There’s a controversy brewing over a new Young Adult book about to be released in the US entitled “Liar.” The book, written by Australian author Justine Larbalestier is about a black teenager named Micah. However, the cover art, beautiful as it is, is of a white girl with long straight hair. The cover art bears no resemblance to the story at all. While ‘investigating’ this controversy – I wondered if we’re cultivating racism in the way we sell and market books?

The author states in her blog, I never wanted a girl’s face on the cover. Micah’s identity is unstable. She spends the book telling different version of herself. I wanted readers to be free to imagine her as they wanted.

But the…

Recently Ryan Seacrest, inked a 45 million dollar, three year deal with 19 Productions to continue his duties as host of American Idol.  Really, who can blame anyone for wanting a piece of the gravy train they helped create.  His is the story of taking advantage of being in the right place at the right time.  There are many stories of people who have found themselves in plum positions and didn’t expand on it – but Mr. Seacrest is not one of those people.  He has become an entrepreneur to be reckoned with.

American Idol’s premiere season was something we collectively cheered about – it was fresh, exciting and created a huge buzz.  FOX  had a hit and it was literally music…

The Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference has been drawing the biggest media moguls every July since 1983.  It’s a time for media’s elite to gather and confer. Amid the current economic climate it seems some of the talk amongst the moguls was a bit gloomy.

Google’s Chief Executive Eric Schmidt was all about the bottom line when he defined the “new normal.”  “The reality of the new normal is you run inventories very tight, credit is not broadly available, you can’t waste money.”

The ‘new normal’ sounds much like how a business should be run –if you’re planning on being successful.

NBC Universal head, Jeff Zucker seemed frustrated by the difficulty in getting capital for new mergers and acquisitions.  In a CNBC interview…

Books to movies – I’m forever in a quandary as to whether I want to see an ‘adaptation’ of a book. Personally, I enjoy the images my mind creates while reading, so I’m not usually eager to see the film version. I’ve been disappointed before. For example, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez is a beautifully written book and love story. The movie didn’t come close to capturing it. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende is fabulous, telling the story of four generations, incorporating magic with such a unique style you won’t want to put it down. However, the movie was dreadful. In fact, if you saw the movie first you probably wouldn’t want to read the book, and that…