Category: Books

New Eminem book to detail his thoughts
NEW YORK – Eminem is working on a book that’s “every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself,” according to his publisher.
Dutton Books, an imprint of The Penguin Group, announced Wednesday that it would be publishing the best-selling rapper’s “The Way I Am” this fall.
“It will be illustrated with never-before-seen photographs of Eminem’s home and life along with original drawings,” Dutton said in a statement.
The rapper’s spokesman, Dennis Dennehy, said the memoir “is still in the process of being written and edited.”
The book was described as an intimate look inside the life of Eminem, who has sold tens of millions of records since he made his provocative debut in 1999.
“Offering a window on the star’s private thoughts on everything from his music and the trials of fame to his love for his daughter, Hailie, this title is every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself,” Dutton said.
The Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper has published one other book, “Angry Blonde.” The 2002 work detailed his lyrics.
Eminem has not released a new album since 2004’s “Encore,” and his representative said there’s no CD scheduled to be released from the rapper at this time.

Canada’s oldest bookstore is closing in Halifax
Canada’s oldest bookstore will close its doors for good at the end of March.
The Book Room on Barrington Street in Halifax opened for business in 1839 and survived two World Wars and the Great Depression, store president Charles Burchell said in a release.
But the retail store couldn’t outlast big box bookstores, Burchell said, nor the ease of ordering books online, competition from book selling pharmacies and grocery stores or the pressure to lower prices to reflect a stronger Canadian dollar.
Burchell said The Book Room will begin “an orderly shutdown of its retail store and dispose of its inventory” over the next few weeks. The company’s wholesale operation will continue.
“I am extremely disappointed to make this announcement as The Book Room has been an institution in Nova Scotia,” he said. “The bookstore has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression and economic ups and downs over its 169 year history.”
Burchell said that during his 42 years with the bookstore, he invited “hundreds and hundreds of local authors, authors from across Canada and around the world to come and meet their reading fans.”
Before the advent of the computer, Burchell said the store received letters from “all over the world” requesting special books be sent to them.
“To fulfill their request was such a gratifying feeling for me as well as my staff,” he said in the release.

Roger Moore writing about Bond films
NEW YORK – Roger Moore, the handsome British actor known for playing James Bond in films such as “Live and Let Die” and “The Spy Who Loved Me,” has a memoir coming out in the fall.
“The time is right to tell my story,” the 80-year-old Moore, whose book is called “My Word Is My Bond,” said in a statement released Tuesday by publisher HarperCollins.
Moore will not only write about his work on the Bond films, but his friendship with Audrey Hepburn, his encounters with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and other stars, and his health struggles.
“For the first time, he will share his recollections of playing some of the world’s most famous roles, his fears of serious illness, including his own bout with prostate cancer (which he beat), and how his neighbor Audrey Hepburn got him involved in UNICEF, a charity he is still involved with today,” according to HarperCollins.

Buddy Holly widow threatens lawsuit against Peggy Sue
The widow of singer Buddy Holly has threatened to sue a woman, whose name was made famous by Holly’s hit song Peggy Sue, who is planning to release a book about her friendship with Holly.
Peggy Sue Gerron, who married Holly’s drummer Jerry Allison back in 1958, wrote a 283-page book ó Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue? ó to mark the 50th anniversary of the song’s release.
Gerron says the book, to be released at the end of January, comes from 150 diary entries she wrote during the time she knew the singer.
“I wanted to give him his voice. It’s my book, my memoirs,” says Gerron. “We were very, very good friends.”
The book has angered Maria Elena Holly, who married the rocker just months before he died Feb. 3, 1959 in a plane crash that also killed singers Ritchie Valens and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson.
“He never, never considered Peggy Sue a friend,” says Holly, who owns the rights to her husband’s name, image, trademarks and other intellectual properties.
As a result, Holly has sent a cease-and-desist letter to TogiEntertainment, the book’s Oklahoma City publisher, demanding it stop promoting the book. The letter also asks the publisher to cancel all book orders and to refund any deposits paid on the book.
According to Holly’s widow, the book will harm her husband’s name, her own reputation and that of her company, Holly Properties.
TogiEntertainment says it will not give in to the letter’s demands.
“My feeling is that Maria Elena fears the truth will come out about Buddy Holly,” said Mark Faulk, CEO of TogiEntertainment.
The song’s original title was actually Cindy Lou, named after Buddy Holly’s niece, but his drummer, Jerry Allison of the Crickets, requested that Holly change it because Allison was trying to woo Gerron at the time.

Rowling says she’s considered another Potter novel
Author J.K. Rowling says she has considered writing another Harry Potter novel, although fans may have to wait another 10 years.
The bestselling author of the teen wizard series has hinted in an interview with Time magazine that she has had “weak moments” in which she’s thought of writing an eighth book.
“If ó and it’s a big if ó I ever write an eighth book, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel I’ve already told his story,” she said.
“But these are big ifs. Let’s give it 10 years.”
The seventh instalment of the wizard-in-training books ó Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ó came out in July. It instantly became the fastest-selling book of all time, with more than 15 million copies purchased within 24 hours.
Rowling’s six previous Harry Potter books sold more than 325 million worldwide.
Rowling, who Time positioned at No. 3 in its Person of the Year list, is thought to be working on an adult novel.
The 41-year-old writer hit the headlines in October after revealing that one of Harry Potter’s main characters, Albus Dumbledore, is gay.
She told an audience of fans in New York City that as a young man, Dumbledore had fallen in love with Gellert Grindelwald, who later became a rival.
Rowling said her novels are really a “prolonged argument for tolerance.”
The film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series, is due for release late next year.

Canseco plans sequel to tell-all doping book: reports
NEW YORK (AFP) – Retired slugger Jose Canseco, who unveiled steroid doping by Major League Baseball stars in a 2005 book, plans a sequel to his tell-all memoir “Juiced” that promises to add names to the sport’s shame.
The New York Daily News and New York Post reported Sunday that Canseco’s lawyer, Robert Saunooke, said the former Oakland A’s star has signed a publishing deal.
Canseco hopes to have the new book available for sale when the season opens in March at Tokyo and promises to plug what he considers holes in the Mitchell Commission report that linked more than 80 men to performance-enhancing drugs.
“It will be an unjaundiced view, without the rose-colored glasses that (Mitchell’s report) obviously put on,” Saunooke said.
The book has a working title of “Vindicated” but actual vindication for the once-bulky slugger is unlikely even given the massive scope of the doping plague that has tainted the past decade’s results in America’s pastime.
“Juiced” was Canseco’s confession of dope cheating and named Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi as steroid takers, helping to spark hearings before US lawmakers in which McGwire refused to deny doping while under oath.
More hearings before US lawmakers are planned in January but without players being involved, diminishing the importance and drama that can be expected given prior threats and inaction when applying pressure to baseball officials.

High five! Borat is back to amuse — and offend
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Borat, the fictional Kazakh reporter who caused a diplomatic stir with his movie adventures in the United States, is back — with a guide book to “the glorious nation of Kazakhstan” and “minor nation of U.S. and A.”
Borat Sagdiyev, a clueless and offensive journalist created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, made television and movie audiences laugh and cringe but angered the government of Kazakhstan for portraying the former Soviet country as misogynistic, anti-Semitic and backward.
The character continued in the same vein in a question and answer interview with Reuters via e-mail as the book was released in the United States and Canada this week:
Q: Which country to do you prefer — Kazakhstan or the USA?
A: “I very much preferring Kazakhstan – it nicest place in the world! Please, you must look on my guidings book and then come visit. Bring your whole family and stay at Astana Funworld Resort – it have beautiful beaches, almost totally free of landmines and the sea is guarantee to have no jellyfish, shark, or any other marine life.”
Q: Which people are smarter?
A: “Kazakh peoples is definite has more powerful brains. Government scientist, Dr. Yamak have prove that our glorious leader, Premier Nazarbamshev have IQ of 412 and a brain that extend into most of his chest – it no surprise that he have never fail in complete any jigsaw puzzle. Since 93 percent of Kazakh people is direct relate to him within 3 generations, rest of population also shares this great intellects.”
Q: What advice do you have for people traveling around the United States?
A: “My book contains many useful informations for Kazakh peoples traveling to US and A – for example, best places to photograph ladies without their knowledge, location of Grand Canyons if you need place to dispose of a wife and location of Kazakh Embassy and where to go if you want to shoot a Redindians.”
Q: When can people expect to see you in Kazakhstan again?
A: “I already in Kazakhstan, living very happilys with my new wife. This morning, I was awoke by my clock-radio (electronic LED), after which I remove my wife from her cage and she make me delicious breakfast of western cereal ‘Frosties’, which I have with delicious fresh milk from her chests. I then attach her to her plough and send her into the fields before returning to my bed until she come back at luchtimes to feed me again. Life is very nice for us.”
Q: Who do you favor for President in the United States?
A: “I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A – in Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun – very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier.”

Lessing says Sept. 11 attacks not so bad
MADRID, Spain – Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were “not that terrible” when compared with attacks by the IRA in Britain.
“September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible,” the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.
“Some Americans will think I’m crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be,” she said in an interview published Sunday.
“Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our government; it killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget,” she said.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. The Irish Republican Army guerrilla group, which caused most of the deaths, disarmed in 2005.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Lessing in London for comment Monday were unsuccessful. Her agent’s office said the author was unavailable because she was not feeling well.
In the El Pais interview, Lessing had sharp words for both President Bush and his ally, former British premier Tony Blair.
“I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning,” El Pais quoted Lessing as saying. “Many of us hated Tony Blair, I think he has been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years. I said it when he was elected: This man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems and he did.”
“As for Bush, he’s a world calamity,” added Lessing. “Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars.”
Iran also came in for a lashing from Lessing, who was born to British parents who were living in what is now Bakhtaran, Iran.
“I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government, it’s a cruel and evil government,” she was quoted as saying.
“Look what happened to its president in New York, they called him evil and cruel in Colombia University. Marvelous! They should have said more to him! Nobody criticizes him, because of oil.”
The author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic “The Golden Notebook,” Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature earlier this month. She was praised by the judges for her “skepticism, fire and visionary power.”

Top 100 Leafs ranked
One can quibble with where players are ranked in “Maple Leafs Top 100” but there’s no knocking the technique used by Mike Leonetti.
He assembled a jury of 14 and gave each a ballot consisting of 140 players in alphabetical order covering the years 1927 through 2007. Write-ins were allowed. Each panelist came up with his own rankings during the summer and autumn of 2006 and results were finalized earlier this year. Points were allotted to each player corresponding to his ranking on each list.
When it was all computed, Dave Keon landed in the No. 1 position. Rounding out the top-12 were Ted Kennedy, Syl Apps, Frank Mahovlich, Darryl Sittler, Charlie Conacher, Johnny Bower, Tim Horton, Turk Broda, Borje Salming, Red Kelly and Mats Sundin.
“I’m happy with the product,” says Leonetti. “A lot of work went into it.
“It took about a year to put it all together.”
Leonetti wrote the player profiles, John Iaboni applied his insightful touch to companion essays on selected players, and the 9.5×11.5-inch book is full of photographs.
“I’ve done quite a number of books and the ones that have sold the most are about the Leafs,” says Leonetti. “There seems to be no lack of appetite – same as tickets for their games.”
Doug Gilmour is 13th and Wendel Clark is 21st among the chosen 100.
No, Rocky Saganiuk didn’t make it.
Other current Leafs on the list are Bryan McCabe (47), Tomas Kaberle (54) and Darcy Tucker (85).
Sundin just passed Sittler for the all-time club goals and points records, but the jury did its work before that happened. Perhaps if a second edition is produced the current captain will jump higher in the rankings.
“Sundin’s chapter is not yet complete,” says Leonetti. “I don’t think Mats cracks into the top 10 just yet but with the passing of time we’ll appreciate his numbers more.
“Right now, I think he’s where he should be.”
Jury members were Leonetti, Iaboni, Mark Askin, Howard Berger, Joe Bowen, Milt Dunnell, Doug Farraway, Paul Hendrick, Lance Hornby, Harry Neale, Frank Orr, Paul Patskou, Frank Selke and Bill Watters.
Leonetti was thrilled to have Dunnell on the jury. The former sports writer was 100 when he filled out his ballot and turns 102 on Dec. 24.
“I sent him a letter and asked him to participate and three weeks later I got the list from him,” says Leonetti. “He’s the dean of sports writers in Canada.
“It boggles my mind to think he’d seen everybody on that list.”
As for the best player not among the 100, Leonetti goes with goaltender Bernie Parent. He didn’t make it because he played only 65 games in the blue and white in 1971 and 1972 before helping the Philadelphia Flyers win two NHL championships.
Todd Gill (84) even made it, and now Leafs fans will debate it.
Any Leafs fan will have a ball with this thoroughly researched, well written and handsomely produced history of Toronto’s greatest players.
(238 pages, Raincoast Books, $50)

‘Harvest’ voted top Canuck album
Neil Young’s classic disc “Harvest” tops a list of the 100 best Canadian albums, according to a new coffee-table book coming out Thursday.
Author and music lover Bob Mersereau polled nearly 600 musicians, critics, DJs and retailers to come up with a ranking of the country’s best-loved discs for his book, “The Top 100 Canadian Albums” (Goose Lane Editions).
Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” comes in at number 2, followed by Young’s “After the Gold Rush.” Rounding out the top five are the Band’s “Music From Big Pink” and the Tragically Hip’s “Fully Completely.”
Mersereau admits the poll results are very much a “snapshot” of today’s Canadian tastes rather than a definitive statement on the history of Canuck rock, and that the list will undoubtedly raise debate among anyone passionate about music.
“That’s the whole fun,” Mersereau says.
“The important part is to talk about Canadian music and enjoy it. This was tried to be a consensus of as many music people and music fans and big serious listeners across the country that have definite opinions. I’d be shocked if there wasn’t complaints and arguments and debates. Half of my (own) list didn’t make it.”
A quick glance at the book reveals several repeat appearances by well-loved Canadian artists: Young comes up eight times, while the Guess Who, Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot each have five albums on the list. The Tragically Hip have four, while Sloan have three.
“I think it’s legitimate that there are so many repeats. I can’t argue with any of these artists. I might prefer one over the other but I think it’s really good to see albums like Joni Mitchell’s ‘Hissing of Summer Lawns,’ which was career suicide when it came out,” says Mersereau, a music writer and longtime arts reporter for CBC-TV in New Brunswick.
The tabulation was fairly simple, Mersereau explains in the introduction to the book, which also includes album artwork and new interviews with many of the musicians.
Each juror was asked to send in a list of their top 10 discs, using whatever criteria they wished. Each number 1 pick was awarded 10 points, with the number 2 choice given nine points, and so on.
A total of 580 responses were tallied, and Mersereau says he took pains to make sure they were drawn from a range of ages, regions and backgrounds.
“I didn’t want this to be a music nerd book … I wanted this to be something different,” he adds.
“I wanted popularity to be in it, too, because we are talking about pop music even if it is Oscar Peterson or Glenn Gould. What’s popular, what people want, what people like, that is often scorned in critical circles, yet there’s a reason things are popular and there’s a reason things stay popular like the Guess Who or April Wine. They have the ability to make us feel great and they become important memories for us through our whole lives.”
Amid the classics are some modern sensations. Montreal supergroup the Arcade Fire come in at number 8 with 2004’s “Funeral,” while Broken Social Scene’s 2002 disc “You Forgot It in People” lands at 28 and Feist’s 2004 disc “Let It Die” is number 43.
“It wasn’t just young people that were doing the votes for that, I had people like Stuart McLean, a CBC broadcaster, voting for Arcade Fire. Shocked me. I didn’t know Stuart was that hip, but sure is.”
Other discs benefited from the passage of time. Hamilton punk band Simply Saucer failed to make a dent in the music scene in the mid-’70s and disappeared into obscurity until being rediscovered by a local music writer in 1987, says Mersereau.
Their early sessions were revived as vinyl copies, and then followed by a CD reissue in 2003. The music insiders who jumped on the disc pushed it onto the 36 spot of Mersereau’s list.
“Things change and people pass (albums) back and forth,” notes Mersereau.
“(Simply Saucer) never went anywhere, gave up in 1979 and (it’s a) sheer fluke that they have become so influential to a new generation.”
Music lovers can debate their own favourites at a series of book launches to be held across the country over the next week.
Mersereau promises that a stop in Halifax this weekend will feature a special musical guest from the list
–
Debate is sure to follow the release of “The Top 100 Canadian Albums,” a book based on a survey of nearly 600 musicians, music critics and fans. A look at what made the Top 20:
1. “Harvest,” Neil Young (Reprise, 1972)
2. “Blue,” Joni Mitchell (Reprise, 1970)
3. “After the Gold Rush,” Neil Young (Reprise, 1970)
4. “Music From Big Pink,” The Band (Capitol, 1968)
5. “Fully Completely,” The Tragically Hip (MCA, 1992)
6. “Jagged Little Pill,” Alanis Morisette (Maverick, 1995)
7. “The Band,” The Band (Capitol, 1969)
8. “Funeral,” Arcade Fire (Merge, 2004)
9. “Moving Pictures,” Rush (Anthem, 1981)
10. “American Woman,” The Guess Who (RCA, 1970)
11. “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” Leonard Cohen (Columbia, 1967)
12. “Reckless,” Bryan Adams (A&M, 1984)
13. “Five Days in July,” Blue Rodeo (Warner, 1993)
14. “Twice Removed,” Sloan (Geffen, 1994)
15. “Up To Here,” The Tragically Hip (MCA, 1989)
16. “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” Neil Young with Crazy Horse (Reprise, 1969)
17. “2112,” Rush (Mercury 1976)
18. “Court and Spark,” Joni Mitchell (Asylum, 1974)
19. “Whale Music,” Rheostatics (Sire, 1992)
20. “Acadie,” Daniel Lanois (Opal, 1989)