Rosemary Mayer installing ‘Balloon for a Birthday’, November 7, 1978 [Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles, CA. © The Estate of Rosemary Mayer]

In an age such as ours, the importance and value of disillusionment can’t be overestimated. We live in a culture whose economy runs on the sale of fantasies. Its success in blurring the boundary between spectacle and art has contributed mightily to our national stupefaction. Art worthy of the name is life ablaze at full intensity. Not a transit space, but a place of arrival. Work that aspires to art gives us what we need yet can’t name until we meet it, like an unexpected lover. It bewilders us the way spring does after an infernal winter.

Askold Melnyczuk, ‘The Art of Disillusionment: Alejandro Jodorowsky and the Uses of Fiction’, Los Angeles Review of Books.  March 27, 2015

“Instead, family, for Andor, turns out to be the people you’ll come back for: his sister, Maarva, and Bix. It is made, not inherited. And if Andor is a star war “for adults,” I think this is what it means to say that.”

Book Review: Mo Yan Speaks

Book Review: Mo Yan Speaks

The following is from a review of Mo Yan Speaks: Lectures and Speeches by the Nobel Laureate from China, the latest from the Nobel laureate (translated by Shiyan Xu) in the Los Angeles Review of Books: His public lectures combine anecdotes from his rural childhood with musings on literary style and namedropping of famous writers (who, with the notable exception of Wang Anyi, are all men). It is…

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the last book store- los angeles, california

Icebreaker - UCMH #1 by Hannah Grace, 447 pages, published November 22nd 2022 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 I will openly admit I had one main issue with this book, and thinking on it now I think it was probably the only issue I had with the book. That issue being it was too long, in a weird way. So I loved every scene I wanted to read all of it. But there was definitely a minimum of five chapters at least that just weren’t needed and could have been extra stuff, my thing is these are directly in the middle of the story as a bunch of stuff is going on - we get this lull of happy fluff that in my opinion could have just waited and would have helped with my feelings of feeling like I was being dragged along. All of that said I want to say I did really really like this book and all of the characters within it. There are so many potential paths I can see the following books possibly going down and all of them excite me. Cheers to our Olympic gold medalist Anastasia Allen!! You maybe have started your story in some bad relationships both with people, planners, and food. But by the end you were flourishing and being the best you that there ever could be by surrounding yourself with people who love you (The Boys, Lola, Nathan), working on yourself when it came to food and emotions, and just overall making time to enjoy the moment!! If you haven’t picked up Icebreaker by Hannah Grace yet - I 100% recommended it as an amazing holiday break relaxation read! Also if anyone has anymore ice skating romance books I need them yesterday!! Please and thank you. 💕⛸️

𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣 by Heather Ewen-Foster

🧛‍♀️🩸🦇🧛‍♂️/5

This book drew me in from the concept - vampires operating in Los Angeles? Color me intrigued. And to be honest, it delivered on the concept completely.

This story follows Sonia, a 250 year old vampire from Australia currently living in Los Angeles, whose routine is disrupted when vampires around her start to go missing - and her friend Sunny is attacked by a monster one night. Suddenly, she has to investigate, with the help of a human named Alex, the cause of the disappearances and what exactly this monster is - and how she can stop it. But by doing so, he might have unintentionally made enemies with the most powerful vampires in Los Angeles.

I'm unsure how to describe this book, other than that reading it felt like playing the game Vampire: The Masquerade - and I mean this in a complimentary way. As Sonia is investigating what exactly is going on, we glimpse more and more into the parallel world where vampires live and operate. Even by the end of the novel we can tell that the worldbuilding goes deeper, and that there are many more things for us to learn as the series continues. And while the ending has the issue being "resolved," we can see the cracks in the foundation where eventually everything will fall through - and I can't wait to read it when it does.

I was also surprised how much I enjoyed the relationships in this novel. Generally, I’m not the biggest fan of any kind of love triangles, but I believe this book does the one it has well - to the point there almost isn't one at all.

(Also, finally, despite the concept of vampires in Los Angeles, this book focuses much more on the plot and relationships with very little sex involved, so if that's what you're looking for I would have to suggest another book.)

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review ❤️

[Also posted to Goodreads and Instagram.]

Presenting Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Reviewed by Michelle Zaffino for In The Stacks.

http://www.inthestacks.tv/2023/07/in-the-stacks-episode-205-daisy-jones-the-six-by-taylor-jenkins-reid

Spider-Man becomes a Demon!

That’s right folks! A new series entitled “Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is set to release with our favorite wall crawler to become a monster.

Old Spidey is heading to Los Angeles where a demon awaits to turn old Spidey into a creature of the damned.

What happens and what will Spider-Man do with this new form? Gotta get to your local comic shop on Oct 19 to find out!

Check out more here.

-PK

Book Review: The Ghost of Us

The Ghost of Us, by James L. Sutter Cara hates living in Stossel, a small town outside of Seattle where everyone has known each other since …Book Review: The Ghost of Us

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Rosemary Mayer's Studio, New York, NY [The Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY. Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles, CA]

L A. Times Releases Its List of Finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prize

The Los Angeles Times Releases Its List of Finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prize!

Award season is here and the Los Angeles Times gets a headstart as one of the first organization releasing a list list of its finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prize. Keep reading to find out all 66 nominees for the awards! In its 44th annual award, the L.A. Times celebrates accomplished and new authors for the best works of literature. And as the times change, so do the L.A Times. This year,…

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L.A.'s Landmarked Restaurants, from Santa Monica Press and Author George Geary, is a delicious, fun-filled trip through the historic Los Angeles food culture scene as the thriving metropolis morphed into a contemporary gourmand's smorgasbord of delightful goodies.

Book Review: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Author: Gabrielle Zevin  Title: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Narrator: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2022 Summary/Review: Sadie Green and Sam Masur bond as children over their shared love for video games.  Years later they reunite in Cambridge where they’re attending different colleges, and decide to work on developing their own game.  Sam’s protective…

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Perfumist of Paris Review + My Landslide Documentary + Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bKmdGi98yHTSe70pLcbyf?si=4b933d4fd13e4ce0 For an audio version of today’s post, click the podcast player link above, and please give it a follow. Screenshots of Annie and Jim Ishibashi from a documentary on the Portuguese Bend landslide by David Hunt and Daal Praderas. Subscribe, listen to, and share Happiness Between Tails Podcast on most any platform;…

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Photography Fridays: L.A. Babe: The Real Women of Los Angeles 1975 – 1988, by Moshe Brakha

"Paris had Brassaï. And Berlin had Newton. But Moshe had L.A., babe."

Via Reviews about photography, photographers, and the photographic arts. “Paris had Brassaï. And Berlin had Newton. But Moshe had L.A., babe,” Jeff Weiss states from the Foreword of L.A. Babe: The Real Women of Los Angeles 1975 – 1988, by Moshe Brakha. Weiss doesn’t so much state Brakha’s iconic status as write a swooning love letter. From the mid-70s to the mid-80s, in a rough-edged cocktail…

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