
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.