A Golden Book

To Chaucer’s, the bibliophile bastion in Loreto Plaza, to hear Chicago-based author Melanie Benjamin, 60, expound on her latest novel California Golden, about two sisters navigating the surf culture and tangled ties between mothers and daughters in the ‘60s.

A prolific historical novelist, Benjamin wrote The Aviator’s Wife on Anne Morrow Lindbergh, which has been optioned for a movie by actress Jennifer Garner’s production company, Vandalia Films.

Other works include Mistress of the Ritz, and The Swans of Fifth Avenue.

“As to my next one, I’m unsure,” she tells me. “But I don’t think it will be an historical novel.”