• Jean-Marie Gustav de Clezio Wins Nobel Prize for Literature
Jean-Marie Gustav de Clezio has won
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born in 1940, Le Cl?zio first found fame in 1963 with his first novel Proces-Verbal, which was awarded the Prix Renaudot. Since then he has published a wide variety of novels, essays and short fiction.
The Academy saluted his achievement, calling him an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".
He is due to receive the award of 10m Swe...
• Terry Pratchett Talks About Having Alzheimer's
Bestselling author Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease called posterior cortical atrophy or PCA. He has donated $1 million to the Alzheimer's foundation in England and frequently uses his celebrity to raise awareness of this devastating disease. His
new article
in the Daily Mail is a must-read.
My wife said: 'Thank goodness it isn't a brain tumour,' but all I could think then was: 'I know three people who have got better after a brain tumour. I haven?t heard...
• Former Simpsons Writer Larry Doyle Wins 2008 Thurber Prize
Larry Doyle, the former writer and producer for The Simpsons, won the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his book I Love You Beth Cooper. The Thurber Prize is presented annually by Thurber House. Thurber House is the boyhood home of author, humorist and New Yorker cartoonist, James Thurber in Columbus, Ohio.
Doyle is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and has a monthly column in Esquire magazine. I Love You, Beth Cooper is his first novel, and will soon be adapted for a big-screen f...
• Dacre Stoker Writing Dracula Sequel
Bram Stoker's great grand nephew is bringing
Dracula back to life in a new book. Dacre Stoker studied Bram Stoker's handwritten notes on the original novel to help him write the sequel. The new novel will be called Dracula: The Un-Dead, which was Bram Stoker's original title before his editor nixed it.
The new book - the first Dracula story to be fully authorised by the Stoker family since the 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi - has provoked a storm in the publishing world, selling for more than $...
• J.K. Rowling Still Wealthiest Author
The press loves to chronicle
the net worth of J.K. Rowling: they definitely keep a sharp eye on her fortune. A new article in Forbes reveals that -- shock of all shocks -- she's still really wealthy.
The $300m JK Rowling pulled in over the last year will make sickening reading for the majority of authors who are struggling to earn a living.
Rowling made $571 a minute between June 1 2007 and June 1 2008, according to Forbes's ranking of the world's best paid authors, thanks to last July's publ...
• A Positive Spin on Remaindered Books
The hilarious poem "The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered" from Clive James' collection Opal Sunset: Selected Poems, 1958-2008 has an author relishing the fact that his rival's book has been remaindered. An article in the Guardian puts a more positive spin on getting remaindered. One of the positive ways to look at this as an author is that more readers may discover your books. People do shop in bargain bookstores and bargain book sectiosn. It is a great way to get a nice hardcover at a redu...
• Nobel Judge Disses American Writers
One of the Nobel Prize for Literature judges has slammed
American writers as being "too insular and ignorant" to create great literature.
As the Swedish Academy enters final deliberations for this year's award, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said it's no coincidence that most winners are European.
"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world ... not the United States," he said in an ex...
• Philip Pullman Enjoying Banned Books Week
Phillip Pullman is quite pleased that his books have been criticized in the U.S. for their religious point of view.
Philip Pullman has revealed he was delighted to discover his novel Northern Lights was one of the most "challenged" titles of the year in America, with numerous calls made to have it removed from libraries.
Pullman's children's novel, which is sold as The Golden Compass in the US, was the fourth most challenged book in 2007, according to the American Library Association, which re...
• Chawton Battles City of Bath Over Jane Austen Bragging Rights
A battle is raging
over Jane Austen's home. Chawton in Hampshire is fighting to retain its title as the "true home" of Jane Austen. Austen spent the last years of her life in the village. But the city of Bath claims that it is entitled to be called Austen's "true home."
Organisers of Bath's Jane Austen Festival say the city is now "internationally recognised" as the writer's home because it features so heavily in her books.
This is no small affront to the residents of Chawton, where Austen live...
• When Oprah Calls, Authors Listen
It's that call that every author -- except Jonathan Franzen -- would love to get: the call from Oprah Winfrey saying she's chosen your book for her book club. David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle got the Call and could hardly believe it.
This summer, David Wroblewski got the phone call every writer dreams about: Oprah Winfrey was on the line to chat about The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, his debut novel about a mute Wisconsin boy and his dog.
"We talked about the book and her do...
• SFWA named in lawsuit
The SFWA, who provide services to writers and administer the Nebula awards have been sued:
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. ("SFWA") has learned that it, along with a number of others, has been named in a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey by Barbara Bauer and the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency ("plaintiffs").
With respect to SFWA, plaintiffs are asserting claims for defamation and interference with prospective business advantage for alleged statements mad...
• Neal Asher - The Skinner - Review
Markus reviews The Skinner, the first book in the 'Polity' series (4 books so far) by Neal Asher, and finds it fast paced, captivating, fascinating, and, in classic Neal Asher vein, slightly gory and OTT. Good stuff, then... worth reading for the planet's ecosystem alone!
The book kicks off with Keech, Janer, and Erin arriving on Splatterjay, named after it's most (in)famous founder/settler/criminal's nickname (Jay 'Splatterjay' Hooper), although the name is also the defining characteristic for...
• Gollancz Future News (plus competition!)
Welcome to the latest outing of the
Gollancz newsletter! As well as
soaking up the warmth of the appropriately SFnal warmest winter
since people started worrying about this sort of thing, Gollancz has
also been basking in the glow of our authors' success on the
shortlists for the two major UK SF awards. The British Science Fiction Association
Award for best novel
features M. John Harriso...
• Karen Traviss - City of Pearl - Review
Markus reviews City of Pearl, the first in the Wess'har Wars series by Karen Traviss, and finds this profound new yarn on Ecology, peaceful co-existence (or not), and Social Structures well written and highly entertaining:
"If Karen can hold that level of writing and storytelling then this will be a series to look out for, and look forward to indeed!"
Read the full review on Diversebooks
• REVIEW: "Knowledge Power: Intellectual Property, Information and Privacy", Re...
Robert Slade reviews Knowledge Power: Intellectual Property, Information and Privacy by Renee Marlin-Bennett, and doesn't think it lives up to its promise:True, as with David Brin's "The Transparent Society", Marlin-Bennett promises a unique premise, in this case
a tie between privacy and intellectual property. Unlike Brin, in this
book the link is not strongly demonstrated. We are, therefore, left
with a somewhat simplistic review of the topics listed in the title.
• Neal Stephenson - Zodiac - Review
Markus reviews Zodiac, the 2nd novel by Neil Stephenson, and is enjoying it enormously:
Maybe not his most sophisticated writing, but definitely up there with the most entertaining books I’ve read. Like, ever. Belongs on top of your reading pile!
Sangamon Taylor (ST to his friends) is an activist with GEE, the Group of Environmental Extremists, in their Boston office. He is a wizard with a Zodiac (a u-shaped semi rigid inflatable dinghy, usually with a serious outboard motor, for those not fami...
• Change in book listings for Alien Vampire Story
T. M. Moore writes Destiny's Forge, ISBN 978-1-4116-1162-7, has been reissued under a different ISBN and is changed on the Google Book Search.
• Iain Banks - Canal Dreams - Review
Markus reviews Canal Dreams by Iain Banks (no middle initial here), and is intrigued; with the first half, at least.
The story itself plays on 3 ships, marooned in the middle of the Panama Canal during a new Panama crisis, when they are boarded and taken over by local 'freedom fighters' – but neither the focal passenger (world renowned cellist Hisako Onoda), nor the freedom fighters are all they appear to be, and so the stakes, both political and personal, keep rising…
Read the full review on Di...
• The Caledon Crystal
Annette M Musta informs us of her first novel, The Caledon Crystal from the "War of the Crystal" series:
A young wizard must travel through time on a perilous quest to claim her birthright, a precious jewel with the power to obliterate the all of human history.
I am the author of this work. As with most first novels, my book is lost in the gigantic publishing machine. I am initiating my own grass-roots marketing campaign to generate sales. I would like to trade links, have the book mentioned on...
• Near-future Bio-Terror Thriller: Greg Bear - Quantico - Review
Markus reviews Quantico, a near-future SF thriller on Bioterror, and the FBI special agents chasing the terrorists, by Greg Bear, and find it a captivating read - part thriller, part military/police, part hard/biological sf; all parts well executed.
Quantico is cop Valhalla. They say good cops go there when they die. Every day you solve crimes, make arrests, study hard, work out, do target practice, and at the end of the day you get together with your fellow agents in the boardroom, swig back so...
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• Out in the Cold
In John le Carré?s latest novel, a young fugitive, half Chechen, half Russian, shows up in the German port city of Hamburg in the aftermath of 9/11.
• Crucibles
The Inquisition, the Salem trials, the Red Scare: a survey of witch hunts over the past two millenniums.
• Twisted Sisters
Julia Glass?s new novel focuses on the complicated emotions ? love, hate, envy, grief ? that form between female siblings.
• I Is Another
Edmund White's capsule biography of Rimbaud, poetry's enfant terrible.
• Suffering Suffragist
A novel about an admiral, his unfaithful wife and her activist friend.
• The Shadow President
Barton Gellman?s biography paints Dick Cheney as the master manipulator of the Bush administration.
• Big Country
Fifty states, 50 essays, from the likes of Jhumpa Lahiri, Anthony Doerr and Heidi Julavits.
• O, Brother
In Per Petterson?s novel, a woman remembers the bold, reckless, politically committed boy who taught her how to live.
• Rich Bank, Poor Bank
Why has Goldman Sachs survived as its peers crumble around it? In this corporate history, Charles D. Ellis credits its culture.
• Torch Song for Afghanistan
A Pakistani author portrays a complex political situation in a novel that contains both savagery and tenderness.
• Decades on the Trail of a Shadowy Agency
The latest book by James Bamford, an expert on the National Security Agency, reconstructs the agency?s recent history.
• French Writer Wins Nobel Prize
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was praised by the Swedish Academy as an ?author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy.?
• Putting a Modest Price on a Storied Literary Life
In the end the fate of the life?s work of Marshall Frady came down to 15 minutes in a windowless room in Midtown.
• Current | Books: For Very Big, Very Dark Coffee Tables
Christian Liaigre, the French interior designer, is profiled in a grimly majestic coffee table book called ?Liaigre.?
• Books of The Times: Musical Odyssey: Circus Marches as a Boy, Grand, Topical ...
John Adams?s absorbing new book at times reads like a quest narrative that travels through the whole landscape of 20th-century music.
• Anti-Obama Author Arrested in Kenya, Deported
American journalist and author Jerome Corsi, who wrote a bestselling book critical of Barack Obama, was arrested
by Kenyan police while on his way to a book signing. He was immediately deported.
Jerome Corsi arrived in the country last week to promote The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, an error-riddled book that recently became a bestseller in the US. It falsely claims that Obama, who is revered in Kenya, was raised as a Muslim, and smears the prime minister, Raila...
• Salman Rushdie Would Do it All Over Again
Writing the The Satanic Verses nearly got Salman Rushdie killed: a fatwa was issued calling for his death, on the grounds that his book insulted Islam. He was forced into hiding in England for years, But Sir Salman says
he's still not sorry for writing it.
The 61-year-old novelist said he had always tried to ask big questions about the role of the individual in history and society.
"The question I'm always asking myself is: are we masters or victims? Do we make history or does history make us...
• Jon Provost Discusses Life as Lassie Star
Jon Provost has written a book about his life during and after the classic television series Lassie. Jon Provost played Timmy Martin on the show fifty years ago.
The book is called Timmy's in the Well: The Jon Provost Story. EW's PopWatch Blog asks, "Is 'Timmy's in the Well' the best celeb autobiography title ever?" They think it is and it is definitely a very clever title.
CBS's Harry Smith talked to Jon Provost. You can see the clip of the interview below. Provost said to get the job he had ...
• Tina Fey Writing Humor Book
Tina Fey is writing
a humor book.
According to two publishing officials with knowledge of the negotiations, Little, Brown and Company will release a book of humorous essays by the 38-year-old Fey. Her many writing credits include "30 Rock" and the "Saturday Night Live" sketch comedy series, as well as the feature film "Mean Girls."
Tina Fey won an Emmy for 30 Rock and has helped boost Saturday Night Live's ratings by 46% with her impersonation of Governor Sarah Palin. We're thinking her book w...
• Buzz Aldrin Writing His Memoirs
Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is writing
his memoirs.
Magnificent Desolation: The Long Road Home from the Moon will be published next year by Harmony Books, in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
"From the pinnacle of Apollo, my greatest challenge became the human one - overcoming alcoholism and living beyond depression - a challenge that required more courage and determination than going to the moon," Aldrin, 78, said in a statement issu...
• J.K. Rowling Best Paid Author in the World
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is now the best paid author in the world earning 3 million pounds a week. The BBC says this works out to five pounds each second. She's come a long way financially. When she started writing Harry Potter she was a struggling single mother. You can read a feature about J.K. Rowling's life here.
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• LOLCat Book Out Later This Month
The LOLcats meme which combines adorable cat pictures with bad kitty grammar is moving to book form. The book called I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun will hit stores on October 7th. LOLcats are pretty easy to find online at the icanhascheezburger.com website and elsewhere so it is unclear whether the internet sensation will translate into print book sales. t It may generate sales if people decide to gift the book for the holidays. The daily calendar format would probably work much be...
• Financial Crisis Spawns Slew of Financial Books
Publisher's Weekly reports
that the current financial crisis has already spawned
a slew of books.
Though the situation on Wall Street continues to unfold, there's already quite a crowded field of book proposals and sales stemming from the crisis--though oddly enough, several high-profile sales thus far have all ended up at Penguin imprints. Earlier this week, Roger Lowenstein sold a book called Six Days that Shook the World to Ann Godoff at Penguin Press, and yesterday Sorkin's colleague Joe No...
• Madeline's New Adventures in Rome
Madeleine is about to have her first new adventure in fifty years. John Bemelmans Marciano, the grandson of the author of the original Madeline books, is carrying on the family tradition with the new book, Madeline and the Cats of Rome (Viking).
Since 1939, generations have cherished the old house in Paris covered in vines and the 12 little girls in two straight lines, including the smallest one with a can-do streak and a penchant for calamity.
But why tamper with a character so endearing?
"I h...
• Patrick Ness Wins Guardian's Children's Book Prize
The Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize was awarded
to Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, about a world where thoughts are audible.
Chair of judges and Guardian children's books editor Julia Eccleshare said the panel of judges, made up of children's authors Mary Hoffman, Mal Peet and last year's winner Jenny Valentine, were blown away by the "breathtaking quality" of Ness's writing. "It's challenging but not bleak - an excitingly different book," she added.
The Knife of Nev...
• Brisingr Sells 550,000 Copies in First Day of Release
Brisingr, the third book in the bestselling Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini sold
550,000 copies in its first day of release.
It was the highest opening ever for a Random House children's book, but far below the 8.3 million copies in the United States alone for the launch of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," and the 1.3 million for Stephenie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn," released at midnight on Aug. 2.
There is one more book in the series. We've got our copy and will start reading ...
• Harlequin Launches Nonfiction Imprint
Harlequin has launched
its new nonfiction imprint with the release of Love Matters: Remarkable Stories That Touch the Heart and Nourish the Soul by nighttime radio host Delilah. It is the first book in the new imprint.
Michelle Blankenship, who recently joined Harlequin as publicity manager for the imprint, said lots of media has been lined up for the Sept. 30 launch, including an Oct. 1 Today Show appearance. Delilah will also be talking about the book, which features stories from her listener...
• J.K. Rowling Wins 2008 Edinburgh Award
J.K. Rowling was honored
in Edinburgh, the place where she wrote Harry Potter. She's the city's favorite author.
Judges said Friday that Rowling was the unanimous choice to receive the 2008 Edinburgh Award, in recognition of her contributions to Scotland's capital.
Rowling said she was honoured.
"Edinburgh is very much home for me and is the place where Harry evolved over seven books and many, many hours of writing in its cafes," Rowling said.
"So much has happened to me both professionally an...
• Scholastic Pulls Plug on Bratz Dolls Books
Scholastic has decided to pull the plug
on the Bratz dolls books, because of complaints from parents that the dolls are too sexy for young children and promote an inappropriate message. An anti-Bratz dolls campaign sent over 5,000 complaining emails to Scholastic.
The largest distributor of children's books to Canadian schools has decided to yank all Bratz books from its roster after parents and psychologists complained that the controversial dolls promoted "precocious sexuality."
Scholastic I...
• Serena Williams Inks Deal With Grand Central Publishing
Number one ranked tennis star Serena Williams has signed a deal with Grand Central Publishing to publish her memoirs in 2009. She's only 26.
"Serena Williams is one of the world's most remarkable athletes," Grand Central editor Karen Kosztolnyik said Tuesday in a statement. "We've watched her rise to No. 1 despite physical and emotional setbacks, and her hard work and determination have inspired legions of fans young and old. Serena will give her memoir a strong motivational slant."
Rumors say...
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