The publication of Katie Orphan’s book “Read Me, Los Angeles” was memorable – just not for the reasons Orphan might have imagined.

“Sometimes I think about it, and it just seems like something that didn’t even happen. My book came out on March 10, 2020, and I think I had my book launch event on March 11, at Skylight Books,” says Orphan. “By Friday of that week, the city of LA had basically shut down.

“And so I went from like, the most exciting thing is happening; I have a book out in the world and we’re going to do all these events around LA” to staying home and baking bread while waiting for the vaccine, she says. On the positive side, she thinks the strange events led to her inclusion in a New York Times story about debuts derailed by the pandemic. “It made the entire experience far more surreal than I think it would have been had this not all happened.”

(Speaking of surreal: I first encountered Orphan’s book as I briefly passed a store display, making a mental note to seek it out in the future. I believe it was literally the next day I called Chevalier’s Bookstore about a different story and I got Orphan, the store’s manager, on the line, completely unaware she was the author I’d meant to be looking up. That, folks, is weird.)

Orphan’s work is now available for all and a great way to embrace Southern California’s literary highlights. A well-designed and colorful look at the books and writers of Los Angeles and Southern California, “Read Me, Los Angeles” is full of interviews, recommendations, photos, anecdotes, lists, and more.

There was a certain amount of kismet to how it came together, and she makes sure to call attention to the work of the editors, artists and designers who made the book look as good as it does.

Michael Connelly, Luis J. Rodriguez and Octavia E. Butler are three of the authors included in “Read Me, Los Angeles.” (Photo credit (L-R): AP / Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG / Patti Perret, Courtesyof The Huntington Library, San Marino, California)

A longtime bookseller at downtown LA’s Last Bookstore before her current position at Chevalier’s, Orphan had been working on a book proposal when she got a call from her eventual publisher, who at that time simply had a question for Orphan: Did she, a book buyer for the store, think readers might be interested in an LA-based literary tourism book?

“Well, I certainly hope there’s a market for it, because I’ve been working on a proposal,” said Orphan, who recalls that it had been a revelation to learn in school that literary tourism is a whole field of study. “I just thought it was me being a big nerd and having fun.”

Orphan says “Read Me, Los Angeles” is a way to address the fact that the literary tradition of Southern California – aside from maybe Raymond Chandler –  doesn’t get the kind of respect that those of New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston do.

Why? Because people here “choose to live someplace with a lot of sunshine and good weather they just get taken a little less seriously,” she says.

“This book was looking at the authors and trying to communicate some of the vast diversity of Los Angeles, she says. “Geographically, we’re huge – what life looks like in the San Gabriel Valley versus San Pedro versus Malibu. It’s all so much bigger than some people who haven’t spent time stuck in traffic here necessarily imagine, but also the ethnic diversity and wanting to really capture that there is a long history of different voices present in Los Angeles.”

The book includes, among others, interviews with writers Michael Connelly, Luis J. Rodriguez, Naomi Hirahara and Aimee Bender; appreciations of Octavia E. Butler, John Fante, Wanda Coleman, Charles Bukowski and Joan Didion; explorations of bookstores, author gravesites and neighborhoods. And more, much more across the larger Southern California area.

We discuss many books, from Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona” to the works of Eve Babitz, so I ask Orphan to name a favorite.

“My first LA novel – and still, in many ways, the most influential – is “Weetzie Bat” by Francesca Lia Block. I read it when I was like 11 or 12, and I was like, Oh, Los Angeles is magic; I think I want to live there. So, you know, as a starting point, that was a huge one,” she says, while adding, “I will read and reread Chester Himes and Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain at any given opportunity.”

As we wind down, there’s one question that must be addressed: You’re a bookseller. Do you ever recommend your own book?

“On occasion, but only if somebody says that they’re looking for an interesting guide to LA – then mine is one of, like, three things I’ll pull down and hand to people. But I never tell people that it’s my book. I don’t want to pressure you,” she laughs. “Usually, I don’t say anything about it. But if somebody buys it while I’m working the register, I tell them they have good taste. But that’s about it.

“Yeah, it is very fun to be able to see people buy my book,” she says. “I think very few non-bookseller authors get to experience on a regular basis.”

“Linea Nigra” and “On Lighthouses” by Jazmina Barrera (translated by Christina MacSweeney) and the Two Lines Press table at the LitLit event. (Courtesy of Two Lines Press / Photo by Erik Pedersen)

August is Women in Translation month, which aims to raise the profile as well as increase the number of translated works written by women. The project was started in 2014 by Meytal Radzinski, and it’s a great reason to read more translated literature.

I have been gathering a few – OK, more than a few – books in translation in recent months, and I’ll be talking about some of them in upcoming columns. (I’m also in the middle of a large book that deals with translating that we’ll have more on in the next week.)

So I’ll just mention two I bought at the recent LitLit book fair that I’m looking forward to spending time with this month, “Linea Nigra” and “On Lighthouses,” both by Mexico City writer Jazmina Barrera and both translated by Christina MacSweeney from California’s Two Line Press. (Note: Two Line Press is having a Women in Translation sale on its website, and – book nerd alert – tote bags are involved.)

OK, got any questions or book suggestions to share? Send them to [email protected] and they might appear in the column.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Megan Giddings reveals the book she’s afraid to read (again)

“The Women Could Fly” by Megan Giddings (Photo credit: Jon Cameron / Amistad)

Megan Giddings is the author of “Lakewood,” which was recognized as one of the 10 Best of 2020 by New York Magazine, an NPR Best Book of 2020 and a Michigan Notable Book for 2021 as well as a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards among its honors. She is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and lives in the Midwest. She kindly responded to our Q&A upon the publication of her new novel, “The Women Could Fly.”

Q. How would you describe your new novel “The Women Could Fly”? 

“The Women Could Fly” is about Josephine Thomas who lives in a world that looks a lot like our own, except that witches are real and that women are regularly monitored for witchcraft. It’s about mothers-and-daughters, what it means to conform, thinking deeply about love, and yes, magic, too.

Q. What do you hope readers will take away from the book? 

I want readers to go on many kinds of adventures – love, parties, magic – while also thinking deeply about the world we live in.

Q. Is there a book you’re nervous to read? 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about re-reading Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go.” It’s a book that I’ve held in really high regard! I read it around the time it came out in 2005 for the first time, and it was at a time where I was very young and very pretentious in the way you need to be if you want to be someone who professionally makes things, but because I was young and very pretentious about writing and art, I felt lost. I read “Never Let Me Go” in a day and thought that if I could write something that was half as good, I would feel like I accomplished something.

I think of reading that book as an experience that led me toward writing both my novels. It would be depressing to me a little, maybe, if I read it now, and hated it. But I keep wanting to know what I think of that book now that I, too, am a novelist. I’ll probably still love it though. I read “Klara and the Sun” this year and it made me keep thinking about how much I love the way Ishiguro can write a scene that is so easy to parse in terms of actions and characterization but so difficult on the emotional level. It’s a talent that’s so hard to develop.

Q. Do you have any favorite book covers? 

Yes! One is the cover of “Lakewood,” my first novel. I love my second book’s cover, but “Lakewood”’s cover was so stunning, it was my first book, and it’s made me a huge fan of its artist, Yulia Bas. I love the original cover of Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber.” Most of the covers of “Sula,” but especially the one with yellow flowers. The “Area X” book covers. The cover of Donald Barthelme’s “Snow White.” And I still remember being a kid and just staring at the cover of “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.” I think it was the first time I ever looked at a chapter book cover and thought I can’t wait to find out what happens.

Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend? 

I’ve only recently gotten into audiobooks. I’m flying more again and I’m too nervous on planes to read. The only media I can really handle on a plane is audiobooks and podcasts because I can close my eyes and sometimes feel like I’m not a plane. I just listened to “Writers & Lovers” by Lily King and while there’s one voice that the narrator does that made me kind of cringe, the way she handled the main character, the children in the book, even the love interests was so absorbing. I feel like it might be a great gateway audiobook. On my next flight, I’m going to try listening to “Persuasion.”

Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else? 

I had a teacher in sixth and eighth grade, Mrs. Baker-Radcliffe. I think of her as a teacher who made a significant impact on my reading life because she never treated reading as if it were just for a test or to pull apart a story’s meaning. Reading was sometimes about pleasure, sometimes it was to help us be creative, sometimes it was about understanding the text, and sometimes it even gave us a way to play. We would act out Shakespeare, treat books sometimes like they were something to gossip about, and write a lot about the things we read. The quiet message for me from all her classes was that something like reading was important but important things could also be fun.

Q. What do you find the most appealing in a book: the plot, the language, the cover, a recommendation? Do you have any examples? 

I can let go of a lot of things. There are books I’ve loved that have terrible covers. Especially if you read small press books that don’t have the money or resources to spend a lot on art, you get used to letting go of cover aesthetics. But the two things that I think are make and break for me are language. I want a book where I can feel immersed. And the other dealbreaker is characters. There are some books I’ve stopped reading because the characters are pretty boring or all seem like the same person except one is angry and one is sad.

“Lightlark,” the new YA fantasy novel by Alex Aster, is the story of a magical world where all six of realms struggle under a curse that can only be lifted if the six rulers figure out how to do that, and survive, during the Centennial, a competition that takes place once every hundred years. When negotiations for the book seemed to stall Aster posted a video on TikTok, which went viral and got her over the finish line. (Photo by Jennifer Trahan, image courtesy of Amulet Books)

TikTok talent

“Lightlark” author Alex Aster saw her work rejected. A viral video changed that. READ MORE

These are among the books recommended by Southern California independent booksellers as titles for the summer reading seasons. (Courtesy of the publishers)

Summer books

Southern California independent booksellers recommend what to read. READ MORE

Hollywood publicist Dan Harary writes about 50 years worth of celebrity encounters in his new memoir, “Flirting with Fame.”Harary (left) poses with actress Dee Wallace who will introduce Harary at his book talk and signing event at Book Soup in Los Angeles at 7 p.m. Aug. 10, 2022. (Images Couresty of Dan Harary)

Harary for Hollywood

Tinseltown publicist Dan Harary talks 50 years of celebrity encounters in new memoir. READ MORE

Former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy’s memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” is among the top-selling nonfiction releases at Southern California’s independent bookstores. (Courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

The week’s bestsellers

The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

Bookish.

What’s next on ‘Bookish’

The next free Bookish event is Sept. 16 with guests Barbie Latza Nadeau, Andy Borowitz and Ron Shelton joining host Sandra Tsing Loh.

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