Michelle Obama's Brother Pens New Book

In the age of books, where publishers fully own archaic business models, hot properties still motivate them to enter the 21st century.  Anything Obama is a big seller.  Look at the shelf of books devoted to Michelle Obama with her presidential husband making a best seller of anything with his name on it.  Now her Princeton alumn brother, former investment banker and Oregon State University head basketball coach, Craig Robinson has inked a deal to author a book way early in an Obama presidency, A Game of Character.  Is he going to get to do sequels too as long as the O brand remains durable?

"I've been privileged to know some extraordinary people in my life," Craig Robinson, whose "A Game of Character" will be published next year, said in a statement issued Thursday. "I've watched as my sister Michelle, a rock of a mother, became a leader in her own right. My brother-in law, President Barack Obama, who I knew from the first time I met him had something special, continues to inspire all of us."

Well, we alesady know the off cited story about Michelle insisting Barack play basketball with her brother because he would not be able to hide his true character from a top Ivy league player.  Its sort of a a combo Luke Skywalker meets Clark Kent mid-dunk with Michelle awaiting the ref's whistle to go ahead.  It worked out, but that's only worth a chapter, at its boring best.  What else will be in the book we wonder. A book that might be more interesting to me because her background is not as well known is Commander in Chief Obama's PhD sister, Maya Soetero-Ng with her Indonesian & American heritage and integration into a Chinese family. 

Olympic Sized Book Deals

Michael Phelps will get 1.6 million dollars to chronicle his 23 years on the planet in a memoir on becoming the world's best swimmer.ever.with 7 world records. This is his second book after an Olympic showing and he still has the 2012 London Olympiad to go before he's done collecting all his hardware and royalties. Several times in Beijing, his quest to earn eight gold medals almost died a premature death. One, one hundredth of a second slower and he would still have tied the still cocky Mark Spitz, which is a feat in itself.

Dara Torres on the other hand completed her fifth Olympics in her fifth decade at 41, earning three sliver medals against teenyboppers and twenty something sprint racers. After winning medals twenty years ago, Dara returned to swimming to keep fit during and after her pregnancy. The serious speed racers is where she she planted her fins to return. That first book has the potential to have a meatier look and heftier advance from Random House for both books at $3,000,000 US acknowledging the changes in Olympic swimming over twenty years, her battle against being accused of doping and her fight for the sport.

Not sure about his or a potential Simon & Schuster ghost writer's skills, but Phelps leaves no doubt about the damage he can do eating or racing in an Olympic sized pool.