Breaking news on authors, publishers, and book-related topics

'Breaking Dawn' sells 1.3 million copies on first day

Aug 04 2008: Hachette Book Group USA estimates that it sold 1.3 million copies of Breaking Dawn, on August 2, the day the eagerly awaited final novel in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga was released.

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Solzhenitsyn, literary giant who defied Soviets, dies at 89

Aug 04 2008: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose stubborn, lonely and combative literary struggles gained the force of prophecy as he revealed the heavy afflictions of Soviet Communism in some of the most powerful works of the 20th century, died late on Sunday at the age of 89 in Moscow.

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Amazon to buy AbeBooks

Aug 01 2008: Amazon has reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks, the British Columbia-based online marketplace that has over 110 million titles for sale through its bookseller network. The purchase, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, will strengthen Amazon's already ...

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Rowling’s Rare Book to Hit Shelves in December

Jul 31 2008: Publishers Weekly reports that The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of wizarding fairy tales handwritten and illustrated by Rowling, will be published on December 4 by Children’s High Level Group, the English children’s charity co-founded by Rowling and Emma ...

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Booker Prize longlist announced

Jul 30 2008: The 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction have announced the longlist for this year's prize.

The titles are:

• Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
• Gaynor Arnold, Girl in a Blue Dress
• Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture
• John Berger, From A to ...

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'Goodnight Bush' sold in Guantanamo Bay gift shop

Jul 29 2008: Shelf Awareness reports that Goodnight Bush, the unauthorized parody of Goodnight Moon by Erich Origen and Gan Golan, has more than 100,000 copies in print and is even stocked at the official Guantanamo Bay gift shop.

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Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci

Jul 29 2008: Gavin Menzies sparked headlines across the globe in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus in his book, 1421: The Year China Discovered America.

In a new book, 1434: The Year A Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed To...

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Obituary: Randy Pausch, author of

Jul 28 2008: Randy Pausch, co-author of the bestselling The Last Lecture, died on July 25. He was 47 and had been battling pancreatic cancer.

A computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, Pausch gave a talk last September modeled on the kind where professors are asked to ...

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