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 Tony Blair will be visiting the White House on Wednesday, where he will attend a dinner as well as participate in talks regarding the Middle East. The former prime minister’s launch party that he had scheduled for his memoirs has been delayed.
It seemed that there would be many anti-war protestors at the event after several threats were received, and publishers were worried that this would have a negative effect on the book’s sales in the United States. Following his visit to the White House,
Mr. Blair will head to Ireland where he will do a book signing. Next week, he will finally return to Britain to do a book signing in central London. Following this, he will go back to the United States where he will receive the Liberty Medal from Former President Bill Clinton.
The royalties that Mr. Blair has made from his book will be donated to the Royal British Legion, the former prime minister has announced. His memoirs, entitled A Journey, are set to be published on Wednesday. However, sales in Britain will likely not reach the high numbers that were previously expected. Both Terry Pratchett and Nigella Lawson are also releasing books this week, and Mr. Blair is behind both of them in orders.
Consumers on the online retailer Amazon have pressured others to boycott the memoirs in online forums. Inside the book, Mr. Blair talks about his relationship with Gordon Brown, among other things. According to sources, he speaks highly of George W. Bush inside the book, and defends his controversial decisions involving Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fine wine can be a confusing topic to someone that does not know about the different wine growing regions or the real difference between red and white wines outside of taste. However, with a few tips from Oz Clarke the leading wine expert who has also been a master of the West End stage, you can put on your charade by surprising people with your new found knowledge about the fine wine industry.
For those who need a little aid putting their fingers on the right wine for a dinner party, the simple straightforward guide by Clarke entitled ‘Let Me Tell You About Wine’ should do the trick.
One of the nice aspects of Clarke’s simple guide is that you learn how to choose the flavour you have in mind with first getting bombarded with an overloaded description and history of wine, which is prevalent in many other wine guides.
Thus, instead of reading through facts that you may not have the time for, you can jump to the chase and immediately start to learn how to buy wine so that you can put your knowledge to use on the dinner table. Clarke covers a lot of ground that is practical and useful within the home and outside while at the wine shop.
Some of the areas that he covers include learning how to get a stubborn or broken cork out of the wine bottle, how to enjoy every bottle of wine the best you can with simple temperature and tasting techniques, how to quickly recognize faulty wine so you never make a beginner’s error, and of course, how you should pick and pair wine and food choices while at a restaurant or at home.
He also adds in some information about the many grape varieties and their associated tastes as well as a bit of information about classic wine regions such as Chianti and Bordeaux so that you can impress your friends with the knowledge of a wine connoisseur.
Clarke is known for being extremely accessible as an author with a no-nonsense approach to helping everyday people learn about the wine industry. For this reason he also helps out throughout the guide by offering a few tips, wines to try, and information boxes that will steer you towards which wines are the best value for their price tag and how much a vintage fine wine really matters.
Those that have listened to Clarke on either television or radio broadcasts are no doubt already aware of his vibrant and contagiously enthusiastic personality, which shines through delightfully in his guide.
Plus, as a bonus, for anyone that wants to pick up a more in-depth knowledge of fine wine especially by today’s current standards, for under ten pounds Clarke also has published a Pocket Wine Book and a short paperback guide titled ‘250 Best Wines 2010’ which has all the facts you will need to enhance any knowledge you gleam about fine wine.
 In the novel Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine, the author argues that prejudice is placing additional unneeded obstacles in the way of education for children. Since men are assumed to have poor communication skills, the language skills of boys are not properly being fostered while girls are missing out on spatial skill development because it is assumed that they will not be interested.
This philosophy, known as ‘neurosexism,’ was a reaction that occurred against the traditional view of both genders in society post-War.
However, over the past few years there has been a large backlash against the traditional roles assigned to the genders in novels such as ‘What Women Want’ and books with titles such as ‘Men are Mars, Women are from Venus.’
It is only now however that academics are starting to talk about the idea again noting that scientifically there is only a small difference between the brains of the two genders. Instead, the so-called ‘gender gap’ is largely created by cultural forces including popular culture, education, and even the small choices that parents make when it comes to dressing their children.
The new attitude shift may lead to a more PC approach to education and popular culture representation of both genders in items such as Disney films where the woman is typically a helpless female saved by the gallant prince.
 She is one of the most photographed people in the UK, and the most gossiped about, but now according to a new survey she is also the Most Inspirational Woman of the Decade.
Cheryl Cole is the apple of the nation and an icon that never seems to go wrong. Even when it comes to fashion the X Factor Judge and singer from Girls Aloud is always perfectly groomed. However, a new book on the star, titled aptly, Being Cheryl, is dedicated onto discovering just what it takes to be Cheryl.
Taking a closer look at the star, one particular item of note is her hair, because as she has grown in popularity so has her haircut which are long chestnut strands of perfection. Cheryl once stated that she loves her hair because its length acts somewhat like her security blanket.
Even if people know her by her hair, they also know her perfectly white smile because there has been plenty of press over the fact that she has altered her teeth since she first popped up on the radar. She explained that in pictures she always saw one tooth that bothered her which prompted her decision to get it fixed.
Not everything on Cheryl is natural however; as her makeup artist, Lisa Luadat, has also contributed to her amazing sense of style adding the perfect touch to every occasion from television to the red carpet to daily wear.
According to Cheryl, outside of makeup perfume is her secret weakness and she buys up new bottles of everything the moment it hits the shelves in pursuit of the perfect scent.
 Yesterday those who visited the Amazon UK website did not see a long list of books, but instead were met on the homepage by a letter from Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos. In the letter he talked about the power of reading and announced the official launch of the newest version of the Kindle and the first Kindle to come to the UK, the e-reading device that has dominated the US e-reader market over the past two years.
The British book industry will now see if its consumers will devour digital books with the same fervour as its American counterpoints potentially transforming the way that Britons choose to read as well as digital books in America outsell traditional books on Amazon by three to two.
The only other e-reader to be released in the UK was made by Sony with digital books for the device offered to the public by Waterstones. However, over the year of 2009 digital sales only reached up to five million pounds which accounted for under 1% of the book market. An October survey reported that only about four percent of those surveyed had read a digital book at all.
The launch of the iBookstore for the iPad may also help fuel the digital book assimilation in the UK but the size, weight, and high cost of the device has prohibited many consumers who otherwise may have been game to try it out.
On the other hand, the Kindle is substantially lighter and its lower end model only costs £109 compared to the iPad’s large £429 price tag. The Kindle also offers a great battery life with a high contrast screen that creates a true to life book surface.
 Hodder has taken the Famous Five, updated the text and modernized the packaging and released them in an effort to make them much more attractive and relevant to young readers today. Before releasing the books, the publishing company performed research with mums and children to get a close look at what children will find entertaining.
The classic editions will still be published with their original book cover and illustrations and the original text, but they will now sit on the shelf next to the modern editions. The new versions will launch in August with text changes that are focused on bringing the narrative up-to-date and the narrative left unrevised.
Author of the series, Enid Blyton, had always stated that it is was important for readers to be able to relate to the characters in her books stating that when she was a child lively conversation in books was not present allowing the readers to connect to the characters.
Hodder Children’s Books publishing director, Anne McNeil stated that Blyton was also an advocate of improving literacy for children and was motivated to create books that children would enjoy reading.
McNeil continued to say that she is still one of the best children’s writers of the last century and has sold more than 500 million novels to young children from across the globe.
Hodder ready to launch an attractive marketing campaign to lure new readers to the newly revised books with a treasure hunt online planned for the summer and the first ten books guaranteed to go to the consumers that take part in the Treasure Hunt.
 Katie Price has continued to move forward, but this time all the promotion she needs for her new venture she apparently already has given the fact that that has raised a large amount of publicity for her new novel by plastering the title ‘Paradise’ across her surgically enhanced chest.
In order to promote her newest piece of work, Price squeezed into a small cleavage showing bath robe with the words ‘Paradise’ emblazoned across her chest in glitter.
Although some may criticize Price’s tactics, it is hard to fault the fact that she has once again taken over the number one place on hardback fiction charts.
Chart editor of Bookseller, Philip Stone, stated that Paradise sold close to 13,000 copies within its first week on the shelves which is almost twice than its closest competitor, The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver.
Stone said that the book is incredibly well written and there is a large market for books by Price.
Price choose to launch the novel at London’s HMV with two half-naked men standing behind her as a tie in to the book cover.
Although it was a bit shameless, the effects of Price’s self-promotion will not hurt her £40m fortune.
An additional way that she has publicized her books in the past is to rise up a little controversy in the media which she accomplished with this title as well by stating that children of divorce are actually ‘lucky,’
The model also has an appearance on This Morning the talk show yesterday in which she said that children from divorced families get along better because they are given more presents than those that have two married parents.
The novel’s plotline is based on Angel Summer who is a wannabe popstar and a model that has the perfect life with a football player until she dumps him and heads to Hollywood with an American baseball star.
 Online retailer Amazon has announced that digital e-books have been outselling hardback paper books for three months in the States.
Amazon revealed that they have sold nearly 150 e-books compared to every 100 paper books they sold during the last 6 months.
Amazon own the Kindle e-reader and offer over 600,000 titles compatible with this device, they also offer nearly 2 million un-copyrighted e-books free of charge.
E-book sales have tripled during the first half of 2010, compared with the same six months of 2009.
Prices have been slashed for the e-readers, seeing unit sales of this device triple, although Amazon’s chief executive has failed to provide recent sales figures.
Since Apple confirmed production of the iPad in conjunction with iBooks in January 2010, Amazon and Barnes and Noble bookstore – owners of the Nook have been forced to reduce their e-reader prices.
E-books are proving to be cheaper in price, costing $10 compared to $30 for a hardback book.
Amazon have been able to pretty much dominate the e-book market in the States, offering their Kindle e-books to be compatible with iPhones, iPads and Blackberry’s. This allows Kindle owners who have broken e-reader devices to still be able to access their e-books.
 For those looking for a summer reading it may be a good idea to turn back and look at a fifty year old classic that has not only won the Pulitzer Prize, but has also sold over 30 million copies across the world, and a motion picture that was deemed worthy of three Academy Awards.
Even at its age, “To Kill A Mockingbird” is known across the world as a timeless classic and for many different generations is a favorite book.
Reading through its pages you can almost feel the heat of both the Depression and the area of Maycomb, Alabama where it is set in a traditional Southern town that is severely segregated.
Although the story is already thick with layers, the layers of morality are even more powerful given they are told from, a child’s point of view, who was portrayed in the 1962 Academy movie by Mary Badham.
Even today Badham claims that she is very attached to the six year old character of Scout and wishes she could have had half the wit at such a young age, or even on into her later years as an adult.
Badham attended the Monroeville, AL book club celebration for the 50th anniversary of the novel, which not only offered the signature drink of the town (tequila mockingbird), but also offered marathon readings of the novel and full tours of the town, after which the fictitious town of Maycomb in the novel was modeled after.
Not on hand for the celebration however was the author of the infamous book, Harper Lee, who had not given an interview since 1964.
 This October the Cheltenham Literature Festival and Cirencester’s New Brewery Arts will collaborate together. As part of the festival a series of literary events will take place in the arts centre, which will include many workshops, a reading of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantle, and a poetry surgery featuring Nigel McLoughlin.
Learning manager at New Brewery Arts, Gwen Rogerson, stated they are trying to create a new type of literature festival without trying to compete. Instead, they are striving to establish a link with the town of Cheltenham and hope that it will build as the future progresses.
The arts centre first opened in 2008 and it was always hoped that Cirencester would gradually take over as the southwest cultural capital.
Rogerson stated the team is focused on achieving that goal by building an inclusive, positive environment. She continued to explain that they have been able to open up to a wider audience due to the fact that many artists choose to stop by New Brewery Arts helping it develop within a short period of time.
The other hand, in its 61st year, the Cheltenham Literature Festival is one of the most popular and oldest literary events globally with its large array of children’s events, poetry readings, lectures, story readings, book groups, education projects, writing workshops, and interviews.
In fact, in 2009 over 650 literary figures including TV presenters, authors, and actors attended including Sir Richard Eyre, Judi Dence, and Mitchell and Webb.
This year the festival will run from October 8th thru October 17th with confirmed speakers that include Audrey Niffenegger, Harry Hill, Stephen Fry, and Philip Pullman.
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