Herman Rosenblat’s forthcoming Holocaust memoir from Berkley ANGEL AT THE FENCE: The True Story of a Love That Survived, has been the focus of an international takedown effort for a while now (as we’ve been regularly advised by email) and now Gabriel Sherman at The New Republic files a long piece on the book. “The power of Herman’s narrative is largely due to the fact that the incredible story actually happened. Herman himself writes of his first encounter with Roma with such disbelief. ‘I noticed a small girl hiding behind a tree on the other side of the fence. I […]
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Le Clezio: Make Books Available
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio delivered his Nobel lecture this weekend. In a portion of the speech focused on publishers, he said that “to provide nearly everyone on the planet with a liquid crystal display is utopian.” The Internet and “virtual communication” are “a good thing, but what would these astonishing inventions be worth, were it not for the teachings of written language and books?” He argued that publishers should spread books themselves, and translations of voices and small, throughout the world: “Culture on a global scale concerns us all. But it is above all the responsibility of readers–of publishers, in […]
Layoffs at Nelson
Thomas Nelson ceo Michael Hyatt announced layoffs at the company today via his active Twitter feed and then wrote further on his blog. “Today, was a very difficult day at Thomas Nelson. We informed fifty-four of our friends and co-workers (about 10% of our workforce) that we have eliminated their jobs, effective this Friday. This will affect nearly every department in our company.” In April, the company eliminated “about 60” positions “because we have changed our business strategy.” But “this second round was purely a result of the slowdown in the economy,” Hyatt now writes. He admits, “As recently as […]
Briefly: Laura Bush Still Shopping; Coulter's GUILTY; Updike's Bad Sex; UK Sales Keep Falling; A New Standard for Digital Content
* First Lady Laura Bush has confirmed the previous confirmation that she is talking to publishers about a book deal. “I’ve been talking to some publishers, but nothing has happened yet — just a few visits.” * How will Ann Coulter fare in an Obama world? Her new book is GUILTY: Liberal “Victims” and their Assault on America, which “exposes and mocks, in graphic detail, the media’s love affair with all things Democrat and Obama” according to the hyping on the Drudge Report. * The UK sales decline continues, as year-on-year, unit sales were down 5.1 percent in the past […]
$6 Billion Federal Reading Program a Failure
The Washington Post reported last week that “students in the $6 billion Reading First program have not made greater progress in understanding what they read than have peers outside the program, according to a congressionally mandated study…. Students in schools that use Reading First, a program at the core of the No Child Left Behind law, scored no better on comprehension tests than students in similar schools that do not get the funding.” As the article adds, “Federal investigators have found that some people who helped oversee the program had financial ties to the publishers of Reading First materials.”Post As […]
NY Judge Tentatively OKs Google Deal
While blog posts and press releases around the world have been full of carping about the proposed settlement of two lawsuits against Google related to their Book Search library project, the judge in the matter had a much simpler response: tentative approval. Judge John Sprizzo’s order was made public yesterday, and he set a June 11 date for a fairness hearing to “decide if the deal is fair, reasonable and adequate.” AP