| SKYLIGHT BOOKS 12th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION |
Saturday, November 1, and Sunday, November 2
Skylight Books 12th Anniversary Celebration
DISCOUNTS! PRIZES! REFRESHMENTS!
Skylight Books celebrates its 12 years in business with discounts and refreshments all weekend long! Come by to join in the fun, and take the opportunity to check out the new store next door which highlights the visual and performing arts.
It's our famous "choose your own discount" time: reach in and pull out your discount (in multiples of 12 -- from 12% to 84%!!)
Cake-cutting and wine at 3pm both days! |
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DAVID WALLACE |
Friday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m.
A City Comes Out: How Celebrities Made Palm Springs a Gay and Lesbian Paradise (Barricade Books)
 This is the first such history of the resort, which is today America's most famous homosexual haven and vacation destination.
Beginning with a richly detailed story of how (and why) Palm Springs evolved from a popular family resort into a celebrated gay and lesbian oasis, the book includes the intimate stories of both closeted and "out" celebrities who, by their presence and power in the town, made the resort what it is today. They include Mary Martin, Rock Hudson, Greta Garbo and Claudette Colbert, Tab Hunter and Cary Grant, and many more. These days, Palm Springs has become the watering spot for the current generation of  proudly out gays like Cheryl Crane, Mayor Stephen Pougnet, City Councilman Rick Hutchenson, and leaders in professions ranging from architecture to writing.
Nationally syndicated columnist Liz Smith has called Wallace "the maestro of entertainment history." He has covered celebrities and the movie industry as a journalist for more than twenty years, and he has written a number of acclaimed books about Hollywood's golden age, including Lost Hollywood, Hollywoodland, and Exiles in Hollywood, as well as the photo books Malibu: A Century of Living by the Sea and Dream Palaces of Hollywood's Golden Age.
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Saturday, November 8, at 5:00 p.m.
Letters Between Us (Plain View Press)
 A first (epistolary) novel about a troubled writer's search to understand a friend's mysterious death at a mental institution, which leads to her own self-discovery and transformation.
Overman's work appears in many anthologies and magazines. She currently teaches English at California State University, Northridge.
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PSEUDONYMOUS BOSCH |
Sunday, November 9, at 1:00 p.m.
If You're Reading This, It's Too Late (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
 This new book for middle readers is probably best described by Pseudonymous Bosch himself:
Beware! Dangerous secrets lie between the pages of this book.
OK, I warned you. But if you think I'll give anything away, or tell you that this is the sequel to my first literary endeavor, The Name of This Book is Secret, you're wrong.
I'm not going to remind you of how we last left our heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest, as they awaited intiation into the mysterious Terces Society, or the ongoing fight against the evil Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais. I certainly won't be telling you about how the kids stumble upon the Museum of Magic, where they finally meet the amazing Pietro.
Oh, blast, I've done it again. Well, at least I didn't tell you about the missing Sound Prism, the nefarious Lord Pharaoh, or the mysterious creature born in a bottle over 500 years ago, the key to the biggest secret of all. I really can't help myself, now can I?
Let's face it-if you're reading this, it's too late.
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SASHA WATSON |
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Sunday, November 9, at 5:00 p.m.
Vidalia in Paris (Viking/Penguin)
 When Vidalia wins a scholarship to study art abroad for the summer, she can't believe her good fortune. But a trip to Paris, and a dangerous love, will soon change her life forever, in this gripping debut novel.
"Watson portrays Paris with a doting accuracy and delineates all the torments of first love."
-Kirkus Reviews
Sasha Watson has spent several years of her life in Paris. In that time, she has lived in a chambre de bonne, visited lots of museums, and eaten her share of French bread products, just like Vidalia. Back in the United States, she studied French literature at Barnard College and earned her Master's degree in French literature from New York University. In addition to writing, Sasha translates French literature and graphic novels. Vidalia in Paris is her debut novel. She lives in Los Angeles, but goes back to Paris whenever she can. To learn more about her, go to www.sashawatson.com.
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MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS |
Thursday, November 13, at 7:00 p.m.
The Elotes Man Will Soon Be Gone (826LA)
 Written by students in the Humanitas program at John Marshall High School, The Elotes Man Will Soon Be Gone is an anthology of narratives, essays, and more that captures what life is really like for students in Los Angeles today.
This project was made possible by the support and direction of 826LA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
(Please note that this event will be at 7:00 pm, not at our usual 7:30.)
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SKYLIGHT LITERARY SALON |
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Saturday, November 15 at 4:00 p.m.
We combine words and pictures to celebrate the creative form of Graphic Novels. Join us for discussion, hors d'oeuvres and wine while three of our most versed staff members share their faves from the world of Graphic Novels. Hope to see you there!
 Dan salutes San Francisco's VIZ Media. VIZ is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in the field of manga publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content. Go Sensei Dan!
Darren gives love to Avatar Press which is a leading independent  company that publishes a wide variety of comic books--highly-regarded creator-owned titles such as Alan Moore's The Courtyard, Warren Ellis' Scars, and Garth Ennis' Crossed.
 Kerrie highlights Drawn+Qarterly for those book lovers who appreciate emotional quality in literature and design. D+Q us known for creating elegant objects that transcend the boundaries of books and comics. |
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MARTHA RONK and ELENI SIKELIANOS |
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Sunday, November 16 at 5 p.m.
Vertigo by Ronk; Body Clock by Sikelianos (Coffee House Press)
Vertigo is the visionary seventh collection by the PEN USA Award-winning poet Ronk; it pivots around uncertainties, mysteries, and the unexpected to find the language of the mind's theater. Melancholy and playful, analytic and lyrical, Vertigo immerses the reader in a dense realm of memory and multiple perspectives,  repositioning our relations to daily life, the past, and the future.
Lauded by Michael Ondaatje as an "unforgettable" writer, Sikelianos was also praised by The Washington Post for her ability to capture "the subtlest shades of the emotional palette." In Body Clock, Sikelianos now charts the curvature of growth and time, encompassing the bewilderment and  delight of a new parent, while mapping the shape of our troubled world. Observing that "what is alive in the body clock is also ticking," her poems and sketches illustrate the infinite possibilities unfurling as minutes give shape to hours, the body gives shape to a child, and events give shape to history. A California native, longtime New Yorker, and world traveler, Sikelianos lives in Boulder and teaches at Denver University.
More info... |
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TONY O'NEILL and DAN FANTE |
Wednesday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m.
Down and Out on Murder Mile (Harper Perennial) - O'Neill
Kissed by a Fat Waitress (Sun Dog Press) - Fante
 After exhausting their resources in the slums of Los Angeles, a junkie and his wife settle in London's "murder mile," the city's most violent and criminally corrupt section. Persevering past failed treatments, persistent temptation, urban ennui, and his wife's ruinous death wish, the nameless narrator fights to reclaim his life. In prose that could peel paint from a car, Tony O'Neill recreates the painfully comic, often tragic days of a recovering heroin addict. 
This is the highly awaited second novel from underground literary phenom O'Neill, inspired by his own dark forays in the world of sex, drug addiction, and rock & roll-as well as rehab and relapse. This novel of junkie love is a natural follow-up to Digging the Vein, the debut that The Guardian (UK) said "is already being touted as the next underground classic."
"Tony O'Neill writes like a man with his tongue in a light socket and his toe in a puddle of spilled blood. I fucking loved this book." --Jerry Stahl
O'Neill is joined by writer/buddy Dan Fante (yes, the son of our best-selling, legendary author, John Fante -- but also a wonderful writer on his own), reading from his newest book.
"Dan Fante allows us a glimpse of the Southern California demimonde that surely escaped his father's attention". --Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Fante offers moments that brush the genius of Bukowski and Hubert Selby, Jr". --Elle
"Like Bukowski...Fante is an authentic literary outlaw." --New York Times Book Review
More info... |
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TRINIE DALTON with Andrew Leland and Alex Segade |
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Thursday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m.
Mythtym (Picturebox)
 Trinie Dalton has long made popular zines on variety of subjects. She brings together artists, musicians, critics, novelists and cartoonists in one gorgeous stew. Mythtym compiles the best work from her previous zines on Werewolves, mythical beings, and the natural world. But best of all, this volume includes an entirely new, 100-page body of work on the theme of mirrors - as a symbolic element in horror stories; in mental illness; in alchemy. 
About her zines, Trinie Dalton has said, "I don't want my books to be cliquish, but at the same time I don't see them as communal free-for-alls. Of course, many people I invite to participate are my friends, and are friends with each other, but I deliberately include not only established artists and writers but also young people who are relatively unknown in their field. The idea of introducing and contextualizing artists by hanging their art on the same wall is a fundamental one in the art world. To me, my zines are literary/art/music history anthologies, following the group-show or salon style. They're like parties on paper, and I want to be an exquisite host."
More info... |
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Geoff Nicholson |
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Saturday, November 22, at 5:00 p.m.
Lost Art of Walking (Putnam/Riverhead)
 Nicholson, author of Bleeding London and Sex Collectors, turns his eye to the intellectual and cultural history of that most common of activities-walking. This simple, omnipresent activity has inspired numerous subcultures, literary and artistic legacies, sporting events, personal memories, epic journeys, mystical revelations, and scandals.
It's a rich tradition that embraces such novelists as Charles Dickens and Paul Auster, musicians like Robert Johnson and Bob Dylan, and moviemakers from Buster Keaton to Werner Herzog. But it's also a tradition that includes obsessives and eccentrics, such as the artist Mudman, who coats his body in mud and then walks the city streets; competitive pedestrians such as Captain Barclay, who walked one mile an hour for a thousand successive hours; and gang members who use the hidden language of the "Crip Walk" to spell out messages in the dirt with their scuffing. How we walk, where we walk, why we walk announces who and what we are.
Geoff Nicholson is a master chronicler of the hidden subversive twists on a seemingly normal activity. He analyzes the hows, wheres, and whys of walking through the ages. He finds people who walk only at night, or naked, or for thousands of miles at a time, in costume, for causes, or for no reason whatsoever. Here, he brings curiosity and genuine insight to a subject that often walks right past us.
Geoff Nicholson is the author of twenty books, including Sex Collectors, Hunters and Gatherers, The Food Chain, and Bleeding London, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. | |
passionate about the neighborhood not losing a community bookstore. His death occurred less than a week after we hosted the book launch/signing of his book, Acting Class, in our newly opened annex next door at 1814. We will greatly miss his unflinching support and his appreciation for the value of literature, as well as the importance of creating a warm and artful community gathering place.
have joined with us over these last 12 years. Come and tip a glass of wine and have a bit of fabulous cake this weekend (see below)!