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NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Gone Girl" held on to the top spot 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. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn (Crown, $25.00) 1 2. "Friends …

SYDNEY (Reuters) - He's three meters (nine feet) long, weighs as much as a small fishing boat and can eat the combined weight of two small children every day. But "Dhyum the Dugong," the main character in a new children's book, has pressing issues on his mind. He wants to teach people how to save dugongs, endangered sea …

(Reuters) - Popular phrases such as "man cave," "bucket list" and "game changer" are among the new entries in the 2012 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, according to a list released by the company on Tuesday. "Sexting" - the sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cell phone - and "f-bomb" - …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Divided by the abduction and murder of their teenage sister decades ago, two brothers in a small Ohio town must overcome their adversarial relationship when faced with a new killing that has seemingly random ties to each of them. In "The Prophet," the ninth novel from 29-year-old Michael Koryta, one …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Action movie "The Bourne Legacy," with new star Jeremy Renner, raced to the No. 1 spot on U.S. and Canadian box office charts with an estimated $40.3 million in ticket sales over the weekend. New adult comedy "The Campaign" debuted in second place, winning $27.4 million at domestic theaters. The …

TOKYO (Reuters) - Writer Andrew Motion, England's former poet laureate, is taking a new generation of readers back to "Treasure Island" in his latest book, which follows the characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure. In "Silver: Return to Treasure Island," Jim Hawkins is four decades older and runs an inn …

LOS ANGELES, Aug 5 - Following are the top 10 movies at North American box offices for the weekend starting Aug 3, led by "The Dark Knight Rises" at No. 1, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters. 1 (1) The Dark Knight Rises....................$ 36.4 million 2 (*) Total Recall.............................$ 26.0 …

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - The death of author Gore Vidal at the age of 86 brought tributes from around the globe on Wednesday, as friends and fans mourned the passing of the man remembered as one of America's literary giants. Vidal, whose biting observations on politics, sex and American culture in novels, plays and essays …

TOKYO (Reuters) - Aaron Burr, a lawyer and politician in the early years of the United States, has long had a reputation as a villain, mainly due to his famous killing of political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. But in his book, "The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr," author Henry Brands paints a vastly different picture …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Friends Forever" jumped 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. "Friends Forever" by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $28.00) …

LONDON (Reuters) - The magic of J.K. Rowling seems to have worn off for British readers as erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" outsold all seven Harry Potter books on Amazon.co.uk on Wednesday, making author E.L. James the website's best-selling writer ever. The novel also became the website's biggest-selling book of all …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Best-selling author Kurt Andersen isn't a spy, but that didn't stop him from writing his latest novel about a group of friends who hatch a James-Bond-like plot amid the tumult of the 1960s in the United States. "True Believers," which hit shelves earlier this month, tells the tale of a celebrated lawyer, …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For more than 30 years, author William Boyd has won acclaim for writing complexly plotted page-turners often set in unique historical milieus, from World War One-era East Africa to 1936 Los Angeles. His latest novel, "Waiting for Sunrise," features Lysander Rief, a young British actor seeking treatment …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" dominated U.S. and Canadian box offices for a third time, holding firm to the weekend's No. 1 spot and leaving the debut of science fiction remake "Total Recall" in distant second place. "Dark Knight Rises" racked up an estimated $36.4 million in ticket sales …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "The Watch" ranks among career lows not only for its stars (including Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill), writers (among them Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and director (Akiva Schaffer, who gave us the underrated Andy Samberg vehicle "Hot Rod") but also for Costco, which plays a key role …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" earned $64.1 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters during its second weekend, topping box office charts in a sluggish overall market facing Olympic television coverage and the impact of the Colorado shooting. The finale in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy …

(Adds byline, story unchanged) LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Chemistry, Walter White said in the first episode of "Breaking Bad," is the study of change. And with Sunday's start of the show's fifth and final season, everything has changed for "Breaking Bad" except its brilliant mix of character-driven drama, science-inspired …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Shadow of Night," the newest book by Deborah Harkness, shot 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. "Shadow of Night" …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Gone Girl" retained the top spot on Publishers Weekly's bestseller list on Thursday for the second consecutive week. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "Gone Girl" by Gillian …

CAIRO (Reuters) - Outsiders traversed the Sahara's expanses in the imagination long before the first European explorers ventured into the desert's uncharted interior. Now war, banditry and an al Qaeda offshoot threaten tourism and could leave a region bigger than Australia off limits again, wiping out income for its nomadic …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When I was a kid and would fight with one of my five siblings and then go crying to my mother, she would tell me to get over it and make up with them. "She's your sister and she's going to be your sister for the rest of your life, so you had better learn to live with her," Mom always said (or, …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It's not that I couldn't believe a ménage-à-trois between a botanist-entrepreneur-philanthropist, a bubble-headed Southern California princess, and a haunted and hard-bitten veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I just don't believe the one that's at the center of Oliver Stone's latest, "Savages. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Gone Girl" shot to the top of Publishers Weekly's bestseller list on Thursday, bumping "Wicked Business" out of the No. 1 spot. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "Gone Girl" …