Cara Black on tour

It's always fun to see Cara Black on book tour.  I try to make it every year, when I can.  So Joni and I saw her this past Tuesday night at Books, Inc. in Palo Alto.  But wait!  This wasn't just any book tour.  Why not, you ask?  I'll tell you why not:

1.  Her latest Aimée Leduc celebrates 20 years!  And with the same publisher!  How cool is that?
2.  Although she had her launch the night before, we saw her on the day Murder in Bel-Air hit the bookstores.
3.  Books, Inc. provided a cake for Cara and guests (see below).
4.  Cara has agreed to come back to the RBC!  We will be welcoming her with arms wide open on January 22, 2020.

Here are some pictures from the event.  And take a look at #3.  Do you think there might have been a whole bunch of people there, with most of them buying a book?  I would say yes to that.

Tidbits

Hello all.  Here are some random literary-related tidbits for your edification, notification, and gentrification (huh?) :

1.  All the Light We Cannot See is coming to Netflix as a limited series.  As of now, there is no date or casting.

2.  Have you read Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts?  It's really good.  Here is a short blurb I wrote about it a few years ago.:

The story takes place starting in 1933 when a college history professor is appointed by FDR to become ambassador to Germany in Berlin.  It not only addresses the rise to power of Hitler, but it also talks about what being an ambassador meant in those days.  This is the same guy who wrote Devil in the White City, about the 1896 World's Fair in Chicago.  I liked this one much better.

Tom Hanks will be co-producing a big screen version of it.  There are no details as of yet.

 3.  Take a look at this article by author Steve Berry, he of the Cotton Malone series.  It's about the benefits of adult literacy from reading books as an adolescent.  Pretty heady stuff. 

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/artic…/pii/S0049089X18300607

4.  The owners of the Books, Inc. chain, Michael and Margie Still Tucker, will be retiring in October! I have been a member of the Books, Inc. Tuesday Night Book Club in Palo Alto for a few years now. Margie actually runs the book club.  She is very knowledgeable and does a great job.  I, among many, many others, will miss her. 

5.  Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain will be coming to the multiplexes on August 19.  This is a book I stayed away from only because there is a picture of a dog on the front.  And as some of you may know, I'm really not interested in stories revolving around animals.  HOWEVER, I really liked this book.  The movie starts Milo Ventimiglia (TV's This Is Us) and Amanda Seyfried.  The voice of Enzo, the canine narrator, is Kevin Costner.

6.  And speaking of books that are being made into movies, how about the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goldfinch?  It comes out on September 19 and stars Nicole Kidman.  Need I remind you that I read 19 pages and said:  "Uh, no.  I can't do 700 pages if they are like the first 19."...or words that that effect?  You don't remember I said that?  Maybe it was just in my head as I wrote the letters DNF (did not finish) in my list of books read.

That's it, y'all.