PowellsBooks.Blog

• If you're wondering why we heard only a couple of peeps from Warren St. John as our guest blogger last week, perhaps it's because he was writing a piece for the New York Times unmasking the writer JT Leroy. We forgive you, Warren.
• Meanwhile, the Smoking Gun website calls into question the legitimacy of James Frey's Oprah-approved "memoir," A Million Little Pieces. According to the site:
  

  Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey's book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw "wanted in three states."

• The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced its 2006 Book Award winners, chosen by independent booksellers from Oregon, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. And they are:
  

  • The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber
  • Children's Book Award — Hotel Deep: Light Verse from Dark Water by Kurt Cyrus
  • Rogue River Journal: A Winter Alone by John Daniel
  • The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
  • William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award — Approximately Paradise by Floyd Skloot
  • How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein

  Congrats to all!

• Slate's TV critic, Dana Stevens, has harsh words for ABC's new sitcom, Emily's Reasons Why Not, starring Heather Graham and based on the chick-lit book of the same name. But mostly Stevens wonders how Graham's career plummeted so fast after her breakthrough in Boogie Nights — a question that keeps me awake on countless nights.

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Brockman is the head writer for the daily Book News posts on the Powells.com blog. In his free time he's hard at work on his fictional memoir, which changes titles daily.

The views and commentary posted by Brockman are entirely his own, and are not representative of the whole of Powell's Books, its employees, or any sane human being.

Books mentioned in this post

1. 
   Da Capo Best Music Writing: The... Jt Leroy Used Trade Paper $5.95
   
2. 
   A Million Little Pieces James Frey

   

   Used Trade Paper $4.95
   
3. 
   The Language of Baklava Diana Abu-Jaber Used Hardcover $10.50
   
4. 
   
   
5. 
   Rogue River Journal: A Winter Alone John Daniel Used Hardcover $9.95
   
6. 
   The Highest Tide: A Novel Jim Lynch

   

   Used Hardcover $9.95
   
7. 
   Approximately Paradise Floyd Skloot Used Trade Paper $5.95
   
8. 
   
   
9. 
   Emily's Reasons Why Not Carrie Gerlach Used Trade Paper $1.25
   
10.