Category: Books

Some final words coming from George Carlin
NEW YORK ñ Some final thoughts are coming from George Carlin.
Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, said Tuesday that the comedian’s book “Last Words” will be published in November.
Carlin died in June 2008 at age 71 and worked on the book for the last decade of his life. He collaborated on it with author and humorist Tony Hendra.
Hendra is best known for the memoir “Father Joe.”
Carlin’s other books included “Brain Droppings” and “Napalm and Silly Putty.”

Penguin to release last Green Gables book in its entirety
Penguin Canada says it will publish the final volume of the Anne of Green Gables series in its entirety for the first time ever.
The Blythes Are Quoted was slated to be the ninth title in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s popular series about head-strong orphan Anne Shirley, but it was never published during the author’s lifetime.
A shortened version of the book ó which left out about 100 pages of poems, short stories and vignettes ó was published in 1974.
Now, Penguin says it will release the entire book this October, which will feature 15 short stories about Anne, as well as poems that Montgomery concocted “by” the heroine and her son Walter, who dies during the First World War.
Penguin said the book, set before and after the war, has Montgomery “experimenting with storytelling methods in ways she had never attempted before.”
Montgomery, who died in 1942, blends dialogue, prose and poetry in the book.
According to the announcement, The Blythes Are Quoted could surprise a few Anne fans with its dark themes of “adultery, illegitimacy, misogyny, revenge, murder, despair, bitterness, hatred, and death ó usually not the first terms associated with L.M. Montgomery.”
The Anne of Green Gables series of books hit its 100-year anniversary in 2008. The original book, first published in June 1908, has since been translated into 33 languages.
A prequel ó Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson ó was published last year with the consent of Montgomery’s heirs.
There have been two movies for the big screen, six for television and three TV series. The Charlottetown Festival’s stage version of the story is the longest-running musical in Canadian history.

Montreal publisher starts printing updated Michael Jackson biography
MONTREAL – A Montreal publishing house has started printing an updated biography of Michael Jackson, a week after abruptly stopping the presses following the sudden death of the King of Pop.
Transit Publishing president Pierre Turgeon says author Ian Halperin’s book, “Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson,” went to press Thursday.
The biography, originally titled “Michael Jackson: Return from Exile,” is scheduled to hit Canadian shelves next week.
“I stopped the presses and the author added some material to put the book up to speed,” Turgeon said Thursday.
“Obviously, we had to change the ending.”
The book initially ended with Jackson’s expected return to the stage for 50 shows at London’s O2 Arena, a much-anticipated series that had been scheduled to begin this month.
Turgeon said the final chapter now includes details of Jackson’s death. It also features material Halperin got from a meeting with the pop star, which had been protected by a non-disclosure agreement.
That deal expired after Jackson’s death, the publisher added.
In December, Halperin, who recently released a controversial, unauthorized biography of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, publicly predicted that Jackson had six months to live.
Turgeon said the printer, Transcontinental, sent the Montreal writer’s book to press around the same time officials confirmed Jackson’s death.
“I was very stressed because everybody from the office at Transcontinental had left for the evening,” said Turgeon, who eventually tracked down the plant’s night foreman.
The book will be released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 14 and in France on July 17.
Around 300,000 copies will hit stores in the U.S., 100,000 in England, 100,000 in France and 40,000 in Canada.

Books by Martin Luther King Jr. to be republished
ATLANTA ñ Four books that have been long out of print by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will be published again under a new deal with Beacon Press brokered by King’s youngest son.
Dexter King called it a historic partnership that will bring his father’s words to a global audience. Beacon, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association, publishes books on social justice, human rights and racial equality.
The Boston-based publisher will release new editions of “Stride Toward Freedom,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?,” “Trumpet of Conscience” and “Strength to Love” in 2010.
Under the agreement, Beacon will also compile King’s writings, sermons, lectures and prayers into new editions with introductions by leading scholars.

Da Vinci Code sequel set for September
The Lost Symbol, the long-delayed Dan Brown thriller featuring Robert Langdon, the protagonist from The Da Vinci Code, will be in bookstores in September.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced at the London International Book Fair on Monday that Brown’s first book since The Da Vinci Code was published six years ago will hit the shelves Sept. 15 with an initial English-language print run of five million copies.
It was originally scheduled to be published in 2005.
Jason Kaufman, executive editor of Doubleday, said the story unfolds over a 12-hour period and follows Harvard symbologist Langdon “through a masterful and unexpected landscape.”
In a press release, the American author said he spent five years researching the book. “Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine,” Brown added.
The Da Vinci Code, Brown’s fourth novel, was a publishing phenomenon with 81 million hardcover copies in print. The British paperback edition spent more than two years in the Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers’ list, with 68 weeks in the top place, and is Britain’s bestselling paperback novel to date. It has been translated into 51 languages.
It also took some heat for its portrayal of the Catholic Church and its license with facts.
After The Da Vinci Code’s publication, Brown’s earlier novels Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress went on to become international bestsellers.
The 2006 film, The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, was a No. 1 box office hit, with receipts of $758 million US. Columbia Pictures will release Angels and Demons on May 15.

Bob Barker returns to ‘The Price is Right’
LOS ANGELES ñ Bob Barker returned to “The Price Is Right” ó and this time he was the showcase.
After nearly two years in retirement, the 85-year-old former game show host was invited to come on down to “The Price Is Right” to promote his upcoming memoir, “Priceless Memories,” due out April 6.
Barker on Wednesday once again stood on the set where he had worked for 35 years. As he walked the halls of the studio, old co-workers greeted Barker with broad smiles, seemingly as happy to have him back as he was to be there.
Dressed in a black suit with a hot pink shirt and matching tie, the silver-haired host appeared alongside successor Drew Carey near the finale of the show, which airs April 16, to present two prize showcases that were somewhat stretched to promote Barker’s memoir.
One showcase, for example, featured a computer to order the book, a trip to New York City to buy a bundle of the books from the publisher, and a truck to haul them all back in.
“That general idea was in their script, but I shamelessly overacted on a lot of it,” Barker said, laughing mischievously in his dressing room after the show.
All 300 members of the show’s live studio audience also received a copy of the tome.
Most days, Barker said his retirement has been filled with various projects helping animals. He also keeps in shape by exercising with light weights and an elliptical machine.
“I have remarked that I better go back and start doing the show again to get a little rest,” Barker said.
But despite his busy lifestyle, the veteran performer said he misses the excitement of “The Price is Right.”
“I could never have done this show if I hadn’t enjoyed it, and one of the things I enjoyed was the excitement with the audience, the fun with the audience, the responses of the audience,” Barker said. “I’d done audience participation my entire adult life.”
Barker taped his last regular episode ó his 6,586th ó of the popular CBS game show in June 2007, retiring after five decades on national television.
Always the animal lover, Barker spends his free time with his dog, Jesse, and two rabbits, Mr. Rabbit and Honey Bunny. Proceeds from Barker’s book will go to the DJ&T Foundation, which he founded in 1994 to subsidize the cost of spaying and neutering animals.
Asked at the end of the interview if there was anything else he’d like to add, Barker chuckled and said, just as he had for 35 years on network television: “Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered.”

Write On! Bon Jovi book coming out in the fall
NEW YORK ñ Bon Jovi is ready to spill.
The multiplatinum rockers are marking their 25th anniversary with “Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful,” an “insider portrait” that includes previously unpublished photographs and text by the band members.
“The book offers unprecedented insights into the members’ lives on stage, on the road, and at home, as well as intimate reflections on the highs and lows of their 25 years together,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by publisher HarperCollins.
The book comes out next fall, when a documentary of the same name is released.
Bon Jovi’s many hits include “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

Reports: Torre takes swings at Yankees in new book
NEW YORK ñ Joe Torre takes some harsh swings at Alex Rodriguez, Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees in a book due out early next month, according to New York newspaper reports.
“The Yankee Years” reveals that Rodriguez was called “A-Fraud” by his teammates and the star slugger developed an obsession with shortstop Derek Jeter, the New York Post and the Daily News reported Sunday.
Torre, who managed the Yankees from 1996-2007 before taking over the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, also says he was betrayed by Cashman, New York’s longtime general manager, the Daily News reported on its Web site.
Torre had a hot-and-cold relationship with Yankees ownership, including George Steinbrenner, but Cashman was thought to be a consistent ally. The GM did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.
The book, co-authored by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, is due out Feb. 3 and is being published by Doubleday. It is not a first-person account but instead a third-person narrative by Verducci based on dozens of interviews with Yankees players and employees, ESPN.com reported, citing an unidentified source.
In the book, Torre also says Steinbrenner learned the manager had prostate cancer (during spring training 1999) before Torre even had a chance to inform him.
Torre guided the Yankees to the postseason in all 12 years as manager and won four World Series titles from 1996-2000. But he was offered a one-year contract with a pay cut after the 2007 season, following New York’s third straight first-round playoff exit.
Torre turned down the proposal, saying he felt insulted by the offer of bonuses based on postseason performance. He soon agreed to a three-year contract with the Dodgers and led them to the NL championship series last year before they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies, who went on to win the World Series.

Anne of Green Gables joins The Modern Library
Anne Shirley has taken her place among some of the most well-known literary characters of all time, including Tom Sawyer, Jane Eyre and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables has been published as part Random House’s The Modern Library, a collection of the world’s great literary works that was first assembled in the early 1900s.
Rebecca Shapiro of Random House is part of the group that meets monthly to consider new entries for the series.
“It’s a really nice indication that the book is very much part of a literary canon,” said Shapiro.
“The Modern Library is one of the most respected classics collections, I think, out there. So for a title to be included, it’s a nice sort of indication of its status as a classic.”
Shapiro said the choice was made in part to celebrate this year’s 100th anniversary of the book’s original publication.
The selection is not without controversy. Some critics describe the book as a poor example of Victorian sentimentalit, and see its selection as caving in to nostalgia.
Selection defended
“To some people this canonical promotion of a writer, who would probably now be classified as a kind of young adult writer, might seem preposterous, or slightly making too large a claim for the book itself,” said Meghan O’Rourke, literary critic for the online magazine Slate.
But O’Rourke defends the selection.
“Think what Montgomery did for women’s imaginative lives, their sense of imaginative autonomy,” said O’Rourke.
“She did something that very few writers have done for girls.”
In the past century, Anne of Green Gables has been published in 33 languages; Montgomery wrote seven sequels, and a prequel was recently published with the consent of her heirs. There have been two movies for the big screen, six for television and three television series
Anne’s inclusion on the list could make her even more widely known that she is already, as The Modern Library books are often included on reading lists in high schools, colleges and universities around the world.

‘Lyrics’ captures Paul Simon’s career
For an iconic songwriter whose words, melodies and rhythms are inextricably linked, a page of lyrics might seem like a chassis in search of an engine. In Paul Simon’s case, it’s almost impossible to read, and not mentally sing, his familiar lines:
And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know, wo wo wo
Paul Simon’s Lyrics 1964-2008 (Simon & Schuster, $35), out Tuesday, spans his entire career, from Simon & Garfunkel’s 1964 debut album through this year’s unreleased songs Rewrite and Love and Hard Times.
Illustrated with vintage snapshots, album covers and handwritten notes, the chronological Lyrics “follows my natural evolution as a writer,” says Simon, 67. “I’m not somebody who takes a lot of photos. Here are the photos of my life.”
In editing the manuscript for typos, Simon resisted succumbing to nostalgia but found himself retracing the stages of his career.
“My lyrics started to get good when I wrote about something I knew,” he says. “When I was a young songwriter, that’s the least interesting to me. Later on, it gets more complex as characters emerge who are at least partially autobiographical.”
The winner of 12 Grammys and the first Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, Simon is highly regarded for a sterling songbook that has drawn parallels to the work of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.
His songs can be wise, biting, mournful and romantic. But fans of You Can Call Me Al, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and Pigs, Sheep and Wolves know he’s also funny.
“People tend to say that my writing is very serious,” Simon says. “Jokes are an essential part, but it’s not often talked about.”
Simon has resumed writing and recording lately, with four completed songs “and a few sketches” that may surface, though he has no firm plans for an album.
“What’s nice about the implosion of the record business is you can find any number of forms to release songs,” he says. “I could make a CD, but I don’t have to.”
After five decades, writing “is intensely enjoyable but also harder, partly because I’m at an age now where every truth seems to contain its opposite,” he says. “That’s a harder construct, lyrically.
“Musically, I don’t want to repeat something I did before. I never think, ‘Time to write another Graceland.’ It would be impossible, anyway.”