SoCal Book Scene Home

Children's Book & Literacy Dinner, February 20, 2010. Michael Reisman is the Emcee!

Woohoo! Featured speakers at the 4th annual shebang: DJ MacHale, Shannon & Dean Hale, Holly Peete Robinson. Plus, new this year, a fun scavenger hunt in the Westin Pasadena...finishers will be eligible for neat door prizes. Read more.

Synthia Saint James Signs "Hallelujah: A Christmas Celebration" @ Bright Lights Bookstore, Saturday, 12/12

Synthia Saint James, international award winning artist and designer of the first United States Postal Stamp for the Kwanzaa holiday, has to date written and or illustrated 13 children’s picture books, 3 poetry and prose books, 4 children’s activity books, a cookbook, and a postcard book. She is the receipient of The Woman of the Year Award for the 26th Senate District, and she has garnered numerous other awards including a Parent’s Choice Silver Honor for her book Sunday, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for illustrating Neeny Coming…Neeny Going, and an Oppenheim Gold Award for the book To Dinner For Dinner, which she illustrated. Signing 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Bright Lights Bookstore, 8461 S. Van Ness Avenue, Los Angeles.

The Mystery Bookstore Hosts Joseph Wambaugh at His Only Los Angeles Appearance, Saturday, 12/5

There’s a saying at Hollywood Station that the full moon brings out the beast—rather than the best—in its citizens. That’s saying a lot in this LAPD division, a stomping ground for transvestite hustlers, drug-crazed tweakers, and aspiring actors sometimes criminally desperate for fame. And legendary crime writer Joseph Wambaugh is the man to bring this story to life in his new novel, Hollywood Moon, at his only Los Angeles appearance, on Saturday, December 5 at 2 p.m. at The Mystery Bookstore in Westwood Village. Wambaugh will sign and discuss this new novel, which the Los Angeles Times calls “hilarious, poignant and thrilling.”

LACMA's Annual Member Appreciation Day, Saturday, 11/28

On Saturday Nov. 28 from 2 to 4 p.m., several Angel City Press authors will be on hand for a book signing during LACMA's annual Saturday-after-Thanksgiving Member Appreciation Day. Stop by and meet Bill Boyarsky, Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times; Lori Berthelsen, Now Playing: Hand-Painted Poster Art From the 1910s through the 1950s; and Tom Zimmerman, Paradise Promoted: The Booster Campaign that Created Los Angeles and Downtown in Detail. Authors will inscribe your holiday reading gifts! (LACMA members save 20% on all purchases.)

SCIBA Holiday Catalog 2009

Hot off the presses comes this year's holiday catalog, chock full of books perfect for seasonal gift-giving. Browse through the digital version (just click to go full-screen) or pick-up your own copy at any participating local independent bookstore.

Want a PDF? Get it here.

Participating stores: Bay Books, Big Bear Book, Blue Chair, Book Loft, Book Soup, Diesel - Malibu and Brentwood, Esowon, Flintridge Books, Latitude 33, Mrs. Fig's Bookworm, Mrs. Nelson's, Mysterious Galaxy, Mystery Bookstore, Newsboy Books, Once Upon A Time, Russo's, San Marino Toy and Book, Sierra Madre Books, Skylight Books, The Book Works, The UCI  Bookstore, The Yellow Book Road, UCLA Store, Village Books, Vromans, Warwicks, Williams Bookstore

Celebrate National Bookstore Day on November 7th!

SCIBA joins bookstores around the country in celebrating the first annual National Bookstore Day, a day devoted to celebrating bookselling and the vibrant culture of bookstores. Use Saturday, November 7th, to stop in at ANY independent bookstore and be reminded how varied and fascinating these 'bricks and mortar' bookstores can be. Every store is doing something different to help celebrate the day, many with significant special discounts (call stores for details). Participating stores include: Skylight Books, Warwick's, Mysterious Galaxy, Diesel, A Bookstore/Malibu, Diesel, A Bookstore/Brentwood, Compass Books, Book Soup, Book'em Mysteries, Metropolis Books, Chaucer's Books and The Yellow Book Road. Shop local, read local. Epilogue: Here's what went down at Diesel, A Bookstore:

SCIBA Names 2009 Book Award Winners

October 25, 2009 - Each year, SCIBA honors California authors and illustrators who produce works that reflect Southern California culture or lifestyle. Booksellers, publishers, authors and others in the local bookselling industry make the nominations, and SCIBA booksellers make the final determination with their votes. Categories: Fiction, non-fiction, T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award, children's novel, children's picture book and the Glenn Goldman Art & Architecture Book Award. See the winners!

Cool Idea of the Day: Skylight's 'Hot Summer Nights'

July 21, 2009 - From this weekend to the end of August, Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif., will stay open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. General manager Kerry Slattery wrote in the store's newsletter: "In the words of Steve and Justin at our store, we'll have 'free coffee, killer atmosphere, book specials, smelly boys, lovely women, music probably too loud to read to, genre-f*cking, busking, ice cream, and real talk! We'll have vibe inducing events like moody DJs, experimental films, musicians of the heart, and snacks.' Or at least some version of these will happen on different nights. So come on by if you are in the neighborhood...maybe after a movie next door at the Los Feliz 3 or the Vista, a late dinner at Fred 62 or Cafe Figaro, on the way to or from Ye Rustic Inn, Vermont Restaurant, the Dresden Room, Palermo Ristorante, or any other of our wonderful neighbors. See you in the moonlight...."

Independent Stores Offer More

July 21, 2009 - Perhaps it’s a good thing that the commercial for the “Buy Glendale” campaign is being reworked (“Agency criticizes commercial,” July 9). Even though, as a business owner, I would love extra advertising for my business, I hesitate to say that this campaign is actually going to do that. No one seems to “get” what buying local is all about.

Certainly, the Glendale News-Press does not, or apparently only feels that using a picture of the Glendale Galleria is typical of what the “Buy Glendale” means.

Moreover, if you checked back a few months ago, the same type of picture (big corporate chain, Galleria) was attached to the first News-Press article about the “Buy Glendale” campaign. (Read more)

Alyson Noël's Followup to 'Evermore' in Bookstores Now

July 7, 2009 - Evermore spent 10 weeks straight in the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list (and it's still in the top 5). Book 2 of the Immortals Series, Blue Moon, hits stores this month. The Book Chick says: “It is the mark of a daring writer to defy expectations and Alyson Noel does that to the power of ten in Blue Moon." (About Alyson Noël)