Authors Take Listeners Behind Scenes

Maureen Reagan, biographer A. Scott Berg and novelist Amy Tan attracted a sold-out crowd of 740 to The Times Orange County Edition’s second annual Book and Author Luncheon at the Red Lion Inn in Costa Mesa on Wednesday.

Berg described the 9 years he spent writing “Goldwyn: A Biography,” his account of the legendary movie mogul. Tan, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, described her childhood and read excerpts from her best-selling novel, “The Joy Luck Club.” Reagan, whose memoir “First Father, First Daughter” offers an intimate portrait of Ronald Reagan, described her father as “a very special person.”

“The feeling of him as a special person is a kinship that has been felt for many years by constituents of his in the United States, both as an actor and as a politician,” she said.

Of her book, which includes her view of her father’s 8 years in Washington, Reagan said: “I thought it was time to tell the story from the position of someone who liked being there, and who says that it’s OK that it’s over, and didn’t feel the kind of sour grapes (that made it) necessary to write the kiss-and-tell books that we have seen.”

“When I told the President I was going to be involved in this project,” Reagan recalled, “he very kindly said, ‘Oh, not another book!’ I said, ‘You don’t understand. The mark of a successful administration is the number of books that are written about it. But they’re supposed to be favorable. Perhaps I can start a trend.’ ”