For those of you who don’t know it, there’s a great podcast that comes out of San Francisco’s NPR affiliate KQED called Writers’ Block.  It’s a weekly reading series with a little bit of everything — and we mean everything.  Junot Diaz, John Waters, Audrey Niffenegger, Daniel Handler (I could go on forever…) … all reading from their work on air!  Last week when T Cooper was out in San Fran (for a fabulous City Lights event, a great indie bookstore), he stopped by KQED and taped the first four chapters of his new book The Beaufort Diaries.  Listen in below, and if you want to subscribe to the series, you can do it via NPR or iTunes, whatever your preference.

… or, rather, are teeth.  British artist James Hopkins uses shelves and the things you put on them (like books! actual books!) to create his art.  Try doing that with an e-book!

The cover of the Pope's new children's book

Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI has published his first children’s book!  The pope, apparently already an author of many volumes, has taken it upon himself to educate young ones about his religion.  Maybe entice them to get into it a bit more.  Granted, I can’t really tell you what its about (the title is Gli Amici Di Gesu?!) because I don’t even know two words of Italian, but from the cover illustration, it looks like its about Jesus.  If I had to guess, I would say its about the friends of Jesus (Amici IS one of the words I know!).  So I’ll have to trust Shelf Life’s brief summary:

It features a collection of the Pope’s descriptions of Jesus’ relationship with his “first companions,” including the original 12 apostles, Matthias, and St. Paul.

(That sounds like a terribly boring book to me, but heck, what do I know.  If I were a kid, this would not sell me on Catholicism.)

And, side note, when does he have time to do this? I mean, come on–if Obama doesn’t have time to write a book about ‘Bo, how does the leader of the entire Catholic Church have time to do this?  Can’t he at least cop to a ghostwriter?  Everybody does it.

Don’t worry, English and Spanish versions are forthcoming.  Maybe some nice US editor will spruce it up a bit… make it look less, well, church-y.  Its a kids book after all!  Can’t wait to give it a go.  I hope they have a nice Judas chapter…

Okay, religiously-offensive post over.

Last week Melville House debut author Lee Rourke celebrated the publication of his book The Canal in his adopted hometown of London, with a packed (and hot) party at the To Hell With Publishing bookstore.  Meanwhile Lee has been picking up speed both online and in print.

Stuart Evers at the Independent called The Canal:

“[A] thoughtful, occasionally disturbing and curiously affecting debut novel…. While unreservedly a novel of discourse and digression, The Canal also understands that tension and intrigue are just as important as literary devices.  It’s this careful balance that makes for a refreshing, memorable and powerful novel – and one that confirms Rourke as a writer of exceptional promise.”

3:AM Magazine (who also interviewed Rourke here) wrote that The Canal is “achingly thought-provoking and beautiful… It feels right-up-to-the-minute and urgent.”

John Self over at Asylum had this to say (after a lovely Melville House shout-out):

“A novel which forces the reader to engage with the book on its own terms… its rarity, its persistence – its brevity – make it a valuable addition to that shelf of books which tackle real life, our daily existence, head-on, rather than wrapping it in the distracting ribbons of so much fiction.”

So congratulations Lee!  And why do we think this is just the beginning? Oh yeah, because the critics keep telling us so …..

Elizabeth Gilbert: Her side of the story is the only one we're going to get

No offense to Michael Cooper, but was anyone going to read his book anyway?  It seemed a desperate ploy to get in on some of the action (aka money) from his ex-wife Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir (and forthcoming movie adaptation) about her post-divorce life, Eat, Pray, Love.

Now the book has been canceled (Hyperion has confirmed that fact) amid claims that they drove Cooper to make the book “more racy” and he decided to walk, manuscript in hand.  Apparently he’s looking at other publishers — we’ll see if there are any takers.

But the more the story about the book circulates, the more suspicious it all seems.  For Gilbert, the chronicling of her international journey is a somewhat natural, if not logical, extension of her breakup from her husband: she was a writer with several books already in the bag, and she signed a small deal pre-trip, using the advance as the basis of her traveling funds.  But Cooper?  Gilbert doesn’t reveal much about him in her book, but he certainly wasn’t a writer before her book turned into a major bestseller.  All of a sudden he pens a memoir, which is canceled a year later, supposedly at the “11th hour”?

It just seemed like a bad publishing idea.  Unlike Eat, Pray, Love, which has a huge appeal for a female audience (of all ages) and bookclubs, Displaced seems to somewhat lack an ideal audience.  Women would take Gilbert’s side, and men… well, do they read post-divorce, humanitarian aid memoirs?  Not that it wouldn’t be interesting, but it did just seem petty.  I don’t think anyone will miss it if it doesn’t get picked up by someone else.  But we’ll see!

Hans Fallada at his desk

No, not really (he’s long dead), but Melville House publisher and Fallada expert Dennis Johnson appeared on air in his place and chatted up his work with Leonard Lopate for the launch of their summer “Underappreciated” series.  They talked about everything from the duel/murder by Fallada of his close childhood friend to his stint in a Nazi insane asylum to how he avoided writing a novel for Goebbels.  Good stuff!

If you didn’t catch it live, here’s the full clip:

William Jacques

The world is full of bad boys — and admit it ladies, we all secretly (or not so secretly?) want to date them.  Rockstars, carjackers, monkey smugglers… I could go on.  What is it about these fine men that make them so appealing?  God only knows.

But I think I’ve hit the literary bad boy jackpot.  And no, I’m not talking about ANY of the Twilight vampires.  I did say “literary.” And living/not fictional was implied.

Yesterday, the “tome raider” was put behind bars.  Yes, that’s right, Cambridge geek William Jacques (see the earlier MobyLives report on the case) is serving three and a half years in a UK prison for stealing over £40,000 (used to be twice that in dollars, but the pound has fallen on hard times–oh well) in BOOKS!! Yes readers, books.  Our very own literary thief.  Added perk that he’s British.  And even better: this is not the first time that he’s serving time for stealing books.  Back in the 1990s (probably clad in flannel instead of tweed), he looted over a £1,000,000 of rare books!  Bad boys: they never learn their lessons.

But at least Jacques had taste.  All of the stolen volumes were taken from the Royal Horticultural Society Library and included two copies of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica and a copy of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius.  In fact, he was so classy that the Guardian reported that he “used a Cambridge degree and a tweed jacket as a shabby cloak of respectability” and the sentencing judge reprimanded him, “You are a Cambridge graduate and should know better, I suppose.”

Okay, we get it: Cambridge is a big deal over there.

(Fun side note: Prosecutor Gino Connors also took the opportunity to knock one of the major UK publishers: “We are not dealing with Penguin books. We are dealing with very valuable books.”  Ouch.  The British — they really know how to make a point.)

Anyways, no word on what prison he’s actually being held in, but someone track this one down?  Book thieves stealing rare books are a rarity in themselves.  I’m sure the letters (emails?) will just flood in.  Its a whole new kind of bad boy.

Terry Gross

First off, apologies to all you Mississippi readers out there.  Not only did they cut your favorite radio program, but I’m sure you already get a lot of shit about your state.  So, sorry for what I’m about to do …

But according to reports coming out of aforementioned state, Mississippi Public Broadcasting has stopped broadcasting a show beloved of book publicists because it’s one of the very last places for long-form radio interviews of authors. Yes, they’re dropping WHYY’s nationally syndicated radio show “Fresh Air,” hosted by Terry Gross, as of Monday.

“Fresh Air” has been taken off the air before, but due to budget cuts.  Speculation this time around is inappropriate content.  And when I say “speculation,” I mean that the station has yet to publicly announce its reason for pulling the show, but the following internal email leaked online:

“MPB no longer airs this program [Fresh Air] due to recurring inappropriate content.” (dated July 12 2010 from Kevin Farrell, director of MPB radio)

While no further details have been released, many online commentators (including Gawker) have speculated that it might be because last weeks show focused on the movie “The Kids Are All Right,” starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and (my personal favorite) Mark Ruffalo.  Why is this a problem?  Its about lesbian parents.  Oh no!!!! Run to the hills!!! The gays are coming for you!!!

COME ON MISSISSIPPI.  SERIOUSLY??

I’m not saying Terry Gross is my favorite radio host (I don’t want to play favorites since I am a book publicist and treat all NPR radio fairly), but Mississippi deserves a breath of fresh air (see what I did there? for more clever wordplay, check out my headline).

Megan Halpern

Many of you fine readers get harassed by me daily — whether its through email or the occasional snail-mail galley letter.  Either way, that’s a lot of reading to do with all of the inbox-clogging letters I send your way, on top of the mail you must get from the hundreds of other book publicists.  But have no fear.  I’m about to tell you why you should read my notes above all others.

I write like Kurt Vonnegut.

And H.P. Lovecraft.

And apparently James Joyce.

Yes, that’s right.  And no, I’m not just bragging.  According to the website “I Write Like…,” which experienced an explosion in popularity yesterday after Galleycat plugged them on mediabistro, my galley letters are representative of all of the above writers.  Well, almost.  My Vonnegut-esque work?  That would be my summary of Tao Lin’s Richard Yates.  When writing on our upcoming Aurorarama, I spin it like Lovecraft.  But I save my Joycean prose for my discussion of T Cooper’s latest (and illustrated!) novella The Beaufort Diaries (PS–speaking of fame, watch the David Duchovny-voiced book trailer here).

So, please open my emails — I rest my case.

(Oh, and you can test your own writing here.)

Steig Larsson

It’s the inevitability of the American marketing machine.  A sequel is a good thing.  They will come.  When movies are made, they are made to make you keep coming back from the theater.  Even the bad ones (its true: Scream 4 is filming this summer).  A TV show could go on forever.  Yes, I still watch Grey’s Anatomy.  No, it is not any good any more.  Yes, it should have ended seasons ago.  Law and Order was on the air for 19 years!  Granted it was a decent show, but did it really need to last that long?  Every once in a while I watch a nice, contained 2 season series from the BBC and I think to myself, “yes, I guess I want more, but damn was that satisfying! Why don’t we end things here?”

And yes, we do it in books too.  The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, the Stooki Stackhouse novels.  And then every once in a while, along comes a nice contained three book series that earns critical acclaim and then ends.  OH WAIT.

After a relatively satisfying conclusion following a significant wait for the third book in Steig Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander series, I thought it was over.  I wasn’t relieved, but it had wrapped up nicely and it was nice while it lasted and I moved on.  Read some nice nonfiction, a fabulous debut by Tom Rachman, and picked up some used books at the Strand.  And then, THIS headline, last week, in the Times:

Unpublished Manuscripts by Stieg Larsson Are Found

Followed by rabid internet discussion, rumor-mongering, unconstrained excitement and anticipation, etc.  I stayed away from it all, waiting for it to blow over, hoping the publishing industry wouldn’t ruin this one  good thing that we had going and had properly concluded…

And then, yesterday afternoon, this:

A Few Clues About Unfinished Larsson Book

Oh god its true!  And I don’t know if I’m happy about it.  Of course its exciting to dig up work from a dead writer!  I’m sure everyone would be thrilled if someone stumbled across a new book from Wilde, or Hemingway, or whoever! And it is a significant chunk: supposedly 320 pages out of a total of 440, and only a month from its planned completion.  Some are saying it takes place in Canada, some are saying its missing not the beginning or the end, but the middle.  Who knows.  Regardless, aren’t we satisfied as it is?  (I won’t give away the ending of the book proving my satisfaction, because I’m not a fan of spoilers, but hell - I’m satisfied!)

Eva Gabrielsson, who is rumored to be in possession of the book, will not disclose any information or the book itself to the public.  I knew I liked her!  So I say, “Go Eva!  Keep it to yourself!”  And leave me be with my trilogy.  No more sequels please.