Frank McCourt, who died last month, would have been 79 this week, and one of his former students is throwing him a party.
(Reuters/ Mike Segar/ File)
Shelf Life
Patriot elation
Frank McCourt, who died last month, would have been 79 this week, and one of his former students is throwing him a party.
(Reuters/ Mike Segar/ File)
Brian Kinchen’s pro football career ended abruptly after 13 years. While the 35-year-old was recovering from knee surgery, the Carolina Panthers replaced him with a younger player.
After trying for three years to get back into the game, the married father of four settled on a new career as a Bible teacher in Baton Rouge, La. Then the call came. In December 2003, the New England Patriots were in need of a long snapper. Kinchen was invited to try out. His return to the NFL was bumpy, but seven weeks later Kinchen snapped the ball on the winning field goal in the Super Bowl.
“The Long Snapper: A
Marx and Kinchen will discuss the championship story at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Borders book store in Braintree.
’Tis a party
Celebrated memoirist Frank McCourt, who died last month, touched a lot of lives through his teaching as well as his writing. Local performer Alex Newman was a student of McCourt’s at Stuyvesant High School in New York during the early 1980s. “I expect to hear from you until the last trump blows,’’ McCourt wrote in Newman’s yearbook.The two stayed in touch. Newman remembers McCourt saying that he didn’t know what a birthday party was when he was growing up. McCourt would have turned 79 this week, and Newman is throwing him a party at 7 p.m. Friday at Brookline Booksmith. Newman will trace the history of their friendship with readings from “Angela’s Ashes,’’ “ ’Tis,’’ and “Teacher Man.’’
A Hynes show
It happens to John Grisham, Danielle Steel, and just about every best-selling author except J.K. Rowling. Publishers can overestimate demand, then deeply discount or “remainder’’ thousands of books. In the standard publishing contract, authors earn no royalties on books that have been remaindered so they lose out on income in addition to enduring the insult of the bargain bin.This year overall book sales are down, but sales of discounted books are up. That’s good news for trade show organizer Larry May, who is bringing his Great American Bargain Book Show to the Hynes Convention Center this week. Some 75,000 titles discounted at 75 to 95 percent will be displayed. About 500 retailers and wholesalers are expected to attend. The discounted books they order will show up in stores this fall.
Coming out
■ “Vanished,’’ by Joseph Finder (St. Martin’s)■ “The White Queen,’’ by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone)
■ “The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels,’’ by Janet Soskice (Knopf)
Pick of the week
Nancy Fontaine of the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, Vt., recommends “The Arms Maker of Berlin’’ by Dan Fesperman (Knopf): “This engrossing thriller has it all: a hunt based on ciphers and clues; World War II and the Third Reich; spies, lies, and coverups. Beginning with an intrepid professor who must chase down the legacy of an estranged mentor, the story jumps back to the early 1940s, weaving a complex tale of love, war, and betrayal.’’Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 
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