GalleyCat addresses an article in the Newark Star-Ledger about “gangsta lit” — novels such as G-Spot, Candy Licker and Thug-A-Licious aimed at “serving the appetites of a certain segment of young black urban America … 18 to 35 and interested in rap music and street life.” A Pocket Books exec calls it “the largest growing [...]
Between them, they did so many things: shot up drugs, married Playboy and Baywatch gals, died and came back to life, went to jail for assaulting Pamela Anderson, and played hair metal for decades. Now you can read books about them! Perth, Australia native Paul Miles – who calls himself “the world’s #1 Mötley Crüe [...]
If he had been blown to bits last July 7 — as desired by young Mohammad Sidique Khan, who stood three feet away from him and set off a bomb in a London subway car — then sociology professor John Tulloch wouldn’t have been able to write a book about his experiences on that fateful [...]
The next celebrity who’s busy writing a book (in line after Teri Hatcher, whose depressingly titled Burnt Toast advises fortysomething women about life) is Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan’s head of state is now at work on an autobiography, according to Indiaenews.com. In Line of Fire is expected in bookshelves this fall. “Musharraf may go to town [...]
A peculiar odor was emerging from the Illinois home of prolific 77-year-old author Charlotte Towner Graeber, and police entering the building on Monday discovered that it was full of live animals kept in “atrocious” conditions, according to Surburbanchicagonews.com. Nearly two dozen exotic birds and a “two-foot-long reptile” were among the creatures removed by mask-clad inspectors [...]
Yes, journalists do get sentenced to jail time for what they write. According to Turkish site Bianet.org, Istanbul reporter and author Murat Yetkin is on trial, facing a 4.5-year sentence, for “attempting to influence a fair trial” by criticizing in his paper, Radikal, the court case of Orhan Pamuk. Once beloved in his native Turkey [...]
Cops in Baytown, Texas pulled Joanne Ibarra over for disregarding a traffic sign, then wrote her a citation for having neither a driver’s license nor insurance. Then she was clapped into handcuffs when it was discovered that she had not returned a library book. According to KTEN.com, local Channel 10 news, not returning a library [...]
If you’ve ever sat there gazing at Amazon.com’s URL while waiting for its pages to load slowly, then you’ve probably noticed that it contains the word “obidos.” Some of us were well aware that Óbidos is the name of a Portuguese town, and figured that head honcho Jeff Bezos’s ancestors might have hailed from there. [...]
Nearly 22,000 attendees arrive every week at evangelical pastor Rick Warren‘s 120-acre Southern California church complex. Warren, whose book The Purpose-Driven Life has been dubbed a 21st-century Christian manifesto, plans to use the Korean edition on his upcoming visit to Pyongyang, where Beliefnet.com reports that he “has been invited to preach this summer to some [...]
Alexander McCall Smith’s lighthearted mystery novels featuring plump female detective Precious Ramotswe have introduced the African country of Botswana to readers worldwide. The author is also a bassoonist (his wife plays the flute), and his first-ever concert in Botswana drew an enthusiastic crowd, according to Mmegi, a Botswanan paper. Dressed in a kilt and other [...]