From the Bible to the Broadway stage, readers and gift-buyers can find a wealth of new books in the bookstores, and it’s the time of year when authors, too, are out in the world to talk about their work. Here are five choice opportunities in Southern California.
; and Rabbi David Wolpe, author of “David: The Divided Heart” (Yale University Press). The moderator will be Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion and author of “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary” (URJ Press). I will be joining the panel as author of “King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel” (Ballantine). Any conversation about David, who is shown in the Bible to be a man of many parts, is bound to strike sparks: “No other figure has the mysterious magnetism that makes David such a beloved hero,” Wright writes. “No wonder it has been said that Israel revered Moses but loved David.” The program will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, 8844 Burton Way, Beverly Hills. For free phone reservations and questions, call (213) 749-3424, ext. 4254.</p>
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Novelist and short-story writer Richard Ford is a practitioner of “dirty realism” in American fiction who has been honored with a string of distinguished awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for his novel “Independence Day.” The character who appears in many of his novels, including the newly published “Let Me Be Frank With You,” (Ecco), is a much-pondered figure called Frank Bascombe, not exactly an everyman or an alter ego of the author, but someone who has taken on a palpable existence of his own in American literature.</p>
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The name Cecil B. DeMille has entered our language as a signifier for a kind of epic motion picture that was once the glory of Hollywood. Yet, somehow his name fails to conjure what the flesh-and-blood DeMille actually accomplished from his perch on a camera dolly in an era long before computer-generated images.
, which includes storyboards, concept art and lush images from the finished films, all accompanied by a highly illuminating text. The great man’s granddaughter, Cecilia, contributes her own reminiscences of her visits to the sets, including an especially exotic journey to Egypt for the filming of “The Ten Commandments.” The authors will discuss and sign copies of the book at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 11 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. (310) 659-3110. <a href=)
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A bookstore appearance by crime novelist and literary wild man James Ellroy belongs to the realm of performance art. Indeed, his in-person antics are so intense that his visit to Skylight Books once became the subject of a documentary film.
. The book is set in Los Angeles on the eve of World War II and shows how Angelenos of Japanese descent fell victim to racial hysteria and war panic. As he has done many times before, Ellroy transcends the genre in which he writes to achieve something that is both more intimate and more elevated than hardboiled mystery fiction, which is why “Perfidia” has been aptly described as both “a novel of astonishments” and “a great American novel.” Ellroy will talk about and sign copies of his new book at 7 p.m. on Dec. 8 at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove at Farmers Market, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles. (323) 525-0270.</p>
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Every performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” is an occasion for celebration, whether it’s a Broadway show or an amateur production by the kids at a local synagogue. The celebratory spirit can also be found in Barbara Isenberg’s effervescent new book, “Tradition! The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ the World’s Most Beloved Musical” (St. Martin’s Press).</p>
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