Book News, In Brief

This past December, poet Peppino Marotto was shot and killed near his home in Sardinia. Then, on Jan. 4th, the two men suspected of the murder were killed...vendetta-style. Finally, a fan gives back. (Initial heads up: GuardianUK.)

For those of you who can't stomach reading Andrew Morton's Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography in its entirety, Slate.com's Juliet Lapidos lists all of the good parts -- chapter by chapter, controversy by controversy.

A sneak peek at Tom Robbins' upcoming kids' book, B is for Beer can be found here. Apparently, the book was an inspired by a cartoon in The New Yorker with the caption, "I doubt that a children's book about beer would sell." Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, will publish the new novel this fall.