How many comic-book "origins" movies will audiences pay to see in seven weeks? For North American moviegoers, apparently, three's a crowd. Green Lantern, the first movie to be based on the trans-galactic hero introduced by DC comics in 1941, won the weekend with $52.7 million, according to early studio estimates — but that was the lowest take for the summer season's preternatural dudes. In early May, audiences bought into Thor, giving the Marvel thunder god $65.7 million in ...

Last June, author Adam Mansbach was teaching in the graduate writing program at Rutgers and working on a new novel. Life was good, except for the sleep habits of his daughter Vivien, then 2. Mansbach took to his Facebook Page to post a complaint: "Look out for my forthcoming book, 'Go the [expletive deleted] to Sleep,' Mansbach wrote. He got the immediate gratification of comments and "likes" from a couple dozen friends. He also ...

YOU MAY ALREADY BE A COLLECTOR Among the distinctions that painters covet--gallery shows, a high price for their work at auction, placement in a museum, a patron--being cited by the Guinness Book of World Records is not a must-have. But JANE WOOSTER SCOTT received that honor recently when she was named the "Most Reproduced Artist in America." "I heard I was closing in on the title; for a while I was running neck and neck with Picasso," says Wooster Scott, ...

For Omar bin Laden, the fourth eldest of Osama bin Laden's 20 known children, the awful realization that his father was a terrorist mastermind who was plotting a global conspiracy that would destroy the lives of thousands of innocent people and even his own family came gradually. Of course, there were warning signs: Omar's childhood was marked by regular beatings and survivalist training; the growing army of ruffians and retainers who called his father "Prince"; and that ...

When Tina Fey signed a book contract in the fall of 2008, at the height of her Sarah Palin–portraying ubiquity, some of her fans may have felt a twinge of unease. Was Fey heading into the realm of celebrity cash-in books? Would she write a vacuous memoir with a glossy picture on the cover? I know I was worried. But the arrival of the delightful Bossypants doesn't just put those fears to rest — it makes me ...

In her two previous books, French author Mireille Guiliano instructs women on how to live their lives to the fullest by, ironically enough, not eating to the fullest. She insists that the French have the right answers, pointing to the French joie de vivre as one of the reasons why the country's women stay so infuriatingly thin. In her latest book, Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility, released in the U.S. last ...

Amazon said it would begin selling an international version of its popular e-reader that will work in more than 100 countries on October 19. The world's largest online retailer also said it was lowering the price of the Kindle 2 in the US from $299 to $259, a move likely to spur sales ahead of the holiday season. The announcements come as the e-reader market is becoming more competitive. Sony has already introduced a line of e-book readers, and various ...

Paul Jessup is an avid reader who is increasingly turning to e-books to feed his love of the written form. It's not just ease of use that draws Jessup to books in a digital form, it's the potential e-books represent. "It's much better for looking things up, since any e-reader's search function is 10 times better than flipping and looking and searching on my own" in a printed book, said Jessup, an Erie, Pennsylvania-based writer. He is one of a ...

Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest person, has died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 115, according to the home where she lived and Guinness World Records said Saturday. Gertrude Baines passed away at the Western Convalescent Hospital at 7:25 a.m. (10:25 a.m. ET) Friday, Guinness World Records said. Born in 1894, Baines became the world's oldest person in January after the death of another 115-year-old, Maria de Jesus, from Portugal, Guinness World Records said. At her 115th birthday ...

Following up her bestselling book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls with The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence, author Rachel Simmons argues that girls are taught early on to suppress their emotions and not to live as loudly as they might be inclined to. TIME talked with Simmons about how to raise girls who aren't afraid to be assertive and even a little less than perfect. Could you ...