Author Celeste Fremon talks about the prospects for an eleventh-hour turnaround with former LAT Book Editor Steve Wasserman at her Witness LA blog. Freeman also cites some key facts about why keeping the Book Section is a smart business move.
Curious as to where Los Angeles stands as a book buying market, yesterday I called the [...]
Stories in Book biz:
Can the LA Times Book Review be saved?
Notebook: Beijing reads, indie closing, RWA in SF
Game ready. Catherine Sampson — a crime writer who’s lived in China for fifteen years — shares her top ten books on Beijing. The list includes two novels by Chinese authors living and working in California. Number 3 on the list, Please Don’t Call Me Human by Wang Shuo. Number 6 is The Last [...]
Book editors protest demise of LAT Book Review
LA Observed reports that four past book editors of the Los Angeles Times — Sonja Bolle, Digby Diehl, Jack Miles, and Steve Wasserman — have released a letter protesting the elimination of the paper’s Sunday Book Review. “We urge readers and writers alike to join with us as we protest this sad and backward step,” [...]
California poet Kay Ryan to be Poet Laureate
Marin County poet Kay Ryan will become the 16th Poet Laureate of the of the United States, according to the New York Times.
In a 1999 essay for Dark Horse, Dana Gioia — California poet and now the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts — wrote of Ryan:
Over the past five years no [...]
From blog to book in LA
LA Times reporter Jill Leovy has sold a book to Spiegel & Grau that expands on her excellent Homicide Report blog, which chronicled murders in Los Angeles County (845 in all) during 2007.
Publisher’s Lunch says Leovy’s book — The Homicide Report: Black Men, Murder and America’s Unseen Catastrophe — will weave together “a [...]
No place like home: California authors on California
A commitment to the terroir: On June 30, University of California Press released Wines & Wineries of California’s Central Coast by William A. Ausmus (I ordered mine today) and the Los Angeles Times’ Corie Brown uses the occasion to offer an interesting look at the University of California Press’ move into wine books — they’ve [...]
Imagining the future of bookselling
For the 150th anniversary issue of The Bookseller, the editors asked California author and Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow to write a short-short story about the next 150 years in book sales. The result is called “The Right Book.”
A snippet:
The thing that Arthur liked best about owning his own shop was that he [...]
More summertime books and a few stray notes
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 [...]
Audio files: taking Michael Chabon on the road
“I just finished listening to the audiobook of Michael Chabon’s new novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, a hardboiled alternate history novel set in a world where Israel falls in 1948 and its population of Jews relocate to a territory carved out of Alaska, a territory that is theirs for 60 years only…. I’m a great [...]
Sweet deal: A new bookstore for Brentwood
The LAT reports that Diesel Books, of Malibu and Oakland, is opening a third neighborhood outpost this September in Brentwood, which lost its landmark Dutton’s bookstore earlier this spring.
Developer James Rosenfield offered Diesel’s owners a break on rent to entice them to Brentwood Country Mart at San Vicente Boulevard and 26th Street. Martha Groves [...]
Paperback Dreams and indy booksellers
Frances Dinkelspiel attended a BEA preview of Paperback Dreams, a new documentary by Alex Beckstead about the struggles of Cody’s Books in Berkeley and Kepler’s Books in Menlo Parks. It made her cry.
She writes:
The film is quite good as it traces the history of these two iconic West Coast bookstores. It also establishes the [...]
So many parties, so far apart
Downtown LA is ground zero of this weekend’s massive BookExpo, but the parties are scattered all the way to Santa Monica and back. So conventioneers had to plot their party treks carefully, as Carolyn Kellogg notes in the LA Times. On Saturday night I had to chuckle at the rare parade of yellow cabs pulling [...]
Some BookExpo grazing
I’m enjoying browsing the wealth of eco-friendly books at BEA, including the new Greenopia guides to Los Angeles and San Francisco and the just-released A Spring without Bees by Michael Schacker.
Other choice goodies that found their way into my 100% reusable and recyclable book bag (courtesy of Chronicle Books) are this trio of Big [...]
Photos from opening day of The Big Show
Here’s Donna’s eye-view of the floor at BookExpo America this morning, where she was at the beginning of a great day. Click “Read more…” below for more Day One BEA Pix.
Biggest book party of the year
For the first time in five years, the publishing world returns this week to Los Angeles. The mighty BookExpo is bigger and bolder than ever. You’ll find digital innovations and green-come-lately initiatives galore, and everyone from print-on-demand authors to A-list celebs touting new books. This spring, however, you also may detect a jittery edge to [...]
A trio of author updates
After I wrote yesterday about Latinos In Lotusland, editor Daniel Olivas shared the backstory of the anthology’s magical cover. He says, “Yes, it is a beautiful cover. Bilingual Press is affiliated with Arizona State University, which has the largest Chicano art collection in the country. So, last year, they flew me out to [...]
A desktop for the launch pad
Think publishing is a high pressure biz? Here is my new desktop image, made from one of our photos taken earlier this month at the March Reserve Air Force Base, Airfest 2008. The Airfest airshow is a type-o-rama of warnings and designations. This one seemed like just what I needed during the last days of [...]
Can the LA Times Book Review be saved?
Notebook: Beijing reads, indie closing, RWA in SF
Game ready. Catherine Sampson — a crime writer who’s lived in China for fifteen years — shares her top ten books on Beijing. The list includes two novels by Chinese authors living and working in California. Number 3 on the list, Please Don’t Call Me Human by Wang Shuo. Number 6 is The Last [...]
Book editors protest demise of LAT Book Review
LA Observed reports that four past book editors of the Los Angeles Times — Sonja Bolle, Digby Diehl, Jack Miles, and Steve Wasserman — have released a letter protesting the elimination of the paper’s Sunday Book Review. “We urge readers and writers alike to join with us as we protest this sad and backward step,” [...]
California poet Kay Ryan to be Poet Laureate
Marin County poet Kay Ryan will become the 16th Poet Laureate of the of the United States, according to the New York Times.
In a 1999 essay for Dark Horse, Dana Gioia — California poet and now the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts — wrote of Ryan:
Over the past five years no [...]
From blog to book in LA
LA Times reporter Jill Leovy has sold a book to Spiegel & Grau that expands on her excellent Homicide Report blog, which chronicled murders in Los Angeles County (845 in all) during 2007.
Publisher’s Lunch says Leovy’s book — The Homicide Report: Black Men, Murder and America’s Unseen Catastrophe — will weave together “a [...]
No place like home: California authors on California
A commitment to the terroir: On June 30, University of California Press released Wines & Wineries of California’s Central Coast by William A. Ausmus (I ordered mine today) and the Los Angeles Times’ Corie Brown uses the occasion to offer an interesting look at the University of California Press’ move into wine books — they’ve [...]
Imagining the future of bookselling
For the 150th anniversary issue of The Bookseller, the editors asked California author and Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow to write a short-short story about the next 150 years in book sales. The result is called “The Right Book.”
A snippet:
The thing that Arthur liked best about owning his own shop was that he [...]
More summertime books and a few stray notes
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 [...]
Audio files: taking Michael Chabon on the road
“I just finished listening to the audiobook of Michael Chabon’s new novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, a hardboiled alternate history novel set in a world where Israel falls in 1948 and its population of Jews relocate to a territory carved out of Alaska, a territory that is theirs for 60 years only…. I’m a great [...]
Sweet deal: A new bookstore for Brentwood
The LAT reports that Diesel Books, of Malibu and Oakland, is opening a third neighborhood outpost this September in Brentwood, which lost its landmark Dutton’s bookstore earlier this spring.
Developer James Rosenfield offered Diesel’s owners a break on rent to entice them to Brentwood Country Mart at San Vicente Boulevard and 26th Street. Martha Groves [...]
Paperback Dreams and indy booksellers
Frances Dinkelspiel attended a BEA preview of Paperback Dreams, a new documentary by Alex Beckstead about the struggles of Cody’s Books in Berkeley and Kepler’s Books in Menlo Parks. It made her cry.
She writes:
The film is quite good as it traces the history of these two iconic West Coast bookstores. It also establishes the [...]
So many parties, so far apart
Downtown LA is ground zero of this weekend’s massive BookExpo, but the parties are scattered all the way to Santa Monica and back. So conventioneers had to plot their party treks carefully, as Carolyn Kellogg notes in the LA Times. On Saturday night I had to chuckle at the rare parade of yellow cabs pulling [...]
Some BookExpo grazing
I’m enjoying browsing the wealth of eco-friendly books at BEA, including the new Greenopia guides to Los Angeles and San Francisco and the just-released A Spring without Bees by Michael Schacker.
Other choice goodies that found their way into my 100% reusable and recyclable book bag (courtesy of Chronicle Books) are this trio of Big [...]
Photos from opening day of The Big Show
Here’s Donna’s eye-view of the floor at BookExpo America this morning, where she was at the beginning of a great day. Click “Read more…” below for more Day One BEA Pix.
Biggest book party of the year
For the first time in five years, the publishing world returns this week to Los Angeles. The mighty BookExpo is bigger and bolder than ever. You’ll find digital innovations and green-come-lately initiatives galore, and everyone from print-on-demand authors to A-list celebs touting new books. This spring, however, you also may detect a jittery edge to [...]
A trio of author updates
After I wrote yesterday about Latinos In Lotusland, editor Daniel Olivas shared the backstory of the anthology’s magical cover. He says, “Yes, it is a beautiful cover. Bilingual Press is affiliated with Arizona State University, which has the largest Chicano art collection in the country. So, last year, they flew me out to [...]
A desktop for the launch pad
Think publishing is a high pressure biz? Here is my new desktop image, made from one of our photos taken earlier this month at the March Reserve Air Force Base, Airfest 2008. The Airfest airshow is a type-o-rama of warnings and designations. This one seemed like just what I needed during the last days of [...]
Meet the authors of the California Authors Directory. Visit the directory to discover writers like Christina Meldrum, a Bay Area attorney whose book Madapple was just released this month. “In debut novelist Christina Meldrum's mesmerizing literary mystery, 
July briefs: censorship, fires, new fiction and a b-day
No room for Freedom in Perry, Indiana. A veteran high school teacher in Perry, Indiana has been suspended without pay for teaching The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. The book by Long Beach, California teacher/author Erin Gruwell and her students [...]
File under: Author profile, Bookbloggery, Booksellers, Commentary, Education/literacy, Fiction, Freedom to read, Interviews, Jobs/labor relations, Libraries, Movies, Museums, New Release 2008, Nonfiction, Politics/government, Sad, San Francisco, Schools, Short stories, Writing