Today's Book News
| Bestsellers |
Should I read War Horse?
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
'Go and buy the book and judge Michael Morpurgo's story on its own qualities' I have been to see the War Horse film and thought it was very sentimental. But so much has been said about the book, which is now a bestseller, I feel I ought to give it a try. Should I? Unequivocally, yes. Go and buy the. book and judge Michael Morpurgo's...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Bloomsbury publishing had a bumper Christmas
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Sales of ebooks up 38% thanks to bestsellers such as Heston at Home Bloomsbury Publishing has reported a bumper Christmas with sales of ebooks up 38%. Bloomsbury said it had a "strong" fourth quarter to 31 December with ebook sales up 38% year-on-year, as the publisher benefited from the estimated. 1.3m e-readers sold in the UK over...
www.guardian.co.uk
| ArtsBeat: Graphic Books Best Sellers and the Return of 'The Unwritten'
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The latest volume of "The Unwritten," a series partly inspired by the creator of Winnie the Pooh and his son, went on sale this week.
feeds.nytimes.com
| NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of January 12, 2012
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Pity The Billionaire explores the American revival of conservative Republicans. It debuts at No. 13.
www.npr.org
| NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of January 12, 2012
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
A Jewish woman is forced into life as a parlor maid in The House at Tyneford . It debuts at No. 14.
www.npr.org
| NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Nonfiction, Week Of January 12, 2012
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Bossypants — Tina Fey's humorous account of her road to success — debuts at No. 1.
www.npr.org
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| Biographies |
Post-9/11 Life As A 'Non-Enemy Combatant'
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
Alex Gilvarry's dark first novel occupies a wacky continuum that begins at the center of haute couture, and ends in solitary confinement. The book is From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant and it looks at one man's trip into military detention. Host Rachel Martin talks with Gilvarry about his book.
www.npr.org
| The Last Holiday
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Audio slideshow: Jamie Byng tells the story of the campaign tour with Stevie Wonder which helped create today's US national holiday for Martin Luther King, recounted in Scott-Heron's posthumously published memoir Jim Powell Lindesay Irvine
www.guardian.co.uk
| TBR: Inside the List
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
With a Spielberg movie, a newly translated biography and a place atop The Times’s graphic books best-seller list, the Belgian comic book character Tintin is having a genuine American moment.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Books of The Times: ‘The Last Holiday: A Memoir’ by Gil Scott-Heron - Review
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
In “The Last Holiday: A Memoir,” Gil Scott-Heron, who died last year, describes his life and America in the second half of the 20th century.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Books of The Times: ‘Wanted Women: Faith, Lies & the War on Terror’ - Review
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Deborah Scroggins has written a dual biography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui, whose lives have shared “a weird symmetry.”
feeds.nytimes.com
| The Last Holiday - A Memoir - By Gil Scott-Heron - Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Gil Scott-Heron disliked being called “the godfather of rap,” but his spoken-word performances pointed the way.
feeds.nytimes.com
| ‘Real Romney’ gets the gist of Mitt
Tue, 17 Jan 2012
A balanced biography by two 'Boston Globe' reporters casts a new light on the candidate.
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| Letters: ‘Everything Is an Afterthought’
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Readers respond to a recent review of “Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson.”
feeds.nytimes.com
| The Last Holiday: a Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron: review
Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Tom Horan on Gil Scott-Heron, a jazz poet who reshaped American music.
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| The Perfect Man by David Waller: review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Miranda Seymour admires a biography of the Victorian strongman Eugen Sandow.
telegraph.feedsportal.com
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| Children's |
Illegal books on Android compete with Google’s Market plans (Appolicious)
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Appolicious - Another string of apps is causing trouble in the Android Market. Dozens of commercial book collections, including the entire Harry Potter series, have been posted to the official Android app store by a developer named UKER, attracting thousands of illegal downloads. UKER’s apps include. full e-book text, and despite...
us.rd.yahoo.com
| ArtsBeat: Julie Andrews to Direct 'Mousical' Based on Her Children's Book
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
Julie Andrews will direct a musical version of her children's book, "The Great American Mousical," for Goodspeed Musicals.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Children's Books: Angel Of the Battlefield — The Treasure Chest, Book 1 — By Ann Hood — Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Two young time travelers visit with Clara Barton — but can’t escape the challenges in their own lives.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Children's Books: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight - By Jennifer E. Smith - Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
In Jennifer E. Smith’s Y.A. novel, a chance meeting on a flight to London redirects a girl’s fate.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Ask Lorna: books to get 10- to 12-year-old boys reading
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Graphic novels or books about football might help to tempt your screen-obsessed child, says Lorna Bradbury
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Children's Books: Bookshelf: Presidents
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
Children’s books about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other American leaders.
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| Children's Books: Thorny Creatures
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
Three new picture books feature prickly animals seeking love, comfort and family.
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| Children's Books: The Tenacity of Hope
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Sixteen-year-old girls with cancer are the heroines of two very different novels.
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| Current Events |
Lunch With Zbigniew Brzezinski
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
For most people in their eighties, life is a gradual winding down. For Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the key architects of America’s cold war strategy – “Jimmy Carter’s Kissinger”, as he was once called – being 83 isn’t much different from 43. Brzezinski plays singles tennis every day – “one of my partners is older than me...
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| Books of The Times: ‘The Real Romney,’ by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman - Review
Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Two reporters for The Boston Globe try to explain Mitt Romney by pulling together lots of details into a narrative that is absorbing and fair-minded.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Legal Scholar: Jim Crow Still Exists In America
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Michelle Alexander says that many of the gains of the civil rights movement have been undermined by the mass incarceration of blacks in the war on drugs.
www.npr.org
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| Fiction |
Kate Williams joins the queens of historical fiction
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Kate Williams – historian, Timewatch presenter and now novelist – is pushing to restore women to their rightful place in history Could historian Kate Williams be the next Doctor Who? She can build her own Tardis, after all. Sitting in the Edwardian elegance of her north London house, the academic. and novelist confides: "When I was...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Ladies and Gentlemen by Adam Ross – review
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
Adam Ross wears his moral compass on his sleeve in these short stories, written at the same time as his debut novel The American short story over the last century has been light on plot and heavy on ambiguity. Ladies and Gentlemen , Adam Ross 's new collection, takes a different tack, not dissimilar. to Ross's impressive debut novel...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
A banal and impudent argument for the uses of religion The novels of Graham Greene are full of reluctant Christians, men and women who would like to be rid of God but find themselves stuck with him like some lethal addiction. There are, however, reluctant atheists as well, people who long to dunk. themselves in the baptismal font but...
www.guardian.co.uk
| YA novel readers clash with publishers
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
A row over the status of the bloggers who fuelled the success of young adult novels has been raging across the net A literary punch-up that had been brewing for a while finally erupted between a bunch of readers, authors and agents on Goodreads – the vast online site where millions of members discuss. the world's books. In the same...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Purgatory by Tomás Eloy Martínez
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
A quest for love, truth and redemption I last saw Tomás Eloy Martínez in 2009, in Buenos Aires, a few months before his death the following year . He told me he was trying to write a novel about the Argentinian dictatorship that bled the country from 1976 to 1982, but that he wanted to do it without. descriptions of atrocities...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Novel in SW canyon dig uncovers loss and love (AP)
Wed, 11 Jan 2012
AP - "Come in and Cover Me," (Riverhead Books), by Gin Phillips: Ren Taylor, the appealing, soul-searching character at the heart of this novel, is an archaeologist of some renown in the canyons of the New Mexico desert.
us.rd.yahoo.com
| Books of The Times: ‘The Orphan Master’s Son’ by Adam Johnson - Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Adam Johnson’s novel recounts the adventures of Jun Do, a North Korean soldier, kidnapper and surveillance officer who becomes complicit in the state’s crimes and then falls in love with an actress.
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| Riff: ‘Why Write Novels at All?’
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Writers of the Franzen Generation have decided that the purpose of fiction is to make us feel less alone. Will that be enough to save the novel?
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| Hope: A Tragedy — By Shalom Auslander — Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The protagonist of Shalom Auslander’s novel moves to upstate New York for peace and quiet, and finds Anne Frank living in his attic.
feeds.nytimes.com
| 'Hedy's Folly,' 'Van Gogh' among weekend picks
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Choose from a startling account of the actress, a monumental new bio of the artist, or a new royal novel from Philippa Gregory, and more.
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| The Orphan Master’s Son — By Adam Johnson — Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
In Adam Johnson’s novel, a young man moves up in Kim Jong-il’s power structure and then becomes a rival of the dictator.
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| Dave Barry tag-teams a 'Lunatics' novel
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
Two guys stupidly become legendary international criminals in a "hilarious" book by Barry and Emmy-winning writer Alan Zweibel.
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| Reginald Hill: crime with a light touch
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Reginald Hill, the creator of the Dalziel and Pascoe crime novels who died last week, was a fine writer, says Jake Kerridge.
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Reginald Hill
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Author of cerebral and labyrinthine crime novels best known for his series about Dalziel and Pascoe
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Michel Houellebecq’s Version of the American Thriller
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Michel Houellebecq’s novel features an uncommonly successful artist and a gruesome murder.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Great sales for Charles Dickens novels
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Sales of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations have rocketed thanks to the BBC's lavish adaptation.
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Breaking And Entering - By Eileen Pollack - Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The Oklahoma City bombing echoes throughout Eileen Pollack’s novel of family strife.
feeds.nytimes.com
| North Korea stars in ‘Orphan Master’s Son’
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
Adam Johnson blends the best elements of a thriller with the emotional detail of a drama.
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| Holiday Gift Guide: The 10 Best Books of 2010
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
The Book Review picks the year’s best fiction and nonfiction.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Crime roundup: January 8
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Julia Handford picks the best of the latest crime novels
telegraph.feedsportal.com
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| Non-Fiction |
The Longform Guide to the Campaign Trail
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
Every weekend, Longform shares a collection of great stories from its archive with Slate . For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow @longform on Twitter. Well, it’s officially an election year. And over the next 10 months, we’ll be dealing. with a constant din of predictions...
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| Poetry |
John Burnside wins most controversial TS Eliot prize in decades
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Scottish poet's Black Cat Bone beats strong shortlist in contest mired in protest over City funding The Scottish poet John Burnside has won the most controversial TS Eliot poetry prize in years, for a collection described as "haunting", after two of the original shortlisted poets dropped out in protest. over funding from the hedge fund...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Poster poems: January
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Beginning a sequence in which we track the year's shifting moods, the task this month is to write about a month of festivity, and icy gloom The coming of a new year has inspired me to think of a new round of Poster Poem challenges, something to renew the appeal of our (more or less) regular outpourings. of verse; my 2012 resolution is to...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Poem of the week: Philosophy by Amy Levy
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
A wry look at two clever young women's love, this is a startlingly frank and wise poem from a young writer in a prudish era Amy Levy was the first Jewish woman to attend Newnham College, Cambridge. Still more impressively, she published her first collection of poems, Xantippe and Other Verse, at the. age of 20 (in 1881). She went on to...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Guardian books podcast: John Burnside wins TS Eliot poetry prize
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
John Burnside has won this year's TS Eliot Prize for poetry for his latest collection, Black Cat Bone, having won the Forward prize, where we interviewed him about the collection. On Sunday. he joined all the shortlisted poets for a special reading at London's South Bank, introduced by Ian McMillan. He reads five poems from his winning...
www.guardian.co.uk
| He Told the Truth About China's Tyranny
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Simon Leys No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems by Liu Xiaobo, edited by Perry Link, Tienchi Martin-Liao, and Liu Xia, and with a foreword by Václav Havel Liu Xia The Nobel Prize–winning writer Liu Xiaobo before his arrest, photographed by his wife, Liu Xia; from the. exhibition ‘The Silent Strength...
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| In the Orchard, the Swallows by Peter Hobbs
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
This poetic story of doomed love lingers after the book is closed An image of the Arabic-Persian romantic hero Majnun comes to mind: the crazed, bedraggled lover who appears, in text and on film, covered in dust, as someone who has passed over to the other world in his tormented quest for Laila, his. only love. I remember Majnun...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Not Your Parents' Poems: A 2012 Poetry Preview
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The most anticipated collections of the year revisit the past and take us to the frontiers of language, borrowing from Twitter memes and overheard conversation, from the classics and bad movies.
www.npr.org
| Books of The Times: ‘Fug You’ by Ed Sanders - Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
In “Fug You,” the poet-publisher-singer Ed Sanders recalls the art and politics, and his role in them, of the downtown scene in the 1960s.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Zombie Poetry Takes On a Life of Its Own
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
The undead seem to be everywhere in popular culture — in television series, video games and, it turns out, poetry.
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| Reviews |
Review: Marine dog handler's book hard to put down (AP)
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
AP - "Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog" (Atria), by Mike Dowling with Damien Lewis: Every armed conflict that featured an American military presence has inevitably been followed by a cavalcade of books written about the exploits of those who fought. in it — from the decision...
us.rd.yahoo.com
| Archive: Book Review Podcast
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
This week, Patricia Cohen discusses her new book about the science of middle age; Alexander Star talks about Friedrich Nietzsche’s impact on American readers; Julie Bosman with notes from the field; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
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| Review: Louvin's 'Satan Is Real' is dazzling tale (AP)
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
AP - "Satan Is Real: The Ballad of The Louvin Brothers" (It Books), by Charlie Louvin with Benjamin Whitmer: I think I've already found my favorite book of 2012.
us.rd.yahoo.com
| The Death of King Arthur by Simon Armitage: review
Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Simon Armitage's new version of the medieval potboiler reads like Monty Python, says Jeremy Noel-Tod
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Books of The Times: ‘The Artist of Disappearance’ — By Anita Desai — Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Decay and disappointment, retreat and regret, are the main themes in the three novellas that make up Anita Desai’s new book.
feeds.nytimes.com
| ArtsBeat: Book Review Podcast: Nietzsche Bewitches America and the Science of Middle Age
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
In this week's Book Review, Alexander Star reviews a new book about how Nietzsche bewitched and bedeviled American readers.
feeds.nytimes.com
| Letter: Carpentier’s ‘Kingdom’
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
A reader responds to a recent review of Laurent Dubois’s “Haiti: The Aftershocks of History.”
feeds.nytimes.com
| Green Philosophy by Roger Scruton: review
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Roger Scruton's new polemic sets out to reclaim the environmental agenda for the Right. Louise Gray is convinced.
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Letter: The Legend of Camelot
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
A reader responds to a recent review of Peter Ackroyd’s “The Death of King Arthur.”
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| In Our Prime - The Invention of Middle Age - By Patricia Cohen - Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The scientific and social forces that brought midlife America to its current state.
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| American Nietzsche — By Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen — Book Review
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
How Friedrich Nietzsche inspired and provoked his American readers.
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| Talk to the Newsroom: Book Review Editor Sam Tanenhaus
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
Sam Tanenhaus has been editor of the Book Review since April 2004.
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| Revolution 2.0 by Wael Ghonim: review
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Ed O'Loughlin learns the lessons of a thoroughly modern revolution
telegraph.feedsportal.com
| Girl Land - By Caitlin Flanagan - Book Review
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Caitlin Flanagan offers observations on the passage to adulthood.
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| Holiday Gift Guide: 100 Notable Books of 2010
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
The Book Review’s annual list of outstanding works.
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| The New York Times Book Review: Back Issues
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Complete contents of the Book Review since 1997.
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| Book Review: The Art of The Adventures of Tintin by Chris Guise
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
From www.seattlepi.com.
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| Book Review: Drayling by Terry J. Newman
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
From www.seattlepi.com.
www.seattlepi.com
| Book Review: The Couch Potato Drum Workout by Pete Sweeney
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
From www.seattlepi.com.
www.seattlepi.com
| Book Review: Philosophy: Structuralism for Unity: Visions of Truth for Justice and Success by Ronnie Lee
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
From www.seattlepi.com.
www.seattlepi.com
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| Spirituality |
Dallas Pastor Conducts 'Bed In' to Publicize 'Sexperiment' Book (ContributorNetwork)
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
ContributorNetwork - Pastor Ed Young of the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, and his wife Lisa recently conducted an unusual publicity stunt to mark the publication of their new book, "Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse."
us.rd.yahoo.com
| The Inquisition: Alive And Well After 800 Years
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
The Inquisition was initially designed to deal with Christian heretics, but author Cullen Murphy says that "inquisitorial impulse" is still at work today. In fact, he says, it was the harbinger of the modern world.
www.npr.org
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| General |
From the archive, 17 January 1956: Succulent Popsies Not for Oxford
Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 17 January 1956 Unswayed by the presence in the council chamber of a double-page "pin-up" in colour of the Swedish film star Anita Ekberg, Oxford City Council yesterday refused by a substantial majority to ask the Library Committee to reconsider its. decision not to take "Picture Post...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Pay No Attention to What I Said Last Week
Tue, 17 Jan 2012
A week ago, Jon Huntsman said Mitt Romney represented the divisions that are tearing the country apart. Today he endorsed him. “I believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama. Despite our differences and the space between us on some issues., I believe that candidate is...
feeds.slate.com
| Partisans, Reviewed
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Perhaps a publishing boom will replace the construction bust? The financial crisis of 2007 and subsequent labor market malaise has spawned scores of books. But even the best and most popular of these—Michael Lewis’ The Big Short , David Wessell’s In Fed We Trust , Simon Johnson’s. 13 Bankers —don’t seem to take...
feeds.slate.com
| Ian Rankin wants tax incentives to help new authors
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Inspector Rebus creator fears for new writing talent as publishers cut advances and internet transforms industry Ian Rankin, the author of the Inspector Rebus series, is calling for tax incentives to support new writers, as cash-strapped publishers cut advances. Speaking ahead of an appearance this. week at a festival celebrating first...
www.guardian.co.uk
| The Arab spring: one year on
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
In January 2011 the Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to step down and millions of Egyptians took to the streets. Ahdaf Soueif records the momentous events in Cairo • Read nine other writers' reactions to the uprisings here Many years ago I signed a contract to write a book. about Cairo; my Cairo. But the years...
www.guardian.co.uk
| The way ahead for publishing
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The media and the market for books are in flux in the age of ebooks and Amazon, but publishers still have a vital role, says Faber's chief executive 2011 was a dramatic year for the UK books industry. Waterstones changed ownership and leadership . Ebook sales grew to around 7% of the general books. market , with WHS Kobo and Apple...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Has Microsoft Word changed writing?
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
Thirty years after Word was invented, we are no nearer to understanding the impact it has had on writing Here's a trick question: who's produced the most books in the past 30 years? Answer: a guy called Charles Simonyi. Eh? Well, I said it was a trick question. Mr Simonyi, you see, is the chap who created. Microsoft Word, which is the...
www.guardian.co.uk
| The literary significance of dead mules
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
If it's true southern American 20th-century literature, a mule has to die – fictionally, of course Jerry Leath Mills reigns as the unchallenged authority on the subject of dead mules in 20th-century American southern literature. Professor Mills established his reputation – almost instantly – in 1996, with the publication of a...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Travel writing – pole to equator
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
As the holiday season recedes and thoughts turn to adventures ahead, we do some footwork for the armchair traveller – transporting you to some of the hottest and coldest corners of the earth and the literary imagination. Noor-Saro-Wiwa talks about her new book Looking for Transwonderland, which took. her back to confront the colour...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Twilight Saga may continue beyond Breaking Dawn, says studio boss
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Lionsgate chief executive suggests vampire series could spawn more sequels – despite there being no more books to adapt It is a quandary faced by studio executives over the years: what to do with a successful movie franchise that has run out of books to adapt. But this may not be an obstacle for the Twilight films , after Lionsgate...
www.guardian.co.uk
| The Doors by Greil Marcus
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
Greil Marcus's essay on the Doors and their music is as passionate and rewarding as you might expect – if you can ride out the stormier flights of fancy For me, the most succinct and illuminating portrait of the Doors is still Joan Didion's masterful account of the evening she spent in the spring. of 1968 "sitting on the cold vinyl...
www.guardian.co.uk
| John Milton, part 7: Adam, Eve and partnership | Jessica Martin
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Milton's view of marriage as partnership gives Eve a prominence that works against the misogyny of the tradition he uses We first see Adam and Eve through Satan's eyes. He is sitting "like a Cormorant" (IV.196) in the branches of the highest tree in Eden, the Tree of Life, plotting death and sulking. From it he can see everything; he...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Deep Streep?
Thu, 12 Jan 2012
Martin Filler Alex Bailey Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady Among the impenetrable mysteries of modern life is how Meryl Streep can be universally regarded as the greatest dramatic film actress of our time. In my opinion, Streep is easily at her best as a comedienne, not. in the high-serious roles she has...
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| Guantanamo’s Anniversary, Explainer of the Year, and the Golden Age of Publishing
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
“ The Great Gitmo Blackout : The 10th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay and whether we should remember about forgetting,” by Dahlia Lithwick. Ten Guantanamo Bay received its first prisoners on Jan. 11, 2002. While the rest of the world commemorates Gitmo’s opening with shame and reproach, Americans. are going about their business as...
feeds.slate.com
| Don’t Believe the Good News
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Job creation has picked up. Indicators for manufacturing and services have improved moderately. Even the housing industry has shown some signs of life. And consumption growth has been relatively resilient. Here’s the bad news: U.S. economic growth will remain weak and below trend throughout 2012. Why. is all the recent economic good...
feeds.slate.com
| Francesco Vezzoli plans 24-hour museum to vainglorious decadence
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Italian artist has charmed Helen Mirren into a toga for art that is sublime and sometimes debauched celebration of celebrity If there is one art Francesco Vezzoli excels at, it is persuasion. The Italian video and conceptual artist has the knack of getting famous people to participate in ever more. outlandish projects. In 2006, he...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
This fascinating and entertaining investigation shows there no business more slippery than olive oil Is there any foodstuff as dodgy as olive oil? Human beings have been defrauding and occasionally poisoning one another with the stuff – or simulacra of it – since the beginning of cooking. You may. fairly picture a Sumerian house...
www.guardian.co.uk
| This much I know: Edmund White
Sun, 15 Jan 2012
The author, 72, on monogamy, despising old people, and being a Falstaff figure The big difference between gay life and straight life is the way we deal with our exes. I always talk about "shabby heterosexual values" because there's definitely an attitude of "off with their head". I know lots of gay. people who don't think that way...
www.guardian.co.uk
| The true confessions of an Adrian Mole addict
Mon, 16 Jan 2012
Adrian Mole was a boy racked with adolescent angst, an Abba fan who still wore flares in the 80s. And 30 years ago The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ became the defining book of Alexis Petridis's adolescence It was the defining book of my early adolescence and, it seemed at the time., everybody else's as well. The...
www.guardian.co.uk
| Notes from a Chinese Cave: Qigong’s Quiet Return
Fri, 13 Jan 2012
Ian Johnson Sim Chi Yin Practicing Qigong at a Daoist retreat in the Double Dragon Cave, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China, November, 2011 Lift up your head Calm your eyes Look far away, as far as you can Look beyond the walls What do you see? The Jinhua caves are located in a wooded, hilly area. about 200 miles southwest of...
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