Book Swaps Los Angeles

The Wedding People Book Club Discussion

Join us for this months book club discussion. The Wedding People by Alison Espach is a novel about Phoebe Stone, a woman at a personal low point who arrives at a Newport hotel for a planned splurge, only to be mistaken for a wedding guest, leading to an unexpected connection with the bride, Laya, and other wedding attendees, forcing them all to confront grief, expectations, and the messy reality of life beyond perfect plans. The book blends humor and tenderness, exploring themes of divorce, infertility, and finding new paths, and was a New York Times bestseller and a Today Show book club pick.

May Book Club - The Correspondent

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?” Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Book of May: Pale Fire

Join us for the first time or for the nth!


WHAT ARE WE READING? Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years “An ingeniously constructed parody of detective fiction and learned commentary, Pale Fire offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures, at the center of which is a 999-line poem written by the literary genius John Shade just before his death. Surrounding the poem is a foreword and commentary by the demented scholar Charles Kinbote, who interweaves adoring literary analysis with the fantastical tale of an assassin from the land of Zembla in pursuit of a deposed king.”


WHERE ARE WE READING?

4100 bar

There is no food served - but they do allow outside food and sometimes have a food truck.
Please feel free to comment with any questions. 







Everyone is welcome - whether you read the whole book or the back cover (but be prepared for spoilers if so), looking forward to seeing you all to talk about (hopefully) good books!

Enshittification- Cory Doctorow

Noir At The Bar

NOT A BOOK CLUB MEETING BUT AN EVENT AT THE BOOK JEWEL OF MYSTERY AUTHORS READING FROM THEIR NEW BOOKS HOSTED BY ERIC BEETNER. GREAT EVENT. FREE.

5 LA Library Tour

**Mocha Girls Read \| Library Tour Experience** Join us for a special Mocha Girls Read morning as we explore the city and build our library collections. On Saturday, May 23, we are setting out on a **Library Tour**, visiting five different libraries across Los Angeles to collect five new library cards, including the highly anticipated **100th Anniversary Downtown LA Public Library card**. 📅 **Date:** Friday, May 23 ⏰ **Time:** 8:00 AM 📍 **Starting Location:** **What to Bring:** * Valid California ID * $10 for the driver if you are a passenger to cover gas and parking fees * Money to cover your meals * Comfy shoes for walking **What to Expect:** • Visiting 5 local libraries • Signing up for new library cards • Collecting the Downtown LA Public Library 100th Anniversary card and stamp cards • Light walking and travel between locations • Breakfast, light snacks, and early dinner stops **8 am** \- Meet at the Inglewood Public Library\, 101 W Manchester Blvd\, Inglewood\, CA 90301\, ***parking lot*** **8:30 am** \- Breakfast at [Rusty Pot Café,](https://share.google/7Ilx55n7jngmjN3DY) 324 S Market St, Inglewood, CA 90301 **9:30 am** \- Los Angeles Central Library\, 630 W 5th St\, Los Angeles\, CA 90071 **Noon** \- Rosewood Neighborhood Library \(Main\)\, 5655 Jillson St\, Commerce\, CA 90040 **1:30 pm** \- Lunch at [Pana’s Café,](https://share.google/JgCQhg9Mw7FZhcJVt) 2440 S Atlantic Blvd, Commerce, CA 90040 **2:30 pm** \- Downey City Library\, 11121 Brookshire Ave \#586\, Downey\, CA 90241 **3:30 pm** \- Santa Fe Springs City Library\, 11700 Telegraph Rd\, Santa Fe Springs\, CA 90670 **4:30 pm -** Whittier Public Library, 7344 Washington Ave, Whittier, CA 90602 **5:30 pm** \- Dinner at [California Grill & Bar](https://share.google/Xegdhcav290vsLBrh), 6751 Painter Ave, Whittier, CA 90601 **6:30 pm** \- Head back to the Inglewood Library and home Please arrive on time so we can begin promptly. Let’s make this a memorable day of books, access, and connection.

HORROR BOOK CLUB (May): “My Best Friend’s Exorcism”

Boy Erased, by Garrard Conley

**IN-PERSON EVENT at Sheri's House** Bring either something to eat or drink.... and enjoy the conversation. *** **A beautiful, raw and compassionate memoir about identity, love and understanding. Now a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges, directed by Joel Edgerton..** The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness. By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.

Book Crawl - Pasadena

We are hosting our first annual Book Crawl event in Pasadena on Sunday May 17th in Pasadena starting at 11 am till roughly 2pm. We will be visiting several bookstores in Pasadena: * Vroman's * Book Alley * The Open Book * Octavia's Bookshelf * DYM - Books & Boba It's an opportunity to celebrate local books shops, get your steps in, get nerdy about books and make some new friends. Along the way we will make time stop for coffee, boba and other sweet treats. One of our book club members has offered his house as a starting point so that location will be provided to those individuals who RSVP to this event.

CFI-West Skeptics Book Club

Join us for the CFI-West Skeptics Book Club monthly meeting! We meet both in person and on Google Meet. There's always a lively conversation, whether you've read the book or not (though... reading helps). May 20th's selection is "Some Mistakes of Moses" by Robert G. Ingersoll. You can get 15% off at Skylight Books if you mention our book club in the comments at checkout. The in-person meeting will be hosted at the Center for Inquiry West at 2535 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Park in the lot off Rampart behind the building. The meeting is upstairs in the conference room. Bring any snacks you'd like to share! Virtual attendees, join us on Google Meet. Use this link: https://meet.google.com/sqd-ujpn-nhf We haven't chosen books beyond May, so bring your suggestions and we'll vote in a new slate.

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their treasured immigration documents, has been stolen. Set over the course of one week, *A Guardian and a Thief* tells two the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as they stave off encroaching catastrophe.

Korean-English Language Exchange