East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus

In James Rollins' New Novel, Prophets are Made, Not Bornnew

A Sacramento veterinarian before he became a novelist, Rollins has pondered the depth and breadth of scientific possibility and its ethical consequences.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 07-24-2008 | Author Profiles & Interviews

Tags: James Rollins, The Last Oracle

Money Can't Buy Happiness in Janelle Brown's Silicon Valley Satirenew

A pharmaceutical company goes public, making its CEO's family worth $300 million. The day that happens is the day he tells his wife he wants a divorce. And that's the day on All We Ever Wanted Was Everything begins.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 06-18-2008 | Author Profiles & Interviews

Tags: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Janelle Brown

Don't Eat Meat? Don't Starve at This Summer's Cookoutsnew

After far too many nothing-but-corn-on-the-cob July Fourths, our day has arrived. We are invited to the cookout. Heck, grab the briquettes. Maybe we're even hosting it.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 05-22-2008 | Food+Drink

Tags: vegetarians, summer, grilling, cookout, soy

Rabih Alameddine Shuns Boundaries in His Latest Novelnew

In The Hakawati, Osama al-Kharrat returns to his native Beirut reunites with family and swaps tales. Thus this hefty offering is not just a story within a story but hundreds of stories within a story, a 513-page macramé with myriad threads.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 04-23-2008 | Author Profiles & Interviews

Tags: novels, hakawati, Lebanon, Rabih Alameddine, storytellers, The Hakawati

Adam Mansbach Contemplates Cultural Evolutionnew

Again and again, in The End of the Jews, African-American culture and Jewish culture (and bodies) intersect.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 04-17-2008 | Author Profiles & Interviews

Tags: Adam Mansbach, The End of the Jews

Who Baited Whom at Berkeley Rallies?new

Protesters allege brutality, but bystander says activists hectored cops while hiding behind children.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 03-27-2008 | Crime & Justice

Tags: crime & justice

Memoirist David Roche Faces His Disfigurementnew

David Roche, a noted public speaker who counts Anne Lamott among his avid fans, writes with disarming frankness of his relationships, his political activism, his surgeries, his work as a massage therapist for the terminally ill, and his rides through San Francisco on public transit. During all of these, the focus is always, inescapably, on his face.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 02-06-2008 | Author Profiles & Interviews

Tags: David Roche, The Church of 80% Sincerity

Girls Will be Girls?new

Expectations are the boxes into which we lock each other. Several books -- Dropped From Heaven, Girls Gone Mild, Bad Girls, Cool It -- explore expectations society has for females.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 09-13-2007 | Books

The Wild, Wild Questnew

Previous explorers have pretty much screwed the adventure-book genre, yet whatever inspired explorers before still inspires them, as evidenced by these books.

East Bay Express | Anneli Rufus | 07-25-2007 | Books