Drinking sherry, bingeing Downton Abbey ... how authors keep up the spirit of the season, even when writing during heatwaves and a nightmarish ChristmasChristmas novels are not a new phenomenon. Charles Dickens sold out of his first print run of A Christmas Carol in days in December 1843, while Agatha Christie played on seasonal stresses with titles including The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding in 1923 and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas in 1938. But these days, there are acres of festive crime and rags-to-riches romances under the mistletoe to choose from. All tastes are catered for, whether it’s a love of trains (Edward Marston’s Victorian railway detective story A Christmas Railway Mystery), religion (Unlikely Santa: An Amish Christmas Story) or even festive erotica. Ebook retailer Smashwords stocks romance titles including The Old Dragon of the Mountain’s Christmas, and the inventive-sounding A Cyborg’s Old Terran Christmas. (“Interstellar bride Nell and her three children are forced to enter space-sleep capsules in the hope of surviving a calamity. She wakes over 700 years later on a ship of cyborg warriors. In this strange environment, Nell can’t imagine what their future will hold, but she is determined to keep her promise and make Christmas for her children.”)It may sound futuristic, but it is part of a long tradition beloved by readers. As Christina Storey at Allison & Busby, an independent publisher whose titles this year range from Anna Jacobs’ Christmas in... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-17 15:22:04 UTC ]
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Guinness World Records 2015 (GWR) is the UK's official Christmas number one. In the seven days ending 20th December, the annual tome of record-breaking achievements from across the globe sold 58,477 copies, a volume rise of nearly 12% week to week. This is the first time in over a decade that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's like the phrase "curl up with a good book" was invented for the month of December. Here's what we're reading by the fire. The post A Time-Traveling Graphic Novel and More Great Books We’re Reading This Month appeared first on WIRED. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-12-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Relive the year in reading with the Fast Company staff.As the year wraps up, the Fast Company staff remembers our year in reading with our favorite books of the year. The list above is by no means comprehensive, or even the best new titles, but just some of the works we spent the last 12 months... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-12-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Pleasant' is a graphic novel by Roz Chast that explores caring for aging parents. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You send a command from your smartphone and your house automatically decorates itself with a holographic Christmas tree complete with decorations and a suitably conifer-like smell. Sound like science fiction? Maybe, but this is among the predictions by the authors of a new book that looks at how... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Christmas sales are picking up in Germany but with only two and a half shopping days left before the shops are legally bound to close at 1p.m. on Christmas Eve, booksellers are facing an uphill battle to finish ahead of 2013. Sales for the year were down by a marginal 1.4% at the end of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Anonymous campaigners hand-deliver giant Christmas card to online retailer’s UK headquarters and call for company to pay workers a living wageDisenchanted shoppers have taken over £5m worth of business away from Amazon this Christmas in protest at the internet retailer’s business... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist (Pan Macmillan) has been crowned the Specsavers Book of the Year for 2014 after a public vote. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jessie Burton's debut novel The Miniaturist comes top of a public vote to be named Specsavers Book of the Year. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers have reported positive sales going into the final week of the Christmas rush, with Chris Hadfield’s You Are Here (Macmillan) breaking through as a last-minute favourite. However the leading celebrity memoirs are not racking up individual totals as substantial as they did last year,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the three-week shopping season that began Thanksgiving week, Jeff Kinney's newest installment in the Wimpy Kid series has sold more than 535,000 print copies at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter James’ Want You Dead (Pan Macmillan) has been named eBooks by Sainsbury’s eBook of the Year 2014. The award, which aims to let readers decide their stand-out “screen turner” of the year, is in its second year. Want You Dead was chosen from a longlist of more than 150 titles from a range... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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2015 will be a “year of implementation” for Penguin Random House, with the work ahead allowing PRH to “fully realise the potential of our new company”, c.e.o. Markus Dohle has told employees. In a letter to PRH staff worldwide, Dohle said that it was “incredible what our company has been able... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Toronto-based Second Story Press celebrated its 25th anniversary this month, the room at a community center in downtown Toronto was filled with authors and illustrators who have helped the press pursue its goal of publishing important feminist and social justice books for young readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Art directors have been lucky recently when it comes to pay. Over the last five years, average salaries have gone up by almost 30 percent, according to FOLIO:'s 2014 Art Salary Survey, outpacing raises for almost every other job in the magazine industry. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Which books took off and which failed to sell? Publishers choose their books of the year, and the ones that slipped through the netThe book that made my year: The commercial publication of Picador’s year was The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, which has just been crowned Waterstones book of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador is to publish Judy Blume’s first adult novel in 16 years, In the Unlikely Event. Editorial director Francesca Main pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from Elizabeth Sheinkman at WME. Blume said that In the Unlikely Event “is based on a series of tragedies in the town I lived in when... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebury has bought a “highly original” novel by Bradley Somer. Fiction publishing director Gillian Green bought British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Fishbowl, from St Martin’s Press, a division of Macmillan in the US. Fishbowl follows Ian the goldfish, who lives on the 27th floor of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In his annual year-end letter, Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle cited the merger and thanked the PRH staff for the “impressive feat” of “combining two great legacies.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Here are a dozen Christmas comics—both naughty and nice, promising to entertain or, at least, suffice. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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