I don’t believe in censorship, but if I was a publisher there is no way in hell I would publish book written by O.J. Simpson in which he "speculates" as to how he would killed his wife. This is the most disgusting act of greed I have ever seen and quite frankly Judith Regan’s reasons for publishing the book sound phony. If she was a victim of domestic violence, OK I get that, but as a victim of domestic violence why in hell would she want to glorify this son of a bitch, even if the money is going to the children? If Judith Regan truly wanted to bring light to domestic violence she would donate her publishing companies profits to domestic violence charities.
Once again I’m astonished at the hypocrisy of the religious right. A mother in Gwinnett County, Georgia is trying to get the Harry Potter books banned because they are “‘evil’ and attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religionâ€! What! This is such a load of crap. The attorney for the Board of Education right states that if they are going to ban Harry Potter for its witchy ways they would have to do the same thing to Macbeth and Cinderella. Let’s add to that some other classics like Sleeping Beauty, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and a little series of books called The Chronicles of Narnia! Of course, I’m sure Narnia would be exempted because C.S. Lewis was a committed Christian.
It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people can be when it comes to the Harry Potter novels. Some fool in Gwinnett County, Georgia is actually attempting to get the the novels removed from the county’s school libraries because she believes it encourages children to embrace witchcraft and promotes evil. Oh, please! If this womam doesn’t want children to read the novels, fine don’t let them, but don’t try to impose your own stupid beliefs on those who know don’t support your idiocy. As to the young girl who decided, with her friends, to learn more about witchcraft and actually contemplated suicide, you need some help, more help than banning Harry Potter novels.
It’s a book for Pete’s sake! All these people are going to do is bring more attention to something they don’t like.
Is a book by Alan Greenspan really worth $7+ million? Maybe if we get some interesting tidbits on Ayn Rand, but even then it just seems overpriced to me.
Wow, what a weekend for losing well-known actors and writers:
Don Knotts I’ve written about previousy, but McGavin is best known for two roles: the dad in A Christmas Story and for playing Kolchak on Night Stalker, a show that was an inspiration for Chris Carter to create The X-Files.
If you haven’t read Octavia Butler’s science fiction, then you should. I first discovered her after coming across Kindred at a yard sale. At first, it seemed like any other time travel story, but the twist here was that a young black woman and her white husband were being pulled back in forth in time between the present and the pre-Civil War South. She used that setting to touch on a lot of subjects and I was hooked. The rest of her science fiction was, for me, less accessible, but it as certainly original and groundbreaking.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I am unabashed fan of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody Mysteries. They are a mixture of archeology, Victorian mystery, and a lot of fun to read (and listen to if you’re into audiobooks). Peters is a pseudonym of Barbara Mertz who is herself an archaeologist with a PhD from the University of Chicago’s renowned Oriental Institute. When I read recently about the intact tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings, the first in 84 years, the first thing I thought of was how Ms. Peters was going to work this into her series. She has a fun way of attributing all kinds of modern discoveries to her intrepid heroine and her husband, Emerson (the greatest Egyptologist of this or any age).
Nan A. Talese, the publisher who heaped A Million Little Pieces on to the world, says it’s not her fault James Frey lied in his "memoir." According to her, and most in the publishing industry, it’s not the job of the publisher to prove an author’s assertions are true. They just accept the word of the author. What a load of bullshit! To a certain extent I can accept that answer, but when an everyday person can use the Internet to discover the fallacies in Frey’s book I think the hugely successful Random House can hire a few interns to do the same. This is the same kind of bullshit answer that allows morons like Ann Coulter to be publish lies for Random House’s other imprint, Crown.
No matter what my opinion may be of President Bush’s fight against terrorism, I seriously doubt I could welcome an endorsement from this son of a bitch.
I rarely pay attention to the Oprah Book Club picks. I think over the years I’ve only purchased one book from she suggessted: I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. It was an excellent book. After the brouhaha stirred up by her last pick, A Million Little Pieces, this one seems like a safe choice. It’s also a great choice. I read Elie Wiesel’s Night for a college history course and I was glad I did. I’ve read other books and memoirs about the Holocaust, but Wiesel’s has always stayed with me.