Los Angeles Literature Events 12/07/15 – 12/13/15
David Gregory at Vroman’s
Join former NBC newsman and Meet the Press moderator David Gregory as he discusses and signs “How’s Your Faith?: An Unlikely Spiritual Journey” and probes various religious traditions to answer life’s most important questions: who do we want to be and what do we believe?
While David was covering the White House, he had the unusual experience of being asked by President George W. Bush “How’s your faith?” David’s answer was just emerging. Raised by a Catholic mother and a Jewish dad, he had a strong sense of Jewish cultural and ethnic identity, but no real belief–until his marriage to a Protestant woman of strong faith inspired him to explore his spirituality for himself and his growing family.
David approaches his faith with the curiosity and dedication you would expect from a journalist accustomed to holding politicians and Presidents accountable. But he also comes as a seeker, one just discovering why spiritual journeys are always worthwhile. (Simon and Schuster)
Where: Vroman’s Book Store
Date: Monday the 7th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 12/07/15 – 12/13/15”
Los Angeles Literature Events 11/30/15 – 12/6/15
Alex Palmer and “The Santa Claus
Man” at Book Soup
Alex Palmer discusses and signs “The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York.” The charismatic John Duval Gluck Jr. created the Santa Claus Association, the only group authorized to answer Santa’s mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era’s movie stars and politicians, and even planned to erect a vast Santa Claus monument in the center of Manhattan until Gotham s crusading charity commissioner discovered some dark secrets in Santa’s workshop. It’s also the larger story of how Christmas became the extravagant holiday we celebrate today, from Santa’s early beginnings in New York to the country’s first citywide Christmas tree and Macy s first grand holiday parade. The Santa Claus Man is a holiday tale with a dark underbelly, and an essential read for lovers of Christmas stories, true crime, and New York City history (Lyons Press)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 11/30/15 – 12/6/15”
A Southern California Thanksgiving
By Susan Straight
From: L.A. Times
Who told the story first? The story of Native Americans bringing food to the Pilgrims, who were hungry, weary, wary neighbors in Plymouth — roasted fowl, gourds, corn and fish?
The traditional Thanksgiving turkeys of my Southern California childhood, awkwardly big birds on my mother’s Formica counter, frightened my siblings and me. We were meant to pull out the frozen neck and guts and heart, to watch as women put stuffing into the most undignified cavities, and hours later to watch as men wielded huge shivering electric knives to slice off the legs.
Los Angeles Literary Events 11/23/15 – 11/29/15
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) at LAPL
Every Monday in November “Come Write In” to the meeting room and put the words inside your head to paper. Astound yourself by writing a novel in a month!
Adults, Seniors, Teens
Where: Vermont Square Branch Library
Date: Monday, the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 1201 W. 48th St., Los Angeles, CA 90037
Website:
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.lapl.org/branches/vermont-square
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Bluebird farewell. La Palabra in November. The Gluten-free Chicano’s Cocido. On-line Floricanto.
T
he Last Bluebird
Michael Sedano
The invitation arrived to mixed emotions. Joy, at the prospect of a themed Bluebird reading, Cien minutos de recuerdos para Márquez / One hundred minutes of memories for Márquez. Desolation, realizing I’d not attended the majority of these memorable events and this one would be the last: Please join us for a 100-minute long reading of work inspired by Gabriel García Márquez, as told by 9 Los Ángeles storytellers, with short interludes accompanied by 1 Los Ángeles son jarocho.
As always, this final Bluebird Reading would happen at the cultural heartbeat of Northeast Los Angeles, Highland Park’s Avenue 50 Studio.
The Avenue 50 Studio art gallery and centro cultural is LA’s best-kept secret. It shouldn’t be, but it is, owing to the pernicious strategy of the Los Angeles Times to define art and culture as only those activities happening in locations west of downtown, except for finding the best tacos and tortas in town, inevitably on the eastside. Then there’s the Grey Lady.
Los Angeles Literary Events
LARB presents Roy Scranton with “Learning to Die in the Anthropocene” Roy Scranton discusses and signs “Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization” which heralds a threat far more dangerous than ISIS or Al Qaeda: Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, megadrought—the shock and awe of global warming. Expanding on his influential New York Times essay (the #1 most-emailed article the day it … Continue reading Los Angeles Literary Events
Los Angeles Literary Events 11/9/15 – 11/15/15
Laura McKinny Men Against Women Discusses and Signs “Men Against Women”
Morgan is a single mom and a tough-minded cop who has requested a transfer out of her sleepy suburban town to the gritty streets LA’s 77th precinct. As a woman in a male-dominated profession, she has pretty much experienced it all – or so she thought. What she finds downtown is much more serious and potentially life threatening. At the 77th, there is a clear division and hostility between the men and the women on the force.
Soon after Morgan arrives at the 77th, the women fill her in on the men’s after-hours secret cop club, Men Against Women (MAW) — where the guys vent their frustrations at having to share their jobs, and their pride, with women, atmosphere that is hard to endure. When Morgan refuses to rat-out a fellow male officer, she is unceremoniously demoted to “report car” and discovers a cover-up that could bring down MAW and forever change the 77th. (Stone’s Throw Media)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/laura-mckinny-discusses-and-signs-men-against-women
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Ertll Book Presentation and Signing
From: La Bloga
La Bloga friend, Randy Jurado Ertll, shares the following about his Thursday, November 5 event at the main Pasadena Public Library. The roll of writers in our society: What do we really value–material wealth or knowledge?
Occidental College Alumni Seal award winner Randy Jurado Ertll (’95) will speak about the experiences, motivation and perseverance required to be a writer in today’s society. Can we achieve social changes through the written word? What is the price that writers pay to exercise their freedom of speech? Continue reading “Ertll Book Presentation and Signing”
Los Angeles Literature 11/1/15 – 11/7/15
Yumi Sakugawa with “There Is No Right Way to Meditate”
In “There Is No Right Way to Meditate,” award-winning artist Yumi Sakugawa helps you tap into your inner self and finally find the peace that you’ve been seeking. Each page offers a unique perspective on how to lead a more mindful life, with captivating ink illustrations and encouraging words like, “it’s okay if the only thing you did today was breathe.” From simple ways to get rid of a bad mood to instructions for making your intentions come true, her lessons will inspire you to become more aware of the present moment and find stillness no matter where you go.
Yumi Sakugawa is an Ignatz Awards nominated comic book artist and the author of I Think I Am in Friend-Love With You and Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One With The Universe. Her comics have also appeared in The Believer, Bitch, the Best American NonRequired Reading 2014, The Rumpus, Folio, Fjords Review, and other publications. A graduate from the fine art program of University of California, Los Angeles, she lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Monday, the 2nd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/yumi-sakugawa-discusses-her-new-book-there-no-right-way-meditate
Triple Features For October La Palabra Reading Series at Avenue 50 Studio
From: La Bloga
Ninety-degree weather at the end of October is a normal California Fall. Almost as normal, it was the fourth Sunday of the month, and that normally means a La Palabra Hosted by Karineh Mahdessian celebration at Northeast Los Angeles’ cultural soul, Avenue 50 Studio.
Mahdessian, victim of a roller skating mishap, worked the house irrepressibly despite the clunky black boot walking cast that slowed the popular emcee’s gait but not her spirit.
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