Kennedy Memoir: Chappaquiddick 'Inexcusable'

He remembers being warned that people wouldn't like him

(NEWSER) - Pundits love to offer up psychological assessments of the president, writes Walter Shapiro on Politics Daily , but few of them think to return to Barack Obama’s own autobiography, Dreams From My Father. Shapiro, reading the book for the first time, finds that no one could have predicted Obama’s problems better than Obama himself did in the book. In one telling passage, Obama recalls a piece of advice given to him as he started community organizing: “Barack, you’ve got to stop worrying about whether people like you. They won’t.” More»

You go to press with the book you have, not the book they want you to have

(NEWSER) - Donald Rumsfeld is going to add another title to his lengthy resume: Author. And it's not likely to be some whitewashed version of his controversial oversight of the Iraq war, but rather the two-time defense secretary's very blunt take, notes Ben Smith on Politico. Proof? When Known and Unknown hits the streets next year, Rummy will launch a companion website, complete with what a spokesman says is " thousands of pages of never before seen memos and previously classified documents that put the reader in the moment." More»

Thousands of letters promised his demise

(NEWSER) - After the death of his brothers, Ted Kennedy lived in constant fear that he’d be assassinated as well—and with good reason. The FBI has just released 2,352 pages from its files on Kennedy, and they’re dominated by death threats, both from anonymous enemies and groups like the Ku Klux Klan or the Minutemen, MSNBC reports. Many are written in the same hand, and postmarked from Boston. “They’re going to shoot my ass off the way they shot off Bobby’s,” Kennedy once remarked. More»

Per his dying wish, autobiography to be published this year

(NEWSER) - A century after his death, Mark Twain remains a master at stirring up interest in his books: It was the author's dying wish that his lengthy and revealing autobiography not be published until 100 years after his death—which happens to be this year. The 5,000 pages he left behind detail Twain's ill-fated affair with his secretary, his doubts about God, and his criticism of US imperialism in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, the Independent reports. More»

Note to Demi Moore: Here's what you should aim for

(NEWSER) - Demi Moore is writing a memoir, but until it comes out, we can only imagine what scandalous secrets it will reveal. In the meantime, The Frisky offers up 14 other memoirs that divulged some juicy info:

• Carrie Fisher: In Wishful Drinking, we found out that her mom got her a vibrator for Christmas.
• Kathy Griffin: Thanks to Official Book Club Selection, we now have the mental image of her bedding Jack Black.