Salinger sues over Rye 'sequel'

"JD Salinger is taking legal action to block the publication of a book billed as a follow-up to his classic novel The Catcher in the Rye. According to legal papers filed in New York, the 90-year-old's lawyers called the book a "rip-off pure and simple". 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye features someone similar to Holden Caulfield from Salinger's work, which he says only he is able to use."

Top 10 real-life spy gadgets

With the news that MI5 is looking for a Chief Scientific Adviser, spy novelist Jeremy Duns in the UK Times reveals his ten favourite real espionage inventions

1. Poison-tipped umbrella

"Probably the most infamous real-life spy gadget is the umbrella used by the Bulgarian secret services - with KGB help - to kill dissident writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov. KGB technicians converted the tip of an ordinary umbrella into a silenced gun that could fire a pellet containing a lethal dose of ricin. On September 7 1978, Markov felt himself being jabbed in the thigh as he walked across Waterloo Bridge. A man behind him apologised and stepped into a taxi. Markov died four days later. No arrests have ever been made." More here.

McGi lls Melbourne to close

The Australian Bookseller & Publishers Weekly Book newsletter reports:

"The Melbourne bookshop McGills, which has been trading for 149 years, will close this Friday 5 June. ‘It's fair to say we've been struggling for a few years--it's a tough business,' general manager David Davison told WBN. Davison said that with the end of the store's current lease approaching a decision had to be made to ‘either sell or close'. Davison said McGills was established in 1860 with an initial focus on newspapers. The store's large newspaper and specialist magazine collection continued to be a strong selling point even as the store expanded its book offerings ... ‘It is an icon,' said Davison. 'Most people in Melbourne have been to McGills at least once or twice in their life.'"

The Next Big Thing

William Higham in the UK Bookseller looks at what book consumers are going to buy.

"Some key facts; over 50% are motivated by discounts; crime and thriller is the hot genre; 45% of people like the idea of the Espresso p.o.d facility. And my killer stat of the day: 75% of households bought something online last year - so, if you haven't got a transactional web site yet, you need one."

Lady of the House

Rare Book Review reports on a Fanny Burney acquisition by McGill University.

"The McGill University Library has acquired a rare notebook of letters by English novelist Fanny Burney (1752 - 1840), which contains the drafts of some forty letters written in French by the author between the years 1809 - 1811. Burney was a passionate writer and diarist and her feats in literature strongly influenced her successors, such as Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray. Her first novel, Evelina, published in 1778, arguably created a new school of fiction, one in which women in eighteenth century English society "were portrayed in realistic, contemporary circumstances."

The notebook reveals personal information about Fanny Burney at the time when she developed breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy without the aid of any anaesthetic. While it is unclear if the forty letters in the notebook actually represent authentic letters or simply exercises in autobiographical epistolary form, this was certainly a period in Burney’s life from which few of her letters still exist.

Burney’s unpublished notebook comes from the collection of Georgian literature formed by the late Paula Peyraud, which recently came to light at Bloomsbury Auctions in New York. Dr. Richard Virr, Head and Curator of Manuscripts at the Library said that the cost of the book was "considerably lower than our estimates, and a modest sum to acquire such a unique treasure which will support the work of McGill University's Burney Centre." The notebook will be housed in the Library's Rare Books and Special Collections, with Ms Burney suitably as the lady of the house."

Getting away with Murder

Tobias Jones in the UK Observer, finds out why crime fiction travels so well.

"Raymond Chandler once wrote of crime fiction that the "mystery and the solution of the mystery are only what I call 'the olive in the Martini'". You don't order a Martini just for the olive, he implied, and you don't read a whodunit merely to find out who did it. "The really good mystery," he continued, "is one you would read even if you knew somebody had torn out the last chapter." Quite what a crime novel contains, other than "the olive", varies: it can be anything from one-liners and wisecracks to social commentary and political opinion. In recent years a new fashion has emerged: crime writing has been spliced with travel-writing. Having an exotic backdrop is almost more important than the plot itself. There's nothing new to crime books being set abroad: think Eric Ambler or Michael Dibdin. But what's striking is the sheer number of them now being published. If you go into a bookshop looking for a crime novel, it's actually easier to find one based abroad than in Britain." More here

Ten of the best balloon flights in literature by John Mullan in the UK Guardian

"Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

The best-known ballooning sequence in British fiction. Joe Rose is having a picnic in the Chilterns with his girlfriend and watching a hot-air balloon being prepared for an ascent. Suddenly it lifts free of its moorings with only a small boy in the basket. Joe and four others try to hold on to the balloon as it begins to lift. One of them holds on too long.

Babar's Travels by Jean de Brunhoff

Have two elephants ever travelled by balloon? Why, yes. Babar and his new wife Celeste set off on their honeymoon in a super yellow balloon. "What a wonderful journey!" That is, until a storm takes hold of them and they crash on an island. How will they get back to the land of the elephants?

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

In Northern Lights, the balloon piloted by debonair Lee Scoresby snatches Lyra from the malign clutches of Mrs Coulter. Our heroine travels to Svalbard in said vehicle to find Lord Asriel, barely evading cliff-ghasts and then surviving a balloon crash. In The Subtle Knife, we are back in the air, for only the balloon can evade the earthbound spectres."

More here

Odd Book Title

Jack G. Heise. Super golf with self-hypnosis. Kingswood, Surrey: Elliot's Right Way Books, 1962.

The National Library reports holdings

here. Interesting that Deakin University Library is the only library to hold this in Australia. I can't remember their having a golfing Librarian, but maybe they had a golfing Vice Chancellor!