Man Fails to Bite Dog

Good news. No one showed up to protest a reading by Sherry Jones, author of The Jewel of Medina. The book--which tells the story of A'isha, the youngest of the prophet Muhammad's wives--was originally scheduled to be published in the US by Random House, but the publisher dropped the title from its list after a fire was set outside the book's UK publisher's office in September. The book has since been published in the US by Beaufort Books.

Now the author is on tour, and there's been no trouble, reports the Seattle Times. Moreover, "Nothing strange happened at book signings in the past two weekends in Spokane and Missoula."

The only bad news is that--contrary to the common wisdom that controversy sells--folks at the Seattle reading bought only three copies of The Jewel of Medina.--David E