Books/Publishing News

1. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown)

"Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba" (Viking, 365 pages, $27.95), by Tom Gjelten: Bacardi is the world's top-selling rum with annual sales of 20 million cases in more than 150 countries. But it does not sell a drop in Cuba, where founder Facundo Bacardi first opened a tin-roofed, dirt-floored distillery on Matadero Street in the eastern city of Santiago in 1862.

"Everything Under the Sky" (HarperCollins Publisher, 387 pages, $25.95), by Matilde Asensi: It's a good thing that the gambling, opium-addicted, prostitute-loving husband of Elvira De Poulain died. She would otherwise be stripped of an adventure that is so engrossing it could compel the reader to skip meals and ignore chores in a mad dash to read the book's ending.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - If you are looking for kiss-and-tell stories about the Bond girls or movie town gossip, Sean Connery's memoirs are not for you.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - She was a teenager from Dublin looking to make her name as a journalist when American author Ernest Hemingway entered her life in 1959.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Borders Group Inc. shares soared more than 25 percent Wednesday after it posted better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. But analysts remained leery, saying that tough competition and a weak economy continue to pose big challenges for the bookseller.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Borders Group Inc , the second-largest U.S. bookseller, posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday, helped by tighter inventory and lower costs, sending its shares up nearly 14 percent.

"Fine Just the Way It Is" (Scribner. 221 pages. $25), by Annie Proulx: It was Annie Proulx's award-winning "Brokeback Mountain" — a tale of love between two Wyoming cowboys — that became an Academy Award-winning film.

1. "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" by Sean Williams (Del Rey)

"In the Land of Invisible Women" (Sourcebooks Inc. 464 pages, $24.95) by Qanta A. Ahmed: Most job contracts don't include mentions of the death penalty, but when Dr. Qanta A. Ahmed agreed to a new job in a Saudi Arabian hospital she became subject to the laws of that country which, as she writes in her memoir, can include decapitation.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Bookseller Borders Group Inc. said Tuesday that it narrowed its losses and slashed its debt during the second quarter, but continued to see sales slow as consumers limited their discretionary spending.

NEW ORLEANS - Marsha Williams had always hesitated when mail arrived from the government. After Hurricane Katrina, she began to fear the letters.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Borders Group Inc on Tuesday posted a narrower quarterly loss, as the second-largest U.S. bookseller was helped by lower inventory levels.

"Death's Half Acre" (Grand Central Publishing, 262 pages, $24.99), by Margaret Maron: Growing up in a trailer park with a drunk for a father and a tramp for a mother, Candace Bradshaw seemed to have few prospects. But a strong work ethic and good looks allowed her to marry well, take over a profitable business and win a seat on the county board of commissioners.

LONDON - Novelist Salman Rushdie won an apology Tuesday from a former bodyguard who attacked his character, a court decision the author hopes will set a new precedent for high-profile English libel trials.

"Soccer Dad" (Skyhorse Publishing. 288 pages. $22.95), by W.D. Wetherell: In the first chapter of this loving remembrance of his son's final year of playing soccer on a top-ranked high school team, W.D. Wetherell says he assumes that anyone reading the book "already understands and values soccer."

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Peter Buck of R.E.M., "SNL" star Amy Poehler and novelist Jonathan Lethem are among the curators of a limited-edition series of CDs that will mark the 20th anniversary of North Carolina independent label Merge Records.

"Supreme Courtship" (Twelve. 285 pages. $24), by Christopher Buckley: Opinions by the U.S. Supreme Court have footnotes, so it's fitting that a novel about that institution would have them, too. But who'd expect them to be so amusing?

"The Good Thief" (The Dial Press. 326 pages. $25), by Hannah Tinti: Hannah Tinti treats readers of her first novel much like a runaway train does its passengers: She takes off on her fantastical tale knowing they'll have no choice but to hang on to see how things end.

NEW YORK - As the centennial of Lyndon Johnson's birth approaches, historian Robert A. Caro would like to think of his longtime subject at his happiest and most fulfilled: Not when Johnson was president, in anguish over Vietnam, but a few years before, as Senate majority leader, the one-man legislative machine.

EDINBURGH, Scotland - He's recognized around the world as the iconic face of James Bond. But in Britain, Sean Connery is also well known as a proud Scot, and on Monday he returns to his hometown to launch his autobiography.

LONDON - Novelist Rosalind Belben and first-time biographer Rosemary Hill have won Britain's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes.

NEW YORK - Olympic superstar Michael Phelps will write a book telling the story behind his historic eight gold medal swims just in time for the holiday season, Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Friday.

MINNEAPOLIS - When reporter David Carr began thinking about writing his life story, he found he couldn't trust his own memory.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest bookseller, posted a 15 percent drop in second-quarter profit Thursday as it struggles with sluggish consumer spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc, cut its full-year sales forecast on Thursday, blaming a troubled U.S. economy, sending the shares of the largest U.S. specialty bookseller down more than 3 percent.

Key: F-Fiction; NF-Nonfiction; H-Hardcover; P-Paperback

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German publishing house Gruner & Jahr is interested in buying the trade magazines unit of Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"The First Billion Is the Hardest" (Crown Business. 252 pages. $26.95), by T. Boone Pickens: T. Boone Pickens deals in big figures. Very big. He quotes Forbes Magazine as pegging his worth at $3 billion in 2007, when he was 79.