"There was a different ending to 'New Moon.' Originally it was much quieter [and took place] in Bella's head," she said. Meyer changed it at the urging of her mom, Candy Morgan. She introduced the Volturi earlier, and — voila! — a Volturi smack-down jazzes up the end. Thanks, Candy.

Otherwise, Oprah and Meyer went over very familiar territory: "Twilight" came to Meyer in a dream; she imagined a hot vampire who was in love with a mortal girl; she wanted to know more; that dream became Chapter 13 of "Twilight." "In the dream it was two people in a circular meadow and one of them was a sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal and the boy was a vampire, which was bizarre," Meyer said. "It was a passion and frenzy when I started writing."

And of course, there was a question about Robert Pattinson. His hygiene having often been called into question, Oprah wanted to know, "What does he smell like?" "He smells great," Meyer said. "Rob is hilarious. He is the funniest person. He's not at all like the Edward character. He's so different. He just doesn't look like anyone else, in a good way. He's very striking looking."

Uwem Akpan, who runs a parish in Lagos, told Entertainment Weekly that he was "very, very humbled" to be chosen by Oprah. He said he was not currently working on another book as his parish had been so busy but the church supports his writing with no conflict of interest between writing and being a priest.

"I have permission to write, but I do not need an imprimatur from the church -- that is more for people who are writing about theology and philosophy. They see that I am writing fiction and assume it is made up," he said. "Don't forget that Jesus was a priest and a poet."

Oprah's book club is the biggest in the world with almost two million online members and books chosen for Oprah's book club invariably skyrocket to the top of the U.S. bestseller lists. Akpan studied philosophy and English at Creighton and Gonzaga universities then studied theology for three years at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2003 and received his master's degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2006.

Oprah Winfrey broke her silence Friday about former guest Herman Rosenblat, saying she's "very disappointed" in his now discredited story about meeting his future wife in a Nazi concentration camp. "That's what happens with lies," Winfrey said on an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that aired Friday. "They get bigger and bigger and bigger."

Rosenblat, a 79-year-old resident of North Miami Beach, Fla., and his wife Roma have appeared twice on Winfrey's show. Winfrey said he had planned to appear again to "explain himself," but the man's lawyers scuttled that. Rosenblat's tale of a little girl throwing apples over a barbed-wire fence to him every day at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s was endearing, Winfrey said. "And he told that story and I was crying, everybody was crying," Winfrey said.

*****

Until Friday, Winfrey let her Web site do the talking, adding a small disclaimer that "on December 27, 2008, Herman Rosenblat admitted to fictionalizing portions of his life story, including how he met his wife." As of Friday night, Rosenblat's discredited tale remained listed on the site as the first example of "Love Lessons From Amazing Couples."

It's no surprise that Oprah Winfrey gave copies of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth to the 4,666 graduates of Stanford University when she gave the commencement address on Sunday. Now No. 8, A New Earth was No. 1 for 11 consecutive weeks on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list after Winfrey chose it as her book club pick in January. She also gave copies of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Riverhead, $15), published in 2005. The book argues that professional and personal success in the 21st century will require traits such as empathy in addition to left-brain qualities like logic.

Though Pink has never spoken with Winfrey, he says his publisher had given him "an inkling that something was going to happen." "I was amazed, grateful and humbled," the writer from Washington, D.C., says.

The book has topped the best-seller list on Amazon.com virtually from the moment Winfrey's choice was revealed, and it is the fastest-selling pick ever at Barnes & Noble Inc., according to a statement issued Thursday by Winfrey. It's also a record shipment in a four-week span for any book by Penguin Group (USA), which has published such million sellers as Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" and Ken Follett's Winfrey-endorsed "The Pillars of the Earth."

Brian Tart, president and publisher of the Penguin imprint Dutton, told The Associated Press that a key factor was the upcoming Web seminars featuring Winfrey and Tolle, to be held for 10 consecutive Mondays starting March 3.

"Oprah herself has committed 10 weeks to talking to the author, and people from all over the world will be able to participate," said Tart, who added that more than 500,000 people, from more than 100 countries, have registered for the seminar.

Last year, Keifer Bonvillain was hit with a federal extortion charge after he allegedly tried to sell Winfrey audiotapes for $1.5 million of a high-ranking Harpo employee bad-mouthing her. But the charge didn't hold up in an Illinois court. Now Bonvillain, 37, who touts himself as a Louisiana-born "civil-rights activist," has launched a Web site in a bid to get a publisher for his exposé, titled "Ruthless."

His breathless pitch reads: "An office manager at Harpo broke his silence and his confidentiality agreement when he spoke freely about Oprah Winfrey's private life and business affairs. Keifer Bonvillain underestimated one of the world's most powerful women when he, armed with clandestinely recorded tapes, decided to write a 'tell-all' book unmasking the famed celebrity. Within days of Harpo learning about the book, two men were attempting to break into Keifer's home - presumably to get the tapes. Oprah was desperate to keep the truth from being revealed . . . The fallout was Keifer's highly publicized arrest."

Bonvillain vows to disclose that Harpo may have been involved in "blatant discrimination . . . This CEO not only knows about these practices . . . she condones them . . . Hours of taped conversations . . . reveal what they don't want the public to know about [Oprah's] private life, and a business that prides itself on its diversity."

Follett's depiction of the precarious balance of power between monarchy and religion in the Middle Ages, and of the effects of social upheavals and the forces of nature (storms, famines) on political events; his ability to convey the fine points of architecture so that the cathedral becomes clearly visualized in the reader's mind; and above all, his portrayals of the enduring human emotions of ambition, greed, bravery, dedication, revenge and love, result in a highly engrossing narrative. Manipulating a complex plot in which the characters interact against a broad canvas of medieval life, Follett has written a novel that entertains, instructs and satisfies on a grand scale.

Denise Brown, sister of O.J.'s dead ex, Nicole, and Fred and Kim Goldman, father and sister of Nicole's dead pal, Ron, agreed to confront each other about the publication on the Sept. 13 edition of the talk show hosted by the queen of book sales. Denise Brown wants a boycott of the book in which Simpson details how he would have murdered his ex-wife and her friend on the night of June 12, 1994 -- if he'd done it. She has expressed shock and horror that the Goldman family reached a deal for "If I Did It," to be published by New York-based Beaufort Books.

Simpson was acquitted of the murders, but a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families. In March, an L.A. Superior Court judge ruled the rights to the book must be put up for auction and all proceeds paid to Fred Goldman, who is still looking to collect on that $33.5 million judgment against the football star turned actor/sports commentator. Before being awarded rights to the book, back when O.J. himself stood to see some coin off its sales, Goldman stood side by side with Denise Brown in being outraged at its publication.

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Oprah will weigh in on the book for the first time on what's sure to be a highly rated episode of her syndicated talk show -- and just three days into its new season. Everyone will be waiting to see whether she gives the concept thumbs up or down, because you know what can happen to a book when it gets Oprah's imprimatur. Ka-ching!

Shortly after the Oprah response to Sneed, TVGuide.com claimed they interviewed Vernon Winfrey, who said, "There is no book" and that he is not shopping a proposal around to publishers or agents. But he did leave the door open by stating, "We might think about it later on ... and ... it's just on hold right now."