Hispanic Heritage Month

As an American with roots in Latin America, I find it hard not to look askance at alleged celebrations of heritage. After all, Latinos and Asians, Arabs and African-Americans for that matter, are part of society 12 months of the year.  We don't need 30 days of exclusive recognition to realize that we count, that we matter, we're part of the melting pot. It is perfectly obvious to us that America is all of us and we are it.  We know this. I mean, McDonald's serves burritos, empanadas are street food, you can get frozen dumplings and microwave lo mein at the supermarket,and macaroni and cheese, that soul food staple, is the favorite dish of every kid in America under the age of 8 regardless of ethnicity. A delicious falafel pita is never more than a block away (ok maybe a little further outside Manhattan).  What all Americans need, no matter where our roots are, is to develop an understanding and appreciation for the "other" whoever that other may be. Literature, music and the arts allow us to do that.

Conventional Idiocy: Why the New America is Sick of Old Politics by Rick Sanchez

The popular CNN host writes about the public's disaffection with the same-old, same-old  politics as usual. In his fast-paced talkative style, he shares what his viewers are telling him and warns politicians and the media to ignore it at their own peril.

Bloody Twistby Carolina Garcia-Aguilera

Lupe Solano is back, chicas! The intrepid Miami detective is back in her seventh mystery. This time she's investigating a high-paid call girl who's also a virgin, and the two dead guys she says she didn't kill.

Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera  By Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Geogina Guzman
The murder and rape of over 500 women in Juarz Mexico has never been properly investigated by authorities in Mexico or the U.S. The murders have been the subject of at least 1 feature film (starring Jennifer Lopez), a documentary and several books by journalists, and independent investigators,  none of whom could ingnite a proper investigation or a semblance of concern by authorities. Now, twos scholars from the Chicana studies Department at UCLA have put together a scholarly analysis of the killings and the situation that has made them possible, from a number of perspectives. Chilling but necessary.
Alone in the Crowd: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery (Inspector Espinosa Mysteries)

Ahhh Copacabana. The sun. The surf. The bikinis. The bodies?  This fantastic mystery series features the existensial Inspector Espisosa never fails to disappoint. Did the old lady fall or was she pushed in front of the bus? Why did she visit the precinct just hours before her death? Who's the creepy bank teller? What gives? All will be answered in a psychologically compelling, suspenseful whodunit.

The Devil's Highway: A True Story  by Luis Alberto Urrea       This is one of the best feats of writing and journalism I've ever read, and should be required reading in every higschool. Urruea tells the story of a group of  men who decide to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. by walking through the desert, as many have before. This time though, something goes horribly wrong and the men are abandoned by their "coyote" guides and are left to make their way through the desert alone as best they can. Dying of thirst and heatstroke isn't pretty, and if you're willing to risk it, there must be a damn good reason, don't you think? Urrea weaves together his account from all the perspectives involved ; the men who cross, the border agents whose job is to deter and detain, and the Mexican consulate in Arizona, who must collect, identify and preserve the remains of those who don't make it.

Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle  by Ingrid Betancourt

A former Presidential Candidate in Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by FARC guerillas and endured six years in captivity in the jungle before a daring rescue freed her in 2002. This is the story of her captivity (which she spent in chains most of the time), numerous escape attempts, and of her enduring spirit.

Pirates of the Levant 
by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Your swash has never been buckled like this. Perez-Reverte, the enormously talented Spanish writer of The Flanders Panel and The Queen of the South, unleashes the sixth Captain Alatriste adventure this month. Think Three Musketeers on the high seas, complete with pirates, swords capes and heart-pounding battles.

The Latino Reader
 Almost from the moment Columbus landed Latinos have been recording, interpreting and sharing impressions of life in the new world. This extraordinary collection includes Cabeza de Vaca's account of the new world, and memoirs, essays, fiction poetry and drama spanning  five centuries. An invaluable resource and historical treasure of Latino history in the United States.

Stephen King: Readers are too  Lazy to Read Short Stories

In a brief interview with publisher Simon and Schuster, Stephen King bemoans the fate of the American short story, blaming readers who, according to him, prefer American Idol to good fiction. King, who had called himself the literary equivalent of a Big Mac earlier in his career, has had just as many of his short stories/novellas translated into film as novels, starting with the legendary Creepshow.   Apt Pupil, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and  1408 are just a few of the films based on King's short stories.

Do you think King is right? What was the last short story or anthology you read?  What is your favorite story or anthology of all time? Post a comment.

  And try short stories campfire style for Halloween. Light up the jack-o-lanterns, set up the snacks light the fire and play an audiobook of scary tales like King's Sorry, Right Number and Other Stories. Then try and sleep.

Digital Revolution Hits Writers in the Wallet.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the paradigm shift in the book publishing world, in which the emergence of Kindles, Nooks, Readers and computers is making the e-book the standard in book delivery. While digital downloads are good news for anyone with over-stuffed bookshelves and a tight budget (e-books rarely cost more than $15 while a new hardcover can cost from $25-$30), for writers it means that making a living with words is becoming less likely.
Frightened publishers are publishing less new authors, and when they do, advances are now much less than $15,000, when they used to be around $50,000 for a promising debut novel, reports the Journal.
"The bar is higher," says Jamie Raab, publisher of Lagardere SCA's Grand Central Publishing, which is buying less debut fiction than in prior years. Although launching debut titles is one of the most rewarding aspects of publishing, Raab says, "publishers are buying more selectively, agents are being more selective with choosing clients, and retailers are taking fewer titles."
E-book sales haven't reached the point where they can mean serious income for a writer, unless that writer is a brand name, like James Patterson, John Grisham or Stephen King. Literary writers, like John Pipkin, need to keep their day jobs. His first novel, Woodsburner  won several literary prizes and print sales of more than 10,000 copies, he has only sold 359 digital copies.

Pipkin, who has Ph.D in English Literature, says he cobbles together an income based in part on grants, fellowships and a partial advance he has received for his second book. "I've had to rethink my plans in terms of supporting my family full time as a writer," he says.

PEN USA Announces 2010 Awards

PEN USA, the West Coast center for the writers’organization International PEN, announced the winners of the 2010 Literary Awards. The prizes honor outstanding work by writers in 11 separate genres, including a new award for Graphic Literature. They will be presented at the 20th Annual Literary Awards

Festival, known as LitFest, on November 17, 2010.

The winners are:

Fiction

Victor Lodato for Mathilda Savitch: A Novel

Poetry

Amy Catanzano for Multiversal

Creative Nonfiction

Vicki Forman forThis Lovely Life

Research Nonfiction

Minal Hajratwala for Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents

Children’s/Young Adult Literature

Paul Fleischman for The Dunderheads

Journalism

Mary Melton for Julius Shulman in 36 Exposures in Los Angeles Magazine

Translation

Fady Joudah for Mahmoud Darwish’s If I Were Another

DramaScreenplay

Julie Hebert for Tree

Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air

Teleplay

Peter Blake for House: “The Tyrant”

The Graphic Literature Award

Matt Fraction for Outstanding Body of Work

Exceptional First Book Award

Angela Garcia for The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande

Inaugural Prize for South Asian Authors Announces Nominees

The long list of nominees for the first annual DSC Prize for South Asian Literature was announced today, reports Outlook India.com . The prize will award $50,000 to "writers of any ethnicity writing about South Asia and its diasporas," says DSC, and must have been written in English or must have been translated into English.

The longlist of fourteen includes Upamanyu Chatterjee for Way to Go, Ru Freeman for A Disobedient Girl: A Novel, HM Naqvi for Home Boy: A Novel and Jaspreet Singh for Chef: A Novel .

The fourteen nominees will be winnowed down to a shortlist of five, which will be announced at the end of October during the South Asian Literature Festival. The festival will take place October 15-25  in London and from October 26 to 31 in the rest of the UK.  The winner of the award will be announced in January 2011 at the Jaipur Literature Festival.  The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is open to any author in  any part of the world as long as the work is based on the South Asian region and its people.

Oh, the Horror!
The Dead Janitors Club: Pathetically True Tales of a Crime Scene Cleanup King

By Jeff Klima  341pp $15.99 non-fiction Trade paperback Sourcebooks

Crime scene cleaners aren't the sexy CSIs portrayed on TV.  CSCs are the people who show up after the the body (or what's left of it) has been removed, detectives have left, and the evidence had been bagged, tagged and photographed. Their job is to remove blood stains, brain matter, bodily waste and the putrid decomp that occur after death, from wherever that death occurs. You definitely did not hear about this employment opportunity at career day.  It's not a glamour gig, but it pays well, which was all the author cared about when he heard about an opportunity for a CSC job.  Our hero is a student at Cal-State Fullerton and working a soul-crushing retail job when he hears about the opportunity. He's immediately interested and after a wait of a few weeks Klima is called to his first death scene. He's had no training. When he arrives his boss/partner (a sheriff who's moonlighting) hands him a crate with some special cleansers and brushes, a uv flashlight (the better to see bloodstains with) and a tyvek suit. Welcome to the funhouse.

At the first scene they need to scrape blood, brain and skull matter off the walls of a house where a woman shot herself.  Its amazing what a mess a little old lady with a shot gun can make. Klima and his partner get to work and just as they were finishing up they spot some unfinished business splattered on the stucco ceiling. Klima reaches up and begins to scrape, when "I felt the gentle, cold splat of something soft connect with the naked orb of my eye." Oh, the horror. Klima is shaken up, but not shaken enough to quit. The money is too good, even with his idiot partner doing everything wrong. 

A pond of blood, the circumference of a throw rug, lay on the smooth linoleum of the kitchen floor as though someone had dropped the world's largest red egg onto it. And in the center, comprising its yolk, was a piled up large crimson mass with a jellylike consistency....which I speculated was a brain...

Klima hangs in there, going into scenes that are by turns violent (the dead prisoner), poignant (the old lady who was so alone she died and disolved into the floor) and horrific (the quintuple suicide that was discovered after three weeks). Throughout the story, Klima's kick-ass style and gallows humor makes the horror less horrible.

At some point the business expands to cleaning up hoarder homes for the county. If you've seen those homes on the A&E show Hoarders: Buried Alive, you know the kind of cleanup involved. The only upside is the chance of finding a hoard of cash.

All this goes on against a background of the author pursuing his dream of becoming a frat boy and pledging a fraternity. Although these scenes provide a fuller portrait of his life at the time , the work is center stage.

Klima's formidable talent turns what could be a creepy voyeuristic tale into a fast-paced, rip-roaring yarn. You will laugh out loud, you will groan out loud, but you won't want to put it down.

I Know, Therefore I Am
Memory by Donald E. Westlake
HardCaseCrime 368 pp. $7.99

This is not your average hard-boiled mystery. There is no crime per se, no detective punching out bad guys and chasing down clues, no gorgeous dame with an inconvenient husband batting her eyelashes. And yet the mystery here is as noir as it gets.

Before we're introduced to the protagonist, Paul Cole, he's been beaten nearly to death by a jealous husband who caught him en flagrante.  When he wakes up he's in the hospital, and he has no idea who he is, where he's from or where to go next.  Released from the hospital and intimidated by the local cops, he decides to skip town and try to track down his former life. 

As he accumulates bits and pieces of information regarding his identity, Cole faces a tragic obstacle of his own memory, which no longer works as it should. He wakes up every morning to a series of notes explaining himself to himself, a la Memento.  The picture that starts to emerge of his life before is at odds with who he seems to be now, but of course, he wants want anyone in his shoes would want, for everything to get back to normal as soon as possible. But if he isn't the man he used to be, who is he?
You'll be thinking about this long after you've finished, and wondering about the nature of identity.
Donald E. Westlake, who died in 2008 ,was an award winning crime writer who wrote under several aliases because he was so prolific. Memory is his last book.

James Ellroy: Haunted by his mother's ghost | From the Observer | The Observer

James Ellroy: Haunted by his mother's ghost From the Observer The Observer
I've long been a fan of the UK Guardian's literary reporting. Click on the headline for an astonishingly well-written profile of crime writer James Ellroy, the reigning king of noir, whose latest, Blood's a Rover is out this month.

Building Devoted to Literature Wins top Architecture Prize

The Museum of Modern Literatue in southern Germany has won the prestigious Stirling Architecture Prize for outstanding achievement in design, reports Deutshe-Welle.

The site, completed in 2006, contains

"more than 1,300 objects, including letters, documents and personal items from famous 20th century authors, are on exhibit at the museum. Friedrich Nietzsche's death mask and original manuscripts by Franz Kafka and Alfred Doblin," reports, DW. The building won praise for its "simultaneously rich and restrained" design, achieved on a budget of 12 million Euros. ($17 million).

Nobel in Literature to be Announced Thursday
The news agency Agence-France Presse reports that Sweden's Nobel Prize committee has announced the date the Literature Prize will be announced -- Thursday, October 11. The Nobel Prize in Literature is bestowed in recognition of excellence of a writer's body of work. Past winners include the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez and American Toni Morrison (1993).
The Nobel committee keeps its nominees secret, but rumors say that American Philip Roth and Haruki Murakami from Japan are front-runners.
Meanwhile, the online betting site Ladbrokes, which correctly predicted last year's winner, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, has Italian Claudio Magris in the top spot with 5-to-1 odds.

In Translation: The Transformation of Natsuo Kirino's Grotesque

Back in May, Grotesque, the second novel to be translated into English by the prolific Japanese writer Natuso Kirino hit bookstores. Almost immediately, rumors arose that the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf had done more than translate it -- cyberspace book geeks trembled with outrage at the news that the holiest of holies had been tampered with -- the ending been changed from the original version. The rumor inspired plenty of outrage and incredulity from yours truly, so I decided to check it out.

A cursory investigation confirmed that changes were made through an interview that the author did during an appearance to promote the book in California. She didn't elaborate too much, except to say that the changes were made to make the book understandable to U.S. readers.

Emails to Kirino went unanswered, so I contacted Knopf, who agreed to have the book's editor, Lexy Bloom. answer my questions about the translation via email. Below, is our enlightening exchange, slightly edited for length and clarity.

Is it true that the American edition of Grotesque was changed from the Japanese original?

Yes, there were editorial changes made to the English-language edition (published in the US, Canada, and the UK).

Were there changes throughout the book or was it just the end as I have read elsewhere)?

Once Grotesque was translated from the Japanese to English, we felt that the novel was, at points, digressive in nature and overly long. The author, agent, translator, publishers and I agreed that it needed further editorial work prior to publication in English.

With complete approval from the author and translator, I undertook a series of editorial cuts on which the author fully gave her permission. Knopf would never publish a book without approval from the author on any editorial changes.

Why the ending?

In Japanese - a language I do not read - the ending was rendered in an almost fantastical way - it was not meant to appear real. In English, the literal translation rendered these events as entirely realistic. I suggested to the author and translator that the best way to convey the fantastical tone of the ending and get to the same endpoint was to adjust it in the manner that you've read in our edition. The author agreed.

Was the plot/story changed? Was the style changed?

The style remains 100% pure Kirino - deliciously twisted, dark, deeply insightful into the meanings of beauty, cruelty and violence. As for the story, there were no cuts that dramatically altered the storyline; rather we feel they helped bring out what was at the heart of the story, deleting scenes or aspects that were otherwise confusing or distracting.

How often does this happen with books translated into English?

It's not at all uncommon. This happens in every language, not just English -- when our authors are translated into other languages, we get requests for cuts and changes which we pass to our authors for their input and approval (or not, as the case may be) and we make sure the author and translator are in direct touch about it.

Many readers believe that changing the narrative in any way for a specific audience compromises the writer's artistic integrity, not to mention the work itself. What is your response to this?

Were an author to disapprove of any of the cuts I suggested, I would never make them. I would cancel a book contract before I would publish a book with significant changes that the author did not approve. In the case of Grotesque, the author and I underwent a normal editorial process -with the additional help of trusty interpreters and translators - to collectively come up with what we all feel is the best possible English-language edition of the book. This is, at heart, an artistic process and one that I feel heightens artistic integrity, rather than compromises it. I am heartened by such enthusiastic and inquisitive responses from readers about Kirino's work. She's an author I truly believe in - I think her approach to contemporary social issues in Japan is visionary, and that she writes like no one else. In an era where only 3% of books published in the US are translations, a dialogue like this one - where readers care passionately about the content of a Japanese writer's book - is thrilling to me.

Next spring we'll publish another of Kirino's novels, called What Remained, and there are two more, Real World and Metabola, scheduled for the future. I hope all of Kirino's fans will keep reading.

You Can Take it With You -- Digitally

Yesterday Sony unveiled the new version of its Reader, which at $300 stores up to 160 books as well as pdfs and Word documents. Available in sleek silver or dark blue, the redesigned e-library weighs just nine ounces (without a cover), sports a six-inch high-res display using "E-ink" technology which looks like paper and is readable even in bright sunshine. The text can be enlarged or reduced, the page view can be set to portrait (pictured) or landscape, and it promises a 180-degree viewing angle.

The Reader's battery life has also improved, promising 7500 page views per battery charge.

And if 160 books isn't enough for you, there's a memory slot so you can add even more by logging on to Sony's own Connect ebookstore, which has over 16,000 titles available. And you can get your classics for free from

And the company is offering buyers a certificate for 100 free ebooks from Connect, mostly classics.

Imagine that, no more lugging paperbacks on vacation. No more tattered covers, broken spines or dusty old editions...wahhhh! But seriously folks, anything that makes reading easier, more enjoyable and accessible does it for me. Just in time for that letter to Santa, too...

British Library to Digitize Unavailable Books
In an inevitable move, the venerable British Library announced that it will digitize 18th and 19th-century works that have been out of print and unavailable to the public for centuries, reports the BBC. When the scanning gets underway, up to 50,000 pages per day will be digitized, adding an untold amount of pages for scholars and fans to study and peruse.
The first 25 million pages are expected to take two years to complete, comments the BBC.
The books will be fully text-searchable.

Did He or Didn't He?
Polish Novelist gets 25 years for Murder by the Book -- His Book
Krystian Bala wrote Amok in 2003. In it he describes the murder of a woman who is tortured, starved, beaten and hog-tied. Soon after it's publication police in Wroclaw, Poland received an anonymous tip urging them to check out the similarities between the murder in the book and the murder of local businessman Dariusz Janiszewski, a cold case from 2000.
Indeed, Janiszewski was found tied up, beaten, tortured and there was evidence of starvation.
Despite almost having the case dropped for lack of evidence again, Polish police doggedly put together a strong case of circumstantial evidence including the motive: that Bala suspected his wife of having an affair with the businessman and that the dead man's phone was sold by him on an Internet auction site.
Bala has maintained his innocence throughout to no avail. The evidence gathered gives sufficient basis to say that Krystian Bala committed the crime of leading the killing of Dariusz Janiszewski," Judge Lidia Hojenska said. "He was the initiator of the murder; his role was leading and planning it."
He was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in prison.

Bronte Blasphemy
Casting of Biopic Spurs Outrage in Cannes
Williams as Emily; Wood as Anne; Howard as Charlotte







From the Cannes Film Festival comes the news that British director Charles Sturridge (Brideshead Revisited) plans a biopic of the Bronte sisters, which come to think of it, is long overdue. But Sturridge has stirred up horror in the film community with his casting. Oscar-winner Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) will play Charlotte, author of Jane Eyre and Villette; Bryce Dallas Howard (Lady in the Water, Spiderman 3) will play Emily, author of Wuthering Heights; and Evan Rachel Wood (Running with Scissors) will play Anne, author of The Tenant of Wildfeld Hall. Besides the fact that the actresses are all American, the Brits (and some Yanks too) fear what such lives of genius will become in the hands of three actresses who have yet to play in a period film, never mind speak with the particular Yorkshire accent. Just to keep things interesting, the broodingly intense Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Matchpoint) will play their brother, Branwell Bronte, reports IMDB.
The Daily Telegraph's literary editor Michael Prodger wrote, "There must be lots of talented Yorkshire actresses who could play the three Brontes. It does seem a slightly bizarre choice." The film, already in production will be in theaters in 2009.

The Bronte Sisters (above) in a portrait

by their brother Branwell circa 1834..

L to R : Anne, Emily and Charlotte

First Annual Brooklyn Book Festival to Celebrate Local Talent
Brooklyn's Borough Hall and Plaza will host the first annual Brooklyn Book Festival, a day-long celebration of the city's writers taking place on Saturday, September 16.
The festival will "celebrate Brooklyn's thriving and diverse literary community and its rich history as a home and inspiration for authors. From Williamsburg to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Park Slope and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn is home to many authors, literary magazines and publishers," said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn's Borough President and a sponsor of the event.
Multiple stages will present entertainment for adults and children, spoken word performances including the Secrets of the Street Lit Match, a spoken word competition for teens that will include poetry, rap and prose. Panel discussions, author signings, publishers and literary organizations will also be showcased, and of course, books will be available.
For updates, log on to www.brooklynbookfestival.org

Trouble in Surbubia is Key to Coben's Success
Harlan Coben, writer of such heart-pounding thrillers such as Tell No One, has made a career of exploring the secrets and disasters that can destroy or up end the American Dream. In an interview with Atlantic City.com, Coben discusses his metier in books like his latest, Promise Me: "This is where you're supposed to be in life. You're supposed to have 2.4 kids and a house in the 'burbs and the barbecue in the yard and a two-car garage. Now your life is perfect. You build a fence so everything is protected - and, of course, you're not."
The Jersey born and bred author usually uses the Jersey suburbs as a jumping off point in his books, but thereafter the action can go anywhere. In his latest, he resurrects his detective Myron Bolitar, whom he had retired five books ago, and is anticipating the completion of the first film based on one of his books, currently being shot in France.

The New Revolution in Chinese Literature
The Age of Australia examines the new crop of internationally acclaimed Chinese authors, none of whom is writing in Chinese or live in China. Despite a 5,000-year literary tradition, the most powerful voices in contemporary Chinese literature (according to this piece) are writing in English, including Ha Jin, Li Yiyun and Fan Wu.
The frenetic new capitalism in China has made self-help and get-rich-quick books national bestsellers, while writers of fiction struggle to get noticed.

Musings of a Booker Nominee
The Wood and Vale interviews the Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagen, whose third novel, Be Near Me, has made the long list for Britain's Man Booker Prize.
O'Hagen, a native of Glasgow who lives in London, discusses the controversy surrounding the novel -- about an insufferably snobbish pedophile priest whose victim is equally unlikeable. O'Hagen also comments on the impact of his work on his home turf and the writers who inspired him.

Another Independent Bites the Dust
The Des Moines Register reports on the demise of Big Table Books in Ames, Iowa, a beloved independent bookseller that was community-owned (shareholders included local author Jane Smiley). The store is a casualty of the big chains in the area including Waldenbooks and Borders. Customers at the clearance sale were in tears.

Fairytale Success Follows a Harsh Life

You will hear much about Baby Halder in the coming months, but not from her. During the day, Halder works as a maid in New Delhi, catering to the needs of the upper class. After a grueling day, she tends to her three children and after they're asleep, she sits down to write. Her first book, A Life Less Oridinary, is a sensation across India and has just been translated into English.
The unassuming Ms. Halder, profiled in today's New York Times, was encouraged to write by one of her bosses, a retired anthropology professer who caught her browsing his library when she should have been dusting it.
When the professor, Prabodh Kumar, read some of what she had written, a gut-wrenching, horrifying tale of poverty, abuse, misogyny and servitude, he encouraged her to write more and started editing. Abandoned by her mother, beaten and neglected by her father, Halder was sold into marriage at the age of 12 and had her first child at 13. To escape the cycle of poverty and abuse (her husband almost strangled her), Halder took her children and ran away to Delhi, where she found work, and a better future for her kids.
A Life Less Ordinary has opened a dialogue in India about subjects that are usually taboo, poverty and the treatment of women, especially the lack of support for women who flee abusive marriages.

HarperCollins in Production Deal with Fox TV
In the first deal of its kind, HarperCollins publishers has agreed to provide current and back listed books to Fox for TV programming, reports the Book Standard. The agreement covers mystery and romance titles initially, but could expand to other genres.
Fox, which produces the series Bones, based on the forensic detective series by Kathy Reichs, has a dearth of successful fiction programming of late.
The first novels to be adapted into a series will be Lisa Scottoline's legal thrillers set in Philadelphia.

Watercooler Booksignings Have Booksellers Protesting
In an effort to reach book buyers who wouldn't attend a 7 p.m. reading at their local bookstore, and those who rarely go to bookstores at all, publishers have come up with a new marketing strategy: The Corporate Book signing. Authors are being booked to read and sign their new books in corporate conference rooms, lounges and auditoriums across the country. Starbucks headquarters, Google in New York and many other companies bring in authors who read, and their books.
Sounds great all-around except for one thing: bookstores don't like the competition.

Books That Triggered Writers' Wanderlust - New York Times
A great idea -- well-known writers share the books that made them want to visit far-flung or completely invented destinations.