Memoir about Liberia is new Starbucks pick
SEATTLE (AP) -August 7, 2008 Cooper's book, published by Simon & Schuster and to go on sale
at thousands of Starbucks in early September, is the second time
the coffee chain has chosen a memoir by a West African. Ishmael
Beah's "Long Way Gone," about being a boy soldier in Sierra
Leone, was picked last year and became a best seller despite
questions over how long Beah actually fought.
"I remember going into my local Starbucks on K Street in
Washington for my morning coffee on my way to work, and seeing
Ishmael Beah's 'Long Way Gone' on the counter," Cooper, a New York
Times reporter, said in a statement released Thursday by Starbucks.
"I was thrilled for him as a fellow West African - and so
envious myself at the same time! I'm not ashamed to say that I
stood in line daydreaming that one day it would be me. I'm
absolutely thrilled 'The House at Sugar Beach' is a Starbucks
selection."