LibraryThing Local

Vroman's Bookstore and Book Soup present James Frey with special guests author Josh Kilmer Purcell (Candy Everybody Wants, I Am Not Myself These Days) and the rock group Black Tide. In his first novel, a sweeping narrative that encompasses the history of Los Angeles, the #1 NY Times Bestselling author ... (more)Frey focuses on a handful of lost souls, and spins the gripping narrative of their lives. This event will be held at the Whiskey A Go-Go in Hollywood. It is free and open to the public. Due to the club setting, outside books will not be allowed into the venue, however, books will be for sale at the event. Please check back for more details.

Vlautin, author of the acclaimed debut novel The Motel Life and lead singer of the alt-country band Richmond Fontaine, returns to Vroman's to present his new novel, Northline. Set in the outskirts of Vegas and Reno, Northline follows Allison Johnson as she flees her violent skinhead boyfriend Jimmie, ... (more)just as she's about to have his baby. Imagined conversations with her hero, Paul Newman, sustain her through her loneliest times until she meets Dan Mahoney, an outsider himself looking to move beyond his circumstances. Full of memorable characters and imbued with a beautiful sense of yearning, Vlautin's work has been praised by The Bookseller (London) as possessing “the tone of a Tom Waits song or Bukowski poem.” In addition to a reading, Vlautin will perform his music live as well!

On the eve of his 53rd birthday, Kahlil, an optician, is visited by his dead grandmother and now she keeps returning on a whim. On top of that, Kahlil has become immediately smitten with the mysterious Jane Plain and it's while on a quest to deliver to her four new pairs of glasses that Kahlil finds ... (more)himself wrongly suspected of being a terrorist by apparent rogue government agents.

Bounce along with the kangaroos, shake it up with the warthogs, maybe stay away from the smelly green stinkbug, but definitely learn your ABC's on this wild safari! In celebration of Matthew Van Fleet's latest book, Alphabet.

Martha, Clio, and Jocasta met by chance at Heathrow airport on their way to separate backpacking adventures. Fifteen years later they are brought back together when a secret, buried many years before, is exposed. A potent mix of mystery and romance laced with a sharp, critical take on contemporary British ... (more)politics and culture, Sheer Abandon is an un-put-down-able read that will have women everywhere glued to their chairs and clamoring for the next Vincenzi saga when they're done.

Gail Tsukiyama discusses the San Marino One City, One Book pick, The Samurai's Garden Set in Japan just before World War II, this novel focuses on 17-year-old Stephen, who leaves his home in Hong Kong just as Japan is poised to invade. He's sent to a small town called Tarumi to recuperate from tuberculosis, ... (more)and as he does, he begins to develop friendships with 3 women and a girl close to his own age, all of whom begin to open him up in their own ways to the lessons of wisdom concerning love, honor and loss. Please call Vroman's customer service at (626) 449-5320 no later than May 19 to place your order.

Ever since her teens, Hillary Carlip has been collecting found shopping lists. Now, she has picked a handful of the lists, taken clues from the items to buy, the handwriting, type of paper, even the misspellings, and has imagined and become some of these shoppers. Ŕ la Cart is a collection of stories ... (more)and photographs of twenty-six unforgettable individuals who vary in age, gender, and ethnicity but share one thing in common: They are all Hillary Carlip.

Vroman's Bookstore & PEN Center USA present Evan Handler discussing and signing It's Only Temporary Actor, Evan Handler (Sex and the City) follows up his memoir Time on Fire: My Comedy of Errors with It's Only Temporary, his deeply moving account of his struggle to come back to life after his fight with ... (more)acute leukemia in his 20’s. In examining his own shifts in perspectives over the years he never thought he'd have, Handler sheds light on all our lives and helps us laugh at our universal conundrum as humans.

When film critic, award-winning novelist and author David Gilmour's son Jesse was doing badly in school and was headed down the wrong path, David made him a deal. He let his son drop out of school if he agreed to watch three movies a week. During their film time, Jesse turns to his dad with questions ... (more)about women, drugs, friendships, money and love, while David struggles with his deal and the possible implications for his son's future. The Film Club is an honest, unconventional, and ultimately uplifting book about parenting.

Enzo is not like other dogs; he's learned so much by watching television and paying attention to his master's musings about life and auto racing and he is very frustrated by not being able to communicate with anything more than gestures. Enzo, a firm believer in reincarnation, can't wait for the day ... (more)when his soul returns to earth in the body of a human. The Art of Racing in the Rain is an emotionally stirring, thrillingly imaginative novel.

After the senseless murder of his pregnant wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley hands in his badge, walks out of Scotland Yard and goes home to Cornwall. While on a hike of the trails over the cliffs of the Cornish coast, Lynley finds a lifeless body of a young man, dead from a fall. Lynley begins ... (more)a quest to unmask a clever and ruthless murderer but this time he is not in charge. In fact, he's a witness and possibly a suspect.

Marr continues her tales of Faerie that she introduced in Wicked Lovely, with this story of Leslie. Leslie is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo and has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life. The tattoo does bring change - not the kind she ... (more)dreamed of, but something sinister, drawing her deeper and deeper into the faerie world.

From the bestselling author of Night Soldiers and Blood of Victory comes this spy thriller set in Europe on the cusp of the Second World War. When a German engineer sells information to a French military attaché, it sets in motion a series of events that will define history. We know what happened ... (more)in Poland in 1939 and France in 1940. The Spies of Warsaw is about how it happened.

From one of Hollywood's most sought-after screenwriters comes a thrilling tale of two young men on an impossible mission. During the siege of Leningrad, 17-year-old Lev is caught looting a dead German soldier. Into his prison cell waltzes the charismatic Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested on desertion ... (more)charges. Instead of facing the firing squad, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at survival by completing a seemingly impossible task: securing a dozen eggs for a powerful colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. This launches their incredible journey across war-torn Russia.

In The Safety of Secrets, DeLauné Michel brilliantly evokes the nostalgic beauty of the Deep South as well as the dusty glitter of urban Los Angeles. Fiona and Patricia have been friends since childhood, and their friendship survives a move to Los Angeles to become actresses. When the pressures of ... (more)Hollywood begin to exact a toll, the women are forced to wonder if their friendship can survive. But the true test of their devotion is just beginning. When a dark secret from their past begins to emerge, it threatens to destroy not only the bond the women have shared, but all they've worked for, as well.

Dorothy Garcia & Tom Harding (Art Aids Art) present Bead By Bead: Reviving an Ancient Tradition: The Monkeybiz Bead Project Since 2000, Monkeybiz Bead Project has taken the world by storm with its funky, innovative and visually stunning bead art, which is sold in both South Africa and all over the world. ... (more)The project now employs 450 disadvantaged women from around Cape Town. This book is both a showcase and catalogue of the ravishing beadwork they produce, and a profile of a uniquely successful grassroots project that gives employment to poor women and provides them with skills training and HIV/AIDS support.

Robert S. Levinson, whose new novel, In the Key of Death, is set in the music industry, shares some behind-the-scenes stories from his years representing major international artists such as as Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Tom Petty, Olivia Newton-John, Tanya Tucker, Merle Haggard, ... (more)KC and the Sunshine Band, the Osmonds, David Cassidy, the Bee Gees, and Ike and Tina Turner. Purchasers in attendance will receive a complimentary CD featuring music of an artist from the “Golden Age of Rock & Roll.”

While political pundits continue to express surprise at the outcome of this year's primaries, Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais predicted all of the surprising events of this year's campaign in Millennial Makeover. Tracing the historical patterns of American politics, they examine the rise of a new ... (more)civic-oriented generation, Millennials, and how their use of social networks like Facebook and MySpace has been the spark behind this sudden transformation of America's political landscape.

With more than 500 photographs and rare ephemera, all collected by author Tom Zimmerman, Paradise Promoted is the first book to showcase the era from 1870 to 1930 when boosters developed the small town of Los Angeles into the city that would become America's most cutting-edge metropolis.

Klein's passion and wrenching honesty fill the pages with attitude and heart when, as a mother-to-be, she's forced to confront her adolescent struggles and angst, recounting an angry childhood with a weak mother, and how a summer at fat camp shaped more than just her body: it shaped her life. Moose ... (more)reminds everyone what it was like to feel like an outsider, to desperately seek the right outfit, the right slang, the best comeback, or whatever that unattainable something is that would finally make you fit in.

Emily Giffin, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Baby Proof, returns with another absorbing, thought-provoking tale featuring an authentic heroine stuck in an untenable yet universally-relatable position. Ellen Graham has the seemingly perfect life ... (more)and relationship. Married to Andy, her best friend's brother, and embraced by a family who has become much more than mere in-laws, Ellen believes she's on her way to happily-ever-after. Then, one fateful afternoon, she runs into Leo, her mercurial ex-boyfriend whom she hasn't seen in eight years. Despite Ellen's love for her husband, and her determination to be true to him, she begins to question whether the life she's living is the one she's meant to have. Please call Vroman's customer service at (626) 449-5320 no later than June 6 to place your order.

Mlodinow, a former writer for Star Trek and MacGyver, reminds us that much of life is less predictable than the steps of a drunken man, stumbling home from a night at the bar. By highlighting the lives and careers of the wild and unpredictable characters who contributed necessary groundwork to the study ... (more)of probability, Mlodinow shows us how we misinterpret the world around us and believe we have control or understanding, when in fact we are gleaning too much from far too little.

Actor and comedian Kevin Nealon (Saturday Night Live, Weeds) had his entire world changed when, at the age of 53, he became a first-time dad. Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me? is his response: a humorous and delightful look at his belated road to fatherhood.

With The End of Manners, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and novelist Marciano takes us to a place most Westerners visit only in news clips and headlines: Afghanistan. This thrilling, darkly comic story of men and women and war brings vividly to life the Afghanistan of journalists and mercenaries, ... (more)NGO workers and international contractors, as an unlikely pair of women reporters, food photographer Maria Galante and larger-than-life journalist Imogen Glassare, are thrown together on assignment there. Please call Vroman's customer service at (626) 449-5320 no later than June 10 to place your order.

Drawing on more than seven years of research, Rushdie, the legendary author of Midnight's Children, brings together two seemingly different cities: the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire, and the treachery of his sons, ... (more)and the equally sensual city of Florence, where Niccolň Machiavelli takes a starring role. A virtuosic feat of storytelling that mixes political intrigue and high drama, romance and magic, Enchantress of Florence, is a profound reflection on war and politics, gender and society, fantasy and rumor, individuality and public life, and how the brutal past still influences our present world. This event will be held outside in the Vroman's courtyard. Line tickets will be given out the day of the event. Show your Vroman's receipt with your purchase of your copy of Enchantress of Florence to receive a line ticket. Visit our website for an updated list of event guidelines and restrictions.

Funny, fast-moving, honest, and heartbreaking, Hot Widow is the memoir of a woman who becomes hot and bothered after losing her husband of forty-seven years, only to find out that, to men, she has become hot stuff! The story covers her first two years alone, filled with the anxieties and trials of modern ... (more)life, the burden of extreme loneliness, and, to her surprise and delight, an intense sexuality she never knew she had.

In this ambitious debut novel, Horan blends fact and fiction to tell the story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney's clandestine affair with the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world, and her journey is marked by choices ... (more)that reshape her notions of love and responsibility and that shake Chicago society to its core.

This passionate debut novel tells the story of one girl's coming of age in 1970s Southern California, a world that is peopled by hippies, surfers, and eccentric nudist parents who throw naked swim parties in the backyard pool. 14-year-old Jamie is haunted by a morbid anticipation of tragedy and mortified ... (more)by her quirky parents, who openly embrace their middle-aged nakedness while Jamie struggles with her own changing body and sexual awakening. As the summer progresses, Jamie discovers is that no matter how crazy, no matter how naked, her family may be her salvation after all.

Progressives have been fighting a losing battle in America for the last thirty years, largely because the majority of citizens vote against their own self interests. According to George Lakoff, bestselling author of Don't Think of an Elephant and Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley, ... (more)this is because people don't think about politics “rationally,” but emotionally. In The Political Mind, Lakoff explains how our brains really work, why language is so important, and how Democrats can use this to their advantage to win the November elections. This is a ticketed event. A free ticket is available with purchase of The Political Mind. Tickets without the purchase of a book will be available at Vroman’s main store before the event for $5.00. Additional books will be on sale at the venue. No phone or Internet orders will be accepted.

What do we believe? And for God's sake, why? Those are the thorny questions that Lewis Black (The Daily Show), the bitingly funny comedian, social critic, and bestselling author, tackles in his new book, Me of Little Faith. In more than two dozen essays that investigate everything from ... (more)the differences between how Christians and Jews celebrate their holidays, to the politics of faith, to people's individual search for transcendence, Black explores his unique odyssey through religion and belief.This event will be held outsidein the Vroman's courtyard. Line tickets will be given out the day of the event. Show your Vroman's receipt with your purchase of your copy of Me of Little Faith to receive a line ticket. Visit our website for an updated list of event guidelines and restrictions.

Talented author-illustrator Marla Frazee presents a hilarious look at two boys' adventures at Nature Camp (sort of) in her new book A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever. When James and Eamon go to a week of Nature Camp and stay at Eamon's grandparents' house, it turns out that their free time spent ... (more)staying inside, eating waffles, and playing video games is way more interesting than nature.

$85.00 per person (plus tax) (includes a 16-course meal and a copy of The Last Chinese Chef) Ever since the publication of her novel The Last Chinese Chef, Nicole Mones has been inundated with letters from readers asking where they, too, can experience great Chinese cuisine. JOIN US at 1:30 P.M. on ... (more)Sunday, June 22, at Chang's Garden in Arcadia for a sixteen-course Chinese banquet specially designed by master chef Henry Chang to showcase the principles of haute Chinese cuisine, and to demonstrate some of the dishes cooked and served in the novel. Finalist for the Kiriyama Prize (world's best work of fiction on any Pacific Rim Culture), finalist for the World Gourmand Cookbook Award (world's best book on Chinese cuisine), and the first work of fiction ever excerpted by a national food magazine in the United States, The Last Chinese Chef combines a story of food, culture and love with the most complete portrayal of Chinese gastronomy ever rendered in the English language. Mones will join us as we dine to explain not just the dishes but their artistic and philosophical context. Diners will be able not only to experience superb, authentic Chinese cuisine but also to see its place in Chinese civilization.

In her engrossing new book, Insomniac, Gayle Greene a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, addresses head-on the neglect of this disorder that affects millions. Greene, who has suffered from insomnia all her life, weaves together four strands: the story of her personal journey through ... (more)a lifetime of sleepless nights; the experiences of other insomniacs; an in-depth study of sleep science and current research; and a detailed examination of what can be done to help those afflicted with this problem.

This third novel from Strauss (Chang and Eng) tracks a Long Island family crisis. Josh Goldin is a happily married TV airtime salesman with an eight-month-old son. When baby Zack is treated twice for mysterious and life-threatening symptoms, the head of a pediatric ICU, Dr. Darlene Stokes, tells Child ... (more)Protective Services that she thinks Josh's wife, Dori, suffers from Munchausen syndrome, whereby the afflicted injure their children deliberately to draw attention to themselves. The Goldins' ensuing battle to keep Zack provides grist for public debate about issues ranging from parents' rights to race.

In a post-9/11 New York, Hans--a banker originally from the Netherlands--finds himself marooned among the strange occupants of the Chelsea Hotel after his English wife and son return to London. Alone and untethered, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his ... (more)lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country.

Set in 1915, Enger's (Peace Like a River) new novel tells the tale of Monte Becket, a disappointed, one-time novelist who lives simply with his loving wife and whip-smart son. As a writer he has lost his sense of purpose and five years after the successful publication of his first book, he has failed ... (more)at completing a new one. Things change, however, when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a charming, enigmatic, aging cowboy who has been hiding out in Monte's small town for two decades.

Exploring the vital connection between motherhood and social change, The Maternal Is Political features thirty powerful essays by women who are striving to make the world a better place for children and women. Written by and for mothers, this anthology is crafted to help us discover, appreciate, and ... (more)our powerful (and too often underutilized) political votes and voices to create positive social change. Join us as several contributors to this inspirational new anthology discuss these powerful issues. Participants include Gayle Brandeis, Mona Gable, Karen Maezen Miller, and anthology editor Shari MacDonald Strong.

Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day) returns with a new masterpiece of comic writing, as making a pot of coffee unleashes a chain of memory that leads him literally around the world. In essay after essay, Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life -- like armoring the windows with LP covers to ... (more)protect the house from neurotic songbirds -- to the most deeply resonant human truths, all rendered in Sedaris’ signature witty prose. This is a ticketed event & seating is limited. To obtain a ticket you must purchase your copy of When You Are Engulfed in Flames from Vroman's main store. No phone or Internet orders will be accepted. Check online or call us for updated ticket and event information. Absolutely no photography or recording of any kind will be permitted while the event is in progress.

This is a call for all lovers of historical fiction, and of Sandra Gulland, to join us when Sandra presents her latest book, Mistress of the Sun. This novel based on the life of Louise de la Valliere, who, against all odds, became one of the most mysterious consorts of France's Louis XIV, The charismatic ... (more)Sun King. Sandra will be attending the event in full costume and would love for everyone to join her.