Yikes.

The London-based publisher of a book about A’isha, one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, was set on fire.

Four people have been arrested.

The book:

tells the story of the relationship between the Prophet Muhammad and A’isha, who married him as a child and is often described as his favorite wife. Ballantine Books bought the rights to it in a two-book deal for a reported $100,000, describing it as “a fascinating portrait of A’isha, child bride of the Prophet Muhammad, who overcame great obstacles to reach her full potential as a woman and a leader.” Ballantine had planned to publish it in mid-August.

But it scrapped those plans after being warned that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment,” Thomas Perry, deputy publisher of Random House Publishing Group, was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.

This…bugs me. I’m sensitive about my own faith, of course, but one of the reasons my faith makes sense to me is that I’ve had it challenged again and again, scientifically and philosophically, and found that it continues to work for me.

I just can’t believe that a person’s faith is very strong if s/he reacts in a destructive fashion when it is challenged or used as artistic inspiration. It is possible and maybe even admirable to be offended or defensive, but resorting to violence about it is simply wrong.

I’m experimenting with video these days, so this is my first video book review.

The one thing I neglected to talk about in this video is that Faith tells her side of that famous incident with Tupac. I actually believe Faith that nothing happened there. Tupac, for all his gifts, was also a young man with, well, issues.

Nobody in my house is a champion video editor, so the video’s choppy, but I think it’s actually (kinda?) OK for a first effort.

I’ll do more of these, and I’ll get better. I promise. Look for more video soon at the Writeblack channel on YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler.

What do a person’s literary tastes tell you?

That depends.

But certainly it says something about a person’s willingness to confront that s/he may not always be right if s/he is exposed to a variety of authors, subjects and opinions.

Although it’s unlikely that he would have much time to read if he is elected president, it seems that Sen. Barack Obama would be one of the most literary presidents ever.

It’s apparently not been uncommon to find him with a book in hand (we’ve mentioned this before, yes?).

Does anybody know anything about Sen. McCain’s literary tastes?

The Hemingses of Monticello, by New York Law School professor Annette Gordon-Reed, tries to take a look at the humanity and reality of the lives of the famous Sally Hemings, paramour (and technically, sister-in-law) of Thomas Jefferson, and her family.

In so doing, Gordon-Reed asks complicated questions:

• Was it always rape when a slaveowner had sex with someone he owned?
• What did Jefferson think — or did he think at all — about the feelings of the Hemings family?
• How did Sally and her brother, James, feel about Jefferson’s wife, Martha, who was their half-sister?

In an interview this week with the New York Times, Gordon-Reed said she wanted to study the Hemingses as real people, not constructs. And that her dogged pursuit of this subject matter made her even more interested in her own family’s history.

*Picture of Annette Gordon-Reed from NYTimes.com

This is my cousin (yes, really!) Alexis, making recommendations of some books you may want to read.

The National Book Festival will be Saturday, Sept. 27, on the National Mall, between 3rd and 7th Streets, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Black authors Warren Brown (of D.C.’s Cakelove), Dionne Warwick and Tiki Barber, among others, will be on the scene giving readings, talking on panels and signing autographs.

It’s free.

This entry is crossposted at ReadersRooms.

Like many of you, I watched the political conventions during the past few weeks. And I learned a lot about the candidates on both sides of the aisle.

Not much surprised me – except when I did some research and the phrase “book banning” turned up.

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, it seems that a candidate on one of the presidential tickets is said to have inquired “rhetorically” a few years ago about possibly banning books in a small-town library.

To be sure, no specific books were mentioned, and no books actually were banned. Still, knowing that the phrase “book banning” is associated with this candidate made me shudder.

Does it make you do the same?

Each time a book is banned, or even when people make noise about doing it, we’re all poorer for it. That’s because it means somebody’s making decisions for us about whether we should be exposed to ideas different than what we already know (parents, of course, have the right to make these decisions for the children in their households).

And that’s not fair, or right. Heck, it’s almost…un-American. These are decisions that adults should make for themselves.

Even if you think you could never be affected by a potential book banning, trust me, you could be.

As a writer, even your most innocent thoughts or ideas probably are offensive to somebody somewhere. And as a reader, it’s possible that some of your favorites are among the most frequently challenged books.

Some of mine sure are.

We interrupt this blog for a kinda-sorta announcement.

I know I mentioned this in my mini-bio above, but if you want to follow some more of my adventures in book-reading (like most folks, it neither begins nor ends with fiction, or with black authors), you can follow WriteBlack on Twitter, the micro-blogging social-networking site.

And if you’ve got even minimal skill with The Google — or have been paying attention — you also can search for me on Twitter or Facebook or FriendFeed or any number of other social-networking sites by my first and actual last names, friend me, and follow all the stuff I do when my nose isn’t in a book.

Got this in the mail a couple of days ago, and I like this cover even better than the one for Casanegra, which just featured Blair Underwood’s back.

Something about him being in the process of turning around, maaan…

• Penguin Books launches eSpecials — standalone content for downloading.
• Philip K. Dick’s ability (or luck) at predicting stuff was, now that I think about it, kind of creepy.
• The Black Writers Reunion & Conference still is looking for session proposals. Seriously, they are.
• How self-publishing can work for an aspiring author. Sort of.
• GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin may not have had a list of books to ban, but she did ask about banning books.