Gregory Maguire, author of 'Wicked,' does a good deed

Gregory Maguire, author of seven books for adults and five for young readers, is probably best known for "Wicked," his retelling of "The Wizard of Oz" from the witch's point of view.

But creating stories that explore the nature of evil, or what we perceive as evil, hasn't made him bad. In fact, he's done something very good with his new book, "The Next Queen of Heaven." A comic novel set in upstate New York in late 1999, the book features a teen girl as troublesome as they come; her devout mother, who, after a bump on the head from a religious statue, either begins speaking in her own profane code or in tongues; a local semi-out choirmaster; and a surprising nun. Maguire moves easily in and out of even minor characters, so the town comes alive in many dimensions, most of them funny and slightly bonkers.

Did I mention that "The Next Queen of Heaven" is free?

That's the good part. Maguire has chosen to publish the book with the Concord Free Press, which will distribute all 2,500 copies of the novel, for free, to anyone who asks. They ask two things in return:

• That you make a donation to charity and tell them what it was.
• That you pass on the book and ask the next reader to do the same.

So far, more than $97,000 has been donated through the distribution of its books -- Maguire's, which has been out for just a couple of weeks, is the publishing house's third.

"I admire that the books as well as the publishing model raise questions about art's inherent value and the commodification of content," Maguire says in the book's press materials. "I like knowing that this book is out in the world, helping generate donations for great causes."

It's not Maguire's first good deed -- he founded a children's literacy nonprofit in New England way back in 1987.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Gregory Maguire. Credit: Chitose Suzuki / Associated Press

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Oxfam Bookfest: making good with used books

What's remarkable about the Oxfam Bookshops is not that they are having their first annual Bookfest in hundreds of locations, now through July 18. It's not that the proceeds from the sales of its used books go to the international aid organization Oxfam. It's that, with 130 shops and $2.6 million in monthly sales, Oxfam is the third-largest bookseller in the United Kingdom, according to this article in the Guardian:

Its average selling price for a book is £1.60, but it has twice made £18,000 at auction for titles discovered in its stores....

"Book sales have been helping us in our fight against poverty for more than 50 years, as we've sold everything from the first ever Sherlock Holmes story to the latest Harry Potter novel," said David McCullough, Oxfam's director of trading. "During Bookfest, we want people to donate to and buy from our bookshops so they can really see the impact that buying a book from Oxfam can have on the lives of poor people around the world."

Bookfest's hundreds of events includes everything from actor Bill Nighy and author Monica Ali ringing up books for buyers today in London to an author-heavy Edinburgh launch of "Ox-Tales," a four-book series of short stories from Kate Atkinson, Sebastian Faulks, Helen Fielding, John le Carré and more. But it's all happening in the U.K. -- it's not easy for Americans to participate.

And though I wish we had a chain of Oxfam Bookshops across the U.S., it's hard to imagine that used books would carry such a premium here at home.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Actor Bill Nighy helps out at an Oxfam Books in London on July 6. Credit: Joel Ryan / Associated Press

Miep Gies, Anne Frank's custodian, turns 100

After Anne Frank's family was found and taken away by the Nazis, it was Miep Gies who gathered up the girl's papers and saved them. She hoped, one day, to give them to Anne; instead, she passed them to Anne's father, Otto, the only family member to survive the Holocaust. They were what he published, later, as "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl."

Miep Gies, who was once Otto's secretary, is the last survivor from the group that brought supplies to Anne Frank and her family while they remained in hiding. On Sunday, she celebrated her 100th birthday in Amsterdam.

Late last year, seventh- and eighth-grade students in Temecula, Calif., wrote  to Gies after finding her address online. Although she no longer responds to all who write to her, the class recently received a letter from her. Gies wrote: 

First I refused to read the diary, afraid of more pain. When at last I gave in to Otto's wish and began to read, I could not stop! Anne brought my friends back to life. ... Though I wept a lot, I kept thinking: "Anne, you gave me one of the finest presents I ever got."

And in an e-mail to the Associated Press this week, Gies downplayed her role in fighting the Nazis. "So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work," she noted, including her husband, Jan. "He was a resistance man who said nothing but did a lot. During the war he refused to say anything about his work, only that he might not come back one night. People like him existed in thousands but were never heard."

Nevertheless, it was Miep Gies' actions that assured that Anne Frank's words would be heard.

Happy 100th birthday, Miep Gies.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: AFP Photo / Anne Frank House

The benefits of sunshine and mai tais

Oregon bookseller Powell's is green green green. Since 2006, it's used biodiesel in its delivery trucks; last year, it began buying clean wind power from the local power authority. And last month, it began installing 540 photovoltaic solar panels at its northwest Portland warehouse. Once complete, the solar array will provide 25% of the warehouse's power needs. And that's with 155 rainy days a year.

Sometimes it takes another person's blog to point out something you knew all along. In this case, thanks to PeteLit for reacquainting me with the L.A. Public Library's online menu collection. The interface is clunky, but if you follow directions, you can see the colorful covers and inside selection of menus going back more than 100 years. Many, but not all, are from Los Angeles restaurants. PeteLit is right, it's a great resource for authors working on historical fiction. And perusing the menus begins to reveal stories of what we value and how we talk about food; but be warned, this can lead to hunger pangs.

Hunger — or rather, satisfaction thereof — and sun combine in panel-style solar cookers, highly portable reflective-lined cardboard ovens that fold up into the size of a large book. Used in refugee camps and in areas with lots of sun but dwindling firewood supplies, solar cookers are lauded as being affordable, effective and convenient. LAist talks to a representative from the Jewish World Watch solar cooker project, one of many NGOs promoting the use of solar cookers around the world.

— Carolyn Kellogg

Image: Quon Brothers cocktail menu, undated, from the Los Angeles Public Library's menu collection.

An unusual publishing venture: take the book, then give

In the beginning, there was a book: "Give and Take" by Massachusetts-based author Stona Fitch. "Give and Take" was orphaned at a publishing house when its editor departed, and it didn't find a new home. Fitch just wasn't sure what to do with it. So he decided to give it away.

But there's a catch: He gives you the book for free and asks that you give money to charity.

Fitch has founded the nonprofit publishing house Concord Free Press which operates on this unusual Robin Hood-style publishing model. The press gives away its books, and its readers give away money. Readers, who get the books by requesting them from the website or at bookstores (now, mostly, in New England), are asked to note their donations on the company's website; using its GivingTracker, they can log in the exact numbered edition of their book, how much they gave and to whom.

Nonprofits large and small have received donations, including Amnesty International, the SPCA, Lupus UK, the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center and Seeds of Peace. One man "gave away 9£ on the streets of Edinburgh"; another handed "$60 to Billy, a homeless person." It's all kind of wonderful and heartwarming, if not entirely sustainable.

So far, its website says, it's generated 300% of its startup costs -- but all that money has gone elsewhere. To maintain enough income to produce the two books a year it plans to publish, Concord Free Press will have to rely on more than T-shirt sales -- meaning, most likely, that it'll need some donations itself.

All of this would be pretty meaningless if the book wasn't worth reading. But it is. This isn't a review of "Give and Take" -- I've only just begun it -- but I can say that it has an Elmore Leonard quality, slick and slightly nefarious characters sped along by lean prose. "Give and Take" is about a piano player who quietly robs his female conquests, then turns around and gives money to the needy. Concord Free Press' Robin Hood publishing model really did begin with a book.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Bloggers helping public schools

Since first hearing of DonorsChoose.org, I've been a fan of the charity, which allows public school teachers to outline small-scale projects online. And then -- you guessed it -- donors choose to support what they want, with the amount that they want. Above, Mr. Palmer, a New Jersey music teacher, poses with his students and the band instruments purchased with DonorsChoose funds.

This year, DonorsChoose has launched its second blogger challenge, in which bloggers ask readers to contribute to projects they've selected. (Don't worry -- I'm not going to ask you for money; the L.A. Times has its own robust literacy program.) A couple of bookish types are already on board, having sussed out book-related projects to support.

The litblog Baby Got Books wants to help a fifth-grade teacher at an inner-city Atlanta school create book clubs for her students. "The 4 person collaborative clubs will choose their own assignments, discuss their reading (using their class-learned strategies!) and hone teamwork skills," she writes. "They will practice their reading, get some much needed social time, and cultivate a love of reading for pleasure -- so that they can continue to be successful beyond fifth grade." She's hoping the Goosebumps and Narnia series will do the trick.

Michigan's Motown Writers Network is supporting two projects, one about reading and the other about writing. In the former -- Books That Look Like Me -- an elementary school teacher writes, "My students need books. Lots of books. Books that show African American children playing sports and having adventures, fantasies and their history. We need books of poetry that show the beauty of people of color."  In the latter, a fourth-grade teacher wants to get special journals for her students that have both lined and blank pages, so the kids can write and draw. Maybe the next great graphic novelist will find his or her pen in her class.

There are more than 2,500 book-related projects at DonorsChoose. If you've ever wondered how you could add graphic novels to a school's library, help integrate science and literature or support a kids' vampire book club, now's your chance.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: DonorsChoose.org

Literature meets activism: Barbara Ehrenriech

A car wash employee speaks with a labor representative/translator on his left; author Barbara Ehrenreich (in green) listens from the sidelines.

Barbara Ehrenriech was full of conversation at Skylight Books Thursday night. She read a few satiric passages from her new book "The Land is Their Land" but mostly talked liberal politics to a receptive audience. Heads nodded at what she called "the growing division in our society between the extremely rich and everybody else." There were several spontaneous bursts of applause.

It started to feel a little like an affluent dinner party of "The Nation" subscribers, everyone in quite comfortable circumstances agreeing on our leftist politics. But Ehrenriech, who worked low-wage jobs to research her 2001 book "Nickel and Dimed," did more than just preach to the converted. To read exactly what she said, see below ...

Young poets and book prizes -- tonight!

This evening, we'll be toasting the winners of the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes at UCLA (yes, you can still get tickets to attend).

But across town at USC, elementary school students at the 32nd Street/USC Performing Arts Magnet school (perhaps winners in waiting?) will gather to read some of their original poetry.

OK, so they had some help from writers Cecilia Woloch and Aimee Bender; it's still a great opportunity to hear what's on the minds of L.A.'s fourth-graders.

Mary Forgione

L.A. library transfers to cost a buck?

In the face of a citywide budget crisis, the Los Angeles Public Library is proposing a service charge for books circulated through inter-library loan. If approved, the $1-a-book fee will take effect July 1.

If this were a kind of luxury tax, it wouldn't seem all that bad. I mean, a dollar, right? But some people are concerned that it'll affect the smallest, least-funded branch libraries -- and their patrons -- the most. That's why they've launched this blog urging people to write to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and library leaders and to organize opposition to the fee before the May 1 City Council hearing on the library's budget.

There are about 70 branches of the L.A. Public Library serving the city's readers (a few branches are currently closed for repairs). Obviously, not all branches can have every book, but most are available within the library system -- via inter-library loans -- for free. Author Cecil Castellucci, who volunteers at a public school in Echo Park, told the no-fee campaign organizers:

As a read-aloud volunteer at Mayberry Elementary school, I use this service to get the perfect books to read to the students. For example, I used the inter-library loan service to get books on opera to read aloud to the kids in preparation for their field trip to the L.A. Opera. As a young adult author, I find it appalling to be charging $1 for an inter-library loan.

While the organizers are soliciting suggestions for how to support the library, I know of one sure way coming up April 30. It's the library's annual gala dinner, a fund-raiser for the library foundation that this year will honor author Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove," "Terms of Endearment," "The Last Picture Show"). Tickets are $750 apiece. Sure, that's a lot of smackers; but it would also pay for a lot of books zooming around the city through inter-library loans.

Carolyn Kellogg

photo by Tom Martin via Flickr

Giving -- and getting -- in a literary auction

Author Tayari Jones was moved by the vicious attacks last year on a Haitian mother and son in Dunbar Village, a housing project in West Palm Beach, Fla. To help the victims, she has organized a very literary online auction, which is now live on EBay.

There are books, of course, many of which are signed by the authors. But most exciting -- especially for aspiring writers -- are the critiques. Want to hear what George Saunders thinks of your story? You can, for just (at this writing) about $180.

Laila Lalami and Martha Southgate also will do story critiques. Joy Castro will read and review a personal essay. Poets D. Nurkse and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers offer critiques of poetry. Carleen Brice will give feedback on a nonfiction book proposal. And two other author/professors -- Sarah Schulman and Tayari Jones herself -- will read and comment on entire novel manuscripts (up to 300 pages -- sorry, "Harry Potter"-esque hopefuls).

Getting quality feedback on your writing is invaluable. And in this case, you'll be giving, too.

Carolyn Kellogg

Photo by Mo Riza via flickr