The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression names its Book of the Month for June: Claim of Privilege by Barry Siegel, the former LA Times national correspondent who now heads the Literary Journalism Program at UC Irvine.

The ABFFE says: “Siegel uncovers the mystery behind a 1948 plane crash and the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in U.S. v. Reynolds, which formally recognized the State Secrets Privilege. The case involved three civilian engineers who joined an Air Force crew who boarded a B-29 plane to test secret navigational equipment they were developing for the government. The plane crashed during testing in 1948, and all three engineers died. In responding to the widows’ suit for damages, the government refused to release its accident reports and witness statements, falsely claiming they contained classified information.”

Edward Lazarus reviewed Claim of Privilege for the Times on Sunday.

Elsewhere:

The legendary Cody’s Books abruptly closes, just two months after moving to a new Berkeley store. The San Francisco Chronicle explains.

California author and former Manson prosecutor Vincent Buglosi makes his latest legal case in The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

Write Girl publishes its seventh anthology, Listen to Me: Shared Secrets from WriteGirl , and celebrates June 29 at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills.

Deanne Stillman pens Mustang, about the plight of wild horses, and SoCal get its own cowboy magazine. (btw, Calamity Cate Crismani, publisher of True Cowboy, is looking for writers.)

Photographer Roman Loranc (Two Hearted Oak) shares his next project: “My new book will be published by Photography West and will be available for sale in March 2009. The book will cost $600-$2000 depending on a print of your choice… ” More.

Actress Marlee Matlin teams up with LAT entertainment editor Betsy Sharkey to write I’ll Scream Later, an account of Matlin’s life, “from being diagnosed as deaf at 18 months to winner the Academy Award at age 21 for her role in Children of a Lesser God to the present day” for Simon Spotlight Entertainment. From Publisher’s Lunch.

If you could be any character in literature, who would you choose? Michael Dirda offers a smooth reply.