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Before the onslaught of authors, editors, and publishers when Los Angeles hosts the 2008 BookExpo America on the last weekend of May, here are some suggestions of authors well worth making the time to see read.
Augusten Burroughs, author of the best-selling Running with Scissors and Dry, reads and delves further into his troubled yet darkly funny world with his latest harrowing personal account A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father (St. Martin’s Press) at a Book Soup event at The London Hotel (Fri., 7 p.m., 1020 N. San Vincente Blvd.,West Hollywood) … .
Jim Krusoe, creative writing teacher at Antioch and Santa Monica College and author of the wonderfully surreal novel Iceland, reads from his second novel Girl Factory (Tin House), a fantastical tale of a man who discovers six women in the basement of a yogurt parlor – and of beauty trapped not in amber but in acidophilus – at Skylight Books (Sat., 5 p.m., 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles). If you want to hear more about Krusoe in advance of the reading, he will be Michael Silverblatt’s guest on Bookworm today (Thursday) at 2:30 on KCRW, 89.9 FM … .
After listening to Nina Revoyr on a panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books pondering the complexities of memory and identity within The Age of Dreaming (Akashic Books), I wanted to know more. The new novel from the author of the Watts Riots-era mystery Southland is a narrative from another side of Los Angeles, centered on a Japanese silent-film actor whose star has faded but whose past starts to come back into sharp focus, inspired in parts by the unsolved murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor and the life of Oscar-nominated Japanese actor Sessue Hayakama. Revoyr reads Tues., 7 p.m., at Vroman’s, 695 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, with special guest Janet Fitch … .
Short story writer, screenwriter, and novelist David Benioff (The 25th Hour, When the Nines Roll Over) reads from and discusses his latest novel City of Thieves (Viking), an expansive account of an expedition undertaken by two men across German-occupied Russia during the time of the siege of Leningrad based upon Benioff’s grandfather’s own personal experiences, Sun., May 18, 4 p.m., at Book Soup (8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood) … .
For underground comics fans and those with a jones for Jimbo, cartoonist, rock poster artist, and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse production designer Gary Panter will be at Skylight Books, with Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Tues., May 27, 7:30 p.m., to celebrate the publication of Gary Panter (PictureBox), a lavishly comprehensive two-volume look at Panter’s work with essays by writers including Robert Storr, Mike Kelley, and Richard Gehr … .
With free events such as these, you might even wish to skip the crowds at BookExpo and see if you can’t find out where the good parties are so you can talk about those readings you attended before all those literary scenes from other cities found their way into town.
Published: 05/07/2008
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