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Novelist Irvine Welsh spies future in mixed-media

By Claire Davenport BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Electronic publishing is allowing authors to be more creative and the best ones are successfully blending video and online content with traditional text, says cult writer Irvine Welsh. The author of “Trainspotting” and “The Acid House”, who has also written short stories and plays, said e-publishing meant writers had to work harder to grab readers' attention in an age when wireless devices are rapidly replacing paperback books. …

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Novelist Irvine Welsh spies future in mixed-media

Book Talk: Of apes and atheists – is empathy evolution?

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – For biologist Frans de Waal, a peaceful species of great ape in Africa is a mirror of humanity and a living argument that empathy and cooperation are far from unique to mankind. “The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates”, argues that both traits may be evolved behaviors based on his studies of the bonobo, which is found only in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other primates. …

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Book Talk: Of apes and atheists – is empathy evolution?

Critics label Dan Brown’s "Inferno" a clunky page-turner

LONDON (Reuters) – Early reviews of Dan Brown's fast-paced fourth book in “The Da Vinci Code” series labeled it a “clunky” page-turner that will nevertheless delight his fans. Critics said the dark mysteries, mind-bending codes and history-laced tourism in “Inferno” will thrill Brown devotees, but panned the U.S. author for passages they said were more suited to a Hollywood film script than a novel. …

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Critics label Dan Brown’s "Inferno" a clunky page-turner

Dan Brown’s "Inferno" novel in hot demand ahead of release

LONDON (Reuters) – Booksellers are predicting that “Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown's latest title “Inferno” will become the biggest-selling book of the year, ahead of its release on Tuesday. Sales of the book, which sees the return of fictional symbologist Robert Langdon, have already reached the highest level of customer pre-orders at retailer Waterstones since the release of Harry Potter author JK Rowling's adult fiction “The Casual Vacancy” last year. …

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Dan Brown’s "Inferno" novel in hot demand ahead of release

Merkel says has no secrets about her communist past

By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel has dismissed claims in a new book that she was more actively committed to East Germany's communist regime than she has acknowledged, saying she has never kept anything secret about her past. The book, “The first life of Angela M.”, says that Merkel, who will seek a third term as chancellor in a federal election in September, was responsible for Marxist-Leninist education in a unit of the state's youth wing, in a role that went beyond the cultural duties she has previously spoken of. …

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Merkel says has no secrets about her communist past

’12th of Never’ climbs to top of U.S. best-sellers list

NEW YORK (Reuters) – “The 12th of Never,” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, climbed to the top of the U.S. best-sellers list on Thursday. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide. Hardcover Fiction Last Week 1. “The 12th of Never” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $27.99) 18 2. “The Hit” by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99) 1 3. “Whiskey Beach” by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $27.95) 2 4.

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’12th of Never’ climbs to top of U.S. best-sellers list

Book Talk: "The Last Train to Zona Verde," Paul Theroux’s African signoff

By Randall Mikkelsen BOSTON (Reuters) – Paul Theroux said his literary goodbye to Africa at a train station in Luanda, Angola, five decades after he first visited the continent as a Peace Corps volunteer. In his new book, “The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari,” Theroux describes a journey through South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola that dead-ended at the depot when he felt no need to go further. The book, he says, represents a final chapter on his travels in Africa. Theroux’s first book on Africa was a novel. …

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Book Talk: "The Last Train to Zona Verde," Paul Theroux’s African signoff

New book teaches children ABCs of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway

By Jonathan Stempel OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc invests in dozens of businesses, and a new book tries to explain it all to young readers, from A to Z. Two Omaha residents, author Nancy Rips and illustrator Tom Kerr, have teamed up on “My First Berkshire ABC” to teach children about one of the world's best-known companies, and a little about the local billionaire behind it. More than 1,000 copies were sold at Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday, which draws thousands of people to Omaha, and where Buffett has a say on what gets sold. …

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New book teaches children ABCs of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway

World Chefs: Richard Blais serves up restraint in first book

By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) – American chef Richard Blais may be best known for using gimmicks and gadgets in his television appearances but in his first cookbook, “Try This At Home!”, he shows his cooking can be fun and tasty without being complicated. The 41-year-old used often used liquid nitrogen and immersion circulators to make dishes on the U.S. cooking competition show “Top Chef All-Stars,” which he won more than two years ago. Blais, a marathon runner and soccer fan, was born in Uniondale, New York and now lives in Atlanta where he owns The Spence and several other ..

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World Chefs: Richard Blais serves up restraint in first book

Michael C. Hall adapting talent-agent book for showtime

By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The final season of “Dexter” hasn’t premiered yet, but series star Michael C. Hall is already slicing into his next project for the cable network. Hall is working with Showtime on an adaptation of the Matthew Specktor novel “American Dream Machine,” about a talent agent and his sons. The novel follows Beau Rosenwald, who arrived in Hollywood broke but by the late ’70s has helped to build the most successful agency in Hollywood. The book chronicles Rosenwald as he rises, falls, and rises again – and goes to war with his partner. …

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Michael C. Hall adapting talent-agent book for showtime

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