Archive for May 2008
Robert G. Mondavi, 1913-2008
Robert Mondavi as Bacchus, with wife Margrit. Photo: Avis Mandel for Pate International During the three years it took to research and write The House of Mondavi, I interviewed hundreds of people, poured through legal and corporate documents, and studied old photographs from high school yearbooks and other fragments of the past, searching for clues…
Read MoreThe Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
President John F. Kennedy plays with children John. Jr., and Caroline in the Oval Office in October 1962, above, while below, his motorcade approaches Dealey Plaza in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Top photo from historyplace.com; bottom photo Walt Sisco, photographer/Courtesy The Dallas Morning News I can’t remember the last time I choked up with…
Read MoreBook Tour Blues, as sung by Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz: His blog details the “voyage long and strange” that is a book tour.Photo from voyagelongandstrange.com I hit a low point on my first tour for The House of Mondavi on one of those days that come so seldom to Chicago. It was last June and the weather felt balmy, with the last burst…
Read MoreChristina Meldrum and Madapple
Christina Meldrum I read the galleys of my friend Christina Meldrum’s stunning debut novel, Madapple, over a single, rainy afternoon a few months ago. I refused to get up off the couch, despite the requests of my husband and sons, until I’d finished the last page. What a book! I truly couldn’t put it down.…
Read More“Friend-raising” for our public libraries?
Above, an invitation to Burlingame’s library fundraiser … Image from wincountrygetaways.com … While in Salinas in 2004, readers protest “death of the libraries.” Photo from indymedia.org On Saturday, May 3, the Burlingame Public Library Foundation hosted a lunch that was as much about building community as it was about raising funds. As one of the…
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