The PW Morning Report, July 7, 2008

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 7/7/2008 5:40:00 AM

Monday, July 7, 2008

A daily round-up of the latest publishing news: The Merriam-Webster 100; The Leopard’s Sicily; Jules Tygiel Dead; Bertelsmann Kaput in China; Sean Connery Non-Memoir; Kindle As Oracle; and Green Friedman

The Merriam-Webster 100: New Words for 2008, reports AP
"Fanboy," "Edamame," "Dirty Bomb" and "Prosecco" are only a few of the new words that will be found in the M-W Collegiate Dictionary

The Sicily of The Leopard Is Fading Fast, reports New York Times
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s story on family disintegration on the island of Sicily is one of Italy best loved novels (and a very good Burt Lancaster movie vehicle). Adam Begley has written a wonderful piece about seeing Sicily through di Lampedusa’s eyes

Jules Tygiel, Historian, Dead at 59, reports New York Times
Although he wrote a biography of Ronald Reagan, Tygiel was known for his Jackie Robinson scholarship as encapsulated in Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (Oxford University Press, 1983)

Bertelsmann Quits China Book Clubs, reports Interfax.cn
Publishing giant officially pulls out of the China Book Club market after 13 years

Holy Kilts! Sean Connery and Canongate Part Ways Over Memoir That Wasn’t, reports Scotsman.com
Apparently Canongate thought they were getting a memoir, but Connery had penned a book on Scottish culture instead

Have You Seen a Kindle Reader Lately?
San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece on just how popular Kindle’s really are and what might be their influence on the future of book publishing

Green Friedman, courtesy of HuffingtonPost
Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, was in his green bully pulpit the other day giving us a preview of Hot, Flat, and Crowded coming from FSG in September. Considering his track record, particularly on the Iraq War, add salt, liberally

And Now for Something Completely Different: A-Rod Brainwashed By Madonna, sez UPI
As in the case of the late George Romney—that’s Mitt’s daddy for all you young uns—it was, sadly, only a rinse