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Novelist Irvine Welsh spies future in mixed-media
16 May 2013 at 9:10am
By Claire Davenport BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Electronic publishing is allowing authors to be more creative and the best ones are successfully blending video and online content with traditional text, says cult writer Irvine Welsh. The author of "Trainspotting" and "The Acid House", who has also written short stories and plays, said e-publishing meant writers had to work harder to grab readers' attention in an age when wireless devices are rapidly replacing paperback books. ...
Book Talk: Of apes and atheists - is empathy evolution?
16 May 2013 at 1:10am
By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - For biologist Frans de Waal, a peaceful species of great ape in Africa is a mirror of humanity and a living argument that empathy and cooperation are far from unique to mankind. "The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates", argues that both traits may be evolved behaviors based on his studies of the bonobo, which is found only in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other primates. ...
Critics label Dan Brown's "Inferno" a clunky page-turner
15 May 2013 at 4:08am
LONDON (Reuters) - Early reviews of Dan Brown's fast-paced fourth book in "The Da Vinci Code" series labeled it a "clunky" page-turner that will nevertheless delight his fans. Critics said the dark mysteries, mind-bending codes and history-laced tourism in "Inferno" will thrill Brown devotees, but panned the U.S. author for passages they said were more suited to a Hollywood film script than a novel. ...
Dan Brown's "Inferno" novel in hot demand ahead of release
13 May 2013 at 10:06am
LONDON (Reuters) - Booksellers are predicting that "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown's latest title "Inferno" will become the biggest-selling book of the year, ahead of its release on Tuesday. Sales of the book, which sees the return of fictional symbologist Robert Langdon, have already reached the highest level of customer pre-orders at retailer Waterstones since the release of Harry Potter author JK Rowling's adult fiction "The Casual Vacancy" last year. ...
Merkel says has no secrets about her communist past
13 May 2013 at 8:14am
By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel has dismissed claims in a new book that she was more actively committed to East Germany's communist regime than she has acknowledged, saying she has never kept anything secret about her past. The book, "The first life of Angela M.", says that Merkel, who will seek a third term as chancellor in a federal election in September, was responsible for Marxist-Leninist education in a unit of the state's youth wing, in a role that went beyond the cultural duties she has previously spoken of. ...
'12th of Never' climbs to top of U.S. best-sellers list
9 May 2013 at 10:16am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The 12th of Never," by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, climbed to the top of the U.S. best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "The 12th of Never" by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $27.99) 18 2. "The Hit" by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99) 1 3. "Whiskey Beach" by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $27.95) 2 4. "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster, $26.99) 4 5. ...
Book Talk: "The Last Train to Zona Verde," Paul Theroux's African signoff
9 May 2013 at 9:28am
By Randall Mikkelsen BOSTON (Reuters) - Paul Theroux said his literary goodbye to Africa at a train station in Luanda, Angola, five decades after he first visited the continent as a Peace Corps volunteer. In his new book, "The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari," Theroux describes a journey through South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola that dead-ended at the depot when he felt no need to go further. The book, he says, represents a final chapter on his travels in Africa. Theroux's first book on Africa was a novel. ...
New book teaches children ABCs of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
8 May 2013 at 7:09am
By Jonathan Stempel OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc invests in dozens of businesses, and a new book tries to explain it all to young readers, from A to Z. Two Omaha residents, author Nancy Rips and illustrator Tom Kerr, have teamed up on "My First Berkshire ABC" to teach children about one of the world's best-known companies, and a little about the local billionaire behind it. More than 1,000 copies were sold at Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday, which draws thousands of people to Omaha, and where Buffett has a say on what gets sold. ...
World Chefs: Richard Blais serves up restraint in first book
7 May 2013 at 3:07am
By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - American chef Richard Blais may be best known for using gimmicks and gadgets in his television appearances but in his first cookbook, "Try This At Home!", he shows his cooking can be fun and tasty without being complicated. The 41-year-old used often used liquid nitrogen and immersion circulators to make dishes on the U.S. cooking competition show "Top Chef All-Stars," which he won more than two years ago. Blais, a marathon runner and soccer fan, was born in Uniondale, New York and now lives in Atlanta where he owns The Spence and several other ...
Michael C. Hall adapting talent-agent book for showtime
6 May 2013 at 5:58pm
By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The final season of "Dexter" hasn't premiered yet, but series star Michael C. Hall is already slicing into his next project for the cable network. Hall is working with Showtime on an adaptation of the Matthew Specktor novel "American Dream Machine," about a talent agent and his sons. The novel follows Beau Rosenwald, who arrived in Hollywood broke but by the late '70s has helped to build the most successful agency in Hollywood. The book chronicles Rosenwald as he rises, falls, and rises again - and goes to war with his partner. ...
Author Murakami makes first Japan public appearance in 18 years
6 May 2013 at 5:56am
By Yoko Kubota KYOTO, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese author Haruki Murakami made his first public appearance in his homeland in 18 years on Monday, describing his newest novel, which was an instant-best seller, as a story that takes place in the real world, unlike many of his other novels. "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" has attracted positive reviews, with readers spotting familiar Murakami themes such as people bonding through pain. Publisher Bungeishunju made the rare decision to print 1 million copies within a week of its April release in Japan. ...
'The Hit' soars to top of U.S. bestsellers list
2 May 2013 at 2:23pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - David Baldacci's new book, "The Hit," soared to the top of the U.S. bestsellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "The Hit" by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99) - 2. "Whiskey Beach" by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $27.95) 1 3. "Fly Away" by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's, $27.99) - 4. "Daddy's Gone a Hunting" by Mary Higgins (Simon & Schuster, $26.99) 2 5. "Paris: The Novel" by Edward Rutherfurd (Doubleday, $32.50) - 6. ...
Book Talk: Story of the twin sister left behind in Iran
1 May 2013 at 11:17pm
By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) - Mystery shadows "A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea", a novel about a girl growing up in rural post-revolutionary Iran while dreaming about her identical twin sister and the wonderful life she must be leading in the United States - if she is alive at all. Crowded security lines at Tehran's airport, shouting, a girl chasing her twin as a woman in a long coat holds her hand. That is the memory Saba Hafezi clings to after her mother and sister vanish in a haunting tale by Dina Nayeri. Nayeri left Iran at the age of ten for the United States. ...
Death knell for books rung too early as sex sells
1 May 2013 at 10:30am
By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - Erotic trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey" helped drive print and e-book sales in Britain to record levels in 2012 with publishers hailing figures on Wednesday as proof that digital books are not killing the traditional market quite yet. Print and e-book sales rose 4 percent to 3.3 billion pounds ($5 billion) after slipping 2 percent in 2011, top British trade organization The Publishers Association said, although printed book sales fell 1 percent and had dropped 5 percent in 2011. ...
Amanda Knox offers her side of sensational murder case in memoir
30 Apr 2013 at 4:25pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amanda Knox, the American student accused of the 2007 murder of her British roommate while both were students in Italy, paints herself in her new memoir as a naive young woman railroaded by a foreign justice system. Knox, 25, spent four years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher while they were exchange students in Perugia, a hilltop Italian university town popular with foreigners. Knox, who became a tabloid sensation in Britain and Italy, was acquitted on appeal in 2011. She returned to her Seattle-area home, but Italy's high court last month ordered a retrial. ...
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