The nominees for the FT/Goldman Sachs business book of the year award. The winner will be named October 14: A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World William J. Bernstein (Atlantic Monthly Press) Cold Steel: The Multi-billion-dollar Battle for a Global IndustryTim Bouquet & Byron Ousey (Little Brown Book Group UK) When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic ChangeMohamed El-Erian (McGraw-Hill) McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal UnderworldMisha Glenny (Knopf) Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid EconomyLawrence Lessig (The Penguin Press) The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of LifeAlice Schroeder (Bantam)
Lively Classics Lines
The LAT runs an appreciation of reprint lines published by the New York Review of Books, Europa Editions, Hard Case Crime, and Persephone Books. There are no actual facts here, but the conclusions are grand: “The publishers specializing in reprints have become increasingly important to the people who haunt bookstores searching for the next great read. For some, these reintroduced books are as eagerly awaited as any mainstream house’s seasonal list.” True to journalistic formula, it remains impossible to admire the small without indicting everyone else, as specious conclusions abound: “Whether the increasing number of reprints is because of reader […]
DrudgeScan Returns
Flash: Matt Drudge has renewed his interest in selected Bookscan sales figures. Today he features opening week numbers for Thomas Friedman’s HOT, FLAT AND CROWDED (69,285) versus Bob Woodward’s THE WAR WITHIN (55,432).
Multi(ple) Media
Penguin UK’s blog has two audio clips “announcing” their Eoin Colfer Hitchhiker’s Guide acquisition. One is from Colfer; the more amusing one comes from a character in the book. Separately, the Village Voice “reviews” Philip Roth’s Indignation in a nine-panel cartoon slide show (via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).
Sparks Writes for Both Grand Central and Miley Cyrus
Nicholas Sparks’s new novel, for publication in fall 2009, is being written simultaneously with the author’s own adaptation of that story as a starring vehicle for Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus (Offspring Entertainment is producing, for Walt Disney Pictures). Sparks had pitched “a premise for a novel that intrigued Cyrus, her family and the producers,” Variety says, though no details are being shared. Sparks says, “This is similar to the way it’s gone with movies based on my novels; it’s just out of order. Certain opportunities garner your interest, and this was one of those.”Variety
People
Deborah Darrock has been named vp, associate publisher of Atria Books and Washington Square Press, reporting to Judith Curr. She moves over from the Simon & Schuster imprint, where she has been vp, associate publisher. Melville House has hired Daniel O’Connor for the new position of managing editor. His experience includes almost ten years at Thunder’s Mouth Press. Most recently, with Neil Ortenberg he co-produced and co-directed the documentary Obscene, a look at the life and work of Grove Press founder Barney Rosset. Chronicle Books has hired Emily Haynes as editor, specializing in pop culture, humor, and media tie-ins. Haynes […]