Former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal recounting his four years of annual contests with George W. Bush to see who could read the most books. “We recommended volumes to each other (for example, he encouraged me to read a Mao biography; I suggested a book on Reconstruction’s unhappy end). We discussed the books and wrote thank-you notes to some authors.” In this year’s contest, “as of today, his total is 40 volumes to my 64. His reading this year included a heavy dose of history — including David Halberstam’s […]
Barnes' Best
BN.com has posted a variety of top ten lists for 2008 (fiction debuts; haunting historicals; stories on the edge; luminous lives in fiction; history; sumptuous books; our modern world; and life stories). Among their Number One selections: Child 44 by Tom Rob SmithPeople of the Book by Geraldine BrooksA Most Wanted Man by John Le CarreUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa LahiriThe Forever War by Dexter FilkinsThe Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane MayerMy Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte TaylorThe Hunger Games […]
Berkley Cancels Holocaust Memoir as Author Confesses
On the quietest Saturday of the year, Berkley cancelled publication of Herman Rosenblat’s ANGEL AT THE FENCE: The True Story of a Love That Survived, scheduled for release in February. In a short statement the publisher, which initially defended the book following a long piece in The New Republic, said the cancellation came “after receiving new information from Rosenblatt’s agent, Andrea Hurst.” They also said that they “will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work.” (The NYT said later that it was sold “for less than $50,000.) In a statement […]
Two Looks at Used Books
Because it was in the NYT, David Streitfeld’s weekend column about “feeling sheepish” about buying and selling used books online has gotten a fair amount of attention even though it’s purely personal. Working from impression rather than fact, he decides the liquid online market for personal buying and selling of books is suddenly to blame for the industry’s troubles though it has been brewing for years. “Don’t blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects, including increased competition for the reader’s time or diminished attention spans. What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of […]
Amazon's Bestsellers
Amazon has posted their annual lists of bestselling items for 2008 from a variety of categories. Stephenie Meyer’s BREAKING DAWN was their bestselling book (in units) while the Kindle was the top-selling item in the electronics category (alongside such other hits as the top home and garden item, the Oster 4207 electric wine opener.) In “products that were reviewed most positively,” Ron Paul’s THE REVOLUTION: A Manifesto led all others among books, while the Kindle lost out in electronics to a Samsung 46-inch LCD television. In their list of “products most frequently purchased as gifts” during the year, Kindle led […]
Berkely Cancels Holocaust Memoir
Publication of Herman Rosenblat’s forthcoming ANGEL AT THE FENCE: The True Story of a Love That Survived, has been cancelled by Berkley, which initially defend the book, “after receiving new information from Rosenblatts’s agent, Andrea Hurst” according to a short statement. They add that the publisher “will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work.” Earlier in the week Berkley had told the AP that Holocaust expert Michael Berenbaum said the book’s “general outline” was credible and hedged by asserting that “any memoir based on the memories of a survivor is […]