That didn't take long....

Book publishers Headline UK have confirmed the release of "Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend."

Billed as the ultimate celebration of the performer’s life following his untimely death, the book will go on sale in the UK on July 17 and in Australasia on July 30 with a retail of NZ$50.

In their release blurb the publishers state "this lavish, full-colour, illustrated book will feature over 200 images taken from the Daily Mirror’s unrivalled pictures archives. With top-class photography and full support from the Daily Mirror, this will be the ultimate book for fans."

Respected music writer and journalist, Michael Heatley (author of over 30 books including biographies on Rolf Harris, John Lennon, Deep Purple, John Peel, Bon Jovi and Neil Young) has drawn on his five years of research into the Jackson family to tell Michael’s story from his earliest days in the Jackson 5, through the glory days of Thriller (still the world’s all time biggest
selling pop album), to the planned comeback tour.

Carly Cook, Headline UK Non Fiction Publisher says: "We are thrilled to be publishing the first celebration of such an amazing artist. The book is going to be gorgeous and a fitting tribute to a legendary performer. It will be an absolute must-have for any Jackson fan. Jackson’s sudden and untimely death has created an outpouring of grief not seen since Princess Diana or Elvis. Jackson crossed the generations with his music and extraordinary choreography. Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend, will celebrate that talent. This book is not a tell-all, it is a fitting tribute to a legendary performer."


Destined to be a best seller for sure but will you be buying it?

Transformers meets A Million Little Pieces

Remember all that drama with Oprah and James Frey, the author who shot to super stardom with his memoir-that-wasn't "A Million Little Pieces" after it featured on her book club?

It seems the controversy over the fabrication hasn't hurt his career at all, with Transformers director Michael Bay and DreamWorks recently purchasing the rights for Frey's newest sci-fi adventure, 'I Am Number 4'.

The book is the first of six James has planned for this new young adult series which he is co-authoring with debut novelist Jobie Hughes.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying the movie deal will have earned the pair "high six figure" paychecks.

The book's storyline involves alien teens assimilating into an Earth high school after their home planet is destroyed by an enemy species. And wouldn't you just know, the bad aliens track the good E.T.s right back here to terra firma.

It is alleged Frey submitted the completed manuscript to publishers anonymously.

The King of Pop a book lover?

I was over the shock of the King of Pop's death about...oh...5 seconds after I heard the news. Sorry all but wellreadkitty is not a fan (although as a random aside, I do love Neil Finn's acoustic cover version of Billy Jean). So it is with great surprise that I find myself blogging about him.

But apparently Michael Jackson was an extremely well read man and had a collection of around 10,000 books, according to two recent Los Angeles newspaper articles.

Jackson's attorney Bob Sanger is quoted as saying:

"Michael was extremely well-read…I knew Michael, but I got to know him a lot better at the trial. The judge was doing jury selection, and it was time for break. Judge Melville said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that jury service is very, very important.' He's trying to convince people not to have stupid excuses to get out of jury service. All judges do this. He says, 'The jury system is a very time-honoured system. It's been around for 200 years. We're going to take a break and come back in 15 minutes.'

"We stand up and the judge leaves, and Michael turns to me and says, 'Bob, the jury system is much older than 200 years, isn't it?' I said, 'Well, yeah, it goes back to the Greeks.' He says, 'Oh yeah, Socrates had a jury trial, didn't he?' I said, 'Yeah, well, you know how it turned out for him.' Michael says, 'Yeah, he had to drink the hemlock.' That's just one little tidbit. We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history and sociology dealing with race issues. But he was very well read in the classics of psychology and history and literature.

"He loved to read. He had over 10,000 books at his house. And I know that because - and I hate to keep referring to the case, because I don't want the case - the case should not define him. But one of the things that we learned - the DA went through his entire library and found, for instance, a German art book from 1930-something. And it turned out that the guy who was the artist behind the book had been prosecuted by the Nazis. Nobody knew that, but then the cops get up there and say, 'We found this book with pictures of nude people in it.' But it was art, with a lot of text. It was art. And they found some other things, a briefcase that didn't belong to him that had some Playboys in it or something. But they went through the guy's entire house, 10,000 books. And it caused us to do the same thing, and look at it."

"And there were places that he liked to sit, and you could see the books with his bookmarks in it, with notes and everything in it where he liked to sit and read. And I can tell you from talking to him that he had a very - especially for someone who was self-taught, as it were, and had his own reading list - he was very well-read. And I don't want to say that I'm well-read, but I've certainly read a lot, let's put it that way, and I enjoy philosophy and history and everything myself, and it was very nice to talk to him, because he was very intellectual, and he liked to talk about those things. But he didn't flaunt it, and it was very seldom that he would initiate the conversation like that, but if you got into a conversation like that with him, he was there."


His lawyer's comments certainly show another side to the man who has fascinated and flummoxed the public all his life. It's certainly not an image that readily springs to mind when you think of the King of Pop. I'm not sure it makes me like him any more but it is nice to hear a little about the real man behind the music, the plastic surgery, the child molestation allegations, the financial troubles and the strange antics that have come to characterise him in the minds of many (myself included).

School bribes boys to read with Coke

They say that every man has his price – and now a New Zealand school has discovered that the cost of getting a teenage boy to read is a can of Coke.....

A Wellington school is spending thousands of dollars on fast-food vouchers, movie tickets and mobile phone top-up cards all to "bribe" boys to read books.

The scheme at Rongotai College has raised the interest of the education minister, but a principals' union is concerned that it will make children read for the wrong reasons.

Pupils get prizes when they have read a certain number of books. The school, which is trialling the system with year 9 and 10 pupils, says the initiative has been so successful that the number of books borrowed from the library has doubled.

Teacher Kit Norman, who is in charge of the programme, admitted the prizes were a payoff, but was prepared to do whatever it took to get pupils reading.

"I am the first person to admit it is a bribe, but the results speak for themselves.

"Boys don't read enough. Some are only reading one book a year, so we want to push them. We are not trying to turn them into English students, we just want them to read books."

The trial will finish at the end of the year, but the school is keen for the scheme to continue. It costs about $5000 and is funded by the Lions Club and the school's Parents' Association.

The school wants the 250 pupils taking part to read at least 10 books before the end of the year. They have to fill in a reading log, which includes information about the book and why they liked or disliked it, and are marked by teachers. They also have to get their parents to confirm home reading sessions.

Mr Norman said that, if boys read more books, it would improve their writing and comprehension skills in all subjects.

The school has had to order more books to meet demand, but Mr Norman admitted he was facing an uphill battle against other attention-grabbing time consumers such as PlayStation and social networking websites.

Willie Pouao, 13, said he was confident of meeting the 10-book target. He usually read about one a year.

"I never really enjoyed reading, but now it's much more fun that we can get prizes."

He has qualified for a can of fizzy drink by finishing former All Black Tana Umaga's autobiography. He now has his sights on a fast-food voucher.

Education Minister Anne Tolley wants to learn more about the scheme, saying she was interested in any programme that motivated pupils and improved achievement.

But Principals Federation president Ernie Buutveld was concerned that pupils could be reading for the wrong reasons and a "pat on the back" from parents was a better reward.

"As an interim step it's OK, but as a long-term solution there has to be another method."


REWARDS SYSTEM

Two books: Can of fizzy drink.

Five books: Subway voucher.

10 books: Movie ticket.

20 books: Mobile phone top-up voucher.

Top two pupils in each class: Rongotai College blazer.

Top three pupils overall: $50 voucher at Real Groovy/Rebel Sport.awarded a mobile phone voucher, with each class's top two pupils winning a school blazer, and the top three students overall taking home a clothes voucher.



I'm all for encouraging kids to read and am not above bribery - I'm realisitic enough to know that sometimes that's the only way you will get some kids to read. But I think it needs to be healthy bribery that doesn't encourage munching on junk food for a start. I just hope the scheme fosters a love of reading in these students, not just another way of getting a top up on their cellphones.

What do you think? A good, bad or just plain stupid idea?

Angelina Jolie as Dr Kay Scarpetta?

It seems Hollywood gossip and book news go hand in hand this week! Here's one more for you...

Angelina Jolie, Fox 2000 and author Patricia Cornwell are teaming up for a killer deal.

The studio is acquiring screen rights to Cornwell’s bestselling book series on medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, to develop as a vehicle for Jolie. There are 16 Scarpetta novels, meaning a franchise is hoped for, but this film won’t be tied to a specific Cornwell mystery title.

Much the way that Jason Bourne morphed into an action hero in plots not rigidly locked into the Robert Ludlum book series, the opera-loving coroner Scarpetta will be the lead in a suspense thriller in the vein of “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Seven.”

The deal is a mega-marriage, with Jolie one of the most bankable female movie stars, and Cornwell one of the biggest selling female authors in the world.

Cornwell, whose latest installment “Scarpetta” was published last December by Putnam, last year made a deal with Lifetime Television to adapt two non-Scarpetta novels, “At Risk” and “The Front.”

– from Variety


I'll admit here and now to never having read a Patricia Cornwell novel, they just aren't my cup of tea, but my mum loves them and tells me she is horrified at Ms Jolie's as Kay Scarpetta. Apparently it's "unfathomable" to her how Angelina can match up with the fictional character.

Are there any Scarpetta fans lurking out there? If so, what do you think of this casting decision?

New Bain Book on the way

It's the case that has gripped New Zealand like no other - the retrial of David Bain for the murder of his parents and siblings in their Dunedin home in 1994. Whether you think Bain was innocent or guilty (and this excellent opinion piece from Christchurch Press journalist Martin Van Beynen is compelling reading on the trial), there is no doubt his aquital is thanks to the passion and dedication of former All Black and Bain campaigner Joe Karam.

Now Karam is to pen a third book around this family slaughter tragedy, this time about the David Bain retrial.

It is understood the book will provide commentary on Mr Bain’s recent acquittal and the aftermath of the trial. The book – which has yet to be titled – will be published by Harper Collins.

Harper Collins Managing director Tony Fisk said the events following the Bain murders had been a seminal event in the history of New Zealand’s judicial system. The significance of the Bain case was destined to be discussed and debated for many years, Mr Fisk said.

"This will be a very important book and we are excited and privileged to be involved in its publication."

The book will be published in September.


Have you read the previous two Joe Karam books on the Bain family murders? Did reading them influence how you feel about the case? Do you think the jury got the verdict right? Will you read this latest book? Would you read a book Bain himself wrote, as rumours suggest might also be on the cards?

Let me know your thoughts....

Kelly Osbourne to pen teen advice book

It seems to be the week for Hollywood celebs to announce book deals.....

"It's about all the major things girls go through before they turn 21... It's 16 chapters where I explain what I did and where I went wrong, and then I offer professional advice on how to do things differently," Contactmusic quoted her as telling WWD.com.

The book titled Fierce will delve into her past when she quit school early and started drugs; it will also include the later fight and rehabilitation experience.

Ozzy Osbourne's daughter, who was a wildchild in her earlier years, had undergone rehab in California in 2004 and then in Pasadena, California the next year after a relapse.

She reportedly once again entered drug treatment facility in January this year after suffering another relapse.