Inform Book Network

Soldier echoes Arabian Nights with Iraq novel

2011-12-22T02:30:34Z

TOKYO (Reuters) - On Benjamin Buchholz's second day in Iraq as a U.S. army officer, a young Iraqi girl was struck and killed by a military convoy while trying to catch a bottle of water thrown to children by the roadside as a gift.

The tragedy and its aftermath -- wailing women, townspeople up in a...

Atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens dead at 62

2011-12-16T04:00:11Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of ...

Polemical journalist and atheist Christopher Hitchens dead at 62

2011-12-15T23:30:12Z

American dean of Paris literary scene dies at 98

2011-12-15T06:30:21Z

PARIS (Reuters) - The man who nurtured a generation of aspiring writers at a rickety English-language bookstore in Paris, offering supper and a bed to literature fans providing they dusted the shelves or penned their memoirs, has died aged 98.

George Whitman, an American, died in the little apartment at the top of his Sonal Gand...

Italy winemaker sends literary message in the bottle

2011-12-13T12:01:22Z

MILAN (Reuters) - Nowadays when people spend more and more time exploring the depths of cyber space or just watching TV, every effort counts to bring them back to the traditional pleasure of reading.

A leading Italian book store chain Feltrinelli and wine-makers Santa Margherita from northern Italy decided six years ago to join forces to promote read...

Traitor Philby hailed as 'great spy' in Russia

2011-12-12T15:30:49Z

Notorious British double agent Kim Philby may be regarded as a traitor in his home country but twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union he remains a hero in Russia for divulging Western secrets.

A Russian publisher has unveiled a major new biography of Philby, including interviews with his Russian widow and declassified documents...

Virgin's Branson says business as usual needs change

2011-12-09T12:31:33Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Richard Branson -- swashbuckling billionaire entrepreneur, sportsman and activist -- is accustomed to speaking his mind. Ask the employees and customers of his Virgin group of more than 400 companies around the world.

From records to airlines, mobile phones to fuels, stem cells to "space tourism," Branson has ...

Cain may find pot of gold at end of campaign trail

2011-12-08T12:30:12Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The campaign trail did not end at the White House for Herman Cain, but it might yet lead him to a pot of gold.

The former restaurant executive and motivational speaker could translate his sudden fame into hefty speaking fees and ...

Reading is alive and increasingly electronic

2011-12-08T09:30:30Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Times may be tough for neighborhood bookstores, but people are reading more than ever and e-books are nurturing bookworms who hunger for everything from blockbuster biographies to literary fiction.

"It's really been all good news this year. Reading is becoming more popular in general," said Chris Schluep, senior books editor at Reuters) - The United States is looking into allegations that the electronic book industry has violated antitrust law, a top Justice Department official said on Wednesday.

In an oversight hearing, the Justice Departmen...

Amanda Knox hires top US lawyer for book deal

2011-12-06T15:30:46Z

US student Amanda Knox has hired a top lawyer used by politicians including Barack Obama and Tony Blair to negotiate a book deal about her four years behind bars in Italy, her spokesman said.

The 24-year-old, who flew home in October after being acquitted over the gruesome 2007 kil...

Amazon to buy over 450 children's book titles

2011-12-06T15:30:28Z

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it agreed to acquire more than 450 children's book titles in the U.S. from publisher Marshall Cavendish.

The titles include "The Night Before Christmas," illustrated by Gennady Spirin; "Chalk" by Bill Thomson; and "...

EU opens antitrust probe into Apple's e-book deals

2011-12-06T14:30:29Z

European antitrust officials launched a probe on Tuesday to determine whether iPad maker Apple and five international publishers struck illegal deals to fix the price of e-books in Europe.

The European Commission will look at deals between the US gadget g...

Europe probes publishers, Apple on e-book pricing

2011-12-06T08:30:08Z

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is investigating whether e-book publishers owned by Lagardere, Pearson Plc, News...

EU Commission in e-books antitrust probe of 5 publishers, Apple

2011-12-06T05:00:11Z

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is investigating whether e-book publishers owned by Lagardere, Pearson Plc, Reuters) - Amanda Knox, who was cleared of murder and freed from prison by an Italian court in October, has hired a prominent Washington, D.C.-based lawyer as she considers possible book deals, her spokesman said on Monday.

Knox, 24, has retained attorney Chile's 97-year-old poet Nicanor Parra has won the Cervantes Prize, the culture ministry said Thursday, the oldest person to win the leading literary award for works in Spanish.

The prize honours a writer's life work and it carries with it a cash award of 125,000 euros ($170,000).

It will be handed out on April 23, i...

Hollywood love child Lewis dies at 76

2011-12-01T13:30:31Z

Judy Lewis, who learned as an adult that she was the illegitimate daughter of classic Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Loretta Young, has died at the age of 76, according to her daughter.

Young became pregnant with Lewis during the filming of "The Call of the Wild" (1935), concealed the pregnancy to avoid scandal and then raised the child as her adopted daughter.

Gab...

Venice's Bridge of Sighs restored to former glory

2011-12-01T11:30:55Z

The painstaking restoration of Venice's famed Bridge of Sighs and the facade of the adjoining Doge's Palace is finally finished after three years of work, officials said on Thursday.

The restoration project -- which was launched after a piece of marble fell off the Palace and hit an elderly German tourist on his leg in 2007 -- included cleaning off pollution and restoring the limestone.

Built at the beginning of the ...

Fahrenheit 451 to be available as digital book

2011-11-30T20:30:37Z

Publisher Simon & Schuster is releasing an electronic edition of Ray Bradbury's classic science fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451" after the 91-year-old author lifted his objections to a digital version.

"The publication in digital form comes as part of a new publishing agreement that includes all English language print and digital formats of Fahrenheit 451 in <...

The quintessential Las Vegas novel has yet to be penned To read more columns by J. Patrick Coolican, visit lasvegassun.com/coolican.

2011-11-30T02:30:11Z

Like God before it, the novel is dead, or so we are told.

"The book can't compete with the screen," Philip Roth, the old master, has said.

The hegemony of digital media is now assured - our culture given over to what the novelist Jonathan Franzen once called "attractively priced electronic panderings."

And yet in that same essay...

UNESCO adds 11 entries to 'intangible heritage' list

2011-11-25T17:30:25Z

A traditional form of weaving by Bedouin women and a healing prayer sung by Peru's Huachipaire people were added Friday to UNESCO's list of "intangible heritage" in need of preservation.

In all, envoys on Indonesia's resort island of Bali this week picked 11 new listings, from among 18...

Book by killer of British woman to become film

2011-11-25T06:30:26Z

A book written by the Japanese man who raped and killed young teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker is to be made into a movie, the producer said Friday.

Tatsuya Ichihashi spent more than two-and-a-half years on the run after the brutal 2007 killing and even had plastic surgery to evade capture.

He was finally caught in November 2009 and was sentenc...

Award-winning poet Ruth Stone dies at 96

2011-11-24T16:00:17Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Award-winning poet Ruth Stone, who drew imagery and inspiration from the natural sciences, has died at age 96 in Vermont, her daughter said on Thursday.

Stone, who won the National Book Award...

Book Talk: Frazier returns to home state for third novel

2011-11-24T04:00:14Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Charles Frazier's novel "Cold Mountain" was a bestselling and critical phenomenon in 1996 and later became an Academy Award-winning movie, wh...

Obit Frances

2011-01-03T08:33:37Z

FILE - In a March 7, 1998 file photo, actors Anne Francis and Robbie the Robot, who both starred in the 1956 science fiction thriller "Forbidden Planet," share a hug, during the taping of an Easter Seals television special in Los Angeles. Francis, who was the love interest in the 1950s science-fiction classic "Forbidden Pl...

India Dirty Old Writer

2011-01-01T08:01:24Z

In this photo taken on Monday, Dec. 20, 2010, Khushwant Singh, 96, drinks tea sitting next to a fireplace in his house in New Delhi. The famously grumpy writer, known for everything from beautifully wrought novels to fart jokes, has been a giant of India's literary world for more than sixty years. The lawyer-turned-diplomat-turned-writer insist...

Curious George's Journey

2010-12-26T11:30:27Z

In this Dec. 17, 2010 photo, the cover of the book "The Journey That Saved Curious George" with an illustration showing Margret and H.A. Rey fleeing Paris on bicycles is seen at the Margret and H.A. Rey Center in George W. Bush greets a person as he signs autographs of his new book "Decision Points" at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Nell Muntadhar al-Zeidi entitled "The Last Salute to President Bush," is seen displayed in a book fair in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. Al-Zeidi who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghd...