One in 10 Iceland residents will publish a book

Lindsay Deutsch | USA TODAY

Here's a look at what's buzzing in the book world today:

Welcome back, Bridget: In London, USA TODAY's Kim Hjelmgaard talks to author Helen Fielding about returning to the story of her quirky heroine Bridget Jones 14 years after the last book -- and how the stigma of being single has changed. But Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason has fans asking one question: Where's Mr. Darcy? Fielding talks about killing off Jones' love interest, and how she broke the news to Colin Firth, who played him in the movies. And to complete the trifecta of stories, Martha Moore reviews the novel, giving it 3 stars (out of four), writing that "there's a very likable, frazzled woman who narrates the enjoyable book and she will make you smile. But she's not our Bridge."

Humans of New York: Photographer Brandon Stanton explores the quirky and colorful characters of New York City on his blog, and now it has been compiled into a book. He tells USA TODAY's Jocelyn McClurg that he sees his work as more "storytelling" than "photography," and that his favorite kind of human is "really young people" and "really old people."

Franco's back: An anonymous actor, he is not. Multi-faceted thespian James Franco returns to the literary world with a novel, Actors Anonymous. USA TODAY film critic Claudia Puig gives it 3 stars, writing that Franco "performs and auto-celebrity roast that is at once mordantly funny, maddening and provocative." At NPR, Linda Holmes is a bit more skeptical of the celeb, ruminating on his many high and low-brow projects with the question, "What is James Franco doing?"

RIP James A. Emanuel: Poet and critic James A. Emanuel, who wrote about racism in the U.S., has died at 92, reports The New York Times.

Let's move to Iceland: According to the BBC, Iceland is experiencing a book boom, boasting a statistic that one in 10 of its residents will publish a book. The island nation has "more writers, more books published and more books read, per head, than anywhere else int he world."

Star-studded audio: Audiobooks are getting some star attention. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman are working with documentary maker Ken Burns to curate Playtone, an audiobook collection for Audible. A highlight of the collection is sure to be Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston narrating Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.

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