News: Banned Book, Barbed Pens, and Stupid Sugar

No liberty or love in bookstores
Irshad Manji's Allah, Liberty and Love is officially banned. Well, that was quick. ...Wait... no, they weren't...

"The English version of Irshad Manji's book, Allah, Liberty & Love, has been published since June 2011 and there has been no issue taken with the book... until we published a Malay translation of the book (Allah, Kebebasan & Cinta)," said Ezra Zaid, director and owner of ZI.

Of course, that's assuming that the book had been in the country since June 2011, something I'm not sure of.

Food critics speak out
At the Guardian, Jay Rayner wonders why people love bad reviews - except for the victims. Speaking of bad reviews: has therapy and fatherhood mellowed out Giles Coren? Short answer: Not really.

Other news

• Tales of a Taiwanese author's struggles with Chinese book piracy made me think: imagine what he'd have to endure if Taiwan was part of China - probably more of the same.
• Crushed Mexican Spiders from crowdfunded publisher Unbound makes Britain's 2012 Fiction Uncovered list.
• Sober up. The path to self-publishing is not paved with gold.
• An engrossing essay about William Alexander Morgan, Cuba's Yankee comandante.
• The question being asked here seems to be: Are authors writing bigger books - and padding them with research - for purpose and pennies?
• Walter Cronkite not so trustworthy after all, says this biography.
• "You wait 55 years for a film of On the Road ... and then they go and cast the girl from Twilight." Ha.
• Confirmed: Sugar (or more precisely, high-fructose corn syrup) makes you stupid. But omega-3s can, it seems, save your brain. Always good to know.