Amazon announced the upcoming release of Kindle (and Kindle DX) Software Update Version 2.5 on their website this week. The updated software will first be released to a small group of Kindle users, with a full launch planned in late May 2010. Among the new features will be the ability to share passages of your favorite books with friends on Facebook and Twitter, and zoom or pan around PDF documents for easier viewing. The highlights of the new features listed on Amazon’s site are as follows:

• Collections: Organize your books and documents into one or more collections.
• PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.
• Password Protection: Password protect your Kindle when you’re not using it.
• More Fonts & Improved Clarity: Enjoy two new larger font sizes and sharper fonts for an even more comfortable reading experience.
• Facebook & Twitter Posts: Share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle.
• Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you’re reading.

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Earlier this month, online magazine Miller-McCune.com posted a very interesting article discussing the findings of a recent study on the correlation between home libraries and children’s educational success. A team of researchers analyzed data from the World Inequality Study, which surveyed more than 70,000 people in 27 countries. Their analysis determined that “growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.” This advantage is independent of a nation’s economic stability, political climate, and even the educational level of a child’s parents.
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Today marks the centennial anniversary of the death of celebrated American author Mark Twain. The people and themes that Twain wrote about still strike a chord with modern audiences, as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer remain among the world’s most beloved literary characters. Also a testament to his enduring popularity, is the fact that many of his books are still in print. In an interview with USA Today, author Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True) calls Twain “America’s most influential writer.” Lamb believes “Huck Finn‘s young narrator…is a prototype for J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scholars and writers continue to be fascinated with Twain’s novels, as well as the rocky events of his real life. Several new books analyzing the author’s life and work are slated to be released this year, including Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens by Texas A&M professor Jerome Loving (University of California Press, 491pgs) and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Library of America, 492pgs). Additionally, several new editions of his books will are schedule to be published this year in Portuguese, French, and Japanese.
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By Alexander Mccall Smith
Pantheon | 224pgs
Release Date: April 20, 2010

Botswana’s intrepid lady detectives return in The Double Comfort Safari Club, the eleventh installment of Alexander Mccall Smith’s charming No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe and her assistant detective Grace Makutsi tackle a variety interesting cases, investigating a potentially adulterous husband and extricating another client from the clutches of a gold-digging girlfriend. Mma Makutsi also battles personal difficulties as well. Her patience is growing thin, waiting for her fiancé Phuti Radiphuti to set a wedding date. But, things get worse when he suffers a serious leg injury and his abrasive aunt does everything in her power to keep Grace from visiting him in the hospital. A more upbeat case involving an unexpected inheritance sends the ladies to a safari lodge on the Okavango Delta, where the stunning beauty of nature leaves them in awe. Yet, the beautiful landscape is soon forgotten when a guest turns up dead, and the detective duo work to solve the case with their unique mix of logic and compassion.
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An article published in The New York Times earlier this week discusses the threat to government funded literacy organizations posed by changes in the proposed 2011 federal budget. Currently, established nonprofit groups like Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), which supplies literacy resources and free books to underserved children, get funding directly from the Department of Education. For the past 34 years, RIF has received an annual government grant, amounting to approximately 75 percent of the organization’s annual revenues. However, under the proposed 2011 budget, the Department of Education will pool money previously earmarked for specific nonprofit literacy organizations, and give the funds to state and local governments to distribute as they see fit. RIF, along with the other previously funded groups, will have to apply for grants in each state, and compete to maintain their funding.
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The American Library Association (ALA) celebrates the first annual National Bookmobile Day today, as part of its National Library Week 2010 (April 11-17) festivities. For over a century, bookmobiles have provided outreach services to communities in rural, tribal and urban areas. As an integral part of library services throughout the county, bookmobiles have helped bring reading and educational materials to people of all classes and ages. Even today, these mobile units offer many of the same services as a traditional library branch, allowing people to check out books and DVDs, take classes, and access the internet. The ALA hopes this celebration will underscore the importance of bookmobiles and help expand their scope.
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By Herman Wouk
Little, Brown and Company | 192pgs
Release Date: April 5, 2010

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk endeavors to integrate the disciplines of faith and science in his latest book The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion. Reflecting on his own experiences, fictional writings and friendships with scientific luminaries during his 94 years of life, Wouk theorizes how religion and science can work together to answer life’s major questions about the purpose of humanity and the value of belief in a higher power. During his research into the history of the atomic bomb for the books The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the author became acquainted with many leading scientists, including Steven Weinberg, Murray Gell-Mann, and Freeman Dyson. But, it was his friendship with Nobel laureate Richard Feynman that inspired Wouk and helped to re-affirm his faith.
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In a recent op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, public school librarian Sara Scribner emphasizes the importance of libraries, librarians and teaching today’s children to be information literate. Though the Google generation, children in grades K-12, is more tech savvy than previous generations, the huge amount of data available on and off-line makes it difficult for anyone to parse and analyze. Google has become an integral part of our lives, and most kids now head straight for this search engine when doing any kind of research. Yet because of all the false or misinformation on the web, this is often not an effective strategy. Young students need to learn to craft successful search terms, utilize a variety of different search engines and databases, and use critical thinking to decide whether the source provides reliable information.
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By Ian McEwan
Nan A. Talese | 304pgs
Release Date: March 30, 2010

Nobel prize–winning physicist, Michael Beard is skating by on his celebrity and little else, as Ian McEwan’s Solar opens. His exorbitant public speaking fees and regular paychecks from his post at Britian’s National Centre for Renewable Energy, give him plenty of time and resources to over-indulge in food, drink and women. In Part One of the book, Beard’s voracious appetites and infidelities have ruined his personal relationships, and caused his professional life to stagnate. In Part Two, the physicist attempts to jump start his career by passing off a dead colleague’s research as his own, and gains sponsorship to study climate change in New Mexico. Because Beard comes by his fresh start in the U.S. dishonestly, he decides to work on mending his deceitful ways. Part Three has him striving to save the environment from Global Warming and himself from a life of debauchery.
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Camellia sinensis

The British Empire enjoyed incredible power and influence during the 19th century, and though its control extended around the globe, it was the lack of control of a small plant that caused a serious issue. The plant in question, Camellia sinensis, used to make tea, was in serious demand by 1800 as the “cuppa” became a British institution. The problem was that China controlled the world’s tea production, and was no longer interested in trading opium for tea as they had in the past. Beginning in 1850, British entrepreneurs sought to develop tea growing in India, the Asian country under the empire’s control, and employed Scotsman Robert Fortune to steal China’s tea making secrets. Sarah Rose writes about this industrial intrigue in the new book For All the Tea In China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History (Viking Adult, 272pgs). The author calls this endeavor to wrest control of the tea trade the “greatest single act of corporate espionage in history.”
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