Book Swaps Los Angeles

Holiday Potluck and Book Exchange!

Brown and Gay in LA by Anthony Ocampo

**See you there!**

November Book Club - Losing Clementine by Ashley Ream

World-renowned artist and sharp-tongued wit Clementine Pritchard is done. Years of therapy and medication have gifted her with little more than sweaty palms and gastric upset. Now, after flushing away a cabinet full of prescriptions, she gives herself thirty days to tie up loose ends (finish one final painting, make nice with her ex-husband, find a home for her cat) and enjoy one last month of art-world parties, road trips and outrageous acts. What Clementine doesn't expect is to uncover secrets surrounding the decades-old tragedy that befell her mother and sister. With the date of her carefully planned demise fast approaching, can she dive back into the messy business of family and life? Does she want to?

Yesteryear- Caro Claire Burke

Evening Book Club: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Book for **November**: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Club is for the girls (and the gays!) to get together and chat about the book we read this month. Age range early/mid twenties ✨ Please RSVP to join the event! Since we only have 10 spots no cancellations please. We will discuss over tea or wine at historic Cafe Mak in ktown. If you cannot finish the book on time, feel free to still come and hang out :)

Queer Book Club- "Palaver" by Bryan Washington

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

**The Frozen River** (2023) by Ariel Lawhon is a historical mystery inspired by thediary of Martha Ballard, a midwife & healer in Maine, in the late 1700s. In the winter of 1789, a man is found frozen in the ice of the Kennebec River, and Martha is called to examine the body. Martha investigates through her own careful record-keeping, even as her reputation and family come under pressure. The novel blends a suspenseful whodunit and courtroom drama with a portrait of a sharp, independent woman working within the limits placed on women in early America, along with a warm depiction of her marriage and the frontier community she serves. Please join us at 10:00am for a WALK/Discussion and then Brunch to follow at The Farmhouse at Descanso Gardens. We will meet in front of the ticket counter promptly at 10:00. Any questions, please reach out!

Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu

WHAT WE'RE READING: Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu WHAT IT IS ABOUT: "Based on Cartarescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art. The novel is grounded in the reality of late 1970s/early 1980s Communist Romania, including long lines for groceries, the absurdities of the education system, and the misery of family life. The text includes sequences in a tuberculosis sanatorium, an encounter with an anti-death protest movement, a society of dream investigators, and an extended visit to the miniscule world of dust mites living on a microscope slide. Combining fiction with autobiography and history, Solenoid ruminates on the exchanges possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various, monstrous dimensions erupt within the Communist present." WHERE WE'RE MEETING: 4100 Bar in Silver Lake A NOTE ON PARKING: Street parking should be more readily accessible on Sunset Blvd to the west of the meet-up location. A NOTE ON THE MEET-UP SEATING LOCATION: Meet-ups are generally held on the bar terrace, if sufficient seating is available. Please dress warmly in the event of cool evening weather! A NOTE ON RSVPING: If your name is on the attendee list for a scheduled meet-up and you no longer plan on attending the event, please remove your name from the attendee list at least a week before the scheduled event to allow individuals on the waitlist sufficient time to read the book beforehand (no worries if a cancellation has to be last-minute, though!). Happy reading! Colin

Book Club: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

In *Klara and the Sun*, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love? From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. Looking forward to enjoying afternoon tea at the Callisto Tea House in Pasadena. The menu can be found here: [https://callistoteahouse.com/pages/menu](https://callistoteahouse.com/pages/menu) The event fee will secure your reservation and be applied to membership dues, which covers the cost of the website. The event fee is NONREFUNDABLE unless the event is canceled by the organizer. To join the waitlist comment on the event page. If you have RSVPed and can no longer attend, please contact me directly and I will contact the people on the waiting list and then move you to "not going" when I find a replacement. Thank you and happy reading!

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan at Aroma Cafe

[Book + Movie] HORROR BOOK CLUB (November): “Pet Sematary”

Korean-English Language Exchange