Short Takes

A book about the stratospheric levels of big-money poker was preempted for six figures by Warner's John Aherne. The Big Game, by journalist Michael Craig, is about poker today as exemplified by the richest game in history, played by a self-taught novice, Andy Beals, and a team of 10 poker pros. The world rights deal was signed with Eileen Cope at Lowenstein-Yost Associates.... Becky Cabaza at Crown's Three Rivers bought the second novel by a Mexican-American author she had launched five years ago in Scribner trade paper; Maria Amparo Escandon's new book is a tragicomic saga called Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co. This was offered to Cabaza exclusively by agent Betsy Amster, and this time the book will be a hardcover... Random's Jonathan Karp won an auction for a book by New York Times magazine consumer columnist Rob Walker. It's about how today's Americans are defined largely by their buying habits, and was a North American rights buy from Elyse Cheney at Sanford Greenburger Associates.... A children's fantasy series that has been a big bestseller in England, and is being released here next month by David Fickling Books at Random, has made a big movie sale, to Sarah Radclyffe at Jigsaw Films. It's The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, and the deal was handled by agent Rod Hall on behalf of Random Children's Books in the U.K.... Colin Dickerman and Rosemary Davidson at Bloomsbury USA bought a book by historian Judith Summers called Casanova's Women, which examines some of the women seduced by the infamous lover, to see what motivated their involvement with him. The world English rights deal was signed with U.K. agent Clare Alexander at Gillon Aitken.... The Beatles bio cited last week was bought for Crown by Kristin Kiser; Carrie Thornton will edit.