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 Events and festivals:
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 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 [...]
See you at the Festival of Books
This weekend I’ll be at UCLA on Sunday soaking up the sunshine and signing copies of My California: Journeys by Great Writers with Edward Humes and Veronique de Turenne. From 1-2 pm, we’ll be parked at the Angel City Press booth (near Royce Hall).
Carolyn See joins us at 2 pm. Carolyn, btw, has an [...]
Casa California
Author D.J. Waldie teamed with actress Diane Keaton to create a lovely new book, California Romantica. The LAT’s Thomas Curwen describes the effort as “the culmination of a lifelong obsession for Keaton and nearly two years of study for Waldie…
“Their collaboration is a love affair — in words and in pictures — with Spanish [...]
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 [...]
Who knew?
Ghost Word has an interesting post on the Jewish Book Season and how authors actually audition (”a combination of ‘The Gong Show’ and speed-dating”) for spots at Jewish book fairs and festivals.
This week
Litcrawl continues in San Francisco “Our eight days of programming will feature more than 50 events and more authors than you can shake (or throw) a drink at in venues ranging from the swank to the rank — plush theaters, nice bars, dive bars, galleries, retail outlets, libraries, laundromats — and even bookstores.”
Book fest weekend in California
Interesting story in the Carmel Pine Cone about Jim and Cindy McGillen, a semi-retired TV couple that spent more than $320,000 to host this weekend’s first-ever Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival.
They lined up a collection of top authors to appear. Tickets are $500 each.
“No offense to Toledo, but I was not asking people to [...]
More on Literacy Month
Donna’s update: I spent Monday evening at the Downey Public Library talking about My California with a very enthusiastic group that included many of the city’s volunteer reading tutors.
Librarian Claudia Dailey mentioned a surprising statistic: that 27 percent of adults in Los Angeles County are not fully literate. So Claudia and her wonderful [...]
Tonight
The Downey Public Library celebrates National Literacy Month by reading My California: Journeys by Great Writers. Join Donna, the editor of My California, at 7 p.m. for a book talk and signing. Details.
Aloud resumes
Downtown News features the Los Angeles Central Library’s popular Aloud program, which ended its monthlong hiatus this week. Poet Marisela Norte calls the author lecture series “one of the last bastions of civilization in the city.” Read more.
Boyle honored
The board of the Santa Barbara Book and Author Festival has chosen novelist T.C. Boyle for the 2007 Ross Macdonald Award, an honor handed out annually to “a California writer whose life work raises the standards of literary excellence.” Boyle will receive the award and give a reading at this year’s festival, the weekend of [...]
Best Place to Meet a Famous Author
Aloud at Central Library.
…so sez LA’s Downtown News in its annual best of the city round up.
Grape Expectations
The Long Beach Public Library Foundation holds its annual fundraising extravaganza on Sunday, June 24. Tickets are still available, though you don’t have to attend to support this great cause. Check out the library foundation’s new online auction. Lotsa great goodies: Trips to London and Broadway and Cabo! Catered feasts great and small! Spa days! [...]
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 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 [...]
See you at the Festival of Books
This weekend I’ll be at UCLA on Sunday soaking up the sunshine and signing copies of My California: Journeys by Great Writers with Edward Humes and Veronique de Turenne. From 1-2 pm, we’ll be parked at the Angel City Press booth (near Royce Hall).
Carolyn See joins us at 2 pm. Carolyn, btw, has an [...]
Casa California
Author D.J. Waldie teamed with actress Diane Keaton to create a lovely new book, California Romantica. The LAT’s Thomas Curwen describes the effort as “the culmination of a lifelong obsession for Keaton and nearly two years of study for Waldie…
“Their collaboration is a love affair — in words and in pictures — with Spanish [...]
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 [...]
Who knew?
Ghost Word has an interesting post on the Jewish Book Season and how authors actually audition (”a combination of ‘The Gong Show’ and speed-dating”) for spots at Jewish book fairs and festivals.
This week
Litcrawl continues in San Francisco “Our eight days of programming will feature more than 50 events and more authors than you can shake (or throw) a drink at in venues ranging from the swank to the rank — plush theaters, nice bars, dive bars, galleries, retail outlets, libraries, laundromats — and even bookstores.”
Book fest weekend in California
Interesting story in the Carmel Pine Cone about Jim and Cindy McGillen, a semi-retired TV couple that spent more than $320,000 to host this weekend’s first-ever Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival.
They lined up a collection of top authors to appear. Tickets are $500 each.
“No offense to Toledo, but I was not asking people to [...]
More on Literacy Month
Donna’s update: I spent Monday evening at the Downey Public Library talking about My California with a very enthusiastic group that included many of the city’s volunteer reading tutors.
Librarian Claudia Dailey mentioned a surprising statistic: that 27 percent of adults in Los Angeles County are not fully literate. So Claudia and her wonderful [...]
Tonight
The Downey Public Library celebrates National Literacy Month by reading My California: Journeys by Great Writers. Join Donna, the editor of My California, at 7 p.m. for a book talk and signing. Details.
Aloud resumes
Downtown News features the Los Angeles Central Library’s popular Aloud program, which ended its monthlong hiatus this week. Poet Marisela Norte calls the author lecture series “one of the last bastions of civilization in the city.” Read more.
Boyle honored
The board of the Santa Barbara Book and Author Festival has chosen novelist T.C. Boyle for the 2007 Ross Macdonald Award, an honor handed out annually to “a California writer whose life work raises the standards of literary excellence.” Boyle will receive the award and give a reading at this year’s festival, the weekend of [...]
Best Place to Meet a Famous Author
Aloud at Central Library.
…so sez LA’s Downtown News in its annual best of the city round up.
Grape Expectations
The Long Beach Public Library Foundation holds its annual fundraising extravaganza on Sunday, June 24. Tickets are still available, though you don’t have to attend to support this great cause. Check out the library foundation’s new online auction. Lotsa great goodies: Trips to London and Broadway and Cabo! Catered feasts great and small! Spa days! [...]
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, 