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One of the best selling authors, Dan Brown has won his copyright infringement case when the Britain’s Court of Appeal rejected the appeal from two other authors who claimed that he stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who wrote The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, now face bills of about $6 million after losing the case against publisher Random House Inc.

Both Baigent and Leigh argued that Brown stole the significant elements from their book as both are based on the same theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and their bloodline exists today too. Brown had been testifying last year for several days. In April, Justice Peter Smith ruled that Random House had not breached the copyright. The Da Vinci Code sold more than 40 million copies since its release back in March 2003. A film version of the book was released last year.

Source: USAtoday

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Time Inc. has shut down Life magazine for the third time, citing the ‘decline in the newspaper business’ and ‘poor advertising outlook’ as factors in its decision.

Time Inc. is a unit of the media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. and a major magazine publisher with titles including People, Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune. The company said that it will keep the brand alive on the internet. Time Inc.’s CEO Ann Moore said:

The market has moved dramatically since October 2004 and it is no longer appropriate to continue publication of Life as a newspaper supplement.

Life started its journey as a light-entertainment weekly which ran successfuly for 83 years before it was bought by Henry Luce of Time Inc. and transformed into a news picture magazine. The re-decorated magazine was launched in 1936 as a weekly and was suspended from regular publication in 1972 and brought back as a monthly in 1978. It was suspended again in 2000, then brought back as a newspaper supplement in 2004.

Time Inc. is looking forward to follow its reader base and advertisers on the internet and last year it had sold off some of its small magazines which include Popular Science, Field & Stream and Parenting.

But as life goes on, lets hope that Life magazine gets rejuvenated for the fourth time.

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The world famous, Warner Books, has been renamed Grand Central Publishing. This came as a deal that required Warner to change its name, a year after being purchased by the French company Hachette Livre. Warner books have published best sellers such as, Jon Stewart, David Baldacci and James Patterson,

As per the Grand Central’s senior vice president and publisher, Jamie Raab, “We are ‘grand’ because we are big, impressive, and even magnificent at times. And the word ‘central’ reflects the fact that we recognize the huge audience of readers between New York City and the West Coast who are looking for books across a wide range of tastes. And the word ‘publishing,’ rather than books, reflects the fact that the future of our business depends on offering reading content through new channels and in many formats.”

Every name has a meaning...

Source: USAtoday

“Virulents” is the latest in the series of comic books to hit the markets that are being produced in a year-old partnership between the British billionaire Richard Branson, spiritual guru Deepak Chopra and the bang on Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. The comic will first be released in the United States on Wednesday, followed by Britain and India. Graphic novels are part of Virgin’s stratagem of tapping and making a mark in India’s ever-growing entertainment market. The firm visualizes India as both as a producer and as a customer.

The comic basically has Indian and American soldiers fighting a deal with nuclear weapons with the terrorist groups in a barren Afghanistan desert. The troops swear, curse and even refer to George Bush and the Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai. Thus, they are as lively as us. The myths of India are also transcribed best in the book as later on, the terrorists change into demonic vampires. This novel hacks inspiration from an ancient Indian legend of a blood demon that produced clones every time a warrior slashed and spilled his blood. Ummm...terrorists, soldiers, nuclear war, demons! Are we missing the angels?

Source: USAtoday

‘Oprah’s Book Club’ has selected a book written by Academy Award winner actor ‘Sidney Poitier’ as its pick for the book club, which will be announced in The Oprah Winfrey Show this week.

The 304-pages long book is published by Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House, Inc. Sidney poitier is also the guest-of-the-week for the talk show. An email in this regards sent to the book club members read:

Tune in Wednesday, March 28, to see who came to dinner with Sidney Poitier - plus, Oprah’s picked a new book for you to read this spring!

Oprah’s Book Club is a segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which highlights books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. The popularity of the club acts as a magnet for the selected book as it gets immense popularity and increased sales. This is known as the ‘Oprah Effect’.

Oprah Winfrey suspended the book club in 2002, but she brought it back in 2003. Incidentally, last year’s book club pick was also a poitier memoir titled The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography.

Winfrey’s selection has been critisized many times by literature writers for being overly sentimental, but the book club gets stronger with each criticism recieved.

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With a large number of the employees owning pets and most of them worrying about their pets when they themselves are at work. Now, a Web site offers a free e-book about the home-alone canine. The website is devoted to build an understanding between dogs and their owners. The book contains advice from experts and time-tested suggestions to help you to make your dog’s alone time to be as healthy and productive as it can be. It also includes ideas to keep a dog entertained and reduce anxiety both for the dog and its owner. The e-book also includes topics like; creating a relaxing environment, arranging forms of entertainment, ways to manage caregivers, tools and ideas to avoid and deal with destruction. The book is available at www.caninekingdom.com.

Source: Businesswire

Image Credit: Mediamag

Simon & Schuster will be publishing ‘Wrestling History: the Bill Clinton Tapes’, at the end of 2008. The deal is, however, yet to be announced officially. The book actually covers the good deal of conversations between then-President Clinton and award-winning historian Taylor Branch.

Branch told The New York Times, “I’m not calling this a biography of Clinton or a history of the administration. It is what it was like to live through it that way, sitting alone with him, talking about the presidency as he saw it, right in the moment.”

The interview sessions took place after Clinton was first elected, in 1992, and continued throughout his two terms. Most of the interviews took place in the White House itself. Branch, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 has been a friend of Clinton from early 1970s. Both have actually worked together on the campaign for Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern.

Simon & Schuster’s publisher David Rosenthal said that the conversations covered a wide range of subjects. Hmmm ...An interesting book for sure!

Source: USAToday

Image Credit: Moreheadfoundation and Renaissanceweekend

Hello! Magazine is the latest in the long list of global celebrity news magazines to be launched in India.

The introductory issue provides a feast of exclusive photographs and news about the much-hyped recent wedding of Liz Hurley to Indian businessman Arun Nayar. The publishers claim that a lot more about the private lives of celebrities, royalty, sports stars and corporate chiefs will be unveiled in the subsequent issues of the famous magazine.

The renowned celeb glossy, which is targeting readers in the age group of 20-55 years, is launching with a total of 50,000 copies of the debut issue. The common Indian thinks Bollywood when it comes to celebrities. But Hello! claims to change the perception of the average Indian by concentrating on industrialists, socialites and leaders in varied fields. About 80 percent of the content is said to be based on Indian celebrities.

Ruchika Mehta, the editor of the Indian edition of Hello! Magazine claims it to be,

The big daddy of the fine life, which is all about the larger-than-life romances, the ‘bling’ homes, the to-die-for fashion and class, the ‘giga-gorgeous women and men, all packaged together into a high gloss monthly.

In the past few years, India has witnessed the successful launch of international glossies like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Seventeen, Maxim, Time Out and OK!. The trend can be attributed to the increasing number of English speakers, increasing disposable incomes and increased media penetration.

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The top literary prize organizers for women novelists have made a major breakthrough by including the recent winners of the Man Booker and Costa prizes in their list of nominees for this year’s honors. The judges for the Orange Broadband fiction award which comes with the prize money of £30,000 chose Kiran Desai’s novel ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ and Stef Penney’s ‘The Tenderness of Wolves’ with 18 other books. The award will be announced on June 6th.

The decision is being looked upon as a major one, as none of the awards, except the Booker, has listed a book which has won a rival award before. According to most of the seasoned judges, award holders are not included as such because no prize committee wants to come second. Even the booksellers and publishers prefer the huge sale figures which come from the awards to be shared between several titles. Kate Mosse, the founder and honorary director of Orange, said that the judges were this time told that they must not consider whether any of the titles had been successful in some other field. The list also features three authors who have previously been Orange-short listed.

The 20 contenders are:
Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Poppy Shakespeare Clare Allen
Arlington Park Rachel Cusk
The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai
Peripheral Vision Patricia Ferguson
Over Margaret Forster
The Dissident Nell Freudenberger
When to Walk Rebecca Gowers
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers Xiaolu Guo
The Observations Jane Harris
Carry Me Down MJ Hyland
The Girls Lori Lansens
Alligator Lisa Moore
What Was Lost Catherine O’Flynn
The Tenderness of Wolves Stef Penney
Careless Deborah Robertson
Afterwards Rachel Seiffert
Ten Days in the Hills Jane Smiley
Digging to America Anne Tyler
The Housekeeper Melanie Wallace

Source: Guardian

The rich, the famous and one of my all time personnel favorites Jeffrey Archer is all set to launch his ‘The Gospel According to Judas’ in Rome. Why he has drawn to the mysterious world of Testaments and Gospels is yet to remain a mystery. But everyone from the reading sphere is keen to grab one of it for sure.

However, the book has been a subject of interest since the word dropped out that Archer was writing in the person of Benjamin Iscariot, son of the apostle and also presenting the book as a form of a gospel. And this time Archer didn’t work out all his way alone, as he had a priest working as a co-author. Yes, Father Francis Moloney is the co-author of the book. According to the author himself, there is but a little controversy in The Gospel According to Judas. But isn’t it hard to believe, that this man will be out of any controversies, this time. Sounds unbelievable to me at least...

Source: Telegraph