CHICAGO - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey announced today that the latest selection for her popular book club is the new tome by prolific Pittsburgh sports author Jim O’Brien chronicling the life and times of long-time Pirates and Penguin organist Vince Lascheid. O'Brien described the book in a dust-jacket blurb as “a loving look at the role played by beloved Pittsburgh organist Vinnie Lascheid in the history of Pittsburgh sports teams that breaks all the rules, especially as it applies to sentence structure, the absence of meaningful editing, and compositional form."
Winfrey lauded O’Brien for his book on Lascheid, calling it “the most inspirational, soul-enriching literary experience [she has] had in years.” O’Brien issued a statement through his publicist, Jim O’Brien, stating that his publisher, also named Jim O’Brien, was immediately printing an additional two million copies. “We think this thing could be bigger than The Da Vinci Code,” said Jim O'Brien, the publisher. Winfrey announced that O’Brien would be appearing in the front lobby of her Harpo Productions Studio, plopped behind his well-traveled card table for the next seven days signing copies of the book. Following his trip to Chicago, O’Brien plans to return home to complete the book he started last week about Mario Lemieux’s retirement. “I’ve got about eight hundred pages so far,” he said. O’Brien said the book, entitled Always a Penguin, should be in stores by Presidents Day. By that time, O'Brien expects to finish at least four more books on "topics not yet decided."
