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 [...]
Stories in Booksellers:
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Another neighborhood gem in dire straits
OC Weekly columnist and author Gustavo Arellano says that Southern California’s landmark Librería Martinez bookstore may be forced to close by the end of the year.
Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana is one of the nation’s largest Latino bookstores.
Barber-turned-genuis-grant-winner Rueben Martinez opened his store more than a decade ago, turning a vacant storefront [...]
Living with music and other stray notes
• Pico Iyer shares his playlist with The New York Times.
• Book Passage owner Bill Petrocelli blasts Amazon’s tax holiday in California.
• Former LAT Times Editor John Carroll offers his take on “The Future of Journalism” in a speech at the University of Kentucky.
• Author Patt Morrison reels in more top interviews to [...]
Last word
“Reading books - it’s a crummy business model, but it’s a wonderful life.” — Doug Dutton, at Sunday’s farewell party for his Dutton’s Brentwood Books.
LAObserved has a roundup and photos here. More at TEV.
Bravo
Publishers Weekly has named Vroman’s in Pasadena, Southern California’s oldest and biggest bookstore, as Bookseller of the Year. Read more and add your comment at the Vroman’s blog.
In other bookstore news: Cody’s has a new home in downtown Berkeley … The San Francisco State University Bookstore now partners with Eco-Libris and invites customers to plant [...]
Reality check
Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks offers her read of Margaret Seltzer’s phony South Central memoir. She is offended. Puzzled, too. And she looks for answers at the scene of Selter’s lies.
Eso Won bookstore in South Los Angeles was supposed to host the author at a book-signing Friday night but canceled and sent the [...]
LA landmark bookstore calls it quits
LAObserved reports the very sad news this morning that Dutton’s Brentwood Books is closing April 30 after a tough year. “Be assured, especially those of you who have regularly asked, ‘How are things going at the store,’ that every effort has been made to try to sensibly and rationally save this enterprise,” says owner Doug [...]
Book notes and a few random links for writers, foodies, and readers with sore throats
Dan Weintraub chronicles the governor’s Party of One … Michael Pollen shares his simple secrets … Charlie LeDuff leaves LA … Cody’s owner Andy Ross tries the agent biz … Jonathan Gold updates his must-eat list … plus: Kate’s flu tips, the Pinball Hall of Fame, and an all-expenses-paid adventure to India, [...]
Some (really) good bookstore news for a change
The Book Standard reports that 115 new independent bookstores opened in the U.S. in 2007 — seventeen of them here in California. California even led the country in bookstore openings, while New York claimed the No. 2 spot with eight new stores. Bookselling This Week has compiled a complete list here.
We’d like to welcome [...]
Bookmark it
Just noticed that Skylights Books has a new blog … a place you’ll find “comments and insight from people that spend a lot of time underneath a tree surrounded by books and a cat.”
Book biz
Melony Vance, of Latitude 33 Bookshop in Laguna Beach, recaps the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association’s recent Authors Feast in LA.
The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the SCIBA Book Award winners. And the highpoint of that event was the renaming of the mystery award to The T. Jefferson Parker SCIBA Mystery [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Another neighborhood gem in dire straits
OC Weekly columnist and author Gustavo Arellano says that Southern California’s landmark Librería Martinez bookstore may be forced to close by the end of the year.
Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana is one of the nation’s largest Latino bookstores.
Barber-turned-genuis-grant-winner Rueben Martinez opened his store more than a decade ago, turning a vacant storefront [...]
Living with music and other stray notes
• Pico Iyer shares his playlist with The New York Times.
• Book Passage owner Bill Petrocelli blasts Amazon’s tax holiday in California.
• Former LAT Times Editor John Carroll offers his take on “The Future of Journalism” in a speech at the University of Kentucky.
• Author Patt Morrison reels in more top interviews to [...]
Last word
“Reading books - it’s a crummy business model, but it’s a wonderful life.” — Doug Dutton, at Sunday’s farewell party for his Dutton’s Brentwood Books.
LAObserved has a roundup and photos here. More at TEV.
Bravo
Publishers Weekly has named Vroman’s in Pasadena, Southern California’s oldest and biggest bookstore, as Bookseller of the Year. Read more and add your comment at the Vroman’s blog.
In other bookstore news: Cody’s has a new home in downtown Berkeley … The San Francisco State University Bookstore now partners with Eco-Libris and invites customers to plant [...]
Reality check
Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks offers her read of Margaret Seltzer’s phony South Central memoir. She is offended. Puzzled, too. And she looks for answers at the scene of Selter’s lies.
Eso Won bookstore in South Los Angeles was supposed to host the author at a book-signing Friday night but canceled and sent the [...]
LA landmark bookstore calls it quits
LAObserved reports the very sad news this morning that Dutton’s Brentwood Books is closing April 30 after a tough year. “Be assured, especially those of you who have regularly asked, ‘How are things going at the store,’ that every effort has been made to try to sensibly and rationally save this enterprise,” says owner Doug [...]
Book notes and a few random links for writers, foodies, and readers with sore throats
Dan Weintraub chronicles the governor’s Party of One … Michael Pollen shares his simple secrets … Charlie LeDuff leaves LA … Cody’s owner Andy Ross tries the agent biz … Jonathan Gold updates his must-eat list … plus: Kate’s flu tips, the Pinball Hall of Fame, and an all-expenses-paid adventure to India, [...]
Some (really) good bookstore news for a change
The Book Standard reports that 115 new independent bookstores opened in the U.S. in 2007 — seventeen of them here in California. California even led the country in bookstore openings, while New York claimed the No. 2 spot with eight new stores. Bookselling This Week has compiled a complete list here.
We’d like to welcome [...]
Bookmark it
Just noticed that Skylights Books has a new blog … a place you’ll find “comments and insight from people that spend a lot of time underneath a tree surrounded by books and a cat.”
Book biz
Melony Vance, of Latitude 33 Bookshop in Laguna Beach, recaps the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association’s recent Authors Feast in LA.
The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the SCIBA Book Award winners. And the highpoint of that event was the renaming of the mystery award to The T. Jefferson Parker SCIBA Mystery [...]
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