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A Brief Meditation on the Desires of Touring Authors By Steve Almond I was at the Phoenix airport, just in from L.A., and facing the prospect of having to read in a town where I knew, basically, no one.

Established in 1966, Washington, D.C.-based Reading Is Fundamental is the nation’s oldest and largest children’s literacy organization. In May, it capped its 35th anniversary with a "National Reading Celebration," which featured special events at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington during RIF’s annual Reading Is Fun Week, which ran from May 5-12.

With its enthusiastic jacket endorsement from Jonathan Franzen ("Alive with intelligence, comedy, and inside dope ... sure-handedly captures the uncertainties of our times") and its choice as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, Mark Costello's Big If (Norton) would seem to be the promising debut of a terrific new American writer. But, as it happens, Big If is in fact the second novel by Mark Costello -- though only the first to bear his name.

By 1936, two New Yorkers were touted as the greatest political leaders of the century -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Alfred Emanuel Smith Jr. While every American can recall some accomplishments of FDR, only those who lived through the 1920s and 1930s will likely even remember who Smith was.

Esteemed scientist, elegant essayist, and award-winning author Stephen Jay Gould died on May 20 of metastasized lung cancer at his home in New York City. He was 60 years old.

Leonard Shatzkin, author of In Cold Type, former book publishing executive, and consultant, died from congestive heart failure on Saturday, May 11, at the age of 82. Shatzkin's life was one of many remarkable achievements, throughout which his original, innovative, and oftentimes controversial ideas spurred many to think about the business of book publishing in new and better ways.

In Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America’s Premier Mental Hospital (PublicAffairs), a Book Sense 76 May/June title, Alex Beam tells the story of McLean Hospital, refuge of the rich, famous, and deeply troubled for almost two centuries. McLean is a mental hospital-cum-luxurious estate set in acres of rolling New England parkland just outside Boston. The picturesque asylum also looms large in the American imagination.

Shelley Jackson's debut story collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy (an Anchor Books trade paper original), boldly turns the human body inside out, as the visceral becomes visible and takes on a life of its own through her fantastical tales.

In an atmosphere described by attendees as buoyant and energized, greater numbers of booksellers and industry professionals than in recent years returned to New York for the city's first national booksellers trade show in over a decade. Scheduling considerations placed the show a full month earlier than usual, but few complained about an early spring visit to New York, particularly when the weather turned perfectly sunny and balmy and so many unique activities were within reach.

ABA has announced that David Walker of Washington, D.C., an independent consultant in the book industry, will be working with the association on matters relating to industry relations. Walker has been an independent consultant for the past five years. During that time, he worked with ABA on a number of projects, including the processing of claims relating to the Penguin lawsuit settlement. Prior to becoming an industry consultant, Walker was general manager of Olsson's Books in Washington, D.C. He worked at Olsson’s for 11 years.