Get yours from this round-up of Spring/Summer titles by California authors.
City Lights celebrates the 50th anniversary of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind. “With one million copies in print, A Coney Island of the Mind is one of the best-selling and most popular books of poetry ever published,” says the bookstore of its [...]
Stories in Politics/government:
Safe havens under siege
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 [...]
Performance art
Roshawnda Bettencourt, a student at Placer County’s Oakmont High, captured first place in California’s Poetry Out Loud state finals. She recited “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows [...]
Slaughterhouse blues
In today’s LAT, Christopher D. Cook, the author of Diet for a Dead Planet, chews over the big beef recall and its dirty backstory. He writes:
Nauseating as it was, last week’s record-setting beef recall and the apparent feeding of meat from crippled “downer” cattle to our nation’s children and others should come as little surprise. [...]
Face number one in anti-government-spying video
People for the American Way included Kate and Val Cohen’s protest photos in their new video against illegal domestic spying by our government. Check it out! Then sign the petition against telco immunity today.
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, [...]
Score one for reader privacy
The AP reports:
Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), newly unsealed court records show.
The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.
“The (subpoena’s) chilling effect on [...]
Safe havens under siege
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 [...]
Performance art
Roshawnda Bettencourt, a student at Placer County’s Oakmont High, captured first place in California’s Poetry Out Loud state finals. She recited “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows [...]
Slaughterhouse blues
In today’s LAT, Christopher D. Cook, the author of Diet for a Dead Planet, chews over the big beef recall and its dirty backstory. He writes:
Nauseating as it was, last week’s record-setting beef recall and the apparent feeding of meat from crippled “downer” cattle to our nation’s children and others should come as little surprise. [...]
Face number one in anti-government-spying video
People for the American Way included Kate and Val Cohen’s protest photos in their new video against illegal domestic spying by our government. Check it out! Then sign the petition against telco immunity today.
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, [...]
Score one for reader privacy
The AP reports:
Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), newly unsealed court records show.
The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.
“The (subpoena’s) chilling effect on [...]
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