‘Harry Potter’ Writer Will Sign Books at Irvine Store

The Whale of a Tale Bookshop in Irvine is expecting its largest turnout ever for a book signing Monday. The reason: J.K. Rowling is coming to town.

The British author of the incredibly popular “Harry Potter” series of children’s books about an orphaned wizard is doing signings at only five Southland bookstores; Whale of a Tale is her only Orange County stop.

Based on a flood of calls from customers since the store first learned it was on Rowling’s promotional itinerary, owner Alexandra Uhl anticipates 700 or 800 Harry Potter fans to turn up for the signing from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday at the bookstore in the University Center, 4199 Campus Drive. (949) 854-8288.

Uhl, who has been told Rowling is capable of signing 400 books an hour, plans to start handing out numbers to customers when the store opens at 10 a.m. Monday.

“The books have gripped the interest and imagination of children--and adults, really,” said Uhl, adding that not a day goes by that she doesn’t receive calls from parents thanking her for recommending the Harry Potter books to their children.

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Irwin F. Gellman never intended to write a book about Richard Nixon.

Gellman, an American history professor at Chapman University in Orange and author of three volumes dealing with the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, had already begun gathering information for his next project, a book on America’s reaction to the Holocaust.

But Gellman set that research aside after his wife, Gloria Gae, talked him into visiting the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda for the first time in 1995. After lunch at the library, Gellman’s wife suggested they visit the library’s archives, where archivist Susan Naulty gave them a tour.

That did it.

“Once she outlined the library’s holdings, I was hooked. The amount of documentation there that other scholars had not seen was staggering,” Gellman writes in the preface to “The Contender: Richard Nixon: The Congress Years, 1946 to 1952” (The Free Press; $30).

After nearly four years of research--and untold trips to the Nixon Library from his home in Corona del Mar--Gellman offers a major reassessment of Richard Nixon’s early political career.

As the first historian to have complete and unrestricted access to the 1946, ’48 and ’50 campaign files in the National Archives, papers from the executive sessions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and all of the Nixon Library’s documents dated through July 1952, Gellman believes his research convincingly refutes the common perception that Nixon was dishonest during his early political career.

Indeed, Gellman contends, Nixon’s legendary “Tricky Dick” image was based on little more than a series of myths and distortions.

Said Gellman shortly after the book’s publication in August: “I’m basically being called a revisionist because what I’ve written is 180 degrees away from what’s been written before. But the truth is, no one before me was willing to go through the enormous amount of documentation. If other authors and historians had, they might have made the same discoveries I did.”

Gellman will revisit the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., to discuss his findings in a lecture at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Admission: $7. A book signing will follow at 11:30 a.m. (714) 993-5075.

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Six writers who are included in “The Taste of Murder,” a cookbook featuring mystery authors and their favorite recipes,” will sign at 1 p.m. today at Coffee, Tea & Mystery, 13232 Springdale St., Westminster. (714) 898-2583.

The scheduled authors are Jerrilyn Farmer, Earlene Fowler, Maxine O’Callaghan, Martin Smith, Nathan Walpow and Robert Weibezahl.

Coming Up:

* Dr. John Monaco will sign “Slim & Fit for Kids” at Barnes & Noble in the Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine. 2 p.m. Monday. (714) 508-9707.

* Actor-writer Christopher Villa will interpret “Vampirism in Modern Culture,” with musical accompaniment by Todd Loweth, at the Gypsy Den II in the Santa Ana Artists’ Colony, 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. 8 p.m. Monday. (714) 835-8840.

* Julius Shulman will discuss “Architecture and its Photography” at the Manuscripts Lecture Series at the Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. 7 p.m. Tuesday. (949) 717-3890.

* Carroll Campbell will discuss and sign “Women, Families and HIV/AIDS” at Barnes & Noble in Metro Pointe, 901 S. Coast Drive, Costa Mesa. 7 p.m. Wednesday. (714) 444-0226.

* John Reitano and William Haines (“What if Zebras Lost Their Stripes?”) and Julie Mammano (“Rhinos Who Surf”) and Barbara Klyde (“If Giraffes Wore Necklaces”) will discuss their books at the annual Educators Night at Barnes & Noble in the Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine. 4 p.m. Thursday. (714) 508-9707.

* Stanley Tillis will sign “By the Neck Until Dead” at Barnes & Noble in Metro Pointe, 901 S. Coast Drive, Costa Mesa. 7 p.m. Friday. (714) 444-0226.

* Pamela Barrus will discuss and sign “Dream Sleeps: Castle and Palace Hotels of Europe” at Barnes & Noble in the Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine. 7:30 p.m. Friday. (714) 508-9707.

* Riley St. James will sign “Deception in the Rainshadows” at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 7 p.m. Friday. (949) 759-0982.

* Kathleen Givens will sign “Kilgannon” at Barnes & Noble in the Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine. 2 p.m. Saturday. (714) 508-9707.

* Poet Susan Kinsolving will read and sign “Dailies and Rushes” at Borders Books and Music, 429 S. Associated Road, Brea. 7 p.m. Saturday. (714) 672-0120.

* A used book sale will be held at the Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday. (949) 717-3800.

* Larry Millett will discuss and sign “Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery” at Coffee, Tea & Mystery, 13232 Springdale St., Westminster. 1 p.m. Saturday. (714) 898-2583.

* Barry Siegel will sign “Actual Innocence” at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange. 11 a.m. Saturday. (714) 538-3210.

* Eric Jerome Dickey will discuss and sign “Cheaters” at Barnes & Noble, 791 S. Main St., Orange. 2 p.m. Saturday. (714) 558-0028.

Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, Southern California Living, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Or e-mail to [email protected].