This Week in Reading September 2 - 8

From a week of powerhouse names of authors born last week this week turns out to be somewhat milder. Though bestselling authors like Taylor Caldwell and Cleveland Amory appear, they are decidedly from an earlier era and are not read as much as before except by older persons reclaiming past pleasures. Today's fiction readers who prefer more complex and modern relationships may well prefer award winners Alison Lurie and Ann Beattie.

It's Labor Day week, traditionally the start of school and the end of summer vacation, though more and more schools and colleges start before Labor Day now than before. It is also the first of each year's college football weekends, new seasons in the arts, in publishing, in television, and the end of wearing white until next May. (Unless you have become free of old fashion cliches which may not be needed anymore.) But do you know how Labor Day was created and what labor unions and working people's movements have meant to America? Read From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend to find out.

This Week's Question: This week marks the twenty-first anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey show which gave writers Oprah's Book Club. To be chosen to be interviewed and have one's work as a book for viewers to read and discuss means instant bestsellerdom for any author, though some older books are chosen as well. What is the current book in Oprah's Book Club?

Answer to Last Week's Question: William Saroyan wrote this at the beginning of his Pulitzer prizewinning play The Time of Your Life. In the college production in which I played the main character, Joe, a Broadway actor recorded this and we played it before the curtain opened every night. Hope some group does this show around here in Saroyan's centennial year. "In the time of your life, live – so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and where it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed."

This Week in Reading August 26- Sept 1

Not only do we find the creator of Frankenstein's monster born this week but also the creator of Tarzan of the Apes. One of the authors this week is not only a Nobel prizewinner and a potential saint, another was perhaps the most influential Supreme Court Justice ever. (I particularly like his witty poetry, however, especially The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.) The rest are merely justifiably famous for literature itself, philosophy, psychology, ornithology, and the law.

But the Pulitizer prizewinning author that lifted the spirits of millions of downhearted Americans during the Great Depression and World War II was California's own William Saroyan, also born this week. Look for big doings around the state this time next year, the one hundreth anniversary of the birth of this humane, charming and altogether sentimental writer who understood a lot about people.

This Week's Question: There is a sentimental quote from one of William Saroyan's works next to his picture on the author birthday list this week. On which of his novels, stories, plays did he write this timely advice?

Answer to Last Week's Question: If you followed the link in the question you may have found out that the word used to describe books printed in the infancy of printing is 'incunabula,' from the Latin word 'cunae' which means 'cradle.' We don't have much to look at here but you can see many examples on the Berkeley Incunabula database or better yet, visit the Huntington Library in nearby San Marino and look at some real copies of rare books from this period and later, such as the Gutenberg Bible itself and some of Shakespeare's folios. Have high tea while you're there.