Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

10 May 2003, 0:00 a.m.

I got to introduce the personable Diana Abu-Jaber, author of…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

I got to introduce the personable Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Crescent (an Arab-American love/food novel), tonight at Cody's. Yesterday I saw Douglas Rushkoff say such things as "I don't believe in 'homeland'" and "And they wonder why the best minds of my generation are going to Buddhism." Abu-Jaber, when asked about her writing process, replied while thinking it over, "Yeah...I don't really have any kind of a work ethic...[pause]...I'd kind of like to get one...."

I haven't actually attended that many author events during my stint at Cody's, so I had forgotten how electric a good Q&A can be. Some authors perform very well and the entertainment rivals any you could buy.