Looking for a good book to read? Try these links...
-- Page Turners' list
-- LAPL Reads
Also, check the L. A Times "Books" section, and the N. Y. Times "Book" page, especially the Sunday page for its book reviews and best seller lists. And, try BookmarksMagazine.com with reviews of current and recent books sorted by genre. In addition, try BookPage.com with interviews and reviews of recent books, and free e-newsletters.
At the end of each Board and annual meeting, we share information on some of our readings and viewings. Here are the recommendations:
2021
Stella Suberman - The Jew Store
Mary Marks - Knot My Sister's Keeper (cozy series, main character lives in Encino)
Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig - A Very Stable Genius
Fiona Davis - Ther Lions of Fifth Avenue
Bret Baier & Catherine Whitney - To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union and the Crisis of 1876
Lucinda Riley - The Seven Sisters - (a series)
Ron Howard & Clint Howard - The Boys, A Memoir of Hollywood and Family
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - The Real Anthony Fauci
Janet Skeslien Charles - The Paris Library
2020
Ariel Sabar - My Father's Paradise
Selden Edwards - The Little Book
Harriet (film)
2019
Elaine Weiss - The Woman's Hour
Lisa Grunwald - Time After Time
Delia Owens - Where the Crawdads Sing
Rebecca Stott - Ghostwalk
Margaret George - The Confessions of Young Nero
2018
Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik - Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Brandon Sanderson - Skyward (Young Adult)
Susan Orlean - The Library Book - Absolutely wonderful, for all library lovers.
The nearby Laemmle Town Center movie theater is showing Saturday live transmissions of Metropolitan Opera performances this season. Operas include Aida, Samson et Dalila, Carmen, La Traviata and Die Walkurie, among others.
Meg Wolitzer - The Female Persuasion
Rachel Kadish - The Weight of Ink
Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, Ella Morton - Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders
Steven J. Ross - Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America
Bernard Cornwell - Fools and Mortals
Dan Brown - Inferno
Scott Eyman - Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart
Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Film: The Post
Jennifer Egan - Manhattan Beach
2017
Alan Bennet - Uncommon Reader
Sarah Perry - Essex Serpent
R. J. Palacio - Wonder
Ron Chernow - Hamilton
Selene Yeager - The Doctors Book of Food Remedies: The Newest Discoveries in the Power of Food to
Treat and Prevent Health Problems - From Aging and Diabetes to Ulcers
Films: Victoria and Abdul and Stronger
Janice Y. K Lee - Expatriots
Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow
Lisa See - The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Paulette Jiles - News of the World
Films: Zookeeper's Wife, Gifted, and The Finest.
Julie Orringer - Invisible Bridge
Films: Hidden Figures, Salesman, The Founder, and 20th Century Women
Films: La La Land and Lion
2016
Films: The Hollars, Light Between Oceans, and The Dancer
Anne Tyler - Vinegar Girl
Yanagihara, Hanya - A Little Life
Kenneth A. Breisch and Kevin Starr - The Los Angeles Central Library: Building an Architectural Icon,
1872-1933 (Architecture Series)
Hans J. Massaquoi - Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany
Janice P. Nimura - Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back
Books about Dorothea Lange, American documentary photographer and photojournalist.
(“Migrant Mother” is her famous photo)
Marthe Cohn and Taylor Wendy Holden - Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French
Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
Peter Slevin - Michelle Obama: A Life
Kristin Hannah - The Nightingale
Joyce Antler - You Never Call! You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother
2015
Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See
Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt -
Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography
Frederick Hill Meserve and Carl Sandburg - The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln
Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. - Twenty Days, A Narrative in
Text and Pictures of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Twenty Days and
Nights that Followed--The Nation in Mourning, the Long Trip Home to Springfield.
Barbara Hambly - The Emancipator’s Wife (A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln).
Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns - The Roosevelts: A Intimate History (book and DVD)
Sophia Loren - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life
Suki Kim - Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
Mohamedou Ould Siahi and Larry Siems - Guantánamo Diary
McFarland, USA (movie)
Diana Gabaldon - Outlander, a novel (series of 8 books and novellas)
Outlander - TV mini-series (Starz season 1 online; season 2 - April 4 2015)
Héctor Tobar - Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine,
and the Miracle That Set Them Free.
Héctor Tobar - Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the
Spanish-Speaking United States
2014
John Grisham - Sycamore Row
Steven Johnson - How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
(book and TV series)
Stephen Hawking - The Illustrated A Brief History of Time (updated and expanded edition)
Tracy Chevalier - The Last Runaway: A Novel
Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons
Richard North Patterson - Degree of Guilt
Film: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, by Ken Burns (PBS documentary)
Mosab Hassan Yousef and Ron Brackin - Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror,
Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices; AND The Green Prince, the
documentary from this book.
Elizabeth Warren - A Fighting Chance
Hillary Rodham Clinton - Hard Choices
Glenn Greenwald - No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
Phyllis Chester - An American Bride in Kabul (memoir)
Emma Rowley - Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey: The Official Backstage Pass to
the Set, the Actors, and the Drama
André Brink - A Dry White Season
Kate Alcott - The Dressmaker
Tina Zahn, Wanda Dyson - Why I Jumped: A Dramatic Story of Finding Hope Beyond Depression
Frank Herbert - Dune
Dave Eggers - The Circle
Films: Philomena and Saving Mr. Banks.
2013
Film: Gravity (only in 3D)
Film: Enough Said
Kim Fay - The Map of Lost Memories
Marie Arana - Bolivar: American Liberator
Christina Baker Kline - Orphan Train, a Novel
Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni
Tom Clancy - Threat Vector (Jack Ryan Novels)
Barbara Kingsolver - Flight Behavior
Isabelle Allende - Daughter of Fortune
Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
Jeffrey Toobin - The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court
Dara Horn - All Other Nights
Robert Harris - Pompeii
Salman Rushdie - interviews with British Indian novelist & essayist (search the archives
of the LAPL ALOUD series)
Ruth Downie mysteries -- British author of historical novels set in ancient Rome
Lindsey Davis - English historical novelist of crime stories set in ancient Rome
2012
Argo (movie)
Stephen L. Carter - The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln
Ann Fadiman - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong
Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Salman Rushdie - Joseph Anton: A Memoir
George Beahm (ed.) - I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words
Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) – We suggest you read or re-read some of his
books, as a fitting memorial to this award-winning author.
Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games (book and movie)
Marilyn Johnson - This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
Henry Nicholls - The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's
Political Animal
Hugo, the movie in 3D.
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Brian Selznick - The Hugo Movie Companion: A Behind the Scenes Look at
How a Beloved Book Became a Major Motion Picture
Rebecca Skloot - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum - That Used To Be Us: How
America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back
Geraldine Brooks - Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
2011
Laura Hillenbrand - Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Lyanda Lynn Haupt - Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness
Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance
David L. Ulin (Editor, Los Angeles Times Book Review) - The Lost Art
of Reading; Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time
Nicholas Carr - The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains
Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose (Pulitzer Prize)
Maria Riva - Marlene Dietrich
Tea Obreht - Tiger's Wife: a Novel
Midnight in Paris (film)
J. M. G. Le Clezio - Wandering Star
Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain - Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti
Temple Grandin (film)
Lisa See - Shanghai Girls
Kee Malesky - All Facts Considered: The Essential Library of Inessential Knowledge
Roz Savage - Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean
Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna
Noam Chomsky - Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Irene Nemirovsky - Suite Francaise
Michael Crosby - Encino (Images of America series)
Walter Mosley - The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
