Free Republic

Audio interview 39:32

Amazon's Kindle ebooks have revolutionised the way that people can read, write and publish books. The process has been democratised, meaning that large teams of proofreaders, illustrators and designers have been replaced by a single author doing everything themselves — including designing the book cover. But the results aren't always pretty, as the Tumblr blog Kindle Cover Disasters proves. Can you judge a book by its cover? Let's hope not. — Compiled by Peter Yeung Link to book cover gallery.

"Downton Abbey" is losing its Dowager Countess. Maggie Smith, who plays the sharp-tongued Violet on the beloved PBS drama, told the Times of London Sunday that the upcoming sixth season will be her last. Perhaps more alarming to fans, if that’s possible, was Smith’s broad hint that this could also be the finale for the show itself. "They say this is the last one, and I can't see how it could go on," Smith told the Times. “I mean, I certainly can't keep going ... To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We're into the late 1920s."

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures is talks to acquire feature-film rights for the classic sci-fi novel The Stars My Destination for producer Mary Parent. Written by Alfred Bester, the book (better known as Tiger! Tiger! in the U.K. for its opening-page reprint of a William Blake poem) follows a man who is shipwrecked in space for years when one day a rescue crew passes him by. Angered, he channels his energies into seeking revenge and begins scheming. The key art of the book is enough to get anyone intrigued.

As one of the most beguiling characters in English literature, Elizabeth Bennet has been described as high-spirited and honest to a fault. Little wonder, then, that the Duchess of Cornwall has admitted she rather admires the Pride And Prejudice heroine. Asked yesterday which storybook character she would like to be, Camilla initially gave the odd response of Winnie The Pooh. Her reason soon became clear, however, as she explained: ‘I would love to have my fingers stuck in honey’. She then revealed that her all-time heroine is Jane Austen’s feisty Lizzy, who defies social conventions – and her own prejudice...

After 75 years, Selina Kyle is finally coming out of the closet. RECOMMENDED Marvel Unveils Thunder God Police Force in New 'Thors' Series 'Justice League Detroit': The Failed Comic Behind the CW's Superhero Future How the New 'Fantastic Four' Trailer Stays Faithful to the Original Comics In the latest issue of the DC Entertainment’s Catwoman comic book series — No. 39, released this week — Kyle kisses another woman, ending decades of fan rumors and speculation by stating canonically that the character is, in fact, bisexual.

Anthony Horowitz Authorized Bond novel is to be published on September 8th. The book is supposed incorporate unpublished Ian Fleming material. My guess is the material from Fleming's scrapbook. The Hardcopy and the Trade LP Paperback is already for sale on Amazon.

Principal photography has started on the six-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace which is being made by BBC Cymru Wales in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton are already aboard to star, with new additions to the cast including Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Brian Cox and Ken Stott. The epic drama is written by House Of Cards and Bridget Jones‘ Andrew Davies. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn in his 2007 adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House.

Dark Market: How Hackers Became the New Mafia audio 39:40

One of Lolita’s first supporters, the great critic Lionel Trilling, addressed what is perhaps a central issue at the heart of this controversial novel, when he warned of the moral difficulty in interpreting a book with such an eloquent narrator: “We find ourselves the more shocked when we realize that, in the course of reading the novel, we have come virtually to condone the violation it presents… We have been seduced into conniving in the violation, because we have permitted our fantasies to accept what we know to be revolting.”

Three years ago, The Los Angeles Times published a story on the Little Free Library movement. The idea is simple: A book lover puts a box or shelf or crate of books in their front yard. Neighbors browse, take one, and return later with a replacement.The L.A. Times followed up last week with a trend story that got things just about right. "two cities have recently cracked down on one of the country's biggest problems: small-community libraries where residents can share books," Michael Schaub wrote. "Officials in Los Angeles and Shreveport, Louisiana, have told the owners of homemade lending libraries...

[I begin] with the story of a series of Socialist scholars conferences that Barack Obama attended when he lived in New York City between the years 1983 and 1985. And when I finally reconstructed what had gone on at these Socialist conferences that Barack Obama attended, I truly was amazed because what I saw was a kind of map of Barack Obama’s entire subsequent political career. It was at this Socialist conferences in New York in the mid-’80s that Barack Obama encountered the groups, the strategies, and the mentors who would guide him throughout his entire political career. [T]hese Socialist...

This Oz sheila newsanchor / movie-critic gives her right devastating review of the movie.

Resourceful. Mysterious background. Domineering. Dark features. Maybe a little grumpy at a party. Sound familiar? In truth we could be describing anyone from Sherlock Holmes to Indiana Jones, Edward Cullen to Fifty Shades of Grey’s titular S&M-loving CEO, Christian Grey. But in many respects the original difficult-to-understand and jerky-on-the-surface romantic hero sprang from the loins of one undeniable and instantly recognizable source. We speak, of course, of Mr. Darcy— Fitzwilliam to friends.

When a black German woman discovered her grandfather was the Nazi villain of 'Schindler's List' An odd series of events led Jennifer Teege to discover that her grandfather was none other than the notorious Nazi Amon Goeth. By Avner Shapira| Feb. 6, 2015 | 7:05 PM In the mid-1990s, near the end of the period during which she lived in Israel, Jennifer Teege watched Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List.” She hadn’t seen the film in a movie theater, and watched it in her rented room in Tel Aviv when it was broadcast on television. “It was a moving experience for...

The 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize will go to winner Harold Holzer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for "Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion" (Simon & Schuster). The Prize is awarded by Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Holzer was chosen from 114 nominations as the 2015 recipient. He will receive $50,000 and a bronze replica of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' life-size bust “Lincoln the Man” in a ceremony April 23 in New York City. The Prize was co-founded in 1990 by businessmen and philanthropists Richard Gilder and...

Does a book that shows kids how to make homemade guns belong in a science museum gift shop? One gun control advocate says such a book has no place at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, where Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2: Build a Secret Agent Arsenal is currently available for purchase

If adopted, these proposals will impact record labels, music publishers, producers, royalty collection groups, terrestrial and satellite radio, and music streaming services. In a 245-page report issued on Thursday, the U.S. Copyright Office is throwing its weight behind what would be the most radical changes to how music is licensed in nearly a half century. Many of the copyright laws governing music were first erected at the time that player pianos became popular and have developed through the advent of radio, new recording devices and, most recently, digital networks. Maria Pallante, director of the Copyright Office, believes the law is...

Kate Bender loved to flirt. The beautiful young woman smiled and batted her eyes at male travelers who stopped during the early 1870s at the tiny inn where she lived in southeast Kansas. But those travelers were flirting with death. Kate and the inn's other keepers -- thought to be her father, mother and brother -- would rob and murder at least 11 people. Often, as a lone visitor sat at a dinner table with his back to a canvas curtain, a Bender man behind the curtain would use a hammer to bash the visitor's skull. The Benders would slash...

This long-anticipated follow-up to Cemetery Dance’s original “Celebration of Halloween” (from way back in 2000!) proves to be a worthy companion volume, filled with fiction that captures the essence of the haunting season alongside essays and remembrances that recall the favorite Halloween memories of a talented roster of horror authors. The editors ...