Talking to a stranger in an Irish pub, Thomas Cahill learned to keep quiet about books he has in the works. "What do you do?" he asked the man beside him. "I'm a writer." "What have you written?" "I haven't written anything." Cahill told the story to a gathering at a bookstore in Los Angeles who asked about his own plans for a series of books he has in the works. His latest, "The Gifts of the Jews" (Doubleday), is the second in the set called "Hinges of History."

Talking to a stranger in an Irish pub, Thomas Cahill learned to keep quiet about books he has in the works. "What do you do?" he asked the man beside him. "I'm a writer." "What have you written?" "I haven't written anything." Cahill told the story to a gathering at a bookstore in Los Angeles who asked about his own plans for a series of books he has in the works. His latest, "The Gifts of the Jews" (Doubleday), is the second in the set called "Hinges of History."