Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Oprah is offering a free copy of Suze Orman’s Women & Money in PDF form.  This offer is only good until 8/7c of February 14th.  I guess this is Oprah’s Valentine to you.  Or part of her distance learning course to teach you to be a better you.

Via  SBTB.

The AP has an interesting story today about Oprah’s recommended reading list. One of the titles that was featured as a “guaranteed page-turner from Oprah’s personal collection” was Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree, a story set in the Great Depression about a young orphan who goes to live with his Cherokee grandparents and learn the Cherokee way of life.

The book was originally published in 1976 to some acclaim. In 1991, the ABA made Little Tree its inaugural ABBY selection which honors little known treasures loved by ABA booksellers. Sometime after the 1991 ABBY award, the book came under scrutiny and it was revealed that Forrest Carter was really Asa Earl Carter, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and former speech for George Wallace.

Oprah pulled the listing after being contacted by the AP. Oprah is aware of the history behind the book and has taken the book off her “personal shelf.” Interestingly, James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, still remains as an Oprah Book Pick even after she denounced him and his editor on her television show.

Via USAToday.

The Goldman’s were granted the rights to the OJ hypothetical confession and shopped it to Beaufort Books, a sometimes vanity press where authors contribute monetarily to the publication of their books. The Brown family is not happy about the publication of the book. Oprah has booked the two camps for a high charged Springer like episode. Fred and Kim Goldman will face criticism from Denise Brown on September 13, 2007.

Nan Talese, editor and publisher of James Frey’s fictional autobiography called A Million Little Pieces, struck back after enduring months of scorn and anger, much of it fueled by Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah Winfrey featured James Frey on her show and was later appalled to find out that a great deal of the non fiction story was actually fiction. She had Frey and Nan Talese back on her show to question them about the truth behind the book.

Oprah: James Frey is here and I have to say it is difficult for me to talk to you because I feel really duped. But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers. I think it’s such a gift to have millions of people to read your work and that bothers me greatly. So now, as I sit here today I don’t know what is true and I don’t know what isn’t. So first of all, I wanted to start with The Smoking Gun report titled, “The Man Who Conned Oprah” and I want to know—were they right?

James: I think most of what they wrote …