I thought I'd compile a short list of recent book news that I found interesting - as always feel free to send in your own links or press releases!

Check out this blog post from Open Page:  That's Absurd! A Week of Weird News From the Book World  for some weird book news, such as "Danielle Steel’s assistant going to prison, the anniversary of pot, news that reading helps Alzheimer’s patients." And really, you must add this blog to your reader as yesterday's blog post was Another sign of the end of the world about how a typo makes a recipe in The Pasta Bible call for 'freshly ground black people' and causing an uproar - not to mention the entire stock of books to be reprinted costing Penguin $20,000. 

Take a look at NPR's What We're Reading for April 20-26th for info on books like Barbara Strauch's book The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain and David Goodwillie's American Subversive. NPR's What We're Reading series is a great way to find out about new books and what's hot on the market now.

While your at NPR's website be sure to read 'Who I Am': Poetry Not Wasted on the Young - so often poetry as a genre gets lambasted for being unattainable and impossible for people to identify with, it's nice to see an article that shows that people can read poetry and relate to it.  However, the commentors bring up some interesting questions - such as why would young people who want to be treated as adults read poetry "written for young people"? Whatever the result - the effort is appreciated. 

The New York Times Reports that sales for the printed word are falling in their article Drilling Down and the NY Times also reports that three American women are in the running for the Orange Prize.  Be sure to check out Michiko Kakutani's review of Susan Miller's The Lakeshore Limited in Ripples in Memories After Death - an eloquent, well written postive review. (I may just have to pick up this book when it comes out in paperback). The Guardian also has an article about the cookbook here. (Spell check is never enough - as people is spelled correctly but is the wrong word - just one example of where automating a job does not make a better product).

And you must check out Sarah Silverman: Turning Ignorance Into Comedy  NPR's article about Silverman's new book The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee - and be sure to read to the end where you'll get a sneak peak at an excerpt from the book. (It's hilarious I assure you).

The Guardian gives us the Top 10 Absurd Classics a list of classics by Michael Foley of classics which "express the absurdity of the human condition."

Add a comment or send me an email sharing your favorite book news article, review, or blog post of the week with us & I'll add it to the list!