ASSISTED LOVING: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad

This weekend is Father's Day. Bob Morris helped his widowed father meet some funny and fiesty seniors, all of which he recounts in his hysterical and moving memoir, ASSISTED LOVING: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad.

In ASSISTED LOVING, Bob Morris, a frequent contributor to the New York Times Sunday Styles section, where his "Age of Dissonance" column ran for eight years, shares the story of how he spent the last few years of his father's life bonding with him through their unusual dual search for love.

A few months after the death of his mother, Bob's father, an affable, eccentric, bridge-obsessed octogenarian, asked his son to help him on his quest for a new girlfriend. A reluctant Bob ended up getting closer to his father than he had ever been by trolling the personals, screening prospects, and chaperoning his needy father throughout his quest. It's a truly touching story about a father and a son who come to love each other by learning about each other.

Top writers feel heat from publishers' presses

Some resist call for a book each year

In an age when reading for pleasure is declining, book publishers increasingly are counting on their biggest moneymaking writers to crank out books at a rate of at least one a year, right on schedule, and sometimes faster than that.

Many top-selling writers, such as John Grisham and Mary Higgins Clark, have turned out at least one book annually for years. Now some writers are beginning to grumble about the pressure, and some are refusing to comply.

Top writers feel heat from publishers' presses

Summer Reading, L.A. Times style

Let the summer begin! The Los Angeles Times has come up with their list of the best of summer reading - including A Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets by Barry Siegel; The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III; When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris; Chasing Darkness,
An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais; The Last Embrace by Denise Hamilton; The Wrecking Crew, How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank and many more.

2008 summer reading list