The Altar Boys meet again, after many years. Two are lawyers, one a Bishop. One lawyer has retained his faith and will do anything to defend it, the other has lost his faith and dreams of suing God.
John Poswall’s entertaining legal and psychological courtroom drama raises questions about faith and religion, mixing in humour, insanity, romance and media manipulation. Phew! That’s quite a mixture, but you won’t want to put it down.
John Poswall and John Lescroart have a friendly camaraderie and a friendly rivalry. Lescroart, the New York Times best-selling author, says Poswall’s The Altar Boys is a “flat-out masterpiece” – as a fine wine, it would be worth 100 points.
Speaking of food and drink, food for the Premier Party at Borders Sacramento was provided by Peg Tomlinson. Poswall said advertising that fact could have brought in some deadbeats who would only eat and not buy the book, including this reporter, but I was too busy operating the video and writing notes, so I didn’t eat anyway.
Putting on his lawyer hat and with tongue firmly in cheek, Poswall says “Here at Borders, they don’t just sell books, this is a licensing agreement, which means that it’s licensed for you to read. You, under no circumstances are to loan a book to anyone.”
Although he encouraged us all to visit Amazon to write a glowing five-star review, Poswall suggested that if the review would be less than five stars, we should, instead, write him a letter and not mess up the perfect score. Books, of course, should not be purchased from Amazon, but from Borders bookstores, which he later called “my home.” If you can’t get to borders, it is here: ISBN: 0972999256
At the end, John thanked everyone for coming, saying “there’s people from school, people I’ve seen on the river, the doctor that helped save my life, people I spent a lot of time with in the jacuzzi – that almost killed me with alcohol – and news friends, its just wonderful.”
On Borders, he said “This is a Bookstore. It isn’t Costco, it isn’t some very impersonal corporate place. Over there, some young person put up a wall and they called it ‘the wall of Poswall.’ That can’t happen in a ‘chain,’ that only happens in a bookstore that caters to a local community. This is a bookstore, make it your bookstore, this is my home.”
The Premiere Party was extremely well attended. If you missed it, don’t worry, there are more events around Sacramento in the next few weeks.
John Poswall is also a featured author of the Sacramento Library Foundation’s “Authors on the Move” Dinner, Hyatt Regency, Saturday, March 1.
Also, see him at The Sacramento Book Collectors Club, at Richard L. Press Fine and Scholarly Books, 1831 F St. Sacramento, Friday, March 14, 7 p.m.
At Borders, Folsom.
For more information, visit www.johnposwall.com
