Scribner has announced this morning that Whitney Otto, author of the best-selling How to Make an American Quilt, will release her fifth novel, Eight Girls Taking Pictures. According to a press release, the novel will reimagine the public and private lives of the most groundbreaking female photographers of the 20th century, including Imogen Cunningham, Madame Yevonde, and Ruth Orkin. Eight Girls Taking Pictures is scheduled for publication this fall.
Jan 25
2012
10:41 AM ET
Jan 24
2012
05:59 PM ET
Reading the Oscars: The book and short story that inspired 'The Descendants'
Image Credit: Merie Wallace
Six out of the nine Best Picture Academy Award nominees announced this morning were based on books: Hugo, War Horse, Moneyball, The Descendants, The Help, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Between now and the ceremony on Feb. 26, Shelf Life will read or re-read each of these books, in addition to a few others that inspired nominees in different categories, and do a side-by-side with the film version. For our first installment, we’ll take a look at The Descendants, which is nominated for five Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Minor spoilers ahead. READ FULL STORY »
Jan 24
2012
01:30 PM ET
'The Hierarchy of Book Publishing': the top 100
Knopf publicity EVP Paul Bogaard’s latest exercise in long-form blogging has been making the rounds in the publishing industry this morning. His partly serious, partly tongue-in-cheek list of the top 100 power players in book publishing is both astute and guffaw-worthy: No. 4, “authors who have been to Heaven, met God”; No. 6, “intern assigned to company twitter feed.” Of course, we instantly did a CTRL+F for Entertainment Weekly, and we placed at No. 37 for putting Knopf’s Dragon Tattoo on our cover more than once — right behind Suze Orman and above The Atlantic. That’s not a bad place to be, I suppose, but we expect better in 2013.
Jan 23
2012
07:48 PM ET
Gaby Rodriguez talks new book 'The Pregnancy Project'
If you’re looking for a quick but uplifting read, look no further than Gaby Rodriguez’s The Pregnancy Project. I finished it in just a few hours and came away feeling motivated to squash all negative stereotypes around me. And then, I marveled how a senior in high school could pack such a powerful message into one social experiment. “I would encourage not only teenagers to read it, but also parents,” Rodriguez told EW last week. “Because it also has a strong message for parents and adults.”
Jan 23
2012
12:03 PM ET
National Book Critics Circle Award finalists announced
Image Credit: Ricardo Barros
The National Book Critics Circle announced the nominees for its 2011 book awards over the weekend, and there were a few surprises. Critical darlings and major 2011 breakouts like Chad Harbach, Téa Obreht, and Karen Russell were not named as finalists in the fiction category. Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, which wasn’t a National Book Award finalist and didn’t make The New York Times‘ 10 Best Books of 2011 list, is now the NBCC’s headline nominee. But the dark horse to win fiction might just be Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta, whose rock-tinged novel calls to mind the very different but similarly hip A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, last year’s NBCC winner who went on to win the Pulitzer.
See below for a full list of nominees: READ FULL STORY »
Jan 20
2012
01:00 PM ET
Sneak peek at 'Justice League' #5: Hello, Darkseid! -- EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
Image Credit: DC Comics
Darkseid might look like a statue of a wrestler carved out of blue granite, but the fearsome anti-deity is one of the great supervillains in the DC Universe. In the next issue of Justice League, The Flash and Superman go toe-to-toe with the all-powerful figure, attempting to outrace his Omega Beams. In the process, they kind of stage a rematch of their famous footrace, although the whole “Flash vs. Superman” debate has always seemed ludicrous to me, since Superman can fly. Oh, Speed Force, Shmeed Force!
You can read the full issue when it hits stores Jan. 25th. For now, check out EW’s full sneak peek here.
Read more:
Sneak peek at DC’s #2 ‘Batgirl’ — EXCLUSIVE
Superman #1, The Dark Knight #1, Aquaman #1: New comics reviews
Batman #1 and other new DC Comics reviews
Follow Darren on Twitter: @EWDarrenFranich
Jan 19
2012
04:41 PM ET
Apple's iBooks 2 app to 'reinvent' textbooks
The annual back-to-school textbook run, which leaves students hundreds (or thousands) of dollars poorer and stooped beneath lead-weight backpacks, may be a thing of the past. Earlier today, Apple released the free iBooks 2 app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Unlike the original iBooks app, which sold fiction, nonfiction, and poetry titles, iBooks 2 will also offer textbooks, which will all be priced at $14.99 or less.
Apple hopes that the affordability of the textbooks will only be part of their appeal, stating that the iBooks textbook allows for increased user engagement with enhanced searchability, highlighting, note-taking, 3-D diagrams, and interactive galleries. Some of the e-textbooks will also provide questionnaires and instant flashcards of key terms.
Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — who, combined, are responsible for 90% of textbooks sold in the U.S. — are already slated to sell their educational products through iBooks 2. Apple estimates that 1.5 million iPads are currently used in schools.
Jan 19
2012
02:38 PM ET
Debut author Julie Cross talks 'Tempest'
January’s not even over, and I want to claim Tempest as one of my favorite books of 2012. The YA novel, by debut author Julie Cross, hit shelves on Tuesday. The story follows 19-year-old Jackson Meyer who has the ability the travel back through time. One day in 2009, strangers burst in on him and his girlfriend, Holly, and she’s fatally shot during a struggle. And in a jump unlike his previous time jumps, Jackson ends up in 2007 where he gets stuck. Will he make it back to 2009 to save Holly? I won’t spoil it for you. But I can offer this Q&A with Julie Cross. She took some time out of her schedule to chat with EW about Tempest and reveal a few small hints about the next book in the trilogy.
Jan 18
2012
06:00 PM ET
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announces its new 'Best American' series editors
I like anthologies — probably because I’m such a bookworm — and my favorites, by far, have always been the ones in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Best American series. The publisher has just released the names of its 2012 guest editors, and as always, it’s a pretty fascinating list:
- The Best American Short Stories: Tom Perrotta (novelist, most recently of The Leftovers)
- The Best American Essays: David Brooks (New York Times op-ed columnist)
- The Best American Comics: Francoise Mouly (art editor of The New Yorker, publisher and editorial director of TOON Books, cofounder of comics anthology RAW)
- The Best American Nonrequired Reading: Dave Eggers (editor of McSweeney’s); guest introducer: Ray Bradbury
- The Best American Travel Writing: William T. Vollmann (author of 17 books, including Europe Central)
- The Best American Science and Nature Writing: Dan Ariely (author of The Upside of Irrationality)
- The Best American Mystery Stories: Robert Crais (best-selling mystery novelist)
- The Best American Sports Writing: Michael Wilbon (co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption)
The short stories, essays, and Nonrequired Reading will once again be required reading for me. How about the rest of you?
Jan 18
2012
03:30 PM ET
Chris Colfer's children's book 'The Land of Stories' gets a cover and an earlier release date! -- EXCLUSIVE
Image Credit: Dan Busta
Gleeks already know that Chris Colfer can take us to magical places with his voice, and now he’s using words and pictures to create a fantasy world in his upcoming children’s book The Land of Stories, illustrated by Brandon Dorman. Kurt fans who’ve been anxiously awaiting the book, originally slated for an Aug. 7 release, won’t have to wait as long as they’d thought. A rep for Little Brown said, “Chris’s writing talents, his efficiency with deadlines, and the eagerness from his fans has all combined to allow us to move the date up to July 17th!”
Described as a “modern-day fairy tale,” the book will focus on twins Alex and Conner, who leave the real world behind and find themselves in a land where they come face-to-face with the fairy-tale characters — witches, goblins, trolls — they’ve always read about. Colfer says the book’s illustrator “made every detail come to life. He went above and beyond the crayon and colored pencil drawings I used to make of it as a kid.” Check out the very first peek at the cover of The Land of Stories below!
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