Author Event: Neil Patrick Harris and Choose Your Own Autobiography
organized by Bookshop Santa Cruz


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An Evening with Lev Grossman
at Kepler's Books


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Reading Like a Writer
by Francine Prose


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As usual, I'm a bit late, but since the last week of September is traditionally Banned Books Week,  here are several authors responding to news that their work has been challenged or banned.

“… it is a mad world and it will get madder if we allow the minorities, be they dwarf or giant, orangutan or dolphin, nuclear-head or water-conversationalist, ( Read more... )

James Mace is the author of the Soldier of Rome series, which follows the adventures of the Roman soldier Artorius through his military career in the province of Germania in the early 1st century AD.  The fourth book in the series, The
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Yesterday I posted a review of Cecelia Holland's latest book,  The King's Witch.  (I have also previously reviewed her book   The Secret Eleanor.)  In this special guest post, she has shared some of her thoughts about writing a book about the Crusades, and medicine in the 12th century.


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These are very perceptive questions. American women live with a wholly different set of assumptions and problems than a woman in the twelfth century. This of course is an excellent reason for reading about a twelfth century woman, especially the magnificent Eleanor of Aquitaine, who shines above the second half of the century like a comet ( Read more... )

I am just finishing up His Last Letter: Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester, and I'll be sharing my review of it in my next post.  I had a chance to ask the book's author, Jeane Westin, about her writing process and how she 'time travels' back to Elizabeth's court.

I asked, I've often wondered what steps an author takes when she write about ( Read more... )

From the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-dionne/on-buying-books_b_163593.html

On Buying Books
by Karen Dionne

According to a survey commissioned last spring by Random House Inc., 28 percent of Americans purchase between 11 and 20 books every year. The figure is slightly higher for Canadians: roughly one-third (34%) report buying ( Read more... )