestselling Irish author Michael Scott amps up the excitement
in this third book in a projected six book series about the
legendary Alchemyst Nicholas Flamel and American twins Josh and
Sophie, who are the twins of legend with the power to save or
destroy the world. In The Sorceress Sophie and Josh must master
more of the elemental magics and defeat John Dee and the Archon
Cerunnos. They hope to continue their training with Gilgamesh,
the immortal king, who knows all the magic in the world, but
cannot use it. Jumping from Paris to London to the island of
Alcatraz near San Francisco, this is a fantastic entry in a
series that keeps getting better.
Publishers Weekly 
Director Ron Howard said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that Dan Brown had finished writing the third Robert Langdon novel. However, Reuters 
Stephen King has shared with Entertainment Weekly his ten favorite books of 2008. In the Entertainment Weekly magazine King's list is probably all nicely laid out on one page but online EW has annoyingly seperated into ten parts as the online version of magazines so often do. You can find it 
The new 
Denzel Washington is 
The new 
Shareholders of Audible.com are quite 
Now out on DVD are two great movies: Becoming Jane and Gone Baby Gone. Becoming Jane is a marvelous look at Jane Austen's life. The film explores her romance with a penniless Irishman (who in real life later became a very famous judge who wrote quite wistfully about his friendship with Ms. Austen). But Jane's family was very poor and the Irish lawyer had to make a good living to take care of his family back home. Anne Hathaway shines as Jane and James McAvoy is delightful as the charming Tom Lefray. The story is funny, imaginative and thoroughly entertaining.
It's finally here -- the Kindle has landed. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com kept a veil of secrecy around the much-hyped ebook reader until the official launch. The ebook reader, which we earlier described 
Oprah has chosen a very interesting book for her new Book Club Selection:
The new Showtime series, Dexter, has an unusual
hero: by day he works for the police. By night, he's a serial killer. Yes, you heard that right. But he only kills bad guys who escaped the system, so we think he would more properly be called a vigilante.
