Bitchin' Blog Posts
The Jewel of Medina is On Sale Now - No, Really This Time.
by SB Sarah | October 07, 2008 | Tuesday at 4:59 pm | 6 Comments
The Jewel of Medina is on sale in bookstores today, as Beaufort Books moved up the on sale date following attacks on the UK publisher. Media Bistro sat with author Sherry Jones to get her perspective on the eve of (finally) publication. Ron Hogan, Captain of the Great Ship KickAss, writes:
The problem (as we see it) stems from the flagrant mischaracterization of the novel by Islamic studies professor Denise Spellberg, whom Ballantine Books had approached hoping for a blurb, as “soft core pornography” and anti-Muslim propaganda; Spellberg’s zealous efforts to alert Muslims to the book’s impending publication were particularly effective in giving the public a distorted impression of its contents. And we do mean distorted: Now that we’ve read the novel for ourselves, and seen precisely two paragraphs that might be construed as sexually explicit (and that’s being extremely generous to one of them), Jones deserves a public apology from Spellberg for her public misrepresentations.
So far no word from professor Spellberg. But, according to the image posted by Ron, the book is already a bestseller in Serbia after it was re-released.
(Thanks to Rebecca for the link).
Filed: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Tagged: the jewel of medina, bookstores
Sparky said on 10.07.08 at 05:40 PM
It’s a best seller? Yet every opinion I’ve read from people who’ve read it is that it’s dull, dreary, the characters are hardly inspiring and an all round “feed to the paper shredder” book
Apology? Methinks she should bw thanking Prof. Spellberg for marketing you just can’t buy *is cynical*
Randi said on 10.07.08 at 07:37 PM
Maybe the translation into Serbian made it better…?
Barb Ferrer said on 10.07.08 at 07:45 PM
If Spellberg hadn’t made like Chicken Little, the likelihood is that this book would have come and gone with a few poor reviews and otherwise little fanfare. Remember, its original release date would’ve put it within a week of Breaking Dawn’s release, which meant the firestorm of publicity would’ve been aimed elsewhere.
Admittedly, I was hoping for the book to be better than “meh” but after the swipe that Sherry Jones took at romance, I’m not feeling a whole lot of sympathy her way either, beyond the manner in which Spellberg publicly trashed her.
robinb said on 10.07.08 at 10:48 PM
I bought five for the library. Then it was cancelled. Then it was re-announced. I bought five for the library. there is one request. no one gives a shit.
nothing to see here. can I show you something in a nice Julia Quinn? Mr. Cavendish has 58 holds…..
Ann said on 10.09.08 at 10:00 PM
Jewel of Medina is being offered by LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. It will be interesting to see how many requests go out and what the reviews are like.
goolam.dawood said on 10.11.08 at 12:54 PM
Its a terrible book and the original publishers looked at its impact on their bottom line profit. The new publishers want to jump on the bandwagon of the anti-muslim “free speech” brigade because that will generate sales. At the end of the day, there is alot of bullshit in this book. If you can’t sift out the historical bullshit in the book, what bullshit can you sift out from the novel?
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