Literary Tidbits

Julia Flynn Siler, who wrote the bestselling House of Mondavi, has started a blog. She’s at the Neiman Narrative Nonfiction Conference in Boston and her reports are fascinating.

Garrison Keiller pens an ode to San Francisco. His sweet spot? A café on Irving Street in the Sunset.

“It was a glorious four days and I didn't even go to the beach. I just sat in a coffee shop on Irving Street near Golden Gate Park and smelled spring and watched the passing parade of youth.

Everybody in my coffee shop seemed to be in their 20s, locked into laptops, clicking and dragging, jumping to new links, sending IMs while text-messaging with the left hand, and the sheer volume of communication was impressive to behold. Here I was, chugging along writing a novel in which a guy meets up with his own mortality and is shocked into an outburst of passion, a sort of coming-of-old-age novel, typing taptaptaptap, and all around me beautiful young people were disseminating information in all directions by all media.”

The future of conversation is noise. Read Bay Area freelancer Dan Fost’s incredible article on how Twitter and social networking is changing lectures, conferences, and other gatherings.

House of Mondavi goes into 8th printing

Julia Flynn Siler’s book, The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, has been a runaway success. The book was a fixture on the San Francisco Chronicle’s bestseller list for months and had a brief perch on the New York Times bestseller list, and it continues to sell briskly. The House of Mondavi has now gone into its 8^th printing. There are 57,500 hardback copies in print. That’s a huge number.

As someone at Gotham, her publishing house, noted: “We rarely see a hardcover continue to reorder at this rate when the paperback is imminent so this is a sign of how strong word-of-mouth is on the book, and bodes very, very well for the success of the paperback.”

Julie is a friend of mine, which is why I can’t help kvel (brag) about her success. As I’ve said before, the book is also a very good read.

Bay Area Book News

Mill Valley writer David Sheff’s new memoir will be featured at 6,500 Starbucks around the country. Beautiful Boy tells the story of his son’s addiction to methamphetamine.

Julia Flynn Siler’s book The House of Mondavi has been named by BusinessWeek as one of the ten best books of 2007.

Andy Ross, the longtime owner of Cody’s Books, has stepped down as president. He said the changing nature of the book business has tired him out.

Chronicle reporter Lance Williams and former Chronicle reporter Mark Fainaru-Wade (who now works for ESPN) sold the rights to Game of Shadows to HBO Films.

Former San Francisco police chief Earl Saunders and his co-author Bennett Cohen have sold the film rights for their book, The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness and Civil Rights to Dreamworks.

Grotto founder Po Bronson won a first place award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his New York Magazine article on parental praise. Bronson also sold a book on the topic to Jonathan Karp at Twelve.

House of Mondavi by Julia Flynn Siler

The name Mondavi is synonymous throughout the world with fine wine and graceful Napa culture. Well, the reality is a little more grim than that and it is stunningly revealed in Julia Flynn Siler’s new book: House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty. Part of the book is excerpted at the Wall Street Journal.

Julie is a member of my writing group, North 24^th, and I am delighted to promote her book. It’s an amazing tale brought to life by Julie’s determination and inability to accept no as an answer. When she first started reporting the book, almost everyone in the Napa Valley was too intimidated by the powerful Mondavi family to talk to her. Even the Mondavis shunned her, as they were convinced that she just wanted to do a hit piece.

But Julie soldiered on, pouring through thousands of pages of court documents and interviewing hundreds of people. She flew to Italy to see the birthplace of Cesare Mondavi, the patriarch of the clan, and glammed herself up to hang out at the very fancy Napa Wine Auction. In short, she applied all the journalistic talents she acquired as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal to the book.

In the end, almost every member of the Mondavi family spoke with her, including Robert Mondavi and his wife, Margrit. Julie talked to people who were in the room that fateful day the Mondavis lost control of their once very successful wine empire and recreated that tense scene in the book. She also shows how the Mondavis raised the name recognition of California wines throughout the world and ushered in a new era of elegance to the Napa Valley.

Even though the book is well reported and documented, the Mondavis don’t seem thrilled that the details of their family’s infighting are now public. The family is still very influential and most Napa residents do not want to cross them. While the family has not yet said anything publicly about the book, it appears someone has pressured one Napa bookstore, Copperfield's, to withdraw its offer to have Julie come and read from the book. It also has been very difficult for Julie to set up any reading dates.