Sena Jeter Naslund!

Last night we had the pleasure and privilege of having Sena Jeter Naslund, the acclaimed author, in Laguna Beach Books for a reading and signing!

Everyone was charmed by her eloquence and insight into both the history of France and Marie Antoinette the human being. Sena told the story of Stefan Zweig's earlier biography, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, which not only portays the French queen as dim-witted and self-absorbed, but insinuates that this is what the "average woman" is. Average woman?? In a way, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, she said, is a response to that. In it, Naslund gives Marie Antoinette her most full, human, sympathic and nuanced rendering, drawing deeply from historical sources but giving her life as only a novelist can.

Many in the audience were intrigued to hear Sena talk about writing Four Spirits, set in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights era -- a time and place that she experienced first-hand. And she assured everyone: you don't have to have read Moby Dick to appreciate her female retelling of that story in Ahab's Wife!

I'll admit, this is my only experience with the great white whale:

We'd like to thank Ms. Naslund and Julie Brickman for their time, and everyone who attended for making the evening such a wondeful experience.

And yes, we still have some signed copies if you missed the good time!