On Saturday, I hosted a group of local authors to celebrate [Chevalier’s Books](https://www.chevaliersbooks.com), LA’s oldest independent bookstore, which recently reopened for pick-up orders.
Chevalier’s is our neighborhood bookstore, hosting many of our launch parties — including Arlo Finch — so we’re excited to see its doors semi-open.
The theme for our Zoom conversation was “summer reading.” We gave our picks for kids, teens and adults, with special focus on books about understanding race in America.
Guests include Stuart Gibbs, Leslie Margolis, Aline Brosh McKenna, Thomas Lennon, Sarah Mlynowski, Julie Buxbaum, Kayla Cagan and Julia Claiborne Johnson.
You can see their reading lists on [Chevalier’s site](https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/local-authors-060620), with links to order directly from Chevalier’s or bookshop.org.
My picks are below, along with a few additions I made as we were recording.
Support your local indie bookstore! Like Chevalier’s, many are partially open, and can easily get any book you’re looking for.
### Young Readers:
– [Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780786819881) by Mo Willems
– [Raccoon Sick Day](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781732761612) by C.E. Miller
– [Hair Love](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780525553366) by Matthew Cherry
### Middle Grade:
– [My Side of the Mountain](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780142401118) by Jean Craighead George
– [The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9781400032716) by Mark Haddon
– [Marvel Encyclopedia](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9781465478900) by Stan Lee (DK)
– [Incredible Cross-Sections](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9781465483898) by Stephen Biesty
### YA:
– [Dune](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780441172719) by Frank Herbert
– [Pride and Prejudice](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780141439518) by Jane Austen
– [Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780393354324) by Jared Diamond
– [Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780374535636) by Matt Parker
### Adults:
– [Their Eyes Were Watching God](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780061120060) by Zora Neale Hurston
– [The Autobiography of Malcolm X](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780345350688) as told to Alex Haley
– [Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780525510543) by Jia Tolentino
– [Free-Range Chickens](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780812977110) by Simon Rich
– [Station Eleven](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780804172448) by Emily St John Mandel
– [Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9780393345230) by Matthew White
– [The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency](https://bookshop.org/books/the-hardest-job-in-the-world-the-american-presidency/9781984854513) by John Dickerson
– [Raising White Kids](https://bookshop.org/a/2114/9781501878077) by Jennifer Harvey