Who's confused by Palin parody?

When we wrote that OR Books, publishers of the Sarah Palin parody "Going Rouge," might be hoping to confuse buyers looking for "Going Rogue" with their evil-twin cover and typo-switcheroo title, we didn't imagine that the media would be caught up in their ruse.

Today the New York Post reports that several media have mixed up the two books. USA Today posted an image of the cover of "Going Rouge" to accompany its review of "Going Rogue" on the Oval, correcting it later with the note, "Erratum: An earlier posting featured the photo of a different Sarah Palin book. The Oval regrets the error." Fox News also displayed the cover image of "Going Rouge" while discussing Palin's actual memoir. And CNN reported that Obama administration officials were sharing copies of "Going Rouge," when the book that had actual changed hands was the official "Going Rogue."

To try to counter the confusion, someone -- possibly publisher HarperCollins -- has been purchasing Google ads that point to "Going Rogue: An American Life" when people search for "Going Rouge," just in case they're not looking for the satire but have mistyped the title. This, indie publisher OR Books told Page Six, "seems very unsporting."

But maybe it's just the media that have been confused by the doppleganger books. Palin fans have been able to find her memoir without a problem at Amazon (even if they can't get it signed), where it remains atop the Amazon bestseller list.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Reviews this week: not just Palin and Agassi

This week, there were some small books competing for attention against some blockbusters. Andre Agassi's memoir, "Open," is charming everyone, including our reviewer David Davis:

This literate and absorbing book is, as the title baldly states, Agassi's confessional, a wrenching chronicle of his lifelong search for identity and serenity, on and off the court.

Peter Mayle, best known for "A Year in Provence," begins in Malibu but swiftly heads back to France, in a wine-and-food fiction this time around. Reviewer Bernadette Murphy writes:

"The Vintage Caper" is just that -- a caper -- a lighthearted romp through Bordeaux and Marseille, in which picking the right restaurant, choosing the best dish on the menu and, of course, finding the perfect wine (and female companion) to accompany the feast is every bit as important as catching the thief.

Well-known French children's author Jean-Claude Mourlevat has tried his hand at young adult fiction, and the results are not good. George Ducker writes:

For the characters in "Winter's End" -- and this should go for the readers as well -- the book's end just can't come soon enough.

And don't forget Sarah Palin. The former vice presidential candidate visited with Oprah, hit the road in a decorated tour bus and remained at the top of Amazon's bestseller list. As for the book itself, Tim Rutten says:

"Going Rogue" is so obviously a campaign biography that a reader comes away trying to figure out what he thinks of Palin's presidential chances rather than what he thinks of her.

So far, Palin isn't running for anything. Officially, that is.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Andre Agassi, honored at the U.S. Open in 2009. Credit: Charles Krupa / Associated Press

Amy Goodman's book tour draws noontime crowd

It's hard to fill a bookstore at noon on a weekday, but that's exactly what happened at Skylight Books in Los Feliz today when Amy Goodman appeared to talk about her new book, "Breaking the Sound Barrier." By 11:45 a.m., all the seats were filled, decent standing room was taken and people were queuing up behind high bookshelves -- even if they couldn't see, they could listen.

Listening is what they're used to doing with Goodman, a longtime left-wing radio host. In Los Angeles, her show Democracy Now!, now in its 13th year, airs on KPFK-FM (90.7).

Out on the street, a leafletter concerned with changes at the radio station loudly attempted to intercede with Goodman's fans. Some stayed to listen, others hurried into the bookstore. But it seemed fitting; a strong political voice like Goodman's isn't doing its job if it isn't attached to some controversy.

Goodman's book tour will take her to Pasadena tonight and continue through early December. While she's making lots of stops and traveling far, she won't be crossing book tour paths with that other strong-opinioned woman, Sarah Palin. Although that would be some crowd.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: The Skylight Books audience. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg

Studs Terkel and the FBI

In the 1930s, Studs Terkel applied to the FBI to be a fingerprint guy -- maybe if he'd gotten the job, we would have had "CSI: Studs Terkel." But the FBI turned him away and in 1945 began surveillance that would last for more than four decades. Our report has the details:

Terkel's paper trail started in 1945. It references Terkel speaking at a Paul Robeson rally in Chicago and quotes a source who questioned Terkel's "loyalty to the United States" because he worked with the BBC on a piece about the "sordid side of life in Chicago."

Terkel was an energetic journalist who lost his broadcasting job during the McCarthy blacklist era. He went on to write landmark oral histories of working-class America, including "Division Street," "Hard Times" and "Working," which made him either a patriot or suspect, depending on your point of view. After he died in 2008 at age 96, New York's City News service filed a Freedom of Information Act request, leading to this week's release.

Terkel was aware he was being tracked by the FBI, and several accounts of his life recall him joking that his file wasn’t as thick as the one compiled on his wife Ida Goldberg, a social worker and anti-war activist.

The FBI stopped following Terkel in 1990. More than 100 pages of Terkel's 296-page file remain undisclosed for "privacy and other reasons," City News reports. Exactly whose privacy is mysterious -- Terkel outlived most of his contemporaries.

The Chicago History Museum has a selection of his recordings online; his final book, released last year, was "P.S.: Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: What's that, an agent upstairs? Studs Terkel at home in Chicago 2003. Credit: Aynsley Floyd / Associated Press

Sarah Palin quoting Pascal? Please.

If you're skeptical about Sarah Palin being the type to drop references to a 17th century French scientist and philosopher in her memoir "Going Rogue," you've got something in common with Tim Rutten, who reviews the book in our pages Tuesday. "It's customary for  politicians and celebrities to collaborate with a professional writer on books like this," Rutten writes."However, the name of Palin's collaborator -- the evangelical Christian writer and pro-life activist Lynn Vincent -- doesn't appear on the cover of 'Going Rogue.'" Rutten continues:

Collaborators sometimes trade such credits for higher fees, but their names usually appear prominently in the acknowledgments.

Palin's first acknowledgment goes to ... herself: "I'm very glad this writing exercise is over. I love to write, but not about myself. I'm thankful now to have kept journals about Alaska and my friends and family ever since I was a little girl...."

...the hand most obviously working throughout "Going Rogue" is Vincent's. The narrative is sprinkled with literary and philosophical references that one somehow doubts sprang from the copious pages of Palin's diaries, including the role of Blaise Pascal's philosophy in her girlhood conversion from Catholicism to Evangelical Protestantism.

Rutten notes that much of the early media coverage of the book focused on Palin's anger toward the news media. In addition, they found some sensational sound bites.

• Palin's counter to rumors of a possible split from husband Todd: "I watched Todd, tanned and shirtless, take the baby from my arms and walk him back to the ranch house.... Seeing Todd’s blue eyes smiling, I chuckled. 'Dang,' I thought. 'Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?' "
• Her affection for meat. "I eat pork chops, thick bacon burgers, and the seared fatty edges of a medium-well-done steak. But I especially love moose and caribou. I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals -- right next to the mashed potatoes."
• Criticisms of the McCain campaign handlers, Steve Schmidt in particular, who she says called her after she spoke on the phone to pranksters pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Right away, the phones started ringing," she writes. "One of the first calls was Schmidt, and the force of his screaming blew my hair back. 'How can anyone be so stupid?! Why would the president of France call a vice presidential candidate a few days out?!'" [Schmidt told Larry King his portrayal in the book is "total fiction."]

For Rutten, one of the most important aspects of Palin's book is the use of Ronald Reagan as a touchstone. "Palin is genuinely convincing in her admiration for Reagan, but one of the things she misses about his appeal was the utter absence of resentment from his persona," he writes. "This book, on the other hand, fairly seethes with resentment, particularly in the more than 100 pages devoted to the McCain-Palin campaign." But has she got the Gipper's magic? Read Rutten's conclusion here.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo credit: Associated Press / Harpo Productions, Inc. George Burns

Al Gore tonight in Beverly Hills: tickets still available

Al Gore is hitting stages again with a brand-new book. "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" picks up the environmental themes of "An Inconvenient Truth" and presents a call to action. He's in the Los Angeles area tonight at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.

Independent bookstore Book Soup, which is helping to present the event, has tweeted that there will be tickets available at the door. The $40 ticket comes with a copy of "Our Choice." Start your (hybrid) engines: The show is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Al Gore at George Washington University, Nov. 5. Credit: Olivier Douliery / Abaca Press/MCT

When it comes to Twitter, Sarah Palin's no follower

Sarah Palin's memoir "Going Rogue" hits shelves next week, and Palin herself will hit the road, too. She's scheduled to appear in 13 cities and towns in seven days, starting in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Nov. 18 and ending in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 24. The book tour may continue, but no other dates have been announced.

If fans want to follow her book tour, they could try to do so in person -- an enthusiastic fan might be able to get from the Fort Wayne book-signing to the one in Noblesville, Ind., in time to catch her at both sites. Or fans  could go the Internet route and friend her on Facebook. And, of course, follow her on Twitter.

Palin's Twitter account, SarahPalinUSA, which is based around her book and the book tour, has gained more than 2,500 followers in the last 12 hours. Currently, 11,633 people on Twitter are following the former governor of Alaska/former vice presidential candidate/author.

How many people is SarahPalinUSA following? Exactly zero.

So no one can call Sarah Palin a follower.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Sarah Palin. Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

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Afghanistan's Malalai Joya speaks in So Cal

At age 27, Malalai Joya was the first woman elected to Afghanistan's parliament. She's an outspoken advocate for democracy -- so much so that she's been suspended from her job in the National Assembly for allegedly insulting her colleagues on television (the suspension has been criticized by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch). She's survived five assassination attempts and stays on the move to keep safe, although her friends will tell you that her car has been breaking down a lot lately. She's been the subject of a documentary and now has released a memoir, "A Woman Among Warlords"; tonight, she'll speak at All Saints Church in Pasadena.

Thursday afternoon, more than 50 Angelenos packed into a front room of a Beverly Hills home to hear Joya, who is fluent in English, speak about her experiences. About half were activists affiliated with the antiwar group Code Pink, and they were supportive of Joya's criticisms of the Obama administration's policies toward Afghanistan. "We must end this continuing occupation," she said to a round of applause, with all the conviction and modulation of a practiced politician.

Speaking with an accent that thickened as she gained momentum, Joya, who stands less than 5 feet tall, held the room in her sway. Her targets were warlords and corruption at home first, but it was her unflinching criticism of American policies that found traction with this peace-activist audience. "Democracy cannot be won by war," she said, to more applause. 

When she noted that a new report by the UNDP rated Afghanistan 181st out of 182 countries, one woman raised her hand. "What is UNDP?" she asked. About two-thirds of the crowd responded without hesitation: "The United Nations Development Program." Some women in the room had traveled to Afghanistan recently, and Joya appealed to their sense of connectedness. "The silence of good people is worse than the action of bad people," she urged, to more applause.

The cars parked on the street near the Beverly Hills home were an equal mix of middle-class sedans and high-end sports cars, with a generous smattering of KPFK stickers throughout. Southern California may be one of the few places in the country where dedicated peace activists dine within arms' reach of original art by modern masters. If Joya noticed any incongruity, she kept it to herself. She is a politician, after all.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Malalai Joya speaks. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg

Sarah Palin: rouge or rogue?

Above, on the left: the autobiography from Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, set to be released on November 17. And on the right -- and slated for release the exact same day -- a collection that looks to be critical of the high-profile Republican, subtitled, as it is, "Sarah Palin: An American Nightmare."

Note that in the above paragraph, "left" and "right" are meant to denote image locations only, not political perspectives.

The book covers bear no small resemblance to each other. So, too, the titles: Sarah Palin's book is  "Going Rogue," a phrase taken from her deviation from John McCain's views during the 2008 campaign. The other book is entitled "Going Rouge," a phrase that comes from nowhere except a switcheroo of the letters "u" and "g" from Palin's title. (And is being used by a coloring book, too).

"Going Rouge," which is being edited by two senior editors from The Nation, is being published by the young imprint OR Books. The company seems to be hoping to either catch the wave of enthusiasm greeting Palin's book -- it's currently the #2 bestseller on Amazon, and Palin will be a guest on Oprah the day before the book arrives in stores -- or to confuse Palin supporters into purchasing the Palin-unfriendly book.

Or maybe OR Books wasn't thinking about the similarities at all. Maybe they were simply remembering that Palin paid a makeup artist more than $20,000 for two weeks' work. And if anyone wants to know how she rolls, rouge-wise, the makeup artist used blushes from Mac and Chanel. 

As for going rogue, she is, in some Republican circles, still a bit roguish, in the sense of being an outsider, or perhaps even mischievous. Top of the Ticket reports that her offer to assist in governors races in New Jersey and Virginia was declined.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Images: Left, Harper / Associated Press. Right, OR Books.

Papers reveal Gabriel Garcia Marquez was under Mexican surveillance for years

Acclaimed author Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- known for the magical realism of his novels "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" -- moved to Mexico from his native Colombia in the 1960s. And for years, his sympathy for left-leaning causes -- particularly his friendliness with Fidel Castro -- earned him surveillance in his adopted country.

On Monday, the Mexican newspaper El Universal reported (English translation) that in 1982, the year he won the Nobel Prize for literature, Garcia Marquez was described as a Cuban "propaganda agent" in papers of the now-defunct Mexican intelligence agency DFS. Those papers, which are stored in Mexico's National General Archive, show that Gabo's phone was tapped and his actions monitored.

The Latin American Herald Tribune reports:

A wiretapped conversation between Garcia Marquez and the director of Cuba’s Prensa Latina news agency, Jorge Timossi, reveals that the author made over the publishing rights for his book, "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," to the Cuban government.

"The above proves that Gabriel Garcia Marquez, besides being pro-Cuban and pro-Soviet, is a propaganda agent at the service of the intelligence agency of that country," a DFS document said.

The biography "Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life" by Gerald Martin is on the verge of Spanish-language publication in Mexico, bringing renewed attention to the 82-year-old author. Although Martin's book was in the works for 17 years and incorporated 300 interviews, it didn't include these DFS documents. And as El Universal speculated, (English translation), the new agency CISEN most likely has a Gabo file of their own -- one that is, they write, "gordo." We'd call it "fat."

Police surveillance is troubling, and when authors are monitored because of their ideology, all readers should take notice. Garcia Marquez's life seems not to have been too adversely affected by the surveillance -- but the organization PEN is dedicated to helping writers who are not so lucky. And their numbers are large.

That said, it must be enticing for a biographer -- one who has spent decades trying to unfold the truths of a around someone as complicated as Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- to know that pages and pages of mundane details of his life have been archived. Even if that record was kept for unpleasant reasons.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Fidel Castro and Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 2000. Credit: Rafael Perez / Reuters