News: Just Love, BookExpo and Nooking Books

Vatican says "No" to Just Love
The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter, the Dark Materials trilogy, and now, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Sister Margaret Farley, a nun and theologian. What's remarkable other than the book's topic, is that few knew it existed at all - until the Vatican raised hell over it.

The totally hip Ron Charles couldn't resist: "The Catholic Church delivered the nun’s treatise on Christian sexual ethics from the wilderness of obscurity into the promised land of fame. For any book publicist, such denunciation is an answer to a prayer. On Amazon’s Web site, 'Just Love' immediately ascended from No. 142,982 to No. 16."


Some BookExpo stuff
At BookExpo America, publishers lock horns over digital rights management. At a talk organised by Macmillan, sci-fi authors Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross and John Scalzi discussed the decision of sci-fi imprint Tor's decision to sell DRM-free books. Meanwhile, sneaking into the event are Chinese book publishers: NI HAO WE R IN BOOK-X-PO AMERICA, LOOKING AT UR MARKETZ.


Nookd!
Barnes & Noble, predictably, against the (allegedly) Amazon-aiding e-book lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice, as well as the proposed settlement by the DoJ with regards to the alleged e-book price fixing by Apple and several major publishers. With news that digital copies of War and Peace in B&N e-readers were reportedly Nookd by sweeping Find and Replace function, maybe they should focus more on their own neck of the woods. Are we witnessing the birth of a new meme?


Other news

• Is there any reason for us to read, since we keep forgetting anyway? Short answer: Yes.
• Rules of storytelling by the company that made the 8-minute love story. A good reason to pay attention.
• Some news about new bookstore La Casa Azul and its owner's hopes and goals for the place.
• Unemployed and an expert on ... whatever? Write and sell an e-book on it. And here's how you can become an e-book superstar.
• An Israeli publisher stops accepting new writers to protest alleged bookselling duopoly in the country.
• Amazon buys Avalon, purveyors of romance, mystery and Westerns. A jungle's namesake encroaches further into the publishing ecosystem.
• Texas's abstinence programmes, apparently, enforce the view that premarital sex is sinful and punishes teens with its consequences.