Books News Headlines

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Explosive Eighteen" jumped to the top of the Publishers Weekly best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "Explosive Eighteen" by Janet Evanovich (Bantam, …

PARIS (Reuters) - Regulation and a devoted book culture look set to cushion the impact on French publishers and booksellers of the impending digital revolution that has so transformed markets in the United States and Britain. Arnaud Nourry, the CEO of Hachette Books Group, predicted that e-books would take off in France …

LONDON (Reuters) - A copy of the first issue of Action Comics, in which Superman was unveiled to the world, has sold in an online auction for a record $2.16 million. It cost 10 cents when it was published in 1938. The comic, featuring a picture of the "Man of Steel" lifting a car above his head as people around him flee, …

Chilean poet Nicanor Parra has won the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor, for his influential work mixing everyday slang with traditional verse.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Christa Wolf, one of Germany's most celebrated writers for her depictions of life in the former communist East, but who was later damaged by revelations she collaborated with its secret police, has died in Berlin aged 82, her publisher Suhrkamp said on Thursday. Wolf, a committed Marxist in her early …

Chilean poet Nicanor Parra has won the Cervantes Prize, considered the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.

A book that tells the story of a security guard who shot a wounded a man who held a Florida school board at gunpoint has been released.

A rare and pristine copy of the first issue of Action Comics, famed for the first appearance of Superman, has set a record Wednesday for the most money paid for a single comic book: $2.16 million.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Marigolds for grief, purple dahlias for dignity, periwinkle for tender reflections. Basil for hate. The meanings attached to each flower underpin the life of Victoria Jones, the prickly and suspicious heroine of Vanessa Diffenbaugh's "The Language of Flowers," who uses blooms and bouquets to say what she …

PARIS (Reuters) - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn says his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid was "consensual but stupid" and cost him his chance to be the next French president, according to a biography to be published on Thursday. The book, written by Michel Taubmann who says Strauss-Kahn confided in …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Asa Butterfield has been cast in the upcoming adaptation of Orson Scott Card's science-fiction novel "Ender's Game," The "Hugo" star announced Tuesday via Twitter. An individual with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed to TheWrap that the deal, rumored for weeks, has now been signed. The …

New York City's Jewish Museum has invited author Maurice Sendak to rummage through its collection and choose menorahs for a Hanukkah exhibit.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - With the fast-selling e-publication of his memoir-cum-business-strategy guide, Mark Cuban made another notch in his media-pioneer belt. In one day, the slim under-100-page book, titled "How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It," soared to the top of the bestseller charts …

Nine Tony Awards, critical praise and some filthy humor has made "The Book of Mormon" a solid Broadway investment.

Growing up deep in the mountains of western North Carolina in the 1950s and 1960s, a young Charles Frazier couldn't wait for the sun to go down. That's when the WLAC signal would suddenly come clear out of the night sky and things would get really interesting on his radio.

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 in 2002 for her collection of poems "In the Next Galaxy," died last week in Ripton, Vermont, surrounded by …

Ruth Stone, an award-winning poet for whom tragedy halted, then inspired a career that started in middle age and thrived late in life as her sharp insights into love, death and nature received ever-growing acclaim, has died in the U.S. state of Vermont. She was 96.

Author JK Rowling tells UK hearing that journalist slipped note into her 5-year-old's schoolbag.

Author JK Rowling tells UK hearing that journalist slipped note into her 5-year-old's schoolbag.

Lady Gaga reveals all in her new book, "LADY GAGA x TERRY RICHARDSON" - shot by the famed photographer over the last year - and the singer also opened up about what it takes to land the Mama Monster herself.

Lady Gaga reveals all in her new book, "LADY GAGA x TERRY RICHARDSON" - shot by the famed photographer over the last year - and the singer also opened up about what it takes to land the Mama Monster herself.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Kill Alex Cross" shot straight to the top of the Publishers Weekly best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. "Kill Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, …

One of the country's largest publishers, Penguin Group (USA), is temporarily restoring libraries' ability to loan their e-books for Amazon.com's Kindle — but only through the end of the year.