Blog Profile / Jacket Copy

Tech-savvy parents prefer print over e-books for kids, PEW reports

You want your kids to learn and you know reading books is undeniably good for them. Electronic screens are, generally speaking, bad. Game consoles, television sets: You feel your kids' brains dying with each hour they spend in front of them. But what about those cool-looking tablets? And that iPad commercial with kids reading from apps?

Amos Oz wins Kafka Prize – could the Nobel be next?

Israeli author Amos Oz has been named the recipient of the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize, selected by an international jury from a short list of 12 globally recognized writers.

New Bridget Jones will be 'Mad About the Boy'

Bridget Jones is coming back, and she'll be "Mad About the Boy." That's the title of the upcoming novel by Helen Fielding, who's writing her first Bridget Jones book in more than a decade.

Graphic novel adaptation 'Blue is the Warmest Color' wins at Cannes

The French drama "Blue is the Warmest Color" won the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes on Sunday, making it the first graphic-novel adaptation to take the top award. Another comic-based film, Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," tied for the Cannes Jury Prize in 2007.

George Packer chronicles American boom and bust in 'The Unwinding'

George Packer paints a vivid, novelistic portrait of recent U.S. history through its people. George Packer's new nonfiction book, "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America," has many of the qualities of an epic novel.

Colum McCann on 'journeys by heroes'

The author of 'TransAtlantic,' which explores missions by Frederick Douglass, George Mitchell and two pioneering fliers, talks about his inspiration. National Book Award winner Colum McCann's ninth book, "TransAtlantic," is a fictionalized exploration of three historic journeys between North America and Ireland. Show More Summary

'Nothin' but Blues Skies' tells Rust Belt stories

Edward McClelland's book reminds us of what has transpired in the heartland of America over the past 30 years. To drive these days through Great Lakes cities — Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, among others — is to drive through the nation's industrial past. Show More Summary

'The Sad Passions' paints haunting tale of loss and art

Veronica Gonzalez Peña follows the lives of a middle-class Mexican family that has been shaped by absence, loss, sickness and dead dreams. Spectral girls and shadow fathers haunt the center and fringes of Veronica Gonzalez Peña's second novel, "The Sad Passions," but this isn't magical realism. Show More Summary

Brick and mortar bookstores report good quarter. Wait, what?

Believe it or not, something good has happened to brick-and-mortar bookstores. In the first quarter of 2013, more book buyers walked in their doors -- a lot more.

Khaled Hosseini sets 'And the Mountains Echoed' against Afghan history

A father's decision to give his 3-year-old daughter to a wealthy family in Kabul begins an almost 60-year Afghan history lesson as recounted by the characters in Khaled Hosseini's newest novel. Although Khaled Hosseini has lived in the...Show More Summary

J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Fall of Arthur' and the path to Middle-Earth

The long unfinished poem edited by J.R.R. Tolkien's son, Christopher, provides fascinating insight into the author's work. The books go ever on and on. Forty years after his death at 81, works by J.R.R. Tolkien continue to appear. The...Show More Summary

Pearl S. Buck to publish new novel ... 40 years after her death

A new novel by Pearl S. Buck will be published in October, more than 40 years after her death. Buck, best known for her novel "The Good Earth," won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

Elizabeth Warren to pen new book -- a middle-class call to arms?

A book can’t rescue the American middle class. But a lot of politicians who say they want to rescue the American middle class are writing books about their travails and their vision — all timed to come out as the 2016 presidential election machinery kicks into gear.

Judge rules gifts cards from belly-up Borders bookstores worthless

Those clinging hopefully to the old Borders books gift cards stashed in their drawers or wallets are out of luck, a Manhattan federal judge ruled Wednesday. According to Reuters, there are about $210.5 million worth of such cards that had not been used by the time the bookstore chain went out of business in September 2011. All of which are now "equitably moot."

Lydia Davis wins Man Booker International Prize

Lydia Davis, known for writing powerful, compact short stories, was announced as the winner of the Man Booker International Prize for fiction Wednesday. The prize, which was presented at a ceremony in London, comes with an award worth more than $90,000.

Matthew Sharpe's storytelling experiment

In my inbox this week: Matthew Sharpe announces “a little experiment in self-publishing on the Internet”: a series of 12 weekly micro-fictions, under the name “Very short stories r us,” that showcase his idiosyncratic blend of the acutely observed and the fantastic.

Barefoot Books breaks up with Amazon

Robin Roberts of 'Good Morning America' to publish memoir

Popular "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts will publish a memoir in 2014 with Grand Central, the publisher announced Wednesday. The book, which is not yet titled, will include Roberts' story of her battle with MDS.

Amazon launches project to monetize fan fiction: Kindle Worlds

Amazon has a plan to monetize fan fiction: It's called Kindle Worlds. On Wednesday, Amazon announced a new scheme in which writers of fan fiction can self-publish and sell that writing with the sanction of the original copyright hol...

Paperless public library to open in Texas

A groundbreaking paperless public library system will open in Texas this year, the BBC reports. Bexar County's $1.5-million BiblioTech project will open its first library branch without a single print book.