Ray Bradbury writes in the Press-Telegram:
A few weeks ago I was in your city to mourn the pending forced closure of Acres of Books. Since 1934 this unique cultural heritage landmark bookstore has been a destination for book lovers from around the world with its inventory of over 1 million books. The current city leadership [...]
Sunday in San Francisco: Dirty Words: Litquake’s Tribute to Smut, “a giddy homage to titillation and obscenity … a fundraiser starring a who’s who of Bay Area writers.” Details.
Congratulations to Heyday Books founder Malcolm Margolin on his San Francisco Foundation’s Community Leadership Award. From the Heyday newsletter: “The Helen Crocker Russell Award recognizes individuals and [...]
About Uncle Bobby: In Uncle Bobby’s Wedding a niece worries that her uncle’s upcoming wedding will change her relationship with him. P.S. The characters are guinea pigs. P.P.S. Uncle Bobby is gay. One Colorado library patron wrote the local paper to say the children’s picture book was a “slap in [her] face” and urged other [...]
Los Angeles leaders faced an outcry from residents and city workers this week over proposals to slash library services and park rangers. As the LA Daily News reports, “In a budget focused on public safety and boosting the police department, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has recommended slashing the library system’s book-buying budget by $2 million, closing [...]
This week UC Berkeley opened the $46 million C.V. Starr East Asian Library. Its vast collection includes: Ancient Chinese oracle bones inscribed with pictographs that evolved into Chinese writing. Thousand-year-old Chinese books printed by woodblock, centuries before Gutenberg. More than two thousand historic Japanese maps said to be the most comprehensive outside of Japan. An [...]
Long Beach Librarian Susan Taylor had a hard time finding books in Khmer for the city’s growing Cambodian community, now estimated at 50,000 to 60,000. So Taylor went shopping this month — in Phnom Penh.
Eight boxes and 1,105 new Khmer books later — half of them for children — Taylor and (library [...]
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 [...]
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.
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.
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! [...]
Wanna borrow a cabinet scraper or rotary hammer drill? Perhaps a portable workbench? Public libraries in Berkeley, Oakland and elsewhere now lend much more than books. Cory at BoingBoing shares some handy links.
Patt Morrison talks with Susan Patron — the LA librarian who recently won a John Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to American children’s literature for her book The Higher Power of Lucky — about the controversy surrounding the book. Because it contains the word “scrotum,” some school librarians are refusing to stock it. Pat [...]
From CaliforniaAuthors editor Donna Wares, Great Escapes: Southern California is a collection of exceptional road trips with suggestions for the perfect books to take along. Highlights include first-person passages from Pico Iyer, T. Jefferson Parker, Judith Freeman, Veronique de Turenne and other great guides, plus cover images by renown photographer Rick Rickman. Learn more at Donna’s SoCal So Cool blog or buy yours here
It took a remarkable outpouring of generosity to make My California: Journeys by Great Writers a reality. This anthology of travel and adventure stories donated by 27 of California’s most talented writers benefits the beleaguered California Arts Council and writing programs for children statewide. Learn more about the project and author events at mycaliforniaproject.org or buy the book here.
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, Madapple (Knopf), the worlds of science and faith collide," says Vanity Fair. Learn more and make the connection with Christina and other exciting California talents in our author directory.
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