Update: Notable Books Video, Twain Benefit

Wow. It's been forever since I last checked in here. To those of you who visit regularly, a thousand apologies.

The latest news is that a video of the American Library Association's Notable Books Breakfast is up at this address. Note that you can watch the whole thing online—including readings by Lisa Margonelli, Joyce Antler, Ron Carlson, Patrick Rothfuss, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and me—or download any segment in a format that'll play on your computer or iPod.

I've been busy with the September 23 benefit at the Mark Twain House and Museum, Writers Read for Twain. Basic details are here. Just so you know, here's the final line-up of writers—and the Twain selections they'll be reading.

Stewart O'Nan - from "The War Prayer," and a letter on Jane Austen
Philip Beard - from The Prince and the Pauper
David Gates - Love letters
Philip Lopate - from Life on the Mississippi
Andrew Carroll - Letter about daughter's death, letter to the gas company
Jon Clinch - from Huckleberry Finn, and "Concerning Tobacco"
Tasha Alexander - "Fenimore Cooper's Offenses"
Arthur Phillips - from A Connecticut Yankee
Amy MacKinnon - "Amended Obituaries"
Tom Perrotta - no selection yet
Kristy Kiernan - from "Eve's Diaries"
Robert Hicks - from "Adam's Diaries"

It's going to be a great evening. Hope you can make it.