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Knopf Doubleday Group chairman Sonny Mehta announced in a letter (PDF) that Phyllis Grann will be retiring after 40 years in the business. She is currently president and CEO of Penguin Putnam Inc. Grann will be stepping down June 9, but she will continue to work with her authors as a freelance consultant and editor. Phyllis Grann has worked with numerous bestselling authors, including Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, A. Scott Berg, Kurt Vonnegut, Daniel Silva, John McEnroe and Judy Blume. Grann told Entertainment Weekly that the secret to her success was to develop a close relationship with her writers. She says, "If you're going to generate revenues, you really need to have that close a connection with the writers." Permalink | Facebook | Twitter | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

This jolly 13th-century poem is made all the better for not having its old spellings translated into modern English The 13th-century round known as the Reading Rota or, more informally, The Cuckoo Song , isn't about the approach of summer, but its arrival. "Sumer is icumen in" is frequently mistranslated, but "icumen" means it has come, as the presence of the cuckoo implies, and it's here, nu (now). Summer, that is. If this thought is nu to you, if your bank holiday skies are grey, and cold raindrops falling down your neck, you might not be in the mood for such a loud, sweet, jolly Poem of the Week. On the other hand, The Cuckoo Song could cheer you up. Especially if you can find a group of people to sing it with you in a gorgeous West Country accent. There are numerous versions in print and online: here's a rather nice one . The variations between the different modern texts available are small, and mostly connected to the decisions made by later edito...

This Week: Author Kurt Andersen, children's author Brian Selznick, poetry editor David Orr and best seller news. Popout Original audio source (10bookupdate.mp3)

A TIME FOR PATRIOTS BY DALE BROWN ABOUT THE BOOK: Welcome to Battlefield America! When murderous bands of militiamen begin roaming the western United States and attacking government agencies, it will take a dedicated group of the nation's finest and toughest civilian airmen to put an end to the homegrown insurgency. U.S. Air Force Lieutenant-General Patrick McLanahan vows to take to the skies to join the fight, but when his son, Bradley, also signs up, they find themselves caught in a deadly game against a shadowy opponent. When the stock markets crash and the U.S. economy falls into a crippling recession, everything changes for newly elected president Kenneth Phoenix. Politically exhausted from a bruising and divisive election, Phoenix must order a series of massive tax cuts and wipe out entire cabinet-level departments to reduce government spending. With reductions in education and transportation, an incapacitated National Guard, and the loss o! f public safety budgets, entir...

We're just a few days away from the Writer's Unlimited Tour - our mini lit-fest happening in June. Please click up to size the poster and the information about the writers taking part. Please pass on the information to your own circle, and if you would like flyers or a poster to put out, I can send you the jpg files by email: contact me at sharonbakar@yahoo.com.

My review which was in the Reads Monthly section of The Sunday Star yesterday : What actually happens when we read a literary novel? And what is in the mind of an author when he writes one? These are the central questions addressed by Orhan Pamuk in The Nave and Sentimental Novelist. And since the Turkish writer is both an avid reader and the Nobel Prize winning author of several internationally acclaimed novels (including Snow, My Name is Red, and The White Castle), he is extremely well-qualified to do so. The title of the book is taken from the famous essay by Friedrich Schiller On Naive and Sentimental Poetry. Pamuks nave novelists, he says, are unaware of the techniques they are using, and they write spontaneously as if carrying out a natural act, as opposed to sentimental or reflective novelists who are concerned with artificiality of the text and its failure to attain reality. I have to say though that I did not find the distinction a particularly useful scaffold for Pam...

The screenwriters for the upcoming Candy Land movie had to think very creatively in order to turn the children's board game into a movie plot. The Candy Land screenwriters have grandiose plans for the screenplay. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger (Kung Fu Panda 2) told Entertainment Weekly that they envision the Candy Land film as "Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy." The writers do have some characters to work with, such as Princess Lolly, Duke of Swirl, Queen Frostine, Lord Licorice and Gloppy the Molasses Monster. There are also locations in the game like Candy Cane Forest, Gum Drop Mountain and Molasses Swamp. The writers also told EW they want to focus less on the board game and more of the idea that people find themselves in a world made entirely of candy. They also say, "We are going for real comedy, real action, and real emotions at stake." The Candy Land screenwriters are not the first to work with the idea of turning the board game into a fi...