Wire Book/Publishing News

MENLO PARK, Calif. - Facebook on Thursday announced new software for Android phones that promises to "put people ahead of apps," by showing photos and updates from the social network as the central feature of a smartphone's home screen.

PHILADELPHIA - At 1 a.m. on May 7, 1991, a drunken Lenny Dykstra sped along winding Darby-Paoli Road in Radnor Township, Pa., and slammed his red Mercedes sports car into a tree. The Phillies centerfielder escaped with fractured ribs, a broken collarbone and cheekbone, and second-degree burns.

CHICAGO - It was 1951, and Tania Grossinger was a 13-year-old kid living at Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel in New York. The hotel, owned by some of Tania's relatives, was legendary, with a staff of 1,200 catering to thousands of visitors a week.

Tech industry insiders expect Facebook to unveil a new Android smartphone on Thursday that will showcase the social network on the device's home screen, and make it even easier to use Facebook's popular services on the go.

Get ready for the Facebook phone.

ST. LOUIS - Poetry doesn't get enough credit as a social activity, Caroline Kennedy says.

"C.S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet" by Alister McGrath; Tyndale House (448 pages, $24.99)

"All That Is" by James Salter; Knopf (304 pages, $26.95)

ATLANTA - Wendy Wax has an attention-grabbing way with words, from the almost-too-snappily-good-to-be-true name she writes under (it's her maiden handle) to some of her earlier novels' catchier titles: "Single in Suburbia." "Hostile Makeover." And - who could resist? - "Leave It to Cleavage." "Apparently I'm very popular in prison because of that one," Wax said wryly.

"Six Years" by Harlan Coben; Dutton (351 pages, $27.95)

"The Book of My Lives" by Aleksandar Hemon; Farrar, Straus & Giroux (214 pages, $25)

George Plimpton knew the score. A generation or so ago, the late Paris Review editor developed what he called the "Small Ball Theory" of sports writing, which posits "a correlation between the standard of writing about a particular sport and the ball it utilizes - that the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature."

"The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After" by Julia Quinn; Avon (2013) 374 pages, paperback, $12.99

"Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom" by Barry Siegel; Henry Holt & Co. (400 pages, $28)

"All Natural: A Skeptic's Quest to Discover if the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier" by Nathanael Johnson; Rodale (352 pages, $26.99)

When it comes to changing or amending a living trust, many people fear racking up expensive attorneys' fees.

Rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California, as reported by selected book stores:

Rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California, as reported by selected book stores:

As president of Love Systems, a Los Angeles-based dating company, Nick Savoy has spent the better part of a decade helping men find their A game.

"A Wanted Man" by Linda Lael Miller; Harlequin (362 pages, $7.99)

"Scoop: The Evolution of a Southern Reporter" by Jack Nelson; University Press of Mississippi (208 pages, $26)

DETROIT - When author Zev Chafets started working on "Roger Ailes: Off Camera," he had a frank conversation with the mega-successful creator and CEO of Fox News.

"Forged in Death: by Jim Melvin; Bell Bridge (260 pages, $14.95)

-"No Way Back" by Andrew Gross; Morrow (352 pages, $27.99)

"Angelopolis" by Danielle Trussoni; Viking (320 pages, $27.95)

"A Tale for the Time Being" by Ruth Ozeki; Viking (422 pages, $28.95)

ATLANTA - Atlanta poet Collin Kelley was at a London gallery in 2010, taking in a retrospective of photographer Sally Mann, when he was gobsmacked by something in the Virginia-born artist's otherworldly, black-and-white images. He saw eerie parallels to his own work - the poetry he'd set aside years earlier to focus on writing fiction.

"The Next Time You See Me" by Holly Goddard Jones; Touchstone Books (386 pages, $24.99)

NEW YORK - From a distance, wearing plaid and slightly grizzled, Sam Lipsyte looks like a grumpy lumberjack - although there are not many lumberjacks standing at the gate of Columbia University in Manhattan. And up close, it's clear he's not grumpy at all: Lipsyte has an air of restrained amusement that's perfect for one of America's best satiric writers.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - More than 100 pages into her first attempt at a novel, Holly Goddard Jones realized it was a failure.