Author Martin Lindstrom documents a three-year, $7 million neuromarketing study on the buying habits of 2,000 volunteers from around the world in Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy.
As part of his studies, Lindstrom asks (and presumably answers): Does sex actually sell? Despite government bans, are we still being bombarded by subliminal advertising? Can the iPod trigger our mating instincts? Is the author a little too obsessed with sex?
Writes DoubleDay at its Web site:
“How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Martin Lindstrom answers these questions in his latest book, Buyology. Visit martinlindstrom.com for chapter-by-chapter overviews, weekly video reports, and information on neuromarketing.”
Scotland Yard has foiled a terrorist plot against the publisher of The Jewel of Medina, a hotly controversial book that some Muslims find offensive.
A “petrol bomb” was pushed through the door of publisher Martin Rynja’s London home. undercover police, who had been following the suspects, quickly arrested three me and the fire was put out.
The source of controversy is a scene in which Aisha, the child bride of the Prohpet Mohammed, is described in an imaginary sex scene.
Random House withdrew the book’s publication in the United States because the publisher feared a violent reaction by “a small radical segment” of Muslims. The American author of The Jewel of Medina, Sherry Jones, says she has received death threats.
Wrote the Times of London:
“Yesterday, Natasha Kern, Jones’s agent, said she was shocked to learn of the attack. She said the book had been misinterpreted by its critics and did not contain sex scenes, as had been alleged.
“ ‘I honestly believe that if people read the book they will see it is not disrespectful of Muhammad, and moderate Muslims will not be offended. I don’t want anyone to risk their lives but we could never imagine that there would be some madmen who would do something like this. I’m so sad about this act of terrorism. Moderate Muslims will suffer because of a few radicals.’ ”
Author John Grogan, who wrote Marley & Me, turns to family matters in his next book, The Longest Trip Home.
Grogan never quite fit in with his devoutly Catholic Detroit home while growing up. He struck out on his own but eventually found himself returning home, seeking a way to reconcile these seemingly incongruent lives. Readers accustomed to Marley’s mixture of humor and pathos can expect more of that, only in more human form.
Writes publisher HarperCollins: “The Longest Trip Home is a book for any son or daughter who has sought to forge an identity at odds with their parents’, and for every parent who has struggled to understand the values of their children. It is a book about mortality and grace, spirit and faith, and the powerful love of family. With his trademark blend of humor and pathos that made Marley & Me beloved by millions, John Grogan traces the universal journey each of us must take to find our unique place in the world.”
Even the name suggests loathsome smugness: Simon Rich. Wonder boy from Harvard. President of the Harvard Lampoon. Youngest-ever writer on Saturday Night Live (at 24). Published his first book, Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations, while a senior at Harvard. His dad is the former “Butcher of Broadway,” Frank Rich.
But he does have a redeeming quality: He’s pretty darn good, to hear the critics talk.
Writes Very Short List: “His new collection, Free-Range Chickens, features riffs on Dracula’s Match.com profile, the inner lives of firehouse Dalmatians, and the fears and frustrations of Very Short People (which is to say, children). Most hit their marks, and even the misses are good for a chuckle or two.”
Dexter Morgan is a Miami crime scene investigator. He also moonlights as a serial killer. In author Jeff Lindsay’s third novel featuring the Dexter character, Dexter in the Dark finds Dexter engaged and a prospective stepfather. He also finds himself being stalked.
The basis for the Showtime series Dexter, the novels seem to have established a franchise for author Lindsay, and steady work for actor Michael C. Hall (formerly of HBO’s Six Feet Under).
Jeff Lindsay is also the author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. Dexter in the Dark is published by Vintage, an imprint of Random House Inc.
Gather.com member Chris Steib takes a look at the Esquire “Incomplete, Utterly Biased” list of books every man must read, and comes away with this impression:
I ploughed (sic) through the cover-art slideshow to find quite a few with which I agreed (see: Cormac McCarthy) and quite a few with which I disagreed (see: Steinbeck). I was most pleasantly surprised to see Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow, a shockingly original book as told from the consciousness of a man moving backwards in time (definitely one of my personal Top 75, if not Top 20). If you’re not a reader of it, Esquire’s choices will likely surprise you as being much less “utterly biased” than they disclaim — considering such additions as Flannery O’Connor and Jim Harrison, the editors (in spite of the title of the list) went to great lengths not to make it a litany of “Books Only Our Typical Male Readers Would Appreciate.”
FYI, the 75 books list coincides with the publication’s 75th anniversary.
Robert Wagner, over his long acting career, has had his ups and downs, including his marriage to and divorce from Natalie Wood, who later died in a tragic boating accident after they had remarried. He writes about it with co-author Scott Eyman in “Pieces of my Heart.”
He also talks about mentors such as Spencer Tracy, his relationships with Barbara Stanwyck and, of course, Natalie Wood.
Says publisher HarperCollins: “Under the mentorship of stars like Spencer Tracy, he would become a salaried actor in Hollywood’s studio system among other hot actors of the moment such as his friends Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis. Working with studio mogul Darryl Zanuck, Wagner began to appear in a number of films alongside the most beautiful starlets—but his first love was Barbara Stanwyck, an actress twice his age. As his career blossomed, and after he separated from Stanwyck, he met the woman who would change his life forever, Natalie Wood. They fell instantly and deeply in love and stayed together until the stress of their careers—hers marching upward, his inexplicably deflating—drove them to divorce.”
The bailout plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a few other bigs, like AIG, aren’t going over so well with Congress now that the initial pangs of panic have worn off. Paulson and Bush have rushed in with a pile of money, if you consider $700 billion to be a pile of money, to save this financial behemoths from their own arrogance and screwups. Sound familiar?
This story will have the nonfiction aisles clogged with stories of recriminations. At least for those left who can afford to buy the books.
To mark the return of the freebie, Tor is giving away e-copies of two recent nominees for World Fantasy Award for Best Novel; the publisher sounds pretty excited:
“Will Shetterly and Emma Bull are the first married couple to each simultaneously have a novel among the finalists for the World Fantasy Award—Emma’s Territory and Will’s The Gospel of the Knife. In commemoration of this, we’re offering registered Tor.com users free e-book editions of a pair of classics from the Bull and Shetterly backlists—Emma’s War for the Oaks and Will’s Dogland. Check them out here!”
Malcolm Knox writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that even as Cola Bilkuei told his remarkable story, Knox worried that this was another fantastic tale that wasn’t true, or at least was exaggerated. He didn’t want to become another Norma Khouri, a casualty of truth. In the wake of that and other scandals involving refugees-turned-heroes-turned-fallen-heroes, Knox finds himself examining “Cola’s Journey” and wondering if he checked out everything that could be checked out.
And the simple truth is, nobody knows for sure, not even Cola, who readily admits his memory is not perfect. He doesn’t even know when he was born.
Writes Knox: “Still, as a checker you can work with what you have. I spoke with Angelo Kuot, another Sudanese former child soldier who lives in Australia. Angelo had been part of Cola’s journey in Uganda, where they shared refuge in a Catholic mission. Kuot, a student and Australian army reservist, happily vouched for Cola.
“So what are we left with? Aside from boy soldiers, a priest and a lawyer who knew Cola in Africa, we have the assurances of the Australian government, which gave Cola his first passport and checked on him through cousins who already lived here….
“Ultimately, though, between what could be verified and what lies on the pages of Cola’s book, there will always remain a margin where we must simply take his word. Some will ask why any author’s word should be trusted. My answer is that if we take such a hard line, we will deprive ourselves of all oral history, of every story that is one person’s recollection.”
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti is generating some big buzz. Tinti, the author of Animal Crackers, is fast becoming one of this decade’s brightest new writers. There might be something to the hype:
“Every once in a while — if you are very lucky — you come upon a novel so marvelous and enchanting and rare that you wish everyone in the world would read it, as well. The Good Thief is just such a book — a beautifully composed work of literary magic.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
See author Hannah Tinti talk about The Good Thief:
The Good Thief is published by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House Inc.
But Elvis the basset hound is convinced that he is the reincarnation of The King, even though in Dog Years Elvis would be 210 years old, give or take a year. Nevermind that.
Elvis figures large in Elvis and the Dearly Departed. Writes author Peggy Webb: “I love writing the Southern Cousins Mystery Series. It’s murder generously laced with comedy.”
The story: Local Doctor Leonard Laton’s corpse goes missing. Elvis leads Callie Valentine Jones and her cousin Lovie on a trail from Tupelo to Las Vegas, where, indeed, they find the dearly departed Dr. Laton in a freezer. What freezes in Vegas keeps in Vegas.
Stephanie Meyer, the accidental creator of the Twilight Saga, talks about writing her third installment, Eclipse. In the Sept. 14 list of USA Today best sellers, Meyer’s books occupied four out the top five spots on the list, including her vampire series finale, Breaking Dawn.
Seth Greenland’s Shining City is an example of how book publishers are increasingly turning to movielike trailers to promote their books. Many trailers rely on enticing music and pretty fonts to draw in potential buyers. Greenland’s a goes a little further. After all, it’s set in Los Angeles.
Marcus Messner is from Jersey. A studious, intense student at Ohio’s Winesburg College, he’s entering his sophomore year in 1951. He left home to escape the fear and apprehension his father holds for his boy.
Philip Roth’s Indignation is a coming-of-age story set during the Korean War, the ever-looming threat of communism and nuclear war. No doubt Roth taps his experience from that era, which makes the experience seems as fresh as yesterday.
Writes Bookbrowse: “It is a story told with all the inventive energy and wit Roth has at his command, at once a startling departure from the haunted narratives of old age and experience in his recent books and a powerful addition to his investigations of the impact of American history on the life of the vulnerable individual.”
A libel suit against author John Grisham and two other writers claiming
books they wrote, including Grisham’s “The Innocent Man,” conspired to commit libel, has been thrown out by a federal judge.
The case was about the later-overturned conviction of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz in the slaying of Debbie Sue Carter in 1982, AP reports.
Barry Scheck, founder of the Innocence Project, was a co-defendant in the suit.
The DNA evidence used to overturn the Williamson and Fritz convictions was later used to convict a key prosecution witness in their trial, Glen Gore. He is now serving life in prison.
For more information, CLICK HERE and HERE.
If it hadn’t already been established as fully mainstream it is now: Today’s Martha Stewart show featured How to Write a Blog, with instructions to go to her site, read her blog and sign up a WordPress account. Anyone can do it! Make millions!
With apologies to Bob Dylan: Everybody must get blogged.
In The City’s End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York’s Destruction, historian Max Page writes about a kind of cult of destruction that has hung over Gotham City since at least the 1800s, with everything from comets to Godzilla to gigantic waves.
In examining these imagined cataclsums, Page tries to provide a historical perspective in relation to the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Page is a professor of architecture and history at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The book is published by Yale University Press.
Reporter Barton Gellman reports in his book, The Cheney Vice Presidency, that Vice President Dick Cheney declined an invitation from the president to lead the federal response in the disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Washington Post, accused of milking its publicity, has been releasing excerpts. Intrepid LA Times writers snagged some embargoed copy, to wit:
Anyone who had face time with Bush said he was smarter than the public believed, and meaner. He spared Cheney the thunderbolts — Rove got the worst of them, when Bush was in a mood to yell — but now and then aides saw the president give Cheney the back of his hand.
“Will you at least go do a fact-finding trip for us?” Bush asked.
“That’ll probably be the extent of it, Mr. President, unless you order otherwise,” Cheney replied. He was the Cheshire Cat inverted, only the smile dissolving, the rest of him still in the chair.
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest won him accolades as “the voice of Generation X,” kind of like Seattle-based rock star Kurt Cobain. Both were known to be tortured souls whose lives ended in suicide.
His father (Wallace’s) said the writer had been suffering from depression at the time of his death.
To learn more, CLICK HERE.
