OK, people...so those were easy questions. And because we've had 10 correct answers so far (one double answer, and one person answered both questions), on to the next question. Please, if you've already snagged a copy, allow me to pass you over and give a copy to another deserving fan...

...because each person who answers is going to be entered into a little drawing from a hat to win an invitation to the Saturday, May 31, party for Connelly at BEA!

Here's Question the Third:

What tattoo did Bosch get in Vietnam?

No choices or clues, this time...

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Which Edward Hopper Painting does Harry Bosch own a print of: Nighthawks, Chop Suey, or New York Movie?

First five to leave correct answer in comments will win a copy of the Zagat Michael Connelly's LA guide...and a chance at something else, as well. Stay tuned!

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I'll start with a softball question: What is Harry Bosch's favorite kind of music?

I'll even give you multiple choices: Rock, jazz, or classical.

First five commenters with correct answer will snag a pre-BEA copy of Zagat Michael Connelly's Los Angeles: Restaurants, Nightlife & Attractions 2008. 

Let the game begin!

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If anyone can make Los Angeles seem angelic in the midst of demonic human hijinks, it would be Michael Connelly. I don't read tons of detective novels or thrillers, but I always read Connelly's -- not only does he write well, he changes things up with each book, even within the same series. 

This year Connelly's publisher, Hachette, has teamed up with the Zagat guidebook folks to create "Michael Connelly's Los Angeles 2008: Restaurants, Nightlife & Attractions," a special Book Expo America pub that's backed by a promo for Connelly's new novel, The Brass Verdict, and...Read More

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I was completely confused last week by Barbara Walters' "confession" about her decades-old (and cold) affair with then-Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, a married man. Why was this tiny piece of information newsworthy? Because Brooke is African-American? Because he was the great love of the famed newswoman's life? If the former, it seems a bit stale; if the latter, a bit flat -- after all, she hasn't been gushing to Oprah about the one that got away or telling Cindy Adams that she's never been the same since her time with Brooke. 

Rather, she's spun the inclu...Read More

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Thanks again to everyone who gave me suggestions yesterday on what to do in LA. I'm already daydreaming about when I might get to the beach.

The beach may stay a daydream, because there's a lot to do at BEA. I made a cursory list yesterday of the panels I'm interested in, and I can get to about oh, one-third of them. There is some serious pruning to be done and some tough decisions to be made -- not to mention there are meetings, coffees, lunches, and more to be had. 

So, what should I pencil in between bouts of roaming the show floor? I'd lo...Read More

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It's that time of year again -- the time when publishers' thoughts lightly to to convention centers in large metropolitan areas. Book Expo America is in Los Angeles this year, and I have a confession to make. 

I've never been to LA.

I know, it's shocking. I've been to San Francisco, San Diego, and San Marcos (OK, that's in Texas...), but never the City of Angels. Thanks to my airmiles, I've got a cushy, nonstop flight to help me arrive relatively rested. Now I just need to decide on a balance of seeing Los Angeles versus ...Read More

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I've spent some time learning how to craft and draft press releases, and those of you who think it's easy? Please think again. Press releases can be slapdash, incomplete, boring, and all other manner of bad, but writing them is not as simple as sending an RSVP. 

So I thought I'd begin a featurette here in my blog that highlights the good press releases and spotlights their worthy news.

The first one comes to me via the good people of MKPR, announcing Taylor Branch's win of the Dayton Literay Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Branch (pictured right, courtsey of Ellen W's Flickr Stream). ...Read More

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Last weekend I went to Manhattan, and I wanted to carry just one messenger bag, instead of toting a lot of stuff (the way I usually do; Mr. Bethanne refers to me as "Anna Karenina" when we travel). Now, how could I possibly take just one bag when I had a) a book to review and a deadline to meet, b) three novels in various states of unfinished reading, and c) a nonfiction title that I was dying to read?

The answer, of course: my e-reading device (The Device Which Must Not Be Named, lest more readers of this blog believe I am shilling for it. Believe me, that is far from the truth. I shelled out for the pricey little devil just like you might have). 

Cost of device: Too much
Cost of books: Pretty reasonable for the consumer
Toting five books in the space of less than one hardcover: PRICELESS

On the ride up, I finish...Read More

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I wear quite a few different hats: blogger, vlogger, critic, erstwhile journalist -- and mom, too. In between online entries and obsessive-compulsive checking of gossip sites, I make time for things like cobbling together a colonial-day costume from items in the attice (how the standards have fallen...my own mother whipped up carefully sewn aprons, mobcaps, fichus, and calico skirts back in the day). Somehow I have to figure out how to make a mobcap out of an old doll's lace-trimmed petticoat, and last night, frustrated in my attempts, I decided I'd Had Enough. I would leave the dratted sewing and head downtown for a book event.

Not just any book event, mind you, but an event for a book I care deeply about. In God's Name: Wisdo...Read More

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You might remember my friend John, who is now Bookreporter.com Contributing Editor John (that last link is to his interview with Francoise Mouly on her new TOON series; very cool stuff). (Go John go!)

John is a graphic novels maven, and for years now he's been encouraging me to read one of the classics of the genre, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. He has encouraged me so strongly for so long that I ...Read More

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I know that my entry titles are sometimes a bit mysterious; some might say abstruse. But I hope everyone reading here knows that "the thing with feathers" refers to hope...that mysterious human feeling that lay at the very bottom of Pandora's box, alone after all of the troubles of the world had been released. Is it just spring that makes me feel hopeful about the state of our industry -- or could it be that some of this week's LitNotes are harbingers of good things to come?

The Muses Still Visit Young Authors: And whoever can finish All the Sad Young Literary Men, Personal Days, and The Mayor's Tongue by the Brilliant Young Editors of n+1, The Paris Review, and The Believer before the end of May with their own muse still intact will have my ad...Read More

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