CaliforniaAuthors - News and notes from America’s largest book market
May 17, 2008

Remembering Rauschenberg

This week Robert Rauschenberg — one of the titans of 20th century American art — died in his Florida home. He was 82 and still working. In 2006, a major exhibit of his “combines” — his hybrid painting/sculpture combinations, which presaged Pop Art during the ascendancy of Abstract Expressionism — was mounted at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the beautiful book that was produced to accompany the exhibition is the definitive survey of the pivotal decade (1954-1964) in Rauschenberg’s remarkable 50-year career. In Robert Rauchenberg: Combines LA MOCA Chief Curator and California author Paul Schimmel writes about the combines from the perspective of his own extensive conversations with the artist, offering iconographic analysis of the works as well as a discussion of their political, social, autobiographical, and aesthetic significance. The book covers 174 works with full color photographs and is a great way to get to know Rauschenberg and to understand his importance in American art.

LA MOCA has some of its 11 permanent collection works by Rauschenberg on display through May 19 as part of its Collecting Collections exhibit. And it offers two nice discussions of the combines on its website: one in which Paul Schimmel “offers thought-provoking and personal insights into the various meanings behind several works from the exhibition” [link (35 mins)] and another in which Rauschenberg researcher Mary Beth Costello discusses wordplay in the combines [link (28 mins)].

Other good Rauschenberg reading from this week: Christopher Knight in the Los Angeles Times, Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times. Both pieces have nice photo galleries. Also, the LAT has a touching piece in which Angelenos who worked with Rauchenberg remember the artist.

Posted by Kate Cohen, May 16th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Art, Los Angeles, Museums, New Release 2005, Obituary

Second verse, same as the first

Soldier/blogger and California author Colby Buzzell finished his hitch in Iraq and returned to civilian life in 2004. Or so he thought. A couple of weeks ago, he was ordered to return to war — something his recruiter told him would happen only if World War III broke out. Buzzell’s book My War:Killing Time In Iraq, (Penguin, 2005) was a best-selling compilation of entries from the popular and relentless blog he wrote from the frontlines during his first deployment. Forced to interrupt his GI Bill education at San Francisco City College to return to the army, he writes about the backdoor draft in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed.

Looking back, would I have joined the military if I were doing something that I loved? Or had a job that paid $100,000 a year? Probably not. Those are the men and women I feel that we need to mail these letters to. Let’s see what happens when they receive letters telling them to put on a uniform and ship out immediately to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many people believe that the draft ended the Vietnam War. I’m convinced that reinstating the draft would definitely end this war. Rich, connected people will always find a way to evade mandatory service, but what about the rest of America? The middle class - people with good jobs and nice lives - would perhaps riot if the government even suggested that it expected from them what the Army expects from veterans.

Dunno about you, but I’m definitely putting the My War blog back in my feed reader — and hoping hard that Buzzell makes it back to his life and another book deal.

Posted by Kate Cohen, May 15th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Author's life, Biography/memoir, New Release 2005, Politics/government

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 on Main Street into a bustling hub of Latino arts and literature. Arellano notes that Librería Martinez has hosted “every major American-born Latino author and most every Latin American titan of letters save Gabriel García Márquez.” It was at Libreria Martinez a few years ago that I got to meet author Isabel Allende; the exuberant line of book lovers that night snaked down and around the block.

But the bookstore has fallen on hard times this past year for a variety of reasons, and Martinez has fallen behind on his rent, even as he dips into retirement savings to keep the store afloat. Now he’s battling to save Libreria Martinez and asking longtime fans to do more than just praise his bookstore. “I can’t let my baby die,” he says. “I’ve just put too much into it to let it disappear.”

Read Arellano’s story here. Read more: at L.A. Now and an LA Times editorial.

Posted by Donna Wares, May 15th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Sad, Southern California

A new day at CaliforniaAuthors and a book lotto, too

Welcome to the new CaliforniaAuthors.com! Click around and you’ll find our familiar features with a fresh face and an easy-to-navigate new site.

To celebrate our re-launch, Kate and I are delighted to share an autographed copy of Mark Sarvas’ new novel, Harry, Revised.

Mark hosts the popular and often cheeky litblog, The Elegant Variation. Along with chronicling the latest book news, Mark likes to write about the ins and outs of getting a first book published, even managing to make the arrival of his copyedited manuscript into a lively blog item that drew a slew of reader comments.

“TEV has always been intended as a place for serious conversation about literary matters and was never meant to promote my book,” he says, “but as I mentioned my novel-in-progress, readers became interested and emailed me with questions. I realized I had an opportunity to take them along on the journey from creation to (with any luck) publication, and I’ve been able to shed a light on some of the more opaque corners of the publishing process, and share my ongoing education with my readers.

“One of the great joys has been the remarkable, kind outpouring of congratulations that has accompanied each milestone in the process - the sale, the first galley, the first finished book, the first bookstore sighting. It’s been a memorable way to put out a first novel.”

Mark is off on his book tour, but he graciously shared a signed book with us before he left LA. If you’d like to enter our Book Lotto, please use our contact form to send us your name and e-mail address. Put “HARRY, REVISED” in the subject line. We’ll select a winner at random on Monday, May 19.

P.S. To our author pals who still scoff at the notion of starting a blog (you know who you are), please note: Mark Sarvas says he now gets about 7,500 readers daily at The Elegant Variation, which he started on a whim in 2003. As he recently explained to the LAT’s Scott Timberg, “I really launched the site without a great deal of thought: I was sitting at home in an apartment in Westwood; I was getting increasingly excited by the things I was reading on these other literary blogs. I found [the blogging platform] TypePad, and within an hour or two it was up and running — I was posting.”

Posted by Donna Wares, May 10th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Bookbloggery, Fiction, Giveaways, New Release 2008, Site stuff

An essay from the author of Girl Factory

In the latest addition to our library of author essays, novelist and guest author Jim Krusoe writes about what happens when the passage of time and a revelation about a long-forgotten college acquaintance named Wally unexpectedly upend his view of the world. “In some fundamental way everything I had believed: the idea that somewhere, Wally and the rest of those Jock-Nihilists were going about living their lives, having children, grandchildren, fulfilling the promise of the college to provide the world with humane executives, educators and middle-managers — all things expected of a certain class — this whole vision of normality had been based on a lie. One of us at least had not kept up.” Read the complete essay here.

Posted by Donna Wares, May 10th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: What's Inside

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 her KPCC show. Last week: a sitdown with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This week: former President Jimmy Carter stops by on his book tour.

• Novelist Susan Straight wins an Edgar Award for her short story “The Golden Gopher” in the Los Angeles Noir anthology. [from laobserved]

• California author, commentator, and “cybersalonista” Arianna Huffington takes a star turn in W.

Posted by Donna Wares, May 8th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Journalism, Music, Prizes and awards, Radio

Malibu top ten

The Malibu Times looks at the books locals are buying lately, among them California Poetry (the city’s 2008 One Book, One City pick), The Wentworths by local author Katie Arnoldi, and All for a Few Perfect Waves by David Rensin. Read more here.

Posted by Donna Wares, May 4th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Malibu, Reading now

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 regional libraries on Sundays, cutting back on park maintenance and getting rid of half of the city’s 42 park ranger positions.”

Residents who turned out for Thursday’s public hearing pointed out that the city actually would be undermining public safety by cutting back safe havens at libraries and parks.

For the latest library budget updates, visit Save LAPL. Add your voice here.

Posted by Donna Wares, May 3rd, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Libraries, Los Angeles, Politics/government

Bookish LA

Kevin Roderick waxes on the nation’s biggest book market on KCRW and highlights some of SoCal’s new spring’s books — among them Latinos in Lotusland; Hollywood Crows; The Devils of Bakersfield; The Age Of Dreaming; and Great Escapes: Southern California.

There are something like fifteen million people living within the sound of my voice. So there’s really no competition for who buys the most books.

Places you might think of as bookish — the Bay Area, say, or Boston or Portland — just aren’t big enough.

And New York — well, even with all the publishers and agents squeezed into Manhattan, the boroughs aren’t really filled with readers.

So that leaves Southern California…

Read more or listen here.

Posted by Donna Wares, April 27th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Book biz, Los Angeles, On the web, Web audio, West Coast market

See you at the Festival of Books

my californiaThis 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 excellent Op-Ed piece in today’s Times about giving up her driver’s license: “Living car-less in Los Angeles is living by your wits.”

On Saturday, My California contributors Patt Morrison and D.J. Waldie sign books at the ACP booth at 1 pm, and David Kipen, literature director at the National Endowment for the Arts, stops by at 4 pm.

All My California proceeds, of course, benefit the California Arts Council and writing programs for children.

More about the festival: Kevin Roderick posts his weekend guide at LaObserved and TEV shares a coupla pointers, too.

Posted by Donna Wares, April 25th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Bookbloggery, Events and festivals, Los Angeles, My California

What I’m reading

Author Edward Humes reviews LA Times columnist Steve Lopez’s new book and finds it “a very human drama that is hard to put down.” A snippet:

Los Angeles’ skid row, as Steve Lopez writes in “The Soloist,” is the homeless capital of the nation.

Hidden in plain sight just down the street from City Hall and mere steps from the offices of this newspaper, skid row is a reeking repository of disease, drugs and desperation that most of us avoid when possible or hurriedly step past when necessary, averting our stares from hollow cheeks and hollow eyes, as if they were invisible.

“The Soloist” is Lopez’s compelling and gruffly tender account of what can happen when you don’t step past.

In his unsparing portrait of this universe and the plight of the homeless mentally ill, Lopez offers not a moment of wonkery or preachiness — just his keen observations and eye for telling detail as he unfolds the story of his unintended and improbable friendship with a homeless, schizophrenic classical musician, Nathaniel Ayers.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Donna Wares, April 21st, 2008 | Permalink
File under: New Release 2008, Nonfiction, Reviews

Good idea

RJ Smith at Los Angeles magazine interviews the six living ex-editors of the Los Angeles Times about the paper’s past, its unpredictable new owner, and its prospects for the future. The story isn’t online yet, but LAObserved posts some choice morsels.

Posted by Donna Wares, April 15th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Journalism, Newspapers

Hmmm

“HarperCollins Publishers is forming a new publishing group that will substitute profit-sharing with authors for cash advances and will try to eliminate the costly practice of allowing booksellers to return unsold copies.” From today’s NYT.

Posted by Donna Wares, April 4th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Publisher news

On being a reclusive weirdo

last-last-chance“So I woke up this a.m. thinking about how unsuited most writers are to the kind of self-promotion — or any kind of promotion — that publishing a book seems to require. Me, I live in a hole. I like my hole. Me and my hole have rapport … Want to know what it’s like being a first-time novelist? You watch the Food Network when you can’t sleep, which is all the time.” — Fiona Maazel, guest blogging at the Elegant Variation.

Posted by Donna Wares, April 3rd, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Author's life, Bookbloggery, Marketing/promotion, New Release 2008

Saucy schemes and new stories

Isabel Allende’s memoir is just out: The Sums of Our Days… novelist Tobias Wolff is on the cover of Poets and Writers magazine (though the story is not yet available online)… Veronique de Turenne teams up with Ernest Marquez to chronicle Southern California’s century as a maritime hub in Port of Los Angeles… former Islands Magazine Editor Joan Tapper has just published Shear Spirit… poet Carol Muske-Dukes says “My Love is Like a Sweet Revolver“… columnist Steve Lopez invites readers to co-write a novel, Birds of Paradise… Carolyn Kellogg joins the LAT’s book blog, Jacket Copy, and shares an interesting dispatch from Istanbul… Author Enablers Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Sam Barry include a nice My California mention in their advice column for aspiring writers… Fray Quarterly is looking for a few good geeks… Michelle Nicolosi wants to know: What’s the coolest off-the-beaten-path place in the U.S.?

Posted by Donna Wares, April 3rd, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Biography/memoir, Bookbloggery, Crafts/garden, History, Magazines, My California, Newspapers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Travel books

A good deed and spring cleaning, too

The California Highway Patrol begins its annual Cesar E. Chavez Book Drive today. You are cordially invited to drop off new and gently used children’s books at the nearest CHP office. The drive runs through May 5 and book donations will be distributed to schools, shelters and other charitable organizations throughout the state.

Find the closest CHP office here. Or pack up a box of books and ship them off to CHP headquarters, 2555 First Avenue, Sacramento, 95818.

Posted by Donna Wares, March 31st, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Good works

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.

Posted by Donna Wares, March 31st, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Closing

The travel writer and the monk

Today is publication day for The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer, who divides his time between Santa Barbara and Japan and first visited the exiled Dalai Lama at age 17. “A brilliant pairing of writer and subject,” says Publishers Weekly. We have to agree.

Read an excerpt and more about the book here.

Posted by Donna Wares, March 25th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: New Release 2008, Philosophy/religion, Travel books

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 a tree for every book they buy … Skylight Books in LA’s Los Feliz area is growing. “I’m happy to tell you that we are going to be expanding our store to include a storefront next door!” says Skylight general manager Kerry Slattery. “It will be at least a few months before all is ready, but we plan to move our art, film, music, theatre and a few other sections to the new space, which will allow us to also expand a few sections like Fiction and the Children’s section.”

Posted by Donna Wares, March 23rd, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Los Angeles, Opening, Prizes and awards, San Francisco, West Coast market

The odds couple

Double or NothingMark F. at BoingBoing advises, “Harper Collins has posted the full text of Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas’ Legendary Casinos, by Tom Breitling with Cal Fussman. It’s available until April 14th.” For free.

The writers: “Their unlikely friendship began in college over an $8 veal parmigiana sandwich… ”

Posted by Donna Wares, March 20th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Author's life, Giveaways, Marketing/promotion, New Release 2008, Nonfiction, On the web
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