Book news: Phil Jackson, Largehearted Boy, Goodreads ditches Amazon

Former L.A. Lakers coach Phil Jackson is working on a memoir. Oh, he coached the Chicago Bulls too? Whatever. It's a follow-up to his book "Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior" and will be coauthored by the same writer, Hugh Delehanty. The memoir, about his championship seasons, will be titled "Eleven Rings" and published by Penguin.

Happy 10th birthday to the books and music blog Largehearted Boy, creation of David Gutowski, which celebrated with an event at Brooklyn's Word Bookstore. Electric Literature documented the festivities, and Book Bouroughing, a new New York literary events website cofounded by Gutowski, got backstage photos.

Do not steal these snapshots of beat poet Allen Ginsberg in his New York apartment in a tux, in red suspenders, and, at a pool with William S. Burroughs, in a bathing suit. But do check them out. (via WFMU)

New York Review of Books Classics brings forgotten books back into print. For the last few years, that's meant bringing them alive as e-books, too. Which is one of the publisher's strongest e-book sellers? Editor Edwin Frank says it's "The Long Ships," by Swedish author Frans T. Bengtsson, first published in the U.S. in 1955. It has an introduction by Michael Chabon.

NBC tells Wired why its e-books will be better than other ebooks: video. The company has lots of it,  knows how to shoot and edit it, and has clear ownership. Now all NBC needs to add is the books part. Right? Right?

Goodreads has stopped using Amazon's data. The site that has most effectively combined social networking and books has decided that the world's biggest online seller is not a good partner for its book listings. "Quality book information — such as titles, authors, publication dates, and cover images — is the life blood of a site dedicated to book discovery and literary discussion. Since its inception, Goodreads has relied on Amazon's public API for much of this information," writes founder Otis Chandler, "and while Amazon data was free, it came with many restrictions. For instance, we couldn't use their information for our mobile apps or link to competing bookstores." If I were a betting woman, I'd wager Goodreads will be rolling out some new local features very soon.

From the Atlantic, a listicle: contemporary authors' favorite books, culled from the 2007 book "The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books."

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Then-Lakers coach Phil Jackson listens to the national anthem before the start of Game 3 of the 2009 NBA finals in Orlando, Fla. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

National Book Critics Circle announces finalists for 2011 awards

The National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2011 book awards at a public ceremony on Saturday in New York City. Two Southern California writers are among those up for the awards, which will be presented on March 8 in Manhattan.

"It Calls You Back," an intergenerational tale of life in and out of Los Angeles gangs by Luis Rodriguez, a follow-up to his classic memoir "Always Running," is among the finalists for autobiography. Jonathan Lethem, who holds the Roy E. Disney Chair in Creative Writing at Pomona College, is a finalist for his collection of critical essays, "The Ecstasy of Influence." Another finalist, the novel "Stone Arabia" by Dana Spiotta, is set in the San Fernando Valley.

Awards will be made in six categories: fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, poetry and criticism. For 37 years, the National Book Critics Circle has annually presented awards to books of excellence. Previous winners include Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, John Ashberry, Jennifer Egan, Alex Ross, Roberto Bolano, Susan Sontag, Martin Amis and Junot Diaz.

The 30 2011 NBCC finalists include many who have been previously recognized for their work: two Pulitzer Prize winners, one winner of the Booker Prize, two previously NBCC award winners, and one author who has received the National Humanities Medal. Yet the NBCC board also recognized two debuts: Teju Cole's novel, "Open City," and "Pulphead," a collection of essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan.

L.A. Times book critic David L. Ulin and staff writer Carolyn Kellogg sit on the 24-member board of the National Book Critics Circle.

Lil Wayne will publish book penned inside the pen

The diaries that rapper Lil Wayne kept while in jail will form the basis of a new book, publisher Grand Central announced Thursday. Lil Wayne spent eight months in jail on Rikers Island in 2010; he had pleaded guilty to attempted weapons possession.

"We are thrilled to be publishing Wayne’s prison memoir," executive editor Ben Greenberg said in a release. "He kept detailed journals of his inner and outer life while he was on Rikers Island, and they certainly tell a story.  They are revealing."

Weezy's time at Rikers included a month in solitary confinement for possession of "music contraband" -- headphones and a charger for an MP3 player.

The Grammy winner's memoir, "Gone Till November," will be released Nov. 28 -- just in time for the 2012  Christmas shopping season.

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What should you give Jay-Z and Beyoncé's baby? Books. Oprah did.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Lil Wayne performs on "MTV Unplugged." Credit: Frank Micelotta / MTV / PictureGroup.

Jimmy Hoffa's driver, in book, says he knows where boss is buried

In a new book, Jimmy Hoffa's onetime driver claims that the Teamsters boss was buried right in Detroit. In "The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob," Marvin Elkind tells journalist Adrian Humphreys that Hoffa's body was entombed in the foundation of General Motors' headquarters, the Renaissance Center.

The New York Post reports:

“It was his own people who did it,” claims chauffeur-turned-informant Marvin Elkind, the subject of “The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob” by Canadian journalist Adrian Humphreys.

“Mr. Hoffa gave them no choice. He was very close to Tony Jack [Detroit capo and union heavy Anthony Giacalone], and everyone knows he provided the triggerman. Tony Jack told me. He didn’t say, ‘Marvin, I provided the triggerman.’ But he told me in another way.”

Elkind claims this revelation came during a Teamsters conference in Detroit in 1985, 10 years after Hoffa disappeared while on his way to meet Giacalone and gangster Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano.

“Let’s take a break. Let’s get out of here,” Giacalone announced to a group of delegates.

The group was heading away from the Omni International across a glassed-in walkway when the Renaissance Center, which was under construction when Hoffa vanished, came into view.

“When Tony Jack passed the middle point of the bridge . . . he nodded toward the huge tower’s foundation,” Humphreys writes.

“Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys,” he said.

The book describes Elkind, known as "the Weasel," as a waiter, driver and low-level mobster who worked as a double agent for the FBI and Canadian authorities. Born in Toronto, Elkind's rough childhood led him to become a driver for Hoffa at age 18; he stayed on for four years.

Hoffa's whereabouts have remained a mystery since his 1975 disappearance. He was officially declared dead in 1982. Chances are it will be a while before anyone might be able to look for him in the foundation of the Renaissance Center. Since its completion in 1977, the seven interconnected skyscrapers, topped by a 73-story hotel, have marked the highest point of Detroit's skyline.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

In Sunday books: On Patti Smith, Tolstoy and life in the marginalia

What's in a book? Ideas and language, of course, and, remarkably, Lynell George has been able to trace her mother's life in the marginalia she left in many of her books. As George notes in her essay, "A Life in the Marginalia," that starts on the cover of this Sunday's Arts & Books section, to open her mother's books was "to reveal all manner of ephemera -- from transit passes to cards to notes in her mother's elegant English teacher cursive -- and all marking chapters in a rich, full life. And, in a way, a gentle guidance." Just as her mother's books and love of reading were a gift to her, George's memoir reminds us of the gift of books in enhancing the fabric of a home.  

Also Sunday,  David Ulin checks in on Patti Smith's "Woolgathering," a collection of prose poems that Ulin says speaks volumes about the broad diversity that makes up the life of Smith as a rocker, mother, poet, artist.

You can also listen here to an excerpt of Smith reading from her award-winning memoir "Just Kids," which has just been released as an audio book: Pattismithexcerpt

Daniel Handler, known more familiarly to some as Lemony Snicket, is back with his YA-debut "Why We Broke Up," which Susan Carpenter describes as "a brief but intense teen relationship gone wrong." Carpenter says that few of these "tragic trajectories have been written about as poignantly" as in this book, which is illustrated by Maira Kalman.

Then there's Tolstoy. Yes, the life of the count is detailed in Rosamund Bartlett's "Tolstoy: A Russian Life." Reviewer Martin Rubin notes that Tolstoy was "a loner, a quintessential outsider and a generally awful and quarrelsome individual." So how was he able to "understand and evoke the glittering social whirl and intricacies of fashionable salons" that made up much of his fiction?

Shari Roan reviews Mary Johnson's "An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service and an Authentic Life," a memoir that will "fascinate not only Catholics but anyone who has wondered about the human capacity to vow lifelong celibacy, poverty and charity" and gives us a fascinating portrait of Mother Teresa. Online at The Siren's Call, Nick Owchar talks to novelist Richard Zimler about his recent visit to Poland to discuss the novel "The Warsaw Anagrams" with Polish audiences.

And, of course, we have our Best-Sellers lists of what's hot at Southern California stores.

Again, thanks for reading (and for listening).

-- Jon Thurber, book editor 

Photo: One of several books that were part of writer Lynell George's mother's collection. George's mother imprinted the book with a hand and footprint of her daughter when she was a baby. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

 

Little books: An airplane reader

I'm not one of the people getting on a plane this holiday season, but the last time I flew I carried along the marvelously designed "Checking In/Checking Out," a book that contains two long-form nonfiction pieces about flying. Read Christopher Schaberg's "Checking In" while holding the book one way; flip it over and read Mark Yakich's "Checking Out."

Independently published by Schaberg and Yakich under the imprint NO Books, "Checking In/Checking Out" serves as a model for a new kind of short-run publication: the little book. About 5 by 6 inches, small enough to tuck into a jacket pocket or a purse, it's easy to carry, doesn't take too long to read, and is quite nice to look at.

And if you carry it on a plane, you don't have to turn it off.

Just being physically convenient would be one thing, but these pieces are well-crafted, engaging reads. Parts of them were previously published in the New York Times, Narrative magazine, the Millions, Brevity and Propeller magazine.

Schaberg tells of working at the airport in Bozeman, Mont. The airport was small enough that his duties included checking in passengers, loading baggage, de-icing planes, cleaning planes, dealing with lavatories and conveyer belts. Pretty much everything. Schaberg writes:

I often thought of loading baggage as a game of human-scale Tetris. Usually each 50-passenger flight that I worked would require two standard size luggage carts full of roller bags, snowboard carriers, ski bags, Pelican cases, octagonal metal film canisters, long plastic fishing rod cylinders, and hard-sided suitcases. Occasionally there would be a kayak, or a casket....

Instead of losing the game when I could not fit a piece in place, usually I just ended up with a badly bruised shin, pinched fingers, crushed toes, or a hard-sided golf case collapsing onto my head as I waited for the next bag to make its way up the belt-loaded conveyor.

On any given day, I would go through this routine several times throughout my shift. After a while, loading baggage didn't feel like a game anymore. It felt like work.

Tim Tebow: Football success equals book sales

Tim Tebow, who led the Denver Broncos to a six-game winning streak that baffled experts, has seen his success on the field migrate to shelves. Tebow, who is 24, published the memoir "Through My Eyes," this spring; like his wins, its late-in-the-game success has come as a surprise.

Fox Sports reports:

His memoir, "Through My Eyes: A Quarterback's Journey," debuted on May 31 and stayed on the best-seller list for 13 weeks. But it returned to the nonfiction hardcover best-seller list three weeks ago and recently snapped to No. 8.

The book had its highest sales last week.

"We have to go back to reprint practically every day," HarperCollins Senior Vice President Lisa Sharkey said. "We didn't anticipate this kind of a season."

That season took a turn Sunday when the Patriots defeated the Denver Broncos, 41-23, ending Tebow's winning streak. But will that take the wind out of his book sales?

If the book itself is any indication, maybe not. It begins with the inspirational dedication "To all those who have been told that they couldn't achieve their dreams" and soon turns to matters of achievement, striving and faith. After opening with a scene where the much-heralded college player Tebow fails to be awarded the Heisman Trophy, it harks back to his beginnings.

"My dad was preaching in a remote village in the Philippines in 1986," Tebow writes. "As 'The Jesus Film' played on a large, homemade screen hanging between two coconut trees, he became heavily burdened by the millions of babies being aborted in America. While weeping over the gigantic loss of human life, my dad began to pray, 'Father, if you want another preacher in this world, you give him to me. You give me Timmy, and I will raise him to be a preacher.'"

And in 1987, Timmy Tebow, future football star, was born. Nathan Whitaker, who co-wrote the book with Tebow, describes the Denver Broncos quarterback as "just one of the guys."

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Tom Sizemore to write memoir of drug addiction and recovery

 
Actor Tom Sizemore is writing a memoir of his drug use and recovery for Atria Books. Sizemore, whose acting chops landed him roles in the Academy Award-winning "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down," has had very public struggles with cocaine and heroin. There were arrests, and then recovery on reality TV.

Deadline Hollywood wrote:

Sizemore, who once romanced Elizabeth Hurley and Sharon Stone and whose performances in films from True Romance to Black Hawk Down elevated him from character actor to the star of his own TV series in Robbery Homicide Division, lost it all due to his substance abuse struggles. At his lowest point, Sizemore was accused of domestic violence by Heidi Fleiss and traded a Beverly Hills mansion for a solitary confinement cell at Chino State Prison.

A possibly lower point was when Sizemore, trying to pass a drug test, was busted for using a device called "The Whizzinator." That was in 2005, when the actor, who was on probation, was required to take a urinalysis before leaving to shoot a film in Cambodia. The Whizzinator included a pair of men's underwear, a repository for drug-free pee, heat packs and a prosthetic, um, male pee-delivery device.

Another unusual moment in Sizemore's struggles and recovery was when Charlie Sheen appeared on his behalf at a sentencing hearing in 2007.

But that's behind him now. "The fact that I'm now sober over two years -- and that I'm acting as much as I did before -- proves that people can overcome obstacles even when they’re sure they can't," Sizemore told Deadline Hollywood. "I hope that this book can inspire other people to never give up."

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Rob Lowe to folow up bestselling memoir with second book

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Tom Sizemore in 2006. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Rob Lowe to follow up best-selling memoir with second book

Actor Rob Lowe made his literary debut with the best-selling memoir "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" earlier this year. On Monday, publisher Simon & Schuster announced it will publish a second book by Lowe, "Love Life."

The new book will be part observations, part life lessons. In a news release, Simon & Schuster writes that it "will explore topics such as sex, marriage, money, work, fatherhood and sports, drawing upon Mr. Lowe’s own experiences and observations."

Lowe's acting career kicked off in the 1980s with films such as "The Outsiders" and "Class" (both released in 1983) and "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985). He was a core member of a generation of young, good-looking actors who became known as the Brat Pack. After highs and lows, Lowe made a strong comeback on television, starring in "The West Wing" and "Brothers and Sisters." Lately, when not being an investor -- his investment partners have a stake in Miramax -- he's been proving his comedy chops on "Parks and Recreation." And working on his book.

This spring, Susan King talked to Lowe and wrote about his memoir.

Lowe talks about everything in "Stories I Only Tell My Friends," such as finding his first brush with success on an ABC sitcom at the age of 15, and his romances with Melissa Gilbert and Princess Stephanie among many others, and his relentless partying, the infamous 1988 sex tape, his 1989 disastrous appearance on the Academy Awards, his realization in 1990 that he was an alcoholic, his happy, 20-year marriage to makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff and why he left his role as Sam Seaborn on "The West Wing" after four seasons....

Though he discusses his sexcapades, he never goes into any salacious, R-rated details. In fact, as Hollywood autobiographies go, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" is quite chaste.

“The first book proved that Rob Lowe is a great storyteller,” Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in a statement. “The second book will prove that he can write about anything and continue to captivate readers.”

In the statement, Lowe added: “I’m hoping readers will think of the first book as a restaurant where they ate a good meal, and that they’ll want to come back and try a new dish.”

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Whose memoir would you rather read: Rob Lowe's or Soleil Moon Frey's?

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Rob Lowe in his office at Miramax in April. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Amanda Knox looking for book deal

Amanda Knox, the American student who was cleared of murder charges in October after spending four years in an Italian jail, is looking for a book deal. Knox has hired prominent Washington attorney Robert Barnett to take her story to publishers, the European press agency AFP reports.

Barnett is known for brokering book deals of some of the world's most prominent people. He has represented Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto.

Knox is a different character. She was a college student accused of murdering her roommate at an Italian study abroad program with the help of her Italian boyfriend. The sensational case, which the Italian courts contended was a sex game gone wrong, attracted international media attention. In 2009, Knox was convicted in the killing of Meredith Kercher; this year the verdict was overturned.

PHOTOS: The Amanda Knox case

Barnett's law firm, Williams & Connolly, will "represent [Knox] in discussions with various book publishers who have expressed an interest in Amanda writing a book," according to a statement.

In October, we asked Jacket Copy readers to vote on whether they thought Knox should get a book deal. More than 800 said she should -- and almost 48% of all voters in our poll said they believed Knox to be innocent.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Amanda Knox in an Italian courtroom in June. Credit: Peitro Crocchioni / European Pressphoto Agency