By Diane Evans
A novel idea for a book? It’s not easy, especially with nearly 300,000 new titles and editions published each year, and sales flat – at best. But here’s a new twist on the old subject of failed romance: It’s a book coming out in April 2009, titled Relationship Obituaries, based on the Web site of WNYC reporter Kathleen Horan.
For a flavor of what to expect, you can go to the site at www.relationshipobit.com.
It’s mainly women writing death notices about their failed relationships. While the book is billed as humorous, the few entries I read on the site were more in the category of scorned and forlorn.
In an interview on National Public Radio, Horan described the site as a “sort of wake for love.’’ And just like when it’s over in life, the dead rest in silence if not in peace.
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Speaking at Stanford University’s commencement recently, Oprah Winfrey urged the nearly 4,700 graduates to trust their gut instincts. “Every wrong decision was the result of me not listening to my voice,” she said. “If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.”
Winfrey gave each graduate copies of two of her favorite books: Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

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Who really decides what we read?
A recent survey found that adult readers were most influenced by recommendations from family and friends.
But look what happened to the 566-page debut novel by Wisconsin native David Wroblewski. Since its release on June 10 Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, has gone back to press three times to keep up with demand for Wroblewski’s book, titled The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It’s a coming-of-age story about a mute boy and his dog set in rural Wisconsin.
The book gained media attention even before it came out, most notably with a cover story in the Washington Post’s Book World. Significantly, Amazon.com weighed in with strong promotions after selecting it as one of the best books of June. Among other things, the retailer featured an endorsement of the book by celebrity author Stephen King. Amazon also had the book on its home page for two weeks at a 40 percent discount.
The Wall Street Journal now says the book is positioned to be one of the “breakout titles” of the summer.
Wroblewski, 48, worked on the book for 10 years. He grew up – with dogs – on a Wisconsin farm.

Another example of media power, on a far less literary level: Hundreds of viewers of the Sex and the City movie have contacted AbeBooks.com, an online seller of used titles, looking for a title that Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) reads while in bed with Mr. Big (Chris Noth). But there is no such book as Love Letters of Great Men, as referenced in the scene.
There is a Love Letters of Great Men and Women, and its publisher is reprinting the book, originally published in the 1920s.

Diane Evans is founder and president of DelMio.com. She writes a weekly column about books that is distributed by McClatchy Newspapers.

Oprah Winfrey spoke at Stanford University’s commencement Sunday, advising nearly 4,700 graduates to trust their gut instincts. “Every wrong decision was the result of me not listening to my voice,” she said. “If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.”

Each graduate also received a copy of Book Club selection A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and another Winfrey favorite, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

To read the story, CLICK HERE.

By Anne Brennan
I enjoyed doing the review for Angela Johnson’s “Wind Flyers.” What a beautiful book. It’s fascinating to know that a MacArthur fellow lives in Kent, Ohio. Who knew? I don’t know if it’s a requirement, but author Angela Johnson seems as reclusive as Cormac McCarthy, another recipient of the “genius grant.” (For a look at the ultimate uninterested interviewee, check out Oprah’s painful session with McCarthy at www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_RpXe2Taug&feature=related

I like Johnson’s honesty about her writing process in a vistingauthors.com article:

“When I had trouble deciding what I was really doing with my days, the daylilies would bloom, a great movie would show up at the Plaza Cinemas, or children would suddenly appear and stay awhile, letting those thoughts fade away.
Through all of these distractions, who was to make me stay in my office, finish ten pages of that novel, or round out that picture book that had been staring at me each time I walked by it for a month?
The answer was no one. But miraculously, a few times a year I would indeed let some kind and patient person in another state know that I had somehow done it again. Magic. A book.
So, it came to me the other day that all of my days are what I do. All of my days have everything to do with how and why I write. You see, every time I have ever tried to sit in my office overlooking the flower garden and try to force myself to write for a couple of hours a day, I’d just end up watching an old movie or going for a walk.
I need the walks, the gardening, and the day-trips as much as my word processor to enable me to write. Now I know this.
So, I am indeed a writer, and other things too, thankfully. Thus, I happily try to make all the distinct parts work for me. They have everything to do with me being a writer.”

Contrast that with bestselling phenom Nora Roberts’ nose-to-the-grindstone style. Why it’s just like my writing habits…sorry, gotta go. “Oprah” is on.

Barbara Walters is promoting her memoirs – including a stop on Oprah Winfrey’s set – and has disclosed an affair she had with a married U.S. senator 30 years ago. In revealing her affair with Sen. Edward Brooke, she remembers him as “exciting” and “brilliant.”

Both were aware at the time that if the affair had become public, it could have ruined both of their careers. Now, it seems to drive book sales.

On Oprah, Walters stopped short of saying she was in love with Brooke. “I was certainly — I don’t know — I was certainly infatuated,” she said.

She recalled a telephone conversation with a friend who urged her to break it off and warned her that sooner or later it would be made public and it would ruin her career and Brooke’s career.