Book News
Mays signs biography deal
Baseball great Willie Mays has signed a deal with Scribner to publish his first official biography. Written by James S. Hirsch, the former reporter for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, the book will be about his life on and off the field.
Mays, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, had 3,283 hits and 660 home runs during his career. He played in a record-tying 24 All-Star games and four World Series.
Mays, 76, will donate proceeds from the book to the Mays’ Say Hey Foundation, which advances children’s
Italian man steals old books
An Italian man who sometimes disguised himself as a priest and even locked himself in a bathroom for a day managed to sneak away with dozens of 300-year-old books, drawings and watercolors from top libraries and public archives in Rome, authorities said.
The suspect, in his mid-40s, used ink remover to delete identification numbers and library stamps from the items, police said. Some items were sold in Italy and abroad, particularly in France. The Associated Press
First Line
Zugwang, by Ronan Bennett
“On a raw March morning, on the Moika Embankment near Politseisky Bridge, two men accosted the respected liberal newspaper editor O.V. Gulko. Witnesses later told the police that the taller of the two appeared to berate Gulko in an agitated manner and that Gulko, evidently perceiving himself to be under physical threat, became anxious and attempted to extricate himself from this unwanted attention. The same young man then produced a knife and his companion a revolver. A shot was fired.
Gulko did not fall dramatically but, according to the same witness’ accounts, slowly folded into a sitting position, as one who suddenly feels faint might ease himself to the ground in order to give his senses time to revive – except that in this case a large hole had been torn in Gulko’s abdomen and blood was spotting the frozen snow on which he sat.”
Audio fiction
Bestsellers
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Amy Khaled Hosseini, read by Atossa Leoni
3. The Quickie, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, read by Mary Stuart Masterson
4. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, read by the author
5. Sweet Revenge, by Diane Mott Davidson, read by Barbara Rosenblat
6. Play Dirty, by Sandra Brown, read by Victor Slezak
7. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, read by Matt Dillon
8. Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs, read by Linda Emond
9. The Sanctuary, by Raymond Khoury, read by Richard Ferrone
10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale
Publishers Weekly
