A number of author appearances and book-related events are taking place this spring at Bookshop Santa Cruz. One of the more noteworthy is a stop by Mary Roach, who is skilled at making science both accessible and humorous. She’s dug into cadavers (in Stiff), the afterlife (Spook) and sex (Bonk). Her latest book, Gulp (now…
Articles by Michael S. Gant
Spring Lit: Reviews
Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage By Susan Shillinglaw University of Nevada Press, cloth, $34.95 Seventy-five years on, John Steinbeck’s masterwork, The Grapes of Wrath, remains potent reading. The opening prose poem about the drought that drives the Joad family to the promised land of California—“The sun faced down on the growing corn…
Last-Minute Gift Guide: Books
Presenting someone an e-reader satisfies the basic ritual impulse, but how do you give an e-book: a gift card for Amazon, an account at B&N, a login at Google’s new book-retailing project? These immaterial manifestations of books can’t really be wrapped in showy paper and colorful ribbons. They don’t come with the excitement of revelation. (“Oh, look, you got me a $15 credit to download a bestseller of my choice if I ever remember to get around to it.”)
