Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/15/22 – 08/21/22

Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/15/22 – 08/21/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

World Literature Book Club at via West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us for a spirited and engaging discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners (New York, 2021), ed. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This month’s selections are:

  •   Scissors by Karina Sainz Borgo
  •   Witness by Jamel Brinkley
  •   The Other One by Tess Hadley

​We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays).

NOTE: See site for link, and details. Email wvally@lapl.org with “World Literature” in the subject line.

Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 15th

Time: 10 am (repeated by Woodland Hills Branch Library at 2 pm).

Address: Zoom Online (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-0

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/15/22 – 08/21/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/25/22 – 07/31/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Quantum Book Club: Her Body and Other Parties at The Book Jewel Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join the Quantum Book Club to discuss the book, Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado.

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.  

NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and details.

Where: The Book Jewel Bookstore

Date: Monday the 25th   

Time: 6 pm

Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/quantum-book-club

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/25/22 – 07/31/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/18/22 – 07/24/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Philosophical Horror Book Club: RINGS (Rings Trilogy) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join the Philosophical Horror Book Club to discuss the book, RINGS (Rings trilogy), by Koji Suzuki.

A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.

Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece’s inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan Tokyo teeming with modern society’s fears to a rural Japan–a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic–haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape’s mystery before it’s too late–for everyone–assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.

The success of Koji Suzuki’s novel the Ring has led to manga, television and film adaptations in Japan, Korea, and the U.S.

NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and details.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Monday the 18th   

Time: 6 pm

Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-rings

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/18/22 – 07/24/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/27/22 – 07/03/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Quantum Book Club: The Candle and the Flame at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event

The Quantum Book Club reads selections from literary fiction and nonfiction, on the last Monday of every month. Join us to discuss the June selection, The Candle and the Flame, by Nafiza Azad.

This sophisticated debut novel combines basic Islamic concepts and Middle Eastern mythology in a YA fantasy set in a city along the along the Silk Road that is a refuge for those of all faiths, where a young woman is threatened by the war between two clans of powerful djinn.  This book weaves an immersive tale of magic and the importance of names; fiercely independent women; and, perhaps most importantly, the work for harmony within a city of a thousand cultures and cadences.

NOTE: See site for book purchase and details6259

Where: The Book Jewel

Date: Monday the 27th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Website: https://www.facebook.com/BookJewelBookstore/photos/pcb.731164534965353/731164484965358/  

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/27/22 – 07/03/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/20/22 – 06/26/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Cleyvis Natera, with Steph Cha, & Neruda on the Park at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event

Cleyvis Natera, iin conversation with Steph Cha (Your House Will Pay), will discuss his new novel, Neruda on the Park, a beautifully layered portrait of family, friendship, and ambition. 

Neruda on the Park weaves a rich and vivid tapestry of community as well as the sacrifices we make to protect what we love most, announcing Cleyvis Natera as an electrifying new voice.

The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for twenty years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile, Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm who strives to live the bougie lifestyle her parents worked hard to give her, becomes distracted by a sweltering romance with the handsome white developer at the company her mother so vehemently opposes.

As Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions in Nothar Park, racing toward a near-fatal climax.

NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and details.

Where: Skylight Bookstore

Date: Monday the 20th

Time: 7 pm – PST

Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-cleyvis-natera-presents-neruda-park-steph-cha

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/20/22 – 06/26/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/13/22 – 06/19/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Tween Book Club via Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Tween Event

Kids ages 9 to 12 are invited to a monthly book discussion, to share other books they have read and to get new reading recommendations.

In June, we’ll discuss Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick. The book should be read in advance of the meeting. Find a copy to borrow at the library site link.  

NOTE: See site for Zoom link and details. 

Where: LAPL Online event

Date: Monday the13th  

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tween-book-club  

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/13/22 – 06/19/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/30/22 – 06/05/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Book Talks: Judith Freeman & MacArthur Park, with Barbara Feldon & Getting Smarter via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event

Longtime friends Judith Freeman and Barbara Feldon will discuss their newest books, the novel MacArthur Park and the memoir Getting Smarter, respectively.

Judith Freeman is a novelist and non-fiction writer whose most recent novel, MacArthur Park, is set in Los Angeles and the rural West. Friends Jolene and Verna share complicated ties that have crystallized over time. Beginning when they were girls discovering their needs and desires, their ongoing stories have been inextricably linked. But when Verna marries Vincent, Jolene’s ex-husband, their paths may have finally, permanently diverged. Now, on a trip to their hometown in Utah, they are forced to confront both the truths and falsehoods of their memories of each other and of their early friendship.

Barbara Feldon is best known as “Agent 99” on the 1960’s TV series, Get Smart. She is the author of Living Alone and Loving it! and various essays. Her memoir Getting Smarter relates her dramatic and sometimes zany adventures with a glamorous Frenchman, her initiation into show business, and the fun of working in Hollywood.

NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details. 

Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore

Date: Monday the 30th  

Time: 4 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VJDEnKimRl6AwuRjBHEuYA

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/30/22 – 06/05/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/23/22 – 05/29/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Luncheon with Emma Straub: Book Launch of This Time Tomorrow at Slay Italian Kitchen – In-Person Event

Pages hosts a luncheon to celebrate the publication of Emma Straub’s’ new book, This Time Tomorrow at Slay’s Italian Kitchen.  The author will be in conversation with Janelle Brown, author of I’ll Be You.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?

NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details. 

Where: Pages Bookstore at Slay Italian Kitchen

Date: Monday the 23rd   

Time: 11:30 am- 1 pm

Address: 1001 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/emma-straub-slay

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/23/22 – 05/29/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/09/22 – 05/15/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Book Club Bonanza: Let’s Celebrate Asian Pacific Voices via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event

Teens may join our librarians online as they share books for teens that celebrate Asian Pacific voices in YA literature and celebrate and join the Big Read.

The Best We Could Do, by author Thi Bui, is an illustrated graphic noel portraying one family’s poignant journey from war-torn Vietnam to America and will resonate with all who hope for a better future while longing for a simpler past.

The book club discussion itself will be held on Monday, May 23rd, but we will also host a read-alikes discussion on May 9th.

Watch past episodes on YouTube for more book recommendations.

NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details. 

Where: Central Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 9th

Time: 4:30 pm

Address: LAPL – Online (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-lets-celebrate-asian-pacific-voices

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/09/22 – 05/15/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/02/22 – 05/08/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

World Literature Book Club: Story Selections via Central Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us for a spirited discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story (New York, 2021) ed. John Freeman. This month’s selections are:

May 2: St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (2007)

May 9: The Last Thing We Need by Claire Vaye Watkins (2010) 

May 16: Ken Liu: Selection to be Announced

May 23: The Dune by Stephen King (2011)

NOTE: See site for event details and Zoom link.        

Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online event

Date: Monday the 2nd

Time: 10 am

Address: LAPL – Online Event

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-36

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/02/22 – 05/08/22”