Book News, In Brief

During our current economic crises,  the only books publishers are rushing to publish are personal-finance books. (But who has the money to buy them?)

A new pop-up book documenting the history of the bra needs your...um...support. Cheree Berry's Hoorah for the Bra: A Perky Peek at the History of the Brassiere gets the press release-as-news item treatment here.

Remember the Australian print on demand author who got imprisoned in Thailand for talking smack about the Thai royal family? Well, Australia’s government has asked the royal family to pardon the author. Their argument? Dude Dud only sold seven copies!!!

Obama has been called everything from the second coming of Lincoln to the second coming of Christ. Now, thanks to 400,000 Japanese, he's being hailed as a second language teacher. Via NPR: A new book called The Speeches of Barack Obama tops the best-seller list on Amazon's Japanese Web site...The speeches are written in English with Japanese translations, and they're packaged with a CD...The publisher says speeches by U.S. presidents and presidential candidates are excellent for learning English.