Let's take a temporary break from fiction and look at a short list of true-tale books:

"Plan Bee" by Susan Brackney (Perigee, $21.95, 208 pages): No honeybees, no pollination, which is essential for humankind's survival. Where have all the bees gone? Beekeeper Brackney tours readers through the world of "the hardest-working creature on the planet" and addresses the "vanishing bees" issue.

"Eiffel's Tower" by Jill Jonnes (Viking, $27.95, 368 pages): Historian Jonnes tells the fascinating inside story of how engineer Gustave Eiffel overcame obstacles to build the iconic "centerpiece attraction at the 1889 World's Fair."

"The Twitter Book" by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein (O'Reilly Media, $19.99, 240 pages): Does the Twitter phenomenon show how appallingly vacuous our culture has become, or does the social-networking system have serious business and marketing applications? The authors favor the latter theory. This is the ultimate source for everything you need to know about Twitter.

"Hound Dog" by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, with David Ritz (Simon & Schuster, $25, 336 pages): When it comes to history-making songwriting, these are the guys. Leiber and Stoller's dual autobiography is sharp and funny as they tell how they "brought production values to R&B chart supremacy in the early 1950s" and continued to create music and lyrics over the decades. They produced hits for Elvis Presley, the Coasters, Ben E. King, the Drifters and Peggy Lee, for instance, and in 1995 unveiled the hit Broadway musical "Smokey Joe's Cafe."

"Large Art in Small Places" by Kevin Bruce (Ten Speed, $24.95, 192 pages): It's a delightful pictoral tour of "California mural towns," highlighting public art from the 1930s to the present. Great stuff.

Here come the best-sellers

Borders Books will host three best-selling authors in June:

• Garth Stein for "The Art of Racing in the Rain" (Harper, $14.99, 336 pages): Stein's third novel is narrated via the point of view of Enzo the dog, the loyal companion of unlucky race car driver Denny Swift. The tale mixes philosophy, human drama, risk on the racetrack and the wise observations of man's best friend.

Event: 7 p.m. June 12 at 2339 Fair Oaks Blvd., Sacramento; (916) 564-0168.

• Lisa See for "Shanghai Girls" (Random House, $25, 336 pages): See specializes in fiction that focuses on the close bonds between Chinese women throughout history, as exemplified by her two previous works, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and "Peony In Love." "Girls" follows sisters Pearl and May on their journey from Shanghai to 1930s Hollywood. This is See at her most compassionate and wrenching. The author appeared for The Bee Book Club in 2007.

Event: 7 p.m. June 18 at 2339 Fair Oaks Blvd., Sacramento; (916) 564-0168.

• John Lescroart for "A Plague of Secrets" (Dutton, $26.95, 432 pages): Lescroart continues his Dismas Hardy-Abe Glitsky legal-thriller series set in San Francisco. A murder, a marijuana-farming operation, blackmail, deception and duplicity. Who's lying – and who's next?

Another Lescroart protagonist, Wyatt Hunt, returns in January in "Treasure Hunt." Lescroart's books are high entertainment, with accurate legal and police procedures leading the action. Lescroart, who lives near Davis, has appeared twice for The Bee Book Club.

Event: 7 p.m. June 30 at 500 First St., Davis; (530) 750-3723.

Also on the calendar

Other author appearances include:

• Joshua Buhs for "Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend" (University of Chicago Press, $29, 304 pages): How has the legend of Bigfoot affected the popular culture? Buhs, a scholar and author of "The Fire Ant Wars," offers evidentiary answers and eyebrow- raising theories. This is not the typical attack of a skeptic or a defense by a true believer, but something much more rational.

Event: 1 p.m. Saturday at Borders, 2765 E. Bidwell St., Folsom; (916) 984-5900.

• Larry Tagg for "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President" (Savas Beatie, $32.95, 576 pages): The book is described this way: "Lincoln, a beloved American icon, is widely considered to be our best president. It was not always so. (This study) concentrates on what Lincoln's contemporaries actually thought of him during his lifetime." Tagg teaches English and drama at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento.

Event: 2 p.m. Sunday at the Avid Reader at the Tower, 1600 Broadway, Sacramento; (916) 441-4400.

Sink your teeth into this

Food activist and University of California, Berkeley, professor of journalism Michael Pollan will be onstage at 7:30 p.m. June 10 at the Westminster Presbyterian Church as part of the California Lectures subscription series.

Pollan helped raise America's collective consciousness about the food it eats via his 2007 bestselling "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" (Penguin, $16, 464 pages). His new book, "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" (Penguin, $15, 256 pages), continues the feast.

The award-winning author has written about agriculture and the "ecology of eating" for 20 years. The message in his latest work: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Other titles include "The Botany of Desire," "A Place of My Own" and "Second Nature."

Pollan will be in conversation with A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The pre-lecture "Earth to Table" reception is sold out.

The venue is at 1300 N St., Sacramento. Tickets are $20 at (916) 737-1300, www.californialectures.org and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, 1900 Alhambra Blvd., Sacramento; (916) 736-6800.

And in Nevada County ...

The Friends of the Nevada County Libraries will host a book sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Doris Foley Historical Library, 211 N. Pine St., Nevada City. Thousands of books in most genres will be sold for 25 cents to $3. Featured will be reference and nature books.

Information: (530) 265-1407 and friends@ncfol.org.

The Bee's Allen Pierleoni can be reached at (916) 321-1128. Contact him with news of upcoming literary events that are open to the public.