Buildings from book-inspired design - beautiful. (Flavorwire)

Crime writers and crime fighters join forces: Book ‘Em North Carolina raises $9,000 for literacy efforts in the State. (The Robesonian)

You never know what you might find in an old book. Note signed by Paul Revere found in a rare book at Brown University. (The New York Times)

A discussion of literature’s favorite mother’s is brewing at (BookRiot)

Apparently, today is International Day Against DRM. (DefectiveByDesign)

…and Cory Doctorow will tell you why you should take up its cause. (The Guardian)

Hachette Livre cuts the prices of more ebooks than you can shake a stick at. (The Bookseller)

While DC schools to cut out school librarians. (The Washington Post)

Surprise, surprise. Erstwhile Fox News Mole, Joe Muto, lands a a big book deal with Dutton. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Author, David Bowman, dies at age 54. RIP. (The New York Times)

“On this day in 1948, Norman Mailer’s first novel, The Naked and the Dead was published. A front-page editorial in the London Sunday Times found the language in the novel ‘incredibly foul and beastly’ and lobbied to have the book ‘withdrawn from publication immediately.’ Most reviewers, however, agreed with the New York Times that, despite the swearing and being ‘virtually a Kinsey Report on the sexual behavior of the GI,’ the book ranked among the best war novels…” (Today In Literature)

Jane Rogers takes the Arthur C. Clarke Award for THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMB. (The Guardian)

A time-lapse money cascade drenches a spoof of a goof: Andrew Shaffer and FIFTY SHAMES OF EARL GREY. (The New York Times)

Debut novelist, Tanya Byrne, talks about the YA boom with (The Telegraph)

A peek at what some famous authors kept on their bookshelves. (Flavorwire)

…and then just some really interesting bookshelves all on their own. (The Huffington Post)

The longlist is up for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust’s Book Awards. Say that ten times fast. (The Scotsman)

Literary adaptations dominate the nominations for the MTV Movie Awards. (GalleyCat)

The Publishers Association calls for piracy fight to be “ramped up”. (The Bookseller)

With strong digital sales, Simon & Schuster reports a strong start to 2012. (Publishers Weekly)

“On this day in 1810 Lord Byron swam the Hellespont, in emulation of Leander’s legendary swims to visit his beloved Hero. Byron was twenty-two, and ten months into his two-year tour of the Mediterranean. He was not yet famous for his poetry or his profligacy, although he had just finished the first draft of Childe Harold, and had just ended, while in Malta, his first serious affair…” (Today In Literature)

Despite an A-list cast bringing their A-game performances, Jonathan Franzen’s THE CORRECTIONS is just too tricky in the details for HBO to pull off. (Deadline.com)

China tries ad-placement on book covers. (People’s Daily Online)

Barnes & Noble selects some Summer reads from new writers. (Barnes & Noble)

On Twitter, Publishers Marketplace editor Sarah Weinman linked to an older, but interesting piece on book reviewing ethics. (Media Matters)

Target stores to stop selling Kindles. (gigaom)

Generational favorite and lightning rod, Judy Blume, has coffee and a chat with (Barista Kids)

James Hall says he’s cracked the code of writing a bestseller. Buy his book and make him right, I suppose. (Salon)

Peter Osnos tries to make definitive sense of this jumbled ebook lawsuit over at (The Atlantic)

Author, Ernest Callenbach, dies at age 83. RIP. (The San Fransisco Chronicle)

“On this day in 1594, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew was entered in the Stationers’ Register by printer Peter Short. The Stationers Company was the official organization of printers and publishers, given a monopoly in 1557 to practice ‘the art or mystery of printing.’…” (Today In Literature)

Greg Mortenson is off the hook as a Federal Judge dismisses the civil lawsuit over THREE CUPS OF TEA. (The Seattle Times)

Christopher Scarver beat Jeffrey Dahmer to death in 1994 in a Wisconsin prison. Now, he thinks there’s a book in there somewhere. (TMZ)

Former Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee, takes up for embattled reporter, Bob Woodward. (The Daily Beast)

GRAY vs. GREY causes a bit of title (not to mention YA/Erotica) confusion on the bookstore shelf. (Entertainment Weekly)

Here are five athletes that turned out to be good writers as well. (SOHO Press)

Warner Bros. will publish some classic film scripts as ebooks. (The Wall Street Journal)

So yesterday’s news on Nook and Microsoft getting cozy turned the spotlight on a couple of hedgefunds. (The New York Post)

We could just let computers write all the books, how ’bout that? (The Huffington Post)

Mark Haddon has a book chat with (The Telegraph)

Here’s a preview of what to look for in summer reading. (USA Today)

… or if all of that is too light, here are some featured true-crime highlights from the 2012 Edgar Awards list. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Ben Fountain, author of BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK, sits down for an interview with his local paper, (The Dallas Morning News)

“On this day in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped began serialization in Young Folks magazine. Although begun ‘partly as a lark, partly as a potboiler,’ Kidnapped was an instant and huge hit; taken with the earlier Treasure Island (1883) and A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), it established Stevenson as one of England’s most popular writers of ‘Children’s Literature.’…” (Today In Literature)

Stephen King sides with Warren Buffett, but with more cursing. (The Daily Beast)

Shelley’s Ghost: The Afterlife of a Poet is the New York Public Library’s featured exhibit until June 24th. (The Smart Set)

Author, Kate Summerscale, is interviewed on her latest, MRS. ROBINSON’S DISGRACE. (The Telegraph)

There’s a new Ian McEwan story to be had at (The New Yorker)

Hmmm. What’s e-brewing, I wonder? Microsft drops $300 million into Nook. (The Daily Beast)

… a bit more on the subject from (NPR)

Poet, Matt Rasmussen, wins the Walt Whitman Award which recognizes a talent that has not yet published a book. (The Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Buzz Bissinger’s Byliner piece, AFTER FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, gets lost in the tangle of everybody watching everybody’s prices. (The New York Times)

Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES (and sequels) has been a shot in the arm for Scholastic. (Yahoo! News)

Pittsburgh fixture, Mystery Lover’s Bookshop, gets a long-distance owner in the eleventh hour. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

It’s a dog’s life: Uggie the canine star, gets a deal for his memoir. Don’t ask me. I just link to the stuff. (The Chicago Sun-Times)

Diane Keaton adds a new foreword to her memoir, THEN AGAIN, on how she wrote the book in the first place. (The Huffington Post)

“On this day in 1642, courtier, soldier, and gentleman-poet, Richard Lovelace presented the Kentish Petition to Parliament — a Royalist document calling for the restoration of the rights of King Charles I — and was promptly imprisoned for it…” (Today In Literature)

Just a bookstore… there’s no such thing. A shop and a dream closes in Peshawar. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Author, Toni Morrison, is among this year’s recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (The New York Times)

The Guardian posts its picks for the 10 best first lines in literature. (The Guardian)

The London Book Fair through the eyes of House of Anansi. (The National Post)

Short stories on the iTunes model? I can see that. (GalleyCat)

Former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is interviewed about her most bookish thoughts at (The New York Times)

The publishing industry fiddles with Pinterest to see how it could work for them. (Publishers Weekly)

Margaret Atwood, as only she can, extends the secrets of American inner-workings to the Martians. (The New York Times)

… and her name comes up again, as her WANDERING WENDA stories are adapted for television. (Quill & Quire)

Buying reviews on Amazon - verrrry depressing. (Dear Author)

“On this day in 1980 Alfred Hitchcock died at the age of eighty. Hitchcock averaged a film a year for over fifty years, and all but a handful of them began as a short story, novel or play. While many films came from ’shocker’ or noir writers such as Robert Bloch (Psycho) and Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window), or more mainstream suspense writers such as Daphne du Maurier (The Birds, Rebecca), John Buchan (The Thirty-Nine Steps) and Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train), a surprising number came from more famous or literary types — Conrad, Steinbeck, Galsworthy, Maugham, Wyndham Lewis, Sean O’Casey and others. Hitchcock worked with Thornton Wilder, and tried to work with Raymond Chandler, and wanted to work with Hemingway…” (Today In Literature)

The Edgars for 2011 have been awarded! (TheEdgars.com)

While the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize offers up its list of nominees. (Quill & Quire)

Here are eleven works of aer & literature that withered under brutal reviews and went on to become classics. (Mental Floss)

Animated maps could be a wonderful enhancement for eTextbooks. (School Library Journal)

The film critics aren’t too impressed, but Slate thinks Edgar Allan Poe may have loved Cusack’s The Raven. (Slate)

… and The Atlantic chimes in on the subject, as well. (The Atlantic)

The publishing industry is undoubtedly in flux, and Amazon may have a huge influence is what it will become, says (The Guardian)

And THE SISTERS BROTHERS, by Patrick DeWitt, takes the Leacock Prize. (bookguys)

Jan Wong lost her deal at the very threshold of publication. Now, Wong returns with her memoir, OUT OF THE BLUE. (Quill & Quire)

It’s still weird, but also still kinda cool. More structures made from books. (flavorwire)

Pearson’s counter to the DOJ/Amazon-muscle lawsuit is claiming big teeth and sharp claws. We shall see. (GalleyCat)

“On this day in 1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson died, at the age of seventy-eight. Though Emerson’s last decade was one of increasing debility — aphasia and senile dementia — it was also one of international accolade. The Sage of Concord was still invited to speak across America and Europe, and he was still able to pack them in, though many came to see and honor rather than to hear the old talks on the familiar themes, redelivered now only with the prompts of his daughter…” (Today In Literature)

Wonder what Henry David Thoreau would think of a video game based on his WALDEN work? (GalleyCat)

Here’s a sneak peek at Dan Rather’s new memoir, RATHER OUTSPOKEN. (The Charlotte Observer)

YA novels, old-school style: here are 25 classics for teenaged readers. (The Telegraph)

… and Fiona McCade champions some banned and questioned books as fine for younger readers in (The Scotsman)

Margaret Atwood talks about the film adaptation of PAYBACK: DEBT AND THE SHADOW SIDE OF WEALTH at (Salon)

The inaugural NYC Literary Honors are awarded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (The New York Times)

But Robert McCrum is a little bit over literary awards. (The Guardian)

David Simon echos some of the sentiments on Harlan Ellison’s famous rant on paying authors, but with less cursing. (GalleyCat)

The meteoric success of EL James’ 50 SHADES OF GREY emboldens Ebury to revive its erotica imprint, Black Lace. (The Bookseller)

Occupy LA gets supposed with a ‘Closed” sign on Skylight Books’ front door. (Publishers Weekly)

“On this day in 1893 Anita Loos was born. Loos started writing scenarios for D. W. Griffith while she was in her teens, and eventually worked on over sixty films, but her most enduring creation is her 1925 novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The play, musical or film versions may be better-known, but the book was an immediate hit and soon translated into over a dozen languages…” (Today In Literature)

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at an advanced copy of WHITE HORSE (which hit bookstores last Tuesday) but decided to hold on to my review until you could get your hands on it. ‘Cause you’re going to want to.

If you survived the end of the world, what would you become? Surely you don’t imagine you’d remain the very same you, the you that you’ve come to know and love (and self-loathe at intervals.) Would you become a hero? A hermit? Or perhaps a looter, or a lunatic?

What is there left after every achievement you’ve gained in life becomes meaningless and you’re stranded on the ashy other side of all you’ve ever known? Once someone (or something) has pushed the reset button on civilization, who will you be? And what will you cling to?

Hopefully, these kinds of questions are all just hypothetical exercises for us here on AuthorScoop, but as I’ve always said, fiction is the best way to exercise your mental muscles for empathy, outrage, compassion, judgment, and interpretation. As such, Alex Adams’ WHITE HORSE is one hell of a workout.

In her debut novel, Adams treads a tightrope of excellent words over an abyss of death and destruction. And what little umbrella does she employ to balance against the gusts? Hope.

WHITE HORSE tells the story of Zoe Marshall’s trek across a world ravaged by a disease dubbed White Horse. She goes through wicked trials in her trans-Atlantic journey, fighting despair and digging for decency and dignity in her darkest moments. She risks all that’s left in the search for the man she loves, in the hope that he has somehow survived the plague. Zoe jousts villains and collects allies from those who remain - the small percentage of people who have natural immunity from the virus, and also the others, a scattering of the changed: the ones who didn’t die, but didn’t exactly survive, either - not recognizably as themselves, at any rate.

This isn’t for the squeamish. But what apocalypse really is, if we’re being honest?

Highly recommended.

Get it at your favorite place to buy books. If that’s online, start here.

Alex Adams‘ WHITE HORSE is one of the most highly anticipated releases for 2012. And now it’s here. Hailed as post-apocalyptic fiction at its finest, readers hungry for pulse-pounding what-if scenarios are getting their dose of handsomely-worded poison (and antidote) from the genre’s newest star. The first in a trilogy of of stories on what happens after a biological Armageddon, WHITE HORSE is one to watch for on the bestseller lists.

We’d like to thank Alex for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Alex: Does my high school theater class retelling of The Wizard of Oz count? No? Rats! In that case, White Horse is my very first publication credit.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Alex: White Horse is an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic thriller for the adult market, though it definitely dips several toes into the Horror genre, too. Zoe, my protagonist, flees to Europe in search of her lost love as the world’s population is dying of a horrifying disease. Her journey is complicated by her unexpected pregnancy and the companions she collects along the way. You won’t find zombies in White Horse’s pages, but those who contract the virus and survive are definitely…different.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Alex: If I was at the Academy Awards right now, making an acceptance speech, I’d probably say something along the lines of: “I’d like to thank my whole life.” Every experience I’ve ever had–good and bad–and every person I’ve ever known has brought me to this place and time. Most notably, though, my agent Alexandra Machinist and my editor Emily Bestler get a lion’s share of the credit. Every piece of their input made my story stronger.

And my fiance, Bill, of course. He’s the reason Lisa is blind (sorry, Lisa, he was right!) His insight, support, and astounding talent at ordering pizza has been invaluable.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Alex: I’m most definitely a morning person–the earlier the better. By mid-afternoon my attention is waning and all I want to do is look at cats with funny captions.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Alex: Don’t be in such a huge hurry. Writing is a craft, and it takes time to learn–and successfully conceal–all the underpinnings. A “no” now isn’t necessarily a “no” forever. All it means is that you’re not ready yet. Everything can change with the next manuscript.

***

WHITE HORSE is available, well, everywhere. You can (and should) get your copy at your favorite bookstore, or even when you go pick up vitamins and deck cushions at Target. For all things WHITE HORSE and Alex Adams, including convenient links to online retailers for the book’s hardcover and electronic editions, check out www.alexadamsbooks.com.

With no apparent concern for either the impending Mayan Apocalypse or the reportedly inevitable Publishing one, Random House stakes its claim on its Manhattan office space until 2023. (The New York Post)

The German State of Bavaria holds the copyright to MEIN KAMPF, and intends to publish one more edition of HItler’s manifesto before it expires in 2015. (BBC)

Can a heterosexual novel do justice to homosexual characters? Nobel winner, Herta Müller, has given it a go in THE HUNGER ANGEL. (Salon)

John Grisham attempts to explain baseball to foreigners so that they can better enjoy his novel, CALICO JOE. (The Huffington Post)

Cassandra Neace talks about meeting her writerly heroes over at (BookRiot)

In a bold move that was bound to happen sooner or later, Sci-Fi/Fantasy publishing titan, Tor/Forge is set to go DRM-free for their entire catalog of ebooks. (tor.com)

… which will go well with a new Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light, which David Pogue says is the ereader cake and eating it, too. (The New York Times)

… while Andrew Lasowsky makes the case for Facebook buying up Nook altogether in (The Huffington Post)

Christopher Hitchens’ last book, ARGUABLY, misses out on the Orwell Prize shortlist. (The Guardian)

… but here’s what made it on. (The Orwell Prize)

The estate of Philip K. Dick revives its lawsuit against the makes of the film, The Adjustment Bureau. (The Guardian)

“On this day in 1898 William S. Porter — the drug store clerk, cowboy, fugitive, bank teller, cartoonist and future ‘O. Henry’ — began a five-year prison sentence for embezzlement. Porter had published several stories prior to his prison term, but the fourteen written behind bars represented a new style and quality, and began his rise to popularity…” (Today In Literature)

…for about $15 a piece. Watch and learn.

A salute to Philip Larkin, his poetry and other works, tonight in New York. (The Daily Beast)

ICM agent, Nick Harris, strikes out on his own to create The Story Foundation, with an eye toward a new model of intellectual property ventures. (deadline.com)

Today is National Stationary day in Britain. (The Guardian)

Manhattan looks east, as India’s book market is booming. (The New York Times)

The story of a Texas bookmobile is on tap at (Library Journal)

Author, Marilynne Robinson, talks about her inspiration for her latest essay collection, WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I READ BOOKS. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Philippa Gregory has a chat about her new Young Adult novel, a first for her, over at (The Telegraph)

A publishing executive admits to busting DRM and tells us why. (Paid Content)

“On this day in 1891 Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was published. The novel had originally appeared in Lippincot’s Monthly Magazine the previous summer, and caused an uproar for what one newspaper called ‘its effeminate frivolity, its studied insincerity, its theatrical cynicism, its tawdry mysticism, its flippant philosophizing, its contaminating trail of garish vulgarity.’ In revising for book publication, Wilde toned down some of the more overt homosexuality and the decadent theme…” (Today In Literature)

Ian McEwan is interviewed in (The New Yorker)

Meet the new gatekeepers: a selection of romance authors band together to give their seal of approval (or not) to self-published works. (USA Today)

New York Magazine cheers on Macmillan and Penguin as they parry in the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against them. (nymag.com)

It’s Preservation Week for librarians in the U.S., and The Library of Congress trots out its best timeless collections. (The Washington Post)

Here’s a list of 100 books where the title starts off, THE MAN WHO… (Publishers Weekly)

An audio interview of authors Fiona Maazel and Heidi Julavits gives insight on writing emotion. (Bomb Magazine)

Get a pen. Write it down. The only three bits of writing advice required, courtesy of (GalleyCat)

Hot Key Books teams up with The Guardian to offer a new fiction prize for young writers. (The Bookseller)

Here’s what books the beneficiaries of World Book Night can look forward to enjoying. (USA Today)

“On this day in 1616 both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died, thus prompting UNESCO to declare today ‘World Book and Copyright Day.’” The declaration may also have been inspired by a third death on this day, that of William Wordsworth in 1850. As April 23 is also the generally accepted date of Shakespeare’s birth (based on baptismal records), the day is even more momentous. On the other hand, some say that Cervantes really died on April 22; and in any case, the claim that both died on the same day is misleading, since it relies on a calculation correlating the new Gregorian calendar of Cervantes’s Spain to the old Julian calendar still in use in Shakespeare’s England…” (Today In Literature)

Unlike my birthday, it could be argued that every day is Earth Day. But April 22nd gets the title. Here are some books that give a nod to Mother Earth. (January Magazine)

For your consideration: the ten funniest memoirs of all time, according to (Flavorwire)

Yeah, yeah. We know. Printed books, especially hardbacks, are going extinct. Or are they? (The Guardian)

Here’s a bit more on what’s happening at The LA Festival of Books. (The Los Angeles Times)

Oh dear god. If you really have to, there’s a company that will reprint a classic novel with all the character names replaced with your own and your friends’ and family’s. (GalleyCat)

Hachette Audio has wrangled David Folster Wallace’s mammoth, INFINITE JEST, into an audiobook. (The Huffington Post)

Have an inspirational look to some truly creative book nooks. (BookRiot)

“On this day in 1960, ‘confessional’ American poet Anne Sexton published her first book of poems, To Bedlam and Part Way Back. One of the poems in the Bedlam collection was ‘Her Kind,’ a poem which eventually became something of a signature piece. She would usually begin her readings with it, and when those readings became poetry-musical performances accompanied by a chamber rock group, she was billed as ‘Anne Sexton and Her Kind’… (Today In Literature)

Pineapples don’t have sleeves. Also, standardized tests and a nonsense children’s story are a match made in the public school system. (The New York Times)

Christopher Hitchens is memorialized and remembered fondly in New York by some very famous friends. (The Guardian)

The LA Times Book Prizes go to Alex Shakar and Stephen King, among others. (The Los Angeles Times)

Sometimes big awards come with a side order of writer’s block. Just ask Jesmyn Ward. (The Los Angeles Times)

Bram Stoker’s lost journal is sunnier and lighter than many had hoped. (The Telegraph)

Mac Barnett talks turning children’s fables on their heads and his latest picture book, CHLOE THE LION. (The San Fransisco Chronicle)

Debut author, Lauren Elkin, has a chat with the (Bookslut)

Daniel Radcliffe, best known for playing Harry Potter, says he plans to write a novel. (The Telegraph)

“On this day in 1894 George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man opened. It was one of his earliest plays and the first commercial success in a sixty-five play, half-century career. On the strength of it Shaw was able to give up being a music critic and, at the age of forty, become a full-time playwright…” (Today In Literature)

Pulitzer juror, Maureen Corrigan, is none too pleased that the three-expert panel’s six month, 300 book effort was wasted when no Prize was awarded. (The Washington Post)

Jane Friedman, former boss over at Harper Collins and a woman very serious about her books, gives us a peek into her home. (The Wall Street Journal)

World Book Night is nigh. (The Telegraph)

There are some books that writers just shouldn’t read. (NPR)

Here’s an update on the legal wrangling concerning James Joyce’s copyright. (London Review of Books)

Ebooks aren’t that popular in Germany yet, because you can’t swing a… well, anything without hitting a bookstore. (Bloomberg Business Week)

But Toro Magazine makes a bullet-pointed case for why ebooks are better than the usual kind. (Toro)

Typewriters of the rich and famous. (The Los Angeles Times)

“On this day in 1912 Bram Stoker died, at the age of sixty-four. Though the author of a dozen novels, three short story collections and four non-fiction books, Stoker is known almost exclusively for Dracula, published in 1897. The novel brought little fame or fortune in Stoker’s lifetime, and in his last year he made so little from his writing that he had to petition for a compassionate grant from the Royal Literary Fund. Nor did the book’s erotic violence raise eyebrows…” (Today In Literature)