Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

I have been swamped–SWAMPED–the past few weeks, editing newsletters, mining data, writing reviews, and preparing for and attending Annual Conference. I say that not to complain but to account for my near-absence from both the blogosphere and the twitterdome. This absence pains me, because the news has been full of my kind of blogfodder. As I am an [...]

Oh, for Christmas’ Sake! More false memory: best-selling author Neale Donald Walsch (Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge) has admitted that he is not the author of a heartwarming Christmas story he posted on Beliefnet.com (”Christmas Essay Was Not His, Author Admits,” by Motoko Rich, New York Times). The real author is Candy Chand, who first published [...]

In New York Magazine, Justin Shubow documents some striking similarities between Toby Young’s How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2002) and John Tierney’s New York Times Magazine story, “Masochism Central” (1996). For example:
Tierney: “350 Madison … has been called, among other things, the Palace of Pulchritude; the two men’s stores flanking the entrance, Brooks Brothers and Paul [...]

Ashes to ashes, pulp to pulp. A forthcoming biography of Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV’s mistress, written by Veronica Buckley (Christina, Queen of Sweden, 2004) is being recalled due to its reliance on a faulty source (”Hoax diary snares Bloomsbury,” by Claire Armitstead, the Guardian’s theblogbooks):
The problem, it turns out, is with the attribution of a little-known document Le [...]

In the Times Literary Supplement (”Erotic qualifications“), Robert Irwin offers a somewhat cheeky (ahem) review of Gaetan Brulotte and John Phillips’ Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature (Routledge):
I also finished my reading of these two volumes with the feeling that sex was a lot less fun than I had hitherto supposed.
That’s funny, I had much the same feeling after [...]

In the Los Angeles Times (”A classic, or a fraud?“), Philip L. Fradkin keeps alive the ghost of Wallace Stegner’s sins, reexamining the curious case of Angle of Repose. Fradkin borrows from–but doesn’t plagiarize–Jonathan Lethem. (Although he plagiarizes other writers. Read it, you’ll see what I mean. Lethem did it better.)
Criticism of Stegner’s use of Foote’s material [...]

When Cassie Edwards was accused of plagiarism, one of her publishers quickly jumped to her defense. Now they’re taking one big step back (”A Romance Novelist Is Accused of Copying,” by Felicia R. Lee, New York Times):
"Our original comments were based on Signet’s review of a limited selection of passages," Mr. Burke’s statement said. "We [...]

Well, I keep meaning to blog and I keep not blogging and now I’m trying to get out the door to go to Philadelphia for ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. I’ll try to post from there but, who knows, maybe I’ll be back next Tuesday making more excuses. My little clipboard of blog-worthy items is bulging–and gathering [...]

This spat isn’t nearly as exciting as some, but I feel compelled to mention it anyway: Oprah Winfrey plugs Jerry Seinfeld’s wife Jessica’s cookbook. Missy Chase Lapine says she wrote it first. From USA Today (”Cookbook author says Seinfeld book ‘Deceptively’ similar,” by Deirdre Donahue):
Moreover, she adds, “I’m concerned and troubled that Oprah credited and applauded someone [...]

It turns out Judd Apatow has been accused of theft before. (Thanks, Ben Segedin!) I don’t know whether he’s an idea thief or not, but he does seem to come off better than his accusers. From a very old Harper’s (”Don’t have a cow, man“):
I am sorry you are upset. I am not a thief [...]