Books Archive

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Sales Spike Reported for George Orwell's '1984'

United Press International | Jun 14, 2013

George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" is enjoying a spike in sales in the wake of revelations on surveillance in the United States. Amazon.com says the book, published in 1945, has gone from No. 13,074 to No. 193 on its selling list, and it is moving higher, The Guardian reported. To put it another way, sales are up 7,000 percent. In the novel, Orwell imagines a world divided into three large states, all of them exercising near-constant surveillance on their subjects. The government manipulates the news, history and the language. The novel is set in London, the city where Orwell spent much of his adult life. But his primary target appe... more

Sotomayor Gets Another $1.9 Million for Memoir

Associated Press | Jun 10, 2013

WASHINGTON - Being a Supreme Court justice has not only been good for Sonia Sotomayor's legal career, it's also helped her bank account. The justice reported Friday that she's received more than $3 million in advance payments for her best-selling memoir, "My Beloved World." Her annual financial disclosure forms show that Knopf Doubleday Group paid Sotomayor $1.925 million in 2012 in anticipation of her book. This comes in addition to the $1.2 million in advance payments she received from the publisher in 2010. The book was first released in January and has been on the New York Times' nonfiction best-seller list, including four weeks in ... more

Book Review: 'The Boys in the Boat'

Associated Press | Jun 05, 2013

"The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" (Viking), by Daniel James Brown Before March Madness and the Super Bowl ever existed, the big-time sports that mattered to most Americans included boxing, horse racing and, yes, collegiate rowing. Tens of thousands of spectators would line the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for the national championships, which drew coverage that matched the Kentucky Derby, the Rose Bowl or the World Series. The greatest eight-oar crew may well have been the scrappy underdogs from the University of Washington who won the 1936 championship and went on to ... more

Charismatic Las Vegas Mob Lawyer Mayor Pens Memoir

Associated Press | May 28, 2013

LAS VEGAS - Oscar Goodman ran Las Vegas for 12 years with a showgirl on his arm and a martini in his fist. A former mob lawyer, he promoted his city and himself with antics that lent credibility to his self-given title of "Happiest mayor in the universe." Now, two years into a semi-retirement, Goodman has written a memoir about his career representing figures out of Martin Scorsese films, his three terms in office and his continuing role as Sin City's cheerleader-in-chief. There are no real bombshells here, but the book reads like a relaxed tour of Las Vegas from the mob era to the present day, with a tipsy gossip by your side. It's al... more

Brown Hounded for Calling Manila 'Gates of Hell'

Associated Press | May 28, 2013

MANILA, Philippines - Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital. The book "Inferno," which is being sold in the Philippines, includes a character who is visiting the city and taken aback by poverty, crime and the sex trade. The chairman of metropolitan Manila, Francis Tolentino, wrote an open letter to Brown on Thursday, saying that while "Inferno" is fiction, "we are greatly disappointed by your inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis." Tolentino objects to the "gates of hell" description, and to Manila being def... more

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