All the latest...

Alexander McCall Smith has signed for 3 more books in his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, a standalone novel La's Orchestra Saves the World and the first book in a new series Corduroy Gardens (I'm guessing is from his online novel Corduroy Mansions, at the Telegraph). Keep 'em coming.

Rebecca Johns's first novel Icebergs was a finalist for the 2005 PEN Hemingway award, and was a wonderful novel. She has sold her second book, The Countess, which tells the story of Elizabeth Bathory, one of the most prolific female serial killers in history. Sounds intriguing!

Marina Fiorato has signed for another historical fiction novel. The Madonna of the Almonds is a novel of passion, betrayal, art and the creation of amaretto liqueur in 16th century Tuscany. Sign me up. Where do I get a copy?

Captain Chesley Sullenberger signed a $3.2 million dollar book deal for his memoir. You remember him: the pilot who safely landed that plane in the Hudson and saved all those people. Kudos to him.

Jen Lancaster, my favorite snarky memoirist (Bitter is the New Black, Bright Lights Big Ass, Such a Pretty Fat), has signed for two more books. My Fair Lazy will be published in May of 2010 and Involuntary: My Year of Giving Dangerously will be published in 2011. Her newest book, Pretty in Plaid, is scheduled for release this May. Yay!

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, due out in June, is already one of Amazon's top pre-order titles in the food category, proving that cupcakes are still hot. And why wouldn't they be? Did you see the cupcake issue of the Martha Stewart Living magazine?? Mmmm.

One of the biggest book deals is Audrey Niffeneger's new book, which sold for almost $5 million to Scribner. The book, Her Fearful Symmetry, will be released this fall and is a supernatural story about twins who inherit an apartment near a London cemetery and become embroiled in the lives of other residents and their aunt's ghost. It's been 6 years since Niffeneger's novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, was published. It sold for $100,000.

Jon Krakauer's book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tilman was originally scheduled to be published in October of 2008. Publication was delayed and has been rescheduled for this September.

Dan Brown has been all hush hush about his next book, leaving fans to speculate on when the next book will be published. Ron Howard recently said that the book is finished (although a spokesperson said that they do not have a title or a publication date yet). Howard directed the film versions of Brown's popular novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons (out in May).