Tonight @ Skylight Books - CECIL CASTELLUCCI reads and signs her new young adult novel FIRST DAY ON EARTH.

First Day on Earth (Scholastic)

Young adult author (and Skylight favorite!) Cecil Castellucci returns to Skylight Books to launch her new young adult novel First Day on Earth. This isn't just a launch party... it's also Cecil's birthday, so expect a party!

Mal lives on the fringes of high school. Angry. Misunderstood. Quiet, but with a lot of words underneath. Seven years ago, Mal disappeared for three days. Everyone tells him it was a breakdown, a seizure, something medical. He thinks it was something different. An alien abduction. But there's no way for him to know for sure. Then, at an abductee support group, he meets Hooper, who has some otherworldly secrets of his own. And suddenly the truth is closer than Mal ever imagined it could be.

Cecil Castellucci grew up in New York City and is the author of the young adult novels Rose Sees Red, Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, and Beige, the children's picture book Grandma's Gloves, and the comic books The Plain Janes and Janes in Love. Currently, Cecil Castellucci lives in Los Angeles. You can learn more about her at misscecil.com and via her blog, castellucci.livejournal.com.

The Party Starts Here...

Harvey Pekar and Alison Bechdel will be @ UCLA Live on Friday 4.23

Titans of the Graphic Novel: Harvey Pekar and Alison Bechdel

The unlikely ascent of Harvey Pekar began in the halls of Cleveland’s VA Hospital, where he worked as a file clerk for 35 years. In his spare time, Pekar wrote and self-published the autobiographical “American Splendor” comics, which illustrated his less-than-splendid life. The series gained a large and loyal cult following, and eventually was adapted into a 2003 feature film.

Joining the master of mundane is cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the author of “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” an account of her childhood and complex relationship with her father. The graphic memoir, which took Bechdel seven years to complete, was named the best book of 2006 by Time magazine. She is also author of the syndicated strip “Dykes to Watch Out For.” Together, these two explore the power of graphic novels as a confessional medium.

Fri, Apr 23 at 8pm @Royce Hall
$48, 36, 24*
($15 UCLA students)

More Here...

This Friday: Eric Bogosian at Vroman's

In the final installment of his immensely popular Million Dollar trilogy, the #1 "Essence"- bestselling author and actor Eric Bogosian delivers a juicy and shocking conclusion that his fans won't soon forget. Eric will discuss and sign Perforated Heart his third novel. A story about a once-prominent author embittered by declining fame. Perforated Heart examines the dynamic between creativity and commerce in the artistic world.

Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, California 91101

7pm

TOMORROW NIGHT! EQUATOR BOOKS BENEFIT IN VENICE

A gentle reminder to go by tomorrow night, -Saturday, 7 to Midnight- to support Equator Books and keep them right there in Venice!

Tillage is told that they're going to have a great bar and Live Jazz... and also, They just put hundreds of new records in the bins, and there are a lot of new books on the shelves including their all-new section of Cookbooks. There are amazing Rock Photographs and lots of one-night only artwork available for purchase. Please stop by, bring a friend and ten bucks, have a drink, buy a book or record and help us help you by staying a part of Abbot Kinney community for many years to come. If you can't make it but love what they're doing, please buy a gift card or donate to the cause Here...

Wednesday March 11 - Jerry Stahl @ Diesel Books in Santa Monica

Jerry Stahl discusses and signs Pain Killers @ Diesel Books in Santa Monica

From the acclaimed and controversial author of Permanent Midnight comes one of the most vividly subversive, savagely funny, and explosive novels yet unleashed in our tender century. Pain Killers is a violent and mind-wrenching masterpiece in the gonzo noir style that has earned Jerry Stahl his legion of avid fans.

Down-and-out ex-cop and not-quite-reformed addict Manny Rupert accepts a job going undercover to find out if an old man locked up in a California prison is who he claims to be: the despicable—and allegedly dead—Josef Mengele, aka the Angel of Death. What if, instead of drowning thirty years ago, the sadistic legend whose Auschwitz crimes still horrify faked his own death and is now locked up in San Quentin, ranting and bitter about being denied the adulation he craves for his contribution to keeping the Master Race pure—if no longer masterful?

More on this here

John Updike: March 3, 1932 to January 27, 2009

TOSSING AND TURNING

The spirit has infinite facets, but the body

confiningly few sides.

There is the left,

the right, the back, the belly, and tempting

in-betweens, northeasts and northwests,

that tip the heart and soon pinch circulation

in one or another arm.

Yet we turn each time

with fresh hope, believing that sleep

will visit us here, descending like an angel

down the angle our flesh’s sextant sets,

tilted toward that unreachable star

hung in the night between our eyebrows, whence

dreams and good luck flow.

Uncross

your ankles. Unclench your philosophy.

This bed was invented by others; know we go

to sleep less to rest than to participate

in the twists of another world.

This churning is our journey.

It ends,

can only end, around a corner

we do not know

we are turning.

-John Updike, 1993

John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit Angstrom novels highlighted so vast and protean a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism as to place him in the first rank of among American men of letters, died on Tuesday. He was 76 and lived in Beverly Farms, Mass. Read the full NY Times obituary here.