Rub elbows with famous authors at the Brooklyn Book Festival Sept. 23

If you're in or near Brooklyn next weekend, the Brooklyn Book Festival might be a fun way to spend your Sunday.  Who knows, maybe you'll run into one of my fave authors, Jhumpa Lahiri, who happens to live there. Authors expected to be there include Mary Higgins Clark, Joyce Carol Oates, Sapphire, Pete Hamill and Dennis Lehane. Also attending will be actors/authors Jimmie Walker and Tony Danza, who incidentally is promoting his new book "I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had," tonight at Ursinus College.

The below story and photos are by The Associated Press.

A-list and crowds expected at Brooklyn Book Fest

Crowds flock to events during the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival,
in the Brooklyn borough of New York, which has quickly become
one of the nation’s top events of its kind since starting in 2006.
(AP Photo/Brooklyn Book Festival, Kathryn Kirk)

By BETH J. HARPAZ
AP Travel Editor

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Book Festival, scheduled for Sept. 23 and now in its seventh year, has rapidly become one of the top events of its kind in the country, with 280 writers taking part, including A-listers like Mary Higgins Clark, and crowds expected to approach 40,000.

The festival's success has earned it comparisons with more established book fairs in places like Los Angeles, Miami, Washington D.C. and Austin, Texas, but its buzz is partly due to Brooklyn's latest incarnation as a trendy hotbed of hipsters and artists. The borough is home to many well-known contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan Safran Foer.

As it does every year, this year's schedule includes some writers with Brooklyn connections, like Colson Whitehead and Paul Auster, who live here; Pete Hamill, who was born in Brooklyn and is receiving an award at the event called "Best of Brooklyn, Inc."; and Edwidge Danticat, whose fiction about the Caribbean often portrays the immigrant community in Brooklyn.

But while organizers are proud of the borough's literary prowess, they also stress that "the Brooklyn Book Festival is in no way, shape or form just about Brooklyn," said Johnny Temple, chairman of the Brooklyn Literary Council and head of a Brooklyn publishing house called Akashic Books.

"We go out of our way to ensure the authors we invite appeal to everyone," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, one of the festival's founders. "They include intellectuals as well as authors that have greater mass market appeal and celebrities."

In addition to Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol, who is also a bestselling mystery writer, other authors on the roster range from Terry McMillan and Joyce Carol Oates to Judith Viorst and Sapphire. Celebrities taking part include actor Tony Danza, whose new book, "I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had," recalls his year teaching at Philadelphia's largest high school, and Jimmie Walker, who starred in the TV sitcom "Good Times" and wrote a memoir called "Dyn-O-Mite." In a phone interview about his upcoming appearance, Walker said fans who come to his book events love to "talk about the show — they grew up with it."

The festival is also committed to programming that reflects Brooklyn's diversity. Many events have an international flavor or explore serious themes. This year, one session focuses on African novels with child narrators and another features leading Indian writers. Two events honor the 50th anniversary of independence in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, with one curated by Jamaica's legendary Calabash literary festival, and the other presented by Trinidad's groundbreaking Bocas literary festival. Another seminar looks at poetry and narratives in light of the Arab Spring, while Isabel Wilkerson will talk about her book, "The Warmth of Other Suns," about the 20th century migration of African-Americans from the American South to the North. There's also an extensive schedule of children's writers as well as writing workshops.

The festival takes place Sept. 23, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., in and around Brooklyn Borough Hall in downtown Brooklyn, but related events will be held beginning Sept. 17 in other venues around the borough.

The festival started in 2006 and quickly grew to fill a void left by the demise of an annual Manhattan book festival called "New York is Book Country." When that event ended, Markowitz recalled, "I said to myself, 'You know what, we're going to pick it up and make it bigger and better than it ever was in Manhattan.' We're already home to so many writers, it was a natural place to launch a book festival."

Evan Hughes, author of the book "Literary Brooklyn: The Writers of Brooklyn and the Story of American City Life," says Brooklyn is experiencing a "golden age" of a literary community, comparable to postwar Greenwich Village or Paris in the 1920s.

"Greenwich Village was the beating heart of literary New York at one time and in a way Greenwich Village moved to Brooklyn," Hughes said. "I know a lot of people hear that and say, 'Oh boy, that sounds like a lot of hype.' But I do think those comparisons are fair. It's sometimes hard to see the big sweep of history when you're in it. And it's fashionable to roll your eyes at it. But I think it was fashionable in Paris in the '20s to roll your eyes at it, too."

Why do writers move to Brooklyn? Yes, real estate is cheaper than in Manhattan, though the borough has plenty of million-dollar homes and apartments. But it's not just about paying the rent. "It's got the brownstones and the well-preserved streetscapes, many of them from the 19th century that have a real appeal, a sense of small town within the city," said Hughes. "The neighborhoods are very distinct from one another. The buildings don't crowd out the sky. There's less clamor. I think those things prove very attractive."

This 2011 photo shows author Pete Hamill
near Patchin Place in New York, where he
set a fictional murder in his novel,
“Tabloid City.” Hamill, a native of Brooklyn,
is one of more than 280 writers who will take part
in the Sept. 23 Brooklyn Book Festival,
where Hamill is scheduled to receive an
award called “Best of Brooklyn, Inc.”
(AP Photo/Quest Imagery, Deirdre Hamill)

Bestselling crime novelist Walter Mosley, who will appear on a panel with Danticat and Dennis Lehane to discuss their characters, said in a phone interview that he's been to the Brooklyn event a few times and he loves the "strong sense of community." The borough also has "such a strong identity," said Mosley. "It's always been a place where writers have come and worked partly because they wanted to feel anchored."

For book-lovers who can't make the festival, the borough is a good destination for a literary pilgrimage any time, with a long history of local writers going back to poet Walt Whitman. Whitman worked at a Brooklyn newspaper in the 19th century and his poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is engraved in a waterfront railing at the foot of Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn's DUMBO section.

Hughes says Brooklyn Heights also has a lot of interesting literary spots: W.H. Auden and Carson McCullers lived in a commune at 7 Middagh St., Truman Capote lived at 70 Willow St., and Norman Mailer lived at 142 Columbia Heights. Other residents of Brooklyn at various points included Richard Wright, Marianne Moore, Thomas Wolfe, William Styron, and Arthur Miller. Children's writers Maurice Sendak and Ezra Jack Keats grew up in Brooklyn, as did Jonathan Lethem and Henry Miller.

For visitors looking for some fun places to hang out with the 21st century literary crowd, Hughes recommends Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton St., a "terrific indie store" in the Fort Greene section, and The Brooklyn Inn bar at 148 Hoyt St., which he describes as "a favorite of the publishing community."

If You Go...

BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL: Sept. 23, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St.; http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org . Other events beginning Sept. 17.
   
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

E-readers: Love 'em or ignore 'em?

The Kindle Fire (AP Photo)

What's your take on e-readers?

I'm ashamed to admit this as a book blogger and avid reader, but I've been resisting them - just the idea of them. I stare at too-small copy on a not-big-enough computer monitor all day and peering at more text on screen when I get home just doesn't appeal to me (though I admit I often end up staring at the tiny screen of my iPhone all night anyway).

Also, the popular electronic devices seem to me to foreshadow the death of print journalism ... which is my bread and butter. On sheer principle I've been sticking to my beloved paper-and-ink filled diversions.

But it looks like I may be in the minority with this skeptical approach. Amazon reported Thursday that 2011 was the 'best holiday ever' for its Kindle-brand e-readers and tablet computers.

Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that people bought more than 1 million Kindles each week in December. A million a week? That's impressive.

Since the launch of the first Kindle in 2007, this franchise has grown to include several e-readers and the Kindle Fire tablet.

Per AP, the Kindle Fire is expected to be one of the first true competitors to Apple's iPad, and has been the best-selling product on its site since it was introduced 13 weeks ago.

The lowest-cost version of the Kindle is an attractive and affordable (for most) $79.

Even so, the iPad is still expected outsell all other tablets, including the $199 Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Inc.'s new $249 Nook Tablet. The iPad starts at $499.

If you have an e-reader and love it (or just like it a lot) and could see clear to explain to me why it's a better alternative than curling up with a good book at night, I'd love to read your comment!

From AP - Writers are still trying to out-imagine 9/11

The Associated Press released this well-researched story about Sept. 11 -related fiction earlier this week. I thought  it appropriate to include the story in its entirety here today:

Writers are still trying to out-imagine 9/11

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK — Ten years later, and our imaginations are still catching up to Sept. 11, 2001.
“I don’t think art can ‘compete’ with something like 9/11,” says Jess Walter, whose post 9/11 novel “The Zero” was a National Book Award finalist in 2006. “What could be sharper than our images of that day, whether we saw it in person or witnessed it on TV? Who could make a movie as vivid as the picture we get when we close our eyes — the smoking tower, the clear sky, the second jet banking toward the other tower?”

Scores of books, films and plays have narrated and analyzed the terrorist attacks, the causes, and the emotional, cultural and political effects. The responses have evolved from the quiet grief of Anne Nelson’s play “The Guys” to such international thrillers as the film “Babel” to Joseph O’Neill’s reflective novel “Netherland.” But no fictional character or invented story has forced itself into our minds like the events themselves. No movie has matched the power, and the horror, of the snufflike footage of the plane hitting the World Trade Center’s south tower, or the iconic Associated Press photograph of a man falling from one of the skyscrapers.

Sept. 11 was a new way to fear. Since the days of Puritan sermons, the American mind has summoned a wrathful god, ghosts of sins past, nuclear Armageddon, Cold War spies, lone assassins and invasions from outer space. The attacks were a different kind of nightmare: plotted from thousands of miles away; masterminded not by a head of state but by an exiled fanatic and carried out not by a professional army but by a disparate band of suicidal volunteers.

Our terrors are now global, as in Salman Rushdie’s “Shalimar the Clown,” a novel about a tightrope walker-turned-killer set everywhere from California to Kashmir. In “Syriana,” starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, parallel story lines include an energy consultant in Geneva, a CIA officer in Iran and unemployed migrant workers in Pakistan. “Babel,” with a cast featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, joins the fates of a goat herder in the Moroccan desert to an American woman from San Diego.

“Since 9/11, there’s been this free-floating paranoia about danger coming from anywhere, anyplace,” says performance artist Karen Finley, who is reviving “Make Love,” a riff on post 9/11 New York featuring Finley as Liza Minnelli. “It brings the mind back to that stage of childhood where you’re afraid of the dark, of the monsters under your bed.”

“Americans have this long sense of isolation and impregnability and 9/11 was the end of the blind American sense they had won the Cold War,” says Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, which just released Amy Waldman’s “The Submission,” a novel about a Pakistani-American winning a contest for designing a Sept. 11-like memorial. “And all of a sudden we had different kinds of enemies, different kinds of problems that were worse in a way, much worse.”

Entering the mind of another is a feat for any fiction writer, but some have attempted to dwell in the thoughts of an extremist. Martin Amis’ “The Last Days of Mohammed Atta” tracks the end of one of the 9/11 hijackers. John Updike’s “Terrorist” begins with a teen Muslim taking in the temptations of the West, “These devils seek to take away my God. All day long, at Central High School, girls sway and sneer and expose their soft bodies and alluring hair.”

Waldman’s “The Submission” is the story of architect Mohammad Khan, a nonobservant Muslim subjected to harsh accusations that he is a terrorist sympathizer with a secret plan to build a religious shrine. Waldman said she had read some novels about terrorists, including a few pages of Updike’s book, and took a different approach.

“In some ways, I felt like I was writing a little bit in response to books like Updike’s. There was a lot of interest in getting inside the minds of terrorists and much less interest in getting inside the minds of Muslims who were not terrorists,” Waldman says. “I wanted to write about someone like Mohammad Khan, an American born and raised here, secular.”

Waldman, a former New York Times reporter, said she first thought of the book in 2003 and began working on it four years later. Reality scooped her in 2010 when plans for an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center — the so-called “ground zero mosque” — led to the kind of public argument she had been thinking up in private.

“It was very strange,” she says. “Lines I had written in the book suddenly were in the newspapers, even though the circumstances were not quite the same. It felt like my novel had come to life.”

Novels such as “Netherland” and Walter’s “The Zero” have received strong reviews, but critics debate how well writers have responded. Michael Rothberg, writing in 2009 for the journal American Literary History, titled his essay “A Failure of the Imagination” and faulted American authors for being too self-absorbed. In a 2007 essay in Esquire, Tom Junod reviewed Don DeLillo’s “Falling Man” and concluded that the author had done a better job capturing the post-9/11 world in such pre-9/11 novels as “White Noise” and “Mao II.”
“Falling Man,” Junod wrote, “offers the best test case yet for the idea that when the planes hit and the buildings went down we entered the ‘age of nonfiction,’ when journalism ... is able to grasp what’s happened — and, more to the point, what’s happening — to us more than fiction can, even fiction by our most accomplished and ambitious writers.”

John Freeman, editor of the literary journal “Granta,” believes “there is no art form which can compress a dynamic so complex into a single narrative or a form.” Like Junod, he credits nonfiction writers for “beginning to grasp the long context of these events, and how it is so much bigger than New York City or Osama bin Laden.” But he also defends “Falling Man,” DeLillo’s brief novel set in part at ground zero on the very day, as the “one book which captures the eye of the storm.”

“Everything else I’ve read or seen looks for redemption, or sense,” Freeman wrote in an email. “With its eerie, disembodied style, that sad tale of people trying — and failing — to get home in the aftermath, ‘Falling Man’ is the only book brave enough to remind us there is no making sense to that kind of trauma.”

John Duvall, a professor of English at Purdue University, is another admirer of ‘Falling Man.” Duvall is compiling the new edition of “The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945,” due in December. He praises “Falling Man” and “The Zero” as politically and socially relevant and believes that 9/11 affected so many people in so many ways that it’s impossible for any book to capture everything.

“It’s a little like asking, ‘Which writer today best sums up the African American experience?’” he wrote in an email to the AP. “There is no such thing as a monolithic African American experience and I don’t think there’s a monolithic American mood regarding 9/11. And even if there were one today, it’s not the same as the mood in 2002.”

 

 The books are numerous and diverse, a metropolis of responses. Walter’s “Zero” is a street-level, streetwise take about a police officer just after a terrorist attack. O’Neill’s “Netherland” pictures post-9/11 New York through the eyes of a cricket-playing Dutch immigrant. The inventive 9-year-old son of a 9/11 victim narrates Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”

Some “9/11” stories predate the events, or never mention them directly, such as DeLillo’s 1985 novel of disaster, “White Noise,” and Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America,” a Dystopian historical novel set during the 1940s, but widely seen as a warning about the post 9/11 era. The attacks are a given in Jonathan Franzen’s contemporary epic, “Freedom.” Walter mentioned the post-apocalypse of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” Mohsin Hamid, whose novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” tells of a Pakistani immigrant and his ruined American dream, believes “Charlotte’s Web” is ideal for contemporary readers.

“It’s entirely made up, yet provides an incredibly honest account of the inevitability of death, its cyclical nature, the fact that it’s sad and the fact that it’s accepted,” he says of E.B. White’s children’s classic.
“If I had to prescribe a book about Sept. 11, certainly ‘Charlotte’s Web’ would be high on the list. Because in secular societies in the West, the discourse about death has been marginalized as something for religion to deal with. I think we should plop ‘Charlotte’s Web’ in the middle of that and say, ‘Look, we have to accept we are going to die, and that a certain amount of courage is required.’”

New frontier for J.J. Abrams: novels

I was working as a copy editor at TV Guide when the television show "Lost" first came out in 2004. We got to watch every new TV pilot, every season, as part of the gig .

While I can't tell you what other shows came out that spring, though I watched all of the pilots, the "Lost" pilot stood out, piqued my interest, and definitely stayed with me. I was a fan through the course of the show.

For that show alone, I would have to peg "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams as a genius, of the pop-culture sort.

Abrams, director of "Star Trek," has taken on a new challenge ... or a "new frontier" as the Associated Press cheekily stated.

On Wednesday, publisher Little, Brown and Co. announced a deal with Abrams to write a new thriller - in novel form. The book doesn't have a title as of yet, but I'm going to wager it'll be a page-turner.

The book would be a collaboration with award-winning novelist Doug Dorst and come out in the fall of 2012 through the Mulholland Books imprint, according to the AP report

Movie credits for Abrams (that's him pictured at left) include "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III," "Cloverfield," and the upcoming "Super 8."

For television, he is the co-creator of "Lost" and "Fringe" and was executive producer of "Felicity" and "Alias."

Borders' story isn't finished yet

I'm a huge fan of independent bookstores (such as local gems Wellington Square Bookshop, Trappe Book Center, Gently Used Books and Chester County Book & Music Co.).

That said, I'm also drawn to the superstores - the Borders and Barnes & Noble behemoths - with their built-in full-size coffee bars, strategically situated comfy reading chairs, vast selection of newspapers and magazines from all over the world, live music (sometimes) and college library's worth of titles to choose from ... not to mention cool stationery and gifty items for sale.

Borders - a national chain that's been in business for 40 years - was one of the first large corporations to introduce the book superstore, and yesterday the company announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will soon be closing a third of its stores - 200 of 642 total.

In this corner of the world, that means the end of the 25,000-square-foot store across from the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing, and the 25,000-square-foot store in The Court at King of Prussia.

Fortunately, for Pottstown - at least so far - the Borders Express store in the Coventry Mall as well as all Borders Express stores are not part of the divestiture.

The Philadelphia area in general fared pretty well in keeping (not losing) a lot of Borders stores, at least according to Philadelphia Business Journal blogger Peter Van Allen in his post "Closed Borders: It could have been worse"

Today, talk has, of course, turned to the clearance sales at the stores that are closing. The Associated Press reports that these kick off Saturday. Perhaps a little shopping is in order ...

A bankruptcy judge today approved "Borders Group Inc.'s plan to close 200 stores as part of its attempt to attempt to fix its business in bankruptcy protection," AP Business Writer Mae Anderson writes.

The company, which is the nation's No. 2 bookseller, plans to emerge a leaner and meaner machine by using a strategy that includes "enhancing its loyalty program, aggressively expanding Borders.com and its e-book market share, offering more non-book items, cut costs and improve its customer service."

A hearing to grant final approval of Borders' bankruptcy financing will be held March 15.

I hope their strategy works out.
I love a good bookstore.

Memoir of Sept. 11 survivor is sure to inspire

Lauren Manning (pictured at right), a woman who barely survived the Sept. 11 attacks, has made a book deal to tell her harrowing and heroic story 10 years later.

Her book, "Every Day, a Choice," will be released in the fall around the time of the 10th anniversary of the attacks by pubisher Henry Holt and Co., The Associated Press announced today.

The following is from the AP story:

Manning, who was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage in the World Trade Center, nearly burned to death in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Her book will be a memoir, her publisher announced Monday. The book "is the story of her incredible transformation, both mentally and physically, in the wake of such an unforeseen and drastic change" and "how the experience of life is so much more than the story of a single terrible day," according to the publisher.

Manning had just entered the lobby of the trade center when a fireball exploded from an elevator shaft, burning over 80 percent of her body. Doctors gave Manning a 15 percent chance of survival immediately after the attacks.

"For years I've been privileged to receive words of thanks and encouragement from people all over the world, often simply asking how I'm doing," Manning said in a statement. "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share my story in the hope it will continue to resonate with people facing challenges in their own lives."

Manning's improbable recovery was documented in a 2002 book by her husband, Greg Manning. That book was called "Love, Greg & Lauren." (Cover is pictured at left)

See Manning in a September 2010 appearance on Oprah here

A link to a 2006 Reader's Digest story on Manning, "The Survivor, is here.

2010 books: AP's Hits and misses

Do you have any "roses" or "thorns" to share about recent books you've read? Please share!

When I finish a book I deem to be really good (such as "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett) it tends to leave an impression. While a book I don't like so much (think: Tracy Kidder's "Strength in What Remains") also leaves a mark of sorts on my memory.

For their part, The Associated Press recently announced their picks for best and worst books of 2010 (see below). I've read the first of the Stieg Larsson triology (which was a true thriller and masterfully written, though darker than most of my picks), and have mocked George Bush's recent release in my blog. The AP's sleeper picks I haven't even heard of, but I like the description of "Possessed."

Hits, misses and sleepers of 2010

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

Dead men were big sellers in 2010, from Stieg Larsson and his Millennium trilogy to Mark Twain and the autobiography he wanted withheld until 100 years after his death.

Among the living, George W. Bush’s “Decision Points” became a quick million seller and defied expectations for the former president, who left office two years ago amid a collapsing economy and bearish approval ratings.

Among younger readers, Jeff Kinney’s latest “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” was another big hit and Suzanne Collins memorably completed her “Hunger Games” trilogy with “Mockingjay.”

Some books were broadly announced and fell fast, such as “Ape House” by “Water for Elephants” author Sara Gruen, and “Imperial Bedrooms,” Bret Easton Ellis’ sequel to “Less Than Zero.”

But there were quiet successes, too, books that exceeded expectations through steady sales and the blessings of critics, retailers and readers.

Here are some “sleepers” of 2010, one of them called, appropriately, “The Quiet Book.”

—”Encyclopedia of the Exquisite,” by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins. A guide to pleasures simple and refined, from badminton to champagne, that is emerging as a holiday specialty. Released in early November with a first printing of 12,000 and now in its third print run, for a total of 23,000 copies. (Around 4,000 copies have sold, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks 75 percent of sales).

—”Possessed,” by Elif Batuman, a scholar’s comic journey through classic Russian literature, complete with references to murder, McDonald’s and “King Kong.” "Possessed” is now in its sixth printing, with sales of at least 15,000, according to Nielsen. Through much the first half of December, it was sold out on Amazon.com. “It’s a total hoot that has been a surprise hit with our customers all year long,” said Amazon senior editor Tom Nissley. “Elif Batuman makes the students of Russian literature into characters as bizarre and compelling as the ones in the novels they study.”

—”Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter,” Tom Franklin’s novel about a mysterious death in rural Mississippi was a favorite of independent sellers and a recommended book at Barnes & Noble stores. “Crooked Letter” spent five weeks on The New York Times’ fiction hardcover list and sold more than 20,000 copies.

—”The Quiet Book,” a children’s story by Deborah Underwood and Renata Liwska that honors daily moments of silence and spent much of the summer on the Times’ best-seller list for picture books. Sales have topped 20,000 and a sequel, “The Loud Book,” is coming in the spring. “‘The Quiet Book’ was perfectly done, in shades of brown and neutral tones, and it has this beautiful flow of language,” says Karen Sesody, a seller at Hicklebee’s bookstore in San Jose, Calif. “When the book came in, we read it and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is perfect, this is wonderful.’”

—”Empire of the Summer Moon,” by S.C. Gwynne, a most readable history of the Comanches and a model for steady success. Scribner has gone through 17 printings and more than 90,000 copies have sold. More than six months after its release, “Summer Moon” was still in the top 200 on Amazon.

Pedophile guide author defends his book

Just following up on previous posts about the guy who wrote the how-to book for pedophiles:

On Tuesday, Phillip Greaves (that's his police mugshot at right), 47, of Pueblo, Colo., author of "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure," defended his work, saying it's not obscene.

He made this defense outside the jail where he was charged with a felony.

The Associated Press reports that Greaves arrived at the Polk County jail in central Florida on Tuesday morning and is due in court Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

Greaves was arrested Monday in Colorado and charged with violating Florida's obscenity law, a third-degree felony. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in state prison.

Speaking to AP reporters outside the jail Tuesday, Greaves he plans to fight the charge.

"I characterize it as a book of showing people who have been improperly represented," he said. "And also telling people how they can go about to improve their own lives and so that these people that are being incarcerated now can possibly be rehabilitated."

The Florida connection is because Greaves allegedly sold and mailed a copy of his book to an undercover cop who sent a written request for the book. Because of this, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd claims jurisdiction. Florida's obscenity law prohibits the "distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors."

The book was briefly for sale on Amazon.com but was yanked in November after it prompted online outrage.

Food is love, as my mom would say. Cookbooks for gifting.

One facet of with my love of books is a love of cookbooks (and a growing affinity for cooking and baking). I have a shelf full of cookbooks at home, some of which I've even used!

However, it was a family recipe for Portuguese Sweet Bread I made this weekend as a gift for some friends. I was impressed that I actually had all the ingredients on hand, including yeast and roughly 10 cups of flour. The yeast, however, had been languishing in my fridge for .... well, years.

I had 2006 and 2008 varieties to choose from. I tossed the former and placed my faith into the 2008 yeast, and began the hours-long process of breadmaking: Mixing, allowing the dough to rise; kneading, allowing the dough to rise again; Braiding, brushing with egg white, and baking.

Well, if you couldn't tell already, the moral to this story is, always use fresh, unexpired yeast when making bread. The dough did rise a smidgen, and the bread came out of the oven looking pretty, but it was quite a heavy loaf. Edible, however ... even tasty. I gifted it anyhow, telling my friends the story before they took their first bite. And they didn't mind! You see, after you smother even the heaviest of breads in butter and jam, it will be delicious.

Perhaps a cookbook would've encouraged me to make the 2-mile drive to the store for NEW ingredients.

When I saw the below Associated Press review of scads of gift-worthy cookbooks, I admit that I wanted to own every single one. Even the ones for kids: "Soup Day" looks adorable.

So, if you're looking for some holiday gift ideas, here are a few intereting-looking cookbooks to consider.

Give the gift of good eats: Books for cooks
By MICHELE KAYAL
For The Associated Press

Got an uncle who insists on hunting wild mushrooms or butchering his own steak? There's a cookbook for that. What about a working mom hoping to please picky palates during the daily dinner deadline? We've got her covered, too. From DIY fanatics to busy families, even science geeks, this year's crop of cookbooks offers something for everyone.

Here are a few standouts to jump-start your gift-giving:

___

FOR THE KIDS

— For a book heavier on story than on cooking, check out "Soup Day" (Henry Holt, 2010). On a blustery day, a little girl helps her mom select and chop vegetables for a warming winter soup. Idyllic and cozy with colorful, textured illustrations, the book also offers a perfect recipe for tiny hands.

— For kids who like to make themselves a little something, "The Winnie-the-Pooh Cookbook" (Dutton, 2010) offers easy-to-follow recipes for smackerels like Poohandpiglet pancakes and honey toffee apples. Original drawings by Ernest Shepard and memorable Pooh quotes make this reissue of Virginia Ellison's 1969 classic a must-have for fans of the bear.

___

FOR DEVOTED FOODIES WHO HAVE IT ALL

— Amanda Hesser insists her "The Essential New York Times Cookbook" (Norton, 2010) is not an update of the Craig Claiborne classic, but rather a new chronicle of the best New York Times recipes dating back to 1850. Dense, serious and heavy enough to double as a weapon, the book covers everything from Claiborne's cheese fondue and vichyssoise a la Ritz to watermelon gazpacho and the pork belly tea sandwiches at a hip New York restaurant.

— As a practical follow to his best-selling appeal to eat for the health of ourselves and the planet, New York Times columnist Mark Bittman offers "The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living" (Simon and Schuster, 2010).

The plant-heavy recipes focus on fast, easy dishes such as vegetable-rich green gumbo and chickpea salad with cashew chutney, as well as more involved undertakings such as Mexican-style fruit salad with grilled fish and chili-rubbed pork with warm pickled vegetables. Organized and accessible with recipe lists and pantry advice, the book will appeal to folks who love to cook and want to feel healthy (and virtuous) while doing it.

— Rounding out the New York Times trifecta is Molly O'Neill's "One Big Table" (Simon and Schuster, 2010), a collection of 600 recipes that chronicle the diversity of American food. It features recipes taken from pit masters, farmers, home cooks and chefs around the nation.

The former Times food columnist includes recipes such as Farideh Khoury's muhammara, a Detroit mom's formula for the Syrian red pepper and walnut paste, and Mike DiMuccio's Rhode Island fried calamari, a plumber's pepper-spiked take on squid. With homey photos of some of her contributors, "One Big Table" is an album of America's rich culinary history.

___

FOR THE BAKER

— Cookies, cakes, pies and breads. If you can make it with flour it's in "The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook" (Countryman, 2010). This indispensable volume from the famous flour miller also covers the science of baking, from primers on leavening, to notes on flaky pastry and hints for homemade pasta. A go-to reference for all baking needs.

— Your sweet-tooth baker will appreciate "Sweet Chic" (Ballantine, 2010), a collection of confections by the owner of New York bakery Tribeca Treats. From easy homemade thin mints to multi-stepped masterpieces like sweet-and-salty cake (think devil's food with caramel and fleur de sel), the recipes in this book are great for a rainy day or a big celebration.

___

FOR DIY TYPES

— Arranged by season for the freshest results, "The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook" (Andrews McMeel, 2010) contains more than 100 recipes for jams, preserves and marmalades. Winter brings marmalades of bergamot, pink grapefruit and Meyer lemons. Spring is time for rhubarb, strawberries, apricots and other eagerly anticipated fruits inventively combined into rosemary-scented marmalades, orange-blossom jams and good old solid preserves. This book is ideal for anyone who dreams of "putting up" their favorite fruits.

— Ever made your own butter? Smoked your own salmon? Foraged for your own salad? "Forgotten Skills of Cooking" (Kyle Books, 2010) by Darina Allen — sometimes called "the Julia Child of Ireland" — contains more than 700 recipes for just such tasks. After you've proven your chops on homemade ketchup and foraged elderflower fritters, traditional fare like roast chicken and pheasant braised in Cork gin provides a rest.

___

FOR CELEBRITY HOUNDS

— Got a Food Network junkie in the family? Spark 'em up with "Tyler Florence Family Meal" (Rodale, 2010), a guide to dinners that range from fast, kid-friendly pastas to feast-worthy roasts. Dishes such as angel hair with arugula take care of everyone on a Tuesday. But if you're gunning for Saturday night praise, a crown roast stuffed with apple and pecan dressing or a fish fry with sausage hushpuppies ought to do the trick. A well-rounded ode to gather-worthy fare with celeb flair.

— Some people (mostly women) are actually interested in how Nigella cooks, not how she looks. "Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home" (Hyperion, 2010) is a jumble of family food from barbecued beef (think sloppy Joes) to ginger-and-apricot spiced African drumsticks. While most will probably avoid the spaghetti with marmite (it's a British thing), other recipes such as egg-and-bacon salad or Indian-spiced lamb chops should help keep your family's menu interesting.

___

GENERAL GOOD GIFT BOOKS

— Harold McGee isn't happy just eating food. The scientist/gourmet has to know how it all works. His new "Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best Foods and Recipes" (Penguin, 2010) outlines how brining keeps meat moist, why boiled items have less flavor than roasted, what makes potatoes mushy, and generally answers everything you ever wanted to know about food science but were afraid to ask. For that pesky relative who just can't stay away from the meat thermometer.

— Don't force open a pressure cooker. And if you do, don't put your face over it. Do not think that Boston baked beans are a good addition to curry. And never, ever use garlic if you are cooking for the British. These are but a few of the tips offered by the stunningly amusing "The How Not To Cookbook" (Rizzoli, 2010), an assemblage of advice from 1,000 cooks around the world. A good laugh — and perhaps a cautionary tale.

Pedophile-encouraging book removed from Amazon.com

I'd like to say it was the power of the press that got an icky book removed from a popular online seller. But I think it was more the power of the people.

Amazon told The Associated Press Thursday that it has removed "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct," which I blogged about yesterday, from its site.

The book "offers advice to pedophiles on how to make a sexual encounter with a child as safe as possible" and is reportedly written from a child's point of view.

It wasn't "immediately clear whether Amazon.com Inc. had pulled the item, or whether the author withdrew it. Amazon did not immediately return messages Thursday," the AP reported.

After the book's presence on Amazon.com was reported Wednesday, there was outrage from commenters on social networking sites such as Twitter.

"Some people threatened to boycott the online store until Amazon removed the book. Two petitions on Facebook alone won more than 13,500 supporters," per the AP story.

Freedom of speech, indeed.

While I do support anyone's right to express him or herself, such as this dirtbag author, I also support the right of businesses to make decisions based on integrity, ethical behavior, and the demands of their clientele as well as the bottom line.

****update Friday, 11/12:

The Associated Press reports this afternoon that police in Pueblo, Colo., are investigating AND trying to protect the pedophile author Phillip Ray Greaves II.

"Police are investigating whether the author of a guide for pedophiles did anything illegal even as they try to protect him from a threat posted on a local website," per the story.

Greaves, a resident of Pueblo, was interviewed by police Thursday morning after they heard news reports about the book and went to Greaves' home.

Pueblo Detective Dustin Taylor described Greaves as cooperative and said he gave detectives a copy of the book when they asked for one.

"He was just a normal man. He didn't seem unnerved by us being there," Taylor said.

Police told Greaves that he'd been threatened on a local website and that they would monitor his home for his safety. Taylor said the author didn't seem fearful. Police would not elaborate on the threat, and the message was removed from the website, Taylor said.

Greaves, 47, has no criminal record and is not a registered sex offender, Taylor said. Taylor said authorities kept the book but don't expect criminal charges at this point.

"At this point we're still reviewing it, though there's still no indication of any crime being committed," Taylor said.

In his book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct," Greaves argues that pedophiles are misunderstood, as the word literally means to love a child. He adds that it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children, and offers advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.

Greaves also self-published other books on Amazon and was a frequent writer to the Pueblo Chieftain editorial page. His letters to the editor were mostly about local matters and the role of government. Last month, Greaves wrote a letter calling for criminal fines to go to "randomly selected charities" instead of the government.

Amazon has declined comment to The Associated Press.

Greaves also declined an interview but told The Smoking Gun website on Wednesday that he suffers from depression and that he had sexual contact with children while still a child himself.

The website said that when asked if he had engaged in sexual acts with children as an adult, Greaves first said "could have" before saying that he hadn't. He also said he suffered a mental collapse about three years ago while working as a nursing home aide.

Greaves said he had only sold one book and insisted it doesn't advocate for adults to harm children.

"The best advice I can give a pedophile is, accept that masturbation is your best friend," Greaves told The Smoking Gun.

Pedophile how-to book now available on Amazon

There are, sadly, lots of stories about pedophiles in the headlines lately.

More and more, there are days when it seems we have an unusually high amount of local stories in The Mercury devoted to pedophiles, their crimes, their trials, and the impact their sometimes criminal acts have on their young victims.

Earliur today, Mercury police reporter Brandie Kessler pointed the below Associated Press article out to me and voiced her outrage over the fact that Amazon.com is now selling a self-published book called "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct."

I am, by the nature of my job, an ardent supporter of Freedom of Speech. I pointed out to Brandie that you can easily buy books online on topics including how to build a bomb, make poison and smuggle cocaine from another country.

She didn't seem to buy the free speech argument.

What do you think?

Below is the AP's Nov. 10 article:

Amazon sells book offering advice to pedophiles

By DANA WOLLMAN

AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK — Amazon.com Inc. is selling a self-published guide that offers advice to pedophiles, and that has generated outrage on the Internet and threats to boycott the retailer.

The availability of "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct" calls into question whether Amazon has any procedures — or even an obligation — to vet books before they are sold in its online stores. Amazon did not respond to multiple e-mail and phone messages.

The title is an electronic book available for Amazon's Kindle e-reader and the company's software for reading Kindle books on mobile phones and computers. Amazon allows authors to submit their own works and shares revenue with them.

Amazon issues guidelines banning certain materials, including those deemed offensive. However, the company doesn't elaborate on what constitutes offensive content, saying simply that it is "probably what you would expect." Amazon also doesn't promise to remove or protect any one category of books.

The author of "The Pedophile's Guide," listed as Philip R. Greaves II, argues that pedophiles are misunderstood, as the word literally means to love a child. The author adds that it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children, and offers advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.

Many users on Twitter called on Amazon to pull the book, and a few threatened to boycott the retailer until it does.

Child online safety advocacy group Enough is Enough says it isn't surprised that someone would publish such a book, but believes that Amazon should remove it. It says selling the book lends the impression that child abuse is normal.

That doesn't mean Amazon should be prohibited from selling it, counters Christopher Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. He said that Amazon has the right under the First Amendment to sell any book that is not child pornography or legally obscene. Finan said Greaves' book doesn't amount to either because it does not include illustrations.

This isn't the first time Amazon has sold material that promotes illegal activity. It is currently accepting pre-orders for the hardcover version of "I Am the Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton, in Five Easy Lessons" by Luca Rastello.

Nor is it the first time Amazon has come under attack for selling objectionable content in its store. In 2002, the United States Justice Foundation, a conservative group, threatened to sue Amazon for selling "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers." That title is still available through Amazon.

In 2009, Amazon stopped selling "RapeLay," a first-person video game in which the protagonist stalks and then rapes a mother and her daughters, after it was widely condemned in the media and by various interest groups.

'Even as he has become a legend, to know the man ... is to respect him even more.'

"Conversations with Myself," Nelson Mandela's thoughts and archived writings, went on sale Tuesday around the world.

To say this is an important (and substantial!) book by a man whose greatness defies description is to say the least. I haven't read the book, so I can't say for sure. But luckily my friends at the Associate Press are on top of it.

Incidentally, I recommend the 2009 movie "Invictus," about Mandela's early years as president of his country. Morgan Freeman was superb as Mandela and Matt Damon sported a very convincing South African accent (A South African rugby player named James, who lived in my freshman dorm, was a friend and the best rugby player I've ever seen) as the captain of the South African rugby team.

New Mandela book offers personal portrait

By DONNA BRYSON
Associated Press Writer

JOHANNESBURG — Nelson Mandela failing classes, fussing over his children, fighting with his wife.

This is not the anti-apartheid icon of "Long Walk to Freedom," Mandela's 1995 autobiography. "Conversations with Myself," which goes on sale Tuesday in 22 countries and 20 languages from Catalan to Turkish, presents a more human Mandela, faults, frailties and all.

"Conversations" was compiled with the 92-year-old former South African president's blessing by a team of archivists, editors and collaborators who worked from decades of notes, letters, recorded conversations and other material.

In a foreword, U.S. President Barack Obama writes that Mandela, who largely retired from public life in 2004, is inspiring even if he is no saint.

"Underneath the history that has been made, there is a human being who chose hope over fear — progress over the prisons of the past," Obama wrote. "And I am reminded that even as he has become a legend, to know the man ... is to respect him even more."

"Conversations" is best read as a companion to "Long Walk," which was in part calculated by Mandela and other members of his African National Congress party to stir support for anti-apartheid activists as they stepped into new roles as leaders trying to heal and develop a divided, impoverished nation.

As he puts it in "Conversations," an autobiography of "a freedom fighter must inevitably be influenced by the question whether the revelation of certain facts, however true they may be, will help advance the struggle."

Certainly, the possibility of violence within Mandela's first marriage, to Evelyn Mase, who died in 2004, had no place in the official autobiography. But it has been raised elsewhere, including in "Young Mandela," an unauthorized biography by British writer David James Smith that appeared earlier this year.

In "Conversations," Mandela puts his version on record. In a transcript of a conversation with Ahmed Kathrada, a friend and fellow veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle who was helping him polish "Long Walk," Mandela denies he once tried to choke his first wife. Instead, he said, she threatened to burn him with a red hot poker.

"So I caught hold of her and twisted her arm, enough for me to take this thing out," Mandela says.

"The poker away," Kathrada responds.

Mandela: "That's all."

Mandela has said his first wife did not understand or support his political activism. A second marriage, to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also ended in divorce. His anguish over sacrificing family life to politics is a recurrent theme of "Conversations."

"I love playing and chatting with children, giving them a bath, feeding and putting them to bed with a little story, and being away from the family has troubled me throughout my political life," he writes in a passage drawn from an unpublished autobiography he had intended as a sequel to "Long Walk," but never completed.

Other "Conversations" passages are taken from notes Mandela made in calendars in his careful, upright penmanship. On Dec. 12, 1984, he jotted: "Results: failed all six subjects." He writes elsewhere of having too little time to study for his advanced law degree, taken by correspondence while he was in prison.

The editors of "Conversations" promise the Mandela behind the public figure. But a tell-all would be hard to imagine from Mandela, who spent years as a secretive underground ANC agent, and knew throughout his 27 years in prison that letters to even his closest confidants were being read and censored by apartheid authorities.

Mandela emerged from prison as the most famous African leader of the 20th century, whose words could have far-reaching impact. giving him more reason to be guarded. But there are fascinating glimpses of the inner man, and flashes of his celebrated humor in "Conversations."

He describes being taken from prison to a hospital to be treated for tuberculosis, and being presented with a breakfast of bacon and eggs despite being on a cholesterol-free diet. When an official warned him against defying doctor's orders, he replied: "Today, I am prepared to die; I am going to eat it."

Sales of the book will benefit the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The foundation, which houses a Mandela archives and supports development and other projects in his name, switched in recent years from a logo featuring Mandela's face to one of his hands. That reflected his desire to shift the focus from himself, and his concern his legacy would mean little if South Africans did not take it upon themselves to build their country.

"It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it," Mandela said last year, calling on people around the world to celebrate his July 18 birthday by doing good for others.

"Conversations" presents a Mandela more people may feel they can emulate. It ends with a passage from his unpublished autobiography in which he insists he was never a saint — "Even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."


Some additional excerpts from Mandela's book, also by AP:

-From a 1969 letter to his then-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, after he was informed of the death of his son, Thembi, in a car accident:

"I find it difficult to believe that I will never see Thembi again. On February 23 this year he turned 24. I had seen him towards the end of July 1962 a few days after I had returned from a trip abroad. Then he was a lusty lad of 17 that I could never associate with death. He wore one of my trousers which was a shade too big and long for him. The incident was significant and set me thinking. As you know he had a lot of clothing, and was particular about his dress and had no reason whatsoever for using my clothes. I was deeply touched for the emotional factors underlying his action were too obvious. For days thereafter my mind and feelings were agitated to realize the psychological strains and stresses my absence from home had imposed on the children."

____

From a 1969 letter to his daughters Zenani and Zindzi, then 9 and 10, after Madikizela-Mandela was detained by police, a form of harassment she endured frequently during the 27 years he was imprisoned:

"All that I wish you always to bear in mind is that we have a brave and determined Mummy who loves her people with all her heart."

____

Jotted on a 1986 desk calendar:

"Seen the tragic film 'Paul Jacob and Nuclear Gang' plus 'Electric Boogie' a baffling new dance.

____

From a 1970 letter to Madikizela-Mandela:

"I must be frank and tell you that when I look back at some of my early writings and speeches, I am appalled by their pedantry, artificiality and lack of originality."

____

From the foreword by U.S. President Barack Obama:

"The first time that I became politically active was during my college years, when I joined a campaign on behalf of divestment, and the effort to end apartheid in South Africa. None of the personal obstacles that I faced as a young man could compare to what the victims of apartheid experienced every day, and I could only imagine the courage that led Mandela to occupy that prison cell for so many years. But his example helped awaken me to the wider world, and the obligations that we all have to stand up for what is right. Through his choices, Mandela made clear that we did not have to accept the world as it is — that we could do our part to seek the world as it should be."

Throwing a book at the president is NOT the way to get good publicity for your book

I am sorry to say that someone hurled a book at President Obama while he was visiting Philly on Sunday ... and that someone was apparently a FAN of the president's, just trying to ensure that Barack Obama had a copy of his new paperback book.

A misguided attempt at book promotion, to say the least.

According to a report today by The Associate Press, the Secret Service questioned and released the "overexuberant" fan of President Barack Obama who had tossed a paperback book near the president at a Philadelphia rally on Sunday. (The photo makes it look like the book was headed fairly close to Obama's noggin, however.)

Spokesman Ed Donovan said the man had written the book and hoped the president would read it. Donovan said agents concluded the man posed no danger.

Obama seemed not to notice the book that landed near him on an outdoor stage after he finished speaking to a large crowd Sunday. The president had turned his back to shake hands with people on another side of the stage.

Notice how the author's name was NOT MENTIONED. Book promotion attempt failed.

Retirement: Myth or Reality?

My friend Evan (also a journalist) and I were talking the other day about retirement over a nice tall glass of Bluecoat Gin and tonic. Or, shall I say, the fading concept of retirement.

We somehow got on the topic of how the opportunity simply won't exist for us when we reach and surpass what's traditionally been the benchmark for retirement: 65. He and I both have parents still working past traditional retirement age, and our own working future stretches out beyond that.

Already, my Social Security statement tells me my retirement age is 70. By the time I get there, I expect that number will have crept upward.

On that happy note, Author Gregory Salsbury has written a book, "Retirementology," in which he encourages us to make sound financial choices now - no matter how far off or impossible the idea of retirement may seem.

That is just one of the three new personal finance books the Associated Press has provided brief reviews of here:

Bookshelf: Bee wisdom, retirementology

The Associated Press

Forget Harvard or Wharton. For author Michael O'Malley, the inner workings of beehives can teach managers everything necessary about running an efficient organization.

In "The Wisdom of Bees," O'Malley takes the habits of honeybees and shows readers how they're relevant to the business world.

Another new title, "Retirementology: Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy," gives readers small financial challenges to engage them in preparing for life after work. "Your Money, The Missing Manual" is a compendium of personal finance tips and guidance.

The new titles:

TITLE: Retirementology: Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy
AUTHOR: Gregory Salsbury
PRICE: $19.99 (paperback)

SUMMARY: The author, a financial services industry veteran, had the idea to write about applying behavioral economics to retirement planning. Then came the 2008 market meltdown, making the concept even more timely.

"Retirementology" delves into the importance of understanding our counterproductive financial behavior and making wise decisions about money at a time when the consequences of failing to do so can be dire.

The book touches all the bases of retirement issues and invites the reader to actively participate in each chapter, asking lots of questions and presenting various scenarios to choose from. Salsbury issues educational challenges to the reader, such as to put away their debit cards and checkbook and spend only cash for a week to get a grip on how much they're spending.

Advice ranges from the basics to things that might surprise some, such as declaring that taxation is emerging as the single largest financial challenge for boomers. This means it's particularly important to factor the impact of taxes into retirement planning.

It's presented in a brightly written style that includes a collection of clever made-up terms, from the title itself to "ohnosis" (realizing that you should have started planning for retirement years ago) to "retirewent" (what happened to the retirement hopes and dreams of Americans after the meltdown).

QUOTE: "Retirement isn't a single event — spending in your 20s, 30s and 70s has an impact on your retirement. Further, retirement isn't isolated — what you spend on a vacation or car may impact your retirement later."

PUBLISHER: FT Press
—Dave Carpenter

TITLE: The Wisdom of Bees: What the Hive Can Teach Business about Leadership, Efficiency, and Growth
AUTHOR: Michael O'Malley
PRICE: $22.95

SUMMARY: Beehives are apparently teeming with life lessons. Coincidentally, it turns out many of those lessons are well-established principles of good management.
For example, one chapter deals with the importance of judging workers on merit rather than letting personal biases get in the way. Another chapter discusses the benefits of delegating authority.

Because the books' 25 lessons are illustrated through honeybees, however, even seasoned managers may find the book to be a unique refresher. At the very least, it is sprinkled with interesting tidbits about the habits of honeybees. The author, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, is also a beekeeper.

QUOTE: "As you look for ways to improve your organization, it would not be outlandish to take a step back and ask yourself, What would a bee do?"

PUBLISHER: Portfolio
—Candice Choi

TITLE: Your Money, The Missing Manual
AUTHOR: J.D. Roth
PRICE: $21.99 (paperback)

SUMMARY: The founder of the website Getrichslowly.org explains it all, starting with the principle that the mental part of money is just as important as the math.
In the first of three sections, author J.D. Roth explores the connection between wealth and happiness. He advocates "conscious spending," or choosing what to spend money on carefully to make sure it aligns with goals and values.

But it's not all about feel-good concepts. He goes on to offer advice on how to budget and stick to it; how to get out of debt and establish an emergency fund; and how to save on necessities such as utilities, medical care and drugs. There are tips on earning money, including how to negotiate a raise and the pros and cons of working for yourself.

Roth devotes the final section to investing, retirement and a chapter called "Friends and Family," with advice on how to deal with money issues linked to the ones you love. And the author doesn't claim to have all the answers: throughout the easy-to-read book there are notes about websites and other books for further reading.

QUOTE: "Even though there aren't any big corporations to sing its praises, frugality is an important part of personal finance. Packing a sack lunch may only save you a buck or two each day, but when you make many small changes over months and years, they really add up."

PUBLISHER: O'Reilly Media
— Eileen AJ Connelly

Books to help you plan your next getaway

I don't know about you, but I find myself daydreaming about my next vacation a lot these beautiful spring days.

If I had $30 to spend on one of the travel guides listed below (reviewed by The Associated Press), I’d go for Frommer’s Italy or Ireland day by day. It would help to have travel plans to Italy or Ireland first. Well, I certainly have the plans … (wishes, dreams, desires).

Frommer’s books, in my opinion, always offer a pretty accurate and helpful take on local cuisine, local spots worth seeing, and hotels, and they all have a helpful pullout map. (I’ve used the guides for San Francisco, Boston and Montreal).

The new "500 Adrenaline Adventures" sounds pretty cool, too (and a bargain at only $20). Lonely Planet’s books are fun as well.

You could probably save yourself a few bucks (to add to the travel kitty) by checking these out from your local library, borrowing from friends or hitting up the local used bookstore.

New travel guides, from Lonely Planet to luxury

By Beth J. Harpaz
AP Travel Editor

NEW YORK — Spring is the time when many travelers plan their biggest vacations of the year: Leisurely road trips, family getaways with kids out of school, travel abroad during the peak summer season. Here are some of the new guidebook releases from this season to inspire you and help plan your itineraries. They include titles from Lonely Planet, Frommer's, DK Eyewitness, a luxury hotel group, and Budget Travel.

LONELY PLANET'S DISCOVER SERIES: Once upon a time, the stereotypical Lonely Planet reader was an adventurous young backpacker on a budget, ready to rough it and explore. But today Lonely Planet fans include older travelers, travelers who do not mind spending more for comfort, and travelers looking for advice about basics and must-sees, not just offbeat adventures.

To cater to this audience, Lonely Planet has launched a new series called "Discover," with thick $25 paperback books just released on Australia, France, Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain and Thailand. The books are ideal for planning one- to two-week trips.

"Discover Europe" will be added to the series Monday.

The full-color books include maps, best-of lists, recommendations for a variety of budgets, tips from locals on visiting major attractions and suggested itineraries organized by region, theme and length of trip. One especially nice touch: "If You Like" features direct readers to less well-known attractions by comparing them to better-known places. For example, the Venice section of the Italy guide says that "If you like the masterpieces of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, we think you'll like these other modern art gems," and it goes on to list Ca' Pesaro and Museo della Fondazione Querini Stampalia.

FROMMER'S DAY BY DAY GUIDES: Frommer's "Day by Day" city guides have been among the brand's best-selling books for years. This year, Frommer's launched full-size "Day by Day" guides to countries, states and other large regions. The full-color books are itinerary-based, include more than 100 maps and a pocket with a large pullout map, and are filled with photos.
"Frommer's Italy Day by Day," ''Frommer's Ireland Day by Day" and "Frommer's Hawaii Day by Day" are available now, while Costa Rica and Spain are due out in October.

The guides, all under $30, include easy-to-use features like what to see if you have a day, three days or a week, and "best-of" lists for lodging, dining and shopping. The Ireland guide, for example, includes a list of favorite moments (taking afternoon tea at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, visiting the Giant's Causeway to north, and seeing the murals of the Belfast peace wall), along with a list of favorite small towns (Carlingford, Inistioge, Kinsale, Kenmare, Dingle).
Also new from Frommer's is "500 Adrenaline Adventures," providing inspiration for daredevils, geeks and other travelers with a taste for unusual, wacky and heart-racing experiences. Among the ideas listed in the $20 paperback: ziplining, wildlife encounters, extreme eating contests, like the famous Coney Island hot dog competition, and the annual Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Race in England.

DK EYEWITNESS TRAVEL'S BACK ROADS: Road trips are a beloved way to explore America, but DK Eyewitness Travel has launched a new series this spring to inspire road trips in Europe. The "Back Roads" series includes guides to France, Italy, Britain, Ireland and Spain. Each $25 paperback describes two dozen "leisurely drives" designed to take anywhere from a day to a week.

Tours outlined in the France book, for example, include the Alsace wine route, Obernai to Eguisheim; the Champagne route, Reims to Montagne de Reims; Normandy, from Giverny to Varengeville-sur-Mer; and the Pyrenees, from Collioure to St-Jean-de-Luz in the Basque country.

Other features include mapped itineraries with highlights, detours and activities; "where the locals go" listings of small hotels and restaurants with regional cuisine; a pullout country map; zip codes to make it easy to coordinate the text with a GPS; and practical information on driving conditions, road signs and parking.

LUXURY COLLECTION DESTINATION GUIDES: This set of six paperbacks from The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts, a group of more than 70 hotels and resorts in 30 countries, includes guides to India, Italy, the United States, Spain, Argentina and Greece. The slim paperbacks do not offer the detailed content of traditional travel guides but do have lush photographs, inspirational quotes and a few pages of highlights listing select museums, cultural institutions, shops and restaurants in each destination.

Each guide also includes commentary from celebrity chefs, with Mario Batali providing his thoughts on Italy, including a recipe for tortelloni with sage butter and his recommendations for favorite restaurants: Cibreo and Teatro del Sale in Florence; Al Covo, Da Fiore and Lina d'Ombra in Venice, and Ristorante Matricianella, Roscioli, Antico Forno and Checchino in Rome.
The set of six, packaged in a beautiful oversized box, costs $140. The books will be available in Luxury Collection guest rooms, in Assouline Boutiques in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York, and online at http://www.luxurycollection.com and other retailers.

THE SMART FAMILY'S PASSPORT: This book from Budget Travel, $14.95, is subtitled "350 Money, Time & Sanity Saving tips." Among the suggestions: Bring powdered iced-tea or fruit-punch packets to theme parks and add them to cups of water to save money on expensive drinks; find out if a membership to your local museum has reciprocal privileges at other institutions where you can get in free when you travel; and make your own picture dictionary. That way, if you do not know a foreign word for bathroom or taxi, you can get help from a local wherever you are just by pulling up the picture of the object on your phone or camera.