BOOKS. AUTHORS. NEWS
By Kurt Rosenstadt.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
The first sequel to the
Barsetshire saga: Miss Glamora Tudor!
 Author,
Ilil Arbel.
New York, NY-A new Barsetshire novel,
Miss Glamora Tudor by Ilil Arbel, has
been published by the Angela Thirkell Society of North
America. It is of major interest to readers of the
works of Thirkell and Anthony Trollope. The book
begins, “The time is August, 1954, a year and two
months after the June coronation of Queen Elizabeth
II.” Author Arbel continues in the tradition
established by Angela Thirkell for Anthony Trollope’s
characters and their lives in Barsetshire. Angela
Thirkell has not yet published Enter Sir Robert,
and the characters in Barsetshire are enthralled with
the prospect of a movie production starring Miss
Glamora Tudor. “I believe Miss Glamora Tudor
is newsworthy,” Arbel commented, “since many
devoted readers of the Barsetshire saga expressed
their wish to see fresh material about their favorite
little corner of the world. In addition, Glamora Tudor
has never been on stage in the Thirkell body of work,
but she has been imagined by every reader. And here
she is in person, surrounded by some of the old and
well-loved characters, and new characters which I have
added to the cast,” Arbel says. The book is available
exclusively through the Angela Thirkell Society. Ilil
Arbel is the author of Maimonides: A Spiritual
Biography, The Lemon Tree, a dozen other
books and many articles, including contributions to
Encyclopedia Mythica.
About
Miss Glamora Tudor: Fiction; The Angela Thirkell
Society of North America’s publication; Publication
Date: June 2007; Size: 5.5 x 8.5; Author: Ilil Arbel;
ISBN: 978-0-9768345-2-6 (pbk); 206 Pages. The Angela
Thirkell Society, PO Box 7798, San Diego, CA 92167.
http://www.angelathirkell.org Media Contacts:
Barbara Houlton
sdhoulton@cox.net Kathleen Fish
jnkfish@aol.com – 212 696 1169.
"World Who's Who In Jazz, Cabaret, Music and Entertainment": A
Platform for Talent and Beauty!
Ms. Suzanne Grzanna graces the
cover of "ENTERTAINMENT GREATS FROM THE 1800'S TO THE PRESENT",
written by Maximillien de Lafayette.
There are no boundaries for the
frightening energy and creative thinking of Maximillien de
Lafayette, author extraordinaire and entertainment guru. It is
almost unreal and hard to believe that one single man can write 9
gigantic books in one year. De Lafayette did it. He dashed out 6
heavy tomes on showbiz and performing arts, one huge tome on divas,
and 2 additional massive books on world culture and foreign affairs.
And this is the tip of the iceberg, for he is now in the final stage
of editing two more books on entertainment legends and divas of the
silver screen and smooth jazz. Last nuance to add to the record, he
is the former editor-in-chief of the International News Agency
Bureau Chief of the European Journal (Euro-Globe.)
 Suzanne
Grzanna in concert.
His most recent 3 books were
"Best
Musicians, Singers, Albums and Entertainment Personalities of the 19th,
20th and 21st Centuries”, "Showbiz,
Pioneers, Best Singers, Musicians and Entertainers From 1606
to the Present", and "Entertainment Greats From the 1800's To The
Present." Louise Chambertin, senior editor at Cabaret Ville Magazine
wrote: "This
work is a tribute to stars and headliners of world showbiz, Jazz and
music from the time of the silent films era and gramophone to modern
times. Well-written, majestically illustrated and abundant with
behind the curtains stories about the early stars and recording
artists on and off stage. The delightful saga of this remarkable
book begins with its cover; Suzanne Grzanna, a stunning diva and
accomplished artist at so many levels conveys the message of the
author: The nostalgia of the past with its charm and glorious music
blended with today's rhythm fever and glitzy showbiz. Expressing it
differently, the golden era of Hollywood, Broadway and Vaudeville
bursts out on the pages of the tome and flirts with the madness of
modern music. Grzanna seems to echo the beauty and elegance of the
era of Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima and Benny Goodman.
However, the book does not sleep under the rainbow of a very distant
past. Several reviews and analyses of what is going on today in
Manhattan, Hollywood and beyond are abundant. Including charts of
CDs sales, market value of entertainers, latest trends in showbiz,
Jazz newcomers and rising stars.
On the back cover of the book,
the "queen of Martini-Opera and musical extravaganza", Molly
Brandenburg known also as Peggy Judy dominates the scene.
Brandenburg is another super duper star of the musical comedy scene
in California. She is fun, mega-talented and larger than life. Both,
Grzanna and Brandenburg are perfect for the covers of the book."
Lafayette was born amid flamboyant musical and artistic milieus.
Since a young age, he mingled with legends of the American and
European cinema and stars of the French music-hall. Some were close
friends to his parents. Illustrious names like Marlene Dietrich,
Simone Signoret, Jean Gabin, Sacha Distel, Michele Morgan, Omar
Sharif, to name a few. At 16, he wrote his first play "Paris does
not believe in tears", and his musical melodrama "Marmara the Gypsy"
was produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
in Washington, DC, USA. "Without music, there is no peace in the
world. Music pacifies fanatics and attenuates violence...and
without divas, there is no charm, beauty and reveries in our
turbulent world," said Maximillien de Lafayette. So, he is in the
music business, instead of wearing his robe of lawyer and defending
clients before the court. Oh Yes! he practiced law for 15 years! But
he gave it up to embrace the magic cosmos of showbiz and scented
world of divas! I don't blame him. As a matter of fact, I envy
him.
 The
Peggy Judy Summer Replacement Show: Peggy's big stage extravaganza
at the Company of Angels Theater, with a cast so large it could
populate a small South American country. Pictured: the suave and
gravity defying Peggy Judy dancers, Mike Luckerman, John Dragon and
Dean Cleverdon. Courtesy of Globe Weekly News.
I
had a brief look at his latest book "ENTERTAINMENT GREATS FROM THE
1800'S TO THE PRESENT." In fact, I went through few pages of his
unedited Adobe version, and the book looks terrific. It is so
pretty. But the esthetics are not the major concern of the author.
The content is! And the content is overwhelming. Pick up any topic
related to early showbiz glorious days and you will find it
discussed at length in the book. Ask any question about the divas of
stage and smooth jazz, and tons of photos and analogies flash before
your very eyes. And to envelop these treasures in the book, de
Lafayette's Editorial Board had to find the most suitable artists to
grace the cover of the book. They did. They found two gorgeous and
multitalented divas, and both are made in the USA!!!! Suzanne
Grzanna, a classy singer and saxophonist from Wisconsin, and Molly
Brandenburg (aka Peggy Judy). Grzanna is on the front cover of the
book, and there is a reason for that. D. Iliescu, the graphic artist
was looking for a classy star with a traditional and strong musical
background to give the impression that the book is academically
traditional. But in the same time, the chosen star had to be
innovative and "flavor of the jour," as Iliescu explained. Suzanne
Grzanna brought to the cover several ingredients: Beauty,
style, presence and command of music and lyrics. Et Voila, Grzanna
is the lady of the cover. The editorial board of the World Who's Who
consists of critics, writers and even Parisian haute couture
personalities, who are not always easy to please. If you look at the
previous covers of the Who's Who, you will find captivating faces
glowing on the front and back covers of each volume. And this is
intentional. Carol Lexter who recommends artists to the board said
"You got to find talent, beauty and uniqueness, all blended together
in one person to create a very special cover...In the past, we
had on the covers fabulous people like Carol Welsman, Lord!
she is a knockout and winner of so many jazz awards. Jill Corey was
on a cover. Jill is a living legend and she was the favorite of
Johnny Carson...Peggy Judy (Molly Brandenburg) appeared twice on two
separate covers. And Judy is Judy! There is only one Judy in the
business....she is magnetizing...a great lady, a wonderful
entertainer...this time we chose Suzanne Grzanna, and we are
delighted, because she is a national treasure..."
__________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS AND WOMEN
AUTHORS TO REMEMBER:
WOMEN
AUTHORS AND BOOKS TO REMEMBER.
Reviews,
history, news and essays
NEWS
Meet
Indigo's real youth book wizards. Junior advisory
board makes real, big-budget decisions on what gets
onto shelves.
The Million-Dollar Man is small potatoes.
Meet Canada's $110-million teenagers. One of the
biggest business stories this year has been the
skyrocketing sales of books in children's and young
adult categories, which account for a full 14 per cent
of the $785.5 million in annual sales at Indigo Books
-- the country's largest book retailer...
Alan
Alda: "I think the guy who winds up at the end of the book would say, 'Destiny
is just what happens."
Alan Alda titled his new book Never Have Your Dog Stuffed -- and
Other Things I've Learned. But rest assured he didn't write it as a guide for
self-improvement. He doesn't aim to be your guru. "I tried to tell as good a
story as I could," he sums up. The resulting narrative, at 224 pages, is as lean
as its author, and as engaging, and as flush with ideas and observations. "There
are things that were very, very difficult to put into words," says Alda, at 69
an entertainment veteran actor who had written numerous screenplays but never a
book. "That was what I had the most fun with - the things that don't want to go
into words...
 Da Vinci publisher in court case, Two authors are launching a High
Court action against the publishers of The Da Vinci
Code, which they say infringes upon their ideas.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are
suing Random House, claiming the bestseller lifts from
their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
A High Court hearing will be held next week, followed by
a trial next year. Random House was unavailable for
comment on the claim that Brown stole the idea that
Jesus had a child...
BOOKS: LATEST NEWS
Alan Alda: "I think the guy
who winds up at the end of the book would say, 'Destiny is just what happens."
Alan Alda titled his
new book Never Have Your Dog Stuffed -- and Other
Things I've Learned. But rest assured he didn't write
it as a guide for self-improvement. He doesn't aim to
be your guru. "I tried to tell as good a story as I
could," he sums up. The resulting narrative, at 224
pages, is as lean as its author, and as engaging, and
as flush with ideas and observations. "There are
things that were very, very difficult to put into
words," says Alda, at 69 an entertainment veteran
actor who had written numerous screenplays but never a
book. "That was what I had the most fun with - the
things that don't want to go into words. "But the
hardest part was how to take a life and make it one
simple story, not just a bunch of anecdotes. I didn't
like the idea of writing a memoir or an autobiography.
I only put in stuff that moved the story forward." The
story: One man's advancement toward accepting the
uncertainties of life. Letting go, notes Alda, is a
drawn-out process, "so you don't just decide to do it.
You have to creep up on it. Practice it. Get used to
it. "I think the guy who winds up at the end of the
book would say, 'Destiny is just what happens. " Alda
should know. A lot has happened for that guy this
year. He got an Oscar nomination for his role in
Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a Tony nomination for
his Broadway performance in David Mamet's Glengarry
Glen Ross, and an Emmy nomination for The West Wing,
in which he plays flinty Republican presidential
hopeful Arnold Vinick. He continues this season on the
NBC political drama, and, for its Nov. 6 episode, Sen.
Vinick will square off against the Democrat (Jimmy
Smits) in a debate aired live. Which candidate will
succeed President Bartlet (series star Martin Sheen)
by season's end? " I wouldn't spoil the surprise even
if I knew," Alda replies when pressed for details
about his contractual commitment to the series. But
then, flashing his incandescent grin, he pledges to
remain "as long as necessary to turn this great
country around." When he isn't shuttling to Los
Angeles to shoot the series, Alda leaves his Long
Island home to hit the campaign trail for Never Have
Your Dog Stuffed. Its first sentence establishes the
book's matter-of-fact, often darkly witty tone. "My
mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six,
but she must have shown signs of oddness before that,"
Alda writes. He was the son of a mentally ill mother
and an actor father, Robert Alda, who was subject to
the vagaries of show business during a career that
ranged from the hardscrabble vaudeville circuit to
Broadway in the original production of Guys and Dolls.
All in all, it was a dizzying childhood for Alan. But
by age nine, he had decided he would be an actor, too,
setting the stage for his push-pull life of embracing
make-believe while defiantly inquiring into how things
really are. He is a man in love with facts and
verifiable truth (his decade as the gung-ho host of
Scientific American Frontiers makes that clear). But
he has also studied what it means to yield control to
forces beyond reason.
 He
had an early brush with that as a boy when his dog died
suddenly and his dad, in a misguided attempt to console
him, had the creature stuffed. "Stuffing your dog," Alda
writes, "is more than what happens when you take a dead
body and turn it into a souvenir. It's also what happens
when you hold on to any living moment longer than it
wants you to." Of course, that experience didn't stop
him from sending away for a mail-order course in
taxidermy a few years later. "There was a lot of stuff
in there, and most of it was gooey," he found before
abandoning his effort to preserve an owl's carcass. At
21, Alda wed a pretty clarinetist named Arlene, with
whom he soon had three daughters (and now shares seven
grandchildren they dote on). But the family's early
years were marked by false starts and dead ends in his
drive to find acting success. In his mid-30s, he struck
gold as Dr. Hawkeye Pierce in the beloved comedy
M*A*S*H, whose finale after 11 seasons -- airing on Feb.
28, 1983 -- was seen by nearly 106 million viewers and
remains the highest-rated telecast in TV history. But
rather than playing doctor two years ago, Alda was on
the receiving end of emergency surgery for an intestinal
obstruction while in Chile doing a segment for
Scientific American Frontiers. It was an operation with
which he was professionally acquainted, he writes --
although, as Hawkeye, "all I operated on was a piece of
foam rubber." He came through the procedure OK, and
"when I woke up," he says now, savouring the memory,
"was I glad to be there! I was almost manic about being
alive. "Then I started going back over my whole life,
and I began to realize how connected the whole part of
my early life was to this euphoria I was feeling. I
really did want to understand everything that went
before, and see what I could learn from it." Never Have
Your Dog Stuffed is the outcome -- Alda's learning
process deftly put in story form; reflections galore,
but no how-to advice. "Letting somebody else tell me
what to think is a way of stuffing the dog," he says
with a laugh. "My telling somebody else what to think is
the same thing."-F. More
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“Mesmerizing...
A total literary triumph.”
The London Monthly Herald
“Dangerously captivating....One of the 10
best novels of the year."
World
Art Celebrities Journal
“A fabulous writer with an astonishing
romantic clarity...Add ‘Silent Lies’ to your collection of treasures.
Rating: 5 stars out of 5"
The
International Herald Daily News
"This is an excellent first
book."
The
Historical Fiction Review
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THE
DRAMA AND SUSPENSE BOOK OF THE YEAR.
Silent Lies by M.L. Malcolm
Hardcover: 6 x 9, 336 pages
Publisher: Longstreet Press (USA) (November 2005) ISBN: 1563527502
US List Price: $24.95
Our Price: £12.54 (amazon.co.uk)
.
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Advertisement
Meet Indigo's real youth book
wizards
Junior advisory board makes
real, big-budget decisions on what gets onto shelves
The Million-Dollar Man is small
potatoes. Meet Canada's $110-million teenagers. One of
the biggest business stories this year has been the
skyrocketing sales of books in children's and young
adult categories, which account for a full 14 per cent
of the $785.5 million in annual sales at Indigo Books --
the country's largest book retailer. What you may not
know is 10 teen bookworms help determine which authors
get a piece of that nine-figure pie, empowered to make
or break any would-be Harry Potter before it ever hits
store shelves. Given exclusive access to pre-release
books, the hand-picked members of Indigo's junior
advisory board -- five of whom were announced this
month, five of whom are "emeritus" advisers from 2004 --
liaise with the company's buyers throughout the year to
help steer them toward the best bets in new youth
titles. "Our picks and our opinions on books do
influence not only how many copies are bought by the
store, but also if they're (bought) at all," says Riley
Tickles, a 14-year-old emeritus adviser from Calgary.
"It has been one of the best experiences of my life so
far." According to Heather Reisman, chief executive at
Indigo, the company wouldn't snub a novel that deserved
exposure. But if the junior advisory board members are
all holding their noses, she says: "the difference in
the amount of exposure and promotion (the book gets) can
be quite significant." Last year, for example, Reisman
says a particular title -- which came "highly, highly
touted" by its publisher as the next big thing -- was
only judged lukewarm by Indigo's senior reviewers. When
the junior advisory board also gave it a collective
thumbs-down, the book was taken off the fast track.
 "Their
recommendations are taken very seriously," she says. "So
instead of doing a big buy on that book, we just tested
it in a number of stores. It didn't do well." Less than
a month into his new gig, 15-year-old adviser Bobby
Hanson is already enjoying the sense of importance that
comes with the position. "We represent the greater body
of youth, so our opinions are heard by the executives
and the buyers and what not," says Hanson, a Vancouver
teen who was reading encyclopedias when he was just four
years old. "I'm pretty sure we have fairly large power."
Also joining the advisory panel this month are
Victoria's Kristie Foreman, 13, Katie Hillman, 16, from
Halifax, Toronto's Madeleine Cummings, 14, and Adam
Moscoe, 13, of Ottawa. Continuing emeritus advisers
include Hannah Drew, 15, from London, Ont., Aaron
Martin, 12, of Surrey, B.C., Katrina Sklepowich, 15,
from Winnipeg, and Charlottetown's Megan Stewart, 17.
Indigo's junior advisory board, in its second year of
operation, is what a focus group would look like on
steroids. The kids have more influence, a greater hand
in the business, and get more compensation for their
time -- in this case, a $1,000 gift card, an iPod Mini,
a trip to Toronto and their own personalized section in
Chapters and Indigo stores across the country. A
youth-oriented retail website is also in the works to
help meet the needs of this growing audience. This year,
retail of kids books is up 37.6 per cent, with the
biggest growth showing up in the nine- to 16-age
segment. Remove Harry Potter from the equation and sales
in that category are still up an impressive 21 per cent.
"There isn't any other (bookseller) in Canada doing
this. In the world, nobody is doing this," says Reisman.
"Kids don't necessarily make the best book critics, but
they are the best able to reflect what their peers are
thinking. When you're 13, you know what it feels like to
be 13." Debi Andrus, assistant professor at the
University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business,
says rival companies would be smart to take notes. "One
of the problems with a number of retailers whose target
is young people is that they often try to put themselves
into the shoes of (teens) rather than listening to
them," she says. "(Reisman) is known for doing things
differently. Once again, she has found a way to include
the voice of a significant audience in her decision
making." - M. Harris.
Straight into Darkness
Faye Kellerman
 
Pub. Date:
August 2005
This exciting offshoot of the Peter Decker/Rina
Lazarus mystery series transports us back to
Nazi-ridden Munich in the 1920s. Homicide detective
Axel Berg's search for a triple murderer is hampered
at every turn by power politics and private agendas.
AS
NIGHT DESCENDS,
A KILLER AWAKENS
With ten consecutive New York Times bestsellers,
Faye Kellerman is truly a "master of mystery"
(Cleveland Plain Dealer). Now she turns her acute
eye on 1920s Munich, a war-wounded city rocked by
political agitation and stalked by a nameless,
barbaric butcher.Lustmord-the joy of murder. The
terrifying concept seems apt for the brutal slaying
of a beautiful young society wife dumped in the vast
English Garden. Homicide inspector Axel Berg is
horrified by the crime...and disturbed by the artful
arrangement of the victim's clothes and hair-a
madman's portrait of death.Berg's superiors demand
quick answers and a quick arrest: a vagrant, the
woman's husband, anyone who can be demonized will
do. When a second body is discovered, the city
erupts into panic, the unrest fomented by the
wild-eyed, hate-mongering Austrian Adolf Hitler and
his Brownshirt party of young thugs.
Berg can trust no one as he relentlessly hunts a
ruthless killer, dodging faceless enemies and
back-alley intrigue, struggling to bring a fiend to
justice before the country-and his life-veer
straight into darkness.
Iconic Shakespeare portrait likely
not him
An Elizabethan portrait thought by
many to depict the young William Shakespeare is not the
bard, experts at the National Portrait Gallery have
concluded.
The Grafton portrait, which shows a
dark-haired, high-browed young man in a rich scarlet
jacket, has appeared on the cover of books about the
writer. Gallery experts dated the painting to 1588, when
Shakespeare was 24 -- the age given by an inscription on
the picture for its subject. But they said Friday that
there was no other evidence to suggest the portrait,
owned by the University of Manchester, was of the
playwright. Curator Tarnya Cooper said it was unlikely
Shakespeare, then a young actor and writer, would have
been able to afford a garment as expensive as the one in
the painting. "We believe that Shakespeare left
Stratford-upon-Avon following the birth of twins in
1585," Cooper said. "One possibility is that he joined a
travelling theatre troupe and it is very unlikely that
in 1588, Shakespeare would have been able to afford a
costume of this type." Cooper said the painting had
helped nurture the image of a sensitive, brooding young
poet popularized by the film Shakespeare in Love -- "a
beautiful young man with a sensitive and passionate
face, of a character with an incredible emotional
range." Painted in oils on an oak panel by an anonymous
artist, the Grafton Portrait is named for one of the
Dukes of Grafton, who is said to have owned it. The
gallery is restoring and authenticating three portraits
purportedly of Shakespeare in preparation for its
Searching for Shakespeare exhibition next year. Using
x-rays, ultraviolet light, microphotography and paint
sampling tests, scholars at the gallery concluded in
April that one of the best-known Shakespeare portraits
-- the so-called Flower portrait owned by the Royal
Shakespeare Company -- was also a fake. Scientific
analysis revealed the painting dated from the 19th
century. Next, experts will examine the Chandos
portrait, which is in the gallery's own collection. Only
two likenesses of Shakespeare are widely accepted as
authentic: a bust on his tomb in Stratford's Holy
Trinity Church and an engraving used as a frontispiece
to the Folio edition of his plays in 1623.
Medical examiner Sarah Linton and her ex-hubby,
Jeffrey, are out in the Georgia woods, discussing
their past infidelities, when they make an
unsettling discovery: the corpse of a beautiful
young girl who was buried alive. Their search for
her story and the culprit lead them first to a
farming collective favored by ex-cons and then to a
fanatical nondenominational church. As always,
author Karin Slaughter leads readers into thickets
of suspicion, then springs a trap.
"Brilliant plotting, relentless suspense," raved the
Washington Post. "A new synonym for terror," crowned
the Detroit Free Press. The critics agree: no
one writes suspense like Karin Slaughter, whose
thrillers featuring medical examiner Sara Linton and
her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, have
propelled her to the top of bestseller lists the
world over. Now Slaughter fuses her unmatched grasp
of forensic science and a mastery of complex
relationships in a riveting tale of faith, doubt,
and murder. The victim was buried alive in the
Georgia woods--then killed in a horrifying fashion.
When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver stumble upon
the body, both become consumed with finding out who
killed the pretty, impeccably dressed young woman.
And for Sara and Jeffrey, a harrowing journey
begins, one that will test their own turbulent
relationship and draw dozens of lives into the case.
Lena Adams is one of them. A Grant County detective
for years, she has her own reasons for being drawn
to this case and a fierce drive to see justice done.
For these three people, who have each seen the
darkest side of human nature, the body of the
murdered girl is but the first in a series of
shocking and sordid revelations.
Now, as Jeffrey and Sara narrow the field of
suspects, they must confront their own doubts and
indiscretions, while Lena Adams sees herself
reflected in the frightened eyes of a battered woman
who may be the key figure in the case. As Faithless
builds to a stunning and unforgettable climax, Karin
Slaughter masterfully brings together strands of
interlocking lives, family secrets, and hidden
passions with one astounding truth: the identity of
a killer who is moreevil and dangerous than anyone
could have guessed.
Da Vinci publisher in court case
Two authors are launching a High
Court action against the publishers of The Da Vinci
Code, which they say infringes upon their ideas.
Photo: The Da Vinci Code has made author Dan Brown a
household name.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are
suing Random House, claiming the bestseller lifts from
their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
A High Court hearing will be held next week, followed by
a trial next year. Random House was unavailable for
comment on the claim that Brown stole the idea that
Jesus had a child.
A spokeswoman for Baigent and Leigh said
the authors had been struck by alleged similarities to
their history book. She said: "The basis of their case
is theft of intellectual property. "There are huge
chunks of The Da Vinci Code which they say is lifted
from their book." The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was
recently reissued through Century, part of the Random
House group. It features "cryptically coded parchments,
secret societies, the Knights Templar" and links them to
"a dynasty of obscure French kings" and the Holy Grail.
It also claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and
had a child together.
Photo: Audrey Tautou will co-star in the film, due out
next year.
The Da Vinci Code, derided by critics
and the subject of furious religious debate, won best
book at this year's British Book Awards. The novel sees
an art historian follow a trail of codes and puzzles to
explore claims that Jesus and Mary's bloodline survives
to this day. A film is being made by director Ron Howard
and starring Tom Hanks. Baigent and Leigh wrote their
book with a third author, Henry Lincoln, who is not
taking part in the legal action due to ill-health. In
August, Brown won a court ruling in New York against
writer Lewis Perdue, who claimed The Da Vinci Code
plagiarised elements of two of his novels, Daughter of
God, published in 2000 and 1983's The Da Vinci Legacy.
Perdue sought to block future distribution of the book
and forthcoming film, as well as $150m (£84m) in
damages, but the judge said any similarity was
based on "unprotectable ideas".
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Google is sued by book publishers
Photo: Google reckons its plans
will raise awareness and sales of books
Internet search engine Google is
being sued by a group of book publishers over plans to
put millions of titles online. The Association of
American Publishers, which includes firms such as
Penguin, has filed a suit in New York claiming Google
will infringe their copyrights. As part of its Print
Library Project, Google plans to index and scan millions
of books from five major libraries. Google countered
that the lawsuit was "short sighted", claiming its idea
will lift exposure and demand for books.
The legal action came after months of talks
failed to hammer out an agreement. "We spent so much
time on this I think half of our board ended up having
trouble with their families because of cancelling
vacations," said Patricia Schroeder, president and CEO
of the Association of American Publishers. The group is
not the only one to take exception to Google's literary
aspirations. Last month, a US writers' group sued Google
also claiming its plans to digitise the books infringed
author copyright. Google said it has been taking into
account the concerns of publishers and authors.
 No
damages: Once the texts are digitised, users would
not be able to download or print the whole book, but
would be able to view a few sentences from each.
Copyright holders have until 1 November to contact
Google and get their titles removed from the list of
those books to be scanned. However, the publishers say
that does not go far enough and want the whole process
to stop and have called on the court to grant them an
injunction claiming they are suffering "continuing,
irreparable and imminent harm". The legal action has
been brought by five companies in all, and along with
Penguin Group USA, there are McGraw-Hill, Pearson
Education, Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons. They
are seeking legal costs, but no damages.
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