Cissy Houston to Write Whitney Memoir; How to Walk and Read
Today in books and publishing: A memoir for Whitney Houston; how to walk and read; day two of Book Expo of America; and more.
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Whitney Houston's mom, Cissy, is writing a book about her "daughter's life, career and death," HarperCollins announced yesterday. The memoir, which has been kicking around since April, is scheduled for release in February—a year from the date of Whitney's death. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed (estimates are in the seven figures). Portions of the book will be donated to the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark where Whitney's funeral was held, and where she sang as a child. [Reuters, MSNBC]
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For the multi-tasking book lover, Time has a handy guide on how to walk and read at the same time, inside, in one's own home, in the office, and even in the out of doors. An excerpt, regarding sidewalks: "Short bursts is the approach. You look for a stretch of open sidewalk, maybe a half a block, you hastily memorize the major obstacles, and then you glance down at the book. You’re speed-reading here—you don’t so much run your eye over the page as grab the next few sentences all at once. Then the book goes back under the arm. You look up again and digest the words as you walk. You check your location and bearing, like a submarine, and then you prepare to dive again." Related: Why is there no device in one's shower in which you can set a book to protect it from the water and also, automatically have pages turned when necessary, so that you can keep reading all the while? [Time]
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The Audie Awards for audio books are in, and Jane Austen beat Kim Kardashian, thank goodness—albeit "in the somewhat minor category of package design." Tina Fey won audio book of the year in the biography/memoir category for Bossypants, which she narrated. William Shatner won in the humor category, while Ann Patchett won for literary fiction. [PageViews]
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Wanderful, a Bay Area tech firm, has acquired licensing rights to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Living Books titles, which in the '90s helped define the interactive storybook category. Wanderful's CEO Mickey W. Mantle said, "The content of the Living Books series, as well as unmatched production values allowed us to create elegant, interactive-rich storybook applications for Mac and Windows computers that are still in use by teachers today, and we're thrilled to have acquired the exclusive rights to this franchise from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt." [PR Newswire]
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Still need help with your summer reading list? Check what "Washington area bigwigs" are reading. [Washington Post]
It's the second day of Book Expo of America, held at New York's Javits Center. Yesterday was fun! We'll have more thoughts later, but for now, note The Los Angeles Times post about the proliferation of e-books announcements at the fair, Inside Higher Ed's take on university presses present, and Keith Kelly's pronouncement that, from the looks of BEA, the death of the book industry has been "greatly exaggerated." [LAT, IHE, NYP]
RIP, Ray Bradbury. [Atlantic Wire]
