PHOENIX – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords vows to return to Congress in a new book that describes her months of intense therapy and her emotional struggle to come to terms with being shot in the head at point-blank range.
The memoir, titled “Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope,” is the most personal and detailed look yet at Giffords’ efforts over the past 10 months to relearn how to walk and talk, and her painful discovery that six people were killed in the Jan. 8 attack outside a Tucson grocery store.
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The Associated Press purchased an advance copy of the book. It is set for release Nov. 15.
The book is written by Giffords’ husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, but Giffords delivers the last chapter — a single page of short sentences and phrases called “Gabby’s Voice” in which she says her goal is to get back to Congress. “I will get stronger. I will return,” she wrote.
Giffords, 40, stunned colleagues by appearing on the House floor Aug. 1 to vote for the debt ceiling deal, but she has largely avoided the public eye, focusing on her recovery at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation center in Houston.
In the book, Kelly recalls trying to tell his wife several times that she had been shot in the head while meeting constituents. But she didn’t fully understand until March 12.
Kelly asked Giffords if she remembered being shot, and she replied that she did. When he asked what she remembered about it, she said three words: “Shot. Shocked. Scary.”
He also describes the early days in Giffords’ recovery in Texas, saying the darkest moment came when Giffords panicked after realizing she couldn’t talk.
The book also offers lighter moments, like when President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, visited Giffords at the Texas hospital. Giffords kept replying to Bush with the only word she was able to say: “chicken.”
Mom: Kardashian ‘heartbroken’ over divorce
NEW YORK – Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is “heartbroken” over her decision to divorce professional basketball player Kris Humphries after only two months of marriage, but life will go on, her mother says.
“Just because somebody is getting a divorce doesn’t mean life is over,” mom Kris Jenner told The Associated Press. “She’s not the first person to get a divorce, and she won’t be the last, no matter what the length of the marriage.”
Jenner, who divorced Kardashian’s father, O.J. Simpson’s attorney Robert Kardashian, in the early 1990s and is married to Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, says her daughter’s relationship was made for TV are false.
Bieber denies he’s a father
NEW YORK – Justin Bieber has denied allegations he fathered a child and says he has never met the woman who filed the paternity suit against him.
“To set the record straight, none of it is true,” the teen heartthrob declared Friday during a brief appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.
As mobs of fans screamed adoringly in Rockefeller Plaza, Bieber called it “crazy” that anyone would make up such a story.
“I know I’m going to be a target, but I’m never going to be a victim,” Bieber told “Today” host Matt Lauer. “It’s crazy, because every night after the show I’ve gone right from the stage right to my car. So it’s crazy that some people want to make up such false allegations.”
The paternity suit was filed in San Diego Superior Court by Mariah Yeater earlier this week. She had just turned 19 when she says she and Bieber, then 16, had a brief sexual encounter after one of the singer’s concerts last fall at Los Angeles’ Staples Center.
Throat surgery to silence singer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A spokesman for Keith Urban says the country star will undergo throat surgery later this month to remove a polyp on his vocal cord.
A statement from Urban’s publicist, Paul Freundlich, says the surgery is a minor outpatient procedure. It will require complete vocal rest followed by an indefinite period of recuperation.
Urban is postponing his “All For The Hall” concert to benefit the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was originally scheduled for Jan. 18. Other appearances will be rescheduled in 2012.
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