The Salon du Livre, an international book fair in Paris, opened today despite the protests of several Arab nations over the selection of Israel as the festival's guest of honor. The Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization encouraged its fifty member nations to boycott because of "crimes against humanity that Israel is perpetrating in the Palestinian territories." Many publishers, booksellers, and authors from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen, Morocco, and Algeria withdrew from the festival, though some participants from those countries may still attend.

The recent publication of Hanif Kureishi's new novel, Something to Tell You, by Faber and Faber has garnered the usual praise from critics in the U.K., but it's also attracted the ire of his sister, Yasmin, who says she wishes the author would stop using their family as inspiration for his fiction.

Two days before its lease was due to expire, Beyond Baroque, a literary nonprofit organization in Los Angeles, scored a grass-roots victory when the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously last Friday to approve a twenty-five-year extension at a dollar per year.