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Diesel Books, Now in Brentwood

February 16, 2009 in bookstore, cookbook, graphic novels, location by Claire | 2 comments

The neighborhood gains a new bookstore

When you live in Los Angeles, you get used to that feeling of urban anonymity wherever you go, but the first time I walked into the new Diesel Books in the Brentwood Country Mart, I glanced down at the guest list and immediately spotted the name of one of my closest friends just a few rows above where I was about to sign up for their email newsletter, and I suddenly felt like I lived in a small town.

Diesel just opened up a few months ago, less than five minutes from my house.   Locals like me who live near the Country Mart tend to go there regularly for their Reddi Chick fix, since they have the best rotisserie chicken and ribs in Brentwood.  (Also possibly the only rotisserie chicken and ribs in Brentwood.)  You order at their take-out counter, then sit outside in the courtyard, either close to the fire or far away from it depending on how warm it is.  (When it’s really warm, there’s no fire at all, of course.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Exploring in Aspen

February 4, 2009 in bookstore by Claire | No comments

As you know, Kim and I love guest posts.  We can’t actually visit every bookstore in the country by ourselves, although Kim may come closer than anyone else in the world to reaching that goal.  My friend Maria Semple, is a TV writer turned novelist.  Her recently published first novel, This One is Mine (Little Brown), got glowing reviews and I loved it.  Check out her website to read more about it.   Maria kindly and graciously reviewed one of her favorite bookstores for us, Explore Book Sellers, rated a reader’s favorite in Mountain Living Magazine in 2007 and 2008.  The rest of this post is by her.
Maria at her booksigning at Explore

Maria at her booksigning at Explore

Growing up in LA, I went to grade school with the Anderson girls. (Celebrities to us, not because their mother, Katherine, was the daughter of Hollywood’s first celebrity couple, Irving Thalberg & Norma Sheerer, but because their father, Richard Anderson, played Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man.) Katherine and Richard divorced; Katherine and her daughters moved to Aspen. She reported back that it was a jewel of a place and that she had opened a bookstore. My parents brought us to Aspen for the summer. We stayed for the school year. We never left.

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Great Bookstore in London

January 27, 2009 in bookstore, childrens, overseas by Claire | 2 comments

Worth Crossing the Pond for

First, I’d like to take a moment to say a huge thank you to everyone who has linked to Kim’s brilliant independent bookstore challenge or written us to say what a great idea it is.  I’m with you: I think it’s a great idea and I’m so glad others are onboard.   Kim gets all the credit although I can take pride in the fact that I didn’t stand in her way.  (Well, I did say I was scared of the challenge, so maybe I did stand in her way a little bit, but it takes more than that to deter Kim).  Anyway, yay for Kim!  And yay for everyone who’s enthusiastic about the challenge.

Now on to our friend Laura Sanderson Healy’s review of her favorite bookstore in London.  Laura actually lived in London for many years, so she knows what she’s talking about.   Laura is a former London Bureau correspondent for Time Inc. Magazines’ PEOPLE WEEKLY and its Australian sister publication WHO WEEKLY, and now that she lives in Los Angeles, she’s become a dear, personal friend of both Kim’s and mine.  Here’s her review, posted quite coincidentally on her birthday!  Happy birthday, Laura, and thanks–

On a recent trip to London I took the 14 bus from Piccadilly to Fulham to revisit Nomad Books near Parsons Green. There I pondered many titles unknown in the U.S. and purchased ME CHEETA, the “autobiography” of Tarzan’s co-star, tongue-in-cheek recollections illustrated by modern artwork of the world’s most famous chimpanzee which Sir Peter Blake curated to show alongside his own Pop Art at London’s National Gallery a few years back. Read the rest of this entry »

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Guest Review of Bookstores around the Country

January 15, 2009 in bookstore, used books, young adult by Claire | No comments

Some great bookstores outside of California

Jessie Bennett is the Blog Editor for Beacon Press.  If you read my last post, you’ll know that I think the Beacon Broadside is well worth checking out.  When we were emailing back and forth about the Jeremy Adam Smith post she suggested we link to because it’s about the value of continuing to write and publish books, Jessie also mentioned some bookstores she loves in different parts of the country.   That was enough for me: I asked her if she’d mind writing about them for the blog.  She was kind enough to do so.

She’s the author of the rest of this post:

In Southeastern Connecticut (where I grew up):

The Book Barn:

This place is huge: six buildings of books just outside of downtown Niantic, an adorable waterfront community on the Connecticut shoreline. The Book Barn is worth a stop if you’re in Southeastern CT (casino, anyone?), but give yourself some time to fully explore their vast trove of used treasures. In recent years, they’ve opened a second, smaller location downtown. Read the rest of this entry »

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City Lights Bookstore

January 5, 2009 in bookstore, location, press, publishing by Claire | 2 comments

or What I Did on My Christmas Vacation

After Kim sent me TWO separate e-mails with links to websites that said City Lights is one of the best bookstores in the country, I figured she’d never forgive me if I came back from San Francisco without visiting it.   Not that it was a chore, by any means–I love going to bookstores–but it was a necessary pleasure.

Famous from its inception because the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of the co-founders, City Lights quickly became a meeting place for members of “the Beat” generation and a supporter of books that conservatives wanted to ban.   They’ve continued their “fight the power” attitude–there’s a left-of-liberal political message  in every  well-lit upstairs window.  To summarize: Bush is bad, so is war, and freedom of expression is good.

I don’t mean to be overly glib: this is a good place which has supported the right side of literary and political causes for decades.  So they’ve earned the right to enjoy their reputation–not to mention the hordes of people who stream into the place and, I assume, actually purchase books before leaving. Read the rest of this entry »

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