It seems like just yesterday that ex-CIA Director George Tenet was struggling with his manuscript deadline. The book is out now, and Wonkette has already weighed in.

Get it now from Zooba, and let us know what you think...

Posted by Graceanne at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Miss Snark, literary agent, has some sympathy for Don Imus. After all, "he helped promote a lot of books." (via Miss Snark)

-Newly uncovered manuscript from the late author of Suite Française (via Conversational Reading)

-More mind-blowing poetry videos from Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate (Billy Collins Action Poetry via Very Short List)

-Au revoir, Cody's Books (via SFGate)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-A book review of The Feminine Mistake: "Are stay-at-home mothers putting themselves—and feminism—at risk?" (via The New Yorker)

-Edith Wharton: "From ugly upper-class duckling to literary queen." (via The New Yorker)

-Publisher FSG lets its brand name do all the work (via GalleyCat)

Posted by Graceanne at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via the New York Times:

"In a hotly contested deal, the life story of Dewey, a rescued cat who lived for 19 years in a library in a small town in Iowa, has sold for about $1.25 million to Grand Central Publishing."

Actually, I'd rather see the hilarious video Operation Kitten Calendar turned into a book. Who's with me?

Posted by Graceanne at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-How did Gabriel García Márquez get that shiner? (via New York Times)

-The first rule of promoting Chuck Palahniuk's new book is: You do not talk about Chuck Palahniuk's new book! (ChuckPalahniuk.net via Bookninja)

-PopMatters reviews Sheridan Hay's upcoming The Secret of Lost Things (via PopMatters)

-Mitch Albom's secret? Keyboard shortcuts. (via Yankee Pot Roast)

*Update: Is The Namesake based on a man author Jhumpa Lahiri briefly dated? Probably! (via New York Magazine)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week, Slate pays homage to the most slippery of genres, the memoir. (I'm looking at you, James Frey!) Don't miss essays from Oh the Glory of it All author Sean Wilsey, Sweet and Low author Rich Cohen, and Teacher Man author Frank McCourt:

"The only way around all this nervousness is the novel—and that is what I'm trying now. Yes, yes, I still have to cover my tracks—and my ass—but I'll have greater freedom." (Frank McCourt via Slate)

Posted by Graceanne at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Wish I Could Be There is a "vividly written combination of memoir and scientific inquiry." (via The New Yorker)

-T. Jefferson Parker's noir thriller Storm Runners is "a great read." (via Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

-Mississippi Sissy: Growing up gay in the South in the '60s (via Washington Post)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

-A closer look at the Broadway adaptation of Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking (via New York Magazine)

-Random House introduces audio widget (via The Book Standard)

-Jack Kerouac was conservative? (via The Columbia Spectator)

-New survey finds that Brits read only half the books they buy (via Conversational Reading)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week, I ate a slice of homemade cake containing Guinness ice cream, Bailey's Irish Cream ice cream, and Jameson's Irish Whiskey-infused whipped cream (thanks again, Erik!). I realized two things: 1. Cake is delicious (seriously, I had no idea), and 2. It's almost St. Patrick's Day! Hence, the Irish reading list...

-Gwendolyn Bounds, Little Chapel on the River

-Frank McCourt, Teacher Man

-Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster, Parish Priest

Posted by Graceanne at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Madonna's nanny gets book deal, loses book deal (via The Book Standard)

-Announced first print run for upcoming Harry Potter? 12 million--a new record (via Publishers Weekly)

-Ex-CIA Director George Tenet's autobiography At the Center of the Storm drops April 30 (via Publishers Weekly)

-Up for grabs: film rights to Jonathan Lethem's newest book, You Don't Love Me Yet (JonathanLethem.com via NPR)

-UK announces "Blooker" prize shortlist for the best books based on blogs. PostSecret, anyone? (via Librarian's Place)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-PEN appoints author Francine Prose as president (via Boston Herald)

-A Long Way Down author Nick Hornby writes children's book (via Publisher's Weekly)

-Penguin Books UK blog discusses South by Southwests' Blogs to Books panel (via The Penguin Blog)

-Random House and Whole Foods team up to promote memoir (via Publisher's Weekly)

Posted by Graceanne at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Book Critics Circle announced their awards for the best reads of 2006. The Inheritance of Loss won in the fiction category, and Rough Crossings won in nonfiction. Get the winners and the finalists from Zooba! (via Laila Lalami)

-Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

-Simon Schama, Rough Crossings

-Cormac McCarthy, The Road

-Donald Antrim, The Afterlife

-Terri Jentz, Strange Piece of Paradise

-Michael Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma

Posted by Graceanne at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy International Women's Day, fellow non-males! I've been out of the office all day and haven't had the luxury of scouring through our titles at my desk...Here's an incomplete short list of ladyfolk titles. Any book suggestions to add, readers?

-Margaret Cho, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight

-Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed

-Maureen Dowd, Are Men Necessary?

-Joshua Zeitz, Flapper

*Update: also check out Chelsea Handler, My Horizontal Life

Posted by Graceanne at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Lance Bass pens memoir. The title? Out of Sync. No, I'm not making that up. (via People)

*Update: Get his ex's memoir from Zooba. I'm not making that up, either!

-The Decemberists frontman and former bookseller Colin Meloy will judge Tournament of Books. (via Pitchfork Media)

-Author Chuck Klosterman reveals what's on his playlist. (via The Onion's AV Club)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not to get all Matrix on you, but Jean Baudrillard died at the age of 77 at his home in Paris (via BBC News). Who else but a Frenchman could have masterminded such advances in the field of semiotics?

OK, nerdfest is over. (But, seriously, you should rewatch The Matrix.)

On with it, then. The French reading list!

-Julia Child, My Life in France

-Daniel Young, The Bistros, Brasseries, and Wine Bars of Paris

-Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette

Posted by Graceanne at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An open note to Ann Coulter's former corporate sponsors:

Really?

This was why you decided to pull your ads from her site? You sure? Not because of her defamation of 9/11 widows? Not her scathingly right wing book Godless? Not her poor use of satire?

No? OK. Just checking.

Posted by Graceanne at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, I may have to call backsies on this old post regarding the Jenna Bush memoir. GalleyCat announces that HarperCollins won the book auction; USA Today says the memoir is less "The Diary of Jenna Bush" and more...about a 17-year-old living with HIV in Panama.

Yeah, I didn't see that one coming, either.

Posted by Graceanne at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Mark Sarvas, The Elegant Variation blogger, signs with Bloomsbury (via Slush Pile)

-Catherine Sanderson, La Petite Anglaise blogger, gets fired, inks Penguin book deal (via The Independent)

-Jessica Hagy, Indexed blogger, signs with Viking Studio (via Indexed)

Posted by Graceanne at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tipped off by a letter of complaint, the FBI is considering whether books by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and others should be banned from a high school reading list (via Maud Newton). Also from Maud comes this piece about how books originally deemed obscene become classics.

For more on banned literature, check out Reading Lolita in Tehran, a memoir about the power of books during a time of upheaval.

Posted by Graceanne at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Journalist Bob Woodruff and wife co-write memoir (via NPR, with excerpt)

-Lyons Press will publish ReganBooks's aborted Mickey Mantle novel (via USA Today)

-NPR interviews Oil on the Brain author Lisa Margonelli (via NPR)

-Freakonomics author never ceases to surprise readers (via Freakonomics blog)

Posted by Graceanne at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Three Rivers Press (Random House) inks deal for biography of troubled indie rock artist Cat Power (via Publishers Marketplace)

-Hollywood glamorizes Jane Austen in the upcoming film Becoming Jane (via Bookninja)

-Columbia University's writing seminar spawns book deals (via NPR) 

-Salon advises a novelist who fears getting published (Salon via Mediabistro)

Posted by Graceanne at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-For bestselling self help book The Secret, the secret is packaging (via MSN.com)

-Random House launches Browse & Search functionality on their website. Take that, HarperCollins! (via if:book)

-French literature professor: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read? (via The New York Times)

-Oprah will bring Mitch Albom's For One More Day to the small screen (via ReadersRead.com)

-Remembering author Philip K. Dick on the silver anniversary of his death (The Times via Bookninja)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Philip Roth wins PEN/Faulkner award for Everyman (via San Francisco Chronicle)

-Stewart and Colbert drive book sales (via New York Times)

-HarperCollins launches book widget (via GalleyCat)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times points out that both Freakonomics and the Dalai Lama's Art of Happiness are "among the books to stay for the longest period of time on the New York Times bestseller list without ever making it to number 1." (via Freakonomics blog)

...Making Freakonomics the Kate Winslet of the bestseller list.

What, too soon? 

Posted by Graceanne at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This year's Oscars are two gay cowboys shy of being awesome. Nonetheless, don't miss the books that inspired last year's best films.

-James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia

-Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth

-Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada

-Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness

Posted by Graceanne at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Presidential hopefuls promote themselves through their books (via The New York Times)

-Roy Kesey's story will appear in Best American Short Stories 2007 (via GalleyCat)

-With wiki-novels and web writing anthologies, internet lit moves forward (via Literary Kicks)

-Choose Your Own Adventure format makes a comeback (via PrettyLittleMistakes.com and Publishers Marketplace)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I posted an article a couple of weeks ago about how audiobooks are gaining popularity among students. But what about cubicle dwellers on the go?

I've actually rocked some audiobooks on my iPod. And, multitasker that I am, they tend to be nonfiction titles on business, marketing, and new media. Here are my top picks, available from our friends at Audible.com.

-Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick

-Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics

-Chris Anderson, The Long Tail

-Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point 

Posted by Graceanne at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Comedian and author Al Franken announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate on YouTube earlier this week.

When asked to comment on the announcement, Stephen Colbert said, "I think it's great, but I don't get the joke."

Posted by Graceanne at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week's New York magazine profiles Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel. In case you're unfamiliar:

"She escaped to Holland from a forced marriage, eventually joined the Dutch Parliament as a Muslim criticizing her own culture, and made a provocative film with Theo van Gogh that got him killed and sent her into hiding."

Very Short List describes the book as Salman Rushdie meets Gloria Steinem meets Iman.

A recommended memoir.

Posted by Graceanne at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Anna Nicole Smith biography emerges from the backlist (via New York Times and Shelf Awareness)

-Judith Regan inspires upcoming Law & Order episode (via Slush Pile)

-George Tenet works on his overdue memoir (via Galleycat) 

-Manchester University chooses Martin Amis as new creative writing professor (via Literary Saloon)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy returns to fiction (via Galleycat)

-Salman Rushdie set to teach at Emory University (via The Literary Saloon)

-Heart-Shaped Box author is Steven King's son (via USA Today)

-Novelist Elif Shafak endangered by her book (via Galleycat)

-Asian chick lit offerings multiply (via SFGate.com)

Posted by Graceanne at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to this week's New York magazine, Valentine's Day is when sneaky men buy gifts for their wives...and their girlfriends. And, according to Junot Diaz, infidelity sells! Happy Heart Day, everyone!

-Gabriel García Márquez, Memories of My Melancholy Whores

-Karrine Steffans, Confessions of a Video Vixen

-T.C. Boyle, The Inner Circle

Thanks to http://junkmail.chattablogs.com/ for this graphic.

Posted by Graceanne at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In real-life mystery news, someone swiped The Maltese Falcon as well as "several vintage and signed books by and about Maltese Falcon author Dashiell Hammett" from a San Francisco eatery this past weekend. If you're in the mood for even more intrigue, check out these true crime reads.

-Sebastian Junger, A Death in Belmont

-Truman Capote, In Cold Blood 

-Edward Dolnick, The Rescue Artist

Posted by Graceanne at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Happy birthday to you, Mr. Lincoln, the Dems' favorite Republican! For history buffs, might I suggest Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin and Manhunt by Lincolnologist James Swanson. And, here, a Lincoln comic by Conan O'Brien from back in his Harvard Lampoon days...

Posted by Graceanne at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to publishing insiders, Sharon Stone is shopping around a memoir.

Wow. I can't think of anyone less qualified to write (admit it, ghostwrite) an autobiography.

Oh, wait...

Posted by Graceanne at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday, Oprah announced her new book club pick, spiritual memoir The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier.

Posted by Graceanne at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)