On the Books: Former CIA head to publish book on Bin Laden capture

Today’s top book news is, for lack of a better word, strange: A former CIA head’s book about the Bin Laden mission has found a publisher, while an infomercial host has been found guilty of “criminal contempt.” Read on for more headlines:

Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael J. Morell will publish his book, The Great War Of Our Time: An Insider’s Account of the CIA’s Fight Against al Qa’ida, through Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, in Spring 2015. The book looks back at the Bush and Obama administrations’ efforts to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden. “It is important to tell this story, not only as a reminder of what our country has endured, but how we have triumphed and the serious threats we need to be mindful of and attentive to going forward,” Morell said in a press release.

In other news, Kevin Trudeau, the author and infomercial host who touted a “miracle substance” for weight loss, has been charged with violating a 2004 court order prohibiting him from making false claims with his book, The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About. [Reuters]

Stephanie Smith, the blogger behind “300 Sandwiches,” has landed a book deal with Random House’s new imprint, Zinc Ink. “When she told us about her romantic, passionate, and very funny quest to make her boyfriend 300 sandwiches, our first reaction was, ‘That’s a book,'” said David Zinczenko, head of Zinc Ink. [The New York Post]

T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is getting the comic book treatment courtesy of artist and illustrator Julian Peters, who posted the first nine pages of his adaptation this week. [Slate]

The latest book in Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series, Diaries of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, has sold 1.3 million copies worldwide in all formats during its first week. [Publishers Weekly]

Check this out: The Brooklyn Quarterly, a new online magazine of fiction, poetry, essays, and more, unveiled its first issue last week. [The Brooklyn Quarterly]

Stephen King revealed to Agence France-Presse what scares him the most: “I’m afraid of Alzheimer’s. Declining mental ability, that scares the heck out of me.” [AFP]

Calling all votes! The Guardian is opening the floor for readers to choose the best and worst novels of the 21st century after a survey named the Harry Potter series’ fourth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the best. [The Guardian]

Just for fun: Here’s a look back on the most memorable pets in literature by author Adam Thorpe. [The Telegraph]