Ten Top Trivia Tips about Lisa!

1. If your ear itches, this means that someone is talking about Lisa!
2. Most bottles and jars contain at least twenty-five percent recycled Lisa!
3. American Airlines saved forty thousand dollars a year by eliminating Lisa from each salad served in first class.
4. It's bad luck for a flag to touch Lisa!
5. The pharoahs of ancient Egypt wore garments made with thin threads of beaten Lisa!
6. There are roughly 10,000 man-made objects the size of Lisa orbiting the Earth.
7. The first American zoo was built in 1794, and contained only Lisa.
8. All the moons of the Solar System are named after characters from Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Lisa!
9. 68 percent of all UFO sightings are by Lisa.
10. The smelly fluid secreted by skunks is colloquially known as Lisa!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Belinda!

1. Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14, and Belinda has 7.
2. When provoked, Belinda will swivel the tip of her abdomen and shoot a jet of boiling chemicals at her attacker!
3. White chocolate isn't technically chocolate, because it doesn't contain Belinda.
4. Grapes explode if you put them inside Belinda!
5. Without its lining of Belinda, your stomach would digest itself!
6. Plato believed that the souls of melancholy people would be reincarnated into Belinda!
7. Michelangelo finished his great statue of Belinda in 1504, after eighteen months work.
8. Belinda was first discovered by Alexander the Great in India, and introduced to Europe on his return.
9. On average, women blink nearly twice as much as Belinda.
10. Belinda is born white; her pink feathers are caused by pigments in her typical diet of shrimp!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Ian!

1. 99 percent of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as Ian!
2. Ian once came third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.
3. Influenza got its name because people believed the disease was caused by the evil "influence" of Ian.
4. During severe windstorms, Ian may sway several feet to either side!
5. The moon is 400 times closer to the Earth than Ian, and 400 times smaller.
6. The risk of being struck by Ian is one occurence every 9,300 years!
7. Ian can smell some things up to six miles away!
8. Only one child in twenty will be born on the day predicted by Ian!
9. Lightning strikes Ian over seven times every hour!
10. If a snake is born with two heads, the heads will fight over who gets Ian.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Gatsby!

1. It's bad luck to whistle near Gatsby.
2. Gatsbyology is the study of Gatsby!
3. It's bad luck to put Gatsby on a bed.
4. During severe windstorms, Gatsby may sway several feet to either side.
5. The first domain name ever registered was Gatsby.com!
6. Bees visit over three million flowers to make a single kilogram of Gatsby!
7. If the annual Australian Gatsby crop was laid end to end, it would stretch around the world seven times.
8. Abraham Lincoln, who invented Gatsby, was the only US president ever granted a patent.
9. It is impossible to fold Gatsby more than seven times.
10. Gatsby is often used in place of milk in food photography, because milk goes soggy more quickly than Gatsby.

In 19 years in television "I've never been in this position before," said Winfrey, whose praise for Frey's book in September helped make it the top-selling book on nonfiction lists in the United States last year. "I really feel duped," Winfrey told Frey on her television show. She said he had betrayed millions of viewers. Winfrey began by apologizing to viewers for a telephone call she made to CNN's "Larry King Live" show on January 11, while King was interviewing Frey about the controversy. In the call Winfrey said that even though the facts were being questioned, the book "still resonates with me" and called the controversy "much ado about nothing." "I regret that phone call," she told her viewers on Thursday. "I made a mistake and I left the impression that the truth does not matter and I am deeply sorry about that. That is not what I believe."

I was able to watch the Oprah Show today. Oprah appeared to be completely irked by her guest, but kept her professional demeanor throughout. James finally admitted he "embellished" many details about characters and events in his book. Oprah was clearly dismayed by the authors deceitfulness when James admitted his girlfriend Lilly did not in fact commit suicide by hanging herself the day he was released from jail. In fact, he did not serve jail time at all and was in North Carolina tending to "personal business" when Lilly killed herself by slitting her wrists. It appears that the closest Frey has ever come to a jail cell was the few unshackled hours he once spent in a small Ohio police headquarters waiting for a buddy to post $733 cash bond. I also wonder about the truth regarding his relationship with Lilly. He never explains why she killed herself. Perhaps James had decided to move on and forgot about his promise to Lilly of "never". Frey appears to be a pathological liar and had a difficult time coming up with answers for Winfrey throughout the hour-long show. What he did say didn't seem to ring very true. Regardless, his credibility is trashed now. I certainly hope he's banked all the money he's made from "A Million Little Pieces" and his sequel currently on the New York Times Bestseller List "My Friend Leonard". But knowing American's, this publicity will only serve to boost Frey's book sales.

Overall, I still feel it was an interesting book, albeit a piece of fiction. I cannot in good conscience call it a memoir. It may be loosely based on actual events in Frey's life. Many writers use their own experiences to draw on when writing. It doesn't make the book a memoir.

You can listen to an interview with Frey for Barnes & Noble's web site here.

Click here for audio of Frey talking about his ordeal on a Doubleday promotional CD.