The Oro Valley Public Library is having a book sale March 25-28.

The sale will take place at 1305 W. Naranja Drive and feature more than 20,000 books in various categories, including mystery, romance, sports, Southwest and art. Audio books, CDs and videos will also be for sale.

Most books are priced at 40 cents to $4. Proceeds go to the library.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 25 and 27; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 26; and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. March 28.

Items are half-price on March 27 and the morning of March 28. A bag of items will go for $5 on the afternoon of March 28.

Call 229-5326 fore more details.

Readers, writers and even folks who haven’t picked up a book in years are invited to a two-day gala affair at the University of Arizona campus this weekend.

The first Tucson Festival of Books is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.

More than 350 local authors will be on hand, signing, discussing and presenting their work. Topics range from true crime to westerns, horror to romance, teen books to children’s storytelling and activities. Screenplays and TV writing are also in the mix.

“There is going to be something for everybody,” says Bill Viner, CEO of Pepper Viner Homes, and a founding member of the Tucson Festival of Books.

“People might think this is like an old time book fair – it’s not,” he adds. “It’s a very unique thing coming to the community. People can really enjoy something that’s different, educational and fun. They don’t have to be intellectuals or avid readers.”

Some of the notable headliners at the event include Stedman Graham, speaking on the importance of education; America’s Poet Laureate Billy Collins and southern Arizona’s own best-selling author J.A. Jance.

Editor’s note: Tucson Citizen staffer, artist and poet Ryn Gargulinski will be reading her poetry at 4 p.m. March 14 on the main stage of the UA BookStore (next to Starbucks).

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IF YOU GO

What: Tucson Festival of Books

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday

Where: Various locations at the University of Arizona

Price: Admission is free

Info: www.tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

Tucson native Louise Ure's latest book will be released in April.

Louise Ure wrote her first novel on a dare.

Speaking from her home in San Francisco, the Shamus Award-winning author says she vividly recalls a conversation she had with a friend that changed the direction of her life.

“We were just casually talking when suddenly she asked that if it all ended tomorrow, what would I regret most,” Ure says. “My immediate response was that I had not written a book, and she then challenged me to do it.”

A short time later while visiting a nursery, Ure saw a tag on a plant that said “Forcing Amaryllis,” and thought that it would be a perfect title for a novel. Within a week, she had started writing what would become her first book.

Ure points out that in each of her three novels, “Forcing Amaryllis,” “The Fault Tree,” and “Liars Anonymous,” the titles always came first. After picking a title, the more difficult work of constructing a plot then followed.

The Tucson native, who is now based in the Bay Area, returns to the Old Pueblo for the setting of her latest novel, where readers will experience such regional delights as shopping at El Con Mall, sampling the fine dining experience of Denny’s on Speedway, and knocking down a few cool ones at some of the more colorful biker bars of Nogales.

The idea for “Liars Anonymous” (St. Martin’s Minotaur, $13.95 softbound, release date: April 14, 2009) came about while watching television one evening with her husband.

“During an On-Star commercial, I turned to my husband and wondered out loud how many dead people roadside assistant operators have tried to communicate with following a bad wreck or emergency. And the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I became,” she says.

At the center of her new novel is Jessie Dancing, an operator working in Phoenix, who late one night is connected to a signal from a motor vehicle somewhere in Tucson. Through the static, she is convinced she hears a murder in progress.

“What makes this novel work so well is that we all know people like Jessie, a hardworking woman just trying to sort out her life and survive,” Ure says.

Her new book, like the previous two, took about five months to complete.

“I consider myself fairly disciplined and try to write at least a thousands words each day,” she says. The final draft of a book, she adds, requires at least seven or eight major drafts and numerous revisions.

Ure is often asked if she bases any of her characters on people she knows.

“Everyone I write about is fictional, even though occasionally one of my characters will share a trait or tic with someone I actually know,” she says. She cites as an example a character in “Liars Anonymous” with teeth that click and clack as she speaks. Although she knows someone with that trait, Ure points out that is where any similarity ends.

Even though “Liars Anonymous” will not be in bookstores until April, Ure is already at work on a fourth novel, “Doing Hadley Time.”

“My new story is about a man in his 70s, with no family, no money, and no prospects, but sets out nevertheless to kill the most evil person on Earth,” she says. He wants to commit this murder, she continues, so he can then surrender to authorities and let the state care of him for the time he has left.

Ure visits Tucson as often as possible and has dozens of family members scattered throughout the area. Visiting the Old Pueblo, she says, keeps her centered.

“I have a deep affection for southern Arizona since this is where my family has lived for at least three generations.”

Laura Fitzgerald's latest book, "One True Theory of Love," is being released this week.

Laura Fitzgerald is one of Tucson’s most intriguing novelists.

When she was 20, she promised herself that she would accomplish two things before reaching her 40th birthday: write a novel and finish a marathon.

Shortly before she approached that important birthday, her first novel, “Veil of Roses,” was published to critical acclaim. Her second novel, “One True Theory of Love” (New American Library, $14 softbound), is being released this week.

It is no accident that both books are set in Tucson. Even though Fitzgerald was born in Wisconsin, she considers the Old Pueblo home and lives in midtown with her family.

In one of the first interviews about her new book, the 41-year-old Fitzgerald points out that her latest novel is much different than her first book.

“‘Veil of Roses’ was basically about a Persian woman who relocates to southern Arizona where she hopes to find a sponsor for residency. But Meg Clark, the main character in my new novel, is different in that she is a single mother raising a 9 year-old son,” Fitzgerald explains.

“Meg is accessible since we all know people just like her: single women raising a child or children and hoping eventually to find someone to love and love her back.”

Following a painful divorce from her childhood sweetheart who leaves her for another woman the very day she tells him she’s pregnant, Meg swears off men. Her life changes and her plans go out the window when she and her son, Henry, walk into a neighborhood coffee shop and meet Iranian-born Ahmed Bourani.

“So many important things happen like that, just by chance, and that, combined with the fact that Meg, who is the ultimate embodiment of the modern woman, are at least two reasons why I think readers will find Meg and her story so appealing,” Fitzgerald says.

All of her characters are fictional, the author says, and none are based on anyone she knows.

After taking a sip of coffee, she smiles and adds that only the Tucson locales are real.

According to Fitzgerald, she frequents the same places her fictional characters do. For example, both she and Meg see movies at the Loft Cinema, shop at the Rincon Market, and take their children to Himmel Park. These local touches will be of special interest to Tucson readers.

When Fitzgerald is working on a literary project, she follows a fairly disciplined routine.

“I have a small guesthouse office where I try and write at least an hour each day,” she points out and adds that she does her best work during the very early hours of the morning.

“I brew coffee, listen to classical music, and write. If I reach a point where I need a break, I exercise, which helps me sort things out in my head involving both my plot and characters.”

Her latest literary project is a third novel that will include a main character introduced in “Veil of Roses.”

Fitzgerald, like most writers, appreciates the work of others. “Fools Rush In” by Bill Carter left a lasting impression on her.

“I was amazed by the honesty of this book and think that it is an exceptional piece of writing,” Fitzgerald says.

With two published novels and a third being crafted, the only goal left for this amazingly talented woman is that pesky marathon.

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IF YOU GO

What: Laura Fitzgerald reads from and signs copies of her book “One True Theory of Love”

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: Antigone, 411 N. Fourth Ave.

Price: free

Info: 792-3715, www.antigonebooks.com

Sylvia Browne, psychic and author of "All Pets Go to Heaven," predicts that the economy will improve in the next couple of years.

Sylvia Browne has a voice that is distinctive and reminiscent of Lauren Bacall in her early films.

Speaking by phone from her home in the Bay Area, the internationally known psychic and adviser says that her new book, “All Pets Go to Heaven” (Fireside Books, ($23.95), came about after hearing stories from friends and acquaintances documenting the unique spiritual bond that exists between humans and their animals.

“The more I explored this bond, the more convinced I became that animals do communicate with us from the afterlife and that eventually we will be united with them on the other side,” she says in that husky voice.

She pauses for a brief moment and then reveals that although she has never publicly discussed the spiritual lives of animals, she believes it is important that we know that even after our pets die, there is a spiritual connection that remains.

“I hope that people who have lost special pets will find comfort in my book, which is one of the main reasons why I wrote it,” she say.

Browne is convinced that cats, dogs and other creatures inhabit more than just our houses; they inhabit our hearts.

“I have always known that death is not an end,” she explains.

Taking her thought a step further, she adds that because pets have personalities, quirks, and souls, it is only logical that there be a special place in heaven for them.

Browne, who has written 46 books including 22 New York Times best-sellers, is pleased by the success of her latest book. Just released, it already tops several categories at amazon.com.

“I try to write in a friendly down-to-earth style, which is why I think my books connect so well with the reading public,” she says.

As might be expected, she has her detractors.

“I tell people to take what they believe from me and leave the rest but as far as the detractors are concerned, I don’t pay much attention since negativity is toxic,” she explains.

Browne, who was born in Kansas City, Mo., knew at an early age that she had special abilities.

“My grandmother and my mother were both mediums, and when I was about 3 I realized that I, too, had special abilities,” she says.

She had a vision that her grandfather had died and she predicted she would have a baby sister within three years. Her granddad had, indeed, died and she got her new baby sister one month shy of her sixth birthday.

Her next project is a book that will reveal how to distinguish a true psychic from a fake.

“I have been working on it for several weeks and hope that my draft will be finished in a few months,” she says. Although she doesn’t offer many details, she says it will be one of her most comprehensive books.

The interview then veers from her books to timely topics such as the troubled economy. Sylvia predicts that we should see a slight improvement later this year and an even bigger one by 2010.

Since Sylvia Browne is a psychic and the end of the Tucson Citizen is imminent, I had to ask at least one question about the fate of my friends at the paper. What, I wondered, did the future hold for us?

After what seems like an eternity, Browne speaks softly and slowly.

“Almost everyone at the paper will find new jobs since this period is simply a transition, not an end,” she says.

She adds that when one door closes, another opens.

“It is up to each of us to find that open door.”

Christian Lander

What began as a casual conversation with a friend, eventually evolved into a wildly popular blog that at last count had attracted more than 50 million hits (yes, 50 million) and a book that is a runaway best-seller.

Wednesday, Christian Lander, the man who triggered a phenomenon, will discuss both his blog and his new book, “Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions,” at the University of Arizona Bookstore.

Speaking from his home in Culver City, Calif., Lander claims that he is both surprised and slightly amused by the recent success of his blog and book. He laughs and recalls that both were jump-started by a conversation he had one afternoon.

“I was talking to a friend about the TV show, ‘The Wire,’ and I stated I really didn’t trust white people who did not watch the program on a regular basis,” he says. They both laughed and then began verbally listing stuff that white people liked. The list soon included such things as reusable shopping bags, doing yoga, microbrews, Apple products and food co-ops. The more they added, the more fun it became.

“The people we were stereotyping somehow believe that they are truly unique but actually they’re all exactly the same,” Lander says.

He is relieved that his blog and book aren’t tagged as being racist because, he insists, they aren’t. He thinks they are just good fun and in no way mean-spirited. The people who visit his blog and have read his book seem to agree.

Lander, a doctoral dropout, was the 2006 public speaker of the year at Indiana University. He is married to Jessica, a photographer, who contributed many of the images scattered throughout the book.

Returning to Tucson is a homecoming of sorts for the author, who lived here from 2002 until 2004 while he attended the University of Arizona.

“I love Tucson,” Lander says. The food, the climate and the setting all make this city one of his favorite places to visit.

The fact that his book was issued as a paperback was no accident.

“When I first began negotiating on the book, I insisted that it be soft-bound and reasonably priced so that it would be more accessible, especially for readers on a budget,” Lander says.

Several months ago, he helped design a T-shirt to benefit the Children of the Night project, a nonprofit, tax exempt organization founded in 1979 that assists youngstersfrom ages 11 to 17 who are mired in prostitution. The shirts are available at www.fatamerican.tv.

Lander thinks that his book provides all of us with an opportunity to laugh at ourselves, not just people of the Caucasian persuasion. He suggests that we kick back on our IKEA couches and explore the ultimate guide to the unbearable whiteness of being.

After pausing, Lander points out that laughter knows no color or ethnic divisions and is, without a doubt, universal.

———

IF YOU GO

What: Christian Lander signs and discusses his book, “Stuff White People Like: The Definitive Guide to The Unique Taste of Millions”

When: 4:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: University of Arizona BookStore, 1209 E. University Blvd., in the student union

Price: free

Info: 621-2426, www.uofabookstores.com

———

WHAT THEY LIKE (A PARTIAL LIST)

#3 Film festivals

#108 High school English teachers

#88 Having gay friends

#65 Coed sports

#57 Documentaries

#94 New Balance shoes

#133 Adopting foreign children

#144 Modern art museums

#95 Beards

#79 Modern furniture

#59 Natural medicine

#51 Living by the water

#10 Wes Anderson movies

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ON THE WEB

Read it here: stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

'Anybody with any experience with the Holocaust would know it would be impossible for a girl to be throwing apples for seven months without being caught.'

Holocaust survivor and author Sidney Finkel

in his Northwest Side home, with a poster of his book, "Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die."

Oprah believed him. So did literary agents, book publishers and movie producers.

But Holocaust survivor Sidney Finkel of Tucson says he never bought the concentration camp love story told by Herman Rosenblat.

“I knew the story was a lie,” said Finkel, 77, who was in some of the same Nazi concentration camps as Rosenblat as a young Polish boy. The two were liberated to England together and have known each other since they were teens.

Finkel, who wrote his own memoir and speaks to 7,500 students and adults a year about his experiences, worries that Rosenblat’s made-up story damages the credibility of all survivors.

“It creates doubt in people’s minds,” said Finkel, a retired appliance salesman and the father of five and grandfather of nine. “Everyone’s memoir is in doubt now.”

On Saturday, Rosenblat, who lives in Florida, recanted the story of a girl who saved him from starvation during the Holocaust by tossing apples and bread over the concentration camp fence for nearly seven months. The story was to be the subject of a memoir and a major motion picture.

After liberation, Rosenblat and Roma Radzicky met in New York on a blind date and, during conversation, discovered Roma had been Herman’s angel, or so the story went. They have been married for more than 50 years.

But now Rosenblat, 79, admits the story was untrue, and Berkley Books has canceled its plan to publish Rosenblat’s memoir, “Angel at the Fence,” due out in February. As of now, the movie deal is still on.

“Anybody with any experience with the Holocaust would know it would be impossible for a girl to be throwing apples for seven months without being caught,” Finkel said.

He also said Roma years ago shared details with him about her whereabouts during the Holocaust that put her living 200 miles away from the concentration camp.

And Rosenblat’s brother, also a survivor, told Finkel before his death that he was angry at Herman for making the story up, Finkel said.

“He just loved the publicity,” Finkel said of Rosenblat. “He wanted to be able to tell a great story and he must have felt the true story wasn’t good enough, so he made it up. It’s very bad for the Jews and it’s hurting all the survivors.”

In 2005, Finkel published his memoir, “Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die.”

Finkel, who changed his name from Sevek to Sidney, has spent the last 14 years telling his story to about 100,000 children and adults in Tucson and around the country, he said.

He and his wife of more than 40 years, Jean, live in Tucson eight months out of the year. They live the rest of the year in the Midwest.

Finkel, who was liberated from the German concentration camp Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, tells his story so the world will not forget the horrors of the Holocaust. But he worries about the impact Rosenblat’s fabrication, which is making international headlines, will have.

Finkel is a source in a recent New Republic magazine story that led to Rosenblat’s admission that the story was untrue.

Historical records prove Rosenblat was at Buchenwald and other camps, according to the Associated Press. But he admitted in a statement through his agent that he fabricated the story of the girl and the apples.

“I wanted to bring happiness to people,” Rosenblat is quoted as saying. “I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world.”

In the tale, which he entered in a short story contest in the 1990s, Rosenblat wrote about how his mother died in the Holocaust. She later came to him in a dream, telling the 11-year-old she would send him an angel.

The angel appeared in the form of a 9-year-old girl.

The couple reportedly never told anyone the story for nearly 50 years, until Rosenblat wrote about it.

The story captivated the world. The Rosenblats twice appeared on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” with Winfrey calling it “the single greatest love story. . . we’ve ever told on the air.” It was made into a children’s book, was to be published as a memoir and filming was to begin in March.

But for years, rumors swirled among survivors and historians that Rosenblat made it all up. How could a girl toss apples over a concentration camp wall for seven months, undetected?

Finkel said the story trivializes the horrors of the Holocaust.

“The Holocaust is not a happy story,” said Finkel, whose parents, two sisters, nine uncles and aunts and dozens of cousins died in the Holocaust.

As many as 6 million Jews and others died between 1933 and 1945, according to Yad Vashem, an organization dedicated to preserving Holocaust history.

“It is our families bones, their deaths. I am very angry at him. He says he did it to make us happy, but it was a lie.”

Finkel said the story also provides ammunition to those who claim the Holocaust was a hoax.

The horrors of the Holocaust were so great, some survivors end up trying to “outdo” others in how terrible their experiences were, he said.

But Finkel is determined to keep the history of the Holocaust alive by sharing his experiences.

“This is the purpose of my life,” he said.

Bob Woodruff, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while covering the war in Iraq for ABC News, will be in Tucson on Saturday for a book signing.

Woodruff and his wife, Lee, who kept journals about how the family was dealing with the crisis, wrote a book, “A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing,” about their ordeal.

They will sign copies of the book from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at the University of Arizona Bookstore in the Student Memorial Center.

The couple founded the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation to help military service members with post-traumatic stress syndrome or traumatic brain injuries. Some of the money from book sales goes to the foundation.

"Bones in the Desert" is about the disappearance of Loretta Bowersock (right, with live-in partner Taw Benderly and daughter Terri, left).

Almost from the beginning, Phoenix-based crime writer Jana Bommersbach knew something was terribly wrong.

Television stations in Phoenix were reporting that Loretta Bowersock, a Tempe businesswoman, was missing. Loretta and her daughter, Terri, had created a multimillion-dollar chain of stores – including one in Tucson – called Terri’s Consign & Design Furnishings, offering “gently used” furniture to customers. Loretta was reported missing by her live-in partner, Taw Benderly.

Speaking from her home in Phoenix, Bommersbach recalls that Loretta was reported missing in December 2004, and what first attracted her to the story is that she casually knew Terri and what Benderly was telling investigators simply did not add up.

According to the statement Benderly gave Tucson police, he and Loretta had driven to Tucson on Dec. 14, stopping at least twice along the way for sandwiches and baseball caps. He added that they arrived later that day at the Park Place mall, where he left Loretta so she could shop. He concluded that when he returned for her sometime later, she had vanished.

“What tripped him up from the very beginning were the surveillance cameras at the mall,” Bommersbach said. When Tucson police examined the tapes, they found no evidence that Taw had been at the mall or dropped Loretta there.

As Benderly’s story began to unravel, police worked to build a case against him. But before an arrest could be made, he threw an extension cord over a rafter in the family home in Tempe and committed suicide. Shortly before he killed himself, he created a file on his computer named “Vows for Eternity.” It simply said, “Loretta and I vowed over the years that we would spend eternity together, and so we shall.”

Even though he more or less confirmed he had killed Loretta, no one knew what he had done with the body. He had taken his final secret to the grave.

As Terri Bowersock began sifting through her mother’s personal belongings, she found graphic evidence that Loretta had been a victim of domestic abuse. That abuse exploded during a quarrel over finances Monday afternoon, Dec. 13, 2004. When Loretta found unauthorized withdrawals, she confronted Benderly and in a rage he killed her. He then wrapped her body, placed it in Loretta’s van, withdrew $24,000 and headed south on Interstate 10. He disposed of the body somewhere between Tempe and Tucson.

Looking for a body in the Arizona desert is difficult even under the best of circumstances. With no clues, the task is more than daunting.

“After months of searching, the body was eventually found, thanks in no small part to the grit and determination of Terri, who vowed in her first statement to The Arizona Republic that she would find her mother’s body and see that it was properly buried,” Bommersbach said.

In addition to Terri’s involvement, there was also insight and luck involving a psychic and a couple of rock hunters who led investigators to a shallow grave just south of Interstate 8 and east of state Route 84.

This fascinating case has been documented in gripping detail in a book by Bommersbach, “Bones in the Desert,” a new true crime release by St. Martin’s Press.

“This is a sad account of a lovely woman who was murdered at the hands of the man she loved and it is a story that could not have been written without the cooperation and help of Terri, who wanted her mother’s story told so that more people recognize the very real consequences of abuse, both physical and verbal,” Bommersbach said.

Stephenie Meyer

When Cave Creek mom Stephenie Meyer walked the red carpet in Los Angeles this week, she was mobbed by thousands of squealing teenage girls, many nearly hyperventilating just at the sight of her.

They screamed her name and begged for autographs and photos. Industry professionals said they had never seen the likes of it: such frenzied, hoarse devotion – for a writer.

Meyer is the author of the four-volume Twilight saga, a teenage vampire love story that’s sold 25 million copies worldwide and has now been made into a film.

Friday is another movie-star moment for the Arizona author as fans of her books swarm theaters across the nation for the opening of Twilight. More than 3,100 showings were sold out before the film even opened, and fans have been sleeping on sidewalks to be first in line. Movietickets.com notes that Twilight is now No. 10 on the top ticket presales list of all time.

Meyer’s publicist is receiving 100 requests per day from media and fans for interviews and appearances. But Meyer, whose cameo in the film drew cheers during early screenings, is officially taking a break.

She gave a few interviews for the film and attended the premiere in Los Angeles but is no longer available to the media, even turning down Vanity Fair. Her publicist asked one magazine not to put Meyer on its cover. Her privacy is evaporating, and she’s recognized now running errands near her Cave Creek home.

“I saw her at Fry’s and I flipped out,” says fan Britney Peebler, 28, who lives near Meyer. “It was like I was 14 again and seeing Luke Perry.”

Her famously rabid fans call themselves “Stephen-ites” and “Twi-Hards” and spend hours in the blogosphere dissecting every word she writes and speaks. They fly to her book signings and sometimes cry if they get to touch her.

At the Los Angeles premiere, “everywhere you turned there were just girls and posters and screaming,” says Marc Malkin, a columnist for E! Online. “I have never seen a premiere like that. All of a sudden, I hear ‘Stephenie, Stephenie, please can we take pictures, please can we have an autograph,’ and I’m like ‘Oh my God. This is a writer.’ ”

At the after-party, where actors Larry David and Jamie Foxx held court with their young daughters, Meyer was almost as popular as Rob Pattinson, the hunky actor who plays lead vampire Edward Cullen. At these events, Malkin says, it’s customary that writers are ignored.

“Young girls kept coming up to her,” Malkin says. “In their bedrooms, they’re going to have posters of Rob and photos of them with Stephenie Meyer. It’s so strange.”

Meyer’s fantasy novels have proved irresistible to teenage romantics: the average girl next door falls in love with the world’s most beautiful boy, who happens to be a vampire and is called upon to save her life. Meyer has published five books in three years – two this year alone. She toured nationwide, appeared on Ellen, Nightline, in People magazine. Her book knocked Harry Potter out of its top spot on bestseller lists.

Time named her one of America’s 100 most-influential people. Entertainment Weekly anointed her the No. 5 entertainer of the year, just behind the cast of Gossip Girl. She even beat the Sex in the City stars.

“It’s been crazy for her,” says Elizabeth Eulberg, her publicist.

This weekend, her story reaches critical mass, but she’ll be enjoying it out of the limelight.

“She’s very gracious, and she loves her fans,” Eulberg says, “but she can’t write when she’s traveling and everyone wants another book from her. She deserves to stay at home and do what she really loves, which is writing.”

The mom of three boys, ages 6, 8, and 11, has described herself as shy and has said her family always gets first place.

“I love my kids,” she said last year. “Each one of them is worth everything, and all three of them are worth everything times three.”

The story behind Twilight is a fantasy tale of its own. The idea for the book came to Meyer in a dream, and she started writing it for her own entertainment, snatching hours after her kids were in bed.

Three months and 498 pages later, she was finished, and her sister begged her to try for publication. Meyer sent cold queries to agents having no experience and no insider help and nabbed the impossible: a three-book deal and three-quarters of a million dollars. She was stunned.

“My expectation was that I could maybe pay off my van,” she has said.

In the beginning, she loved getting to know her fans, befriending some, talking about dresses and shoes.

“I have all these teenage adopted daughters,” Meyer said last year. “They’re impossible not to adore.”

But now her fans number in the millions, and it’s impossible to adore them all.

“The hardest job ever is to be a mother, and to have another job on top of that is really hard,” says Meyer devotee Kristene Bowler, a 28-year-old Gilbert hairdresser who waited in line for 10 hours to nab a seat at the Phoenix area’s Twilight premiere. “And as much as I would love to see her at parties, I do understand that she has a family and I do want her to stay home and finish Midnight Sun. We want more – more, more, more.”

Cafe Para la Vida Digna from Chiapas, Mexico, is one of the coffees available.

You know what you’re getting when you step into Revolutionary Grounds Books and Coffee, which opened Saturday at 606 N. Fourth Ave.

This is not the place for the red state, conservative crowd.

Revolutionary Grounds is the brainchild of social justice attorney Paul Gattone and his wife, Joy Soler.

Gattone leans toward Vladimir Lenin and communism and Soler embraces Leon Trotsky and socialism.

They met five years ago, married three years ago, and from the outset Gattone has had a hankering to open a bookstore and Soler has long dreamed of a cafe. The result is Revolutionary Grounds in the space formerly occupied by Rainbow Planet Coffee House.

“We are a leftist political bookstore,” said Soler, wearing a T-shirt reading “Stop Bitching. Start a Revolution.”

This is a revolution that comes with muffins, smoothies, cheesecakes and sandwiches – one choice even involving meat.

“We’re not trying to bring on a communist revolution in Tucson,” Soler said. “We’re just trying to improve the world.”

Tucson may be a blue city in a red state, but the Lenin-Trotsky crowd isn’t exactly embraced here.

“Tucson is an oasis and it’s still felt like being under siege not having the mainstream views,” Soler said. “I feel that way, my friends feel that way, Paul feels that way. We’re creating a place for us. Some of the great social movements came together over coffee. We are happy to be the birthplace of great social movements.”

The topics covered on the bookshelves include gender, Latin American revolutionary movements, Native American movements, sustainability, green living, vegan eating, black liberation, Che Guevara and, of course, Lenin, Trotsky and Marx.

The two principal coffee brands are Cafe Para la Vida Digna from a collective in Chiapas, Mexico, and Roaster X, a local coffee roaster with a fair trade certificate. The loose-leaf tea comes from Maya Teas in Tucson.

Refreshments may be enjoyed on the rustic gravel patio out back with trees and koi pond, the urban concrete patio to the side with street noise providing the ambience, or in the reading room amid the “leftist literature.”

“There’s a dream of a place where people who believe in social justice and social change can gather, talk, exchange ideas and have access to an open, welcoming environment,” said Soler, who quit her job as an HIV case manager at the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation to open Revolutionary Grounds.

Hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The cafe is closed Mondays.

Owner Paul Gattone helps a customer while his wife Joy Soler (left) makes a sandwich.

Vivace is one of three Tucson restaurants rated "extraordinary to perfection" in the latest Zagat guide.

Zagat’s America’s Top Restaurants 2009 guide has just been released, with seven local eateries scoring in the highest category.

The guide rates 1,516 restaurants in 45 U.S. cities on a 30-point scale (20 to 25 points is “very good to excellent”; 26 to 30 is “extraordinary to perfection”).

Here’s how Zagat shakes out Tucson’s best:

• 27 points: Vivace (Italian), 4310 N. Campbell Ave.; Cafe Poca Cosa (Mexican), 110 E. Pennington St.; and Janos (Southwestern), 3700 E. Sunrise Drive.

• 26 points: Le Rendez-Vous (French), 3844 E. Fort Lowell Road; Ventana Room (American), 7000 N. Resort Drive; Feast (eclectic), 4122 E. Speedway Blvd.; and Grill at Hacienda del Sol Guest Ranch Resort (American), 5601 N. Hacienda del Sol Road.

• 25 points: Acacia (American), 4340 N. Campbell Ave.; The Dish Bistro & Wine Bar (American), 3131 E. First St.; and Tavolino (Italian), 7090 N. Oracle Road.

Zagat also lists these restaurants as “noteworthy”: Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm St.; both locations of Beyond Bread, 3026 N. Campbell Ave., and 6260 E. Speedway Blvd.; Bluefin Seafood Bistro, 7053 N. Oracle Road; El Charro Cafe, 311 N. Court Ave.; Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 6360 N. Campbell Ave.; J Bar, 3700 E. Sunrise Drive; Miguel’s at La Posada, 5900 N. Oracle Road; Neo of Melaka, 1765 E. River Road; Primo, 3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd.; and Wildflower, 7037 N. Oracle Road.

Early literacy the goal of library’s annual event

Curious George and Father Gander (you know, Mother Goose's husband), played by Luis Montemayor Jr., strolled the streets of Story Town in 2007.

Beloved children’s storybook characters will come to life Saturday as Jácome Plaza downtown transforms into Story Town.

Costumed book characters Maya and Miguel, Clifford and Curious George will stroll about the plaza as Pima County Public Library staff members give live performances of five stories. There will be art activities, free books and live music and dancing.

“It makes books come to life for children,” says Mary Jan Bancroft, executive director of Make Way for Books, the Tucson nonprofit organizing the free event in partnership with the library.

Books to be acted out Saturday are “Knuffle Bunny,” “Baby Rattlesnake,” “Bark, George,” “Waking Beauty” and “Frederick.”

The event, sponsored by the Tohono O’odham Nation, is designed for children from infancy to 12 years old. In its fifth year, the family literacy festival offers an opportunity for parents to build early reading skills in children in a fun way, she says.

Between 300 and 500 people attended the first Story Town, and that number grew to 1,200 last year. Bancroft hopes for an even bigger turnout this year.

While families have a great time at Story Town, Bancroft says the event helps children learn:

• phonological awareness through rhyming patterns;

• comprehension through connections to life experiences;

• motivation through the use of silly stories and predictable text;

• comprehension through the use of illustrations;

• and vocabulary through use of expressive language and modeling.

Donie Gignac, senior children’s librarian at the library’s Valencia Branch, 202 W. Valencia Road, says library staffers look forward each year to acting out stories in Story Town.

“Families enjoy seeing their favorite stories acted out a little bit larger than life,” she says. “And it’s so important for children to learn to love books and be reading early in life. If you don’t know how to read, it’s very difficult to get along in life.”

Through Story Town, parents also learn what the library has to offer families, Gignac says.

“Story Town is just lots and lots of fun, and a different way to be creative,” she says.

Bancroft says the mission of Make Way for Books is to promote early literacy, especially in parts of southern Arizona with limited resources.

In Pima County, 22 percent of children younger than 5 live below the federal poverty level, and 8 out of 10 of them will start school without the skills needed for success, Bancroft says. In 2005, 48 percent of Arizona’s fourth-grade students scored below the basic reading level, which is 10 percent higher than the national average, she says.

But early intervention can change those numbers, Bancroft says. “Our vision is that all children will enter kindergarten with the reading readiness skills they need to be successful.”

The program places libraries of new, hardcover books in preschools and day cares.

Child care providers are trained in early literacy, she says. “We show them why it is so important to read aloud to young children, especially for brain development and for planting the seeds of early literacy.”

Make Way for Books is funded through private donations and United Way.

“It’s the exposure to books and language that will help them arrive in kindergarten ready to learn,” Bancroft says. “When loving adults share books with little ones, they transfer that love to them, making it more likely they will develop that lifelong love of reading that is so important.”

Children in 2007 meet Clifford and Little Bo Peep, played by Christen Riley.

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IF YOU GO

What: Fifth annual Story Town

When: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday

Where: Jácome Plaza, in front of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave.

Price: Free, with free parking in the garage under the library. The first 500 families will receive a free bag with a book and other goodies.

Info: 721-2334

Story Town schedule

11 a.m.: Story Town opens

11:15 a.m.: Performance by Summer Thunder, Chinese music

11:45 a.m.: Live performances of “Frederick” and “Knuffle Bunny”

12:10 p.m.: Live performances of “Waking Beauty” and “Baby Rattlesnake,” and an art project

12:30 p.m.: Live performance of “Bark, George” and an outer space activity inside the library

1 p.m.: Performance by the Wa:k Tab Basket Dancers

1:30 p.m.: Live performances of “Baby Rattlesnake” and “Waking Beauty”; outer space activity inside the library

2 p.m.: Live performance of “Bark, George” and an art project

2:30 p.m.: Live performances of “Knuffle Bunny” and “Frederick”

3 p.m.: Performance by the Barbea Williams Dance Co.

3:30 p.m.: Parade of characters

Andrew Greeley

PARK RIDGE, Ill. – The Rev. Andrew Greeley is in critical condition at a Chicago-area hospital after falling and fracturing his skull.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday that the 80-year-old Catholic priest and best-selling novelist is stable at a hospital in Park Ridge.

Greeley’s family says he snagged his jacket in the door of a taxicab Friday afternoon and fell. Friends say he suffered bleeding on the brain.

Greeley has lived part-time in Tucson for years and is a sociology professor at the University of Arizona, has written more than 50 novels. He writes a column for the Sun-Times that explores the relationship between religion and politics.

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On the web

Information from: Chicago Sun-Times: www.suntimes.com/index

Local architect Bill Mackey has translated Tucson’s automobile culture into a limited edition book available as an “artwork” at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

People who attend the cocktail reception and Mackey’s talk at 6 p.m. Thursday at MOCA on the Plaza, 149 N. Stone Ave., will get a free copy of his “Field Guide to Tucson Convenience Stores.” Admission is $10 for MOCA members, $25 for non-members.

The field guide is combined with Mackey’s “A Checklist of the Commercials During a NCAA Men’s Division Tournament Game” and “Automobiles of Midtown Tucson” into a book called “Field Guides and Checklists,” which will be packaged with a pencil and notepad.

“It’s saying what a part of our culture the automobile is and we take it for granted,” said Mackey, who works at Rob Paulus Architect. “It’s part of our landscape but we don’t think about it. We just accept it.

Only 75 copies of the book were printed and each is signed and numbered. People attending Mackey’s talk will get the first chance to buy the book. Books No. 1 to 25 will cost $25, Nos. 26 to 50 will cost $40 and Nos. 51 to 75 will cost $65, said Anne-Marie Russell, MOCA’s executive director.

The book launches the MOCA Press: Monographs & Multiples, which will offer original art, words or images, in limited editions.

“MOCA is trying to cultivate emerging collectors and to pair them with emerging artists,” Russell said. “(‘Field guides and Checklists’ is) a kind of thing that will appeal to art collectors and book collectors”

Mackey got started on the theme while watching a University of Arizona NCAA tournament basketball game at a bar in San Francisco a couple years ago. Right at the start, he noticed a series of car commercials and started keeping a tally. He found that car commercials made up 25 percent of the ads.

He then took a look at the cars and convenience stores in Tucson.

“Convenience stores are part of our culture, both positive and negative,” Mackey said. “The negative is most don’t act like a corner store any more. They don’t care who the customer base is. The good is you can learn to be part of consumer society and, obviously, the convenience.”

Mackey is one of a half-dozen architects who are artists in residence at MOCA under the name Design Co-op. D Co*op, in its abbreviated form, is looking for ways to bring more density to Tucson’s urban core.

“The automobile drives a lot of decisions that are made in terms of design,” Mackey said. “There are certain parameters (dedicated to cars) that can be used for landscaping, buildings or social activity.”