Author Luis J. Rodriguez Opens Community Bookstore in L.A.
"Books saved my life," said author Luis J. Rodriguez in a recent interview. The 47-year-old author is a former Los Angeles gang member whose love and talent for poetry and prose convinced a judge to give Rodriguez a crucial break 26 years ago when he placed him, not back in prison, but on the road to a writer's life.
Eventually a newspaper job took Rodriguez to Chicago. There, he started his own poetry publishing house and wrote the award-winning 1994 memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (Touchstone Books).
Syndicated Columnist Sharon Randall's Essays on Life and Family Find Book Sense Fans
For Wally Amos, gourmet cookie guru and founder of Famous Amos Cookies, the cookie is a metaphor for life. That's why his new book (written with Eden-Lee Murray), The Cookie Never Crumbles: Inspirational Recipes for Everyday Living (St. Martin's), serves up recipes from his own personal kitchen that can help others lead gourmet lives. 
Eloquent and Provocative Memoir Garnering Strong Reviews
Most booksellers know the Hammett byline. The five classic novels and several volumes of short stories by Dashiell Hammett, father of modern American crime fiction, have been steady sellers for decades.
Muhammed Ali may seem an unlikely likeness for the author of Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, a novel about Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt's dying sister that has been lauded for its sensitivity and delicacy. But Daniel Simon, publisher of Seven Stories Press, compares Harriet Scott Chessman to the heavyweight champion, explaining, "In her subtle way, Harriet hits you at several different angles ...