Subject: Books and Literature

• Cry, The Beloved Country

  March 19, 2009

• Tapping the Source... and maybe your phone

  Perhaps because it's in the Drinking Issue, Cornel Bonca's review of Paula L. Woods' new novel Strange Bedfellows (featured in Selected Reviews from the Weekly on the sidebar) reminded me both of my own experiences with bad novels and my favorite quote from one very good novel, Waguih Ghali's Beer in the Snooker Club: What do people who do not drink do on such occasions? Face the facts perhaps. But facing a fact is one thing, and overcoming it is another. Cognac was going to overcome the facts.

  March 14, 2006

• The Los Angeles Times is Stupid (Canto MCXVI)

  It's painful picking up the Los Angeles Times every morning and notice it's getting lighter every week. While they're doing this, however, their Chicago pendejo overseers are spending mucho millions on how to attract more readers. Their supposed salvation: Mexicans. If so, why in God's green earth would they axe La Cucaracha, the pinche funny comic strip drawn by legendary pocho Lalo Alcaraz??? It's one of the precious few comic strips in Latino USA drawn by Latinos and that deal with Latino is

  March 5, 2007

• Congrats to Gustavo

  At 8 p.m. tonight--after only a single day in release, Gustavo Arellano's Ask A Mexican reached #165 in nationwide book sales on Amazon.com. What will the number fall to after Gustavo--who appeared on CNN with Paula Zahn this afternoon--ends his national TV, radio and bookstore tour? Could it reach the top 10?

  May 1, 2007

• Papa Bear Coming to The Dick

  From the Richard Nixon Library, Birthplace, Deathplace and Untruthiness Center: BILL O'REILLY SET FOR NIXON LIBRARY SEPTEMBER 28 TV, Radio Superstar coming to launch Culture Warrior One of the biggest figures in American media, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, has selected the Nixon Library for the West Coast launch of his 4th big book, Culture Warrior, at 7:30 pm on Thursday, September 28. It's one of only three signings he's scheduled throughout the country. O'Reilly has authored three New York Ti

  July 18, 2006

• The Times and Me

  Pick up the Los Angeles Times today and read my essay on the boneheaded Huntington Beach Fourth of July parade committee that decided to dick with Sylvia Mendez of Mendez vs. Westminster fame. Then browse through the Times' archives and find their June 17 best-seller list, in which my ¡Ask a Mexican! book clocks in at No. 9 in the nonfiction hardcover section. Finally, buy The New York Times this Sunday, when the Sunday Style section profiles me. And always, always click it or ticket. Now, back

  June 21, 2007

• Pumped Up On Reading

  Many, many books get delivered to the Weekly. Some of them are likely Very Important Books that Very Serious Thinkers would spend much time mulling over. But some of them are little escapist gems of chick lit, my own frothy, guilty pleasure. I've been scooping up books from the receptionist's office, mostly based on titles and cover images, for a couple of months now. And since our lovely and talented Web Editor is begging people to blog, well, I thought a mid-summer book blast might get her off

  July 11, 2007

• To Do Tonight - 3/6

  NORM MACDONALD, 8:30 p.m. Most notably known for SNL's "Weekend Update" and Burt Reynolds. Brea Improv, 120 S. Brea Blvd. Brea LU-U 9:00 p.m. Cowboy on board. The Pike Bar & Grill, 1836 E. Fourth St. Long Beach REEFER MADNESS, 8:00 p.m Kids Dope = Musical? Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Pkwy. Mission Viejo SHORE BOOK CLUB, 8:00 p.m. Like Oprah's book club, plus wine. Shore Books Art Gallery, 4817 E. 2nd St. Long Beach TALK ABOUT THE PASSION, 8:00 p.m. The toll a child's murder ta

  March 6, 2008

• Write a best-seller on company time? Novel idea!

  Tired (literally) of dragging your sorry ass out of bed at 5 a.m. Monday through Friday to crank out another 500 words on your first (second, third) novel? Sinking facedown onto the desk at work by mid-afternoon because of sleep deprivation? Your problems are over. At last night’s Orange County Press Club - “Journalists Turned Authors / How You Can Live Your Fantasy Life!” - Orange Coast magazine’s editor-at-large Martin J. Smith offered the perfect solution. During

  May 15, 2008

• Kat Von D

  March 19, 2009

• Orange County: A Personal History Signing Set For Sept. 18 at the Yost Theater

  When I had my first book signing for ¡Ask a Mexican! at Librería Martinez last year, more than 300 people showed up, and many more were turned away because we crammed the store like illegals in a Chevy trunk. Let's hope as many people show up, if not more, on Sept. 18. That's when I have my first Orange County book signing for my new book, Orange County: A Personal History, my take on our crazy county and my retelling of my family's four-generation zacatecano invasion of Anaheim. Instead of ho

  August 24, 2008

• OC Faux Pas of the Millennium!!!

  Setting: West Hollywood Book Fair, 'round noon, Librería Martínez booth. Protagonists: Me, Librería Martinez volunteer Jess Baudillo, and a gaggle of gals from the Mission VIejo Public Library. Scene: They had just invited me to speak at some author's festival they're proposing for next year. I, having a new book to hawk, graciously accepted. I told them I had a successful book signing a couple of weeks ago sponsored through Librería Martínez. Silence. "You've never heard of Librería M

  September 30, 2008

• Los Angeles Times is Talkin' Shit!

  Call it more progressive (read: adult) editorial stance, a copyeditor's error, or a raised middle-finger to the paper's days of branding itself a "family newspaper," I have to admit being tickled at the sight of the word "shit" popping up in today's print edition of the LA Times. It's right there on page 22 of what's left of the Calendar section, in a book review feature: the un-altered title of the new book of essays by Steve Lowe, Alan McArthur and Brendan Hay: Is It Just Me or Is Everything

  November 21, 2008

• George Galloway

  April 2, 2009

• To Do Tonight - 1/21

  Mystery Book Group, 7 p.m.Join the Mystery Book Group for a discussion of The Savage Garden by Mark Mills and The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi.Barnes & Noble, 7881 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach, CA; 714-897-8781Cooking For A Cause, 6:30 p.m.Event donations will be dispersed by Culinary Action Direct to OC's Hungry and Local Culinary Schools. Classes are available for all ages. Orange County Wine and Food Center, 1570 Scenic, Costa Mesa, CA Playboy Comedy, 8 p.m.Beginning

  January 21, 2009

• Margaret Hyde Signing

  June 4, 2009

• The Brand New Kid

  June 4, 2009

• The Real Iranian Housewife of Orange County Gets a TV Pilot

  Ho-hum, another TV show based on the "Orange County" experience. At least this one holds the promise of being something other than the usual rich & bitchen exploits of the Botoxed coastal-living set. Firoozeh Dumas, whose debut book Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America was based on the Iranian-born author's tales of growing up in Newport Beach, reports on her website that ABC has a Funny in Farsi pilot going into production.  "This is the fi

  February 17, 2009

• "Odd Man Out" Author to Sign Books in Fullerton Tonight

  If you like or do not like what you have read in Odd Man Out or read about author Matt McCarthy, you can apparently tell him about it tonight in Fullerton. McCarthy is scheduled to sign copies about his tell-all book about a year in the Angels' minor league system at 7 tonight at the Barnes & Noble in Amerige Heights Town Center, 1923 West Malvern Ave., Fullerton.McCarthy, now a medical intern, was a pitcher, but given the reaction his book has received in some quarters around here, I'd sugg

  March 4, 2009

• Former Weekling Pignataro Lives, Writes the Maui Life

  The last time the Weekly pimped a book by Anthony Pignataro, it was El Toro Airport Watch: A No-Nonsense Guide to the Controversy Surrounding Orange County's Proposed El Toro International Airport. The title alone is nearly as long as the 54-page book, a staggering work of genius that is not really a book but more a bigger-than-a-pamphlet collection of The Pig's weekly "El Toro Airport Watch" columns that ran in the Weekly in 1997. It was put out by Project 99, the anti-airport group fronted by

  March 25, 2009

• Banned Book Club

  March 5, 2009

• Derrick Brown Loves You at Midnight

  February 12, 2009

• Passare I Popcorn

  January 15, 2009

• Mystery Book Group

  January 15, 2009

• Eat, Pray, Love

  January 8, 2009

• Paperback Writer

  January 1, 2009

• [¡Ask a Mexican!] Villa's Stolen Skull (Again)

  January 1, 2009

• Diahann Carroll

  December 4, 2008

• Good Works

  November 20, 2008

• Latina Authors Panel

  November 13, 2008

• Going Craisy

  July 3, 2008

• Dragging On

  June 12, 2008

• Deadline Distinguished

  April 24, 2008

• Book ’Em, Dan-o

  April 3, 2008

• Raw Salman

  March 27, 2008

• Remember Books?

  January 10, 2008

• ALSO TONIGHT: Final Day of Comic Universe!

  We've talked before here about the struggles of Comic Universe in Fountain Valley, but now it's official: the store is closing its doors as of tonight.But at least it's going out the right way: music from Okashii, the Flying Saucers and DJ Oldboy, along with (as you can see from the flier), "music, food, beverages and free comics."  Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, in which comic book stores across the country will give out books that comic book publishers have specifically produced t

  April 29, 2009

• La Casa Garcia Releases New Book

  Last month, I wrote about the surprisingly good flautas offered by La Casa Garcia in Anaheim. It's not the county's best Mexican-American joint (though does belongs among the top 10), but owner Frank Garcia is a true Mexi-mensch; his annual We Give Thanks Thanksgiving dinners is the stuff of legend, and guarantees him a spot in heaven. You can read about Garcia's story in a new book, We Give Thanks: A Book About Frank Garcia and His Legacy: Restauranteur and Philanthropist. More than mere vanity

  April 30, 2009

• Sunday Salon: A Woman Changed, Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1930s

  May 14, 2009

• Pajamarama

  January 29, 2009

• Poetry in the Gallery

  July 9, 2009

• Art Review: "R. Crumb's Underground"

  Grand Central Art Center​There's an exhibit going on at the moment that may be of some interest to comic strip fans. It's the "R. Crumb's Underground" exhibit, at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. It contains a mixture of 100 drawings, collaborations, sketches, and published pieces of Robert Crumb--pen name R. Crumb-- an underground comic book artist whose art is characterized by its critique of mainstream society. Though I would happily consider myself an artistic aficionado, I have

  July 27, 2009

• 'Green Lantern' Writer Geoff Johns Signing Today at Beach Ball Comics in Anaheim

  LA-based comic book writer Geoff Johns has been pretty much one of the biggest names in comic books these past few years, making himself a hero to DC Comics fanatics through beloved stints on The Flash, Action Comics, Teen Titans, JSA, Green Lantern and a bunch of other titles the company publishes that would be completely meaningless to most people who read this blog (he hasn't done much Batman, though. Hopefully one day!). He also has a really entertaining Twitter account, where he details his

  July 15, 2009

• Poet Richard Beban Reading

  September 3, 2009

• Book Banning Rears its Head in Huntington Beach

  ​Aren't we all past this stuff? The Register's Annie Burris reports that last night's Huntington Beach city council meeting saw a former Westminster school district trustee reading aloud a graphic child-rape scene from Maya Angelou's autobiographical I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Judy Ahrens performed the reading and was joined in her effort by Ocean View School District Trustee John Briscoe. The point was to gross-out everyone to the point where the book could be banned from school librari

  October 20, 2009

• The Jungle Book

  October 29, 2009

• ESPN.com's Bill Simmons

  November 12, 2009

• Shore Book Club

  November 12, 2009