First Look at the New “Harry Potter” Cover Art
Scholastic Books(NEW YORK) — Big news for Harry Potter fans: the beloved books are getting a makeover.All seven books in J.K. Rowling’s wildly-popular Harry Potter series will be released with new cover artwork, Scholastic announced. The iconic Sorcer…
Gabrielle Douglas on Winning Gold: ‘All the Hard Work Was Definitely Worth It’
Ray Tamarra/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Two-time gold medalist, Gabrielle Douglas hopes her new memoir about her journey to Olympic gold would inspire and motivate others to never quit.In Grace, Gold and Glory, Douglas opens up about her tough road to tr…
Reality TV Star Sues Assistant Over Alleged Tell-All Book
Jesse Grant/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — If a book is titled Hang in There, Baby — What One of the World’s Most Difficult Bosses Taught Me About Life, Work and Love, chances are it will capture the attention of the boss in question.And so Jeff…
Oxford Dictionaries Announces Word of the Year
Keith Brofsky/Photodisc(NEW YORK) — Oxford Dictionaries has selected its word of the year in the U.S., though it’s not one you’d use in everyday conversation.The word is “GIF,” which stands for graphics interchange format. It’s a common format f…
"Twilight" Author Leaves Door Open for More Books in the Series
Andrew Cooper© 2011 Summit Entertainment, LLC.(BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.) — The final Twilight film opens in two weeks. Will the franchise ever be revived one day? Probably not for the foreseeable future, though Twilight author Stephenie …
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Tell-All Sales Sag
ABC/Fred Lee(LOS ANGELES) — Arnold Schwarzenegger made the media rounds to promote his book Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, but Nielsen Bookscan numbers quoted by The Hollywood Reporter show all the publicity didn’t help sales much.The …
Jenny McCarthy on Growing Up Poor, Deeply Religious: ‘Jesus Was My Bieber’
JB Lacroix/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Jenny McCarthy grew up very fast in the public eye as a sexy pin-up girl for Playboy magazine, but as a young girl growing up in Chicago’s South Side, she was deeply religious.”[My sisters and I] used to lay with ro…
America’s Top Ten Banned Books
Amazon(NEW YORK) – For 30 years now, the sponsors of Banned Books Week have united in defense of literature that others deem offensive, insensitive, anti-family, satanic, sexually explicit or racist, or all of the above.Many of the titles occupy …
J.K. Rowling’s Daughter ‘Tutored’ Her on Teen Slang
ABC/PATTY NEGER(NEW YORK) — J.K. Rowling, the bestselling author behind the wizard world of the wildly popular Harry Potter books, has invented hundreds of words — Muggle, Quidditch, apparating to name a few — that have entered pop culture vocabular…
Chicago Library Amnesty Program Yields $2M Worth of Returned Items
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — A Chicago Public Library amnesty program that allowed members to return overdue items without having to pay any late fees brought in more than 100,000 books, DVDs and other materials.The library’s fine amnesty -…
"Fifty Shades of Grey" Most Likely to Be Left at Hotels, Survey Finds
Aaron Davidson/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Hotels may be creating packages around the novel Fifty Shades of Grey to attract visitors, but turns out visitors are leaving their copies behind when they check out of hotels. Could they be worried about …
Cops Say Japanese Man Stole More Than 1,100 Library Books
Photos.com/Thinkstock(TOKYO) — Japanese police have arrested a 61-year-old man accused of stealing more than 1,100 library books.Officials say Mitsuka Suizu was initially arrested in July for taking a few books from the public library in Nagato, in we…
Cops Say Japanese Man Stole More Than 1,100 Library Books
Photos.com/Thinkstock(TOKYO) — Japanese police have arrested a 61-year-old man accused of stealing more than 1,100 library books.Officials say Mitsuka Suizu was initially arrested in July for taking a few books from the public library in Nagato, in we…
Cops Say Japanese Man Stole More Than 1,100 Library Books
Photos.com/Thinkstock(TOKYO) — Japanese police have arrested a 61-year-old man accused of stealing more than 1,100 library books.Officials say Mitsuka Suizu was initially arrested in July for taking a few books from the public library in Nagato, in we…
Facing Decline in Book Sales, Publishers Unveil Disappearing Ink
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Ebooks continue to gain in popularity while old fashioned books with covers and pages are losing readers.The decline of traditional books is happening everywhere, including Latin America, where sales of new Spanish aut…
"Esquire" Bets New ‘Dude Lit’ Will Entice Men to Read Fiction
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — While women devour fiction books like the racy Fifty Shades of Grey, a major publisher is betting that more men will at long last take up reading via an eBook series that will launch June 5 — Fiction for Men.The colle…
Swearing Characters More Popular, Attractive in Young Adult Novels
Zoonar/Thinkstock(PROVO, Utah) — Profanity in teen novels varies greatly from book to book, but characters that do use foul language tend to also be the most popular, attractive and rich, according to new research published in the journal Mass Communi…