Today, the Oprah Show features the first of Oprah’s two-part interview with James Frey, who appears on the show for the first time since his 2006 public flailing for making up parts of  his substance-abuse memoir and Oprah Book Club pick,  A Million Little Pieces (Talese/Doubleday, 2003).

In a video about the show, Oprah calls the interview a “holy moment” and the “beginning of making peace in the world.”

The final Oprah Show will air May 25th.

If winning the Pulitzer Prize was not enough, Jennifer Egan has just closed a deal for an HBO series based on A Visit from the Goon Squad, reports Deadline.

The book was recently released in paperback and instantly went on to the NYT Trade Paperback best seller list, where it remains. It has been a slow build. In hardcover, it never made it on to the main list, but was on the extended list for just 2 weeks, seven months after publication.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Anchor – (2011-03-22) ISBN / EAN: 9780307477477 / 9780307477477

Audio:

AudioGo (formerly BBC AudioBooks); 9780792771746; 8 CD’s; $79.95
Adobe EPUB eBook from OverDrive

In his book Idea Man, (Portfolio/Penguin) arriving tomorrow, Paul Allen levels accusations against his former partner, Bill Gates. Lesley Stahl interviews Allen on 60 Minutes and ends by wondering whether he is a “Tech Visionary” or a “Bitter Billionaire.”

Last night, CBS 60 Minutes aired an investigation into complaints about how Greg Mortenson runs his charitable foundation and whether all the stories in his best sellers, Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools, are true.

Mortenson chose not to appear on the show to defend himself, but denied most of the allegations in a story in his hometown newspaper, admitting that some of the events recounted in his books are “compressed,” and revealing he is about to undergo heart surgery. He also asked supporters to circulate a letter he wrote in his defense (a Forbes.com columnist, while cheering on Mortenson, analyzes this as an approach to mustering grassroots support pioneered by Sarah Palin).

The big book news this weekend comes from TV; after years of trying to make it happen, A Game of Thrones (Bantam), the first in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic finally hits screens on Sunday, beginning a 10-episode run on HBO. Reviews are strong; USA Today says “It’s hard to imagine a better screen transfer.” Attests the San Francisco Chronicle, “Beyond violence and sex…[the] series pulls in viewers with intrigue and character and doesn’t let go.” For those who feel fantasy is not their cup of tea, series star Sean Bean says it has more in common with The Sopranos than Tolkein, albeit with a different landscape.

HBO clearly thinks it has a hit on its hands; they’ve ordered up yet another series based on a fantasy epic, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

Martin fans got more good news recently; A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, which began with A Game of  Thrones, is coming on July 12th.

For those not already familiar with the story, helpful guides are already appearing online, raising the question of whether a series that needs elaborate scorecards will sit well with television viewers.

It’s a big book series and an equally big adaptation. Stephen King’s Dark Tower is planned as three movies, with two TV series between the films. The first of each will be directed by Ron Howard. According to Deadline, Javier Bardem (Eat Pray Love) is close to signing on as the lead and production will begin in September. No news on whether the release date of 5/17/13 is still firm.

King recently announced on his Web site that another installment in the series, The Wind Through the Keyhole, will be released in 2012.

Many of you are still struggling with long hold lists for Kathy Freston’s Veganist. Tomorrow will bring even more requests, as Oprah reruns the February show, “Oprah and 378 Staffers Go Vegan: The One-Week Challenge.”

The book is available in audio from Tantor. Both audio and eBook are on OverDrive.

Also featured on the show is Michael Pollard’s Food Rules (Penguin; eBook, OverDrive).

HBO’s (and director Todd Haynes’) five-part take on Mildred Pierce began on Sunday. In addition to much praise (Fresh Air‘s critic David Bianculli called it a “Masterpiece of Modern Film Noir“), it brought welcome attention to the original, James M. Cain’s fourth novel, published in 1941. The most in-depth is the New Yorker‘s fascinating piece on the Baltimore-born author, “ This Woman’s Work.”

Official Web site: HBO.com

The heavily (and bloodily) promoted Showtime series The Borgias, starring Jeremy Irons, debuts on April 3.

USA Today offers a list of new and re-released titles about the family. Showtime is using Mario Puzo’s quote that they were the “original crime family.” His novel proving his case, which he was working on at his death, is being re-released.

The Family Mario Puzo Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Harper Paperbacks – (2011-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0062089153 / 9780062089151

Last night  Sarah Vowell accused Jon Stewart of getting his history from The Brady Brunch. Perhaps she was smarting because NPR had just called her new book about Hawaii, Unfamiliar Fishes (Riverhead/Penguin) “glib luau tales” (she can be comforted by the fact that this is a contrarian view).

Buyers were more influenced by Stewart’s clear enjoyment of the author and book; it rose to #36 (from #318) on Amazon.

Tomorrow night, Stewart interviews T.J. English.

The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge T. J. English Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2011-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 9780061824555 / 9780061824555

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Bilet Retail Price: $625.00 Hardcover: 2438 pages Publisher: The Cooking Lab – (2011-04-14) ISBN / EAN: 0982761007 / 9780982761007

On Good Morning America yesterday, George Stephanopoulos talked to Rob Bell about his “Provocative take on heaven and hell,” in his new book, Love Wins. Bell, the pastor of a mega church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is being accused of heresy by evangelicals.

The book has been in the top fifteen on Amazon for the last week. It moved in to the top five after the appearance.

Bell was also profiled in USA Today on Monday.

Audio from Books on Tape; 9780307940568

HBO’s five-part adaptation of James M. Cain’s book Mildred Pierce, starring Kate Winslet
and Evan Rachel Wood begins on March 27.

Director Todd Haynes used Cain’s original
1941 novel as the source, rather than the
1945 film noir classic starring Joan Crawford. He explains in an interview in ArtForum magazine:

When I began reading the novel,
I discovered that it bears scant resemblance to the film version.
The book felt so shockingly current.
It reflected what was happening right now. And then, of course, Mildred’s sexuality and the details of her erotic life…(trailer after the jump)
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The latest film adaptation of Jane Eyre was released in only four theaters over the weekend, but it achieved the highest ticket sales per-theater for a movie in limited release this year. In addition, sales increased over 50% from Friday to Saturday, indicating strong word of mouth, notes the L.A. Times.

It will continue to roll out slowly, opening in nine more cities next week.

The movie stars Mia Wasikowska as Jane and Michael Fassbender as Rochester. The movie tie-in is published by Vintage/Knopf.

Both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report will be running repeats this week, giving Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer yet another boost on Wednesday (it’s currently at #4 on Amazon sales rankings)…

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Suze Orman’s four-part PBS series, The Money Class, began last night. The tie-in book rose to #7 on Amazon.

The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream Suze Orman Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 1400069734 / 9781400069736

Orman also appeared on the Today Show.

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