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    The Book Pages: 5 Independent Bookstore Day events
    • April 28, 2023

    What’s your plan? Tell me you have a plan.

    Tomorrow, April 29, is the 10th anniversary of Independent Bookstore Day so if you’re already plotting your options like a detective with a string-covered evidence board, trust me, that is totally normal behavior.

    Because if you’re reading The Book Pages, you’re probably ready to go now; I know if I’m even passing by a bookshop or library, my head starts tilting to the left so I’ll be ready to read the spines.

    But even if bookstores didn’t already hold a mysterious power over us, you will have help tomorrow. The American Booksellers Association has a map to help you find bookstores on Saturday or other days, too. (Santa Ana’s Libromobile Arts Cooperative & Bookstore is building a map of Southern California BIPOC bookstores you can consult, too.)

    There are plenty of bookstores to choose from, including Bel Canto Books, Once Upon a Time, The Iliad, Lost Books, Annabelle’s Book Club, Octavia’s Bookshelf, Vroman’s, Cellar Door Books, Abril, The Ripped Bodice, Underdog, Skylight Books, Village Well, Children’s Book World, DIESEL and more.

    Yes, this is how I plan my Independent Bookstore Day activities. (Getty Images)

    How many more? According to Allison K. Hill, the CEO of the American Booksellers Association and former columnist for these newspapers, Southern California had 19 independent bookstores open in the last year.

    “Over 1,000 independent bookstores across the country are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Independent Bookstore Day with their customers and their communities this Saturday,” Hill told me in an email. “There’s a lot to celebrate this year! Indie bookstores survived and even thrived during the pandemic despite incredible challenges, and they continue to play an important and special role in their communities.”

    I couldn’t agree more. But one thing we’re not doing – yet – in our part of Southern California? A bookstore crawl. (Though San Diego has one.) You know, that’s like a pub crawl (but with less spit-up and brawling). The reasons not to have one are, sure, obvious. Southern California is huge, so it’s crazy to expect readers to trek from, say, Zibby’s in Santa Monica to North Figueroa Bookshop in L.A. to The Frugal Frigate in Redlands (with more book stops along the way).

    Or is it? The Seattle area, with its 27 bookstores, sponsors a yearly bookstore crawl and allows readers 10 days to complete it. Those who visit all 27 shops get a one-time 25 percent off discount for all of the stores that’s valid for a year. Readers there seem to have a blast with the event and for that, I salute them.

    I also think: Maybe Southern California is ready for a version of that (or perhaps Jhoanna Belfer already has these treks scaled just right). What do you think?

    That’s for a future discussion; right now there are plenty of good stores in the area. So as we get ready for the big day, I spoke with folks at five Southern California stores to find out their plans for Independent Bookstore Day.

    (Keep an eye out for deals as well. Libro.fm has a sale on audiobooks for IBD, and American Express is sponsoring a promotion at three local stores.)

    Read on and find out, and please email me at [email protected] (put ERIK BOOKSTORE DAY in the subject line) and tell me where you went and the books you picked up and I may share them in an upcoming newsletter.

    5 Southern California Independent Bookstore Day celebrations

    Independent Bookstore Day 2023. (Courtesy of American Booksellers Association)

    Café con Libros Press

    280 W 2nd St., Pomona (909) 469-1350

    cafeconlibrospress.org

    chukaruka.com

    Robert Turner is the co-owner of Chukaruka, a pop-up bookstore based in Fontana that will be partnering with Café con Libros on Saturday. Along with a bookstore called Subverting Expectations that’s based in Orange County, Chukaruka has been doing a pop-up at Café con Libros every other Saturday for roughly six months, says Turner.

    “It’s part of Café con Libros working with the community and furthering their mission of literacy. So we bring different perspectives with our book selections to the space,” says Turner, who carries books for both kids and adults and includes a range of BIPOC voices.

    What should people expect on Saturday?

    “We have a full slate of events. We will have a slime station set up for children to make their own slime. We’re going to have kids’ yoga time. We’ll have what we call Cuentitos & Crafts, which is a story for kids and a craft. We have a guest author coming Rosiland Adams. And we have a mini-zine workshop. We have a poet showcase,” says Turner.

    “We’re gonna have cake and a cocktail hour,” he laughs. “I think I got it all.”

    Chevalier’s Books

    133 N Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 465-1334

    www.chevaliersbooks.com

    “The biggest thing that we do on Independent Bookstore Day is we ask a whole bunch of local authors – who shop at the store, who’ve done events at the store, who live in the neighborhood – to come by and work mini shifts as guest booksellers,” says Miles Parnegg, a bookseller and manager at Chevalier’s. “They talk to customers, recommend books, sign stock; you get this blend of personally curated experience but also a little glam factor.”

    Describing the event as combination block party and spring clearing sale, Parnegg said authors including Steph Cha, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum and Nikki Erlick are expected.

    Plus, Parnegg, who is funny and fun and seems like someone you could buy a lot of books from, described one more element of the day that sounded fantastic.

    “Our identity is kind of family oriented and pretty local – we know so many of our customers by name, we know their reading habits – so we’re having kind of a potluck. We have a customer who’s famous for making delicious lemon bars,” says Parnegg. “She’s gonna bring lemon bars.”

    These are just the suggested amounts of books you can buy on Independent Bookstore Day. It’s OK if you want to buy more than that. (Getty Images)

    Cellar Door Books

    5225 Canyon Crest Drive Suite 30A, Riverside [After their upcoming move, their new address will be: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd, Suite B, Riverside] (951) 787-7807

    www.cellardoorbookstore.com

    “This is a pretty special Independent Bookstore Day for us because it’s our last one in this location. So we’re celebrating the last 10 years, basically,” says Linda Sherman-Nurick, owner of Cellar Door Books in Riverside. “We’re having a big party celebrating the community and what we have here. We are doing a Drag Queen Storytime at 2 – but that has sold out.”

    While she’s upbeat about the day’s celebration, Sherman-Nurick says the event will be a little bittersweet as the store will be on the move soon.

    “Our last day here is May 6, so it’s a week from Saturday and then we are physically moving from here on May 12,” she says. “They’re telling us that they think the space will be ready around June 1. So we’re hopeful.”

    Malik Books

    Westfield Culver City Mall, 6000 Sepulveda Blvd Ste #2470, Culver City, Ca 90230 (858)800-1162

    www.malikbooks.com

    “We’ll be open,” says Malik Books owner Malik Muhammad. “We have a lot of signed books from all the children’s book authors at the LA Times Festival of Books Children’s Stage.”

    Muhammad said the store had copies of signed books from children’s authors such as Kwame Alexander, former Clippers player Craig Smith and “Hamilton” star Leslie Odom Jr.

    Muhammad, who was on his way back from bringing the store’s bookmobile to a a school book fair when we spoke, says plans were still coming together, but he anticipated a good day.

    “We’ll probably have some excitement going on,” he says, emphasizing the importance of bringing kids and books together. “We’ve got to make reading fun, we’ve got to make books fun. We’ve got to get them excited about it because I don’t know what you can do in this world without reading. Anything you need to find, you can find it in a book! Books can change your life!”

    LibroMobile Arts Cooperative & Bookstore

    1150 S. Bristol St., #A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704

    www.libromobile.com

    “We have a homecoming reading for a local poet heidi andrea restrepo rhodes,” says Sarah Rafael García of Santa Ana’s Libromobile Arts Cooperative & Bookstore. “Also, we wanted to couple it with Vickie Vértiz, who is from Los Angeles. They have very similar styles of writing and Vickie is a longtime supporter of the bookstore.

    “Since Vickie has a new book out called “Auto/Body,” it was a great opportunity to have multiple celebrations in one,” said Rafael García, who said that some local high school students would also be reading their own work that day. “For poetry month, this is just a great opportunity to open the mic for a homecoming poet. We have seven or eight teens that will be reading before the featured poets so it will be a huge community event and we’ll have it outside.”

    “All of our events are definitely free and open to the public, no RSVP,” she says, adding that the outdoor space includes murals and a chance to interact with passersby – and baked goods. “There’s this great bakery by the food court – dozens of cakes come out during events when we’re there.”

    “The event is not inside the bookstore, so the bookstore is open for visiting regardless of whether you come for the event or not,” says Rafael García.

    • • •

    What an incredible range of fun IBD events, right? I was surprised by what I learned, but maybe I shouldn’t have been. As Chukaruka’s Turner told me, these events represent who these stores and booksellers are.

    “That’s what I love about the independent bookstore community,” says Turner. “We’re independent, we’re so different, and that’s what makes us kind of a cool community because everyone gets to do their own thing and focus on what their community needs or makes their community happy.”

    • • •

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    Thanks, as always, for reading.

    ‘Sunset Empire’ author Josh Weiss on Stephen King, Syd Hoff and a secret dentist

    Josh Weiss is the author of “Sunset Empire.” (Photo credit David Dahan/Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing)

    Josh Weiss is the author of the novel “Sunset Empire,” a follow-up to “Beat the Devils.” The books are set in 1950s-era Los Angeles, one in which a wave of xenophobic, anti-Semitic populism has elected red-baiting Joseph McCarthy president of the United States. Interested in the convergence of Judaism and pop culture, Weiss has worked as a freelance entertainment journalist for The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes and other outlets. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Leora and their Cavapoo dog Archie. 

    Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?

    Growing up, I always loved stories about kids meeting and/or befriending fantastical creatures. Dr. Seuss’s “If I Ran the Zoo,” for instance, was definitely a pre-bedtime favorite. But if I had to pinpoint the first book that made an impact on me, I’d have to go with the first one I ever learned to read: “Danny and the Dinosaur” by Syd Hoff. I have a vague, yet strong, memory of celebrating the achievement at daycare (my mother, of course, brought the obligatory cupcakes). As a dinosaur-obsessed kid, it was my bible for a very long time — until I was old enough to read “Jurassic Park” in middle school. And even then, I probably wasn’t old enough. The emotional scarring caused by Crichton’s gruesome description of Dennis Nedry’s death still runs deep.

    Q. What are you reading now?

    I am currently in between two different books: Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and Stephen King’s “Fairy Tale.” I’m a little more than halfway into each, though a number of factors — book promotion, day job responsibilities, and a one-year-old puppy named Archie — have kept me quite preoccupied. With that said, I really do hope to finish “Dune” before the second Denis Villeneuve movie bows later this year. I’ll admit, it’s a little daunting to dive back into the seminal sci-fi tome, but fear, as they say, is the mind-killer.

    Q. Do you have a favorite book or books?

    Do novellas count? A curious annual tradition I’ve picked up over the last few years, is to read a pair of Stephen King novellas — “The Mist” (“Skeleton Crew”) and “N” (“Just After Sunset”) — once July rolls around. Don’t ask me why, though I suspect it may have something to do with those damn stones in Ackerman’s Field.

    In all seriousness, though, I am absolutely addicted to Lovecraftian fiction (before you say anything, I already know “N” was inspired by Machen, not Lovecraft) and King knows exactly how to pierce that thin veil separating our comfortable reality from the incomprehensible horrors existing beyond humanity’s narrow threshold of comprehension. “The Mist” and “N” are — at least in this writer’s humble opinion — two of the most terrifying tales ever put to paper.

    Q. Do you have any favorite book covers?

    Doesn’t matter what the content is, but any cover drawn by Mike Mignola has me immediately sold. His art style is just so unique and provocative (gothically haunting and beautifully elegant) without being the least bit ostentatious. Mike is a master at telling a lot with very little. In fact, I couldn’t resist picking up an autographed copy of “Hellboy: 25 Years of Covers” at San Diego Comic-Con a few years back.

    Q. Which books do you plan, or hope, to read next?

    Oh, man — my TBR pile gets higher and higher even as I write this answer. The book at the top of that list is a strange, 209-page alternate history paperback entitled “The Texas-Israeli War: 1999.” Yes, you read that correctly. Written by Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop, the 1974 publication takes place against the backdrop of a fractured United States crippled by the devastation of nuclear war. When the Union president is kidnapped by Texan secessionists, Israeli mercenaries are brought in to rescue the politician.

    Other books I hope to read in the near future are “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann, “Schindler’s List” by Thomas Keneally, “Zodiac” by Robert Graysmith, “George Lucas: A Life” by Brian Jay Jones, “The Day After Roswell” by Philip J. Corso and William J. Birnes, “Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers” by James Donovan. I’ll also be cruising through J.W. Rinzler and Laurent Bouzereau’s “The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films” to prepare for “Dial of Destiny.”

    Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind (or conversely, one that most definitely wasn’t)?

    Almost every Saturday of early childhood was spent at a playground located down the street from my house. It had everything a kid could want: swings, jungle gym, balance beam, monkey bars, sandbox, and, in the spring and summer, a surplus of newly-hatched caterpillars.

    A friend and I once spent a memorably warm afternoon collecting a few of the creepy crawlies in the hopes of nurturing them into butterflies. We were on the verge of leaving the park, ventilated cups full of caterpillars when a ghoulish voice emanated from the sewer drain outside the front gate. I swear it said something to the effect of, “Get me out of here! Get me out of here!” My cup fell to the ground and caterpillars flew in every direction, quickly inching their way back to freedom. I cannot remember feeling more petrified before or since, even though the rational part of my brain knows it was most likely a group of teenagers messing around.

    Nevertheless, that raw, bone-chilling memory came back to me the first time I read Stephen King’s “IT” in college. Young Georgie Denbrough’s exchange with Pennywise as the latter pops out of the Derry storm drain made my skin crawl with sinister familiarity (and the bristly reminder of undulating caterpillars). I subsequently devoured the next thousand pages in a matter of weeks, feeling like a long lost member of the Losers Club.

    Q. What’s something about your book that no one knows?

    Never thought I’d have a public forum in which to divulge this, but there is a running character gag in “Beat the Devils” and “Sunset Empire” — both of which make brief allusions to a certain dentist called “Dr. Bagley.” He’s named after a close family friend (and an actual doctor of teeth), who nearly fainted with joy when I pointed out this little Easter egg to him at a “Beat the Devils” book signing last year. I jokingly promised to bring the character back for the second novel, though that’s exactly what ended up happening as I sat down to refine the original manuscript. Now, however, it seems like Dr. Bagley, DDS has become something of a good luck charm of the blossoming Morris Baker series, which has prompted the dentist’s real-world counterpart to pitch me on a spinoff book.

    Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?

    Is it possible for you to pick up several hundred copies of “Sunset Empire”? Pretty please?

    More Stories on Books and Authors

    Dr. Abraham Verghese, author and professor of medicine at Stanford University, discusses his latest book “The Covenant of Water,” out May 2, 2023 from Grove Atlantic. (Photo credit: Jason Henry / Courtesy of Grove Atlantic)

    Refreshing ‘Water’

    Abraham Verghese says his long-awaited new novel dips into his family’s past. READ MORE

    • • •

    FILE – Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books that have been the subject of complaints from parents on Dec. 16, 2021, in Salt Lake City. According to a new report, Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer,” was the most “challenged” book of 2022, the second consecutive year it has topped the list. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

    Book banning report

    Book ban attempts targeting “Gender Queer” and other LGBTQ-themed books. READ MORE

    • • •

    “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder” by David Grann is the top-selling nonfiction book at Southern California’s independent bookstores. (Courtesy of Doubleday)

    The week’s bestsellers

    The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

    Bookish (SCNG)

    What’s next on ‘Bookish’

    The next Bookish event will be at LitFest in the Dena and include authors Diane Marie Brown and Daniel Akst with host Sandra Tsing Loh & Samantha Dunn.

    If you missed (or want to rewatch) the previous Bookish, here’s the link to the April 21st show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haQjTg2ii7k  [Quick links to the guests: Ari Shapiro: 02:08 Sharon Gless: 26:48]

    • • •

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