A year ago you had probably never heard the names Jeremy Lin or Timothy Dalrymple.

Today, you’ve probably heard of Jeremy Lin: he’s the Harvard-educated Asian-American and undrafted NBA player who, after quiet beginnings in the league, is becoming renowned as the Tim Tebow of the NBA, leading the New York Knicks to a win streak. The 6’3” point guard is the only American in the NBA to ever be of Chinese or Taiwanese heritage. He grew up in Palo Alto, presiding over .970 seasons in high school, where he also earned an incredible 4.2 GPA.

If Timothy Dalrymple is still a stranger, he’s a staff writer for the religious information website Patheos, having a comparably impressive background in advanced (religious) academics at Stanford, Princeton and Harvard. But his star too may rise with Lin’s, as Dalrymple will be partnering with the Hachette Book Group to author Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity, a new book promising to “chronicle Lin’s high school, college and early career in the NBA, while highlighting the media explosion ignited by his success the past two-plus weeks as a starter with the Knicks.”

And USA Today runs a story today about the unlikely basketball stud, paying special attention to the immense interest in Lin piqued overseas in Taiwan, where his parents lived prior to their journey to America:

Noting an upsurge in basketball interest — both in watching and playing — Mayor Eric Chu of the suburban cluster of Xinbei City near Taipei ordered officials to replenish missing nets at community and school basketball courts, and to ensure that night lighting at outdoor facilities was working properly.

Tuesday morning 4,000 Xinbei high school students were allowed time off from classes to see a televised broadcast of the Knicks’ loss to the New Jersey Nets. “The students pleaded and I agreed to do this on an experimental basis,” said principal Wang Chi-kuang, as his students jumped up and down and clapped red noisemakers to cheer their hero on.

On the day that Ma spoke, all four Taiwanese morning newspapers ran full color front page photographs of Lin from Sunday’s victory against the Dallas Mavericks, while TV news stations aired endless commentaries on his exploits. Taiwanese media refer to him simply as the “Hao” kid, a play on words that uses his second Chinese name, which means both “good” and “heroic.”

See the current Jeremy Lin titles here

Yesterday I brought up the Philip K. Dick estate’s as-yet unsuccessful lawsuit to reclaim what they say is rightfully theirs from the makers of The Adjustment Bureau, a film based on a Dick book of the (almost) same name.

Today, another book-to-film lawsuit is in the news, although with an inverse relationship to the previous one.

In a New York District Court, Paramount Pictures is suing the estate of Mario Puzo, which has authorized the release of three new Godfather novels, only two of which have been approved by the film studio. Paramount has owned the copyright to The Godfather novel for more than 40 years.

In 2004 the studio approved the release of The Godfather Returns, and all were happy. But Paramount says the estate authorized the release of a second followup novel, The Godfather’s Revenge, in 2006. The latter addition, they claim, was not authorized. And as I reported here last May, Mark Winegardner, who wrote the two post-Puzo novels, will be stepping aside to let author Ed Falco finish up work on a third extracurricular tome; a prequel called The Family Corleone, based on an unfinished Puzo screenplay. It’s expected to release on May 8^th. It’s not clear whether Paramount owns the right to that one, but no complaints have been made about it in particular. Then again, unlike the other two, it hasn’t yet been released.

Here’s what Paramount says in their defense, according to Bloomberg:

“Far from properly honoring the legacy of ‘The Godfather,’ the unauthorized ‘The Godfather’s Revenge’ tarnished, and in the process, also misled consumers into believing that ‘The Godfather’s Revenge’ was authorized by Paramount, or otherwise affiliated with or connected to ‘The Godfather’ and Paramount’s ‘Godfather’ franchise,” Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc. (VIAM), said in the complaint.

Puzo died of heart failure in 1999.

Trivia: not in the trust of Paramount, to my knowledge, is another Godfather-based book actually written by Mario Puzo is The Sicilian, which follows Michael Corleone’s 1950 quest to bring Sicilian scofflaw Salvatore Guiliano to America at the behest of The Godfather.

Find Godfather-related books here

Many of us forget to turn lights off when we leave the house, or we leave our cell phone at the office. As frustrating as that is, it takes a back seat to having forgotten that you were halfway through writing a novel, as UK resident Alexandra Singer did. She has since finished writing the novel and is waiting for Legend Press to release it next month. In the meantime, she’s keeping busy collecting awards; e.g., the runner-up distinction in the Luke Bitmead Bursary literary contest. But the release and probable success of Singer’s first novel came with a tradeoff few would be willing to make, and one Singer didn’t have a choice in, even if her subsequent struggle is inspiring.

In 2008 the 29-year-old corporate lawyer from Manchester contracted cerebral lupus. For six months she was in the hospital, completely paralyzed and unable to speak, and was in fact so helpless she needed the assistance of a tracheotomy tube just to breathe. Believe it or not, that came after a three-month coma. When she awoke, her brother apprised her of an incomplete manuscript on which she had previously been working. Told she would never walk again, she took a double dose of perseverance and and instead relearned to write, summarily finishing the book and bringing it to market.

Having gone from corporate lawyer to helpless hospital live-in, she was additionally inspired to pursue an advanced degree in health care at the University of Manchester, and continues some legal work as she struggles to recover what were once basic functions.

On to the novel itself, it’s called Tea At the Grand Tazi, and the UK’s Daily Mail reports:

‘The book is set in the evocative landscape of Marrakech, Morocco and follows a young expat Maia who struggles to take control of her life, after succumbing to the seedy underbelly of the city.

‘I was travelling a lot before I fell ill and met many unusual people, expatriates running away from their lives in the UK, which is what influenced the book.

Here’s more from the publisher:

Maia is leaving London to paint in the bright sunlight and exotic surroundings of Morocco. Working as an assistant to a once famous Historian, she is lured in by her new surroundings, promising excitement and, more importantly, freedom. In the final days of a North African summer, a sense of boredom and unease pervades the city. Maia is drawn unwillingly into the ways in which the clientele of the renowned Grand Tazi pass their increasingly long, hot evenings. As the intense heat wears down her resistance, Maia succumbs to vice. The light that she once sought becomes eclipsed by shadowy dealings. Can Maia take back control of her new life and, if so, does she even want to?

Curious readers can look for the book on March 1^st.

Mardi Gras New Orleans | britannica

In honor of the Mardi Gras celebration that starts tomorrow, it’s worth delving into the history of the occasion and maybe even pointing out some good reads.

Mardi Gras, as many already know, is French for “Fat Tuesday.” But Fat Tuesday wasn’t always the spectacle of carousing and debauchery that have put New Orleans’ Bourbon Street on the map, as well as on dozens of episodes of COPS. In fact, its origins are Catholic. Mardi Gras begins each year before the Lent fast, and traditionally the faithful would indulge in heavier fatty foods—hence Fat Tuesday—in anticipation of the upcoming privation. Lent itself, of course, is intended to be a time of material self-denial and spiritual contemplation, but in New Orleans, increasingly, it might now simply be considered a period of recovery from the hangover.

Of course, New Orleans isn’t the only city to revel in Mardi Gras festivities, nor is the US the only country. It is celebrated, officially and unofficially, around the US, and most people will be familiar with Brazil’s Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, which has gone on since the early 1700s and now draws 2 million people per day. Not everyone celebrates it simultaneously however, and I’m not just talking time zones: Rio, for example, already had its grand festival on the 18^th.

That’s a cursory overview; anyone interested in the origins of the New Orleans version of the celebration would do well to seek out the following two books, which are some of the better-regarded titles available:

The exquisite antebellum mansions of the Garden District. Giant oaks stretching across boulevards and back in time to before the Civil War. The decadence of Bourbon Street. The vibrant sounds of jazz, blues, and Cajun music coming from every doorway or right from the street. Lacy iron balconies that wrap around the historic buildings of the French Quarter. A leisurely meal under a canopy of wisteria.

In vibrant watercolors and detailed sketches, artist Diana Gessler captures the unique charm that makes New Orleans alluring: Mardi Gras, the Cabildo, Jackson Square, the Court of the Two Sisters, St. Louis Cemetery, the Jazz Festival, the River Road Plantations, the Cajun country, sumptuous Creole cuisine, and Audubon’s Aquarium of the Americas. In fascinating detail—on everything from the making of Mardi Gras, Napolean’s death mask, the city’s inspired architectural and garden designs, and favorite author hangouts to famous New Orleanians and Aunt Sally’s Creole pralines—Very New Orleans celebrates the city, the Cajun country, the people, and our history.

Written for the casual Carnival observer as well as the veteran Mardi Gras fan, “Mardi Gras in New Orleans: An Illustrated History” is a concise and comprehensive pictorial account of the celebration. With 325 vintage and contemporary illustrations and 60,000 words of text, the hardbound volume is the ultimate resource on the celebration, past and present. This updated fourth edition features an expanded reference section that provides details on nearly 600 Carnival organizations, including the identities of 5,000 kings and queens.

He’s probably more famous for The Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly, both of which have been made into major motion pictures, but Philip K. Dick’s book Adjustment Team enjoyed rejuvenated popularity when it was recently made into the film The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

But not everyone’s happy about the film.

It grossed nearly $130 million worldwide, for a profit of about $77 million. Everyone got paid in full and everyone was thrilled, except, Reuters says, for the author’s estate, the Philip K. Dick Testamentary Trust.

Initially, the film’s director and production crew had agreed to buy the rights to Adjustment Team for somewhere between $1 million and $2 million, plus another six figures if the film broke even. But when the production crew discovered there might be an argument to be made that the book was by then in the public domain, they went for it.

And now the Dick estate is coming after them, although with limited success: after having several of their October 2011 claims dismissed by an LA District Judge, they have reportedly “moved to have [their] claims dismissed without prejudice.”

Adjustment Team first made its way into a magazine in 1954, which would have made it public domain. But attorneys for the Dick trust have argued that it was unauthorized. Instead, they say, “the first authorized publication of ‘The Adjustment Team’ was in the 1973 collection ‘The Book of Philip K. Dick.’” If true, it would be a case of gross copyright infringement—and yet to this date the estate seems to have had little success in making that point. It may not be the last we hear on it, but the suit is shaping up to be a failure for the executors, who made this parting shot against the organizers of the film adaptation:

Motivated solely by greed, defendants seek to establish themselves as a de facto ‘Adjustment Bureau’ of Hollywood. Using heavy-handed means, they seek to ‘adjust’ agreements entered into long-ago agreed, ‘adjust’ determinations made long ago by the U.S. Copyright Office, and even ‘adjust’ history so as to hoard any and all monies rightfully earned by the estate of the man whose genius inspired what is indisputably a highly successful film.

After commercial successes in political polemics, and later in fiction, conservative Fox host Bill O’Reilly went on to dabble in historical biographies. After becoming a NYT and Amazon best seller (1.5 million copies produced), his book Killing Lincoln was soon adapted for children (“Lincoln’s Last Days”), and National Geographic even announced plans to partner with Fox in a documentary based on the book.

Now, O’Reilly has again partnered with author Martin Dugard for what is at least his second foray into historical nonfiction, again on the topic of assassination, and again in a vein in which much has already been written.

This time, the duo is working on a book about the Kennedy clan of American political and aristocratic fame, with special attention to the assassination of JFK. It will be called Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot, and readers can expect it in the fall under the publisher Henry Holt & Company, which promises to “‘answer many questions’ about the death of John F. Kennedy, who was killed on Nov. 22, 1963.”

We’ll have more information as the release date draws near.

Read Bill O’Reilly books

Amanda Knox | Daniele La Monaca/Reuters via NYT

Earlier in the week I reported that Amanda Knox and her representatives, including legendary author rep Robert Barnett, were shopping her soon-to-be memoir at auction. I noted at the time that Jaycee Dugard’s highly anticipated book A Stolen Life has so far probably grossed between $10 and $20 million, and that publishers were salivating over the promise of another true-crime blockbuster.

Today, the NYT says that among the bidders at auction were parts of Crown, HarperCollins, Random House, St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan, Atria, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin. More importantly, they say HarperCollins has won the auction.

And perhaps most importantly, the winning bid was said to be nearly $4 million.

Elsewhere, it’s said that a rough release date is already tentatively scheduled: early 2013.

They go on to say the controversial nature of the Knox case gave some pause about the notion of capitalizing on it in such a fashion, and that some are skeptical that a book like this could be profitable. Quick thoughts: are you kidding me? Of course it will be profitable. And publishers anteing up millions suggests industry insiders agree.

The NYT finally comments on the appeal, and controversy, of the Knox story put to print:

During her time in prison, Ms. Knox, now 24, kept regular diaries that will help shape the book, she told publishers in meetings this month.

“It is a story that everyone else seems to have told except for the person at the center of it all,” Jonathan Burnham, the publisher at HarperCollins, said in an e-mail. “There has been plenty of rumor and conjecture about her personality, the role she played in events, and speculation about what happened. This book will tell the full story from her point of view for the very first time, and it will be told in her own words.”

Candace Bushnell

While you may not be familiar with Candace Bushnell, you’re certainly familiar with her work: she’s the author of the much-ballyhooed Sex and the City series.

And now she’s in trouble; at least her former manager Clifford Streit would have you believe as much.

When Sex and the City became a huge hit on the silver screen, it is alleged that Bushnell tried to cut Streit out of the picture.  A lawsuit in the mid 2000s, in which Streit sued Bushnell for his portion of the proceeds of SATC’s box office (and TV) earnings, assured Streit of some of those royalties.

But today, in Manhattan Federal Court, Streit filed a second lawsuit, alleging that Bushnell had ceased payments to him in 2009, after having recompensed him to the tune of $230,000. According to Streit and his laywers, he is still owed upwards of $150,000, a claim Bushnell’s lawyers—despite the previous successful lawsuit—call “frivolous.”

As the NY Daily News reports, Bushnell fired Strait in 1999.

Each Valentine’s Day, as romantic partners swoon over and try to outdo each other, a new crop of counter-narratives emerges. In the last few years, one such narrative has been that single people are happier, or at least that there are serious up-sides to singledom that the romantically attached are missing.

The most recent person to make that argument in literature has been sociologist Eric Klinenberg, who argues in his new book Going Solo that the blissfully unattached are having a better, and possibly more fulfilling, time than the rest of us.

Argues publisher Penguin:

In 1950, only 22 percent of American adults were single. Today, more than 50 percent of American adults are single, and 31 million—roughly one out of every seven adults—live alone. People who live alone make up 28 percent of all U.S. households, which makes them more common than any other domestic unit, including the nuclear family. … [R]enowned sociologist and author Eric Klinenberg proves that these numbers are more than just a passing trend. They are, in fact, evidence of the biggest demographic shift since the Baby Boom: we are learning to go solo, and crafting new ways of living in the process.

Klinenberg explores the dramatic rise of solo living, and examines the seismic impact it’s having on our culture, business, and politics. Though conventional wisdom tells us that living by oneself leads to loneliness and isolation, Klinenberg shows that most solo dwellers are deeply engaged in social and civic life. In fact, compared with their married counterparts, they are more likely to eat out and exercise, go to art and music classes, attend public events and lectures, and volunteer. There’s even evidence that people who live alone enjoy better mental health than unmarried people who live with others and have more environmentally sustainable lifestyles than families, since they favor urban apartments over large suburban homes. Drawing on over three hundred in-depth interviews with men and women of all ages and every class, Klinenberg reaches a startling conclusion: in a world of ubiquitous media and hyperconnectivity, this way of life can help us discover ourselves and appreciate the pleasure of good company.

As somebody who’s very happily married and quite content with our civic engagement, it’s never occurred to me that I’m missing out on any of the above. In fact, if I may dispense an opinion some singles may find loathsome, the perennial attempts, in literature and elsewhere, to convince the dating-or-married crowd that their lifestyles are in fact inferior to those of the romantic renegades smacks of insecurity to me.

And with the right sample groups, cross-tabs, subsects, timing, and most of all a sufficiently narrow focus, you can “prove” just about anything about anyone at any time, so it’s not surprising to me that Klinenberg has “discovered” things that are so “unconventional.”

A few things in particular strike me about the conclusions delineated in the book’s official summary.

The fact that there’s “evidence” that singles have better mental health, however that is defined, is underwhelming. In his book Gross National Happiness, author and sociologist Arthur Brooks speaks at length about the superior happiness and mental health of married couples—it doesn’t mean it’s true, it just means there is evidence for the opposite as well (read this elaborate article for an unintentionally apt summary of Brooks’ book’s premise).

In the same vein, making tallies in the “major victory” column (enough to include in the official summary) for a relatively subjective category like having “more environmentally sustainable lifestyles” leaves me somewhat unimpressed, considering the premise of the book is rather to dispute the assumption that loneliness and isolation are inherent to singledom. And in any case, if dance classes and properly sorting green glass still don’t produce satisfactory happiness, as Brooks et al. have argued, then Klinenberg’s book becomes less of an exciting new cultural revelation and more of a pedantic chronicle of what singles are doing with their free time.

Meanwhile, the soaring rates of singlehood and childlessness are not without consequences; a reality I suspect is mostly contained in Klinenberg’s book for fear of undermining an otherwise sexy (no pun) and unconventional premise.

Urban demographer Joel Kotkin has spoken at length about this, noting first that the phenomenon is largely observable only in the largest urban areas (up to 80% in DC), but not so much in smaller metropolises, much less outlying suburban and rural areas. More worrisome, Kotkin has for years warned that an increasingly generous social safety net apparatus cannot be sustained by a populace that is not only declining to reproduce but refusing even to indulge long-term romances. He notes as well that these cosmopolitan lifestyles are highly correlated with density and comparatively unaffordable housing stock—a total loss for some; a mixed bag for others.

Noting as well that childlessness and singledom are highly correlated with Democratic voting patterns, and the inverse with Republican ones, he offers the following analysis in this truly fascinating article:

Are there any risks to Democrats — and advantages to Republicans — in this new post-familial tilt? Author and New America fellow Phil Longman argues that in the long run the “greater fertility of conservative segments of society” could allow the palpably brain-dead GOP to inherit the country. Childless singletons may be riding high now, he writes, but as non-breeders their influence ends with their own lifespans.

But if you’re more convinced, or at least interested, in Klinenberg’s premise than I am, you can find Going Solo below:

***

And here’s an improptu list of books the NYT’s people think are worth remembering this Valentine’s Day:

• Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
• Minor Characters (Joyce Johnson)
• The Gathering (Anne Enright)
• Anne Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
• Daniel Deronda (George Eliot)
• Graceling (Kristin Cashore)
• Remembrance of Things Past (Marcel Proust)
• Women in Love (D.H. Lawrence)
• A Happy Love (Wislawa Szymborska)
• The Paris Wife (Paula McLain)
• Mating (Norman Rush)
• Out of Sheer Rage (Geoff Dyer)
• The Gashlycrumb Tinies (Edward Gorey)

Zaslow at Becker's Bridal in Michigan, of "Magic Room" fame | MANDI WRIGHT/DFP

Yesterday I reported that The Last Lecture author Jeffrey Zaslow had died Friday in Michigan when his car lost control on a snowy highway. He was on his way to promote his new book, The Magic Room

Today, the AP reported that his funeral was held in his hometown of Southfield, Michigan at the Congregation Shaarey Zedek, a Jewish synagogue. Present for the funeral was Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, with whom Zaslow wrote the best selling memoir Highest Duty about Sully’s saving of more than 150 lives when his A320 commercial airplane was ditched in the Hudson River.

Sully, who eulogized Zaslow, said that he was “funny and interesting,” and that he was “loved by the pilot’s family,” according to the AP.

Zaslow, a successful author and writer for the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Sun-Tribune and elsewhere, was 53 years old. He left behind a wife and three daughters, as well of a slew of beloved books and articles.

See the books Jeffrey Zaslow wrote here