Latest in Books

One of the more unexpected shifts in media habits during the pandemic, at least for me, has been a new interest in those little bird-box book libraries that inhabit front lawns in the quieter neighborhoods here. I regularly pass a dozen of them on a circuit of five or six miles around Santa Monica and Brentwood…

Last week, just before the President’s diagnosis consumed us, Hollywood leaders joined in asking that Congress send coronavirus relief funds to exhibitors. Those were described as a life-and-death issue for theaters.  A mortal threat. And who can doubt it? If the White House isn’t safe, movie houses are certainly…

EXCLUSIVE: Oscilloscope Laboratories is about to teach you that reading is fun-damental as it enters the publishing realm with three books. The indie film company founded by Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch will release their first titles which include Heading to Bill’s For Cigarettes from director Jason Tippet (Only the…

EXCLUSIVE: It’s no joke to call Harley Quinn the hottest character in the DC Universe these days with both a live-action feature film and her own animated television series on the way. The daft but deadly Gotham City rogue also gets the spotlight at end of this month when the new graphic novel Harley Quinn: Breaking Gl…

Michelle Obama’s memoir will be titled Becoming and is set for a November release by the Crown Publishing Group. The news was released via Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, the publisher for the Crown imprint. It was also tweeted by the former first lady. "Writing Becoming has been a deeply personal…

EXCLUSIVE: As Glee winds down, Chris Colfer is creating more opportunities for himself by going deeper into the Land Of Stories. The Golden Globe-winning actor and NY Times bestselling author has inked a new five-book deal with publisher Little, Brown to expand the popular children’s fiction franchise he launched with…

Book sales in 2013 were so-so — but with a caveat — the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group report today. Total net revenues for books and professional and scholarly journals fell 0.4% to $27.0B, with net units -1.2% to 2.6B, The numbers were drearier if you just look at the trade…

Here’s a novel concept: NBCUniversal Television Consumer Products Group and Hyperion Books are teaming to publish Pawnee: The Greatest Town In America, a book “written” by Amy Poehler’s character Leslie Knope on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. Pawnee, Ind., is the setting for the series, which centers on Knope, a…

In what seemed an inevitable move once it fell behind on vendor payments, the brick and mortar bookseller Borders officially filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy today as management attempts to figure out a way to keep afloat the Borders and Waldenbook chains. Its first move will be to close 30% of its stores. It doesn’t seem…

Simon & Schuster today is about to market the heck out of O, its anonymously written and self-proclaimed provocative novel about Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. That’s right — the campaign that hasn’t happened yet. Supposedly, it’s penned by someone “who’s been in the room with Obama”. This is kinda…

EXCLUSIVE: Gersh has hired Joseph Veltre to become head of its book department, where he will broker publishing deals and sell books for film and TV. Veltre had spent the past six years running The Veltre Company, and he’ll bring all his clients with him when he joins the Gotham Gersh office on February 1. Veltre’s…

Law & Order executive producer/showrunner Neal Baer is making his novel writing debut with a series of 3 books. The novels, which Baer is writing with SVU co-executive producer Jonathan Greene, have been sold to Kensington. The medical thriller books, the first of which is titled Kill Switch, are set in the world of…