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Literature

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Literature

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." -C.S. Lewis

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Stories 1 - 20 of 311

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June 2009
- Judge Shelves Catcher In the Rye Knock-Off
  
  Reuters | Jun 17, 09 4:39 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A federal judge today blocked the publication of a modern novel featuring the characters of The Catcher in the Rye while she weighs whether there’s a valid copyright case. Author JD Salinger, 90, sued the Swedish publisher of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye for not seeking his permission, Reuters reports. The new novel is literary commentary, a lawyer for the publisher counters. More »
- Nora Roberts' Secret to Success: 'Ass in the Chair'
  
  New Yorker | Jun 16, 09 3:02 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Nora Roberts is the most popular romance writer in America, but it’s not easy being on the top. “People go, ‘Oh, you work six or eight hours a day, oh my God,’” she tells the New Yorker . “‘Well, yeah, how many hours do you work?’ ‘Well, yeah, but …’ But nothing.” Roberts churns out five books a year, sold more than 18 million copies in 2008 alone, and brings in about $60 million a year. More »
- Obama Half-Bro Clinches Book Deal
  
  Associated Press | Jun 15, 09 8:37 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - President Obama’s half-brother will publish a memoir next year, in a book deal one official says is worth six figures, the AP reports. George Obama, 27, lives in Kenya and did not grow up with the president, but they share a passion for community organizing—an area George embraced after a life of crime. His is the latest in a series of books by Obama relatives. More »
- SF Library Offers Amnesty to Tardy Book Borrowers
  
  San Francisco Chronicle | Jun 14, 09 6:30 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A book amnesty program in San Francisco has inspired many guilty returns and a few entertaining excuses, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The city's public library offered tardy borrowers the chance to return items, fine-free, as long as they came with an excuse. Returning a record 29,228 items worth $55,165 in fines, book-lovers coughed up a few memorable explanations: More »
- Pungle, Nebby, Oh My! Folksism Dictionary Is Almost Done
  
  NPR | Jun 14, 09 2:36 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Do you know what a “mumble squibble” is? How about a “elbedritsch”? When the final volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English comes out next year, a decades-in-the-making collection of odd vernacular from across the country will be complete at last, NPR reports. "It's very helpful because it's really more descriptive than prescriptive," the Dictionary ’s editor says. More »
- Storied Paris Bookstore Gets Long-Due Makeover
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 8, 09 7:27 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Shakespeare and Company, the English-language bookshop on the left bank of Paris, has been a refuge for writers from James Joyce to Ernest Hemingway to William Burroughs. Its owner, the sainted George Whitman, is still around at 95—but as Amazon keeps growing, he's handed the shop over to his 28-year-old daughter. "Dad’s such an eccentric; Shakespeare and Co. is my real father," Sylvia Beach Whitman tells Bloomberg. More »
May 2009
- Woodward Working on Obama Book
  
  New Republic | May 30, 09 11:59 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - It's almost a political rite of passage at this point: Bob Woodward is writing a book about the Obama administration, reports Gabriel Sherman in the New Republic . No word on the focus, but Sherman notes that Woodward has a knack for making administrations nervous. “Every White House is wary of Woodward,” a veteran reporter tells him. “If you want to hide things from Bob, it always comes out,” another says. “It always does.” More »
- Canadian Snags Man Booker International
  
  Guardian (UK) | May 27, 09 8:10 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Alice Munro, whose short stories the judges described as “practically perfect,” is the third winner of the $95,000 Man Booker International prize, the Guardian reports. The 77-year-old, author of 11 short story collections and one novel, is on a path to “international literary sainthood,” fellow Canadian author Margaret Atwood said last year. Munro's stories have been praised for their depth, craftsmanship, and subtle style. More »
- Intern Who Had Affair With JFK to Pen Memoir
  
  New York Times | May 23, 09 1:17 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The former lover of John F. Kennedy exposed in 2003 has a deal with Random House to write a memoir, the New York Times reports. Mimi Beardsley worked as a White House intern and had an 18-month affair with the president from 1962 to 1963, starting when she was 19. Beardsley, who now carries the surname Alford, admitted in 2003 that she was “involved in a sexual relationship” with JFK. More »
- Biden's Big Mouth Irks Obama: Book
  
  Fox News | May 21, 09 2:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The rocky relationship between President Obama and Joe Biden comes under scrutiny in a new book by a Newsweek reporter, Fox News reports. In Renegade: the Making of a President , Richard Wolffe writes that Obama is “distracted by his vice president's indiscipline” and has had to personally rebuke his gaffe-prone No. 2. “He can't keep his mouth shut,” an aide told Wolffe. More »
- Scammer: I Forged Author Signatures
  
  Los Angeles Times | May 20, 09 3:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A man who made more than $300,000 by selling "autographed" first editions of books that actually contained forged signatures pleaded guilty to fraud in a Philadelphia court today. Forrest Smith's offerings on eBay included books by Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Anne Rice, Tom Wolfe, and Tom Clancy, the Los Angeles Times reports. The forgeries were excellent—Smith produced them using rubber stamps he had made from the authors' signatures on other items, the Philadelphia Inquirer adds. More »
- White House Jams to Spoken Word
  
  Washington Post | May 13, 09 9:33 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Spoken word, jazz, and theater took the White House by storm last night in what has been called the first presidential poetry jam, the Washington Post reports. “We're here to celebrate the power of words,” President Obama said, adding that his wife is his poet. The jam, Michelle Obama said, was something she had wanted to do “from day one.” More »
- The Not-So-Bookish Savor Twit Lit
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | May 12, 09 8:20 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Consumers short on time and even shorter on attention spans are turning to 140-character summaries of Great Books on Twitter, reports the Telegraph. Classics have been "distilled" into prose Twitterers can read in the time it takes to sneeze. Waiting for Godot? No problem: "Vladimir and Estragon stand next to tree and wait for Godot. Their status is not updated." Even pithier is Lady Chatterly's Lover : "Upper-class woman gets it on with gamekeeper." More »
- Authors Want Boom Lowered on Book Pirates
  
  New York Times | May 12, 09 5:25 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A surge in book piracy has followed hot on the heels of the growth in ebooks, the New York Times reports. Publishers trying to stamp out unauthorized editions online say the ease with which books can now be copied online make their efforts little more than a game of "Whac-a-Mole," and hope to learn from the lessons of the heavily pirated music industry. More »
- Fake Memoirist Frey Implies Dirt on Oprah
  
  New York Post | May 5, 09 9:52 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Does James Frey—who achieved infamy when Oprah Winfrey denounced his fake addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces —have dirt on the talk-show queen? That’s what he seems to imply in new novel Bright Shiny Morning , the New York Post reports. The paperback edition, out May 12, includes an omitted passage in which a disgraced character discovers (and tapes) a secret about a talk-show host. More »
- Duffy Named First Female Poet Laureate
  
  Times (UK) | May 1, 09 6:58 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Carol Ann Duffy and her 13-year-old daughter agreed it was time for a woman poet laureate in Britain, the Times of London reports. Widely expected to accept the post, Duffy, 53, agreed today to take over from incumbent Andrew Motion in the name of "great women poets ... like Alice Oswald," she said. “My only worry was what my daughter thought about it. She said, ‘Yes, Mummy. There has never been a woman poet laureate’.” More »
April 2009
- Antitrust Concerns Prompt Google Books Probe
  
  New York Times | Apr 29, 09 9:56 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Federal lawyers are looking into whether a Google Book Search agreement with authors and publishers may violate antitrust laws, the New York Times reports. The settlement of a 2005 suit allows Google to put millions of scanned books online, charge viewers to read them, and share revenues with both groups. Opponents say the deal puts Google in an exclusive position to cash in on “orphan” texts whose rights holders aren’t known. More »
- UK Set to Name First Female Poet Laureate
  
  Independent (UK) | Apr 28, 09 2:20 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The UK looks set to honor a woman as poet for the first time, the Independent reports, and an openly gay woman at that. At 53, Carol Ann Duffy is Great Britain’s most widely read poet, and might’ve already been named poet laureate but for former PM Tony Blair, who thought that a lesbian wouldn’t be accepted by Middle England. More »
- Secular Kid Goes Undercover at Falwell's School
  
  Newsweek | Apr 22, 09 1:18 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Kevin Roose spent spring break in Florida last year, but instead of boozing with the rest of the college students, he proselytized them. It was all part of the Brown University student’s undercover semester at Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University, where he “had to follow their 46-page code of conduct: no drinking, no cursing, no hugs lasting longer than three seconds,” he tells Newsweek as he promotes his book about the experience. More »
- Levi Plans Book to Fund Custody Fight
  
  National Enquirer | Apr 22, 09 12:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Levi Johnston is shopping a tell-all memoir about his experience with the Palin family, the National Enquirer reports. Insiders say the estranged father of Sarah Palin’s grandson is hoping to start a war chest in advance of an anticipated custody battle. “If Levi could get a million bucks, it would be worth telling all he really knows,” a source said. “He knows what really happened inside the Palin family.” More »

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