Book News, In Brief

EDITOR'S WARNING: Today's Book News, In Brief is deadly dull. But suffer/scroll through it, and you'll be rewarded with some choice recommendations for lurid crime comics.

Less than a week after reporting their tumbling profits, HarperCollins has announced a three year partnership with the Wall Street Journal for a series of books written by the WSJ's editors and reporters. Is this a smart investment for either party?

Atiq Rahimi's Stone of Patience has all the hallmarks of an award-winner: debilitating illness, a foreign locale, a tragic love story, and a plot revolving around the ravages of war. Now it's got the award. Afghan author Rahimi wins France's 105-year-old Prix Goncourt literary prize.

This should surprise no one, especially not those of us in the book industry. Via the AP: On the weekend after he became the country's first black president-elect, Obama's The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father, both already million sellers, ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.