Ralph Fiennes Reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 129

Tony Award winning actor Ralph Fiennes reads a Shakespearean sonnet in this video posted by Galley Cat;

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/ralph-fiennes-reads-sonnet-129-by-william-shakespeare_b50112

Was Weiss' Tiger Mom the creation of a new genre of parenting guides?

From the New York Times;

Amy Chua’s book signaled a new approach to parenting literature: outing yourself as a more unyielding kind of parent.

Amy Chua may have to hand off the title of Tiger Mother to Dara-Lynn Weiss, whose article in the April issue of Vogue painfully detailed her effort to get her 7-year-old daughter, Bea, to lose weight. 

On the Internet, Ms. Weiss was quickly excoriated as one of the most “selfish women to ever grace the magazine’s pages,” wrote Katie J. M. Baker in a widely distributed post on Jezebel that drew more than 600 comments. ABC News sternly reported that “Mom’s Diet for 7-Year-Old Daughter in ‘Vogue’ Sparks Backlash.” 

Ms. Weiss had her defenders: Some online commenters praised her for tackling her daughter’s weight issues, pointing out that it was Bea’s doctor who said that there was a problem. Others wondered if her frank discussion of it made Ms. Weiss appear tone deaf. (Bea “didn’t strike anyone as ‘obese,’ but, in truth, I liked that the word carries a scary, diagnostic tone,” Ms. Weiss wrote.) One commenter on nymag.com wrote, “I’m pretty sure Weiss just handed her daughter the road map to all her future eating disorders.”

Then on Monday, Random House made an announcement that dumped gasoline on the flames: Ms. Weiss had scored a book contract.

“Fat-Shaming a Child Into a Book Deal,” a headline on Salon huffed in protest.

As someone concerned about shaming children and the responsibility of parents to help their children manage their diet and exercise, the issue seems far more ocmplicated than the headlines flashed in local publications. 

Nonfiction Book Helps Free Death Row Inmate

This story from GalleyCat speaks to the power of nonfiction literature;

Former death row inmate Edward Lee Elmore has been released from prison, thanks in part to a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Raymond Bonner.
In the video embedded above, Random House editor Jonathan Segal explained how the nonfiction book helped set a prisoner free.
The Associated Press reported that Elmore had spent 30 years in prison. Bonner’s book was published last month. According to Segal’s account, the prosecutor read this book and after finishing it, he contacted Elmore’s defense team which helped turn the wheels in motion to set Elmore free.
Elmore was released after a hearing on March 2nd. Segal concluded: “We can be cynical about all the things that happen in the world that are unjust. Here is the case where a book made a huge difference. Books can make a difference.”

Literary Videos- the next great thing

From GalleyCat;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rexKqvgPVuA

In his ongoing quest to get a “literature” category on YouTube, Miracle Jones has built a new site for literary videos on Reddit.
Check it out:

Poetry videos, short story videos, live readings, spoken work performance, audiobook links, animated storytelling videos, documentaries about writers, book trailers, author interviews, and anything else you can think up that combines literature and other media. Basically, this is an underground YouTube “Literature” category, since YouTube does not have a category for literature. If you upload a literature video to YouTube, be sure to link to it here so that it can be collated, curated, and enjoyed by its proper audience.

To celebrate, we’ve embedded “The History of English in 10 Minutes,” an excellent literary video that must be shelved under Film & Animation because YouTube has no literature category.

New Firm Looking for Memoir

Kristina Holmes will start her own literary agency, The Holmes Agency.
Holmes plans to take on nonfiction clients exclusively. Her list will be open to several different genres, including health and wellness, business, psychology, spirituality, sex, relationships, environmental issues, science, nature, literary nonfiction and memoir.
Previously, Holmes was a consultant at Ebeling & Associates Literary Agency for six years.

Megaupload Limited Facing Charges for Copyright Infrigement

From Wikipedia;

Megaupload Limited, better known for its closed websites including the top-15 file hosting service megaupload.com, is an online Hong Kong-based company established in 2005 that ran a number of online services related to file storage and viewing. The domain names were seized and the sites shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on 19 January 2012, following their indictment and arrests of the owners for allegedly operating as an organization dedicated to copyright infringement.

The shutdown led to what activist group Anonymous calls "the single largest Internet attack in its history" in retaliation. The case has not yet been heard at trial.

From Galley Cat;

The founder and some employees of the file sharing site Megaupload have been indicted by federal prosecutors. The site, which once hosted pirated copies of books, comic books, movies, software and other digital goods, has been shut down.

Below, we’ve embedded the complete indictment–alleging that the pirated material on the site caused “estimated harm” of $500 million for copyright holders. How do you think these massive piracy cases should be handled?

Here is an excerpt: “Since at least September 2005, Megaupload.com has been used by the defendants and other members and associates of the Mega Conspiracy to willfully reproduce and distribute many millions of infringing copies of copyrighted works, including motion pictures, television programs, musical recordings, electronic books, images, video games,and other computer software. Over the more than five years of its existence, the Mega Conspiracy has aggressively expanded its operations into a large number of related Internet businesses, which are connected directly to, or at least financially dependent upon, the criminal conduct associated with Megaupload.com.”

Etta James' Memoir- Rage to Survive

Etta James' engrossing and revealing memoir includes accounts of her time spent with music legends.

The Perseus Books Group gives us the opportunity to explore this heart-wrenching story online;

http://books.google.com/books/perseus?id=4-5UFUZgAIQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false

Stories of wishing to be naked with celebrities who saw her as a "sister" and the Dolly Parton-like desire to look like a "whore" round out the icon we like to think we know.