According to Boston Globe:

“He will tell his story in a book in hopes of providing insight and encouragement to others and also to ensure that the record is complete and accurate,’’ Gail Gitcho, Brown’s communications director, said in a statement yesterday morning. [...]

Brown’s story certainly defies stuffy Senate stereotypes: a tumultuous childhood, with both parents married three times; sternly lectured by a judge at age 12 for shoplifting LPs including a Black Sabbath record; posing nude for Cosmopolitan magazine; and riding a wave of populist anger to snatch Edward M. Kennedy’s seat from the Democrats.

But this, apparently, did not keep some readers from wondering what Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield would be like as adults. Francine Pascal has reportedly received thousands of fan queries asking about these two characters’ adult lives. And in 2011, Pascal will answer their questions by publishing Sweet Valley Confidential, a book that will follow the twins’ lives in their late 20s and early 30s.

As the Guardian reports, Sweet Valley Confidential “will, according to publisher St Martin’s Press, see ‘the real world intrude after a perfect childhood.’” Pascal adds, “And I can guarantee [readers] will be very surprised. Actually, more like shocked.”

Actually, maybe not. Given that at least some of these readers have grown up themselves, attended a high school reunion or stalked former high school classmates on Facebook, and watched a few too many Lifetime movies, they’re probably aware that the real world isn’t much like high school.

Then again, if they’ve been daydreaming about Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield’s all-too-perfect lives all these years, maybe they need a little reality check.

Image via Wikipedia

Left your heart in San Francisco? According to Amazon.com, you might be able to find it in Alexandria, Va. Or, if you prefer someplace a bit warmer, Miami, Gainesville, or Berkeley.

Amazon has put together a list of the country’s 20 most romantic cities by looking at the per capita sales of romance novels, sex and relationship books, sexual wellness products, romantic comedy DVDs, and—of course—Barry White CDs. So which cities make the list? Check it out:

1. Alexandria, Va.
2. Miami, Fla.
3. Cambridge, Mass.
4. Ann Arbor, Mi.
5. Berkeley, Ca.
6. Gainesville, Fla.
7. Arlington, Va.
8. Salt Lake City, Utah
9. Pittsburgh, Pa.
10. Orlando, Fl.
11. Washington, D.C.
12. Bellevue, Wash.
13. Seattle, Wash.
14. Richmond, Va.
15. Cincinnati, Ohio
16. Knoxville, Tn.
17. Columbia, Mo.
18. Tallahassee, Fl.
19. Columbia, S.C.
20. Atlanta, Ga.

So people in Virginia and Florida consume a lot of romance-related products from the comfort of the Internet. Does that make their cities more romantic? Hardly. It just means you’re more likely to find someone who’s bought the latest Danielle Steel novel on Amazon in Alexandria, Va., than you are in Chicago and New York.

(Or El Monte, Calif.; Paterson, N.J.; and Miami Gardens, Fla., for that matter. These, according to Amazon, are the least romantic cities in America.)

Since Amazon based its list purely on sales data dating only as far back as January 1, 2010, it may also mean that people in these cities made more love- and sex-related New Years resolutions—”This is the year I’m going to fall in love!” “This is the year I’m going to be a better lover!”

Image via Wikipedia

What will happen when there are no more good books left to read or discuss? The New Yorker’s book blog, The Book Bench, may have given us a glimpse tonight.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, The New Yorker liveblogged The Bachelor. Seriously.

(Sure, it’s almost Valentine’s Day and one of the liveblogging participants was John Bowe, the author of Us: Americans Talk About Love, but still.)

Image by Ian Wilson via Flickr

Like many people, Gretchen Rubin finds pleasure in books—reading them, writing them, and making them. So the lawyer-turned-writer put “finding more time to read” high on her list of resolutions when she set out to increase her personal happiness, a journey she writes about in her new book The Happiness Project.

While many people squeeze in some reading before bed, this isn’t the case for Rubin, who explains on her blog, “I’m sleepy. My mind wanders. I keep thinking of things I should do before I turn out the light, so I keep jumping out of bed. It just doesn’t seem like ‘real’ reading.”

Earlier this week, Rubin posted 12 tips for reading more on her blog. Among my favorites:

1. Quit reading. I used to pride myself on finishing every book I started. No more. Life is short. There are too many wonderful books to read.

2. Read books you enjoy. When I’m reading a book I love—for example, I’m now reading A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book—I’m astonished by how much time I find to read during my day. Which is another reason to stop reading a book I don’t enjoy.

[...]

6. Don’t fight my inclinations. Sometimes I feel like I should be reading one book when I actually feel like reading something entirely different. Now I let myself read what I want, because otherwise I end up reading much less.

[...]

9. Choose my own books. Books make wonderful gifts – both to receive and to give – but I try not to let myself feel pressured to read a book just because someone has given it to me. I always give a gift book a try, but I no longer keep reading if I don’t want to.

Like Rubin, I often feel like I don’t read nearly as much as I want (or as much as I actually do). I used to blame this on location: That is, when I lived in Chicago and New York, I had built-in reading time on the train every day. Now that I work at home and have to drive everywhere, I have to carve out my own time to read. Often, it seems that I fail miserably at this: Part of the reason, I suspect, is that I do have a tendency to start reading the books given to me as gifts or books people recommend rather than sticking with what I want to read at that particular moment. Sometimes I waste time (and time that could be spent getting excited about a good book) by continuing to read a book that doesn’t really do it for me.

What about you? What keeps you from reading as much as you’d like? Or, alternatively, how do you make more time to read?

Image via Wikipedia

By most accounts, Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson is having the worst season of his professional basketball career. He has played just 16 games due to an arthritic knee and was cut by the Memphis Grizzlies early in the season before being picked up by the Sixers.

Yet, thanks to fans’ votes, Iverson has landed a coveted spot in the starting lineup for the NBA All-Star Game this February. And he’s actually considering playing in the game.

Writer Sherman Alexie thinks this is a terrible move on Iverson’s part. So terrible, in fact, that he wrote a poem about it and sent it to ESPN. The poem, titled “Brotherly Love,” follows:

When Modesty gets into a bare-knuckle fight with Fame,
It’s a sad, bloody thing. Modesty gets pummeled. Modesty dies.
Is Iverson really going to play in the All-Star Game?

Don’t get me wrong. There has never been a small man who played
With more ferocity. He was born without brake lights!
And, no, he was never modest about his talent and fame,

But he always earned the ego. He deserved the acclaim.
But, ah, his game has said good night, good night, good night, good night.
The truth: he doesn’t deserve to play in the All-Star Game.

He isn’t good enough. Not anymore. There should be no shame
In growing old. But what do we do with the man who denies
His age? Whose modesty has been murdered by his fame?

Doesn’t he have an honest friend? Or maybe they’re all afraid
To tell him the truth. Or maybe they don’t know they’re telling lies.
Maybe they think Iverson belongs in the All-Star Game.

And maybe he does. Maybe he deserves a last serenade.
But, God, how can he feel good about this tattered prize?
I hope Iverson chooses modesty instead of fame,
And honors himself by not playing in the All-Star Game.

Cover of The Catcher in the Rye

Just how influential was J.D. Salinger, who died yesterday? The almost instant response online is pretty telling:

NPR’s Linda Holmes recalls some of the pop culture allusions to Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, including references in Annie Hall, the Wedding Crashers, Family Guy, and songs by Guns ‘N Roses and Billy Joel.

And on Twitter and Facebook, fans have comes out in droves to share favorite quotes and remember the author’s influence on their lives:

• One Story contributing editor Elliott Holt tweeted: “J.D. Salinger died? His Nine Stories made me want to write short stories.”

• DohBoyJunkie tweeted, “RIP JD Salinger. It’s because of you I that I didn’t fail American Lit. last year. Thank you.”

• A young fan wrote on Salinger’s Facebook Fan page: “You were my first love. I will love you for the rest of my life. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

• Another fan wrote, “ love catcher in the rye, named my son jd”

• And on the Catcher in the Rye Facebook Fan Page, one fan perhaps summed up Salinger’s influence best: “what a book! rest in peace mr.salinger.there is a bit of holden in us all”

How has Salinger influenced you? Please share your favorite quotes, memories, or general responses to Salinger’s death in the comments section below.

Image via Wikipedia

J.D. Salinger, best known for his 1951 novel Catcher in the Rye, died yesterday at the age of 91. According to Salinger’s son, the author died of natural causes. He had lived a reclusive life in Cornish, New Hampshire, since the 1960s.

Salinger wrote one novel and three short story collections, including Nine Stories and Franny and Zoey, but it was Catcher in the Rye that propelled him to fame. The novel, which chronicles the adventures of rebellious teenager Holden Caulfield, was—and remains, in many ways—the quintessential coming-of-age novel and continues to be referenced in popular culture today.

According to the Associated Press:

“The Catcher in the Rye,” with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made “Catcher” a featured selection, advised that for “anyone who has ever brought up a son” the novel will be “a source of wonder and delight – and concern.”

Enraged by all the “phonies” who make “me so depressed I go crazy,” Holden soon became American literature’s most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn. The novel’s sales are astonishing – more than 60 million copies worldwide – and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the book remains a defining expression of that most American of dreams – to never grow up.

Salinger was writing for adults, but teenagers from all over identified with the novel’s themes of alienation, innocence and fantasy, not to mention the luck of having the last word. “Catcher” presents the world as an ever-so-unfair struggle between the goodness of young people and the corruption of elders, a message that only intensified with the oncoming generation gap.

Holden Caulfield and Catcher in the Rye made Salinger famous, but his life as a hermit was also central to the author’s identity. Time’s Richard Lacayo calls Salinger the “hermit crab of American letters,” saying, “When he emerged it was usually to complain that somebody was poking at his shell. Over time Salinger’s exemplary refusal of his own fame may turn out to be as important as his fiction. In the 1960s he retreated to a small house in Cornish, N.H., and rejected the whole idea of being a public figure.”

At the moment, I’m too entranced by this other completely low-tech accessory for the MacBook that I discovered over at Design*Sponge this morning: The BookBook.

It’s a distressed leather computer case designed to look like an old book, with zippers that look like bookmarks. (Yes, sometimes, apparently, you really can’t tell a MacBook by its cover.) Apparently, the spine offers more protection than most computer cases.

Will I be buying one? That’s tough to say. $79.99 is a bit pricey for a computer case. But then again, if it’s really as sturdy as its makers suggest, that may be money well spent for a gal with a history of dropping her laptop and having her AppleCare warranty voided …

But wouldn’t you know? One of the last remaining Beats, 79-year-old poet Gary Snyder, is a Mac user. (He also “lives without electricity … almost never uses a cellphone and has no use for BlackBerrys [and] considers texting ‘abhorrent.’”) So naturally, The New York Times‘ John Markoff asked Snyder, who likes his laptop and it storage space, about the Apple tablet rumors.

In return, Snyder shared “Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh,” an unpublished poem about his Mac. The first few lines follow:

Because it broods under its hood like a perched falcon,

Because it jumps like a skittish horse and sometimes throws me,

Because it is poky when cold,

Because plastic is a sad, strong material that is charming to rodents,

Because it is flighty,

Because my mind flies into it through my fingers,

[...]

The rest of the poem can be read here.

A note about my name: From my byline on this blog, you might have noticed that my name has now sprouted six letters and a hyphen. I got married in December and decided to hyphenate my name for a variety of reasons, but mostly because that’s what felt most like me. I hear it won’t work so well for the airlines or the social security administration, but that’s a battle I’ll deal with when I get there. (I’ve never been one to do things the easy way, I suppose.) Despite the extra six letters and the hyphen, you can still find me online in the usual places here at TrueSlant.com/lauranathan, at at lauranathan.com, on Twitter @lnathan, and via email at laura.nathan@gmail.com and laura@lauranathan.com.