Gather ‘Round, It’s Book Club Favorites
S&S has found an ingenious way of getting people to read their books?starting their own book club. According to Publishers Weekly, “Simon & Schuster has announced the launch of ‘Book Club Favorites,’ a new direct-to-consumer initiative intended to promote titles from imprints across the company deemed of particular interest to book clubs.” The books cross…
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Robert Zemeckis to Resurrect “The Witches”
Roald Dahl’s 1973 novel “The Witches,” about a little boy who gets mixed up with a coven, was given the big-screen treatment back in 1990, with Nicholas Roeg at the helm, puppets from The Jim Henson Company, and a cast that included Anjelica Huston and the neurotic kid from “Parenthood.” Roeg’s film tanked at the…
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Palahniuk Ripped Off
Guitarist Steve Vai recalls asking Frank Zappa for advice. “What’s the one thing you would tell an aspiring musician?” the awe struck kid asked. Zappa took a piece of paper and scribbled something down. He handed it to the young musician who opened up the scrap and saw a name and a phone number. “Music…
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Sally Field, BEA 2018, and the “C” Word
The first thing I noticed upon entering the Javits Center’s #BEA2018 was the above poster of a young Sally Field, circa The Cannonball Run. “She must have a book coming out,” I thought, and, being Master of the Obvious, I was right: “In Pieces,” Sally Field’s autobiography, debuts on September 18th, 2018 through Hachette’s Grand…
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Philip Roth Has Died
Philip Roth died yesterday at the age of 85 from congestive heart failure. And ? what else can be written about Philip Roth that hasn?t already been written? Or that Roth himself hasn?t written? Self-exploration?starring America, Newark, Jewishness, and sex?drove the plot of many of Roth?s novels, most notably Portnoy?s Complaint, where the title character…
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