In Karl Rove's
resignation speech, President Bush's top political adviser mentioned he
might want to write a book, and publishers, "with some reservations,
would like to see what he has in mind," according to USA Today.
"If
he's ready to talk about what he's been doing, to lay out how he
developed his architectural plans and then implemented them and what
his vision is, I think that book would have significant readership,"
said Steve Ross, president and publisher of Collins U.S.
"He's
clearly one of the most controversial, notorious and elusive figures in
politics, and I think that people would be interested in looking behind
the curtain and seeing what the Wizard of Oz is actually saying," added
Jonathan Karp, publisher of the Twelve Imprint at Grand Central
Publishing.
USA Today reported that Ashbel Green, senior
editor at Knopf, suggested "Rove's advance could reach the mid-six
figures, but not higher, if only because Rove lacked the charisma of
Clinton."
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Here we go again.
Beaufort Books plans to publish If I Did It, the book by O.J.
Simpson that was originally to be published by HarperCollins but was
cancelled late last year. After legal battles, ownership of the book
has been taken by the family of Ronald Goldman, who was murdered with
Nicole Simpson. The Goldman family won a civil judgment against
Simpson. See Beaufort's announcement here.
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Even though no book is involved, we want to note
the death of that beloved huckleberry, Phil Rizzuto, longtime New York
Yankees player and announcer. He died Monday at the age of 89. We
loved his wacky honesty and language. Our favorite story about him was
a line during a broadcast on a Yankees road trip when he marveled about
the round rooms in the hotel where the team was staying. He added, "If my
wife, Cora, was on the trip, there would be no cornering Cora tonight."
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Nice trick: Murder by the Book, Houston, Tex., will host the only event in the country for Charlaine Harris's upcoming Harper Connelly mystery, An Ice Cold Grave
(Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95, 9780425217290/0425217299). On the title's
official on-sale date, Tuesday, September 25, Harris will fly to
Houston to appear at one of the store's Mystery Author Luncheons and
then return home.
Harris is the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, which is being
made into an HBO show, created by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) and
starring Oscar winner Anna Paquin (The Piano, The X-Men) as Sookie. The show makes its debut in January.
The reason for Harris's devotion? Former Murder by the Book manager Dean
James read an early draft of a Sookie book and encouraged Harris when
no publisher was interested. He believed it to be the best thing she'd
ever written.
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Kelly Amabile, who writes One for the Road, a daily book recommendation for AOL's travel blog, Gadling.com, offers a profile of the Bookworm,
a "lending library, bookshop, restaurant and events space" that opened
in Beijing in 2004 and is expanding elsewhere in China. A second store
opened in Chengdu last year, and a third is under construction in
Suzhou. Bookworm
stocks some 20,000 English-language books and sponsors literary events
and author talks. The owners are Alexandra Pearson and Peter Goff.
Beginning this fall, Pearson will be booking authors to do mini-tours
of all three Bookworm locations.
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Newsmax
profiles Mary "Mimi" Havemeyer Beman, owner of Mitchell's Book Corner
on Nantucket, Mass., an 800-sq.-ft. space stocking some 40,000 books
started by her parents in 1968. Her clientele includes the rich and
famous such as Richard Mellon Scaife, Tommy Hilfiger, Teresa Heinz, Bob
Wright, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Brian Williams, the late Princess
Grace and the late Jacqueline Onassis.
A current bestseller is Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
by Marcus Luttrell, which "appeals to the men who like male
things--heroism, patriotism, and Navy Seals," Beman said. "We have CEOs
and political types and celebrities from Washington, New York, and Palm
Beach reading this book."
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Next April, Barnes & Noble plans to open a store in Cumming, Ga., near Atlanta. The store will be in the Avenue Forsythe shopping center at the intersection of Georgia Highway 141 and Ronald Reagan Parkway.
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Effective August 27, Andy Heidel will join Houghton Mifflin as assistant director of publicity. He is currently publicity manager for Dutton and Gotham Books at Penguin. He was previously publicity manager for the Sci Fi Channel and publicity manager at HarperCollins.