By Judith Maas
SUNDAY: Jack O’Connell (‘‘The Resurrectionist’’) and Perrin Ireland (‘‘Chatter’’) read at 2 p.m., at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newtonville. ... Hillary Jordan reads from ‘‘Mudbound,’’ at 4 p.m., at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Cambridge. ... Joe Cronin discusses ‘‘Reforming Boston Schools,’’ at 10 a.m., at Trinity Church, Copley Square. ... Santa Montefiore discusses ‘‘Sea of Lost Love,’’ at 2 p.m., at Wellesley Booksmith, 82 Central St., Wellesley. ... Susie Davidson discusses ‘‘Jewish Life in Postwar Germany’’ and other works at noon at the Fayerweather School, 765 Concord Ave., Fresh Pond area, Cambridge.
MONDAY: Mameve Medwed reads from ‘‘Of Men and Their Mothers,’’ at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner, Brookline. ... Michael Tonello reads from ‘‘Bringing Home the Birkin,’’ at 6 p.m., at Borders, Back Bay, 511 Boylston St. ... Tony Horwitz discusses ‘‘A Voyage Long and Strange,’’ at 7 p.m., at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. ... Poets Mary Buchinger, Freddie Frankel, and Lo Galluccio read at 7 p.m., at the Yenching Library, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge.
TUESDAY: George Johnson discusses ‘‘The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments,’’ at 7 p.m., at Harvard Book Store. ... Margot Livesey reads from ‘‘The House on Fortune Street,’’ at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books. ... Ellis Avery discusses ‘‘The Teahouse Fire,’’ at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith. ... Michael Eric Dyson discusses ‘‘April 4, 1968,’’ at 7 p.m., at the Barker Center, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge. ... Bryan Mealer discusses ‘‘All Things Must Fight to Live,’’ at 7 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Boston University, Kenmore Square. ... Tony Massarotti discusses ‘‘Dynasty,’’ at 1 p.m., at Borders, Downtown Crossing.
WEDNESDAY: Reeve Lindbergh discusses ‘‘Forward From Here,’’ at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books. ... Howard Fineman discusses ‘‘The Thirteen American Arguments,’’ at 6 p.m., at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge; for tickets ($5), call 617-661-1515. ... Steve Elman and Alan Tolz discuss ‘‘Burning Up the Air,’’ at 1 p.m., at Borders, Downtown Crossing.
THURSDAY: Michael Lowenthal (‘‘Charity Girl’’) and NS. Köenings (‘‘Theft’’) read at 7 p.m., at Newtonville Books. ... Alice Hoffman reads from ‘‘The Third Angel,’’ at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith. ... Reeve Lindbergh reads from ‘‘Forward From Here,’’ at 6 p.m., at Borders, Back Bay. ... Fareed Zakaria discusses ‘‘The Post-American World,’’ at 7 p.m., at First Parish Church, 3 Church St., Cambridge; for tickets ($5), call 617-661-1515. ... Stephanie Schorow discusses ‘‘The Crime of the Century,’’ at 6:30 p.m., at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library, 12 Sedgwick St., Jamaica Plain. ... Zhu Xiao Di discusses ‘‘Tales of Judge Dee,’’ at 6:30 p.m., at the West End Branch Library, 151 Cambridge St. ... Joan Anderson discusses ‘‘The Second Journey,’’ at 6 p.m., at Borders, Downtown Crossing.
FRIDAY: Robert H. Bates discusses ‘‘When Things Fall Apart,’’ at 3 p.m., and Michael T. Klare discusses ‘‘Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet,’’ at 7 p.m., at Harvard Book Store. ... Katie Smith Milway discusses ‘‘One Hen,’’ at 4 p.m., at the Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St., Wellesley. ... Porter Square Books hosts a launch party at 6:30 p.m., for Laura and Leo Espinosa’s children’s book, ‘‘Otis and Rae and the Grumbling Splunk’’. ... Margot Livesey reads from ‘‘The House on Fortune Street,’’ at 7 p.m., at Jabberwocky Bookshop, 50 Water St., Newburyport.
SATURDAY: Chris Bohjalian reads from ‘‘Skeletons at the Feast,’’ at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith . ... Rick Jordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, discusses ‘‘The Battle of the Labyrinth,’’ at 3 p.m., at Wellesley Middle School, 50 Kingsbury St., Wellesley; doors open at 2:30 p.m. ... Boston-area MFA students read at 4 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Boston University. ... Children’s author Matt Tavares signs ‘‘Lady Liberty,’’ at 2 p.m., at Book Ends, 559 Main St., Winchester.

Events are subject to change.

Not fit for Hoosier eyes?
Edouard Manet's "Olympia" (1863)

In the great state of Indiana, starting July 1, you're going to have to pay a $250 fee and register with the secretary of state in order to sell books "harmful to minors" by reason of having "sexually explicit" content, unless a suit succeeds in blocking the law. Registrants would be monitored by local governments, to which the registration list would be given. Sale of such materials without registration would be a misdemeanor.

"Sexually explicit" is a pretty vague term, which could be applied to much of contemporary American literature, even many classics, as well as books of art and photography, not to mention books about sex in marriage. The law includes materials containing "any form of nudity." Though the law does not forbid sale of any books, it is hard to imagine that it would not have an intimidating effect. If Ma's Bookshop in Doodletown, Ind., does not register, and sells a coffee-table art book containing photographs of Michaelangelo's "David" or Manet's "Olympia," Ma could be reported by local officials and fined.

Yesterday, the Association of American Publishers joined with several other groups, including the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, the ACLU, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in filing suit against the law in federal court in Indianapolis, calling it a blatant violation of the First Amendment. AAP president Pat Schroeder said, in a statement, "Forcing bookstores to register with the government based on the content of the books they sell -- and to pay $250 for the privilege -- is abhorrent. It runs contrary to every understanding of our First Amendment rights."

The author outside a Manhattan court last month
(AP photo/Louis Lanzano)

British author J.K. Rowling's copyright-infringement case against Steven Vander Ark, author, and RDR Books, publisher, of "The Harry Potter Lexicon," is unresolved, three weeks after she testified in New York. But this week, she scored a different kind of victory in a British court (see the Times of London story here) in her privacy-infringement case against a photo agency. Big Pictures took a telephoto shot of Rowling's husband, Neil Murray, as he pushed their 18-month-old son David in a carriage on an Edinbugh street in 2004.

Rowling sued the agency and the Sunday Express magazine, which published the picture, claiming that the child's right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated. The Express settled with the author, but Big Pictures didn't. A judge had dismissed the complaint, but an appeals panel has reinstated it, saying the case can go to trial.

British legal analysts said the case could have far-reaching implications for the traditions of tabloid journalism in the country, which has long regarded the private lives of the rich and famous as far game for photographic intrusion. But the court said, "If a child of parents who are not in the public eye could reasonably expect not to have photographs of him published in the media, so too should the child of a famous parent."

Rowling and Murray said in a statement, "We understand and accept that with the success of Harry Potter there will be a measure of legitimate media and public interest in Jo's professional activities and appearances. However, we have striven to give our children a normal family life outside the media spotlight....We wanted them to grow up, like their friends, free from unwarranted intrusion into their privacy."

You didn't ask for it, but it's coming anyway. Fortune magazine writer Peter Elkind has signed a contract with publisher Portfolio for a book about the rise to demise of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. Don't expect a lot of policy discussions.

Barbara Walters is all over the place these days with her new memoir "Auditions" (reviewed in the Globe today and No. 1 on Amazon).

Her appearance at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., is already sold out, but you can catch her on David Letterman's show tomorrow night (Friday, May 9).

On Thursday, May 22, she'll be at Brookline Booksmith, but only to sign her book, not to speak. (Can you imagine? Nice of her to stop by her hometown but... wouldn't it be nice if she said a few words?)

I had been told that the shelves at Edwards Books, the only independent bookstore in Springfield, were getting bare and now we know why: the bookstore is closing.

In other bookstore news, McIntyre and Moore is comfortably ensconced in its new digs in Porter Square. Next month Pazzo Books plans to move from Roslindale to West Roxbury.

I'm curious to see the "concept" store Borders is opening in Wareham next month. It's one of more than a dozen the company plans to open across the country this year. It sounds like the goal is to make the store sexy and sleek with a wide array of offerings beyond books and music, such as print on demand services and geneaology searches. Maybe the souped-up stores will help Borders stay in the game.

When is the No. 1 nonfiction bestseller in America not quite a book? When it's "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch (Hyperion, $21.95), which sits atop Publishers Weekly's list and is likely to remain there for some time.
Pausch is a young computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University with terminal cancer who has dominated the Web recently with a college talk in which he answers for real the philosophical question: If you were going to die soon and could only give one speech, what would you say in it? The result is stunning. The book is an expanded version of his remarks, which are available on you.tube here.

It's commencement season, the time when Boston's college grads have to leave their ornate dorm suites and a la carte cafeterias and plunge (barring the safety of graduate school) headlong into the workplace, where there are endless responsibilities, deadlines, and expectations (not to mention no checks from mom and dad). This can be a difficult transition, particularly for young women headed into a tough economy where men generally create the rules.
But we've got a book that can help. It's "The Power Chicks' Guide to Boston" by Geri Denterlein, a veteran player in Hub boardrooms who heads her own communications firm, Denterlein Worldwide Public Affairs. In this slim but pointed volume, Denterlein cannily surveys who wields power in Boston, and describes how to network and sharpen skills to get ahead here. The book wisely includes descriptions of local bellwether organizations, and their Web addresses for quick access.
This is a terrific blueprint for the newly minted -- and newly broke -- college grad, and could save you two years of wearing "Hello My Name Is" tags at business meet-and-greets.
(Here's the link to a Globe article on Denterlein and a link to the book.)

Gary K. Wolf (Globe photo/Suzanne Kreiter)

Last year, colleague Joe Kahn wrote a fascinating piece about two boyhood friends, Gary Wolf and John Myers, who grew up in a small trown in Illinois. They loved a fiction genre known at the time as the "space western," especially a 1952 classic called "Space Hawk: The Greatest of Interplanetary Adventures."

Wolf grew up to be a screenwriter, whose most famous work is the animated movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", while Myers became a Catholic priest and today is archibishop of Newark, N.J. Wolf lives in Brookline. The former boys remained friends, and a few years ago they both reread "Space Hawk." They agreed it was terrible, and got the idea of rewriting it together, with new characters, plot, and dialogue.

The book is finished and has just been published. It's called "Space Vulture," from Tor Books.

We don't know if they plan a book tour, but we assume "Space Vulture" has a virtual, if not literal, imprimatur and nihil obstat.

Archbishop John J. Myers (AP photo)

The National Book Critics Circle has issued its spring Good Reads list, which is voted by the reviewer-organization's 825 members. Read more about it on the NBBC blog, "Critical Mass." The list is intended as a different way, beyond bestseller lists, to highlight worthy books.

This season's list has only a few new faces, which perhaps suggests that NBBC members are as susceptible to bestsellerdom, publicity, and review buzz as everyone else. Or it may simply mean that a great less-well-known book is likely to catch the eye of one member, but not of enough to win a poll. Oddly, seven titles on the fiction list (note asterisks) were listed as tied for fourth place. It's a bit of a puzzle to me how that many books, in a poll of 825 people, could get exactly the same number of votes, but perhaps that will be explained later on. The list follows.

Fiction:

1. Richard Price, "Lush Life"
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, "Unaccustomed Earth"
3. Steven Millhauser, "Dangerous Laughter."
*4. Charles Baxter, "The Soul Thief."
*4. Peter Carey, "His Illegal Self."
*4. J. M. Coetzee, "Diary of Bad Year."
*4. James Collins, "Beginner's Greek."
*4. Brian Hall, "Fall of Frost."
*4. Roxana Robinson, "Cost."
*4. Owen Sheers, "Resistance."

Nonfiction:

1. Nicholson Baker, "Human Smoke: The Beginning of World War II, the End of Civilization."
2. Drew Gilpin Faust, "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War."
3. Mark Harris, "Pictures at the Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood."
4. Honor Moore, "The Bishop's Daughter."
5. Susan Jacoby, "The Age of American Unreason."

Poetry:

1. Grace Paley, "Fidelity."
2. Frank Bidart, "Watching the Spring Festival."
3. Eric Gansworth, "A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function."
4. Marie Howe, "The Kingdom of Ordinary Time."
5. Robert Pinsky, "Gulf Music."

John Updike

Prolific novelist John Updike has written a sequel to his 1984 novel, "The Witches of Eastwick," whose 1987 movie version starred Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The new novel, due out in October, is called "The Widows of Eastwick," in which Alexandra, Sukie, and Jane, now contemplating old age and sans husbands, return to the little town in Rhode Island, to ponder their youthful hell-raising and its aftereffects.

The movie was filmed mostly in Cohasset, and I well remember the Cohasset Savings Bank with its temporary sign, "Bank of Eastwick," as well as the scene filmed at the First Parish Church on the town green, with millions of feathers blown over the neighborhood. Perhaps the sequel will have its film counterpart. Cohasset is still a little bit of heaven.

1. The Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch. Hyperion.
2. Ladies of Liberty
By Cokie Roberts. Morrow.
3. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea
By Chelsea Handler. Simon Spotlight.
4. In Defense of Food
By Michael Pollan. Penguin.
5. Home
By Julie Andrews. Hyperion.
6. Girls Like Us
By Sheila Weller. Atria.
7. The Secret
By Rhonda Byrne. Atria.
8. Beautiful Boy
By David Sheff. Houghton Mifflin.
9. Bonk
By Mary Roach. Norton.
10. Just Who Will You Be?
By Maria Shriver. Hyperion.

SOURCE: Boston area bookstores

1. Unaccustomed Earth
By Jhumpa Lahiri. Knopf.
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
By Junot Díaz. Riverhead.
3. The Miracle at Speedy Motors
By Alexander McCall Smith. Pantheon.
4. The Whole Truth
By David Baldacci. Grand Central.
5. Hold Tight
By Harlan Coben. Dutton.
6. Certain Girls
By Jennifer Weiner. Atria.
7. Our Story Begins
By Tobias Wolff. Knopf.
8. Remember Me?
By Sophie Kinsella. Dial.
9. The Appeal
By John Grisham. Doubleday.
10. Change of Heart
By Jodi Picoult. Atria.

SOURCE: Boston area bookstores

On the eve of the Kentucky Derby, it's time to note that T.D. Thornton's "Not by a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Track'' has won a $10,000 prize.

Thornton, who grew up in a racing family and was formerly pr director at Suffolk Downs, brings the reader behind the scenes at the track in the year 2000. The Rowley resident's book won the second annual Castleton Lyons-Thoroughbred Times Book Award.

Your local comic book store may be a part of Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, May 3. New England Comics is offering discounts and free comics at all seven of its stores and I'm sure there are other participating shops.

Let's hope nothing bad comes of the annual promotion. Handing out free comics as part of a trick-or-treat promotion in October 2004 carried a high price for a shop in Georgia. The retailer was charged with distributing obscene materials. Over the past three years the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund spent $100,000 defending comics retailer Gordon Lee. Late last month prosecutors dropped all charges.

Harlequin Romance fiction was a virtual money-tree for years, but has had some hard times lately, as we've reported here before. Today, Torstar Corporation, the Canadian owner of the Harlequin brand and publisher of the Toronto Star newspaper, announced a dip in sales for the romance line.

Explaining the "slight decline" in sales of the little paperback heartthrobbers so beloved of generations of women readers (sorry -- even the publisher calls it "women's fiction"), Torstar said it's a year-against-year dip, and that last year was an unexpectedly good year.

I take this to mean that it's not that people love love any less, it is just that they love love less than they did last year, in which they loved it better than the year before. (Hm. Could I sell this as a song lyric?)

However, the Torstar release was hopeful of new Harlequin revenue in the second quarter, especially in few of ithe "agreement signed in the first quarter with SoftBank Creative Corp. (one of the largest providers of cell phone services in Japan) to provide digital manga (comics) content."

Wow, romance right on your cell phone. No need even to wait for "him" to call.

After finishing "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation," I want to haul my turntable up from the basement and listen to the records that once meant to much to me, especially "Tapestry" (which sold something like 24 million copies) and "Blue" (now that author Sheila Weller has provided a decoder ring to the lyrics).

Weller's three-headed biography isn't perfect -- it's overwritten and fawning at times -- but it offers fascinating portraits, especially of Carole (a young mother and hit composer with a difficult husband) and Joni (haunted for many years by the child she gave up for adoption). It's all there: the sexism at home and in the recording studio, the irresistible gossip about who was sleeping with who, and what songs were written about which lover. Interwoven with the salacious details is an entertaining social history of popular music and women's place in the world from the 1960s on.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

I always wonder what makes a rich man write a book. When a rich politician writes a book, one has a strong suspicion that it's not for the money. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the pride of Medford Square, has a contract for a book called "Do the Hard Things First (and Other Bloomberg Rules for Business and Politics)," to be published by Vaguard Press later this year. The deal was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Hizzoner said there's no advance and the profits, if any, will be donated to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. He declined to run for president when his name was mentioned in the current campaign. The 66-year-old pol has been both Democrat and Republican, and now is an independent.

All of which makes it hard to figure his motives, unless it's to keep his name and voice and ideas before the public -- just in case there's a draft-Bloomberg movement before November.

By Judith Maas

SUNDAY: Jack O’Connell (“The Resurrectionist”) and Perrin Ireland (“Chatter”) read at 2 p.m., at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newtonville … Hillary Jordan reads from “Mudbound,” at 4 p.m., at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Cambridge … Joe Cronin discusses “Reforming Boston Schools,” at 10 a.m., at Trinity Church, Copley Square … Santa Montefiore discusses “Sea of Lost Love,” at 2 p.m., at Wellesley Booksmith, 82 Central St., Wellesley; RSVP requested (781) 431-1160 … Susie Davidson discusses “Jewish Life in Postwar Germany” and other works at noon at the Fayerweather School, 765 Concord Ave., Fresh Pond area, Cambridge.

MONDAY: Mameve Medwed reads from “Of Men and Their Mothers,” at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner, Brookline … Michael Tonello reads from “Bringing Home the Birkin,” at 6 p.m., at Borders, Back Bay, 511 Boylston St. … Tony Horwitz discusses “A Voyage Long and Strange,” at 7 p.m., at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge … Poets Mary Buchinger, Freddie Frankel, and Lo Galluccio read at 7 p.m., at the Yenching Library, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge.

TUESDAY: George Johnson discusses “The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments,” at 7 p.m., at Harvard Book Store … Margot Livesey reads from “The House on Fortune Street,” at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books … Ellis Avery discusses “The Teahouse Fire,” at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith … Michael Eric Dyson discusses “April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America,” at 7 p.m., at the Barker Center, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge … Bryan Mealer discusses “All Things Must Fight to Live,” at 7 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Boston University, Kenmore Square … Tony Massarotti discusses “Dynasty,” at 1 p.m., at Borders, Downtown Crossing.

WEDNESDAY: Reeve Lindbergh discusses “Forward from Here,” at 7 p.m., at Porter Square Books … Howard Fineman discusses “The Thirteen American Arguments,” at 6 p.m., at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge; for tickets ($5), call 617-661-1515 … Steve Elman and Alan Tolz discuss “Burning Up the Air,” at 1 p.m., at Borders, Downtown Crossing,

THURSDAY: Michael Lowenthal (“Charity Girl”) and N.S. Koenings (“Theft”) read at 7 p.m., at Newtonville Books … Alice Hoffman reads from “The Third Angel,” at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith … Reeve Lindbergh reads from “Forward from Here,” at 6 p.m., at Borders, Back Bay … Fareed Zakaria discusses “The Post-American World,” at 7 p.m., at First Parish Church, 3 Church St., Cambridge; for tickets ($5), call 617-661-1515 … Stephanie Schorow discusses “The Crime of the Century,” at 6:30 p.m., at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library, 12 Sedgwick St., Jamaica Plain … Zhu Xiao Di discusses “Tales of Judge Dee,” at 6:30 p.m., at the West End Branch Library, 151 Cambridge St. … Joan Anderson discusses “The Second Journey,” at 6 p.m., at Borders, Downtown Crossing.

FRIDAY: Robert H. Bates discusses “When Things Fall Apart,” at 3 p.m., and Michael T. Klare discusses “Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet,” at 7 p.m., at Harvard Book Store … Katie Smith Milway discusses “One Hen,” at 4 p.m., at the Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St., Wellesley … Porter Square Books hosts a launch party at 6:30 p.m., for Laura and Leo Espinosa’s children’s book, “Otis and Rae and the Grumbling Splunk” … Margot Livesey reads from “The House on Fortune Street,” at 7 p.m., at Jabberwocky Bookshop, 50 Water St., Newburyport.

SATURDAY: Chris Bohjalian reads from “Skeletons at the Feast,” at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith … Rick Jordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, discusses “The Battle of the Labyrinth,” at 3 p.m., at Wellesley Middle School, 50 Kingsbury St., Wellesley; doors open at 2:30 p.m. … Boston-area MFA students read at 4 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Boston University … Children’s author Matt Tavares signs “Lady Liberty,” at 2 p.m., at Book Ends, 559 Main St., Winchester.


Events are subject to change.

And it is, it is a glorious thing, to be a pirate king

Pointed out to me by my sharp-eyed colleague Mark Feeney is surely the most intriguing new title in the lineup of fall books: "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbucking Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom -- and Revenge," by Edward Kritzler.

Due from Doubleday in October, the book tells of certain Sephardic Jews, expelled from Spain in the 15th Century, who took to the sea and raided Spanish shipping. Some of the corsairs strove to arrange protection for Jews, while at least one helped found a Jewish settlement in the Western Hemisphere. "Carved out an empire" sounds like a stretch, but we'll have to wait for the book to find out what it means.

Kritzler is described as a historian and former reporter for USA Today. His author photo shows him with a puckish grin, and the catalog calls the book "an entertaining saga." With the Hollywood title, and that suggestion of fun, we find ourselves wondering if Mel Brooks has heard about this project.