Talk about a Hollywood ending. Over two decades since Meg Ryan’s sweet little children’s bookshop lost the battle to Tom Hanks’ big bad Fox Books, it looks like indie bookstores around the country (and around town) may have won the retail war. We spotlight a dozen or so of our favorite local literary nooks in the Sacramento region. Trust us, this story is a real page-turner.
While growing up in ’80s-era Arden-Arcade, Peter Coyl read so many books that his parents signed him up for a Sacramento Public Library card when he was just 5. Little did they know that they were setting him on a path that would culminate in him leading the entire 28-branch Sacramento library system, which he took over on Jan. 3 from outgoing director Rivkah Sass, who announced her retirement last year. On the first day in his new role, Coyl, 41, took time to Zoom with us about his full-circle journey, the surprising ways that local libraries can serve their communities in 2022, and why driving a bookmobile as a teenager may still be the best job he ever had.
John Lescroart became an “overnight” success at 45, and the Davis author has since published 19 New York Times best-selling legal thrillers, with his 30th novel due out in late March. Meet the man with his ink-stained finger on the pulse of American crime stories.
Sacramento native Joan Didion, who was one of America’s greatest writers, passed away on Dec. 23, 2021, at the age of 87. We spoke with the literary giant 10 years earlier, as she reflected on the deaths of her husband and only child, and her memories of growing up in River City.
The French Laundry may be a celebrated Napa Valley restaurant, but its origin story began over 60 miles away in co-founder Sally Schmitt’s childhood home in Citrus Heights. In a new culinary memoir, the pioneering chef honors her Sacramento roots.
