Baseball, World War II and other recipes

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

First, a request. If anyone has book related news, be it from authors, bookstores, websites, whatever, please send it to me. Thank you.

*** Why is the press always the last to cover a story? Here's a nice little recap about what we already know, that Ebay is flopping around like a catfish on a pier.

The Setting Ebay sun

*** Baseball and World War II. Seriously, if you were going to write a 'guy' book, especially for Baby Boomers, how could you go wrong with either subject? You couldn't. But you could combine the two, which is what authors Todd Anton & Bill Rowlin have done in their new book When Baseball Went to War published by Rounder Books. It's a sequel of sorts to Anton's 2007 publication No Greater Love: Life Stories from the Men Who Saved Baseball, also published by Rounder.

I haven't read this one, thus I take the linked review at face value. But baseball players did flock to defend the country and, while it's a story that has been told, I have no doubt there was plenty left for the authors to discover. For every Ted Williams there must have been two or three or four lesser players who fought (and died) without the limelight, doing their duty because it was the right thing to do. We owe them more than we can repay.

When Baseball Went to War

*** I recently wrote about the upcoming auction of some rare A.A.Milne-related material. A selection of original E.H. Shepard drawings for the books was going under the gavel. Could it bring the pre-auction estimates in the current economic climate? Well, yes, it could.

It seems they sold for about $2 million. One can only wonder if the artist ever had any idea his work could command such prices.

*** HarperVoyager has acquired the rights to two Janny Wurts novels, the final two volumes in the Wars of Light and Shadow series. This is meaningful to your friendly neighborhood bookseller because a couple of years ago he met Ms. Wurts at MidSouthCon. I had the chance to sit in the lobby and peruse her sketch book and she told me that some of the drawings would be in future books of the Wars of Light and Shadow. Now that is happening and I will most likely see the finished versions of those works in progress. A bit surreal.

*** Johnny Depp's brother has his debut novel out, a supposedly Elmore Leonard-esque romp in Hollywood. Daniel Depp certainly has a varied resume, from bookseller to screen-writer. Whether this translates into good fiction or not, I have no idea. I'll let you decide.

Daniel Depp takes the first step

*** Finally finishing Friday's filings, this bit of pompous fluff. It seems that pundits were asked what books they are reading and what they would recommend. After perusing the list, I can tell you that I don't believe any of them are actually reading what they proclaim, but listed what they think makes them sound more punditey. (And yes, I know that's not a word)

I mean, come on. If you want to whack us over the head with your punditness, get a blog.

Stuffed shirts puffed and fluffed