California Literary Review

Cooking with balls: the world’s first testicle cookbook: “The tastiest testicles in my opinion probably come from bulls, stallions or ostriches, although other people have their own favourites,” says Mr Erovic. He also uses those from pigs and turkeys in his cooking and points out that “all testicles can be eaten – except human, of course”. Glad to hear it Ljubomir. [Guardian]

Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers: The online game that Mr. Haarsma designed not only extends the fictional world of the novel, it also allows readers to play in it. At the same time, Mr. Haarsma very calculatedly gave gamers who might not otherwise pick up a book a clear incentive to read: one way that players advance is by answering questions with information from the novel. [NYT]

The World’s Best Paid Authors: In fact, the 10 stars on our list of the best-paid authors pulled in a combined $563 million between June 1, 2007, and June 1, 2008, thanks to hefty advances, impressive sales and silver screen adaptations. [Forbes]

Publisher speeds up release of book about Muhammad: With British publication in doubt for Sherry Jones’ “The Jewel of Medina,” the U.S. publisher of her controversial novel about the Prophet Muhammad has moved up the release date from Oct. 15 to Monday. “By speeding up the publication, we wanted to reduce or eliminate the chance of violence,” Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort Books, said Thursday, noting that three men were arrested in London last weekend for a fire-bomb attack on the offices of publisher Gibson Square. [Yahoo]

A toast to the late crime writer Jim Crumley: Nineteen days ago an era ended. On Sept. 17, Jim Crumley died. For crime writers of my generation he was the lion, a ferocious but tenderhearted beast who showed us how to haul the spirits of Hammett and Chandler into America’s post-Vietnam mess and make detective stories matter again. [San Francisco Chronicle]

The cultural whipping boys’ manifesto: France has vomited on us for too long: Michel Houellebecq, the award-winning novelist and ageing enfant terrible, and Bernard-Henri Lévy, the dapper leftwing philosopher, epitomise France’s love-hate relationship with its bestselling literary exports. In a surprise joint venture, they have produced a book of confessional letters to each other, raging at the vitriol heaped on them as the “whipping boys of our era in France”. [Guardian]

Phila. gay bookstore Giovanni’s Room marks 35 years: That persistence is what has kept the lights on at Giovanni’s in an era when independent bookstores everywhere are going dark. Opened in 1973, Giovanni’s marked its 35th anniversary Wednesday with a nostalgic soiree. [Philadelphia Inquirer]