Latest News

Kindle: Amazon Improves Battery Life, Adds PDF Reader

2009-11-24T20:42:15Z

Just in time to remind holiday shoppers, Amazon has announced an 85% battery life increase as well as a native PDF reader application for the Kindle digital book reader. Whereas the previous battery life topped out at about four days with wireless access turned on, the updated Kindle will run for seven days without needing to be charged.

"CIA Manual Of Trickery And Deception" Declassified, Now On Sale

2009-11-24T19:35:43Z

If you have ever wanted to learn how to slink around unnoticed and send hidden signals like a real CIA agent during the Cold War, then you are in luck. Wired's Danger Room reveals that the wonderfully titled "CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception" has now been declassified and is for sale to the general public.

Written by famous magician John Mulholland, it was believed that the Agency destroyed all copies in 1973. Thankfully for potential magicians and spies alike, one copy survived.

Wired has more details on the document (including on how it was part of a larger project to control people's minds), and you can buy the book from Amazon here. (Via Boing Boing)

20 Scary Giant Heads From Science Fiction Book Covers

2009-11-24T18:51:31Z

Nothing is more terrifying, more mentally scarring, than the giant-head book cover. They loom off the cardstock, their huge eyes bugging out. Nothing inside the pages could be this horrifying. Here are our favorite massive-headed book covers of all time.

Shakespeare Plays Not By Shakespeare, Says German Scholar

2009-11-24T18:13:42Z

A German academic claims to have uncovered the most conclusive evidence to date that the works of William Shakespeare were in fact written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

"America's Prophet": Bruce Feiler's Book Makes Buzz

2009-11-24T17:48:34Z

Bruce Feiler's newest book, "America's Prophet", which examines the role Moses has played in American history and life, has been making some buzz recently. A number of blogs have shown interest in the book since its publication in October.

Author Bruce Feiler blogged about the book for Huffington Post when it came out, and had this to say about the incredible discoveries that he made while writing the book:

Four years ago I set out looking at the role of Moses in American life. I sailed on Plymouth Harbor where the Pilgrims compared their journey to Moses; I climbed the tower of Independence Hall where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses; I retraced the Underground Railroad where "Go Down, Moses" was the national anthem of slaves; and I donned the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments.
One discovery surprised me most of all and reshaped my views of the culture wars of today: Moses has been more important to American history than Jesus.

Read more of Feiler's blog here.

Anne Rice On Her Switch To Angels

2009-11-24T15:35:47Z

"Just write. That's what makes us a writer, is we write. I mean, if we don't do that we're not writers. And it's so important not to be discouraged, because you're always going to encounter criticism. That's always going to happen. People have told me I have no talent and no ability to write. I just kept going."

7 Great Cookbooks For Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T15:20:00Z

Still don't know what exactly you're cooking this Thanksgiving? Luckily, there are many excellent cookbooks out there that can help you plan your feast. We put together some of the best cookbooks for Thanksgiving, from old classics to brand-new tomes that are absolutely beautiful. And, vegetarians, we didn't forget you! There's one in here with some great vegan alternatives to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Send in your favorites by using the Participate button below!

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Filed by: Jessie Kunhardt

Palin Book Sales: She's No Bill Clinton

2009-11-24T03:55:17Z

NEW YORK — Sarah Palin appears well on her way to becoming a million-selling author.

"Going Rogue" sold 700,000 copies – a number that includes pre-orders – in its first week of release, according to a publishing official close to the former Alaska governor. The official was not authorized to release the sales figure and asked not to be identified.

Palin's memoir came out Nov. 17 with a first printing of 1.5 million copies. On Friday, publisher HarperCollins announced that the printing would be increased to 2.5 million.

Few nonfiction books have debuted so well. In 2004, Bill Clinton's "My Life" sold more than 900,000 copies in its first week.

Meg Whitman, Former eBay Pres And GOP Gov Candidate Plans Book For January

2009-11-23T23:34:06Z

Sarah Palin knows the power of a best-seller as a timely vehicle to get the press and public talking, and now former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has quietly laid plans to add "author" to her resume, with her book "The Power of Many" set for release in January -- just as the 2010 California governor's race heats up.

Prieto's New Novel "Travels By Taxi", And Free Speech In Cuba (VIDEO)

2009-11-23T21:02:38Z

Ben Wyskida
The Nation

In the late 1980's noted novelist Jose Manuel Prieto was asked to leave Cuba, at odds with the Castro regime and what he calls the Cuban Revolution's "deep and terrible idealism." In his essay "Travels by Taxi" in this week's Nation Magazine "Fall Books" issue, Prieto describes the challenges of explaining the situation in Cuba to people he meets around the world. In this video conversation, Prieto and Daniel Wilkinson, a Nation contributor and the deputy director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch, discuss Prieto's essay, and the topic of freedom of speech for writers and bloggers currently in Cuba.

In "Travels by Taxi", Prieto reflects on the positive and negative consequences of that idealism for Cubans generally, and also on the cultural and political dimensions of Cuba's relationship with the United States. You can read the full essay here.

WATCH:

Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue": The Reactions

2009-11-23T18:51:47Z

It's been almost a week since Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" came out, and her tour is in full swing. Palin has been hitting bookstores all over the country, though she's notably been sticking to the more Republican areas, and is skipping California and Illinois as the Washington Post reports.

In the states where Palin has made an appearance, the reactions have been mixed. All of the stops have had endless lines of fans waiting for hours to meet briefly the former Alaskan governor. Palin has stopped in Rochester, NY and Roanoke, VA, among other places, to apparent great success, even staying late to sign more books than she had originally promised.

However, this wasn't the story at all of her stops. In Noblesville, Indiana, the Palin tour bus drove away to an angry, booing crowd, leaving early and without signing as many books as had been promised.

Palin's welcome has been less than warm at other stops. At an army base in Fort Bragg, NC on Monday, she was specifically asked not to speak, as army officials feared she would incite opposition to President Obama, their commander-in-chief.

All in all, however, the book is selling well, and among those that Sarah Palin is targeting, reactions have been mostly positive. Even in New York, as the New York Post reports, people have all sorts of reasons for buying or looking at "Going Rogue". From "it's the kind of book that could make the commute pass faster" to "I bought one ... for my best friend because she doesn't like Palin and this could help change her mind," people were showing a real interest in the controversial book, despite "The Daily Show"'s discovery that some New Yorkers would rather jump into a volcano than read it.

Literacy Non-Profit For Teens Recognized At National Book Awards

2009-11-23T18:41:47Z

[R]eps from a Seattle-based nonprofit attended the [National Book Awards] event to pick up one of five "Innovations in Reading" prizes for their online book community readergirlz.

Michael Jackson "Opus" Book Offers Rare Images

2009-11-23T17:59:29Z

NEW YORK — Artist Nate Giorgio recalls the last time he saw Michael Jackson, just days before the singer's death.

The pop icon wanted Giorgio to create dazzling murals of his children as well as artwork for his "This Is It" concerts, and Giorgio got out his pen during their talks.

"I was doing little drawings on the spot of him, and he loved it," says Giorgio of his black-and-white sketches. "He was great, he was really excited."

Those never-before seen sketches, as well as other rare artwork and photos of Jackson, are now part of a lavish new leather-bound book, "The Official Michael Jackson OPUS," out Dec. 7.

The book, the only publication officially sanctioned by Jackson's estate, not only contains unseen images of perhaps the world's most famous face, it also has essays about the superstar written by friends and those who worked with Jackson over the years, from Motown founder Berry Gordy and Paula Abdul to John Landis and David Blaine.

While many Jackson books have been printed since Jackson's June 25 death at age 50, Jeff Wald, president of OPUS Media Group, which published the book, says his stands out.

He and his team decided "this would not be a red carpet sound bite kind of a book," he says. "It wasn't about, 'Yeah, he's a great singer, a great dancer.' It was much more in depth about the human being that he was."

To that end, OPUS executive vice president Jordan Sommers elicited essays that weren't quite tributes, but personal reflections. Some talk about Jackson the jokester; others recall his artistic genius; still others reflect on his friendship.

"There's a lot of information from the book that comes directly from sources that will clear up a lot of misconceptions," he says. "There are stories told directly from the likes of Smokey Robinson (and others) that they've never told before."

The photos, some of which were provided by friends like Gordy, range from Jackson's childhood to his many transformations as an adult.

"Our mandate ... was to have most of the photos either not be seen ever before or never ever seen in the format in which they had been (shown)," says Wald.

There are also drawings of Jackson done by Giorgio and other artists. Giorgio says Jackson was a voracious art collector and was very specific about the kind of imagery he wanted of himself, jotting down instructions, some of which are included in the book.

While Wald talked about the book (which costs $249) benefiting the Jackson children and his mother, the Jackson family did not play any role in the creation of the 400-page, 26-pound book.

"We just decided this would be something apart from the family," Wald said. "It was about Michael... We really stayed narrowly to that."

Jackson's continuing appeal is highlighted by the success of the film "This Is It," which has become the all-time top-grossing music documentary, and the honors that still arrive, such as Jackson posthumously winning four American Music Awards on Sunday night.

Wald first met Jackson as a teen and stayed in touch with him throughout the years. Jackson reached out to him earlier this year because he was a fan of the OPUS books and wanted two done on him: one based on the "This is It" concerts and another chronicling his career.

Wald said Jackson, who at times had battled an addiction to prescription drugs, was lucid and energetic when they met for two hours at his home.

"He seemed clear eyed, not drugged... he was in great spirits," he says. "He was just happier than hell, he had a sense of humor about him... it was nothing like you hear on all those breathless reports on television."

Giorgio, who illustrated the book's cover sketch, recalls Jackson being anxious for him to start work on huge murals he planned to put in his Las Vegas residence: He wanted a painting of himself and his children walking through a forest.

"He kept telling me, come on, we gotta start on this – the kids are growing, and they are changing," he says.

While Giorgio drew elaborate, fantasy images of Jackson for the legend, he says the quick sketches he took of Jackson just before he died reveal the most: "They really capture more of the essence of him."

Free eBooks For Kindle: How To Find Them

2009-11-23T17:40:23Z

[F]ear not, Kindle owners: you too have access to many of the ... public domain titles, numbering in the thousands. The problem is finding them. While many of the freebies tend to pepper the Kindle top seller lists, Amazon doesn't make it easy to find a comprehensive list.

Book Review Round-Up

2009-11-23T16:46:24Z

Miss some of the weekend's book reviews? We're back again to catch you up with a book review round-up of the newest in fine literature and in... well, Al Roker murder mysteries.

'Devil's Dream", Madison Smartt Bell
The New York Times

[I]t's not in Forrest but in the intricate structure of the novel that Bell has powerfully placed its moral center, which is a recoiling horror at the carnage of war.

"¡OBÁMANOS!", Hendrik Hertzberg
The New York Times

[W]hile "¡Obámanos!" might not have the advantage of hindsight, it does take you right back to how it felt during those giddy months of 2008. For Obama's supporters, grown wobbly during these awkward days, it could be a welcome escape.

"Invisible", Paul Auster (and other novels of Paul Auster)
The New Yorker

One might tolerate the corny [Rudolf] Born, and his cinemaspeak, if Adam Walker, who narrates much of the novel in one way or another, were not himself such a bland and slack writer. He is supposed to be a dreamy young poet, but he's half in love with easeful cliché.

"Time", Eva Hoffman
LA Times

By turns meditation and social commentary, essay and observation, "Time" is a work that, like its subject, is difficult to categorize.

"Too Much Happiness", Alice Hoffman San Francisco Chronicle

[Hoffman's] canvas may be small, but her brush strokes are fine, her vision encompasses humanity from its most generous to its most corrupt, and the effect is nothing short of masterful. Let's hope she has many more stories in her.

"The Original of Laura", Vladimir Nabokov
The Guardian

It seems likely that, had Nabokov finished it, The Original of Laura would indeed have been an important work, if not necessarily a masterpiece. Yet the problem is that he didn't finish it and, in fact, he was a long way from doing so.

"Poisoned Pens", Edited by Gary Dexter
Wall Street Journal

"Poisoned Pens" is a delightfully malicious compilation of literary invective across the centuries, registering the less than kind views of one author for another. We always knew that the profession of writing was as cut-throat as any other. Now we can see little authorial daggers doing their malicious work.

This one isn't quite a review, but do you really need one for an idea like this?

"The Morning Show Murders: A Novel", Al Roker
USA Today

"They'll all be (set) at a morning show," Roker says as he chats in his cubbyhole of an office between appearances on camera. "Or maybe late-night shows! We might have to kill off a late-night host!"