Producer and author Tom Teicholz hit on a pretty good way to give his next book a shot at a favorable reception. He devoted his column in the Jewish Journal to three of Los Angeles' top literary salon mavens: Andrea Grossman of Writers Bloc, Louise Steinman of the Los Angeles Public Library's Aloud series, and Julie Robinson of Literary Affairs.

Today, almost every cultural institution hosts a reading series. What the salonistas described below have discovered is no longer a secret: Los Angeles, in spite of - or perhaps because of - its reputation as the world capital of scripted entertainment and the purveyor of "reality" entertainment, is filled with passionate readers who hunger for literary fiction, ideas and conversation.

Teicholz also has the cover story this week, on his father. The JJ's website, meanwhile, is going positively bloggy. In addition to Brad Greenberg's God Blog, there's also Calendar Girls (two young women on things to do) and the self-explanatory Jewish Bride-to-Be.