Sep 28 2012: For the past seven years The National Book Foundation has honored five young fiction writers with its "5 Under 35" award. The recognition of the authors as rising stars in the world of books far outreaches the nominal $1000 monetary award. This year's five honorees have just been announced - each...
Early reviews of The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling's first book for adults...
Sep 26 2012: Early reviews of J.K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy are starting to come in:
"[W]hereas Rowling's shepherding of readers was, in the Harry Potter series, an essential asset, in The Casual Vacancy her firm hand can feel constraining. She leaves little space for the peripheral or the...
Sep 26 2012: In a series of moves meant to expand Barnes & Noble’s digital offerings, the company on Tuesday introduced two new color tablets and said a video store for its Nook products would make its debut this fall.
The new devices are a seven-inch tablet for $199, called the Nook HD, and a...
AAP expresses disappointment at ALA letter claiming "discriminatory" ebook library lending practices
Sep 25 2012: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has responded to an open letter from American Library Association president Maureen Sullivan about "discriminatory" eBook library lending practices at major publishers. Here are some excerpts:
"At a time when individual publishing houses are...
American Library Association challenges "discriminatory" ebook policies
Sep 24 2012: The American Library Association's president Maureen Sullivan released an open letter to publishers today, singling out the "discriminatory" eBook library policies of three major publishers. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
"Librarians have a particular concern for vulnerable...
Longlist for Samuel Johnson Prize, the leading UK non-fiction awards, announced
Sep 19 2012: The longlist for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2012 has been announced today, Tuesday 18 September, the birthday of Samuel Johnson. The 14 titles on this year’s longlist take readers around the world to countries including India, Russia and Spain, and span subjects as diverse as...
Sep 18 2012: Louis Simpson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose work often explored the darker side of life in the US suburbs, has died at his New York home aged 89.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1964 for his fourth collection At the End of the Open Road.
Amazon collecting sales tax in California from today
Sep 15 2012: Amazon and other large online retailers will begin collecting sales tax in California today. At the time California Governor Jerry Brown signed the sales tax fairness bill in September 2011, American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher called the change "a huge victory for sales tax fairness,...
Sep 14 2012: More than half the consumers of books classified for young adults aren’t all that young. According to a new study, fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 -- known as YA books -- are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44, a group that alone...
Judge approves e-book pricing settlement between government and publishers
Sep 06 2012: In a decision that could start an e-book price war in the publishing industry, a federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement between the Justice Department and three major publishers in a civil antitrust case that accused the companies of collusion in the pricing of digital...
Sep 04 2012: Authors including Lee Child, Mark Billingham, Joanne Harris, Charlie Higson and Tony Parsons have signed up to a group statement condemning sock puppetry, the practice of writing reviews pseudonymously to praise one's own work and criticise that of others.
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing(May 16 2013) In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth...
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