If William Grimes' review of Freedom Riders aroused an interest to learn more about "a story that only benefits from [Raymond] Arsenault's deliberately slowed-down narration," the Oxford University Press blog recently published an excerpt describing a violent encounter in Alabama:

"As the bus eased into the station parking lot just after 1:00 P.M. the station was locked shut, and there was silence. Then, suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a screaming mob led by Anniston Klan leader William Chappell rushed the bus. Thomas thought he heard Jones encourage the attackers with a sly greeting. 'Well, boys, here they are,' the driver reportedly said with a smirk. 'I brought you some niggers and nigger-lovers.' But it all happened so fast that no one was quite sure who was saying what to whom."

Such excerpts are just one way that university presses are leading the way in using blogs to promote their books: Yale UP and The MIT Press have also got it going on. And the "big boys" are starting to follow suit, as evidenced by Overlook's Elephant Walk and the blogs unveiled by HarperCollins recently, including Carl Lennertz's Publishing Insider. (I'm doing my best to keep track of the official publisher blogs through my del.icio.us links; if you come across any I've missed, feel free to send them in!