fiction

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Did This Book Inspire Real-Life Murder?

Lead character based on man who later killed his mother

(Newser) - A Florida man confessed to killing his mother in the same fashion as a recently published novel describes: by beating her, cutting her open, and removing her inner organs. And the author of the novel admits that he based his main character partially on his friend, Beau Bruneau, 29—the...

E-Books Joining NYT Bestseller List

Fiction and nonfiction will be ranked early next year

(Newser) - E-books are gaining sales and credibility: The New York Times will add two e-book bestseller lists, fiction and nonfiction, beginning next year. The company has been working on a system to track and verify sales for two years, using weekly data from publishers, bookstores, and online retailers. “It was...

Jane Austen's Style? Not Actually Jane Austen's

An editor was likely the one to polish her prose, says professor

(Newser) - Jane Austen is known as a “perfect stylist,” but those perfectly crafted sentences may not actually be hers. After studying 1,100 pages of Austen’s handwritten, unpublished manuscripts, an Oxford professor concluded that “the polished punctuation and epigrammatic style … is simply not there,” she...

'Jewish Jane Austen' Wins Booker Prize

Howard Jacobson's comic novel is 'profound,' 'wise'

(Newser) - The writer who once called the Man Booker Prize an "absolute abomination" was last night awarded the prize for his 11th novel, The Finkler Question. Howard Jacobson, who calls himself "the Jewish Jane Austen," was “truly flabbergasted” by the honor, reports the Telegraph . “I was...

Oprah Mends Fences With Novelist Who Dissed Her
 Oprah Mends Fences With 
 Novelist Who Dissed Her 
book club pick
Sep 16, 2010 10:52 AM CDT

Oprah Mends Fences With Novelist Who Dissed Her

Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' lands coveted book club slot

(Newser) - Nine years after Oprah Winfrey chose Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections for her book club, and the "uncomfortable" novelist talked his way out of appearing on her show, he's getting another chance, reports the New York Post . The media magnate's people won't confirm the Oprah's Book Club selection—likely the...

Let's Kill the Term 'Chick Lit'
 Let's Kill the Term 'Chick Lit' 
OPINION
Aug 26, 2010 1:37 PM CDT

Let's Kill the Term 'Chick Lit'

You're not a 'marshmallow peep' for reading books about women

(Newser) - It's time do away with the demeaning (and now meaningless) label called "chick lit," writes Linda Holmes at NPR. Consider the example of Jennifer Weiner, who writes mainly about women and their relationships and is therefore dismissed as a "chick lit" lightweight. No matter that her books...

Readers Swoon for Amish Romance

Novels depicting the simple life fly off the shelves

(Newser) - Getting tired of True Blood? If sex-soaked entertainment has lost some of its punch, you might look to the pure, simple pleasures of Amish life and love. That's right: Amish romance novels are flying off the shelves as readers find that nothing scintillates like the chaste. "It's a huge,...

The Wealthiest Fictional Characters

'Twilight' vampire tops Forbes list; cartoon superheroes fare well

(Newser) - Upheaval in the financial sector has widespread implications—it even affects the annual Forbes rankings of the wealthiest fictional characters. Entering the list at No. 1 is Carlisle Cullen, the Twilight vampire patriarch, who has a serious advantage in that he's undead and has had 370 years to accumulate his...

How to Write a Crappy Nicholas Sparks Novel

They're not as unique as he'd like you to think

(Newser) - Nicholas Sparks isn’t a romance novelist, OK? He writes fiction, thank you very much, and he’s made it clear in various interviews that he thinks he’s one of a kind. But on the off chance you’d like to write your very own Nicholas Sparks romance novel—...

Glenn Beck Details His Upcoming Novel
 Glenn Beck Details His Upcoming Novel
'THE OVERTON WINDOW'
Mar 29, 2010 8:13 PM CDT

Glenn Beck Details His Upcoming Novel

The Overton Window has US devolving into new civil war

(Newser) - What do you think of when you hear Glenn Beck describe this scenario? “It’s a story of America at time much like today where the people are confused and they’re being lied to and they’re not sure what’s right-side-up and upside-down.” If you said...

Anti-Novel Manifesto Reads Like 'Hokey' Fiction
Anti-Novel Manifesto Reads Like 'Hokey' Fiction
BOOK REVIEW
Mar 10, 2010 4:18 PM CST

Anti-Novel Manifesto Reads Like 'Hokey' Fiction

David Shields' hypocritical book is dependent on plot

(Newser) - The subtitle of David Shields’ Reality Hunger—an anti-novel, anti-plot screed that celebrates reality in all its forms—is A Manifesto, which automatically makes it less about “reality” and more about creating a stir, writes Laura Miller. Even as he rails against the outdated novel, Shields is creating a...

The Best Fiction of 2009
 The Best Fiction of 2009 
Dec 9, 2009 12:09 PM CST

The Best Fiction of 2009

Sex, ghosts, long-lost twins, baby monkeys inhabit Salon's picks

(Newser) - The frankly subjective list of the year's best fiction from Salon avoids the obvious Wolff Hall, Hillary Mantel's latest and the Man Booker Prize winner. Laura Miller names five others that, too, offered “a sojourn, however brief, into another world”:
  • The Children’s Book by AS Byatt: “This
...

Kindle to Sell Short Stories for $3.99

E-reader teams up with Atlantic editors on new project

(Newser) - The Kindle will begin selling short stories next week picked and edited by The Atlantic magazine. Amazon's e-reader will offer two a month for $3.99 each, with the first two appearing Monday from Christopher Buckley and Irish writer Edna O'Brien. The latter writes her fiction in longhand and had...

Ice Storm Author to Tweet Short Story
 Ice Storm 
 Author to Tweet Short Story 
the medium is the message
Nov 30, 2009 4:34 PM CST

Ice Storm Author to Tweet Short Story

140-character limit 'like haiku,' Moody finds

(Newser) - Starting tomorrow, Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm, will release a short story told over 153 tweets—one an hour for 3 days. The Wall Street Journal asked Moody what's exciting about using Twitter for literature:
  • After his wife opened an account for him: "I started quickly to
...

New Books Do Carver Justice
 New Books Do Carver Justice 
stephen king
Nov 21, 2009 10:16 AM CST

New Books Do Carver Justice

Biography, story collection provide 'necessary corrective'

(Newser) - Two new books on Raymond Carver—a biography and a collection of stories—bring a "welcome and necessary corrective" to what we know of the short story master, writes Stephen King. Carol Sklenicka's A Writer's Life cuts Carver too much slack for his personal life—he was a "...

Beck Pulls an Oprah, Pushing Thriller Writers

'It's almost conservative porn,' Fox host says of one novel

(Newser) - Oprah's book club used to stand alone in its power to boost authors' sales and profiles. Then came Glenn Beck. The conservative Fox News pundit has endorsed dozens of novels and regularly hosts fiction writers on his show, a rare habit among talk show hosts. But unlike Oprah, Beck singles...

Ralph Nader Pens Odd Utopian Novel
Ralph Nader Pens Odd Utopian Novel
new release
Sep 21, 2009 6:52 PM CDT

Ralph Nader Pens Odd Utopian Novel

Super-rich save the world in 736-page 'fictional vision'

(Newser) - Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and sometime presidential candidate, has written his first novel, the New Yorker reports. Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, out tomorrow, is a “practical utopia” in which real-life characters undertake a fictional quest to—progressively—save the country. Over the course of its 736...

This Is Your Best Shot to Finish a Pynchon Novel
This Is Your Best Shot to Finish
a Pynchon Novel
book review
Jul 31, 2009 1:10 PM CDT

This Is Your Best Shot to Finish a Pynchon Novel

Author shifts gears, has fun with a stoner detective in the '60s

(Newser) - Thomas Pynchon's back with what appears to be his most accessible novel yet, in the unlikely category of detective fiction. Critics reviewing Inherent Vice say he pulled it off:
  • Laura Miller, Salon: It's "a sun-struck, pot-addled shaggy dog story that fuses the sulky skepticism of Raymond Chandler with the
...

Black, Gay Lit Trailblazer E. Lynn Harris Dead at 54

(Newser) - Author E. Lynn Harris, who offered a glimpse into the secret lives of closeted gay black men, died last night at 54, the AP reports. His publicist says the cause is unknown, and that Harris suddenly took ill just days ago. An autopsy will be performed next week. Harris was...

Jack Vance, Unsung Giant of US Fiction

(Newser) - An American literary giant has been crafting violent, poetic, psychologically complex novels for decades. Trouble is, his characters inhabit rocket ships and battle lizard creatures. "Jack Vance is the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don’t get the credit they deserve,"...

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