Industry conventions spawn together strange bedfellows. For instance, BookExpo America featured a Saturday breakfast with Stephen Colbert and Khaled Hosseini. Both have new books to promote: Hosseini (The Kite Runner) and his new bestseller A Thousand Splendid Suns and Colbert’s new I Am America (And So Can You): “Colbert introduced Hosseini by stating that he had not read The Kite Runner, a million-selling novel about two Afghani boys and the tragic recent history of their country, and assumed it was a book about a boy who loves kites. ‘I loved yo-yos, so I can relate,’ Colbert said, who then referred to A Thousand Splendid Suns by groaning, ‘Great, another book about global warming.’”

Colbert’s book and a companion DVD are slated for pre-Christmas release.