Free Republic

Full disclosure, up front: Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver is an old friend; the Archdiocese of Denver syndicates this column to Catholic papers throughout the country; I played a (very) minor role in introducing Archbishop Chaput to my friends at Doubleday. So I'm not exactly a disinterested party in the matter of the archbishop's new book, "Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life." I trust that doesn't preclude my suggesting that it's essential reading for serious Catholics in an election year fraught with consequence for core Catholic issues in 21st century America. Archbishop...

Because she has led countless billions and billions of people to the promised land of books, because she preaches self-help and self-sufficiency and not least because she has shown that even a middle-aged person can keep weight off, I must tiptoe up to the amazing Oprah and merely whisper to her that in the case of James Frey, the liar whose memoir turns out to have a good deal of fiction alongside fact, she is not only wrong but deluded. What she needs is a session with Dr. Phil. Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," is about his recovery from...

I'm all in favor of Doubleday Publishing publishing, selling and profiting off of The Al Queda Reader. I also don't think this will help Osauma's cause. However, there are some who fear that the publication of this book will humanize the enemy. Sort of a written verion of Tokyo Rose, if you will. I have the opposite opinion. I believe anyone that sits down and reads Osauma's deepest thoughts will close the book convinced that this man is an utter whack-job. I may be wrong. He may have something special and profound to say that Marx, Hitler and Ted Krycinski...

Book of Mormon to be published commercially for first time SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Excerpt only. See URL for whole article. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2004-07-08-book-of-mormon_x.htm

A town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts says it has found a document suggesting baseball was played there more than 200 years ago.Officials in Pittsfield say a reference to the sport was recently found in an 1869 book on the town's history. The book describes a law, passed in 1791, banning baseball from being played near Pittsfield's meeting house. The long-accepted story of baseball's origins centers around Abner Doubleday, who is said to have written the first rules for the sport in 1839. The first real baseball game is believed to have been played in Hoboken, New Jersey in...

Elizabeth Smart's parents are losing control of a carefully orchestrated and lucrative November Sweeps rollout for official product based on the abduction of their daughter! MORE The "Elizabeth Smart Story" [which many in the industry have dubbed "The Ed Smart Story"] began to unspool this week on schedule with an authorized Couric/Oprah one-two public relations punch. But now Ed and Lois Smart and Doubleday, publisher of the upcoming book, are claiming the project has been kidnaped -- after CBS betrayed them by airing an unauthorized one-hour "news" special last Saturday night! MORE According to the publisher, CBS had verbally agreed...