Gail Konop Baker’s CANCER IS A BITCH *OR I’D RATHER BE HAVING A MIDLIFE CRISIS was featured here in our ‘5 Minutes Alone’ feature, but the good reviews are rolling in from all over.

The Washington Post’s, Michael Dirda, waxes wistful on Michael Gardner’s essay collection, WHEN I WAS A TADPOLE AND YOU WERE A FISH.

Beer books are popular this week, but who better to bring us one than Norm from Cheers?  (It’s about other things, too.) George Wendt’s DRINKING WITH GEORGE sounds like good fun.

For those confounded by women, T.J. Jefferson offers THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID: WOMEN REVEAL WHAT MEN REALLY NEED TO KNOW.  I didn’t know we were supposed to be keeping it secret.  Oh dear.

From the Barnes & Noble “Tagged” description:

Molly welcomes Cesar “The Dog Whisperer” Millan to the Tagged! studio to share his latest book, How to Raise the Perfect Dog:

Newly disclosed files reveal that Mexico spied on Gabriel Garcia Marquez, suspecting him of being a Cuban agent. (Telegraph)

You would think she saw this coming: psychic Sylvia Browne inks three-book deal with HarperOne. (Publishers Weekly)

The 42 essential third act twists, illustrated—and hilarious. (Dresden Codak via Alison Flood via AbeBooks)

Shortlist announced for this year’s £15,000 T.S. Eliot Prize. (theBookseller.com)

Janet Cho looks at how indie booksellers will navigate their way through the best-seller price wars. (The Plain Dealer)

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol drops from the top of the Kindle bestseller list. (The Independent)

High-brow to low-brow, illustrated—from a 1949 issue of Life Magazine. (Crooked Timber)

Jeff Rivera asks if book publishers will still exist in a decade. (GalleyCat)

On this day in 1885, Arthur Rimbaud wrote to his mother of his intentions of becoming a gun-runner in Africa. (Today in Literature)

“Poetry… is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment.”

-Carl Sandburg

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Kirkus gives a wrap-up of Michael Connelly’s latest release, 9 DRAGONS.

If you call your book TASTING BEER, you sort of have a built in audience, but if you add a subtitle of AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THE WORLD’S BEST DRINK, at least they can count it as research.

Vandalism that works is the premise of award-winning author, Denise Chong’s EGG ON MAO: THE STORY OF N ORDINARY MAN WHO DEFACED AN ICON AND UNMASKED A DICTATORSHIP.

The oldest profession has made its mark across the centuries and Dan Cruickshank takes a slice of England’s history to put under the microscope in THE SECRET HISTORY OF GEORGIAN LONDON: HOW THE WAGES OF SIN SHAPED THE CAPITAL.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s death, here’s the Richard Lerner documentary, “What Happened to Kerouac”, presented in 6 parts:

David Barnett looks back at Jack Kerouac on the 40th anniversary of his death and wonders if our memories of him don’t say more about us than him. (Guardian Books Blog)

The Lorca dig is about to get underway. Steve Kingstone examines what questions might be answered. (BBC)

Cory Doctorow explains his new project, “With a Little Help”. (Publishers Weekly)

The shortlist for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize has been announced. (2009 Man Asian Literary Prize)

Tanya Paperny explores Neil Gaiman’s partnership with the BBC on a twitter story experiment. (Lit Drift)

Head rolls over Frankfurt Book Fair’s boneheaded move to dis-invite Chinese dissidents to the festival. (theBookseller.com)

Jessie Kunhardt wonders what the much ballyhooed “price wars” will ultimately mean for the book industry. (Huffington Post)

Plagiarism software sheds some light on the bloodline of Edward III (the play, not the king…) (MOBYLIVES)

Natasha Tripney struggles to tell the difference between theatre and poetry. (Guardian Theatre Blog)

Or Books to time the release of its “liberal response” to Sarah Palin’s memoir with Palin’s own release. (GalleyCat)

On this day in 1833, Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm. (Today in Literature)

“I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”

-Brenda Ueland

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Mo Willems teaches the good lesson to the young reader set with BIG FROG CAN’T FIT IN.

Will it soothe the lingering bruise from last year’s presidential campaign to read about one from thirty years ago?  Dunno, but Craig Shirley is giving it a try with RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY: RONALD REAGAN AND THE CAMPAIGN THAT CHANGED AMERICA.

Adelaide likes their thrillers and here’s the latest one they’ve embraced - RIDES A DREAD LEGION, by Raymond E. Feist.

The Christian Science Monitor revives its review of one of my alltime favorite books, Barbara Kingsolver’s THE POISONWOOD BIBLE.  They didn’t love it quite as much as I do, but hey, that’s why they make all flavors.

Many thanks to JK Evanczuk for sending along a link and description of Lit Drift, an incredibly rich and engaging new site for writers and readers. Here’s what she had to say:

Besides editorial content, we’ve got daily creative prompts, daily short stories, and a weekly free book giveaway called Free Book Friday. This week, we’re giving away a copy of Couch by Benjamin Parzybok. We also accept reader submissions.

Though she describes it as “brand-spanking new”, there’s already plenty of delightful stuff there for everyone (my personal favorite so far is Jennifer Blevins’ “Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart Now, Rilke“).

Head over and take a look. You won’t be disappointed.

From the YouTube description:

Watch watch what happened when we interviewed Tanith Carey, author of Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe - a collection of the funniest and most bizarre agony aunts’ advice from the 1850s to the 1960s:

Ari Messer chats it up with writer and artist Alasdair Gray. (The Rumpus)

Thriller writer Joe Konrath breaks down his earnings. Make sure you’ve properly digested your breakfast before reading. (A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing)

iTunes app leads to a deal for not one, but three, books. (Publishers Weekly)

Marco Roth explores the rise of the neuronovel. (n+1)

Target decides to get a piece of the brewing price war. (Wall Street Journal)

Jeff Rivera returns with the fourth installment in his ongoing series, “Why Agents Don’t Return Phone Calls”. (GalleyCat)

Jessa Crispin interviews Michael Greenberg. (Bookslut)

R.I.P. Norma Fox Mazer, award-winning children’s author. (School Library Journal)

On this day in 1928, Dorothy Parker—under her pen name, Constant Reader—published her classic review of A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner. (Today in Literature)

“You will have to write and put away or burn a lot of material before you are comfortable in this medium.  You might as well start now and get the work done.  For I believe that eventually quantity will make for quality.”

-Ray Bradbury

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R. Crumb’s graphic biblical adaptation, GENESIS, garners even more praise from Forward, The Jewish Daily, for its thoroughness and perspective.

A baker’s dozen of starred reviews is only a percentage of what Publishers Weekly has offered up for its fiction review page for the week.

There is a website called ‘eat me daily’.  It had a book review feature.  I was greatly relieved to see that its featured article was for THE GLOBAL CULINARY YEARBOOK, 2009.  Go cook something, for heaven’s sake, and stop trying to figure out my horrible little brain.

Hmmm.  CRAZY BILLIONAIRES SPEAK: MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES BY BILLIONAIRES ON SUCCESS.  You’ll either find yourself motivated or murderous.  Proceeds benefit charity, so hopefully, it’ll be the former.

Seems that Stephen King’s predictions for the future of media has stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest over at the Absolute Write Water Cooler Roundtable. Here’s a taste of what all the hub-bub is about.

What’s going to happen to books?
E-book downloads now account for only 1.5% of the total market…but that was once true of compact discs, and if you’ve bought an actual vinyl record lately, you’re in very select company. At this writing, best-selling hardcovers have settled at an e-book price point of about $10, but if you think e-book vendors such as Amazon and Sony are making a profit, you would be wrong. That’s because the product is sold cheap for the same reason that dope pushers sell the product cheap, at least to begin with: to get you hooked. And if that seems a harsh comparison to you, then you don’t understand what every Harry Potter and Twilight reader knows: Good stories are dope. I love my Kindle, but what appears there has (so far) been backstopped by great publishers and layers of editing. If the e-book drives those guys out of business (or even into semiretirement), what happens to the quality? For that matter, who pays the advances? No one I talk to can answer these questions.

Join the conversation here.

From the Barnes & Noble “Tagged” description:

Molly talks with Michael Chabon about his moving book of essays, Manhood for Amateurs:

Carol Rumens takes on TS Eliot’s “The Waste Land” in her latest “Poem of the Week” column. (Guardian Books Blog)

Jane Friedman’s new venture, Open Road Integrated Media, to kick off their line of “enhanced” eBooks with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. (theBookseller.com)

Jeff Rivera is back with the third installment of “Why agents don’t return calls”. (GalleyCat)

Claudio Magris takes the 25,000-euro Peace Prize of the German Book Trade award. (AFP)

Salman Rushdie takes the Chicago Public Library Carl Sandburg Literary Award. (Examiner)

What if Google Books threw a party and Europe didn’t come? (theBookseller.com)

Alison Flood digs a little deeper into Open Book’s exploration of neglected classics. (Guardian Books Blog)

R.I.P. Htilar Sitthu, poet. (The Myanmar Times)

R.I.P. Ludovic Kennedy, author and broadcaster. (BBC)

On this day in 1950 Edna St. Vincent Millay died at the age fifty-eight. (Today in Literature)

“Books aren’t written- they’re rewritten.  Including your own.  It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

-Michael Crichton

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Journalist, Neil Sheehan, traces the life of the man who oversaw the development of the USA’s nuclear arsenal in A FIERY PEACE IN A COLD WAR: BERNARD SHRIEVER AND THE ULTIMATE WEAPON.

Mitch Albom does what he does in his latest, HAVE A LITTLE FAITH.

A trio of teen titles get heralded in The Joplin Globe.

The Daily Kos found much food for thought in Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s DELETE: THE VIRTUE OF FORGETTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE.

And The America Muslim reviews Gustav Niebuhr’s BEYOND TOLERANCE, with a smile on its .org face.

From the University of Iowa YouTube description:

Writer, producer, director and novelist Nicholas Meyer graduated from the University of Iowa in 1968 with a B.A. in theatre and filmmaking. Meyer is best known for his involvement in the Star Trek films, writing and/or directing the acclaimed second, fourth and sixth films in the series. Meyer is also well known as the director for the landmark 1983 TV-Movie The Day After, for which he was nominated for a Best Director Emmy Award. In 1977, Meyer was nominated for an Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for adapting his own 1974 novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, to the screen.

Other films Meyer has either written or directed include ‘Elegy’ (2008), ‘The Informant’ (1997), ‘Sommersby’ (1993), ‘Company Business’ (1991), ‘Vendetta’ (1999),

Meyer adapted a Philip Roth novel for ‘The Human Stain’ in 2003. He teamed up with film producer Martin Scorsese in 2006 to write the screen play for Scorsese’s adaptation of the Edmund Morris biography of Theodore Roosevelt, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize. Leonardo DiCaprio, who worked with Scorsese on Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed, currently is slated to play Roosevelt in this movie.

Meyer visited Iowa City’s Prairie Lights Bookstore in September 2009 to read from ‘The View From The Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and A Life In Hollywood’.