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Book Suggestions for This Week's Newsmakers

by Claire Luchette

It's been a week of big news around the world. We've got a few book recommendations for headline makers when they have a chance to read up.

Jonathan Trappe, you bravely attempted to cross the Atlantic using 370 helium-filled balloons. However, after only 12 hours of your 2500-mile, anticipated six-day trip, you had to land in Newfoundland because of technical issues. Here's hoping you can find an airy-go-round to ride in Canada, like the kids in The Twenty-One Balloons .

Get 'em while they're hairy and pinching: For just 20 RMB ($3.27), you can now get a live crab from a vending machine in Hangzhou, China, along with "crab vinegar and two bags of ginger tea." Don't forget, late-night drunk crab-eaters, that the crab is basically just a "giant sea-insect" and "garbagemen of the sea, eaters of dead stuff," as DFW explains in Consider the Lobster.

Conception Picciotto, I'm sorry about the interruption of your 32-year old peace vigil outside the White House . I hope your return to your station proves as fruitful as the wait of Horton in Horton Hatches the Egg . We know you are as faithful to your nest as Horton: "one hundred per cent!"

J.K. Rowling, you delivered the best news since the announcement of the Netflix series of Arrested Development: there will be a film version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them written by you! So that your script doesn't end up scrawled on napkins in a coffee shop, here is a guide to screenwriting basics.

Get reading, pals. Bon weekend!