Sprinkles With That Grande Genocide?
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
COFFEE TABLE BOOK A Long Way Gone As promised, Starbucks Entertainment is one step closer to flexing an Oprah-like literary muscle. The caffeine-addled retailer announced it is releasing in 6,000 stores next month a harrowing memoir by a former child soldier. It might come as a jolt to Cinnamon Dolce Latte fans who are more accustomed to the soft-focused Akeelah and the Bee fare than A Long Way Gone, the tale of previously unpublished writer Ishmael Beah's travails as a 12-year-old child warrior in war-ravaged Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Ken Lombard of Starbucks Entertainment told a Seattle paper, "our customers will love this book."
Sure they will. A Long Way Gone fits right in with Damien Rice and Antigone Rising CDs, supersized NEW YORK mugs, and cranberry bliss bars.