Category Archives: Featured Articles

International Bestsellers

Nouveaux Romans Gavalda Awes France, Spielberg Grabs Levy, and Sijie Pays Dues to Balzac While most of the English-speaking world tried to figure out what to do with its heaping Star Wars inventory this month, the international lists — particularly the French — were galvanized by first-time authors who’ve put critics in a tizzy and…Continue Reading

Theater of the Absurd

The Digital Rights Management & Digital Distribution for Publishing conference in New York on February 23–24 was something of a set piece ripped straight out of an early Ionesco script, with non sequitur following hard on the heels of non sequitur. Digital rights vendors continued to perform feats of creative visualization (“This is going to…Continue Reading

Wild About ONIX

When the AAP unfurled its new ONIX guidelines at New York’s McGraw-Hill Auditorium on January 19, you couldn’t fault certain woozy invitees from thinking they’d wandered into a euphoric episode of Oprah. Before their very eyes, R.R. Bowker lay down with Baker & Taylor, Barnesandnoble.com clasped hands with Amazon, Ingram and Vista tearfully embraced, while…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Apocalypse Now Amnesia Hits Spain, Horror Bloodies France, and Pokémon Ravages Australia Perhaps in compensation for the underwhelming arrival of Y2K, this month’s bestsellers have registered a potent desire for all those missed connections, fatal errors, and world-historical upheavals we were so tantalizingly promised. In Spain, Nativel Preciado’s The Narcissist plunges into the abyss of…Continue Reading

Let There Be Market Share

Although a record number of exhibitors and booksellers were registered for the CBA Expo over the week of January 24 at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, many attendees apparently were caught without their snowmobiles, leaving attendance somewhat sparser than had been expected. Nevertheless, the general consensus indicated that business was booming. Several publishers reported a…Continue Reading

Carlyle’s Portfolio

A Peek Into the Military-Biblio Complex The Carlyle Group has invested in a German maker of car ignition systems, owns the manufacturer of the Bradley M2A3 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and bought a company that specializes in ion exchange technologies for treating radioactive waste. It boasts former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci as chairman and counts former…Continue Reading

Brazilia on the Ganges

Let there be no mistake about the 25th annual Calcutta International Book Fair. As host Subrata Datta Gupta informed the press prior to the show, though the fair paid special tribute to Brazilian literature and culture this year, “books from other Latin American countries would also be on sale showing that these countries have more…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Tasmanian Devils Australia’s Panty Line, France’s Tranquil Madness, and the Sub-Continent’s Al Pacino As droves of Australians sashay into the pantry this month with the bestselling Marie Claire cooking title Food Fast, the rest of the literate world down under has been taking a peek under the Visible Panty Line with the newest from Australia’s…Continue Reading