In two or three years, will we see lots of books with characters named Isabella and Jacob? It’s likely.
Obama’s and Twilight’s Names are Popular: Barack and Malia
The Social Security Administration tracks the most popular names and says that the changes this year bring Isabella and Jacob to the top. However, President Obama’s family has had the biggest impact on names, followed by the book/movie, Twilight.
The name Barack rose in popularity from 1,993rd to 2,424th in popularity. Not a bad rise percentage-wise. But Barack was outdone by his oldest daughter, Malia. The name Maliyah (a variant spelling) rose from 345th to 192nd in popularity.
The lift for the name Jacob might have come from Twilight. But for sure, Cullen’s rise comes from the popular vampire movie. It rose from 485th to 782nd.
SSA Resource for Names
Character. But how does this affect your novel? Names evoke character. I think I’ve repeated before the story about Scarlett O’Hara. Her name was originally “Pansy.” What a difference a name made here! Of course, you can choose to contrast or compliment character qualities, so maybe Pansy would have worked? Nah! Not in Gone with the Wind!
Historically Appropriate. Probably the best use of the SSA baby name site is to scroll down to the form where you can input a date to see the most popular names by year, starting with 1880! What a great resource for naming characters in a historical novel.
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In this funky, fun new series, meet Toby Klein, a rebel hacker who hangs on the fringes of high school. But after being issued an invitation to be on the varsity cheerleading squad, her life is about to change….big time. Having always thought of the cheerleaders as ditzy, dumb blonds, Toby is amazed to discover that they are an elite group of CIA operatives. Of course they are perfect because who would suspect a cheerleader? So Toby undergoes a Stage 6 makeover and becomes “one of them.” Suddenly she is popular beyond belief and going on covert missions. Toby likes the spy aspect much more than the cheering/ popularity part, but she slowly gets a handle on it. Before she knows it she cannot imagine life before The Squad (she freaks because she thinks she is turning into a true cheerleader at one point). This is a great mix of action/adventure and high school drama. Barnes does a great job of mixing the action and romance/drama of high school. Once you think about it, the cover of cheerleaders as operatives makes so much sense. By picking the loner girl to turn into a cheerleader, Barnes lends a great deal of irony to the story. It is a great new series, but of course once more I have read the advanced reading copies and so will have to wait for them to come out which isn’t til April and then wait even longer than that to actually see more in the series!!!!!
Cotton Malone has retired from the American special forces unit he was in after his work in he Templar Legacy. Now he is running a bookstore and quite content until his ex-wife shows up one day to tell him their son has been kidnapped. An organization wants information only Malone has and are willing to kill to get it. So Malone sets off with his ex-wife to find their son. But soon they stumble onto something bigger than Malone has been art of before. A secret society is trying to destabilize Israel and Saudi Arabia by showing that Israel is not the chosen land of the Jews. Malone, of course, knows nothing of this. The only place that might have the original documents is the Library of Alexandria, long believed to have been destroyed. But it is actually protected by a group of people called The Guardians who issued invitations to view it to a select few. Malone is not one of those few, but uses the keys left to someone else to track it down dragging his reluctant ex-wife with him.
This is a fast-paced, action packed book that is full of intrigue and plot upon plot. Berry keeps you guessing til the last and does not disappoint with a half-finished ending. Everything it resolved to my satisfaction at the end of the book. This is an interesting book in that Malone brings his ex-wife in his jaunt (although not willingly). I like his writing style and the stories he picks to write about. It reminds me of Robert Ludlum.
Today is a momentous day for us here at Penguin Towers - today we announce to the world that BOND IS BACK.
It's been a closely guarded secret here for a little while, but
thankfully the time has come that we can reveal to all that in May
2008, Penguin UK will be publishing the next literary instalment in the
glorious tradition of Ian Fleming's most famous double 0 agent.
And so, we bring you DEVIL MAY CARE - the
new James Bond novel. Most excitingly of all - I can tell you now that
the author of this next instalment is one of the true greats of British
writing ... Sebastian Faulks...
Famed for his "French Trilogy" (The Girl at the Lion D'Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Gray), and more recently for Human Traces and Engleby
- Sebastian has for the last twenty years reached out to readers with
his masterful prose, his meticulous eye for detail and setting, and his
exceptional ability to make his characters transcend the limits of the
page. And now he is applying his style and skill to writing the next
chapter in the life of our favourite spy - Bond, James Bond.
Picking up exactly where Fleming left off, DEVIL MAY CARE
is set during the height of the Cold War, the action played out in
exotic locations across the world - and it seems Sebastian very much
enjoyed getting into the swing of things:
“In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words
in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the
terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then
more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed
this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the
snorkelling.”
I can't reveal too much about the book at this stage - you'll have
to wait until next May I'm afraid - but believe me - it really will be
worth it. DEVIL MAY CARE has everything one could possibly
ask from a James Bond novel, everything one could possibly ask from
Sebastian Faulks' writing, and most of all, it's a bloody good
thriller. I promise you all - you're in for a real treat.
For more information - please visit www.Penguin007.com
Alex Clarke - Senior Editor
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