| Outside events where we'll be selling books -- join us! |
Weds, April 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Zocalo Public Square presents LESLIE H. GELB
Power Rules: How common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy
more info here
Thus, April 16 at 8:30 p.m.
Verdugo Bar presents
BRIAN YAEGER
Red, White and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey
Contact Kate for info
Sat, April 18
12:00-4:00 p.m.
SHELF LIFE: A BIG DAY FOR SMALL PRESSES at USC
more info here
Saturday, April 18 at 8:00 p.m.
THE STEVE ALLEN THEATER AND SKYLIGHT BOOKS
PRESENT
THE RUMPUS LOS ANGELES LAUNCH PARTY
tickets and more information here
Sunday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m.
RHASODOMANCY at the Good Luck Bar: A reading series(featuring Skylight staffer EDAN LEPUCKI among others )
more info here
Mon, April 20 at
7:00 p.m.
PHARMAKA
PRESENTS
THIRD AREA: POETRY AT PHARMAKA (downtown)
more info here
Monday, April 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Zocalo Public Square presents WANGARI MAATHAI
THE CHALLENGE FOR AFRICA
more info here
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| Services |
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We Accept AmEx, MasterCard, Visa and Discover
Special Orders Welcome!
10% off all book purchases on your birthday
Senior Discount Tues before 4pm
Frequent Buyer Program--ask us for details
Free Gift Wrapping
National Gift Cards ____________________
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Skylight Books March 2009 Bestsellers
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1. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
2. Letters to Guns by Brendan Constantine
3. The Devil Made Me Do It by Georgina Spelvin
4. Harper Lee by Kerry Madden
5. Pain Killers by Jerry Stahl
6. The Reserve by Russell Banks
7. Los Feliz: And Illustrated Early History by Donald Seligman
8. The Women by T. C. Boyle
9. The Believers by Zoe Heller
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
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| Join Our List |
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NOTE: At press time, we were having some website glitches and events disappeared, which we expect to be fixed shortly
Kerry's View from the Skylight
Dear Friends of Skylight Books,
It's April and my tomatoes and peas are growing like crazy, while the basil just never did sprout. But in the bookstore I can always count on April to bring National Poetry Month, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Even if poetry isn't normally your "thing," I encourage you to peek into our expanded poetry corner, lurk at the back of a spoken word event, or ask one of our staff members for a suggestion.
Speaking of poetry, California's current Poet Laureate, Angeleno Carol Muske-Dukes is doing some fundraisers to develop a project (as part of her Poet Laureate mandate) for a "Magic Bus" to visit public schools and juvenile halls throughout the state, bringing poets, actors, playwrights and filmmakers to do readings, workshops and performances, in addition to a lively, interactive 'virtual schoolbus' online. Carol says "We want to create a world for young imaginations and the imaginations of teachers who feel restricted by test-score and lesson-plan-only approaches and who may also feel intimidated by teaching poetry." If you would like to know more about this project, and/or can help with raising funds for it, let me know: kerry@skylightbooks.com
Catcher in the Rye for L.A. High class
Help us donate 25 copies of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye to the 10th Grade Honors English class at Los Angeles High School. We're looking for customers who are willing to sponsor a copy or two or three (under $7 each, including tax) for a teacher who wants to have use it as their May book discussion.
Some news from our staff
Edan Lepucki will be one of the authors reading at the Rhapsodomancy event at the Good Luck Bar on April 19 (see sidebar left for info). A graduate of the famed writers program of the Iowa Writers Workshop (as is staffer Kerrie Kvashay-Boyle), she also teaches an 8-week short fiction class in the neighborhood (next class starts May 21).
 Arlo Klahr is not only a writer (just got his MFA in the Professional Writing program at USC) but also a songwriter and musician. He and his partner Aisling have just released a debut cd album ("Aisling and Arlo") with 13 new songs--vocals with acoustic guitar and violin--music that blends the tradition of Velvet Underground rock with the spirit and sounds of the movie, "Rock." (and you can purchase or hear it at our store)._____________________________
We daily count ourselves fortunate to be part of this lively, extraordinary neighborhood--one which recognizes the value of independent businesses. If you haven't seen the newest shops (apparel, records, design) a few blocks down on Hollywood between Vermont and Hillhurst--joining Wacko, Ozzie Dots, Glory, Cobras & Matadors and more--do take a look.
And please do let me know if you have any suggestions of ways to serve you better.
Kerry Slattery, General Manager
By the way, all our staff portraits are by wonderful artist Rama Hughes |
| April Events at Skylight Books |
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FRANZ WISNER
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| Thursday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.
How the World Makes Love: And What It Taught a Jilted Groom (St. Martin's Press)
 
The bestselling author of Honeymoon with My Brother (written when he lived around the corner from the bookstore!)hits the road again to learn about love and finally finds it closer to home. When you've been jilted at the altar and forced to take your prepaid honeymoon with your brother, it's fair to say you could learn a thing or two about love. And that's what Franz Wisner sets out to do--traveling the globe with a mission: to discover the planet's most important love lessons and see if they can rescue him from the ruins of his own love life. Even after months on the road, he's still not sure he's found the secret. But a disastrous date with a Los Angeles actress and single mom keeps popping into Franz's head. While researching ideal love, could he have missed a bigger truth: that something unplanned and implausible could actually make him happy?
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Poetry Month Event:
CATI PORTER and KIM CALDWELL |
Friday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Seven Floors Up (Mayapple Press) by Porter; Who's to Say What's Home(Writ Large Press)  by Caldwell
 Of Seven Floors Up, Tony Barnstone says, "Porter names herself into the world with lyrical irony in poem after hilariously tragic poem. Follow her through the 'bourbon-hinged jangling dancing open door' seven floors up to visit the kitchen of the soul. There are madwomen in that attic, but the booze is good, and they really know how to cook." Cati Porter's poems have been anthologized in White Ink (Demeter Press, York University, Canada), Letters to the World (Red Hen Press), and Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel -- Second Floor (No Tell Books). She is founder and editor-in-chief of Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry.  Kim Calder received her master's degree in English and comparative literature from Columbia University and her bachelor's in English from the University of California at Berkeley in contemporary poetry and fiction. Her first collection of poems, Who's to Say What's Home, was released by Writ Large Press in May 2008. She has participated in numerous spoken word events throughout the country, and she teaches writing workshops nationally. |
RED
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Saturday, April 4 at 5:00 p.m.
Red: Teenage Girls in America Write on What Fires Up Their Lives Today (Plume)
Please join RED's
brilliant and local young authors Dani Cox, Jordyn Turney, and more for
a special Saturday afternoon of readings, and a Kenyan book drive, in
proud partnership with LA-based OneKid One World (onekidoneworld.org).
For every copy of RED purchased at the event, we will match your
donation and send a copy directly to the Nyamasare Girls School and
Orphanage in Suba, Kenya. In an area with one of the highest HIV/AIDS
rates in all of East Africa, Nyamasare is a safe haven for girls to
dream (and write) about a better life. Our goal for this event is to put 50
books in the hands of these girls.
RED the Book is a collection of personal (sometimes very personal)
essays by the next generation of writers--teenage girls--on what fires
up their lives today.
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| Poetry Month Event:
Free Poetry Workshop
by TERRY WOLVERTON |
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Sunday, April 5 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Poems that Tell a Story: The Narrative Impulse in Poetry
In this workshop we'll talk about the stories poems tell and how they do it. We'll look at published poems and dissect how they work. We'll discuss the pitfalls and how to avoid them. And, time permitting, we'll try our hand at writing our own narrative poem. No previous experience necessary. Bring paper and pencil. Please pre-register by calling (323) 227-4633. |
| Poetry Month Event:
POETS AT WORK |
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Sunday, April 5 at 5:00 p.m.
A reading from the Poets at Work workshop, featuring
Emme Devonish, Kim Dower, Yvonne M. Estrada, Dylan Gailey, Brett Guitar Hofer, Eric Howard, Marta Mora, Ronna Perrin, Sharon Venezio, and Terry Wolverton
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Skylight is hosting a reading of 10 poets from the workshop collective Poets at Work, featuring Terry Wolverton, founder of and teacher at Writers at Work. |
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MARK ARAX
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Wednesday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m.
West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State (Public Affairs)
  Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, "When I am in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West," and in this book, Mark Arax spends four years travelling up and down the Golden State to explore its singular place in the world. This is California beyond the cliches. This is California as only a native son, deep in the dust, could draw it.
In the finest tradition of Joan Didion, Arax combines journalism, essay, and memoir to capture social upheaval as well as the sense of being rooted in a community. Piece by piece, the stories become a whole, a stunning panorama of California, and America, in a new century.
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Poetry Month Event:
SAUL WILLIAMS,
DOUGLAS KEARNEY
and Special Guests |
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Saturday, April 11 at 5:00 p.m.
Spoken Word Poets
Saul Williams is an American poet, musician, performance artist, and actor. He cowrote and starred in the movie SLAM, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Golden Camera. His poetry books include The Seventh Octave (1998; Moore Black Press); S/he (1999; MTV/Pocketbooks); said the shotgun to the head (2003; MTV/Pocketbooks); and The Dead Emcee Scrolls (2006, MTV/Pocketbooks). Closely linked to The Dead Emcee Scrolls is Williams's latest album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, on which he worked closely with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
 Douglas Kearney's first full-length collection of poems, Fear, Some, was published in 2006 by Red Hen Press. His second manuscript, The Black Automaton, was chosen by Catherine Wagner for the National Poetry Series and will be published by Fence Books in 2009. Also a librettist, he has collaborated with the composer Anne LeBaron on the opera Sucktion, and on Mordake with composer Erling Wold. An Idyllwild and Cave Canem fellow, Kearney has performed his poetry at the Public Theatre, Orpheum, and The World Stage. His poems have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, jubilat, nocturnes, Ninth Letter, Washington Square, and Gulf Coast. He has a BA from Howard University and an MFA in writing from the California Institute of the Arts, where he now teaches courses in African American poetry, myth, hip hop and opera.
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TOM MARBLE
and NORMAN KLEIN |
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Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.
An evening about L.A.:
After the city, this (is how we live) (RAM Publications) by Marble
A History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (Verso) by Klein
 L.A. Architect Marble gives an important insider view into the real world of real estate development in Southern California. Using the structure of a screenplay to tell the story, he takes the reader inside the minds of the people on both sides of the development conflict -- those seeing land as a commodity for profit, and those who see it as a valued resource for all to enjoy. Having spent time negotiating on both sides of the conference table, Marble goes beyond the usual debates over New Urbanism vs. Sprawl vs. Whatever-The-Next-Thing-Is to share his unique perspective, shedding light on the goals and motivations of all parties embroiled in defining how we live in a post-urban, consumer-driven economy.
  Klein's A History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory has long been an important staple to our Los Angeles section. And now in its 2nd edition, it adds much new material.
Critic and historian of mass culture Klein uses a provocative mixture of fact and fiction to take us on an "anti-tour" of downtown LA, examine life for Vietnamese immigrants in the City of Dreams, imagine Walter Benjamin as a Los Angeleno, and finally look at the way information technology has recreated the city, turning cyberspace into the last suburb.
In this new edition, Klein explores the evolution of the Latino majority, how the Pacific economy is changing the structure of urban life, the impact of collapsing infrastructure in the city, and the restructuring of those very districts that had been "forgotten".
for more info... |
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ADAM MANSBACH
and JOSH KUN |
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Wednesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m.
The End of the Jews (Random House) by Mansbach;
And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost (Crown Publishing) by Kun
  "Smart... engaging... exquisite. Original in the way it explores the creative interchange between blacks and Jews and the give-and-take dynamic of artistic partnership. Mansbach's characters are sharply drawn... the creative partnerships among artists are suggestively and beautifully portrayed." -New York Times Book Review
Mansbach is also the author of Angry Black White Boy (a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005), the novel Shackling Water, the poetry collection genius b-boy getting weeded in the garden of delights, and A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing, an anthology of original short stories that he co-edited.   Kun is associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. He is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America and a contributor to the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Roger Bennett and Kunare the creators of www.trailofourvinyl.com and cofounders of Reboot Stereophonic, a nonprofit record label dedicated to rereleasing lost classics from the Jewish past.
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CAL ARTS MFA WRITING STUDENTS |
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Friday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Graduating Cal Arts MFA students Ama Birch, Sarah Burghauser, Brittany Goode, Kyoung Kim, Flint, and Salmeen Maji will read from their work.
The CalArts MFA Writing Program and the CalArts School of Critical Studies present NextWords -- a series of readings taking place across Los Angeles that feature new work by graduating MFA Writing students. The readings and performances will include work that crosses genres, engages hybrid forms, and questions the distinction between the experimental and the conventional. |
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Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 p.m.
Yearning for witty repartee and intellectual stimulation? How about wine and hors d'oeuvres? Come join us for our new monthly series, Skylight Salon, where our staff shares their faves from small presses and independent publishers. A modern-day mixer for the literary minded. This month we feature: THE FILM SALON:
Justin goes deep with the University Press of Mississippi's Interview Series. UPM publishes scholarly books of the highest distinction and books that interpret the south and its culture to the nation and the world. Check out his unbelievable knowledge of directors from around the world, he is sure to impress.
Mary makes her debut at the Salon with the formidable Newmarket Press. Newmarket has created a successful niche in publishing books on film, theater and performing arts. Its entertainment list includes over 100 film books, tying in to 301 Oscar nominations, and 96 Oscar wins. Newmarket Press is especially noted for the illustrated moviebooks on such films as Milk; The Matrix; X2 and X-Men: Moulin Rouge; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Chicago; and for its acclaimed Newmarket Shooting Script® Series, including screenplay books on Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Juno, Michael Clayton, Little Miss Sunshine ; Sideways; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; and Magnolia among others.
 Monica eats popcorn while talking about the acclaimed BFI Series. The BFI publishes a wide range of books and educational materials for a variety of audiences - from primary and secondary school pupils studying media for the first time to those undergraduates who are studying the moving image at an advanced level. Many of our more popular titles are aimed at a broader audience, with an informed interest in cinema and television. |
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PARDON MY YOUTH BOOK CLUB |
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Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 p.m.
 Skylight is introducing a new book club for the young and young at heart! Each month we will feature and discuss a young adult book with young adult authors and librarians. No need to hide the fact that you're reading Harry Potter and Eclipse; now is the time to speak loudly and carry a young adult novel!
This month, join us and young adult authors Cecil Castellucci (Beige, Plain Janes) and Ben Esch (Sophomore Undercover) to discuss the novel I Am the Messenger,! |
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Sunday, April 19 at 5:00 p.m.
Searching for Tamsen Donner (University of Nebraska Press)
 Tamsen Donner. For most the name conjures the ill-fated Donner party trapped in the snows of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1846-47. Others might know Tamsen as the stoic pioneer woman who saw her children to safety but stayed with her dying husband at the cost of her own life. For Gabrielle Burton, Tamsen's story, fascinating in its own right, had long seemed something more: the story of a woman's life writ large, one whose impossible balancing of self, motherhood, and marriage spoke to Burton's own experience.
 Gabrielle Burton's writing projects include the film Manna from Heaven, which she wrote and produced, and the novel Heartbreak Hotel, which won Scribner's 1985 Maxwell Perkins Prize, an award for a first work of fiction. Her writing has appeared in publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. She lives in Venice, California.
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| AMY GOODMAN |
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Friday, April 24 at 12:30 p.m.
Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (Hyperion)
 Bring your lunch and join us for a remarkable event with journalist Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of radio's national, daily, independent, award-winning news program, "Democracy Now". 
Amy and her brother David Goodman are award-winning author/journalists, with two previous books together. They return with this revolutionary work that celebrates the ordinary heroes who have stood up, often at great risk, to defend democracy and change America for the better.
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| L.A. TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS at UCLA |
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Saturday, April 25 (10-6) 
Sunday, April 26 (10-5)
The annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returns to UCLA with a full lineup of speakers and panels. Kerry will be speaking on the panel, "Publishing: From Keyboard to Bookstore" on Sunday at 2pm in Fowler Museum Lenart Auditorium
Come check us out at Booth #315 (facing Powell Library in the C area of Dickson Plaza). We are again partnered with Univ. of California Press and D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers), which means we will display many of their books, as well as selections from different sections of our store, highlighting our diversity. This year, we will also partner with the legendary Ash Grove Music, highlighting its "Beyond November" program, which uses music to bring attention to social issues brought to light during the Presidential campaign. We will have music and singing in the booth at selected times.
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CHESA BOUDIN |
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Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Gringo: A Radical Coming of Age in Latin America (Scribner)
 "This marvelous voyage of personal discovery provides a vivid portrait of the richness and diversity of Latin America, its wonders and suffering, the courage and irrepressible spirit of its people, as they are revealed to a thoughtful and sensitive eye during the most exciting and hopeful decade since the European conquests. It is an enthralling account, stimulating and provocative." -- Noam Chomsky
Chesa Boudin is a twenty-eight year old Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Oxfrord and Yale Universities. He has contributed to The Nation magazine and is the coauthor of The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions and 100 Answers and the co-editor of Letters from Young Activists.
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SKYLIGHT'S BLOG: REDESIGNED! |
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Find us at www.skylightbooks.blogspot.com
There's lots more to see at Skylight's blog! Not only have we been adding new entries every few days, we've also given our blog a slick new look. Check it out!
 We've covered a lot of ground in our blog entries in the past few weeks. We've featured a handful of indie publishers in honor of small press month (here, here, and here); we posted a video interview with author Russell Banks, recorded before he treated us to a reading from his book The Reserve; we've discussed "alternative" maps and atlases, like the Collaborative Atlas of Book Stores and Literary Places; and we've published an ode to the crime fiction press Hard Case Crime (who decidedly do not release "namby-pamby little mysteries starring kitty cats"; check out the vintage-style pulp covers, like the one at the right, for proof).
And take a look at our first ever VIDEO staff recommendation , which we posted on the blog.
Or visit our blog homepage here.
Plus, Skylight Books' list of followers on Twitter has passed the 550 mark! If you're not following us already, start now! Add skylightbooks to your feed. |
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BOOK GROUPS at SKYLIGHT and BEYOND! |
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For those book groupies out there looking for next month's great read/discussion, here are a few title we recommend:  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo IshiguroFrom the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day, a beautifully crafted novel about the friendship that develops between several students at an exclusive boarding school for kids awaiting a "special" future. Lots to discuss!
 The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael PollanA bestseller just about everywhere, The Omnivore's Dilemma is the fascinating story of four meals from the industrial, organic, and hunter/gatherer food chains. Along the way, the book reveals the catch-22 of industrial corn farming, the surprising truths about large-scale organic agriculture, and the secrets of the coolest farm in the country.  Mudbound by Hillary JordanIn Jordan's
debut, set in 1946, city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her
children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farm. Barbara Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, "Her characters walked straight out
of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and
anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still." Remember: Book groups that register with the store get 15% off their pick each month, so e-mail Emily at emily@skylightbooks.com now to find out how to register your book group. You can check out our registered book groups here. |
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Skylight Books
1818 N Vermont Ave (between Hollywood Blvd and Franklin)
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323 660-1175
Next door to the Los Feliz Cinema and across the street from the Post Office (where you can park after 6pm)
 We are about 4 blocks north of the Vermont/Sunset subway stop and directly on many bus routes, including the Hollywood DASH. Bicycle racks in front of the store. | |
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