Taylor Branch's final volume of the biography of Martin Luther King - At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68. Read an except of the book at MSNBC.com.

Vol I - Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-63
Vol II - Pillar of Fire : America in the King Years 1963-65

Contrary to erroneous published reports, Random House, Inc. is not offering a special refund on A Million Little Pieces. refund, Randomhouse: Read more . . ..

Other related articles: Oprah Orders a Large Frey

There's something very little-boy-who-cried-wolf/ish here, like there is a: And The Moral of the Story is . . . I wonder if Oprah will invite Frey back for a follow-up? But then, even this is simply more publicity. Now folks want to read what all the trouble is about. Read what other bloggers have to say on the matter.

Non-fiction or realistic fiction? The smokinggun.com, calling Frey's book - A Million Little Lies, alleges that James Frey exaggerates his past with inflated claims about his criminal record in the book, "A Million Little Pieces." I'm currently reading the memoir after having purchased it in December. I've read books more violent and graphically disturbing than this but they were mostly fiction, rather than non-fiction. Most writers, regardless of category or subject matter mix and stir up fact with fiction from time to time (except I'm sure those of academic and research merit). I'm not done reading " A Million Little Pieces." To be honest, I became annoyed after having to read of his mother crying again. Something about reading ten pages of wordless sobbing seemed irritating and I felt bad about my irritation and decided that I needed a break. I guess I would have to experience something so traumatic (drug and alcohol abuse) with my child and then maybe I'd cry like that too. I hope and pray and believe it to never happen. In fact, the motivation to complete the book, is to find something horrifying that led him down the road of drug addiction. I've been looking for abuse, neglect, belittlement - some sort of dramatic evil reason. So far, he hasn't divulged nothing more than sipping alcohol from the unguarded glasses of adults when he was a kid. At some point people will have to decide how much exaggeration takes a story too far from the truth - in regards to memoirs and such. Regardless, read the drama as it unfolds.

Articles:
The Smoking Gun's - A Million Little Lies
MSN's - Smoking Gun questions Million Little Pieces - author threatens to sue

Small Pleasures has been entered in the 2006 LuLu Blooker Prize for Blooks. Wish me luck!

Solace International, Inc. - Ten day auction beginning today (12.26.05 - 1.5.06.) A collection of paintings by Indonesian artists, survivors of the Tsunami, are up for auction at Overstock.com to raise $10,000 for a community art center where the artists can paint, teach and share their work.

A Selection of the Most Blogged-About Books of 2005. I've read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell who graced the cover of July-August 2005 issue of Black Issues Book Review.

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2005. "Based on your online lookups, the #1 Word of the Year for 2005 was . . . . . .

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2005

"Based on your online lookups, the #1 Word of the Year for 2005 was . . . . . .

Richard Pryor died today at the age of 65. I saw the movies Silver Streak and Stir Crazy and Which Way is Up (I think) or at least I remember hearing the Staple Singers singing the theme song to the movie soundtrack. In Harlem Nights he was oh so cool - his voice and mannerism, I enjoyed his performance. Other than that I was a kid when his stand up was big and wasn't allowed to listen to any of it.

Richard Pryor's Biography (and official website).

The blog, Baghdad Burning, is now a book.

Womanist, Novelist, Poet -->Diary of A Lost Girl: The Autobiography of Kola Boof will be available this month, December. Another book added to my wish list. She's also the author of Flesh and The Devil and Long Train to the Redeeming Sin: Stories About African Women, which was banned and put out of print in 2002 by her Ethiopian publisher, Russom Damba, due to pressure from Arab Muslim factions (the publisher's printing press was firebombed and he and his family received death threats). Of course, the reissued version is avaialbe @Amazon.com.
Kola Boof's ---> website

For the past seven days, I have awakened with the singing (in my head) of "I Sing The Body Electric" from the movie Fame which I haven't seen in years. Finally I decided to search for what the "body electric" means, if it means anything. My sister asked if I'd ever read I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman. And my online search took me straight to it.