Books News Headlines

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Wicked Business" soared to the top of Publishers Weekly's bestseller 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. "Wicked Business" by Janet Evanovich (Bantam $28) - …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Peace Corps volunteer who views his time in Malawi in the 1960s as the highlight of his life goes back when his marriage falters, only to find the southern African country he remembers has unraveled through poverty and AIDS, or perhaps never existed. Largely set in a small isolated village …

(Reuters) - Writer and director Nora Ephron died on Tuesday in New York at the age of 71, succumbing to leukemia. Following are some key facts about her. * Ephron directed, produced or wrote more than 15 Hollywood movies, including romantic comedy classics "When Harry Met Sally", "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail". …

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil will offer inmates in its crowded federal penitentiary system a novel way to shorten their sentences: four days less for every book they read. Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil's most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science …

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The Edinburgh International Book Festival spreads its wings around the world this year with a debate among 50 noted international authors on how writing and the imagination are an essential component of society. Details of this year's book festival, which runs from August 11 to 27 in tandem with the …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John Grisham's latest book, "Calico Joe," climbed to the top of Publishers Weekly 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. "Calico Joe" by John Grisham, …

TOKYO (Reuters) - A legless Afghan woman pushing herself in a cart appears outside a remote U.S. military outpost after a desperate, dusty firefight, demanding the body of her brother - one of the attackers - to take home for burial. Her presence sparks fierce debate in "The Watch," a novel by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, …

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Rielle Hunter, John Edwards' former mistress, writes in her new book that the two-time presidential candidate told her he had at least two previous affairs and also fabricated three other relationships so she would not become too attached, ABC News reported. Hunter's book, "What …

(Reuters) - The American Booksellers Association, which represents U.S. independent bookstores, has objected to the U.S. government's proposed settlement of its price-fixing lawsuit against top publishers, saying it would strengthen Amazon.com Inc's dominance. The association, in a letter to the U.S. Justice Department …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American fantasy writer Laurell K. Hamilton's new book, "Kiss The Dead," debuted on the top of Publishers Weekly best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week …

TOKYO (Reuters) - On the night of July 17, 1944, an explosion with nearly the force of an atomic bomb ripped through the Port Chicago Naval Magazine north of San Francisco, killing 320 people - most of whom were African-American sailors loading weapons on ships. Though the men had loaded ordnance essential to victory in …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The cryptic title of Akash Kapur's book, "India Becoming," is deliberately ambiguous. Becoming what? Raised in India but educated from age 16 in the United States, Kapur has earned degrees from Harvard and Oxford. He moved back to India in 2003, an optimistic time when the country's modernization was …

HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (Reuters) - Syrian poet Faraj Bayrakdar's daughter was just three when he was arrested in 1987 for his political activism. By the time he was released in a presidential amnesty she was at university. As the international community continued to wrestle with efforts to stop escalating violence in Syria that …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Michelle Obama has adopted healthy eating and fighting childhood obesity as one of her pet causes. Her first book, "American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America," tells of her experiences planting the first vegetable garden at the White House …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Paramount Pictures has acquired screen rights to "The Diviners," an upcoming novel from New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray, the company announced Monday. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage will produce through their Fake Empire banner. Bray will adapt the screenplay and serve as executive …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American chef Jeffrey Saad likes to play with flavors from around the world and to liven up soups, sandwiches and everyday food with Asian and Middle Eastern spices and sauces. In his first book, "Global Kitchen: Recipes Without Borders," the 45-year-old co-owner and executive chef of The Grove restaurant …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Natasha Trethewey, author of three poetry collections and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was named on Thursday as the 19th U.S. poet laureate, becoming only the second Southerner appointed to the position. The Library of Congress, in announcing the appointment, said Trethewey would succeed Philip Levine …

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Alexandra Fuller gained a loyal following of readers with her best-selling memoir "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" about growing up in Zimbabwe during the country's civil war and, later, Zambia. In her fourth book, Fuller returns to her roots with a work that is part memoir, part biography of …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Katy Perry will become the latest celebrity to be depicted in the biography comic book "Fame" series, publisher Bluewater Productions said on Wednesday. The 27-year-old's life shown in "Fame: Katy Perry" has her moving from a Californian churchgoing upbringing under her Christian parents to …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Award-winning British journalist Lindsey Hilsum has reported from Afghanistan, Kosovo and the front lines of the Iraq war embedded with a U.S. Marine unit, but Libya's revolution last year marked the first time she set foot in that country. Now she is responsible for another first: her "Sandstorm: Libya …

(Reuters) - Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is planning to dish up some life lessons that will need more than 140-character bursts. Stone, 38, is working on a book about creativity called "Things a Little Bird Told Me" that will relate stories from his life and career and encourage others to be think outside the box, Grand …

(Reuters) - Rielle Hunter, the woman whose affair with John Edwards wrecked both his U.S. presidential ambitions and his good name, will publish a tell-all memoir later this month. One day after the former U.S. Senator was acquitted on one charge of illegally using almost $1 million in campaign contributions to cover up …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Crumple it, drench it, lock it in a hot attic or a damp cellar but paper can come back to life. It is doing so now, after taking a battering from environmentalists, the Internet and a glum economy. Paper partisans are pushing back, defending greenbacks as preferable to dollar coins, physical mail …