The O.J. manuscript hits the web

The Hollywood gossip website TMZ.com posted a link Tuesday afternoon to the entire manuscript of O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It” — one day after the family of Ronald Goldman won the rights to the book in federal court. According to Wired.com, the link had been removed by the middle of the day, after TMZ received “a takedown notice from a trustee overseeing the bankruptcy case of Simpson — but not before hundreds, if not thousands, of people likely downloaded it and passed it on to friends.” TMZ has left a pair of excerpts from the book’s notorious final chapter, in which Simpson describes (sort of) the murders of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson as if they were a fever dream.

It’s hard to say what’s more disturbing: the account itself, a kind of peekaboo tease in which Simpson claims that “something went horribly wrong,” although he “can’t tell you exactly how”; TMZ’s breathless self-promotion (even now, the page is tagged with a red banner declaring “Exclusive”); or the swirl of legal machinations that continues to surround this case, obscuring any sense of right and wrong. But in the end, what may be most telling is the way this episode leaves one less with a feeling of outrage than of exhaustion, the desire to see the whole sordid Simpson saga finally put behind us once and for all.

David L. Ulin

Derring-do for girls...

Have you looked longingly at "The Dangerous Book for Boys," the latest children's sensation from Britain, and wondered: Where are the how-tos for girls? Where are those guides harking to a day before iPods, Atari, American Girl catalogs and YouTube? Turns out the publishing industry has scrambled to come up with at least half a dozen titles to more than balance the scales.

HarperCollins, the U.S. publisher of the bestselling boys' book by British authors Conn and Hal Iggulden, has tapped Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz to write "The Daring Book for Girls," to be published Nov. 1. Among its contents: five karate moves every girl should know; famous women spies; stocks and bonds; and how to make your own comic book. It is, blogs Buchanan, "a book for any girl with an eye for adventure and a nose for trouble."

Scholastic Press is also rushing out a U.S. version of another British bestseller, Juliana Foster's "The Girls' Book: How to Be the Best at Everything," on Sept. 1. Released by Buster Books in Britain in February, "The Girls' Book" tells how to survive a zombie attack, deal with bullies, do the perfect handstand, build the best sandcastle, make a compass and find the North Star.

Next up is "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls" by Rosemary Davidson and Sarah Vine, due July 19 in Britain. It promises instructions for making scones, daisy chains and elderflower cordial. No U.S. publisher is yet onboard, says USA Today.

And in celebration of that resourceful paragon of sleuthing and sensibility, Nancy Drew, now a retro heroine in the movie by the same name that hit theaters June 15, three handbooks will hit U.S. stores this fall. First out is Amy Helmes' "The Wisdom of Nancy Drew: The Nancy Drew Guide to Solving Life's Little Mysteries," published by Cider Mill Press in October, followed in November by "Clues for Real Life: The Classic Wit and Wisdom of Nancy Drew" from Meredith Books and "The Official Nancy Drew Handbook: Skills, Tips, & Life Lessons" by Penny Warner from Quirk Books.

They may not be of help this summer, but get your Christmas lists started.

— Kristina Lindgren

Coffee, er, books, anyone?

Your soy latte with a chai chaser is available on practically any corner, but what about food for the mind? Readers may soon have a grab-and-go option for that too: The Espresso Book Machine, which promises to print and bind a requested book in three to five minutes, will be unveiled for the pressThursday morning at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library on Madison Avenue.

The machine was demonstrated earlier this month at BookExpo America, as reported in this column. It’s an intriguing idea: Amazon.com and other such websites gave readers a way to find books more efficiently than just by browsing the shelves in their neighborhood shops (although searching is half the fun, unless you’re in a hurry). Now, the founders of On Demand Books, which has developed the machine, are suggesting in press materials that the device will have the effect of "revolutionizing the publishing industry by eliminating returns, shipping, and inventory."

Thursday’s event for reporters will feature a question-and-answer session with Jason Epstein, co-founder of On Demand Books (the latest accomplishment in his long and illustrious publishing career); Dane Neller, co-founder of On Demand Books and former chief executive of Dean & Deluca; Thor Sigvaldason, chief technology officer of On Demand Books; and Kristin McDonough, director of the public library’s Science, Industry and Business Library.
Nick Owchar

Rushdie’s knighthood stirs Muslim anger

The knighting of novelist Salman Rushdie has triggered outrage in the Muslim world, with a leader in Pakistan going so far as to claim that it justifies suicide attacks, the Guardian, the BBC and other news sources reported this morning.

Rushdie’s knighthood, for his services to literature, was announced Saturday on an honors list presented on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.

Iran immediately condemned the honor given to the novelist, who went into hiding in 1989 after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for Rushdie’s death after the publishing of "The Satanic Verses."  "Giving a medal to someone who is among the most detested figures in the Islamic community is...a blatant example of the anti-Islamism of senior British officials," Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini declared at a news conference.

In Pakistan, a cabinet minister told parliament members that attempts to kill Rushdie, including suicide attacks, are justified "unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the ‘sir’ title." "This is an occasion for the [world’s] 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision," Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister, said in parliament. "The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on [Rushdie’s] body, he would be right to do so. . . ."

Nick Owchar

(Photo: The Associated Press)

Remembering Mark Harris

As I get older, I sometimes look back at missed opportunities and have a few regrets. When I read in the paper about the passing of Mark Harris in May, one of those regrets of my life resurfaced.

I knew Mark Harris when I was in high school with his son, Anthony, in the early 1970s. I say I knew Anthony’s father, but to me he was just the parent of another classmate. We lived in Valencia, a brand-new housing development at the time, where everyone was a transplant--some, like myself, from as near as the San Fernando Valley; others, like the Harrises, from as far away as New York. I felt a special kinship to their family, because the Newhall area at that time was about 99% Republican, or at least it seemed that way. Football and Nixon were held in equally high regard. We were considered oddballs, because we were lefties, we had friends of all colors and ethnicities, and my mom worked for a living. The Harrises were all those things and more.

I knew Mr. Harris was a writer--he had written "Bang the Drum Slowly," and I’d seen the movie version, loving its compassion for those who are different. What I didn’t realize at the time was that Anthony’s dad was one of the truly brilliant American novelists of the 20th century.

About 12 years ago, I happened upon a first edition of "Bang the Drum Slowly," and I figured it was about time to read the book by my long-lost friend’s dad. It was a revelation. Its simple, direct prose was unbearably moving. The characters of baseball players Henry Wiggen and Bruce Pearson were so fully developed that I wanted to believe they were real. Baseball becomes mythical and tangible at the same time--and a heartbreaking metaphor for life.

"Bang the Drum Slowly" whetted my appetite for the other Henry Wiggen books, which I acquired and read in order: "The Southpaw," "Bang the Drum Slowly" (a second time), "A Ticket for a Seamstitch" and "It Looked Like Forever." That was it. I was hooked. I wanted more. I craved the humor and simple beauty of Harris’ prose, the characters that etch themselves into your psyche, the situations that make you laugh and cry at the same time.

And this is where that regret enters because I wish I’d known then, at 16, what I know now at 51. I wish I’d known that Anthony’s dad was an American master and that I could have learned something from a uniquely gifted storyteller. Perhaps some of his genius stemmed from that modesty, from his being just another father of another classmate. And perhaps I learned as much as I needed to--about compassion and tolerance, strength and frailty, courage and insecurity--from Wiggen and Pearson, from the characters Speed and Jacob Epp.

Pamela Wilson

Can physicists write for kids? Just ask Stephen Hawking!

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is teaming with his novelist daughter Lucy Hawking to take a new generation of readers into the cosmos.

Their novel, "George’s Secret Key to the Universe," due in bookstores in October, aims to give middle-school children a time-traveling adventure to the planets, black holes and beyond through the eyes of a boy who befriends his scientist neighbor and the man’s daughter. And Cosmos, the super-computer that makes it all possible, is the target of shady people with nefarious designs.

"We are thrilled that Professor Stephen Hawking has written this one-of-a-kind book for children," Rubin Pfeffer of Simon & Schuster’s Books for Young Readers said in a statement.
Hawking’s bestselling classic, "A Brief History of Time," which explains for average folks the nature of the universe, has "inspired millions of adult minds around the globe," Pfeffer said.

This joint effort by the Hawkings "will make this complex material readily accessible to a younger audience," he added.

The book will be illustrated by Garry Parsons ("Krong!," "On a Camel to the Moon"). Collaborating on the story line for "George’s Secret Key" is Christophe Galfard, a mathematician and former research assistant to the elder Hawking.

Kristina Lindgren

(Photo: The Associated Press)

J.K. Rowling plans an L.A. visit for the final "Harry"

In a rare tour of three U.S. cities for the seventh and final "Harry Potter" novel, author J.K. Rowling will read to L.A.-area school kids and sign books at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre on Oct. 15, the author announced today.

Three student-only events are planned by the billionaire British writer to promote "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The book, which won’t be released until 12:01 a.m. on July 21, is already Amazon’s No. 1 seller, with pre-orders running well ahead of Khaled Hosseini’s critically acclaimed bestseller, "A Thousand Splendid Suns."

"What J.K. Rowling loves most is to talk with her readers, and that is what she will be able to do on this very special U.S. tour," said Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Books’ children’s division. "Rowling will engage in lively conversations with her fans in each of the three cities she will visit, seeking to once again experience touring the way it all began 10 years ago and the way she most enjoys--with a book, an author and her readers."

Rowling’s other readings will take place at New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Oct. 18 and at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Oct. 19. Another Carnegie Hall reading the same evening will be open to 1,000 fans of any age lucky enough to win a pair of tickets. Sweepstakes entry rules and information will be available beginning July 30 on Scholastic’s website.

Tomorrow is the entry deadline for another sweepstakes, the chance to fly to London to attend Rowling’s July 21 midnight reading of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at the Natural History Museum. Seven U.S. winners will be chosen at random. Slackers will have to rush a printed entry form marked "for Friday delivery" to: Scholastic, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Sweepstakes, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

In the meantime, bookstores across the Southland are gearing up for Hogwarts-style release parties for the night of July 20. Scholastic plans a first U.S. run of 12 million copies (under the Arthur A. Levine imprint), up from 10 million for 2005’s "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

As for who can attend the 3,400-seat Kodak Theatre event, Scholastic will pick a local school in September. The chosen school "will be given a Sorting Hat [for a] random drawing of students." No word yet on how Scholastic will select the winning school.
Kristina Lindgren

Granta editor joins a thriving Paris Review<

It's a consolation that, despite the financial perils and other rocky circumstances causing venerable literary journals such as Antaeus to go out of business, the Paris Review has managed to recover and grow since the death of George Plimpton in 2003.

Many thought the magazine's days were numbered with Plimpton's passing. Then, a distinguished search committee chose author and journalist Philip Gourevitch as Plimpton’s successor; and now the publication has made another wise acquisition, bringing in Granta’s Matt Weiland in the newly created position of deputy editor, the publication announced this week. Weiland’s creds, in addition to his stint at Granta as deputy editor, include working for The Baffler, The New Press and co-editing books with Sean Wilsey and Thomas Frank.

And, one other thing mentioned in the announcement that deserves a little attention here: With Gourevitch’s arrival in 2005, "circulation has since doubled, as have advertising revenues." How many publications can say that?

Nick Owchar

A stunning win for Chinua Achebe

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe has won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize after beating a truly breathtaking list of finalists. Contenders for the award included Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Carlos Fuentes, Don DeLillo and Salman Rushdie. The award includes a cash prize that is the American equivalent of about $120,000. Achebe, 76, has written many books, but the novel most often cited as establishing him as a major global voice is "Things Fall Apart," which centers on the character of Okonkwo and his household and shows us what African tribal life was like before the arrival of colonialism.

Elaine Showalter, one of the judges, said Achebe "inaugurated the modern African novel" and "illuminated the path for writers around the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies."

According to the prize website, the Man Booker International Prize was started to reach beyond the work of writers from the Commonwealth and Ireland--which is where the Man Booker Prize for Fiction focuses--and recognize the fiction of writers of any nationality whose work is available in English. Announced in 2004, the prize is given at two-year intervals (with such a stellar list of candidates, two years seems like hardly enough time to determine who deserves it most!): Its first recipient was Albanian writer Ismail Kadare in 2005.

British newspapers are, understandably, buzzing with news about the award, but it’s the Guardian that gives the most refreshing insight into what this all means. The paper points out that the award should be seen as a sharp jab directed at Stockholm for never having awarded Achebe a Nobel Prize.

Nick Owchar

First-time authors vie for Quill award …

A former child soldier from Sierra Leone whose bestselling memoir has made him an overnight celebrity, an indie filmmaker and a British teacher whose Brontë-esque novel was the subject of a publishers’ bidding war are among five nominees for the book industry’s debut author of the year award.

Nominees for the 2007 Quill award are: Ishmael Beah for "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier," which Starbucks began promoting in February in its coffee shops across the country and donating $2 for each copy sold to a UNICEF fund; Miranda July, director of the 2005 movie "Me and You and Everyone We Know," for her short-story collection "No One Belongs Here More Than You"; Diane Setterfield, a French teacher from Yorkshire, England, for "The Thirteenth Tale," a gothic suspense tale; Daniel J. Levitin, a cognitive psychologist from Montreal, for "This Is Your Brain on Music"; and music critic Rob Sheffield for "Love Is a Mix Tape," a memoir about his late rock critic wife and the soundtrack of their life together.

More than 6,000 of the nation’s booksellers and librarians will vote on the nominees, who were named Tuesday by Publisher’s Weekly. The winner will be announced Sept. 10. The public will then be able to vote online for the Quill book of the year from among the best adult and children’s books in each of 18 categories.

The populist-oriented Quill Awards were launched by the industry in 2005. That year, J.K. Rowling won top honors for her sixth note: sounds like she might have written at least one other non-harry potter book. book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and Elizabeth Kostova was named the debut author of the year for her runaway bestseller, "The Historian."

— Kristina Lindgren