Sacramento Bee: Books

The idle pleasures of summer reading become sweet memories as the mornings grow progressively more chilly and the leaves begin to change colors.

Hampton Sides, just in from Nashville, took the phone call in his hotel room in Washington, D.C., to talk about his new book, a true story that reads like a thriller.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share

Fostering literacy in young ones is an ongoing concern for parents, educators and librarians. Fairytale Town will do its share for the cause with its 14th annual two-day ScholarShare Children’s Book Festival.

Grass Valley nonfiction Western writer Chris Enss and co-author Howard Kazanjian tell a remarkable, little-known and scandalous story in “Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball, Corruption, and Murder.” The two will be at Raley Field for a meet ’n’ greet and book-signing from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

In the 1870s, in the midst of the Gilded Age, America’s sense of Manifest Destiny still prevailed.

Todd Borg lives at one of the world’s great destinations – Lake Tahoe – and writes about the adventures of his P.I. character, former SFPD homicide inspector Owen McKenna, who also lives on the lake (of course).

William T. Vollmann is most relaxed when he’s in residence at his writing studio, a former Mexican restaurant in Sacramento’s Alkali Flat neighborhood.

My annual sampling of summertime reading appeared in this space June 24, with this introduction: “Summer means travel, relaxation and the companionship of a can’t-put-it-down book or two, or more likely several.” The key word here is several, as my inventory of worthwhile page-turners – both fiction and nonfiction – continues to grow.

The season isn’t slowing down with titles or author appearances throughout the Sacramento area.

Night Diver by Elizabeth Lowell

Summer means travel, relaxation and the companionship of a can’t-put-it-down book or two, or more likely several.