Lush Life by Richard Price

In his latest novel, “Lush Life,” Richard Price puts his myriad gifts together to create his most powerful and galvanic work yet, a novel that showcases his sympathy and his street cred and all his skills as a novelist and screenwriter: his gritty-lyrical prose, his cinematic sense of pacing, his uncanny knowledge of the nooks and crannies of his characters’ hearts.

“Lush Life” is a novel that gives us a wide, 3-D Imax portrait of a small corner of New York City (the Lower East Side of a few years ago, at that hinge point in time, when young hipsters were beginning to push out the immigrants and the working poor), a novel that captures Manhattan’s magnetic appeal to dreamers and drifters, and its ability to crush the weak and unlucky and turn their dreams into disappointment and rage.

Dreams and Shadows by Robin Wright

In describing the struggles of people from Morocco to Iran to reform or replace existing regimes Robin Wright draws on three decades of experience in covering the region for The Washington Post and other newspapers.Opening on an optimistic note, Wright describes how in 1983 she stood across the street from the ruins of the United States Embassy in Beirut after more than 60 Americans had been killed by a suicide bomber. At that time, she recalls, it seemed that Islamic fundamentalists had the initiative and were shaping the future of the region. “Yet a generation later,” she writes, “Islamic extremism is no longer the most important, interesting or dynamic force in the Middle East.”

It would be good if this were true, but in general the stories Wright relates of brave reformers battling for human and civil rights show them as having had depressingly small influence.

Iran to Boycott Paris Book Fair

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran said on Saturday it is boycotting this year’s Paris book fair in protest at Israel being invited as guest of honour, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has participated in previous fairs but this year because of France’s decision Iran is boycotting the fair,” said Ali Alipour, an official at the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance.

Iran does not recognise Israel and has sharpened its rhetoric against it during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian president has provoked international outrage by repeatedly predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear and he has courted more controversy by playing down the scale of the Holocaust.

Several Arab and Muslim countries and writers’ associations have said they will stay away from the March 14-19 Paris book fair after organisers announced that 39 Israeli writers were being invited to mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state.

On Tuesday the 50-nation Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISECSCO), called for a boycott of the event by Muslim states.

Ten Best Selling Fiction Books

Here are the 10 best selling fiction for this week from Amazon.ca. Bracketed figures indicate position the previous week:

1 (6) Remember Me? – Sophie Kinsella (hardcover)

2 (2) The Pillars of the Earth (Oprah Edition) – Ken Follett (paperback)

3 (1) A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini (hardcover)

4 (3) The Appeal – John Grisham (hardcover)

5 (-) The Other Boleyn Girl – Philippa Gregory (paperback)

6 (-) The Road (Oprah Edition) – Cormac McCarthy (paperback)

7 (8) The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini (paperback)

8 (-) Atonement – Ian McEwan (paperback)

9 (-) The Shack – William P. Young (paperback)

10 (-) World Without End – Ken Follett (hardcover)

Fox 2000 Adapts “Wimpy Kid” Books

Fox 2000 is bringing Jeff Kinney’s bestselling “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series to the big screen as a live-action family film and potential franchise.

The studio purchased all rights to the five novels, composed of handwriting and animation, chronicling the daily indignities faced by middle school student Greg Heffley. Former Buena Vista president Nina Jacobson will produce the first feature, with more to possibly follow. Carla Hacken is overseeing the film’s development for the studio.

Author/illustrator Kinney’s first two books, last spring’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and February’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules,” both hit No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list, with the first book staying there for 45 weeks. The author launched his underdog hero’s story on Funbrain.com in 2004, attracting more than 50 million visits from fans.

Are Spys Gearing Up for The Summer Olympics?

As athletes train for the summer Olympics in China, a new book claims that the country’s vast spy network is gearing up for a different challenge – keeping an eye on journalists and potential troublemakers.French writer Roger Faligot, author of some 40 intelligence-related books, has penned ‘The Chinese Secret Services from Mao to the Olympic Games’, due out February 29.

His findings claim that special teams are being formed at the country’s embassies abroad “to identify sports journalists … and to define if they have an ‘antagonistic’ or ‘friendly’ attitude in regards to China.”

Potential foreign spies who may seek to enter China by posing as journalists or visitors will be subject to special surveillance.

Monster, 1959 by David Maine

In “Monster, 1959” David Maine invites readers into the pea-sized brain of a 40-foot “monstrous smorgasbord” known as K. Described as “something to cause Darwin to burn his notebooks and run shrieking to the nearest monastery,” K. lacks lips but is a kissing cousin to Godzilla.

He is a hapless, guileless, rampaging creature straight out of B-movie science fiction. In light of Mr. Maine’s flair for domesticating larger-than-life subject matter, his new book’s premise seems hard to resist.

Campbell To Publish Novel

Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell is to publish his first novel later this year. All in the Mind is described by Campbell’s publisher, Random House, as “the compelling story of a psychiatrist, his patients and family, and the pressures they bring to bear upon each other”.

Campbell, who has previously spoken about his struggles with depression, said that although he has himself required psychiatric treatment “this is a book by me, not about me”. He first started to write a novel in 1986 but his partner Fiona accidentally deleted it from their computer, which Campbell reflected “in hindsight is perhaps for the best”.

He said that writing a novel was “something I have always wanted to do”. Caroline Gascoigne, the director of Hutchinson Publishing (part of the Random House group), said that Campbell had not told anyone he was working on a novel until it was finished. She described it as a book that would “surprise, intrigue and fascinate everyone who reads it”.

Five Easy Decades by Dennis McDougal

Dennis McDougal paces his excellent biography of Jack Nicholson, who recently became a septuagenarian, with the command of an experienced marathoner. Nicholson’s constant pursuit of success demands a writer who can keep up.

The theme of the story is Nicholson’s compulsion to escape his impoverished childhood in Neptune, N.J., and the low-paying Roger Corman films he cut his teeth on.

Top Childrens’ Books

The fantasy novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been named the best children’s book of all time in a new poll.

CS Lewis’s masterpiece, first published 58 years ago, beat The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle’s hugely popular picture book first published in 1969, into second place.

Enid Blyton’s Famous Five adventure books, which date back to 1942 and fell out of fashion some years ago before enjoying a resurgence, are third in the poll of 4,000 people, carried out for the charity Booktrust.