Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

There was lots of interesting book news this week so here goes:

The White House gatecrashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi,  have decided to write a book about the incident according to reports at The Boston Herald and other news outlets.

Galleycat reports that Sammy Hagar, the former Van Halen frontman,  has a deal to publish his autobiography with It Books.  Publication is scheduled for next year.

Galleycat also has a piece about Ellie Kemper of the TV show, The Office.  She has a book deal with Three Rivers Press to print her novel.

Hollywoodnews.com is reporting that Michael Jackson’s mother is self-publishing a photo book about Michael.

Twenty-four of Jack Higgins’ books are being released as eBooks by Open Road Integrated Media according to an article at Publishers Weekly.  I like seeing more backlist titles being …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

Welcome to another week of bookish news!  There were a couple of interesting new bookish hashtags on Twitter this week.  If you missed them before you can click on the hashtags here to go to the searches for #booksthatchangedmyworld  and #badnamesforbookimprints.The Internet Archive, a repository of public domain eBooks, has added a “Send to Kindle” link.  They have lots of great free eBooks over there.  I download books from there onto my Sony Reader every week.

eBookNewser had an interesting article about Austria’s national library cutting a deal with Google to digitize 400,000 of their books.  Scanning is set to start next year.

Borderzine has a piece on teen authors self-publishing their books.  It was an interesting read.  I’ve read about authors self-publishing their books, but I hadn’t thought about teenagers doing that.

The New York Times …

Review: Humor Me by Ian Frazier (editor)

Format Read: ARC

Number of Pages: 336

Release Date: May 11, 2010

Genre: Humor
Publisher: Ecco

Formats Available: Hardcover

Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Author’s website

Book Blurb:

Humor Me is a literary cavalcade of contemporary American funnymen—and funnywomen—of the page. Selected by the renowned humor-ist Ian Frazier and featuring more than fifty pieces of the greatest comic writing of our time, the book includes such masters of the form as Roy Blount, Jr., Bruce Jay Friedman, Veronica Geng, Jack Handey, Garrison Keillor, Steve Martin, and Calvin Trillin, as well as work by newer comic stars like Andy Borowitz, Larry Doyle, Simon Rich, George Saunders, and David Sedaris.

The pieces were published in the past thirty years in such popular magazines as The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Atlantic, National Lampoon, and Outside. But the book also includes a handful of older comic masterpieces that nobody in need of a laugh …

Interview with a Book Lover: JoJo, The Cornered Lover

Today I’m interviewing our very own JoJo, The Cornered Lover.  Why?  Because it’s her birthday today!  Her short bio is posted on our “About Us” page, but I thought that a more in-depth look at her views on books, reading and blogging would be interesting.  We’ll be adding more “Interview with a Book Lover” posts for the other bloggers in our group later.

Now for the interrogation.  I mean interview. 😉

The Eclectic Lover: Have you always been a reader?

JoJo: No, actually I haven’t. I have just recently gotten back into reading about 1 1/2 years ago. *blushes* I know right!!! I used to read when I was younger but I just kinda fell out of reading. And then I had a friend hound me and hound me until I decided to try the Twilight series. *grins* Yes, I said Twilight series. …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer is available as a free online read from June 7th to July 5.  Click on the title for the website.  It’s not downloadable.  The hardback went on sale on June 5th.  If you are curious about it’s sales numbers, thebookseller.com has the numbers here.

Just in time for summer beach reads, there is a waterproof case for the Kindle eReader.  Gizmodo has a picture of it here.  Kinda pricey, but probably worth it if you want to read by the pool or at the beach or anywhere else that there’s a risk of water damage.

The New York Times has an article about competition between ebook readers and doesn’t even mention the Sony Reader!

The British Library has acquired the archive of J. G. Ballard for it’s …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

A new eBook reader developed especially for textbooks, the Kno, is set for a beta program this fall according to mashable.com.  This is a heavyweight eReader at 5.5 pounds!  That’s still lighter than the textbooks it aims to replace though.

The Duke University libraries are now lending Kindles to faculty, staff and students.  I’ve also read about a public library in the US that allows Kindles to be checked out.  If you live nearby to someplace that lends Kindles and you qualify, it might be a good way to try before you buy.

The New Yorker has picked their latest “20 under 40” list of fiction authors.  I’ve only heard of one of them before.

Starting this Sunday, Kindles are going to be sold at all Target stores according to Publishers Weekly.  This seems like a …

Review: When Marrying A Scoundrel by Kathryn Smith

Format Read: eARC

Number of Pages: 384
Release Date: May 25, 2010
Genre: Historical RomancePublisher: Avon Books
Formats Available: MMPB, ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Author’s website

Book Blurb:

A lady must be prepared for anything . . . when marrying a scoundrel.

Sadie Moon once thought she was in love. Then her dashing husband left her to seek his fortune, and she had no choice but to transform herself from a heartbroken waif into London Society’s favorite fortune-teller. But even she could not have foreseen Jack’s return—until their paths cross in the last place either would have expected: London’s most exclusive house of pleasure.

Now wealthy and successful, Jack Friday has everything he’d ever dreamed of . . . except Sadie. He swears he will never trust the woman who broke her promise to wait for him, though his passion for her burns as …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

We have two winners to announce today.  The winner of a signed paperback copy of The Betrayal by Pati Nagle is…Sullivan McPig   and the winner of the ebook copy of Many Paths by Pati Nagle is…buddyt.  Congratulations to both of you!  We will be contacting you shortly.  Thanks for participating in the contest.  Enjoy your books!BookExpo America (BEA) took place this week in New York.  I wish I could have gone, but I couldn’t so I followed the twitter hashtag #BEA10.  eBookNewser put together a roundup post on this year’s BEA here.  Publishers Weekly reports that next year BEA will return to a three day event.

Since last month, Penguin and Amazon have been trying to work out an agreement on ebook prices.  It looks like they accomplished that according to a post at GalleyCat.  This is good …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

In Book Lovers Inc news, we have a winner to announce for the Sara Brookes Giveaway.  Moonsanity is the winner of an ebook copy of Midnight’s Ghost by Sara Brookes.  Congrats, Moonsanity!  You’ll be hearing from us soon.  Enjoy your book!

Publishers Weekly sent out a very eye-catching tweet this morning about a science fiction writer offering cash for readers.  I had to click on that link being a science fiction reader.  It is an interesting article at guardian.co.uk about writer Peter Riley who is hoping to attract attention that will lead to a publisher for his novel.  I haven’t looked at the book, but his method for finding a publisher seems…novel.

The Moby Awards for the Best and Worst book trailers were awarded last night.  Here is the link to the winners.  Book trailers = watching a …

Guest Post: Author Pati Nagle + Giveaway

We are very happy to have Pati Nagle, author of The Betrayal, here with us today. She has written a fascinating look into how she created the world of the aelven. She is also offering a giveaway of two books set in the aelven world, The Betrayal and Many Paths, so be sure to read to the end of the post for the details!

Creating the Ælven World

I fell in love with Tolkein’s elves in Lord of the Rings, which I first read before my teens. Like many readers, I snapped up other fantasy novels after I was out of Tolkein, but usually the heros were humans. Elves, if they appeared at all, were relegated to supporting roles. Eventually I got tired of seeing elves always in the background, and along with the …