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The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry, a review from Powells.com by Carrie Uffindell.

Billionaire Richard Branson is reportedly considering buying the British division of Borders.

Retail Week has the scoop that billionaire tycoon Sir Richard Branson is considering tabling an offer for bookseller Borders? UK division. The deal would rapidly expand his entertainment retail business.

Branson is understood to have asked Merrill Lynch, the bank organising the disposal on behalf of Borders' U.S. parent, for access to detailed information. Borders is expected to attract a price tag of about ?50 million.

So Richard Branson wants to buy a bookstore chain? That's an interesting move for him. We thought he was spending most of his time on the space tourism thing. Which is really cool, if you ask us.

Posted in Book Publishing News

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by Chandrasekaran, Rajiv
Surreal is one way to describe the Green Zone occupation government centered in Saddam’s former Baghdad palace following the American blitz that put the dictator on the run. Bremer’s Bubble would be another. This, according to Chandrasekaran, was where the neoconservative dream of a democratic Iraq was to be realized. The problem, as Chandrasekaran sees it, was that the great plan was to be implemented by inept political hacks – people who qualified by, among other things, having applied at the Heritage Foundation or having given the “right” answer to the question of Roe v. Wade. Bush loyalists to a man, with few frustrated exceptions, they made one bad move after another, and their stunning insensitivity to the ancient community surrounding them proved the profound arrogance that ignorance breeds. They also inadvertently insured, according to Chandrasekaran, that the Iraq mission truly was not -- and would not ever be -- accomplished.
- reviewed by Jim, Main Library, PLCMC

• "Edith's mother, the disapproving Lucretia Jones"
• "The Fifth Avenue Hotel near the Joneses' house on West 23rd Street; the genteel New Yorkers watched the guests' disreputable comings and goings in 'New Year's Day'"
• "The 'clever Boston architect' Ogden Codman as a young man; for a time a friend and collaborator, and always a waspish commentator on the Whartons' marriage"
• "The mysterious and appealing Morton Fullerton, in Paris, in 1908"
• "Society priest L'Abbe Mugnier, gossipy diarist, confessor to intellectuals and duchesses"
• and my favorite--I wish I could share the superb photo it describes--"The poet Anna de Noailles, pausing for breath between sentences, in her sitting room in 1913"

Doctors and patients don’t always communicate well, with serious consequences, says Jerome Groopman.

If you ever wanted to throw a spitball or cork a bat, Derek Zumsteg can tell you how.

In a political memoir, a Palestinian scholar criticizes, but does not hate, Israel.

Twenty-five cents would get you into a ballpark where whiskey, waffles and pigs’ knuckles were served. Has baseball ever been better than it was in 1908?

The Long Road Home by Martha Raddatz, a review from Washington Post Book World by Martha Raddatz.

• Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
• His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
• Glasshouse by Charles Stross
• Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
• Blindsight by Peter Watts

The cover art for the final Harry Potter book has been released and it already has fans buzzing. The cover is a wraparound, which shows a 17 year old Harry with his hand outstretched against an orange sky. Voldemort is also there -- on the back cover -- and there are shadowy figures in the background.

So what does it all mean? Everyone is well aware that J.K. Rowling has said she will kill off two main characters in the last book. And the cover does look pretty ominous. It's all most anxiety-producing.

Posted in Children's Books

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by Vischer, Phil
How does a shy, Bible college drop-out end up the CEO of a media empire that rivaled Nickelodeon? Phil Vischer was 24 years old when he started Big Idea Productions, which produced one of the best selling Christian video series of all time - VeggieTales. Vischer started out with a dream to find a creative way to show God's love to the world. He combined his love of technology and his sense of humor to create VeggieTales - a show with vegetable characters portraying Bible stories. At the height of VeggieTales' success, however, the company was failing financially and eventually ended up in bankruptcy court. Vischer's dream was collapsing, but what he learned from this downfall would change his life. Me, Myself, and Bob is a compelling and inspiring read.
- reviewed by Jessica, Morrison Regional, PLCMC

by Hess, Elizabeth
When Elizabeth Hess went to the Columbia-Greene Humane Society in upstate New York to adopt a dog she ended up volunteering and writing a book about her experiences. In Lost and Found Hess explores many of the myths and misconceptions people have about animal shelters. She sees almost every kind of animal imaginable come into the shelter from purebred cats and dogs, abused animals, farm animals and even dogs rescued from a "puppy mill". Hess also has to confront her views on euthanasia, which is a hard, but necessary part of any animal shelter. Lost and Found is an eye-opening and heart-felt book that looks at the inner world of an animal shelter.
- reviewed by Jessica, Morrison Regional, PLCMC

John Grisham won the lifetime achievement award at the Galaxy British Book Awards.

The Mississipi-based writer, whose legal thrillers have sold 250million copies worldwide, received a lifetime achievement award at the Galaxy British Book Awards last night.

The 52-year-old, whose novels include The Firm, A Time To Kill and The Pelican Brief, said: 'I am very honoured to receive this award. As a writer of popular fiction I do not pick up many awards.' Grisham gave up a promising legal career in America's Deep South to take up writing and went on to become the bestselling novelist of the 1990s. Along with Tom Clancy, he is one of only two authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing. Grisham's 1992 novel The Pelican Brief sold 11million copies in the US alone. Paying tribute to the multimillionaire author, Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola called him a 'natural born storyteller'.

Other winners to pick up a so-called Nibbie included comedians Peter Kay for The Sound Of Laughter and Ricky Gervais for his children's book Flanimals Of The Deep. Ian Rankin won the BCA crime thriller of the year, while Richard Dawkins was named Reader's Digest author of the year for his controversial The God Delusion.

This is the 18th year that the Galaxy awards have been handed out. Guest presenters included Cherie Blair and Kyle MacLachlan. You can read more about the awards, which is referred to in England as the Nibbies, here.

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Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw, a review from The New Republic Online by Jackson Lears.

Oprah Winfrey has chosen The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage) as her new book club pick.

Set against the ashes of a devastated America, The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a powerful story about a father and his young son on a journey of survival. "I really feel passionately about our new book club selection," Oprah says. "It's haunting and inspiring and I promise you you'll be thinking about it long after you finish the final page."

You can read an excerpt from the book here. You can see Oprah's reading questions for the book here.

Posted in General Fiction

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Before today, Cormac McCarthy was best known as being the author of All the Pretty Horses, which became a popular film starring Billy Bob Thornton, Penelope Cruz and Matt Damon. But after today, he'll always be known as an Oprah Author. Yes, Oprah has chosen Cormac's book, The Road (Vintage Books) as her new Book Club pick. You can read more about Cormac's work at the official Cormac McCormack Society's website, CormacMcCarthy.com. You can read an interesting feature by Oprah.com which tells Cormac's life in books here.

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by Thompson, Vicki
A singles cruise for nerds, cross dressing Mafia hit men and dressing up like Marilyn Monroe isn’t what slightly nerdy, make-up artist, Gillian McCormick, has in mind for her weekend. But when she witnesses the murder of an actor, she agrees to disguise herself as Marilyn and run away to Mexico. What she doesn’t count on is falling for her bodyguard who has nerd tendencies of his own. When it comes time to escape the ship does she leave her life and her new love behind or does she confront the mafia? To find out what this nerd does, join Gillian and her friends in this romantic romp on the high seas.
- reviewed by Sherry, Sugar Creek, PLCMC

simon_kehler writes "The Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a Java AJAX framework that provides an easy to use programming paradigm for web developers using the Java programming language. It is one of the more recent entrants into this field, but has been gaining a lot of traction and popularity. GWT Java AJAX Programming authored by Prabhakar Chaganti and published by Packt Publishing addresses the use of GWT to build ajaxified user interfaces. The author gently introduces the reader to GWT and then leads the reader through a series of tasks, each of which shows how to perform an useful action with GWT." Read below for Simon's review.

An unconventional child of privilege, Nancy Cunard was a poet, publisher, journalist and supporter of the disenfranchised.