Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming
2019-11-23
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海词积累
1. executive /ɪg΄zekjətɪv/ n. 经理;主管领导
2. juggernaut /΄dʒʌɡənɔ:t/ n. 强大力量
4. estimate /΄estɪmeɪt/ v. 估价;估算
5.lucrative/΄luːkrətɪv/adj. 赚大钱的;获利多的
6. bandwagon /΄bændwæɡən/ n. 潮流;时尚
Michelle Obama's autobiography, Becoming, is on track to become the most successful memoir in modern publishing history, selling more than 10 million copies to date.
Thomas Rabe, chiefexecutiveof the German media group Bertelsmann, parent company of Becoming's publisher, Penguin Random House, said the title was the book giant’s biggest success of the last year. “We believe that the memoir could well become the most successful one,” he said.
Penguin Random House won a bidding war for the rights to Barack and Michelle Obama's autobiographies in 2017, paying more than $65 million, a record for US presidential memoirs.
Becoming has been a global salesjuggernautsince being launched in 31 languagessimultaneouslyin mid-November.The audiobook, read by the former first lady,has become the fastest-ever seller put out by Penguin Random House.
Obama has been promoting her memoir with a hugely popular global tour. Tickets for her first live appearance in the UK, at the Royal Festival Hall in December, sold out in minutes.She also visited Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo,Paris and Amsterdam. Overall UK sales of Obama's book currently stand at more than 600,000, ranking it 11th on the list of bestselling memoirs and biographies since sales records began in 1998, according to Nielsen BookScan.
While Becoming proved to be a modern best seller, it has some way to go to match The Diary of Anne Frank, which was first published in English in 1952 and isestimatedto have sold more than 35 million copies in 65 languages.
Life beyond the US presidency has provedlucrativefor the Obamas. Last year the former president and first lady struck a deal with Netflix to produce TV series and films. The Obamas are not the only former White House residents jumping on the bookbandwagonat Penguin Random House. The publisher said that The President Is Missing, a thriller by the former US president Bill Clinton and James Patterson, has also proved to be a best seller.
—From The Guardian
Reading Check
Answer the following questions according to the text.
1. Which company won the rights to publish Becoming?__
2. How many languages has the book Becoming been translated into?
3. How did Obama promote her book?
4. When was The Diary of Anne Frank published in English?______
5.Who wrote the book The President Is Missing?_
Language Study
Sentences for writing
1. 我们相信这本传记肯定会是最成功的一本。
We believe that the memoir could well become_________ ____________ _____________one.
2. 出版商提到由美国前总统比尔·克林顿和詹姆斯·帕特森共同撰写的惊险小说 《总统失踪了》,经证明也是非常畅销的。
The publisher said that The President Is Missing, a thriller by the former US president Bill Clinton and James Patterson, has also _________ _________ _________a best seller.